gettin' wet

the north winds have been blowing pretty strong the last week and a half with a day break in between every once in awhile. i figured if i was going to pay to go diving i was going to wait for days without wind. i was finally able to go out twice this week. first to isla coronado and then yesterday to isla carmen.

after running my own project and diving for my work off of an inflatable it's very interesting for me to go out on a charter with recreational divers. people are at different levels so staying down for a super long time usually isn't an option. other people loading the boat for you and arriving at the boat after a dive and people taking your gear from you and having a ladder in the water is WAY different!

visibility was ok but not good enough for any far away shots to come out. but i did take a few macros. i took this picture of the club anenome by sticking my camera under the rock and then was stoked when i downloaded it on my computer there were some visitors as well, two panamic arrow crabs and a shrimp.

another thing about charter diving is they take you to the "touristy" spots. heh. this is a white beach on the west side of isla coronado. it's not often i take my boat to the islands and hang out. but the charters typically bring people to get out of the boat, walk around, eat lunch.

the people who were on the boat that day were really cool and we ended hooking up later that night to drink margaritas and look for strippers play pool.

how i'm all about the glamour

part of what i do down here is to collect samples that sport fishermen bring in. this way, I'M not the one killing the fish and i also get to see what else they're catching. i'm looking for one particular species, leopard grouper (cabrilla sardinera), but i also opportunistically collect from some others that i know there isn't alot of information on.

right now, this is the calm before the storm. for Arturo's sportfishing, there may be anywhere from 2 to 25 boats that people hire to go out and fish


a panga pulls up to the shore and the fish and the client are dropped off



they haul these crates up to the palapa


right now they are catching a lot of yellowtail, or in spanish, jurel


the guys filet the fish, wash the filets and bag them up to be frozen so the fishermen can take the fish home to the states. you wouldn't believe how many ice chests i see being unloaded from taxis at the airport. usually i'll jump in and help them bag the fish and translate between the filet guys and the fishermen.


he's fileting one of my fish now


i take measurements of the fish and then i cut the top of the head off with a small saw to pull the otoliths out. this is not the way most people pull otoliths, but this is the best way i've found for the circumstances i work in. i take the otoliths back to the states and cut them up so i can count the rings. for most species of fish, one ring=one year.



this is what's left at the end of the day. and this was a "slow" day


afterwards, we're all usually plastered with fish


the end

bittersweet couple of days

i was totally stoked that right off the bat i'm able to get 13 cabrilla from fishermen and pull their otoliths. two of them were big females (60-70 cm) and FULL of eggs. the males weren't that big but when someone put in ice chest on top of the fish in the crate the crate just filled up with milt. so they're definitely doing it out there right now.

but it's also been kinda sad because one of my "boyfriends" has died. and it was weird how everyone was kinda nonchalant about it. when i first showed up the filet guys were all "hey michele!!! welcome back!!" and we were just talking and then all of a sudden one of them said "you know you're widow right?" and i said "HUH?" and they said Cuate died and all of them proceeded to tell me at once something an accident in the panga and about ribs and lungs it was all in spanish and i was trippin' so i didn't catch it all.

when i finally ran into Chico (boyfriend #3) he told me what happened. Cuate fell in the panga and hit his side on the side of the panga. he didn't think it was that big of a deal but he wasn't getting better. People kept telling him to go to the doctor and he kept saying no big deal. well it was a big deal. he had broken some ribs and they had punctured some stuff internally (he didn't specify what stuff...) and got a major infection. by the time he went to the hospital (which is 100 miles away) it was a month later and he died of a heart attack. Cuate was the dude that had asked me for the pistachios. when i told chico he said we can take them to the cemetery and drink beer and leave a cup of pistachios for Cuate.



That's a photo from last year at the filet table. Cuate is on the right and on the left is boyfriend #2, Antonio.

Cuate was a great guy. He was hecka funny and as a captain he knew how to handle the gringo fishermen when they were assholes and still get a great tip out of it while putting them in their place. He was also the most requested captain from Arturo's. Fishermen would come in and have nothing but great things to say about him and they request him every year and if they don't get Cuate they're not going to fish. Last year before I left he invited me to his house for tamales and then gave me extra for the road.

Cuate, if there is a heaven, i hope that the fishin' is great and the tecate always bien fria.

ya llego!

i made it safely to Loreto. my little car was just fine (just a little dirtier than usual) and I didn't run into any problems whatsoever. got to socal easily on thursday evening. of course, it took me 6 hours to go 300 miles and then after i got into LA it took 2 1/2 hours to go 40 miles. it's not a new experience for me but everytime i'm in it i just feel it's UNBELIEVABLE! i could never live there (unless of course i got a KILLER postdoc there and could still work in baja...).

the morning of FRIDAY THE 13TH i ran my last minute U.S. errands (mail taxes, birthday cards, bills) and still hadn't seen a COSTCO anywhere near the hotel or near the freeway so i put a few phone calls in to friends to see if they could find one for me on the internet while i was driving towards the border. just at san diego TWO people called me back to give me the location and after getting slightly lost i found it, got my stuff, and headed towards the border. at the border, i got the green light and i was on my way!

my goal was to reach Ensenada before 5 pm to get my tourist card and get to the bank (easy deal) and then reach either San Quintin or Cataviña before nightfall to stay for the night.

from Tijuana to Ensenada there are some great views of the Pacific along the way


there's also the giant jesus, or as i like to call him: JEEEZUS!


yes, that's a 3-story house below him, that's how giant JEEZUS! is.

i had to laugh after the phone shenanigans trying to find the costco, i see this at an intersection in Ensenada.


of course it was after i passed this last COSTCO i realized i had forgotten stuff like the most important thing: VIDEO TAPE. got the candy (for last year's neighbor kids), got the pistachios (for a fisherman friend), got the dr. pepper (for emergency caffeine). no videotape. i'm so stupid. but then again, noone's died for lack of videotape, but people could die for my lack of caffeine, so there is a bright side...

i finally got to loreto around 6 pm Saturday night. i was debating with myself on what to do first, should i find a hotel, find some food, find my friends? i decided i should try to find my friends. i stopped by the dive shop, noone there. now keep in mind that the only person who knew i was coming was my friend at the dive shop. and even i hadn't fully decided to make this trip until 2 days before i left. when i usually arrive in town, i'm pretty conspicuous: giant white van pulling a trailer with a bright red boat. people who know me see me right away and i usually get honks and waves. i've even been reprimanded for being in town once for two days before going to see my fishermen friends. they had seen my van, known i was in town and gave me a hard time because i'd waited two days before finding them. i was actually trying to find a place to live...GOSH!

so this time i'm thinking, i'm in my little white car, nobody here has ever seen it, my hair is still short but now it's this assy red color i can't get rid of. noone is going to recognize me. i'm not here 5 minutes and all of a sudden there's honking and people shouting MICHELE! from this truck behind me. i'm dyin! so much for faking my own death and hiding out in mexico...

i then get to my friend's house and her sister is coming out and i say hi. she tells me that ivette is now living upstairs so i go up and ivette is so happy to see me and i yell at her for not writing me when she had the baby and she yells at me for never writing. she gives me a big hug and brings me in the house. she wants to know how long i'm staying, where i'm staying? she says i can stay there with them since the upstairs apartment is so much bigger than her other. she said she had started wondering when i would show up. i'm just sitting there trippin. i ask her aren't you SURPRISED to see me? don't you remember last year when i said i might not be able to come back for a long time? that last season was my last official season? pshaw she tells me. you can't stay away from here. you belong here. i knew you would come.

i keep protesting. I, ME, the one living my life, didn't even know if i could or would come back. i just decided like 5 days ago. she's having none of it. she says she knew i would come.

just a quickie

i will be leaving for loreto this week. i wasn't sure when i left last year what the heck i would do this year if i couldn't get to come back. i still haven't heard anything about a permit extension and all the little grants i applied for this year didn't come through so for now to satisfy my grouper groping addiction i'm going down for a short two week trip.

i was kinda hoping i would be able to take the new canon underwater but the housing that i ordered a MONTH AND A HALF AGO from amazon still isn't here. if i had opted for the powershot a640 THAT housing is in stock EVERYWHERE. i had no idea it would be so hard to get this housing for the G7. and i've looked everywhere i could and nobody has it in stock. when i first ordered it from amazon it was on the canon website but for $80 more so i thought well if it really doest' come before i leave then i'll get it from canon. well, now it's not even available on the canon website. *sniff*

this sucks

cool kitty

This is my housemate's cat Cassidy. He's a very cool cat.

Why does he only have 3 legs?

Well, a cool cat like this you don't eat all at once.