FANTASTIC NEWS!!

just when i was starting to get depressed about leaving and having no money something great happened to make my life less stressful and sad: i sprained my ankle last night!!!

isn't that great?? i'm so happy about it!!!

and it's totally weird that i did it because normally i'm so refined and graceful.

**pounds on knees** I'M SO STUPID!! STUPID!!!

i was going to go to a club with a friend and she was getting off work at 10:30 so i was jogging up the steps to her work (there are about 7 or 8 from the street to the front door) and i'm half way up the steps when i hear from behind me "MICHELE!! MICHELE!!" so i turn to see who it is and as i realize who it is i start to turn and run back down the steps (which are narrow) and my right foot misses the next step, hits the edge of the step below it and BLAM! down i go! and it was more like i launched myself then fell because i was quite far from the steps when i landed.

and of course i'm really embarassed and it must have looked really bad because they both came running over with these looks on their faces like omg i hope she's alive. they help me up and i'm ok. i'm so red in the face, my ankle hurts and my palms and wrists hurt (i tried to catch myself, in fact, considering how fast i fell i'm surprised i didn't sprain a wrist too).

i woke up this morning with an ankle three times it's normal size and i can barely walk so as you can imagine, i'm thrilled at the possibility of not diving during the remaining time here (or even going out on a boat, which i MUST MUST MUST do because i'm pretty sure my friend Ivette and I are the ONLY PEOPLE IN LORETO that haven't seen the freaking whale sharks that everyone is seeing) and i'm super thrilled at the idea of packing my truck for the trip home.

gah!

i hate this fish

i never thought i would say that.

that i hate a fish.

about any fish.

about any horribly elusive (not even counting the fish that i haven't even seen yet) fish from the Gulf of California.

about any fish in the world.

i love fish more than little girls love unicorns and dolphins.

but this fish confounds me and hence the hate.

for seven years i have been learning underwater photography whilst getting my degree and trying to finish this damn book of mine (not to mention, on a BUDGET!). the learning curve for all of it has been steep and i have resigned myself to the fact that i'm never going to get a good picture of some species alive and in their environment. totaoba. marlin. sailfish. just about ANY shark.

but other reef fish just make me nuts. like the bumphead damselfish and most parrotfish. these are different because although rare compared to other species, i do come across them. and they are most definitely on my to-photograph list. which is completely different from my list of fish i already have a picture of but most definitely take pictures of whenever i come across them because (1) they're either really common and bright and easy to photograph and make a great picture OR (2) they are cryptic and amazing and sometime easy to photograph and make a great picture AND i have TONS of pictures of them.(Chromis limbaughi and Scorpaena mystes, respectively).

don't need anymore.

but my to-photograph list bumphead damselfish and most parrotfish are really really hard to shoot. well, at least for me. especially since i'm also supposed to be conducting research and collecting data. i mean a dive can only be so long. i can't tell you the numerous times i've come across a shot and HAD TO keep moving in order to finish a transect. it makes me crazy. parrotfish in general are in mixed species groups and are usually just outside the good picture visibility radius. they swim by at a minimum of 1 meter, if not farther, and quite rapidly. so my issue with them is that the distance coupled with the normally bad visibility doesn't allow me to get a publishable photo. oh i have photos. don't get me wrong. but they're as useful as cameraphone pictures at a concert for identifying species.

then there are the damselfish. they are pretty stationary compared to parrotfish. they maintain a territory, they don't go racing by at a distance every 30 seconds. they stubbornly man their little nests. but, BUT! they are flitty and fast and dash in and out of rocks and i can't tell you how many pictures i have of blurry damselfish backsides diving into crevices. i've managed to get good pictures of some species because their more common and the ratio of good photo to blurry backside is 1 to 1000 but the bumphead damsel and the beabrummel are different creatures all together.

as a general rule you know damsel behavior is to posture then to scurry into the rocks. but then they can't stand it so they come right back. not the bumphead damsel nor the beaubrummel. they skitter and flit in front of you and then they dash, and then they stay gone. the whole time you're holding your breath and sitting still in order to not have your bubbles make that loud gushing scary noise that causes every fish in the area to dash for the rocks. and the second, the VERY SECOND you can't hold it any longer, they creep out. and you snap a picture of their snout as you exhale and they skitter back into the rocks again. so you wait. off to the side...

waiting....
waiting....

and then you think it's calmed down enough that you can slowly approach and hunker down and hold your breath again.

and the cycle repeats itself.

then there is the loosetooth parrotfish. sometimes this guy runs with the other parrotfish and sometimes it's out there solo. and when it's solo it's very slick and cryptic. and you try to take advantage of the times it's trying to be cryptic and it's hunkered down pretending you don't see it and you start snapping some shots thinking this thing is going to take off any minute so i really don't have the time to compose the shot just SHOOT IT!! and then at that very second it moves. it dashes off a few feet and does the same thing again.

and sometimes i stick my camera in crevices just to see if they will come out.




they don't. and don't be fooled by this small photos here. the large hi-res photos on my computer are NOT in focus or not well it enough to use.




so now. i'm over it. i'm TIRED of being taunted by it's rare appearances and even more difficult to photograph behavior. after seven, SEVEN years of trying to get a good photo of this fish, i'm done.

DONE.

do you HEAR ME FISH??

videos

well, i couldn't get stinkin' myspace to load videos. don't know what the problem is so i opened an account at youtube and put some there. well, two.

unfortunately, i'm not a pro at this so the quality of the videos is much worse on youtube than when i see and edit it on my computer. there must be a significant loss of quality during the compression.

anyway, they are here: http://www.youtube.com/user/bajabuck

and i'll try to put more up this weekend.

hasta luego!

it's that time again...

where it's only 2-3 weeks before i leave here and well, i'm trying not to be too sad.

and of course, you have no idea what a happy place this is for me because i've posted hardly anything lately. yikes. first of all, besides just this place being my happy place, i also have been staying in a great house that my friend got for me. it's the best possible situation i've found myself in in the four years that i've been coming here. especially considering the trailer of last year. which, btw, also got blown to bits the day AFTER i left last year by hurrican john. yikes!

the house itself is nothing special, walls and a roof, but it has a kitchen, separate rooms, and a nice big yard with big giant gates to park my boat in and keep all my dive gear, and also my truck. it's also nice because it's where my friend works so she comes to the house to work in the office. it doesnt even matter that it doesn't have air, it's seriously the bestest place i've found ever. oh and there's a big ol' mango tree out back so fresh mangos everyday. i need something to balance out the beer...

the other cool thing is that when you face west, there are the mountains

but even better when you look east, the ocean is right there


if i had one complaint about the place, it would be that the neighbors next door have been constructing a second story the ENTIRE time i've been here. and for me, it's not so much the noise or anything, it's the fact that there is a serious lack of privacy! there right there when i open the front door.


which wouldn't be so bad, except that it seems their favorite thing to do is to sit at the top of this staircase and watch EVERYTHING i do in the backyard. it made me feel really self-conscious, them up there watching and i can hear them talking. one day i finally said, um hello i can hear you, AND i speak spanish. then i was like screw it, if i had dry clothes hanging out on the line i went out in my underwear to go put them on. i think that's enough to scare anyone away!

when you leave a 12 year old to live alone

you'll have to go to flickr to see the notes on each photo..

vaya!

i just noticed that my last post was on june 20. wow.

it's been busy and i hate trying to back track but i'll just say that there was diving, boat repairs, cool videos, more diving, some cabrillas at the filet table, two fishing tournments, more photos, more vidoes (which i've banged my head against my computer because for some reason i can't get them to upload to myspace page), more diving.

there. we're all caught up. now i'll go through and start putting up some of the better pictures and try to figure out how to get the videos to work.

baby thresher sharks

one of the things i like about going to the "filet palapa" everyday is seeing something different. something that i don't see diving or snorkeling. but then the downside to that is if it's rare or a shark then i feel bad that it died. =(

so imagine my torned-ness when i saw someone caught a thresher shark. it was this absolutely gorgeous animal. dark dark indigo blue on top with this huge eye and caudal fin. thresher sharks get their common name from the extremely long caudal fin. so imagine my horror when i'm not looking and two pups fall out of her while she's being fileted and when i turn back around some kids have them and are carrying them around, smacking them and swinging them by their tails.

i, of course, immediately confiscate them from the little bastards (these were actually american kids believe it or not, i know after my puppy tossing post you immediately thought it was the mexican kids but it wasn't).

ahem. i try to ascertain how long the shark was on the boat but it's clear the pups are beyond saving. and i'm sad. but i put them on ice and take them home.

many sharks give live birth, so as you can imagine these are perfectly formed mini sharks that most likely would have been born anyday. and i'm disappointed that the pictures don't really show how perfectly glistenly indigoirridescent purple these little creatures were.




then the next day, FOURTH OF JULY in the states, i'm at the filet table again and a guy has caught ANOTHER thresher shark. and it's female. so i ask the guy (durnk guy) when he caught it and he said on the way in. so as it's being fileted i grab a knife and cut open the intestines. and out spills some poo-ey looking stuff and two baby sharks. of course, i get the stinkeye from the filet guy for spilling the guts but i don't care i grab the babies and take them down to the water. Tawny is there with me this day so she takes one and we basicly push these babies through the water, pumping their tails back and forth and after about a half hour of this, the sharks swim off on their own. and we're stoked. and drunk guy SAYS he's stoked because he just wanted his picture with it and didn't know it had babies (i.e. he wasn't interested in the meat, he just wanted to kill it and get his picture taken with this amazing animal and as a "tip" leave the carcass for the filet guys. you know, my FAVORITE kinda fisherman.

so i can only hope those babies made it.