The highlights are as follows: Last Wednesday I played futbol (soccer) with coworkers and some taxistas (taxi drivers) and their friends in the park by the lab. It was SUPER fun! I was not even the worst player on the field, which meant I got quite a bit of ball time.
On Friday, as usual, we played in the STRI volleyball tournament. Our team is composed of people who work at the Naos lab (my lab, the one on Naos Island, at the western mouth of the canal--we are all marine researchers), and we are pretty decent! But apparently not decent enough to win :-/ .
On Saturday Allan, Camilo, Arron and I went to the Parque Nacional Metropolitano where Camilo had to do put some monitoring equipment high up on a crane to take measurements of the canopy.
The crane Camilo climbed up.
A cool, spiky tree!
View from the top. That hill in the distance is where we live!
Later we went to the mall to eat lunch at Crepes & Waffles. They have amazing food, and nearly all of it is served in a crepe! I had one with mushrooms.
An example savory crepe from Google images.
On Sunday I went to BCI (see previous post) and the next most notable thing I did was go into the intertidal as usual (we go every Mon, Wed, and Fri) on Wednesday to count moon snail egg masses. It was so exciting because there were eggs and snails everywhere! We had to try hard to avoid stepping on them. It was cool out for a change, and we even got a little refreshing rain, and we really enjoyed exploring and had a lot of fun.
An example of a moon snail from Google images.
Does it remind you of the moon? Does the moon remind you of the snail?
I don't know, but that green thing in the upper right reminds me of a sour apple ring.
An example of a moon snail egg mass (what we are counting) from Google images.
Then, today, I went into the deep crevices of the city to a distant Goodwill store to buy a used bike. It took an hour by bus to get there, but it was worth it for the mobility I now have. It cost $70, was not rusty, and most of the brakes work! A nice construction worker who was also looking at bikes helped me fill the tires with air at the gas station next door, and then tried to instruct me about how to get home. I told him I took the bus there, and wanted to take it back, so he helped showed me the bus stop.
"Adónde vas?" he asked. Where are you going?
"Cerca de Balboa, en Ancon" I said. Close to Balboa, in Ancon.
"Quieres ir por el MetroBus? No puede tomar la bicicleta" Do you want to take the Metro bus? You can't take your bike on it.
Oh, dear, I thought. I had no clue where I was. I was relying on the bus to take me back, because I wouldn't have to make any transfers or anything. I would just head straight back to the main station. "Puedo preguntar al concuctor?" Can I ask the driver?
Sure, the construction worker replied, with more than a hint of doubt in his voice. We stood waiting together for a while, and I wasn't sure if he was also waiting for the bus. Then he said something incomprehensible and extended his hand for a handshake. I shook it, and he left me.
When the next MetroBus pulled up to the stop, I asked the driver about the bike. "Sí!" he said with a smile. That was easy!, I thought. Getting the bike on the bus, however, was not so easy. As I pushed through the rotating bars at the front of the bus (you know, like the ones they use at large venues to count people that enter an area) and the handle bars got stuck. Thankfully someone outside helped me lift it over the top and we got the bike in.
I took the bus for the next twenty minutes until I spotted a grocery store. I needed food badly, so I got off the bus, locked my bike and got a few groceries. I quickly ate one of the bananas with some Nutella, then went to another bus stop to get home. A bus soon pulled up.
"Puedo tomar la bicicleta?" I asked. Can I bring the bike on?
No, sorry, the driver replied with a shrug, then shut the doors. I tried the next bus.
"Puedo tomar la bicicleta?"
Another negative response. Hm.
Since it was still the middle of the day, and I had already told my boss that I might need to take the whole day off, I decided it was a good time to get to know the city. I would ride my bike home. I had only a very general idea where I was and I had a floppy bag of groceries to deal with, but it just seemed like a good idea. I strapped the groceries to my backpack with my helmet, which I didn't want to wear anyway due to the heat, and off I went, onto the crusty, rubble-strewn city sidewalks on my (purple!) new used bike.
After about 15 minutes, I asked one person for directions, and was told that the road I was currently on would lead me to where I wanted to go. That seemed right since all the Metro buses were going that way, too. So I just kept going straight for about a half hour and voila! I eventually hit familiar territory. I was pretty thirsty, so I stopped to try some jugo de caña, which is juice from sugar cane. I don't really understand what it is, but the set up looked something like this. It was strange and green, but tasted nice!
I made it back to my apartment easily after that, all in once piece, not robbed, and with all my gear and groceries. I was sweaty, but that was fine with me! I'm already really used to that at this point. Most importantly, I now have a bike, so I can go to and from work, and other places, for that matter, at my leisure. Yay!
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