Kicker Rock Round Two & Cerro Brujo

Weather: Rain, rain, some sun, and more rain

Monday and Tuesday were pretty anti-climatic. I had class and then worked on assignments that are coming due soon. Although on Tuesday or Friday, I was supposed to have my interview for the Alaska internship over the phone. I didn't hear back from the woman until yesterday (Tuesday). She emailed me 4 questions, 2 of them being optional that she wanted me to answer and send back to her at my earliest convenience. She said her travel plans have changed and can no longer interview anyone this week, so yes...my interview was over email. I sent back my responses later in the day and I will know hopefully by Friday whether or not I have the job. If I get the job I will be taking it since it is a huge opportunity. However, it makes me sad to think I will be away from family and friends for another 3 months. I would be gone from May 22nd to August 16th. I would have about 2 weeks home before and after the program and then I would have to head to Maine a bit before Sept 3rd. It's a lot of bouncing around and two weeks go by so fast, so I have a lot to think about but I would be stupid to turn down this opportunity as it could really shape my future career path. I don't want to get ahead of myself as I haven't landed the job yet so as far as this goes, there's more updates to come.

Today was a class trip to Kicker Rock and Cerro Brujo. There were two groups of us so we were split 6 and 6, and each group went with a different tour agency. This morning none of us wanted to go because it was down-pouring and when it downpours here it is so intense. The streets become flowing rivers and the beaches literally erode away. The bay turns all brown from all the stuff that is washing out to sea. It's really disgusting and walking through the puddles is very disturbing because there is probably so much bacteria from all the dog poop and other things the water is cleaning the streets of. There was actually a video Tania showed me when I got home of a boat that was docked on the beach floating away into the bay because the sand beneath it eroded away. Anyways, the tours were still on so we headed out and by the time all of us arrived at the agency we were soaking wet. Eventually the rain passed temporarily and we got on our respective boats. Our boat was basically a floating box with no cover from rain. It was similar to the aluminum boats that are used in FL. The others were lucky cause they had a faster boat that provided rain protection.

The sun came out as we got further away from Puerto Baquierzo which was perfect timing since our first stop was Cerro Brujo which is one of the most beautiful/clean beaches on San Cristobal. There was a big mountain that was visible far before we could see the beach. The water was turquoise and the beach was pristine. I didn't see any microplastics which made my day. We spent an hour at the beach and Raina and I walked with the guide a bit to learn more about the animals and plants that reside in the area. I learned there are two types of lava "ouch ouch" which is rugged lava. The second is lava impacted by water which is "Pahoehoe" pronounced as pahoyhoy (had to look this one up). It's usually very smooth and would be easy to walk on. The part of the island where Cerro Brujo is located is only about 1 million years old, the oldest part of the island is 6 million years old. Off in the distance you could see some lava fields with cacti growing on them. While wading in the water I saw a baby black tip shark swim by and there were some sea lions swimming about and lounging on the beach. It was a really cool beach and I'm glad we got the time to see it.

We boarded the boat and headed to Kicker Rock for our first snorkel. This was the most hectic snorkel I have done. The waves were so rough and our guide was leading us through one of the cracks of Kicker Rock when he frantically told us to turn around. Since he seemed panicked we all were panicking to swim out as fast as we could. This whole thing wasn't necessary because yes the current was bad, but we could have swam a little, rode the wave that would bring us closer to where we need to be, swim more, and then lose some ground (but not all) and repeat the process til we were out. We then kept snorkeling along, we saw two Galapagos reef sharks below which was cool and some sea lions swimming about. We also spotted a large eagle ray which was really cool and majestic. All of us were getting stung by tiny jellyfish which hurt pretty bad. I got stung on the lips a couple times as well as the arms and legs. I had a short wetsuit on but I swear I got a sting to the back too. We all got out and back onto the boat as soon as possible. We had an hour and a half

break where we were served some lunch. While we were eating we observed a ton of birds flying about and then all of a sudden there were tons of yellowfin tuna jumping out of the water. It was quite the sight. We then headed in for our second snorkel of the day...

This one was calmer because we were on the opposite side of the rock, however it was still very wavy. All we did was swim through the bigger crack of Kicker Rock and we saw some tiny fish swimming about. When we got through the channel we waited for the boat to come get us and at this point it was down-pouring again. It was pretty fast but I was okay with it because we were getting stung again. Once everyone was back on board we headed back to port. The boat we were on could only go so fast due to the design so it took us an extra 30-40 minutes to get back. The entire time it was down-pouring so I left my wetsuit on. The rain and wind made it very cold but we had Morgan's phone hooked up to bluetooth so we were jamming at some point.

As a side note: Our boat had some other tourists with us as well and one of them was a woman from Quito. From the second we arrived all soaking wet at the agency she was taking pictures with all of us. She was so excited to be here, and literally recruited I think everyone onboard besides me to take her picture at some point in the day. I did really good avoiding it because once one person would take her picture it became their job for a good amount of time. On our way to Kicker Rock she came up to me and proceeded to ask me about what I use for my acne. I told her Cetaphil and that it's from the states. She proceeded to tell me that she is a cosmetologist (needed Sara's help with translating that one) and there are injections I can get in my face to help with it. She then proceeded to show me before and after pictures of people that have apparently had these injections done. I personally did not see much of a difference. I just "oh" and moved on with my conversation with Sara. It was bizarre.

On the way back I ended up talking to Christopher who was one of the crew aboard. He told me my eyebrows are beautiful and that my Spanish is really good. I laughed and thanked him. The whole conversation was pretty funny and Tania actually complimented my eyebrows the other day too. The agency Christopher works for (and who we were on the tour with) is right near my house and I pass it everyday on my way to school, so it'll be nice to say hi to him in the mornings. We eventually got back to port and I headed home immediately for a shower and dry clothes. Dinner was some rice with mushrooms, corn, onions, and broccoli. For some reason, I have had the hardest time comprehending what Tania says to me. I don't remember this ever being an issue before but now it seems that some days are better than others. I think she is just using a lot of vocab I am not familiar with or maybe she is talking fast I can't tell. It's a tad frustrating though because I get down on myself. I shouldn't because I've been trying my hardest to understand as much Spanish as possible for over three months now. Language exhaustion is a real thing and maybe I've hit a wall with it but I'm hoping when I am back in the states I'll be able to put aside time to learn on rosetta stone and keep the practice up.