Things I will miss about Puerto Rico

1. The monkeys
2. The CPRC staff and boatmen
3. Tostones and mofongo
4. Medalla (I know, this one surprised me too. But, thanks to Puerto Rico, I can now say that I enjoy drinking beer and actually find it quite refreshing!)
5. Breathtaking beaches
6. Sunny but sometimes rainy winters

Things I will not miss about Puerto Rico
1. Trying to understand the Spanish here with all of the Puerto Rican slang

I found it with english subtitles so everyone could enjoy this!

Packing

Yet another trip has come and gone. I am packing up my room today and bequesting possessions/food that I don't want to bring home with me. It feels like I was just back at home, since I usually don't visit Nevada all too often and I was just there in September and my parents visited less than a month ago. This won't last long, though, as I will soon be jetting off to Costa Rica for the Biology Foreign Study Program. I've gotta say, it is starting to feel weirder for me to travel back to the states than for me to leave the country. But it's weird in a good way.

Back to the Monday Grind

After a busy weekend traveling around with Jane, I finally got the time to finish my painting! I can't post a photo yet though since the person who I am giving it to reads my blog. But I've found a new awesome use for my monkey photos! Here's a taste.

And the great part about these is that they can be very versatile! We don't need to be limited to just birthdays- graduations, weddings- the world is our oyster!

Skinny dipping at the most beautiful beach in Puerto Rico

Today Jane and I headed over to Fajardo early in the morning to catch the 9am ferry to Culebra, an island just off the coast. We missed the ferry by 10 minutes. We then caught the 10:30 ferry (tickets were $2.25) after some terrible tea and empanadillas at a nearby cafe, and enjoyed an hour long ferry ride two seats in front of a woman with terrible seasickness. To maybe give some perspective, at first I thought it was a man who was getting seasick. After arriving in Culebra, we were greeted by four different men holding up signs advertising rides to Playa Flamenco, the "most beautiful beach in Puerto Rico". I easily bargained us down from $3 a ride to $2 a ride using the men to bargain for us (It went like this: one man said "$3!" and the next man said "$2.50!" and I asked "$2?"). So we then went to Playa Flamenco and I got to understand why it is the most beautiful beach in Puerto Rico. Culebra has no rivers or streams on it; all of the rain water falls into lakes or ponds and just sits there. Therefore, there is no runoff. Therefore, the water is as clear as glass and the sand is as white as a bone. Pictures do not do this beach justice, but I still took some pics for kicks.

The snorkeling wasn't the best I've ever experienced, (see: Zanzibar two summers ago), but it was still great to see all the Caribbean reef fish. Jane and I then swam around for hours and I spotted three white angelfish following me around in the water. We think they were attracted to the gold ring on my bathing suit. Before leaving, I decided to add "skinny dipping in broad daylight at the most beautiful beach in Puerto Rico" to my list. We then headed back to the ferry terminal and back home.

On our way home, we took a detour to Las Piedras for the Festival de Lechon, a typical Puerto Rican pig roast accompanied with live music. Quickly after we arrived, it started pouring, so we didn't stay long. But it was a pretty neat experience and I wish we could have spent more time exploring!

Horse Racing at its finest

El Yunque Take Two

Jane, a new graduate student from University of Florida here for trapping, rented a car for the weekend. Today we headed off to El Yunque for some good quality hiking and bathing under a waterfall. Not ten minutes before we reached the entrance, it started pouring rain. We are both adventurous souls, however, and continued up to the trail entrances. Lucky for us, it quickly stopped raining and so we were able to stay dry as we made our way down to La Mina waterfall. I took a few pictures for Jane as she swam under the waterfall, and as we were hiking back up we took a dip in a pool upstream from the waterfall. It was awesome because the waterfall was packed with people, yet no one seemed to care that there were perfectly beautiful pools just upstream, so we were allowed to enjoy ourselves in peace. We then took a quick 20 minute trail and headed back to the car to catch the sunset on the beach.

View from the trail

Weird tourist shop on the road from El Yunque

On our way back into town, we passed by "The Rum Bar", a place advertising free rum tasting. Obviously we stopped. I gotta say, this place was better than the Bacardi factory tour with regards to the fact that you could get half-shots of any rum (or alcohol for that matter) they had, including mixed drinks with rum. So, if we really wanted to, we probably could have gotten very drunk without paying at all for the drinks. Jane had to drive and I didn't feel like getting drunk, so we headed to Luqillo for drinking beers while watching the sunset on the beach.

In Luqillo, I found "Cutis", an ice cream shop that sold home-made ice cream. This included "carrot cake", with chunks of real carrot cake. It was some of the best ice cream, and definitely the best carrot cake ice cream, I've ever had! After grabbing some ice cream, we went next door to "Guavas", a bar and restaurant that brews its own beer from, you guessed it, guava. I don't know how to describe beer, but it was bold (NOT keystone or corona) with a hint of fruitiness (but definitely not cruddy fruit beer you'd find in the states). To put it simply- this was a very good home brew. At Guavas, we talked to the owner and inventor of the guava beer, Freddy, an ex-air force turned USDA agent by day, bar owner/beer maker by night. It was some great conversation and some great beer to finish off a fantastic day.

Freddy also makes his own coconut moonshine!

Oh Puerto Rico

Free Day Friday

Since we didn't have any monkeys today, I got the day off! It was very "productive", catching up on The Daily Show, reading, and watching a few movies. I also finished a painting and started another! I'll post a photo when this new one is completed.

Lunch with the Boatmen

On the boat ride home from Cayo today, Danny, one of the boatmen, was on the phone with Daniels Seafood ordering lunch for all of the CPRC staff. I jokingly added that he should order an extra mofongo con ensalada and then all of a sudden I inadvertently invited myself to lunch with the boatmen. It ended up being a lovely lunch filled with conversation (huzzah for practicing spanish!) and jokes about how I would be paying for the meal. I learned that it is a custom that the first person who eats after they are served have to pay for the meal. Thus, I got out of paying for everyone's lunch because William was so hungry he couldn't wait. I ended up not paying for my lunch in reality because Miguel insisted that he pay for my meal. It was a very kind gesture!

Since I can't really take photos of the trapping area, I am all out of new photos for the blog. And this is my blog now that I think about it- I can post anything I want! Thus I am officially dubbing my blog from here on out "a music a day". It probably won't be every day, but to get the ball rolling here's a song I've been listening to while relaxing after a long day on Cayo! Disfrutala (enjoy).

Papaya, Zucchini, and Monkey Chow

Trapping has been stupendous. Not because we are getting the monkeys high on ketamine and then taking their blood and measurements, but because I am able to help take the monkey's blood and measurements, then watch them come down from their drugs as I shove all the papaya and zucchini and chow that they can eat into their cages. To put it simply, I am very happy to finally be busy all day! Also it's very entertaining to watch drugged up monkeys munch on papaya as if it is the only food they've eaten in weeks. Which is actually half-true, since for the past two weeks most of them haven't been able to stuff their faces as they usually do.

Trapping

Trapping season has arrived and my days collecting behavioral data and hanging out with monkeys in the field is over. Thus, my 'monkey a day' has also come to a close. From here on out, I will be performing laboratory work taking morphometrics, helping with blood draws, and taking care of the monkeys when they wake up. I won't be posting every day, but I will give updates if anything interesting happens! And to commemorate my time in the field, I've compiled a bunch of monkey head shots I've taken on Cayo over the past 11 weeks.

I call it "Monkeys of Cayo"

Homework

I spent a few hours on the beach today doing some reading for the Biology Foreign Study Program in Costa Rica next winter. It was a very relaxing Sunday!

Hobbies

I've been working on painting in my free time. It's a great way to relax!

Relaxing just like this sloth

El Día Final

Today was the last day of behavioral data collection before trapping season starts. The Yale team and I were the only researchers on the island so it was a pretty quiet work day. The monkeys were also acting pretty freaked out- I think they know trapping season is fast approaching. Group V even came over to Big Cayo in the afternoon!

Goodbye for now, monkeys. Next time we see each other you will be hopped up on drugs getting your blood taken in the lab.

The Day of Thanks

All of the researchers got together for an authentic Thanksgiving feast! I brought the salad (the only green thing at the table). It was a lovely day of eating, drinking, and meeting old and new researchers who arrived in Punta for trapping season.

The Day Before Thanksgiving

Today the researchers and CPRC staff all celebrated thanksgiving together at Daniels Seafood. When I walked into the dining room, there was a documentary called "Primates of the Caribbean" (get it?) playing on the TV. It was filmed just a few years ago and is about what the researchers study on Cayo and goes into a bit of detail into the lives of group F monkeys. Yeah, that's right, I work with the famous monkeys. While watching the documentary, we enjoyed a yummy lunch of salad, potato salad, rolls, turkey, and (for pescatarians) a buttery fish fillet. Desert was perfect- a choice between flan de queso (tastes a bit like cheesecake) and flan de calabaza (sorta like pumpkin pie).

42L was definitely enjoying her Thanksgiving buffet

I'm ready for my closeup

I've been experimenting with taking very close up photos of the monkeys. I like the change! It's just a bit more difficult to take the photo because I have to get up in their faces.

3E2, the variant blonde female in group F.

Meet 29B

This beautiful girl is 29B, one of my favorite monkeys on Cayo. She doesn't like me very much, but she has the most lovely eyes! Don't you agree?

May the odds be ever in your favor

My parents left to go back to the states today. We did a lot in a week but it still went by quickly! This evening, the researchers all took a late night trip to Caguas to see Catching Fire at the movie theater. The movie closely followed the book (one of the few that actually does *ahem* The Hobbit), and it was very good! It was just a really late night - we got back at 12:30am and had to go to Cayo the next morning!

A family grooming session in group V

Day 7: Beach Day

After 7 (crazy and exhausting) days in Puerto Rico, we needed a beach day. We brought Carrie along on our drive to Luquillo and had brunch and drinks at Boardriders. Dad and I grabbed our snorkel gear and headed out to the reef, but unfortunately the surf was too strong for us to see anything. After relaxing on the beach for a few hours, we took a quick drive to the Seven Seas beach in Fajardo. The water clarity there was better, but it still was pretty murky. The patch reefs were a lot better than in Luquillo, however, and we found a ton of fish, some cleaner shrimp, and even a lobster!

What a great end to a fabulous week. Bloody Marys, guava mimosas, and piña coladas.

Day 6: Take me out to the Beisbol Game

After doing laundry and grocery shopping in Humacao, we headed over to Carolina for some good old-fashioned Puerto Rican baseball! Carolina was playing Santurce, a barrio of San Juan. After getting just a bit lost (damn GPS doesn't understand spanish), we paid the $2 parking fee and walked straight into the stadium! No cost for tickets, and drinks (beer, Johnny Walker Black Label, Grey Goose) were $2-4. A surpsisingly awesome way to spend an evening! And we (Carolina) won.

Roberto Clemente (stadium), the pride of Carolina!

Best free seats I've ever gotten!

What's a beisbol game without some beer con limón!

Day 5: Arecibo

We woke up bright and early this morning to take a trip to Arecibo to visit the Rio Camuy Caverns and the radio telescope at the Arecibo Observatory.

Stalactites at las cavernas 

  

View from inside las cavernas

Sinkhole at the end of the caverns

Mini cave inside the caverns

Another sinkhole- someone died here zip lining!

On our way to the Arecibo Observatory, we stopped at a pizza joint and ordered ourselves an octopus pizza. 

Only in Puerto Rico

We then drove to the Observatory and it ended up being a LOT neater than I expected! There was a huge science exhibit that went into great detail about cosmology and physics. I could have spent 4 hours in there but unfortunately the observatory closed at 4pm so we had to rush a bit at the end. But if I ever get the chance to go back, I will make sure to get there earlier!

Arecibo has the largest radio telescope in the world- built into a sinkhole characteristic of the western side of Puerto Rico

Can you spot the anole?

After Arecibo, we decided to take another "scenic route" to Parguera, where we went to a bioluminescent bay. The tour operators were pretty shady but for $8 we got to swim with the bioluminescent dinoflagellates! Unfortunately, the bay is not very healthy due to the presence of humans, so the glow wasn't great enough for photos. It was still a neat new experience.

Day 4: Old San Juan

We drove to San Juan today to take the Bacardi factory tour and walk around Old San Juan. We started off our day with some Rum (straight for my dad, mixed for me and my mother) at the Bacardi factory.

During the tour the "bartender" showed us how to make Bacardi drinks

We then drove to Old San Juan to visit the historic forts, El Morro and San Cristóbal. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling well (thanks a lot rum on an empty stomach) so we couldn't explore Old San Juan too much, but we ended up getting a fantastic dinner of lettuce wrapped fish tacos and monterey jack fondue at a "frou frou" restaurant.

Nice cruise ship leaving the port + the fort and a cemetery

Dad walking up to El Morro

Inside San Cristóbal

View of Old San Juan and El Morro from the top of San Cristóbal

San Cristóbal bell and Old San Juan sunset

San Cristóbal hallway