More Birding

This time João took me to Quinta do Lago (lake farm) for some evening birding and walking. He brought his telescope, through which we were able to view a flock of flamingos. What an ugly faced-bird that is! We also saw a ton of bee eaters, some nesting storks, magpies, a fringe-headed something or other that was really cool and colorful through the binocs but looked like just a brown bird with the naked eye, and a whole variety of LBBs (birder lingo for little brown birds like larks and starlings)…I know I am about to get am email from João outlining several mistakes in the above list…bring it!

Anyway, the walk was really quite nice, through old farm fields next to salt mining ponds. There were some dogs “guarding” the property, but they really just wanted to play. The rest of the shots are around the farm ending with a very large salt pile that apparently is clandestinely used for practice by rock climbers.

We got these shots of the nesting storks through the binocs….very technical and as you can see, some quality images.

The last stop was along this very fancy golf course where there is a “birder hut” overlooking a large pond that is filled with turns, ducks and coots.

Stay tuned for more dive adventures in Tarifa, Spain. We leave tomorrow!

Mac Rights, Now!

My Mac has no rights at this university. I, and 75% of Mac users at campus Gambelas (out of my sample size of 4), are on a virtual no-fly list. We are thinking about forming a student group, my MacBook and I. We will do this despite the threat of a potentially violent response from some well-organized concerned parents association who fear the influence of an alternative informatics lifestyle just when their young adult children have finally settled comfortably into their PC nests.

(below: my little white friend afloat in a PC sea)

This Mac no-fly list results in only very limited use of the web. We are unable to connect to outside servers to receive email from Eudora or any other email application, to download music from legitimate sources, use a Java application to upload photos to personal galleries, or run an automatic search for a location on Google Earth. Instead, we brave rebels are forced to recall from the depths of our grade school memories, more or less where Milan is (that country that looks like a boot, right?), scroll east in its general direction (if your default setting is the States at least), then close your eyes and hope that the blind click lands somewhere within zooming-in range of your target. Where is technology when we must rely on manual scrolling?!

As PC users effortlessly log on with smug smiles, we are forced to use (gasp!) web-based email. The sweet sweet sound of new email notification chimes are sadly only a distant memory for me now, as is the tantalizing sight of the loading bar filling up with the electric blue of all my unread mail.

Fellow rebel Mac user and Mac support group vice president hopeful, Regina, reported that she cannot even search for prices on lab supply websites. I ask you, how many PCR tubes, pipette tips and small vials of Taq must go to less deserving PC users before we act?

Should I simply adapt? Should I just accept that every luxury I have back home is not available to me when I travel to foreign countries? Well, that wouldn’t be very American now, would it? Shouldn’t I instead organize a protest, form an international coalition and help Mac users of all origins (at least the ones in my immediate vicinity) rise up and fight for a true informatics democracy? And if the very Mac users I try to help, actually resist, shouldn’t I hire U.S. protest contractors to infiltrate the computer technician’s desk and student body at Gambelas, with the veiled goal of instigating civil unrest to unseat the PC hold. Oh, I can almost here those sweet Eudora chimes right here from my lab table. This could be a glorious revolution…

Or, maybe I’ll just ride my bike to the internet café down the road….

Diving Portugal

Finally got out to dive this weekend. On Saturday we did a dive off the jetty in Sagres (just in front of the red/white lighthouse below). The visibility was not great but we were just looking in all the cracks and crevices along the rock piles so it was good enough. Nuno called it caldo verde (thick green soup). I saw many critters I have never seen before, including this very cool translucent colonial tunicate with bright while edges (yes, Jarrett, that's right). Also, really colorful anemones, nudibranchs and blennys and even a moray and a conger fish. Afterwards we had crepes and tosta mistas at a local bar.

Sunday we met at 8am and set out for Armação de Péra where we were meeting Miguel, a dive instructor there, and his dive boat. The boat resides on the beach and can only be launched by being pulled, then pushed by tractor to the water. So we got ready in the staging area and loaded up all the gear, got in and tractored into the sea. (Note: that is not Jean Renu strutting up the beach as sunbathers gape, but Pedro, the University's dive officer)


We motored straight out for a mile or so to a 5 mile long rock bench that extends the entire bay mouth, around 60 ft. The anchor was dropped and so were we, right in the middle of the blue. There was a pretty strong current so we were all too happy to descend and get to calmer depths. Again, the vis wasn't great but it did not matter because we spent most of the dive with our heads stuck in small caves and rock holes illuminated by the red glow of dive torches. There were 8 divers and it felt a bit like an aquarium where one team would stick their head into some hole and then the next would be waiting behind to do the same thing. But the sights were worth the brief wait. We saw lots of small fish, more nudibranchs and some really interestingly colored algae, new to me. Many of the species here resemble CA spp. in form but are in a different genus. Luckily Esti was with us, a PhD student studying algal taxonomy in Portugal, who could rattle off the names like she was naming her siblings.

When about 50 minutes had passed, the 4 of us who were together started looking at each other, checking our air, and I assumed, pondering heading up. I was beginning to wonder what the plan was, realizing I had not been listening when it was said on the boat. We had done a drift dive so the boat was going to have to locate us in a different spot from where we descended. I have never done this type of dive and did not know how this would happen. Anyway, the 3 guys I was with started shrugging at each other back and forth for a good 5 minutes and I wondered if this indicated that they did not know how this was going to happen either.

We started going up and I kept a hard eye on all of them hoping we would be safer in numbers if we ended up in an "Open Water" situation (when we surfaced unseen by the boat, which had surely already started heading back to land not noticing that half of the divers were not on board)...and anyway, the tallest would certainly be picked off by sharks first, and the tallest was not me....This would give me some time to kick to shore, a mile isn't THAT long, right?....I would be ok.

My fears were assuaged when Nuno pulled out an inflatable safety sausage, and I realized they had come equipped for exactly this situation. This was released before us so the boat would see it and would be there when we popped up. Then we finally surfaced after a safety stop (or two) and the boat was right there, with Miguel smiling down holding out his hand for my weight belt. Then he gave me chocolate on board and everything was ok. I was ready for another. (below: Filipe and Rita practicing for their upcoming debut in a "ScubaPro for couples" commercial)

We did a second dive, further along the bench. We had lost one diver to seasickness so the 3 of us (Nuno, Leonardo and I) explored the new area together. We saw much of the same critters except there were also a bunch of very large spider crabs and a cuttlefish. The descent was mentally uneventful.

Landing the boat was another affair. Paired with a tractor launch is a crash-the-beach landing where the boat accelerates towards shore and as soon as it literally crashes into the beach, everyone jumps out and the boat is quickly hooked up to the tractor and pulled all the way up the beach as lazy sunbathers look on. This is no rubber zodiac, it is a 25 ft fiberglass boat. It was all very exciting.

After we were dressed, we ambled over to an outdoor seafood place where we ingested much wine and salted whole grilled fish (perfect for re-hydrating after a dive). It was the most fabulous post-dive meal I have had. By the time we had finished, it was about 4:30pm and the heat was increasing every minute, or at least it seemed so with my stomach filled with fish and alcohol and my head starting to feel the latent dozy side effects of a sea sickness pill I had taken earlier. We stopped in for a coffee two doors down, but instead small shots of medronho were produced which was touted as an important Portuguese tradition in the Algarve, so I couldn't pass it up, although I feel as though I have heard this line a few times in the last few weeks as some type of shot was placed in front of me...(below: Esti and I at lunch, Nuno digging into his sea bass, the dive crew).

Finally we made it back to the cars, loaded up and after one more beer at the staging area (where did that one come from anyway?), we got in and made it back to campus. I was home and on my way to bed by 8pm. What a weekend!

Birding with João Tiago

We left at 4pm, set out for Monchique directly north of Portimão on the coast. João does Bonnelli's eagle work there and had to mark some GPS points for the project. So we drove. Stopped for sandwiches on the way. When we got there, I felt vaguely at home. The hills were thick with eucalyptus, a smaller spp. than we have in CA, but euckies nonetheless. What was so eerie was how thick they grew.

We arrived at a look-out spot so João could get the lay of the land and plan out our route. We ended up on the road across the way. Apparently these hills (the locals call them mountains) have changed a lot, vegetation wise, but this umbrella pine is one of few remaining natives. Note euckies in the foreground.

The native cork oak (“cropped” every 9 yrs for you know what) and one other Quercus spp. also remain in the area but have largely been replaced by euckies. Not sure why this sign is in English…the views were really beautiful on the drive as we wound through some really traditional looking southern European towns. They satisfied my stereotypes anyway. I am sure there were at least 3 women behind each wall, in head scarves and barefoot, squashing grapes in large wooden ½ barrels while singing a jolly folk tune in harmony. No? Fine.

On the other side, we drove up this incredibly steep dirt road to get to the starting point for João’s coordinates. João needed constant reassurance that it was safe, but I, I was cool. After a short hike to the top, he pulled out a notebook and we got to work. My task was reading off the coordinates along our route…which I tried to make more challenging by reading in Portuguese, ensuring that he will find himself somewhere in Marmelete when he tries to re-trace our steps. At any rate, I think I can pronounce 1, 3 and 9 almost flawlessly. Clearly any future I have in Portugal will not include even numbers and certainly not 7 or anything over 100.

More (ridiculous) than your average hike, we walked down from the top, down some more, then up, then down, then back to the top, then down the other side, then back up to the top and then finally down to the car. The views continued to be fantastic, although not as clear as it can be. Below left shows Portimão in the background.

Our first bird was an alpine swift. There were about 30 and they got pretty close to us overhead. We also spotted purple thistle (native) and the same flower I saw in the pine forest (WARNING: these are my requisite flower shots so get used to them).

We came across this wild boar soak hole (I prefer “swine spa”…”hole” is just so uncivilized, don’t you think?) that they use for a nice post-rain dip. The hoof-prints were obvious.

We finally got back to the car around 9pm as the shadows began to descend. We did manage to see a hawk, no Bonnelli's though, and maybe a Warbler, oh and some kind of partridge (this was clearly approaching bird overload for me, they fly, they have wings).

On our way back, João suggested a nice vegetarian place in Loulé. They were closed when we arrived at 10pm. Instead, we settled for large brazilian steaks and red wine around the corner. Yum. Nothing like a side of beef right before bed. Seriously though, it was some of the tastiest beef I have ever had the privilege of barely digesting.

I think our next birding adventure will be in Quinta do Lago, a large salt marsh, where, João assures me, the birds are much bigger and one is even bright blue. Yay. Birds are cool. Right?

new apartment in Montenegro

I moved in on saturday (see video tour of the new digs at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-WQGfgjANo) and it is grand to be living alone without having to worry about people watching me. I can do anything I want! I never have known the joys of this. The first thing I did, after perusing the local market, was cook (sorry nothing obscene). My labmate had a snail party that night and I made a peach upside down cake, which was really easy but comes out very good and looking really elegant. I think it will be my new dish. So anyway, it was a great way to break in the kitchen and find out where everything was (and the very few items Francisco is wanting for, which is an electric mixer by the way...).
The dinner was great. We arrive at 7pm at Sonia's which was out in the "country" to find dish after dish of various spreads, sausage across the blood content gamut and stuffed vegetables which sonia had spent all day preparing. As promised there was also a large wok filled with simmering land snails. After dinner we sat around the port dispenser sipping the selections (a white and a tawney). Below are pics of Filipe, the post-doc I work with here, Licinia and Susanna making gaspacho and sonia dispensing the port.
This morning I woke up to wind which did not bode well for the dive I had planned with Filipe and Rita. Sure enough, there was a text message from Filipe saying as much. I was glad though since I had not fallen asleep until 6am, not for lack of trying! I had taken a bunch of herbal sleeping pills and they had no effect. I thought living alone would GREATLY improve my sleeping but I am still on the same anti-US Laura schedule. Lying in bed from 11 to 6 and sleeping from 6 to noon. I am hoping for tonight though. It was probably the port at midnight....

So instead of driving down the coast to do a dive on the southwest corner of the Algarve, I got on a somewhat rusty mountain bike and set out to find the pine forest that people keep talking about near the university. I finally found it and it is really cool. Sand roads through a short pine forest that appears to be quite large. There was no one at all on the trails which creeped me out a bit at first. But it could have also been the fact that it was high noon in the Algarve and no local would even think of braving that heat, esp. to ride their bike through 5 inches of sand. (below is a picture I took near the fire tower and the pine forest with the campus behind it.)
After about an hour I came across a large fire tower and decided I would rather keep going forward than backtrack so I called my logistics director (Licinia). Meanwhile the first person all morning came into view, unfortunately it was a lone older mustached man driving his golf very slowly past me and gawking. I guess his speed could have been due to the deep sand he was navigating and the gawking may have been in response to the combination of my funny american fishing hat, the inch thick gear grease streak running up my calve, and the fact that he had caught me clicking shots of the graffiti on the fire tower....but it was still creepy. Licinia assured me that I could probably make it back to the town if I kept going. After a bit of meandering my bike on foot through some sand troughs I found the "main" dirt road that took me back to a town, not where I started though.

I realized that I was actually closer to my house than I thought and just had to cross the highway to get there. What should have been a 3 minute ride to my place was 15 minutes due to the most insane foot bridge I have ever seen over a highway, esp. a 2 lane highway. It had 5 switchbacks on each side, no stairs. You just had to walk up and up and up to walk down and down and down. This came just short of the effect that the walker not noticing they are walking uphill, even though it is about a 40 foot elevation gain. But finally I reached home and congratulated myself because 1) I had such a keen sense of direction :), 2) I had remembered how to ride a bike, and 3) had ridden that bike for a whole 3 hours despite the constant rust-induced creaking that was coming from the steering shaft, pedals and gears. I am sure my butt will have something to say about all this tomorrow but right now I am happy. The picture below is my building. My apartment is the bottom corner just behind the tennis court.