Galapagos parte dos

Lets start this post off right, more ceviche. Served with ketchup. Ketchup on my soup...you know the way to my heart. After a little sea food sustenance we hit up the town to explore tour options. We planned a few things, stay tuned !

That afternoon we were off to another beach. This beach was on the other side of the island, and called Garrapaterro Bay. It was lovely. There was no one there for the first 45 min or so! It truly felt like a deserted island paradise. We swam and sunned a bit until it was time to pack up.

 

Flamingos! On the hike out of the beach you pass by a little lagoon. As luck would have it there was a gaggle? or pink flamingos!

The next morning we set out for Floreana. It was a formal tour that started with a 2 hour boat ride. We ended up with another gaggle, this time of old ornery folks. Lets all say a prayer for our tour guide and his patience with these geezers. Yikes.Once off the boat we waited quite a while for the bus to come. why? Because the island only has one bus! When it arrived we were carted up the island to the bottom of the largest peak. Some of the frailer folks decided to just ride right back down. Good choice! The hike in started with a tortuga reserve. These babies came from another island, so they are kept contained as to preserve each islands natural fauna.

'

The hike continued through intense mud. Quite a few spills by the other hikers. Not gonna lie. It was pretty funny! Jon and I, donning our tennis shoes, did just fine. We hiked through the pirate oncaves! Sailors new about this island and its natural spring for many years. It was a common stopping point. The sailors carved little shelters and kitchens into the ashen rock for protection.

After our hike we snorkeled, had lunch and made our way back on the boat. We stopped for a bird frenzy. We saw pinguinos, boobies (nascaw and blue footed) and more sea birds! We have been doing pretty well on our quest to find the wildlife of the Galapagos. Stay tuned...

Galapagos Parte Uno

I cannot believe I am in the Galapagos!! Can you? Match day came and went and as fast as you can say Charles Darwin, I was on a plane to Guayaquil. I landed late Saturday night where Jon was waiting in the lobby with a handcrafted Dr. Geier sign he had colored at the hostel. Poor guy must have been a wee bit bored. We taxied to the Hostel, which was a tad steamy, but had miniature monkeys and turtles and parrots in the lobby. Up early the next am for our flight to the Galapagos. Proof....

The arrival! Jon enhanced these photos and they are seriously amazing. You get the non enhanced version because it took me about an hour to load them! There were rainbows galore as we flew through the clouds to the little airport on Santa Cruz. yes. I flew through rainbows to land in the Galapagos. Heaven on earth

We landed, bought our admission which goes to the national park funds, and boated/taxied to  our hotel. It is a very nice hostel/hotel, with air conditioning, private bathroom and a dvd player What more could you want. BTW a fantastic thing about Central/South America is that you can buy pirated DVDs for about $1.50. Not that I've done that...

 

First things first, good eats! We were advised by a local to stop by this ceviche shop. It was run by an old man next door, who served his creation with SA ketchup and banana chips. Throwing caution to the wind we devoured this delicious ceviche. The travel doc was pretty adamant about her eating recommendations. Nothing raw, nothing on the street, nothing you can't peel...thanks. Advice taken and promptly discarded.

Bellies full it was time to wander about town. Sea lions are everywhere. The small ones are calm, and mostly sleep, itch themselves and do sea lion yoga. Large lions however, grunt and hiss at you should you approach their "territory". Such strange animals. Sort of like slightly more agile manatees on land, but flipping twisting wonderful creatures in the water.

Our rather aimless wandering brought us to the Charles Darwin Center. We began our hike up to see the Tortugas and were immediatly struck by how many gecko/unidentified lizard species there are! These red necked guys are my favorite.

This brought us to the Tortugas! We were able to hijack a cruise ship tour, thrifty!! The turtles were thought to have floated over to the Galapogos on pieces of vegetation that broke off from the land. They are able to survive for months without food or water. This is why no land mammals are found on the Galapagos. Depending on the elevation and vegetation of the island, the tortugas developed different shells. They became giant because they found ample food, with virtually no predators. The islands with lush vegitation created low and extremely large turltes. Islands with less ground cover cause turtles to develop the saddle back and longer legs, so there were able to stick their neck up and eat higher up.

They apparently store much fluid in their pericardium, and therefore were taken by pirates and whalers. The sailors would ravage the tortise population for fluids, and also would take them aboard because they needed no food/water, but provided meat, fluid and oil to the sailors. Therefore the tortuga population became depleted. In fact at one point a single turtle was left on one of the norther islands, lonesome George, and when he was discovered he was brought to Santa Cruze to the Darwin center for safe keeping. Since they have been trying to breed with various females, but have not been successful. Turtles live for 150 years and are most sexually active from about 80-100 years old.

The  Darwin Center has a section for males, females and babies. The babies are kept there for about 5 years, until their shells harden. At that point, they have virtually no predators and may be released to the low lands. It takes them about 25 years to make their way up to lusher surroundings.

After visiting the turtles we stopped at a rocky beach that was literally crawling with crabs.

Stopped for a pisco sour (left) on the way home. We sipped on the dock with marine iguanas and sea lions.

The center of town boasts and impressive street of kiosks that open after about 7pm. They serve mainly rice and meat or rice and seafood dishes. Here was encocado de camaron. A delicious shrimp dish in creamy coconut sauce. Holy yum. If you eat on the street, they use virutally no gluten. However, in restuarants we have run across a few sauce problems, soy sauce, teriyaki etc.

Jon, contemplating our next move...er, next culinary delight!

Hasta luego, stay tuned. Next up includes tortuga bay, floreana and scuba (seriously!, my chicken butt scuba-ed).

And the celebrations continued

Wine with Mom and Lisa!

Class party at the W!

Sancia and I-Body buddies 4 years later!

Body Buddy 2-Chad!

Jon's roomie-The famous Daniel

The lovely Molly-we survived crazy busy endo together!


And I'm off to Ecuador! Stay posted, I'll try to get a post up now and again!

Triple Gopher!

And  I matched!

At the U of MN!

I'll be a Triple Gopher, and I haven't been to a game since Bobby Jackson! Oops!

Pre-match retreat!

One more day...

The manfriend in action.

 

 

And now, 10 on tuesday- a strange breed!

1. Quick! Zombies are coming!! What do you do? 

Barricade myself in a Pub ala Shaun of the dead

2. Whew, that was a close one. …I think your phone is ringing. Oh, it’s your best friend! She thinks she’s been bitten by a zombie. What advice do you give her? 

Make sure she's had her tetanus updated, then run to the pub.

3. You realize it’s time to leave your current location because it’s clearly not safe anymore. Are you going to move at night or day? Defend your reasoning.

During the day. Night is scary. Because, more people die at night in horror movies.

4. During your relocation, you come across a weapon superstore. My, that’s convenient. What kind of weaponry do you choose?

One with automatic aiming?

5. As you leave, an old lady on the side of the street begs you to help her. Do you? Why or why not?

nope. I already have my wilderness explorer's "assist the elderly" badge. Besides, she might be a zombie.

6. Good choice, you’re clearly a good person to have around in a zombie apocalypse. Oh hey, there’s a wifi signal here! You can’t stay long but this is your chance to gather some intel on the current situation. What’s the first website you check?

gmail. Maybe my mom emailed me an escape route.

7. SHH! What was that noise?!

gnawing on flesh? this is getting morbid. I did just watch zombieland!

8. I think it’s time to get out of here. I hope you have a plan. Where are you going now?

We've established this, I'm going to the pub to wait for the british army.

9. Wait a minute, that looks like a bite mark on your arm… You may be infected too! Will you tell other people?

No. HIPPA protects my health information, and you should too.

10. How does this story end?

I wake from REM, slightly sweaty, and hear the robins chirping. Too much sugar before bed gives you bad dreams. (that statement has not been confirmed by my sleep medicine attendings)

sigh #1

NRMP Staff    to me

Congratulations! You have matched.

SA preview.

Want a preview?

Sent thanks to the manfriend's fantástico food photography. He's off to the Jungle tomorrow, a real live Mogli.

Mystery meat on the street

Cheese filled breakfast

Did Jon find pancakes?


On a gluten free note: avocados apparently cost 20 cents, and you can get 5 peaches for one dolla! H*ll yeah!




Or:  Holy mother of god. Chicken eating spiders!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/spiderman.shtml


IN PERU!!!!!!!!Yes. That's a normal sized chicken.


If this thing comes tap tap tapping on my tent in the middle of the night, I'm throwing Jon to the dogs...er spiders... while I play chicken, or something.

 Lord help me, wherever I wander, wherever I roam.

You know what time it is.

 The boys are headin to texas for SXSW. Good Luck!

 

mmmhmmm.  ok.

 

Ten on Tuesday

from Knitting Yarns by Lisa from Lisa's Yarns

1. Of your current hobbies, which would you choose to spend more time, money, and effort on? Why?

Yoga. Because I'm pretty sure my mind and body need it. Lucky for me, it's free on comcast!

2. List the two other hobbies/habitual activies (not chores) besides the one listed above that you regularly do now and didn’t choose in question one.

-Reading
-Cooking

3. Why are you spending time on the above two hobbies/habitual activies at all if you really wanted to spend your time on the first one you chose? …or to put it another way, what are these two hobbies/habitual activities fullfilling that the first one doesn’t if you don’t want to put all your effort into the first hobby?

Dude. Variety is the spice of life.

4. Ready John 3:16 in the bible… In what way does this passage affect you? What are your feelings towards these words, positively or negatively?

I googled it. So clearly, i'm not reciting it nightly. It is absolutely is true and honest. However, I also love this quote...

"I think everybody should like everybody." Andy Warhol.

Honestly, I think the each person should spend a lot more time looking at their heart and their actions than looking at the Bible.

5. M&M’s: nuts, no nuts, or peanut butter?
? This question is sort of incoherent. I like M&M's. I prefer them without nuts. But I love nuts. I love peanut butter.  I also would love peanut butter M&Ms. everyone should like everyone...unless you have a nut allergy.

6. Putting away the feeling of pride being a bad thing; what secretly/openly are you proud about yourself?

Well. I'm proud I've made it to the end of medical school. I see a light, and it's at the equator.



7. Given one room in the house to do with what you want, not changing the actual size of the room and with all the money you would need, what would you do, and be specific? (this can range from bouncy floor,walls & ceilings; to hard wood floor with wood paneling and purple ceiling with a chair; to nothing)

Kitchen. Holy cow. I have zero counter space and rickety old appliances. It does have charm... I wouldn't stray too far from the feel of the apt, but I would make it more user friendly.

8. What’s the next movie you’re going to see? Not what you’d LIKE to GO see, but the next movie you realistically are going to watch.

Up should arrive tomorrow.

9. Use the keyboard only and make your best smiley/funny/cool face –> like this! 8^)

Ok. ;)

10. What makes you cry? What makes you pray? What makes you laugh?

Cry - feeling out of control, being angry, sappy romantic movies

Pray - tests, bedtime

Laugh - Children, friends, Mitch Hedberg.

There is a God

There is a God! Hallelujah. I ran today! 3 slow but steady miles. Followed by serious sweating on the step mill. Have you every tried that contraption?


 


I go up stairs all the time, and seem to manage it just fine. However, apparently going up stairs at the gym makes me sweat bullets. I think my buttoski might hurt tomorrow. But back to the main event....My wonky pelvis made it 3 miles.



And I didn't break, break my. Break, break my pelvis. I think. My blog is turning int MTV college Jamz. Sorry. I'm not sure what's going on.

Back to my pelvis, I know, you're enthralled. I can tell I ran on it, but it's no where near the pain of 3 weeks ago. Maybe those vitamin supplements are helping. Thank goodness, biking was getting WAY old.

How do you heal your body?

I've been inundated with vaccinations in preparation to travel to SA. In fact, today was Yellow fever. While injecting me, the travel nurse calmly stated, "You know, these are pretty exotic vaccines. You should probably tell someone you're getting them. You know, just in case."

Thanks. If I end up MIA blogworld, make sure i'm still breathing. I did get live yellow fever today.

I'll start typhoid on Sat. I'm a bit nervous about that one, as I've heard it might make you a bit..well..pukey.

Aptly, I'll share a recipe for the soul. Or for my immune system. Please, make your antibodies peacefully. Thanks. Many people need healing, and when they do, deliver chicken noodle soup. Here's my batch, made for someone who needed it more than my yellow fevered blood.

Recipe via the soul of my mama. BTW, how many mom's have blogs? I know, mine is especially cool.

Buy a package of chicken thighs
Brown the thighs in your dutch oven
Add chicken stock to cover the thighs and simmer for 30 min
Do some choppin, carrots, celery, onion
Remove thighs, reserve broth
Add olive oil and sweat your Mirepoix
Do not brown! I left this step a tad too long, and had to switch pots. Oh well, C'est la vie.
Once tender-15 min? Add a bunch more stock. maybe 4 cups
Add dried herbs: my choices included basil, mural of flavors, and a restrained dose of tarragon
Dump in your reserved broth from the thighs, and add in the thighs-deboned and broken into chunks. I like the meat in semi-generous bite sizes. I wouldn't shred it. Unless you want to. It's a free world.
Simmer another 30 min
Package 'er up, and slurp for your spirit, or deliver for a friend's.

Upon serving, you can boil up noodles of your choice. GF friends, I'd recommend quinoa noodles or brown rice. For the real world, egg noodles are #1. It's best to keep the noodles and soup separate, then combine prior re-heating and serving. No one likes a soggy noodle.

February Recap

February Recap

brought to you by Knitting Yarns by Lisa from Lisa's Yarns

Well, March seems to have come in like a lamb. Lucky me, i'll be sunning myself in ECUADOR when it leaves like a lion. Sorry Minnesota, but hasta la vista. And yes folks, my rank list is officially in. Now the computer Gods do their thing. And thus, my blog has returned from secrecy. Sorry, but interviewers googling me and asking me questions about high school pit band performances got a bit too close for comfort. Yes. for real.

Current Book(s):
I feel sort of embarrassed filling this out after Lisa! But alas, I spend way more time on my butt watching BRAVO than reading, i'll admit it, sorta lame. I'm reading wasted right now. Next up : Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, gifted by the manfriend. Finished: the Shack: interesting ideas at times yes, but overall one of the worst books i've read from a non-chick lit standpoint.


Current Music: Well. Apparently now I listen to hip hop. I've downloaded a couple of Flo Rida songs, good for the biking. Since my hip went wonky and I can't run...see below.

Flo rida - Right Round @ Yahoo! Video

Current Shame-Inducing Guilty Pleasure:
Nuts. Holy cow. I discovered the numerous fantastic combos of nuts/dried fruit and fantastic flavors at trader Joes. I'm like a heat seeking missile right to the spicy&tangy almonds. It's a little out of control. I'm starting to feel like a bear.

Current Colors:
well. I wear the same dang black pants every day. Why? I'm lazy. I do wash them... at least every other week! Come on. It's not like my legs sweat.

Current Obsessions:
I see shame inducing pleasures as an obsession. But ok, I'll pick something else. The bachelor. I was so pumped, and it started so good. But now it's over. What a let down. Sort of like if a pinata broke and it only had now and laters inside.

Current Drink:
Tea lattes-breakfast tea with almond milk. mmmmm.

Current Song:
Ok i'll pick another. Ready for some more poptastic tune-age. What? I like train? Catchy stuff.



Current Movie:
I have Dopamine sitting on my side table. It's been there for 2 weeks. I should probably get to it. I watched Roller Girls-fantastic. Paper heart-absolutely delightful!

Current TV Shows:
 Big Love. I've also started watching How to Make it in America. Do you think he'd marry me? That would be nice.




Current Wish-List:
-matching

-waterproof jacket
-new running shoes
-new pelvis

Current Needs:
-Calcium and vitamin D

Current Triumph:
-I don't have much to brag about right now. I have worn matching socks every day this week.

Current Bane of my Existence:
- Lisa, I hear your pain. OVER 2 weeks ago, I was on the treadmill running and I started getting a weird achy pain in my L hip/groin. It STILL hurts, and I can't run. It hurts to push on my ischium. Not sure why, but it's blowing the big one not running. Biking/elliptical does not give the endorphin release running does. I'm hanging in there, barely.






 Current Goal:
- Make it to match. And get my wonky pelvis to ecuador.

Current Indulgence:
- I bought coasters on ETSY. Yes I'm broke. But gosh, they were so darn cool.

Current Blessings:
-An entire week >30 degrees. Can I get an AMEN.

Current Slang or Saying:
-"I need to know this". I'm trying to motivate myself. Lord, help me. 3 more days of big thyroids, small testicles and high blood sugar.

Current (Fav) Outfit:
- Anytime I can wear my glamorous target brown leather boots.

Current Excitement:
-Matching. Yellow fever vaccine this Thursday! whoohoo.

Current Mood:
-Honestly, a bit grouchy lately. I'm sure my family will second that. sorry!