Chil'in in Chile #2

 Chil’in in Chile #2.

   A week on the northern coastal desert.

North Central Chilean Coastal Desert.  A lonely place with big wave, and lots of rocky intertidal zones.

    About 800 Km (500 miles) north of our house (central Chile), or about 1,000 Km from Peru, I spent a week surveying intertidal zones.  No showers, fires being the preferred method of cooking dinner, cold at night and hot in the sun--I had a great time.  Everyday we would survey 1 to 3 intertidal sites, wearing wet suits and trying to avoid the waves. 

    Putting on a wet suit to walk and climb down to the intertidal can be hot work when the sun is out. Yet, with a 12°C ocean, working with waves requires staying warm—thus the wet suits. They also provide protection if you have to flatten yourself against the rocks when a wave comes rolling in. To protect the suits, we wear short (so when you are sitting on a barnacle bed you don’t “chew” up the suits.   

Climbing down to the intertidal in wetsuit in the desert in the sun.

A great time exploring approximately 250 Km of the Chilean coast.  

    While the coast, its wave, the rocks, geology and intertidal were amazing. The most amazing was the spring flower bloom.  Chile has been in a drought for approximately 2 decades, but this winter it was wet, and thus this spring the deserts are a washed in color.  

Desert in bloom

It is impossible to capture the colors: a thousand shades of green (chartreuse to deep forest green) with the whitest white flower,  gigantic fields of magenta, yellow bouquets, all among rocks from black basalt to red iron stone.  The combination of heavy wave on the Pacific to the rocky flower garden was .. enriching. 

Home

    Samantha school is around the corner from our house (7 minute walk) and her school starts at 08:00.  So we get up around 06:00 and go for a walk at about 06:30.  Typically, we walk down a steep staircase the cross the sands to the beach. Admire the waves, and climb the cliffs back to our house.  Like the desert, the area around the beach are blessed with colors. 

Our morning walks. 

Samantha

  Samantha has the joy of an afterschool surfing program.  Tuesdays and Fridays, for two hours she gets to go surfing. The Pacific is cold.  However, with a wet suit, she is out in the water, getting waves. 

    While surfing is fun, and she is getting good.  For example, last Tuesday was a holiday, and Samantha and I went to the same beach:  in an hour she caught 8 waves (paddle in and stood up), yet her father only caught two (Don’t tell anyone that she is surfing better than her father!).  A spanish speaking school is a challenge, especially for building friendships.  It is not that she can’t speak spanish, she translates for me when we go to restaurants and other places of business; it is mastering the lingo of pre-teen speak.  

Surf School 

Science:

    While Margie and I are in Chile, our Ph.D. students are finishing up.  We are fortunate to have some very good students, and the data analyses they are producing is fantastic.  I have often said the best of times with graduate students is when they start teaching you.  And they are bringing important lessons to us about evolutionary genomics.  We will produce some amazing publications with our names on it, because they are extremely good at analyses and writing.  The sad part is we are in Chile and do not get to enjoy the daily interactions and the immediate joy of their discoveries.  They will defend their Ph. D. but we will not be there to celebrate the occasion, or walk with them to get their diplomas.  

For now—chil’in in Chile. 

Douglas