Finally some pictures!!

Finally a few pictures for your enjoyment!! It takes a long time to upload them, even with a fast connection. They´re in no particular order, but here they are. I´m not sure how to move them around in here, so we´ll see how this works.

First, a random pic of Dr. Buehler and Than birding at the airport in Bucaramanga, Colombia while we were waiting for the rest of our group to arrive on the next flight. I got a bunch of lifers there! :) I´ll put more pics of Colombia on here eventually. Next is a photo of Susannah´s family, the woman I´m sitting beside, gathered for her birthday. She´s a wonderful woman of God and I have been very blessed and encouraged to stay here with her and the family. Then there´s a shot of an Amazilia Hummingbird that we caught in the courtyard of the university here. Then a picture of some of the students during the practical part of our field course (described in more detail below). And a shot of the Andean or spectacled bear, so cute!

Above is one of the famous Galapagos tortoises in the corales managed by the National Park. By the way, Lonesome George, the very last individual of his race from Pinta island, finally copulated with three different females and got them pregnant about 3 months ago! It only took him like 30 years! So now, after several generations, they should have some pure individuals to reintroduce to Pinta...but that will be like 900 years from now, hehe. Then there´s a beautiful land iguana from South Plazas islet. This is Rogelio´s favorite critter in the islands.

The landscape above is Bartolome island, probably the most photographed island in the archipelago. The pinnacle rock was probably formed that way by North Americans who used to have a military base there and used it for target practice. Then there´s the adorable Galapagos Penguin, one of my favorite critters in the islands, next to the bright Sally light foot crab. It´s hard to take good pictures of these guys b-c we always see them from a boat or from the water. Then there´s the hilarious Swallow-tailed gull, which has a habit of glancing at its feet randomly, as if to check if they´re still there.

Above are the feet of a red-footed booby on Genovesa island, the farthest north I´ve been in the islands, and the only island where these guys are found. Then there´s an adorable lobo marino, or sea lion. Below that is a shot of one of the many absolutely delicious beaches we visited...this one is called Bachas beach, on Santa Cruz island. To the right is one of the famous Darwin´s finches...this is the Large cactus finch of Espanola island..He was on the beach we used to hike to when I was living there. It would take us like 3-4 hours walking along the cliffs and through dense brush to reach it, and we´d show up on the beach looking like people off of Survivor. The tourists weren´t quite sure what to think of us, haha. Many fond memories of this beach!

Right now I´m at the home of some wonderful A Rocha folks here in Trujillo, Peru. Got here last Friday and will leave on Saturday night to return to Lima. From there I´ll fly out to Venezuela to start the Cerulean job for the winter, yay!

My time here in Peru has been a great blessing. I have felt very welcomed and loved from the beginning. It is so refreshing to have brothers and sisters to pray with - and we all share the same passion: God´s great creation! I´m staying with the family of Ramon Casana, who is both a pastor and a biologist - that doesn´t happen very often! On Sunday I gave a presentation to his congregation that meets here at their house - We talked about stewardship of Creation and shared various passages that point to our responsibility to care for our earth as children of God.

Then on Monday, I taught an all day course on the ecology and monitoring of forest birds, with a practical part in the field where we netted some birds, did point counts, and learned about territory mapping. My audience was mainly university students and local professionals, and they were all really interested and motivated, it was great fun.

That night, Ramon and I were interviewed on a local Christian tv station...my first time in front of a camera, and of course it had to be in spanish!! Well, I guess I was interviewed on camera in Colombia too, but this was actually in a mini studio, with lights and all that...a little nerve wracking. I felt like such an idiot stumbling over my words, but I guess the point came across somehow, haha. I am so encouraged by the conservation movement in the church here...wish the US would follow their example!

On Saturday we visited a dry forest reserve called Chappari, where we got to see the Andean or spectacled bear in captivity - they have a reintroduction program going on. And also the endemic and exceedingly rare White-winged guan!! :) Yesterday we visited Ramon´s study site for his MS thesis, a wetland about 2 hours south of here. This wetland has never been studied before, so he´s basically doing a biological census of all that´s there, but his main objective is to work with the local people there to develop alternative management plans for its conservation. Yesterday we met with some representatives of various interest groups in the nearby town to invite them to participate in the conservation of this wetland, and to encourage them to start developing plans to create a touristic site there to improve the economy of the area. They seemed really excited and interested, so I can´t wait to see how that pans out! That´s real conservation in action! We also shared with them the vision of A Rocha, as stewards of God´s creation. One of Ramon´s goals from the various talks and activities this week is to acquire more volunteers for A Rocha, and he´s already received several interest emails from students we´ve been teaching and working with, yay!

Today and Friday we´ll be giving talks and doing games and stuff for local kids at a church and a cultural center. Crazyness!

Don´t expect another post anytime soon, because I don´t think I´ll have very good internet access in Venezuela. At the very least I should be able to write something, but probably no more photos for awhile, sorry!

Thanks for all the well wishes and prayers, and may you all have a lovely Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year!! :)