La Primera Salida

Helloo all!

I got back from the field last Wednesday where we ended up spending two days in Borbón up in the Esmeralda Province. We went through 7 houses with a mix of chicken raising households and non-chicken raising households, took soil, surface and household water samples. We also went along the river (heavily polluted by the illegal mining) and took environmental samples there as well. It was super hot and sweaty the entire time. Just imagine, the river water was 30 degrees Celsius! I bet the bacteria loved that temp. We processed the water using a technique called membrane filtration, which required using a hand-pump for over 70 samples and 2 dilutions. My forearms are going to be jacked at the end of this project.

Here's the part you're not going to believe. I was told wearing quick-dry shorts and bug repellent would be a good idea, but that was the worst advice I could've received. In one day and a half, I received 350 black fly bites from being in the field and all of them on my legs! Note to self: I'm buying a pair of quick dry paints real fast before I come back out into the field because I look diseased. I'd take a picture of it, but it's too gross even for me. We have 3 more villages to sample from: Colon Eloy, Valdez, and Timbere. This was my first real international field experience and it was so worth it. Granted the first day we collected our samples for 3 hours, processed our bacteria for 4 hours and didn't finish until 10 PM, I definitely thought we needed to revise our POA in the end.

Luckily for us, Marissa and I have officially moved in to a host family closer to the university so the processing in the official microbio lab isn't bad. Just to clarify, there's a field lab and a city lab. The field lab is for immediate processing and the city lab is to complete isolation of bacteria and eventually DNA extraction (which we may or may not get to). It's a beautiful little town, but I'm not going to lie, I miss the fun things we could do in Quito. Regardless, the decision is good because the family is super accommodating and friendly in all respects. I've got more pictures! I'll combine the first and second field days when we come back from the second salida.

More enjoyment...

The wonderful view of Quito from the Centro Histórico:


My first weekend in Quito I went to La Mitad del Mundo, which is literally a museum at the equator (I've been to the equator twice now! Once in Africa and once in S. America thanks to Emory!):


Here's the view of La Plaza Foch, which is pretty much where the nightlife is at like I mentioned before (and they have great coffee!):


A yummy typical Ecuadorian plate for vegetarians:


Btw, I'm still loving this country more and more every day.