The Equator

Today we explored the monument at the equator, then went into Quito and hit an old market where they sold indigenous crafts. I bought a couple of gifts for certain people and I'm working on how to pack them for the trip out & home.

The weather was chilly and it rained this afternoon, so it wasn't all that fun to look around. The conventional wisdom is that we're prisoners in the hotel after dark, so we're resolved to amuse ourselves indoors.

Here's a pic of me on the equator.

Quito, Ecuador

We arrived safely, but it was a late nite. Altitude is making it hard to breathe. More tomorrow.

Update:
I'm now using the hotel's computer center (at 0.20/min), but at least I have full access! I'll take some pictures today and see about posting one or two to give you the feel for this place. So far, all I've seen is the hotel; though it's very nice, it's not really different from any other chain hotel I've occupied.

The air is very thin and I get out of breath easily. We're meeting for breakfast at 10 and heading out for an adventure at 12. We're going to straddle the equator!

Butterflies

Well, tomorrow I leave for Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.

I'll be spending two days in Quito, the capitol, and then seven days aboard the dive boat Galapagos Aggressor II. We'll return to Quito for one night then fly home.

I'm diving with some folks out of South Padre Island, Texas, who have reserved the entire boat. Not all of the 14 passengers are from Texas, but everyone knows Tim. He has been leading this trip once a year for a long time, and I feel a lot better being with experienced traveller/divers that I know and trust. Still, I'm feeling butterflies and I've packed and repacked a couple of times just to make sure I've done it right.

This is the biggie: Tim calls it the "Superbowl of Diving." The water's cold, the currents are strong, and it's no simple (cheap) matter to get there. But like the Superbowl, there's a big payoff just for playing: We'll see some fantastic wildlife, dive in challenging conditions, and will visit the spot where man first began to understand the big picture of the development of life on this planet. It will be a really nice set of dives to enter into my logbook!

Do a Google search for Galapagos and dive and you'll see the phenomenal array of sea life that inhabits the waters around the islands. Sea lions, penguins, and marine iguanas can be found in the shallows, while large schools of jacks and even hammerhead sharks are present a little farther out. In the far northwest, around Darwin and Wolf Islands (a 16-hr boat trip from the main islands), huge whale sharks are often seen with schools of Galapagos and hammerhead sharks. Due to popular demand, our boat will spend most of its time up in the northwest.

There will be dives in other areas where we'll be able to see red-lipped batfish, sea horses, and other small creatures. On our land excursions we'll see the sea lions, iguanas, giant tortoises, and a wide variety of the famous Galapagos birds.

On the downside, I won't have access to the Internet for much of the trip, so I won't be able to share my observations in real-time. As I did in Australia, I'll hand-write my posts and publish them when I get to a computer.

Well, I have to re-pack my camera bag again. I'm not convinced it's perfect. So I'll sign off for now and try to post when I can get to a computer again.

The Verdict

I just met with Mistress Amber, and God bless her it looks like all the abuse she put me through has paid off. I lost a total of 17 lbs (7%) and reduced my body fat percentage by 11%. My belly shrunk by 16%.

Lest you think that's a measly loss for six months of work, remember that I didn't care about weight loss when I started: I was only interested in stamina and upper body strength, and Mistress Amber designed my program to achieve these goals. The fat loss was simply a side effect, and something that's easy to measure. Regretfully I don't have hard data on stamina or strength. Subjectively I know that I can go longer and faster on the cardio equipment than when I started and that she's been able to add more weight to each exercise.

Also, I must confess that I've not exhibited a lot of discipline in the cardio department. She said that I would have seen more improvement had I been more consistent in doing it. As I said, I've seen some improvement. I may not be able to determine how (or whether) the work I've been doing has had any impact on my diving. Since I've been doing SOMETHING I have to assume that it will be better than having done NOTHING.

Another Dive Adventure

I'll talk about my frenetic preparations for next week's Galapagos trip in a later post, but I had to gush about a new opportunity that just came up!

I've been invited to be a safety diver during a video shoot for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department!

The week after I return from Ecuador, the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) will be sinking the USTS Texas Clipper 17 miles off the S. Texas coast to form an artificial reef. The projected date is November 15. She will come to rest on the sandy floor, about 134 feet deep, after having undergone years of pre-sinking cleanup and other preparations. Click on the link above for more details.

The Clipper's keel was laid in Maryland in 1944, and although built as a merchant ship she served the U.S. Navy as the troop transport USS Queens during WWII in the Pacific theater. She was decommissioned as a military vessel in 1946. From 1948 to 1958, commissioned the S.S. Excambion, she was a combination freight/passenger liner serving Mediterranean ports of call.

In 1965, she was commissioned the U.S.T.S. Texas Clipper and served as a training ship for maritime students at Texas A&M - Galveston until 1996.

The man who is leading our trip to the Galapagos Islands operates a technical dive instruction center, dive shop, and dive boat in South Padre Island, TX. The day after the Clipper is reefed, he will be leading a team shooting a video to document the condition of the ship after it settles to the bottom. While I was chatting with him about Galapagos, we started talking about the reefing and he invited me to serve as a safety diver for this project. The videography teams will be making longer-than-normal dives, and safety divers provide support for them during decompression and to serve as rescue divers in the event of an accident.

If it pans out, this will be a fantastic opportunity for me. I will be one of the very first divers to see the Clipper on the bottom! Plus, I'll be helping document this project for future generations to learn about the Clipper and the artificial reef project.

Yuck

Well, I finally did it. I'm in a Holiday Inn in south-central Louisiana and I swam in their pool. For the record, that's ME -- doing water-based exercise -- while on travel.

Unfortunately, the conditions weren't that great. The pool was big enough (barely), but the visibility was almost 4 ft. For you non-divers, we measure water conditions in terms of visibility: How far can you see while you're underwater. In the freshwater lakes I usually dive in vis is from 0' to 2'. In the Gulf it varies between 40 and 60'. In the Caribbean it's often 100-120'. The hotel pool was so turbid I couldn't clearly see my feet while I was floating on the surface, feet down.

I was going to use the treadmill, but it was broken. I considered running, but the only road is an Interstate access road and one of our team members was very nearly struck by a car running it this morning. So I'll probably swim it again, since I've dived in bodies of water I'd normally never consider swimming in, and braved God-knows-what kind of amoebas, planaria, and what-not without a thought. At least with a little chlorine the bacteria might be too stunned (stoned?) to hurt me.

This hotel sucks. I'm going to post bad things about it on travel websites to warn others away.

You have to check out this blog:

http://www.iamemilyx.blogspot.com/

The anti-choice crowd have started a 40-day picketing campaign against Planned Parenthood, and Planned Parenthood is responding by collecting donations for each picketer counted. I pledged $0.10/picketer. Picket away! Call all your friends to join you! More money for womens' health and reproductive freedom!

The misinformation these poor people are spreading to fight abortion is just pathetic. Note that I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. Some of them know damn well how wrong their information is (like the ludicrous opinion that abortion causes breast cancer) but they nonetheless will stop at nothing to control every woman's body in the name of "morality."

But there's an awakening going on, thanks to the SCHIP clusterfuck. Even the religious community is publicly acknowledging that being "pro-life" doesn't stop at forcing someone to have a child. Provision must be made for all children to be adequately loved, fed, sheltered, and kept healthy. In fact, some groups are even questioning how you can be "pro-life" and still support our participation in the Iraq civil war. If your senator or representative is opposing SCHIP, Democrat or Republican, call them and make your voice heard.

Sorry I've been slacking lately -- I wanted this blog to be mainly dive stuff but there hasn't been any action to speak of. Also, I've been growing tired (and frustrated) with the political stuff.

Seventeen days until I leave for the Galapagos! I'll put a few more posts up between now and then, but won't have access to a computer while I'm gone.