Post #6

I took my sore finger (see Post #5) to the doctor this morning and with Emily's limited but much-better-than-my French speaking abilities, with a script of questions in French compiled yesterday with the help of a post-doc from France, and with the doctor's limited English abilities, things went rather smoothly.  Besides getting prescriptions for amoxicillin (to thwart bacterial infections) and cortisone (to reduce the swelling) I learned that the Tahitian name for the COT is "taramea."  (Pretty-sounding name for such an animal!)  Wonderfully, the doctor's visit cost only 3600 French Polynesian Francs (about $40US) and medicines only about $30.  

With the new meds in my bloodstream after lunch, I tried unsuccessfully to catch up on some much needed sleep, so I headed down to lab to solve how to reliably get COT sperm suspensions with a predictable concentration.  But instead of boring you with those travails, I thought I would share with you some pictures of the day.  (But just in case you are still wondering, the COT-stabbed finger is beginning to look and feel better tonight.  I'm glad, because it's real slow typing without it!)

Our seeming tranquility is altered by visitors from elsewhere that arrive using different modes of transportation.  This vessel anchored out front of the lab for less than 10 hours today, and missed the reef when it left!

Some would rather tour the island in an outrigger canoe:

Which experience would you prefer?

Every marine lab I've been to has a volleyball court.  Here's the one at Gump:

You can see from the intact grass that it's not used much, only once in the past two weeks.  Perhaps it's because folks here are too busy, or because it's too hot, or because the scenery is too distracting, or (most likely) because the only ball available is a tattered soccer ball.

So why not go scuba diving instead?  Here's the group of people that work in the same lab rooms as I do.  They are mostly grad students with one technician and one post-doc.  (A great group.  More on them some other time.)

They went across Cook's Inlet to a "wall" of a coral called Porites rus.  While there, Emily took these pictures of a beautiful nudibranch (a sea slug or shell-less snail)...

and an octopus peeking out of a hole...

with one eye showing above its white siphon.  I see octopus on most of my dives here; glad Emily spotted this one.

And when Emily came back from her dive, she just had to capture the full moon rising.  The resolution isn't great here because it was taken using her underwater camera in a housing not designed for above-water photography.  Still, you can "get the picture":

Around 8 p.m., the moon was our "street lamp" as we made our way through the forest and up the steep hill to our bungalow.