Day at Roseau

Today, half the group went to Roseau. We walked a long ways, going up and down roads, looking in stores and trying to find the right souvenir to bring back for our friends and families back home. Everything was fascinating. There was Dominican art being sold at the side of the street as well as hats being knitted as they were being sold. There were other tourists that arrived in a cruise ship there wandering around as well. Many of the tour guides thought we were part of that group and they would ask us if we would like a tour with them. But, unfortunately for them, we were there to be in the city. It seemed like every other person we encountered, it was a tour guide asking us if we wanted to go to the beach. Sometimes we saw the same tour guide more than once.
Later on, the group went to eat at Pearl’s. It was so wonderful and the food was very delicious. I can’t get enough of the food here in Dominica.
Anyways, it’s getting late y’all. I’ve got another movie for you. If you can’t see it on the site, you can click on this link: Day at Roseau
Hope you guys enjoy.
[Oh, and I apologize to those who got offended for the poor credits of first movie I posted. I couldn't get all the information- names- because I spent my time editing that movie on a plane. It was hard for me. I'm sorry.

Mighty Max and the Kubuli Kid

Today we were given the option of going to Roseau to do some shopping and to sample the culture, or the option of going to the beach in Mero Beach to do some snorkeling. I opted for the beach since I can never get enough of the ocean. Damian dropped a group of five of us off. We got in some snorkeling, but I’ll leave that to Karen’s blog.

Walking through town we gained a little follower. He was a wiggly, rough looking little puppy that seemed to just want some affection. We stopped and played with him for a while, and noticed he was quite emaciated. Tirzah, Karen and I wanted so badly to take him with us, but we decided to move on and let him go about his way.  After we ate lunch, we headed back through town and our little follower accompanied us once again. We stopped to play and noticed how hungry he was. Tirzah and I went back to the little restaurant where we had lunch, and each bought him a chicken drumstick. His ears stood up, and he sat back patiently with his little tail wagging as we tore up tiny pieces of chicken for him. He ate enthusiastically and finished off every last bit. We noticed he had ear mites and ticks all over him. Tirzah whipped out her Q-tip stash, and we cleaned him up and removed the troublesome parasites.  He seemed thankful as he gave us each a lick and a sniff and continued on his way. He became our honorary Dominica dog Kubuli.

 Next we met another dog on the beach while we were relaxing by the ocean. He was a pudgy little guy named Mighty Max. He had tags, and belonged to a group of people who were rented a house on the beach. He hung out in the cooler, wet sand with us. He was clearly much more fortunate than our friend Kubuli.

 

It’s interesting to see the way pets fit in to the culture here in Dominica. Some people really enjoy their pets, and have them as companions while others seem to have obtained them when they wandered on to their property and never left. They belong to those people, but only because they wandered that way. Some of the locals observed us tending to Kubuli, and seemed interested. Hopefully our love for animals rubbed off on some of them, and maybe they might start taking a little better care of their pets as well. I sure hope so.

p.s. miss you Elias and Aiden! xo

More Snorkeling Pictures and Video

We had a free day today. One group went to the capitol city of Roseau, the other group went to the beach in Mero. I was in the beach going group. We did some more snorkeling while we were there and saw lots of cool things and got many great pictures, and videos. Where we snorkeled today was an artificial reef, constructed of reef balls. Here are some of the pictures and a video.

Here is a video of Caribbean Reef Squid (Sepioteuthis sepioidea) changing color

They use color change like this as a camouflage technique, to spook would be predators and also as communication to one another. The color change is instantaneous and quite amazing.

Christmas Tree Worms (Spirobranchus giganteus)

Intermediate French Angelfish (Pomacanthus paru)

A day at the Beach

Today was our day of choice! It was either sightseeing and souvenir shopping in Roseau or a day at Mero beach! I decided it was a good day to lay about and do a whole lot of nothing, to rest up before our last few days. Most of our day was spent laying about on the beach although Tirzah was the first one in the water this morning at about 9:30! Nicole and I decided that a little sun bathing was good before we dipped our toes! Of course Clayton and Mark headed straight for the bushes and the lizards! As the day went on and it got a bit warmer Nicole and I decided a little water would be nice so we floated near the shore so we could keep a close eye on our things. When it clouded over and started to sprinkle we decided it would be a good time for lunch. We had amazing food at Connie’s: Mero Beach Bar and Grill. Then it was back to the water after a leisurely stroll and playing with a puppy we met! Out in to the water we went and shortly after entering the water I had a strange friend. A very small (about 1-1 1/2 inches long) fish with black bars was swimming in front of my mask. Nicole and I played catch the fish for a few minutes trying to scoop him up in our hands and then went on our way. Little did I realize that he never left. He swam under my legs, my arms, in front of my face, around my ankles, he just wouldn’t go away! He followed me all the way out to deep water where concrete spheres were dropped in the water to allow for the growth of coral to assist in reef development. At that point Tirzah dived down to get a closer look at the fish congregated around the artificial reef and did not see a Diadema (long spine sea urchin) and it poked her hand! OUCH! We thought it was about time to head back to ITME so we started swimming back to shore and low and behold I still had my little fish attachment! We swam right to shore and I stood up and still my little fish was swimming around my ankles! Then he saw Tirzah and decided that she was better protection and stuck to her. All in all it was an amazing day, unfortunately we didn’t have an underwater camera with us to document our little fishy friend, but we were able to identify him as a Pilotfish, Naucrates ductor, which are seen accompanying large fish, sharks, whales and even ships on occasion. Hence his clingyness. He was so little and all alone, we became his school of sharks and he was our squishy!

Herping and our Beach Buddy!!!!

For all you who aren’t quite familiar with the term “Herping” it basically is the act of photographing or catching reptiles and amphibians. Today’s herping excursion started off with hopes of photographing or even possibly catching a Lesser Antillean Iguana (Iguana delicatissima), which was spotted in the canopy at this location by Tirzah the previous day. Clayton and I decide to wait until mid-day when the sun was at its highest, assuming they would be out to bask. We started walking around underneath the canopy keeping our heads facing up hoping to catch a glimpse of one, but we were easily distracted by all the Ameivas scurrying around us. After many misses Clayton and I finally caught a baby ameiva who was just adorable as can be.

Baby Ameiva (Ameiva fuscata)

After a couple of hours of searching we came across an abandoned building. While trying once again to catch a huge Ameiva we came across this huge land crab!!!

Huge land Crab!

After searching for so long we called it quits. We decided to go hike along the beach where we were approached by a very nice local by the name of Julius. He ever so nicely offered Clayton and I to smoke some weed (marijuana). Clayton and I have never smoked weed before and were definitely not about to start now. Once he realized that we were not interested he offered us some very nice looking necklaces that were very cheap. I personally was not able to decline the offer and I then told Tirzah, Nicole, and Karen about them and we all purchased one. He was so nice he even agreed to take a picture with all of us. This country has the nicest people I have ever met!!!!

 

Karen, Nicole, Julius and I!!!

We got back to ITME and just when we thought our herping fun was over it wasn’t!!!! Lisa called to Clayton and I and pointed out what looked like to be a little skink, but actually wasn’t. It was actually a Worm lizard(Gymnophthalmus pleii)!!! That was our sixth herp species for the trip and still 3 whole days to go!!!!

Worm Lizard!

Monday Morning!

Hey! Just wanted to say good morning from Dominica! Mom, I noticed you asked a question about the mountains and I wanted to answer that for you! You’re right about the mountains–the ones you saw in the pictures are volcanic, and volcanoes are responsible for the beautiful geography of the island.

And on another note, I made some great progress in communicating with our neighbor here where we’re staying. We’ve noticed theres a cage in the yard next door with an agouti inside. An agouti is a large rodent like animal that may remind you of a guinea pig. This morning I was looking through the fence at the agouti eating his breakfast, and the neighbor came over and answered all my questions about the little creature. He raised the agouti from a baby and now he is their pet. He said he likes to be held, and then told me all the delicious food he likes to eat. Basically, this agouti eats better than most people I know! It was fun talking to the neighbor, and to all the locals here. They are wonderful people and I feel honored to be here in their beautiful country!!

Thanks for reading!

~Tirzah

An Ameiva Capture and Dominican Basketball?

Dominican ameiva’s (Ameiva fuscata) are a large lizard species in the family of Teiidae which also includes several other extremely fast lizards such as the tegu’s, and other whiptail species. We have seen several on our trip thus far, but as all members of the Teiidae family which are known for their speed they have until today eluded our capture.

We went back to Batalie Beach today where we got our introduction to the Dominican fisheries. We were going to do some actual scientific marine surveys while we were snorkeling. As soon as we got there, we saw several nice sized ameivas scurry off. Mark and I (Clayton) dove out of the truck (Big Bubba) and began chasing them around like crazed madmen. I saw 2 of them dash into a small closet/building, where I had hoped they where trapped, and didn’t have a secret escape route. Before entering I summoned my faithful herp catching steed Mark, and Karen came over to assist as well. They blocked the door, while I overturned some metal roofing stacked inside. I could still hear them scurrying around under the metal roofing, even over my pounding heart. All of the sudden one of them makes a mad dash by Karen, she makes a grab and misses. The next one dashes towards Mark, he frantically grabs for the slender powerful turquise body of the ameiva. He got it!!!

After much hard work, and many disappointing chases a Dominican ameiva was finally captured. Much to our surprise he was a wounded individual and we felt very sad for him, even though we had nothing to do with the injury. One of his rear feet was very torn up, and most of his toes were hanging on by threads. It was a previous injury, possibly from another individual or even a bird or other predator. He most likely will lose all his toes on that foot, but will still be plenty mobile with a stump. Even after the sadness of discovering his injury we (Mark and I) were happy to complete one of our goals of the trip. We got some nice photos and released him back into the wild.

We then went snorkeling and compiled some quantitative data out on the reefs. Which we then brought back to the ITME hacienda (home base) analyzed our data and wrote up presentations of the data. After completing our data analysis and preparing a presentation we decided to take a nice a stroll into the town of Mahaut. The people everywhere are very friendly and enjoy just chatting with foreigners like us. We talked to several very nice people who asked how we liked the island and invited us into their stores, or restaurants. Obviously they consider most tourists as consumers, and most of them probably are. Most of the money that comes into this island comes from the outside, and it is very obvious.

On our way back we (Bryan, Mark, and I) asked if we could join a game of basketball with some middle aged teenage Dominican boys. They excitedly agreed, and a quick game of 3 on 3 began. We tried to keep Bryan from using his mad sick basketball skills, but he just wouldn’t listen. We played for a good 10 minutes or so, but unfortunately we had to leave to do our presentations. It was a very awesome cultural barrier crossing experience, I think for all parties involved, and of course lots of fun.

After that we got attacked by the cutest little vicious puppy who tail waggingly excited ran out onto the road to greet us. Everyones hearts melted as only a puppy can do, and they dove to the ground to greet him with open arms. We tried to get him back onto his property but he kept trying to follow us. Finally we were able to run off without him following.

We got back and everyone gave their presentations of the data they collected, their methods, and a conclusion of the data they collected. The presentations were thoroughly constructively critiqued by the audience (mainly Demian, and Sascha). It was good for all involved and we learned lots of valuable information.

Another day ended fantastically, with a perfect balance of education and fun, or maybe just maybe they might be exactly the same thing here in Dominica.

2nd snorkeling day

Today was more of a work day than a play day. Following Tirzah’s blog I was in Sascha’s group. He pointed out several different types of rock corals including one of the most abundant corals in Dominica called Mustard Hill Coral. We saw several types of fire coral which are an important part of the reefs and brain coral. Brain coral provides a home for many different creatures. There were Christmas Tree Worms and even a Redlip Blenny living in this brain coral. He showed us a red alga called reef cement that grows on the rocks with these corals. It is a white/pink calcium looking coral that encrusts the rock. We also found a Red Heart Sea Urchine burried under the sand. He picked it up and I got to hold it. We also found a basket star curled up in a ball on a sea fan. They are nocturnal and only feed at night. During this time we also got attacked and stung my ctenophores. The second part of the snorkel was our experiment. The group I was in did a blet transect. We randomly picked an area and layed down the transect line. We used a t-bar to create a 1 meter by 1 meter square for our sample area. We took 10 samples. We recorded the type of species of rock coral that was in the sample area and the number of individuals for each sample. We were able to create 2 graphs with this data to represent species richness and density. After all this hard work with transects and sample areas the best part of the day was seeing the Heart Urchine and an Ocean Surgeonfish that was about 8 inches long. The coral reefs here are so unbelievably beautiful. It is amazing here and I can’t believe this trip is half way over.

Now we’re experts!

Today’s activities were slightly different from the last couple of days here on the island. Today Sascha and Demian took us out to the beach where we had previously been to discuss fishing techniques, but today we conducted some research. We walked further south along the beach with our snorkel gear and the equipment Demian and Sascha had us bring. After splitting into two groups, we all set out to identify organisms; one group followed Demian and one followed Sascha. I went with Demian’s group and learned many benthic organisms including coral and sponges. To point out the organism Demian wanted us to focus on, he used a small weighted bag with an arrow drawn on it. This way there was no confusion about which coral or sponge we were learning about. In addition to the vast array of beautiful and unique corals and sponges, we saw a puffer fish, a gold spotted eel, and many siphonophores. What are siphonophores, you may ask? We didn’t see them as much as we did feel them! Mostly transparent, and much like jelly fish, they flashed fluorescent pink and their sting made up for what they lacked in size. However, they really were harmless and we all laughed at how we could feel them before we could see them. Karen met up with the largest of them, and had a long lasting mark. She applied some vinegar to her arm and is feeling much better now. After identifying organisms, we all split into smaller groups to do transect work. My group consisted of Karen, Nicole and Elizabeth. Different groups used different methods to sample the number of organisms and diversity of organisms, and we chose to use a square made of pvc piping with a string grid across it to sample different areas of the ocean floor. This equipment is called a quadrant. Five different times, we laid the square down on different rocks increasing in depth each time. We then identified and counted the different species of coral and estimated the percentage of the quadrant each species took up. The goal was to come up with conclusions from our data referring to species richness and density and how these relate to different tidal zones. It was a lot of fun to do real work in the field, and to experience Damien and Sascha’s knowledge. Seeing three different eel species today was unbelievable. I was able to dive down and really get up close and personal with some of the most beautiful creatures I’ve ever seen! Plus, I moved a lot better in the water today–I think I really have the whole snorkel thing down!!

Food, Glorious Food

One of the goals of our group was getting the chance to eat local food.  We thought, if we were lucky, we might be able to stop by a restaurant or stand on a non-research day to sample local delicacies like goat milk and breadfruit.  We hoped we might get to find out if a meal influenced by French, African, an Indian food might be as good as it sounds. What we didn’t know is that ITME has a phenomenal chef named Miss Connie, who would be cooking us local delicacies three meals a day. 

Breakfasts here will seem very familiar to readers in the U.S.: yogurt, granolas, eggs, and toast.  The local flavor comes from the special extras like papaya jelly, fresh pineapple, and passion fruit juice.  Most of our lunches have been on the road and have consisted of interesting sandwich combinations like tuna salad with ham, or cheese with garlic mayonnaise.

The real event of the day for many of us, though, is Miss Connie’s dinner.  Each night she creates truly incredible buffets consisting of a main dish such as slow-baked chicken legs or tuna steaks.  Accompanying them are Indian-influenced side dishes including curried lentils with fried dascheen (a root vegetable akin to potato), or chickpeas in tomato sauce served on saffron rice.  Side dishes span from traditional produce, such as plantains, and newly-cultivated crops including cabbage, carrots, lettuce, and tomatoes.  Miss Connie has the ability to make these basic ingredients seems special each night by creating infinite varieties of salads ranging from plantain, fig, and corn, to cabbage dishes that seem a little like a coleslaw. 

As good as all this food is, many of us have picked a new entree as our favorite dish: Giraumon Soup.  This broth-based soup begins with chicken or vegetable stock.  Miss Connie purees it with roasted pumpkin, then adds cubed potatoes, green beans, and homemade dumplings.  Her secret ingredient for this and other dishes is what she calls “naturals”.   Each day, Miss Connie fills a large blender with chives, onion, garlic, celery tops, cilantro, and a few secret ingredients.  She purees this mixture until it forms a thick paste, then adds it to the soups or tops our fish with it.

Out of respect for limited natural resources and the island ecology, ITME has a “Clean Plate Club.”  Sascha, the director, warned us that there would be public shaming for anyone who took a greater portion than he or she could eat.  So far, that has most certainly not been a problem!