As a Recap - Day 1 (Wed, Nov 18)
We traveled from Houghton to Minneapolis where we would stay for the "night" before catching our flight. On the way we stopped at the Wisconsin Visitor's Interpretive Center where the group got to partake in the beauty that is Bri's Wisconsin heritage. A delicious dinner in the city and we were off to bed until 3am when we woke up to make the 3:30am shuttle to the
airport.Day 2 (Thurs, Nov 19)
3am marked the start of this day! (Emocionarse! or Get excited as Bri would say!) Our flight left at 6am for Miami where we spent a 5 hour layover. "Yes Man" was the movie played on the first plane and we found out quick that Nick is a yes man (or at least trying to be) and he has every intent of making Miriam one too! Well yes woman...
We made it to Quito, Ecuador at about 7pm and took a taxi to our hotel where we learned that we didn't have reservations! We hiked it two blocks to a different hotel where we were greeted by a nice man with a candle because there was no electricity. After filling out registration forms by candle light and an emergency light pack the lights came back on. There have been blackouts in Quito lately due to the lack of rain.
Day 3 (Fri, Nov 20)
With a quick meeting at EMAAP-Q and some errands we were on the road to Puembo. The view along the drive was AMAZING as we took in the sharp contrasts in topography!
Nick learned that all the hardware stores (ferreterias) were not really ferret only pet stores!
Day 4 (Sat, Nov 21)
Finally on to some fieldwork! We traveled out to look at the different types of features or fractures we are goingto target with our surveys. The topography here is really amazing! The elevation changes are great and plentiful, so when we look at fractures we can learn a lot from changes in the hillside.
Our first day was comprised of 3 WADI surveys and one Supersting array. We had some difficulty with the Supersting and had to borrow our truck's battery, but we managed to get some good data! We also made a new friend, affectionately known as Little Donkey Friend, who helped Bri and Nick with a WADI survey.
Leaving with only a few mosquitos bites a piece and a bag full of avocados from a nice farmer, we headed back to the hotel for a relaxing evening.
Day 5 (Sun, Nov 22)
Longest day ever! :)
The group split up into two groups to do surveys on both sides of a deep ravine. Bri, Luke, Miriam, Carla, and Guillermo went out to do "adventure" WADI surveys. Adventure is the best way to describe this as they did surveys through cow pastures and a swamp, used dust masks to hike through dusty roads, and ended their WADI surveys with a hike up to the top of the a fore mentioned ravine in the heat of the afternoon sun! No geophysics enthusiasts were lost in this endeavor.
The group running the Supersting (Denise, Austin, Nick, Gierke, and Teresa) also had an exiting day as they troubleshot the Supersting and set out an infinity electrode an extra half kilometer away. They set up post under a spider infested tree in the middle of a manure filled cow pasture. Bri and Nick ran 3 more WADI surveys on this side of the ravine as the sun set and the survey finished. The team worked as rockstars picking up the Supersting cables in the dark!
A long day got longer as we got lost on the way back to the hotel without the help of our Ecuadorian counterparts. We got back late for our 8:30pm dinner, but stomachs full we finally got to call it a night!
Day 6 (Mon, Nov 23)
Miriam and Gierke headed to Quito for a day of meetings with important people? Actually no one knows. They probably drove to the hot springs and relaxed for the day as far as we know! Meanwhile... we did more surveys!
Nick was put in charge of driving the truck for the day... scary!! The smart ones of the bunch chose to ride with trusty Guillermo. Two Ecuadorian students joined us for the rest of the week, Andrea and Maria Fernanda, and only one of them had to endure that adventure!
We spent a late night downloading data and are off to bed to recharge for another eventful day!
Happy Thanksgiving Team Equador!
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