gulp

The year is winding down now here in DC. Winter chill is setting in, folks are donning gloves and hats, and leaves are off the trees. Creatures of all sorts are heading indoors to find warmth. Two nights ago, our roommates discovered a mouse snacking on a forgotten snickers bar behind their bookshelf. Gross, but, at least, on different level of the house than I sleep.

Perhaps more distressing, I submit the following event from today. In addition to the cold weather, the end of the year is full of holiday parties and deadlines at work and school - meaning late nights and early mornings. As a way to beat back the fatigue, I enjoy the occasional cup of coffee. I even acquired a neat little french press to make a Will-sized cup at the office. I simply buy the grinds which I keep in a bag, and dose them out into the press as needed. After conducting this little enterprise yesterday, then dutifully washing out the press and my mug, I retired for the evening.



Upon attempting to do the same this morning, I encountered a surprise. not one, but two little friends sitting in the bottom of my french press. One was bigger, and appeared to be dead, and the other was smaller and ran around when I picked the thing up. I drowned them in the sink and enthusiastically soaped and washed the press. The good news: I got the coffee. The bad news, it now tastes like Palmolive.




Which leads me to the conclusion: it's amazing how far hygienic standards fall when you're a grad student. I can just imagine how much worse they would be if I lived with other grad students! Or, perhaps more optimistically: it's amazing how overhygienic and wasteful society has become. Hooray for roaches and grad students!

Only in Dc

Last night I had the good fortune to watch a historical documentary about the Vietnam war era: The Most Dangerous Man in America (www.mostdangerousman.org), the story of Daniel Ellsberg and the leaked Pentagon papers. The story is really interesting because Ellsberg has a really compelling story: PhD economist who then joined the marine corps, returned to become a high level analyst and advisor at the Pentagon. He ultimately lost faith in the government and leaked classified material ("the Pentagon Papers") which undermined the case for the war in the public sphere and made him an enemy of Henry Kissinger and Nixon. Ever since he's been a committed peace activist. It was a well done documentary, and not having known much of the history beforehand, it was really interesting to see it.

Anyway, the thing that made it so 'DC', was that 1)the film was part of a 'whistleblower' film festival designed to raise awareness and support for the passage of whistleblower protection legislation, 2) the movie was screened in the Capitol visitor center (a nice new facility, btw), and 3) Daniel Ellsberg was speaking on a panel after the movie.

I was glad that I went to see it.

West in the fall

October is about the latest that I've ever taken a summer vacation. Rebecca and I took the last week of September/first week of October and went to Washington state to relax. Our itinerary flew us through Chicago to Seattle, where we stayed the Thursday night with friends Mallar and Rachel (Mallar was the MC at our wedding). The next day, Friday, we drove over to Lake Chelan, where we congregated with family and plotted our trip uplake.

We made it uplake Saturday, and spent the next week in a blur of hiking, fishing, bakery trips, and sleeping. Grandma Bucky's cousins were up at the same time, so we enjoyed seeing them and occasionally helping out with their puzzles - just enough to make sure that we could eat some of the delicious baked treats that they brought with! The weather was gorgeous - warm during the day, cool at night, and the leaves were just starting to change. The salmon were spawning too, so that was neat to see.

On the way back we took an extra day to spend in the Chelan area, where we checked out the local ski area, saw an apple harvest in process, tasted the fruits of said apple harvest (cider and donuts), and took a brief tour of a packing shed (where they pack/store the apples). It was a really lovely trip. Thanks to Grandma, Keith and Adrienne for the generous hosting.

Little dots in the water are spawning salmon on the gravel bar.

Mallar, Will, Grandma, and Rachel (L-R) on the Buckner homestead
Hobbie, Bucky, Will, Mary Ellen, and Lois, just before we set sail.
Looking into the Chelan basin from across the Columbia.

Victorious

Rebecca and I have no completed our first triathlon. I say 'first', because, despite the long training, we had so much fun we're thinking about doing it again. The race weekend was a blur. The race itself was early Sunday morning, but there were many required steps before that.
Sometime Friday or Saturday, everybody had to go to a hotel to check-in, pick up a race packet and bracelet, and hear the briefing about the weekend's events.
Saturday, everybody had to check in at the race site, place their bikes on the rack, and there was an option to go swimming in the Potomac, which we all did.
Sunday morning, everybody had to arrive at least an hour prior to the 7am race start time, which meant waking up very early to eat breakfast etc. Saturday night we had the mandatory 'carbo load' dinner of various types of pasta dishes.

Anyway, both of us, and all of our training partners, finished the race better than expected. The bike and run portions were thoroughly enjoyable for me - the run especially since I was passing slower runners most of the time. The swim, however, was a different story. There was so much grabbing, pulling, and kicking that it felt more like wrestling than swimming. It came as a shock that people so well-mannered out of the water were so unsportsmanlike in it. Combine that with the fact that our group chose not to rent wetsuits - the water was 74F, so not very cold - and it was a struggle to stay afloat against other wetsuit-clad evildoers. I emerged from the swim very tired and very upset, but that is motivation to get my own suit for next time. The most frustrating part was the fact that we trained the hardest for the swim, and expected to be faster, but had to swim a lot of breastroke and avoid the crowds in order to not be pushed an pulled.

Anyway, on with some photos:

Friend Jesse and Rebecca among the 4000-odd bikes in the event
L-R: Jesse, Reb, Ben, me, Tom, and John: our training team
L-R Ben, Jesse, John, me and Reb after the race.

Rebecca giving the thumbs up after finishing.

More photos here: http://nationstri.com/photo-gallery-2009-NT.html

Meet the Cavy

What you see here is called a Cavy. Specifically, a Patagonian Cavy. These animals are apparently related to Guinea pigs, but as you can see, significantly larger. Well, this animal is part of a mobile petting zoo that we say at 'Columbia Heights Day', a saturday afternoon fair in my old neighborhood. It was notable insomuch as I discovered this animal, which I previously not known to exist. In fact, Rebecca the biologist thought it was a kangaroo. I thought, despite knowing it would be impossible to breed, that this was a cross between a goat and a rabbit (it should be noted that both a goat and a rabbit were in the same pen, and they all seemed to get along.) Anyway, it was fun to hang out on a Saturday afternoon and see some animals.
This was the scene on the field. I didn't go on the bouncy castle unfortunately.
This is my friend Page and Rebecca, looking at Aladdin the camel.

Somebody had the bright idea to put a baseball hat on Aladdin's head, so I got this awesome photo.
There was also this 'Polish Chicken'. You'll notice a beak protruding from the tuft of feathers on its head, but otherwise you would have no clue where its face was. I tried to get a head-on photo, but when he saw my hand with the camera he tried to peck me!
A slightly better shot of our little Polish friend.

Anyway, other than look at animals, we mostly exercised and slept this weekend. This triathlon training is really getting tiring!

Lego...convention (?)

yes, it's true. An unauthorized, unaffiliated, fan-centric, 3-day, full-scale convention has sprung up around....Legos. You know, those plastic bricks that you build little cars and fortresses out of? Well, that's big business now. How would I know?, you may be asking yourself? Well, I took a look firsthand this past weekend. No, I didn't queue up with the hyper kids and adoring parents, or the, errr, weird kidless adult Lego diehards in attendance. But, I had the opportunity to glimpse the chaos courtesy of some of the former category: sister-in-law Sabrina and her family of Lego lovers.

They were in town visiting, see, and had to go back to the fair to pick up a special order of Legos, so I took the opportunity to see what was going on. Lots of elaborate miniature constructions of houses, buildings, cities; pixelized photos of you and your loved one rendered in Legos; even a 20-ft high operating Lego crane (so i heard, I didn't see that one). And, well, a lot of hyper kids. I guess about what you'd expect. A custom-painted VW beetle was parked out front with Legos all over the car and the license plate 'LegoLady' (from Ontario, no less!)

Anyway, between trips to the Lego fair we filled our time with trips to museums, restaurants, and a DC United soccer game. It was a fun, if exhausting time.

Rebecca and Nathan in front of Space Shuttle Enterprise at the Udvar-Hazy Center (part of Smithsonian Air and Space Museum)
Nathan and I prepare to go to the 'space station' in 3D!
Nathan and I with our tough-guy poses in front of this F14. Just like Top Gun!
Sabrina, Nathan, Sebastian, Rebecca, and spilled cheerios before going into the museum

To Vermont, and back.

Update: the car has left us. We had a wake during dinner on Monday, when Rebecca sold it. Everybody took turns telling their favorite memories about the car, and I took my turn talking about what a money sink it was and how much maintenance it required (I felt the other stories were revisionist). Rebecca alternated between telling me how much she would miss her car, how she should have tried to sell it for more money, and how she was doing the right thing and we didn't use it that much. It was quite an emotional rollercoaster. But, it went to a bike cop who works in the neighborhood, and he was pretty psyched to get it, so maybe that's good karma for down the road.

We spent last week/weekend in Vermont visiting Rebecca's old lab mates, some of whom I'd met and some of whom I hadn't. There were also three children under 4, so it was a pretty chaotic event, but ended up being really fun. Some of her friends have a cool farmhouse about an hour from Burlington, so everybody piled in there, sleeping on air mattresses, going hiking and canoeing during the day, and just chilling out. Vermont was really beautiful too. It is very mountainous, full of running rivers and trees... an outdoor playground. I had to remind myself how much the weather sucked for 8 months out of the year, otherwise I would really start liking the place. We explored some of the older towns in the south east, near Norwich which is where some other friends live. There are flour mills and furniture factories and glass blowers and potters and breweries and just a lot of craftiness that goes on. It sorta reminded me of the Pacific northwest, though not as beautiful (of course). We enjoyed being there, but I was exhausted by the time it was over. We pledged to not take all of our vacations visiting friends with babies anymore, because we can't keep up!!

Now we're back in DC, intensely training for the tri, and hosting Rebecca's sister next weekend.

Planes,Trains and Automobiles

Back from Boston, back into the daily grind. The visit was really good. We stayed with cousins Jody, Tammy, and Annie Friday night at their wonderful (parent's) city apartment. Had a nice Ethiopian dinner and chatted the night away. Saturday we walked around downtown Boston, which Rebecca hadn't really visited before, and enjoyed a few leisurely meals. Then it was on a train out to the suburbs to visit friends Ed and Sue and their 1.5 and 4yo kids John and Ariella. That, too, was thoroughly enjoyable: good food, relaxing time with good friends...they even have a small preserved area (basically a wooded park/lake) about a half mile from there house. This park has lots of dirt trails going all over the place, and it made a nice spot for a run. Sunday afternoon it was back to Boston, where I checked into the hotel, put Rebecca in a cab for the airport. I stayed for two more days for a conference, met interesting people and heard lots of talks, then back home for me. All in all, the trip was a success. It made me miss Boston (the parts I like), which is really pleasant in the summer time.

Now, aside from tri training and working on dissertation ideas, one of the things occupying my time is figuring out what to do with the car. You see, Rebecca's had this beauty for years, but it's slowly requiring more and more to keep it afloat. We only use it on shopping trips and weekend excursions, and even that not so much, so we could certainly live without it. But it runs like a champ and is convienient to have around. The problem is it requires a new CV joint to pass inspection ($200), which isn't much, but seemed like a naturaly point to evaluate whether we would should keep it, or donate/sell it. The blue book is somewhere in the $800-$1000 range, but we would probably ask quite a bit less. Rebecca has sentimental attachment to it as well, so it remains to be seen what well happen....stay tuned.

Excercise, lots of excercise

It's been a mess of dinners, work days, and training the last little while. 8 weeks to go until Rebecca and I do our first triathlon, and we're finding much of our free time taken up exercising. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the weather is starting to get really hot and humid, which is not so nice. Especially in a house without air conditioning, like the one we live in. It is around this time of year when I pledge to move to a place with better weather, because between the humid, sleepless nights, the mosquitoes, and the high rent, it isn't all that inviting to live hear (of course I'm leaving the good parts out). Quite a few of our friends are pulling up stakes to move on this summer too. A few have gone already: Michigan, London, Vancouver, New York...and a few more have plans to leave soon. It's a uniquely DC problem: stick around long enough, and you will have gone through several generations of friends (I'm on my 2nd generation here), because everybody moves on. To top it all off, I saw a movie last night about the secret dolphin killings in Japan (http://thecovemovie.com/) which was really well done, but not exactly uplifting.

So, I'm looking forward to going to Boston this weekend with Rebecca. We plan to visit cousins Jody, Tammy and Annie, some old coworkers of mine, and then Rebecca comes back Sunday and I stay MonTues for a conference. At least the weather should be cooler. Then it's back to the daily grind, working on my dissertation topic and running, biking, and swimming. Summer is half over (yikes!).

Home safe

So, just a quick update. You may have heard about the horrendous accident on DC metro yesterday (pictured here). Although I often travel through that station, it is on a different line. Nobody I know was involved in the accident, thankfully. The train was on a reverse commute, so it wasn't totally packed, which was also lucky. Still very tragic. So, I'm okay. Due to the congestion, I road my bike home through the area. The station was closed, traffic was snarled, and helicopters were flying overhead. It was fairly chaotic. This morning, though, I rode the metro out and everything seemed in order (the line involved was still closed, but mine was not impacted).

In other news, Rebecca has safely returned home as well, albeit from Canadia. She got her work permission, and she's back at work, nose to the grindstone. So busy, in fact, that she hasn't been able to get the photos ready for viewing. That's okay. The short of it is: we're married and now cohabitating in the same country legally. The honeymoon was great, too, until we hit customs. Anyway, happy summer to everybody. Here's a photo of the happy family

Congratulations from Uncle Sam

My new wife is being deported.

Okay, not really, but that sentence sounds dramatic, doesn't it?! The truth of the matter is, my new wife does not have authorization to work in the US of A, so she is being sent to Canada by her work until a new Visa can be arranged. What happened is.... on our return from the honeymoon, coming through customs in Vancouver, Rebecca was scheduled to renew her work Visa at the border. Having done this before several times, she knew what to expect. She had her paper saying that she was the only person in the world that could do her job, she had her resume, she had her passport and everything. Only problem was, not she was married to an American. In the eyes of Officer Gou, that constituted a plan to settle permanently in the US, which made her ineligible for her 'temporary' TN Visa, and thus he wouldn't renew it. Because she had one day left on the Visa, he admitted her, but that left her unable to work when she got back to DC.

When she arrived, her work told her that she has to leave the country as soon as possible (since her work authorization had now expired), travel to Canada, and wait for the new Visa. Apparently, this problem was totally unforeseen by them (although she'd asked), so they had no real contingency to deal with it. Anyway, the short of it is: sianara for at least 2 weeks starting Monday, unpaid leave for the entire time, and a lot of heartache. Definitely the most expected wedding present we received!

The flight back to DC was another special moment, in which United changed our flight to an earlier one without telling us, and we arrived for our flight at the airport only to find it had departed already. 'Sorry no flights until the redeye tonight'. Instead, how about you lose a day at work coming back and we'll give you a worse itinerary. 'But at least I'm not charging you a change fee!' That one was really enjoyable. We had a few precious conversations with customer service 'specialists' over the phone, and wrote a few strongly worded letters. Still waiting to hear about how they'll make it up to us, if at all.

That's about it for the bad news. The wedding and honeymoon themselves were totally fun, but I'll save them for next time.

Voyage to strange lands

A few short weeks ago, men gathered from all over the country: washington dc, texas, california, ...and converged to a strange and magical land. Nicaragua. Many attempted. Other, lesser men attempted, but failed in the journey. Seven such men emerged from the crucible of international air travel and third world customs to begin the quest together. All had different backgrounds, some spoke different languages, but they shared a noble common goal: to have a sweet mini-vacation and bachelor party. Forgive the intro, but I've been on an LOTR kick lately, and the olde English is slow to wear off.

Yes, it seems absurd to think about it now, but it was quite recently that I was enjoying the tropic scenery with my brothers-in-arms (my real brother declined to make the journey; something about school and me missing his bachelor party). Anyway, I can report that Nicaragua is a friendly, inviting, and very beautiful place. The fare was tasty and cheap, the weather was hot but not stifling, and the collection of volcanoes, lakes, beaches and cities was....well, pretty spectacular.

Perhaps fortunately, off the 6 others that came on this adventure, only 2 knew each other beforehand (except for me of course). So, by the time everybody had befriended everybody else, the journey was practically over and there was no time to form a faction to overpower me and make me do silly and ridiculous things that are apt to be done at bachelor parties. But I think that everybody, visiting Nicaragua for the first time, was happy they had gone, including myself. It was a thoroughly enjoyable 5 days. Now, some choice photos....

The whole gang at dinner (L-r) Guarav, Sid, Dino, Adan, me, Andres, Ofer
Most of the same at the (active) Volcan Masaya overlook
the Cathedral bell-tower in Granada
Inside the staircase of said tower, doing a full-house type thing
Adan and I before the start of the boat cruise de las isletas on lago de Nicaragua near Granada

A cheeky monkey trying to get aboad during the tour - isla des manos.

The overarching palm frond roof doesn't do justice to the warm waters and tranquility of Laguna de Apoyo near Masaya.

best day ever!!!

It snowed heavily Sunday night, and Monday morning my phone alerted me to the happy news: the University of Maryland was closed for the day! With some prompting from the roommates, after pondering what to do over a bacon and fresh-bread brunch, we decided on sledding (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/album.php?aid=2524427&id=8641954&ref=nf) followed by some delicious chili and cornbread. We topped it off with Lord of the Rings, part 1 (nobody else wanted to watch all 3). Sadly, we could convince only one other friend to come sledding: everybody else claimed they had to work. They missed the sledding and snow sandwiches - the perfect way to spend a Monday!

Wedding planning woes

So, what's been going on? Wedding planning, for the most part. Having envisioned that this procedure would largely be an exercise in part-time consulting, with Rebecca mostly doing the dirty work, finding vendors, picking colors and generally fretting over every little nook and cranny detail for the 'big day'; I find myself exasperated at the turn of events - she seems largely resigned to let me sweat the details and crack the whip while she occupies herself with things like dress alterations. Although things have been improving as of late, I can see without hesitation that I am really looking forward to the wedding, because that will mean that this logistical headache will be over!

Of course, you might be saying, we could have gone to the courthouse or eloped and avoided the whole mess, but both of us wanted to throw a party and see all of our friends and family (that's the point, right?) Of course, neither of us wanted to actually plan the thing, and so it became a Mexican standoff for awhile. Because I am more plan-oriented, I flinched first and started the work, in the process saddling myself with many unpleasant tasks.

I did expect that it would be a lot of work, but I guess the one thing that I am surprised by is how quick people are to judge - it seems wedding expectations are so deeply ingrained in cultural and social norms that people tend to ask a few open-ended questions, wait for you to reveal some detail about the whole affair, and then, that's it! A backhanded comment or unwitting expression of surprise or false enthusiasm later, and I am suddenly feeling very defensive and sorry for the whole conversation. Of course this only tends to happen with people who don't know Rebecca and I that well, but it is nevertheless unpleasant. I've resorted to discussing things as vaguely and as little as possible lest I have somebody else convince me that my great idea is really stupid and that I'm going about things all wrong. Warning, if you start a sentence: 'Well, it's your wedding, but...' you are walking down this dangerous and damaging path. Abort. Abort!

So that's what's going on. Heading to CA in 2 weeks to (fingers crossed) finalize a lot of the details, then it's smooth sailing...

The rat saga concludes

....at least for one rat.
our downstairs roommates captured the video for posterity.
Fair warning: graphic images of dead rats ahead!

the rat saga continues

So, we have this rat in the house. Actually, several of them (or, at least, some have died and some remain). They moved into the house sometime in the fall - call it October. We'd never had rats before, so we didn't really understand how they arrived. Anyhow, they feasted themselves on all the crumbs that had been left around under the stove and table, and they started nesting. We quickly adapted our habits, cleaned the kitchen, put all the food away and the trash outside, and then set some traps.

A few rats later, we thought our problem was solved. But the rats came back. Smarter and more destructive. They burrowed under our radiator downstairs where we couldn't reach or see them, and they seemed not to even notice the various baited traps and poison we laid around the floor. And they occasionally clawed at the floor just to let us know they were around. That area of the dining room is just above the bed of our downstairs roommate, Lenore, who hears the rat as she sleeps. yikes! Now, the rat(s) seems to have figured out the layout of the house, and it runs through the floorboards to navigate various areas without coming out. We can hear it, but we can't see it. Just yesterday, we heard the rat upstairs, which is an even worse sign. Our landlord Steven, in addition to buying and setting many different trap varieties, has patched holes in the floor, poured concrete on the wall and in the basement, pulled off plaster, and generally turned the house into a construction zone chasing these rats.

Enter Zeus. A tabby barn cat that Lenore borrowed from her boss has joined our team this week. He killed one rat already, but the survivor seems really crafty. Tonight, I heard it snacking behind the oven, and we discovered half of an onion and a bunch of little rat droppings back there (yes, I live with messy people, which is part of the problem). Now, we've removed the oven pan (the little drawer that slides underneath) so Zeus can get back in there if they emerge. Zeus has found a hiding spot in the basement ceiling, so we think that he has the rats on the run. Our laundry room is covered with kitty litter, but hopefully we'll be rat free any day now....in the meantime, I'll try to get a photo of Zeus.

Galapagos trip Video

Something that my sister Heidi has been working about in her free time:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQSCt1GyEcg

A weekend to remember

Rebecca and I decided to escape some of the craziness of the inauguration and head to Maine for the weekend, to soak up the cold and solitude. It was very cold on Friday: -14F at one point, but the rest of the weekend wasn't too bad, and we had snow Sunday. It was a restful, relaxing weekend. Rebecca, Carol, Jackie, and our two snow people illustrate below.


After the relaxing visit to my dear aunts, Rebecca and I returned to Washington. The contrast was abrupt: People were streaming from the airport with us, headed downtown to watch the swearing in. Our plane was packed, and so were the buses and trains from the airport. At 7am, walking towards the mall, the streets were already busier than any workday, and all the coffee shops had long lines. We were on the mall by 8, and the ceremony didn't really start until 10. It was cold, but all the folks down there were in good spirits, and nobody seemed to mind the waiting. Some of our friends looked miserable, having stayed up all night the night before, which made me feel much better about my own decision-making ability. :)

By the time the show started, people were packed in, as far as the eye could see. I was hesitant to go stand in the cold, in a crowded bunch of strangers, especially because I feel that big events are usually a disappointment. But today, I didn't want to miss the history. The musical piece by Yo-yo ma et al. was really amazing to see. I've never seen such a large group in person before, and to see a calm quiet suddenly fall over them was eerie, but as the beautiful music settled over the crowd, it became thrilling. A similar thing happened when Obama started speaking - just attentive, appreciative, silence. From 1 million people. Crazy.

I was moved by the speech despite myself. It had all the vague promises typical of a political speech, but perhaps it was just the crowd and the sense of history that made it hard not to be moved. The mood on the mall was cathartic. Lots of applause for mentions of restoring humility and responsibility to the nation, and (to put it mildly) decidedly unenthusiastic reception of anything Bush-related. After the speech, a lot of people exchanged hugs, even with strangers, or wiped tears from their eyes, or both. Then, the herd walked calmly back to their lives, alone with their thoughts or chatting amicably with friends. Really, a powerful and special morning.

the location was on the east side of the washington monument, looking towards the capitol (behind the tree in the background)...this doesn't fully capture it, but this is when the music started:



And this was the swearing in, after 5 hours of standing in the cold:

The thrill is back!

..from latin america, that is. After a 10 days in Ecuador and a week in Costa Rica, it is nice to be back in DC (I can say that because it wasn't too cold today and I haven't been to work yet). I'm learning that Rebecca can be a determined woman - after they insisted we gate check our bags during a stopover in El Salvador, and wouldn't be persuaded otherwise, we agreed, but took our time getting our books etc out of them before handing them over. Except, instead of handing them over, Rebecca charged right on the plane with hers. I of course, had to do the same. :)

Costa Rica was very touristy, but beautiful, warm, and friendly, and easy to get around. I would go back definitely, but probably plan things a little better. Rebecca and I went to Puerto Viejo, on the Carribean coast, which was charming in a frat boy kinda way (fortunately our lodgings were on the outskirts and were lovely). The beaches were absolutely beautiful, the waves were good, the food was tasty...but we were bored after awhile, and we learned we're not ready to sit on the beach for a week and be satisfied. Fortunately, our last day we took a jungle tour with our PhD Biologist/hotel proprietor, a very interesting guy, and it was so fun! All-in-all, a relaxing way to spend a week, and it provided a lot of insight into how Costa Ricans live and take their holiday (preferably with fireworks, it turns out).

The 10 days in Galapagos on a Mtn Travel Sobek tour were amazing. Really, it was the trip of a lifetime. I can go on and on about how amazing it was (and probably will, if you ask me about it), but I would highly recommend the trip to anybody interested in wildlife, even if you know nothing previously about Galapagos. MTS were awesome as well, definitely worth the premium after observing how the other groups were guided and lodged. Anyway, photos are being downloaded and organized, but I did find this video that our guide shot of one of our snorkeling highlights: being surrounded by white-tipped reef sharks!