I am saved from the strange stuffed creature!

Happy Birthday Barkley!!

Barkley turned 12 this month, and though there are moments where she is definitely showing her age, sometimes she just surprises me and the puppy comes out. As we got home tonight, I was doing some laundry in the basement. Before I knew it she had gone into the kennel and stolen one of Brody's squeaky toys and was throwing it around the basement. As I came upstairs she charged in front of me and is at this moment dismembering the toy on the living room floor. It's pretty darn cute. 

Happy Birthday Barkley! And this weekend we'll take the canoe out and take you for a paddle to celebrate! 

It's quite tiring this "playing with toys". 

Traveling home.

Back in Puerto Montt (and to decent internet!), traveling home today and tomorrow, should be back by late on Sunday (lets hope for no delays!). It's been a great trip, slightly exhausting, but great! Here's a picture of me at 90ft, looking at my corals! Some AMAZING diving. Going to be hard to jump back into Maine waters, that's for sure!

First blog post is up!

http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/author/rwaller/

First blog post for National Geographic is up - and this page should show you blog post #2 when it goes up in a few days (and look out for photos of WALLS of corals!).

Don't forget to check in on the inReach Mapshare - http://share.delorme.com/?MapId=e7b06576f165407b9d4f4843745ab02c

Things have been going well, a little slower than I like, but that is nothing new! It's been wet wet wet, which have meant for some not so spectacular diving conditions, but it's still been great and we're getting science done. Tomorrow we head to Pumalin Park, over in the next fjord. This is a park owned by one of the guys who started the North Face clothing line, and is an area that has been protected for many years. We'll be totally out of touch, but i'll keep the inReach on so you can see where we are!

Hola from Patagonia!

Hello from Puerto Montt in the Northern Patagonian fjords! Arrived today after 24+ hrs of travelling, and a few adventures on the way. Right now sleep is the top order, but I wanted to share a few links -

Delorme inReach MapShare - this takes you to a map that shows our location at any time on it. It's a GPS unit that is satellite linked. We can also send messages on there too (click on the blue boxes), and i'll try and post up at least once a day with what is going on in the day.

National Geographic Explorers Journal - We'll be posting 3-4 blogs over on National Geographic - look out for our first one within a couple of days!

Twitter - @OnlineExped - yes, we have twitter. No, I don't really know how to use it.....

Catch Up - A walk in the woods...and a cycle....and a swim...

3. Just got back from Acadia, and a weekend of camping with Brandon, my new someone special, and a day of work diving off Mount Desert Island. It was a fun weekend. One day of sunshine, cycling and a little hiking; one day of rain and a drive and sightseeing and one day of sunshine and diving. Not bad at all! 

4. Picked up my Barkley today from the kennel after the weekend away. The lovely lady there made the innocent comment "she's slowing down isn't she", which had me in tears on the drive out of there. Yes she is slowing down (though hard to tell when she leaps out of the car when we get into work and goes full dash into the dumpster after a chipmunk...). Makes me realise just how much I love having Miss Barkley be a part of my life, and how much i'm going to miss her. Hopefully it'll be a good few years yet. She turns 12 next month. I think a party might be in order. 

5. Gearing up to head to Chile and the Patagonian fjords on Monday. Will be there for a week. Have some interesting websites planned, so stay tuned for how to stay tuned to where I am.....

Jordon Pond and the Bubbles. 

Brandon cycling on the awesome carriage trails. Amazing he put up with the incredibly slow me.....

Granite. 

Bubbles Pond. 

Looking out from Cadillac Mountain. 

Raindrops on some beach roses. Beautiful. 

Seawall

Bass Harbor Lighthouse bell. 

Seal Harbor - the dive site for the graduate student I was helping for the day. 

Getting ready to jump in with graduate student Chris. The project is looking at lobsters settling on artificial moorings. 

Diving in a wetsuit. I tell you now that doesn't happen too often.....which is why i'm layering two on top of eachother....:)

Diving! 

Catch Up - Tek Diving!

Time to catch up. Just in time for me to go away again, but there we go! 

1. Watch out for National Geographic in January. It's been a whirlwind of photographers and interviews, but you might just see yours truly in the 125 years of exploration special issue. I'm still not convinced they'll say "why the hell did we pick her" and take me out, so don't hold your breath if i'm not in there - it should be a cool issue of Nat Geo to own none the less! 

2. I'm now a qualified tek diver! We did two dives to 150ft a few weeks ago off the beautiful island of Monhegan, and completed the training. Can't wait to get back to science! 

Dave helping me not to fall over the side, loaded with gear that weighs 10lbs more than I do! 

Wide load, coming through! 

Loving the flat calm and sunshine! 

Me and one of my awesome interns for the summer, Julia from Smith College! 

Home!

Home to my Barkley. A well fed and loved Barkley while I was gone. I love that I have friends who love her as much as I do. Yet one more reason why Maine rocks...:)

Heading Home....I hope!

Heading out of Churchill, unfortunately delayed so we're having to spend a night in Winnipeg and hoping to get out of there tomorrow, though that is still to be determined! It's been a whirlwind few days, but very informative and a good taster of what I can bring the students to hopefully next year. 

Quadrat!  

Getting ready to get wet! That white bump above Phoebe's head - it's a beluga! 

Getting in at Cape Merry. 

Our faithful bear watchers! 

Thirsty work all this snorkeling. 

A beautiful sunset over the center. 

The Miss Piggy plane crash from the 50's. It is called Miss Piggy because it carried all the sweets and good stuff  to Churchill. 

Inukchuk. 

Signs up all over town. 

The closest we got to a Polar Bear! 

Belugas! 

Belugas! 

More Belugas! 

Even more! 

And More! 

The eskimo museum - very cool! 

And a storm for the last day in Churchill! 

In the arctic

Made it to Churchill yesterday and today has been a full day. Phoebe and I are only here for 5 days to check out the research station and find sites for an educational program next year. Today it was checking out sites, tomorrow it'll be getting in the water! 

Science and guns. What could go wrong?

Looking out to Hudson Bay

The wreck of the Ithaca! 

Tundra plants - so beautiful. 

Phoebe, excited about science! 

Sled dogs! 

The Churchill Northern Studies Center

More beautiful tundra plants. 

The white bumps are beluga whales! And there's ice bergs in the distance! 

More Beluga whales!

Looking out over the estuary. 

Snow geese!

Let the science begin! 

Excitement of the evening - a flat tire 15km from home, with no tools, no communication and in the middle of polar bear alley. Fun fun fun. it's was a SLOW drive home! 

The latest in my collection of outhouses of the world - in the middle of Polar Bear alley!