MAIACETUS: Cartagena

Today ended up being a fun day of diving and partying, yipee!

I always get excited on diving days even though they usually require an earlier wake up :) After a quick breakfast of local pastries and avena, a sweet and creamy chilled oatmeal drink, at the local restaurant next to our hotel, Hugo, my MMO friend and travel buddy, and I made our way to the office of Cartagena Divers in Barrio San Diego. After exchanging slightly sleepy morning greetings we piled into a van with the rest of the divers and were transported to the port where we boarded the very comfortable dive boat that was to take us out to the dive sites off the coast of Cartagena.

Once we were settled with our life jackets on, we cruised towards the dive sites just outside Cartagena's large harbour and discussed the dive plan with the divemasters. Our first dive site was called Bajo Imeida at Isla Baru just outside the Cartagena harbour and our second dive was a wreck dive at a dive site called Playa Jasquez, also at Isla Baru. The wreck dive was very fun and, because Hugo and I were Divemaster and Advanced divers respectively, we had the opportunity to swim through the wreck. (See some photos taken by one of the divemasters following and on the Cartagena Divers Facebook page!). At one spot inside the wreck there was even a small pocket of air which we could swim up into and breathe without a regulator. Nothing like breathing underwater inside a wreck!

While we were talking to some of the people we were diving with we discovered that the 4th Annual Zoology Congress just finished today and that they had been attending the conference. Among the group we met a researcher who studies invertebrates in Antarctica, another researcher who studies dolphins in the Orinoco River and a herpetologist...just our kind of people! Had we known the Congress was going while we were there we would've tried to attend some sessions. Too bad, but I'm going to be sure to check if any conferences are happening next time I spend time ashore somewhere after completing a job!

After an awesome morning of diving we headed back to shore and battled through traffic in the tide flooded streets near the dock we disembarked from (see video below :). The rest of the day we took it pretty easy wandering the streets and markets until later in the evening when had sun downers at Cafe Del Mar and then dinner at a great restaurant called Caffe Lunatico run by a Spaniard and his Colombian wife. The food there is deeeelicious and I would strongly recommend eating there if you're in Getsemaní neighbourhood. We specifically walked from our hotel in the historical part of the city to eat at this very cute restaurant, with fabulous service, for a second time!

When we finished our delicious dinner we wandered the streets a little more to check out the night life and possibly grab a drink somewhere else. Well, little did we know that our night was about to turn into a fun time partying with a bunch of crazy Latin American zoologists!

While we were walking back towards our hotel we passed the conference centre and noticed a big party, including a large live band, just getting started there. We soon discovered it was the last night party for the Congress and, after Hugo worked some his magic, we managed to get in and find our zoologist diver friends from earlier that day. Next thing we knew, and despite the fact we had to be up to get the bus to Santa Marta in the morning, we were drinking beers and rum (straight from the Tetra pak!) and partying until the wee hours of the morning! We probably could've partied all night (those Latin American Zoologists could take a party anywhere!) but we thought it would be wiser to head back to the hotel and get a decent amount of sleep before our bus ride to Santa Marta in the morning. It was indeed a very fun day :)

Today's photo is a picture I liked, because of the angle, of the Monumento A Pegasos:

Monumento A Los Pegasos

Headed out to go scuba diving!

Descending into the blue :)

Hello! That's me waving in the middle (with the stubby black fins)

I believe these are black-tailed trevally or Crevalle Jack? (Caranx hippos)

Probable black-tailed trevally or Crevalle Jack? (Caranx hippos)

I believe this is Hugo (hard to tell with all the dive gear on!_...just before we were going to enter the wreck at Playa Jasquez

Entering the wreck at Playa Jasquez

Comin' around the corner inside the wreck

On our way out!

Hugo, on his way out of the wreck

Returning to Cartagena after our fun dives

Returning to Cartagena

Driving near the port in Cartagena...at high tide!

Calle de la Ronda

Foot of the sculpture "En atlética postura de un Marinero" en el Parque de la Marina

Putting up the Christmas tree

Some of the largest Christmas decorations I've seen :)

Galeon Bucanero at Muelle Turistica La Bodeguita across the water from the conference center

Galeon Bucanero at Muelle Turistica La Bodeguita with the conference center across the water on the left

Muelle Turistica La Bodeguita (Bodeguita Tourist Dock)

"Galeon Bucanero" at Muelle Turistica La Bodeguita (Bodeguita Tourist Dock)

Monumento A Los Pegasos at Muelle de los Pegasos at the lovely old port of Cartagena on the Bahía de las Ánimas

Monumento A Los Pegasos

View from Muelle de los Pegasos looking to Bahía de las Ánimas with Cartagena de Indias Convention Center on the left and Muelle Turistica La Bodeguita

Monumento A Los Pegasos

Cartagena de Indias Convention Center...and where we partied it up later that night :)

Teatro Cartagena and Teatro Colon across the road from the Cartagena de Indias Convention Center

So many colourful flowers in this market!

Part of the great outside decor of La Patagonia, an Argentinian restaurant in the historical centre

The outside decor of La Patagonia, an Argentinian restaurant in the historical centre

Inside cute little Caffe Lunatico where we had to come back a second time for a delicious meal

The large band in action at the final night party of the 4th Annual Zoology Congress

Partying at the final night party of the 4th Annual Zoology Congress

Cartagena Christmas and city lights

Today was my last day on the Sanco Swift, the seismic survey vessel I have been working on off the coast of Colombia for the past 3.5 weeks, (a relatively short survey!) as PAM (passive acoustic monitor). This was my first job working strictly nights conducting acoustic watches from sunset to sunrise. Normally, myself and another PAM operator will split both visual and acoustic watches working either from noon to midnight or midnight to noon but this time we had two marine mammal observers (MMOs) working the daytime hours and then I worked all night hours, which amounted to approximately 11 hours of listening on the hydrophone per night!

Strictly working nights was quite a change for me as I spent most of my time sitting at the computer with the headphones on; something I found a bit difficult as I am not usually a fan of sitting at the computer for such long stretches at a time! To be sure I didn't start to feel too sluggish by this inactivity during my work hourse, I made a point of waking up early most days (2 pm in the afternoon!) to go to the gym and/or swim in the pool on deck and relax in the sun. Additionally, whenever I could grab a free moment while on watch I made a habit to go to the heli-deck and lie under the stars watching for meteor showers and learning constellations. It was pretty spectacular stargazing and I learned a lot of new constellations!

Despite my dislike of sitting at the computer so many hours a night, I still learned new things about the PAM equipment and software (every job is different so there's always opportunity to learn something new each time), and I feel this was an opportunity to expand on my skills with a different twist to the work.

After completing the job we started transiting back to Cartagena arriving today where I disembarked the vessel to start my short 10 day holiday of diving and surfing and birding before I fly home for Christmas. Of course, during these last hours on the vessel I made sure to sit out on deck and keep a keen eye out for any marine wildlife. Due to the nature of my work this time, this was the first job I didn't see a single marine mammal! Although we had no marine mammals on this final journey to port, I did have some observations of Brown boobies (Sula leucogaster) and a couple of yellow-headed caracara (Milvago chimachima) including this one sitting on the rail of the ship.