"un mar de sueños y fantasías" carnaval 2010

after the disastrous tourism season of last year, peñasco is on a mission to bring people back down here. the good thing about this, is that the government is really doing a lot to bring of events, particularly cultural things, to the area.

on of these is a carnaval celebration - five days of carnival games, concerts, parades etc. etc.

CEDO participated in all of the parades - hanging our 30th anniversary banners from the panga and dressing up all the kids from the ecology club like sea creatures ...



[the CEDO panga]


[jelly/medusa]


[shark/tiburon]


[alan, the new ecotourism intern, as a scorpion fish]


of course the entire point of all of this is to dance through the streets ...



[orcas and sharks dancing in the panga]




being in the parade, it's a bit difficult to actually see the parade. i remember this from high school and college even ... so before the parade got started, i wandered around to check out the different floats. to be perfectly honest, i was pretty impressed with peñasco and the quality of the parade efforts ... my expectations were pretty low, but there were some cool things done ..



[main, leading float]






and then, just behind us, were people dressed as gooey ducks, or the panopea spp clam, one of the fisheries we work with here at CEDO. google image search it, and you'll see why it's so funny. these guys kinda just looked like weird tacos





and i was a nudibranch, a mexican dancer ... and ivan a shark (he stole his mask from someone else)





in the evenings, were the carnival games and concerts. fun to go and people watch and wander around.

moon dreams

two weeks ago was the full moon.





without fail, the day of the full moon there is an incredible sunset. i am not sure how that happens. but the moon rises just as the sun sets and it is always just wonderful.





and the tides in january are probably the best of the year around here. have i written in here before about how incredible the tides are here in peñasco? 24 vertical feet. maybe that doesn't impress people, but it is truly stunning. the tide goes out hundreds and hundreds of feet ... and makes for such incredible tidepooling. thus, the tidepooling frenzy of that weekend.

first to station beach, as a tour at sunrise (my first tour, p.s., in spanish. terrrrrrifying! but successful. i need to get over my fear of talking in front of other people outside my comfort zone).





and we're in octopus season so we found all sorts of them!



[fitch's octopus]


then, a professor from the UA was down here with her marine biology class to also take advantage of these fabulous tides, and we went out to cholla bay with her (the tide there can go out three miles!). it's more of a mudflat, but still has some interesting things ... last time i was out there we saw live sand dollars! no such luck this time ... after that huge storm most things i think were washed away but there were these two mexican dancer nudibranchs!





and these giant hermit crabs. which i have heard about but had never seen before. their shells are just covered with anemones and worms and other things and they can't even suck themselves back into their shells ... their huge claws still hang out. and as they came out it was very jerky and, frankly, scared the shit out of me ... i almost dropped the poor guy. buuut amazing!







look at his crazy claws. and weird beady little eyes! the whole thing is just incredible.

stormy weather

one of the main features of peñasco, and specifically, this part of the sonoran desert, is that this is the hottest and driest area. we average (here at CEDO, measured by our own handy-dandy weather system) about two inches of rain per year.

but a few weeks ago, we were hit by a major, major storm here. for four days, we have about 40 knot winds (i was terrified the windows up here in the tower were going to blast in) and two whole days of rain. i hear we have 5 inches! the sea out front here is normally very flat - practically like glass.

this is what it looked like those days:


[those are 20-ish foot waves]


so. given the fact that peñasco is not built for such weather, you can just imagine the flooding and leaking the occurred. i came up to my room one afternoon after work and found ivan in here trying to sop up the waterfalls of rain pouring in through the windows. let's just say they aren't sealed. my instinct, of course, is to call my parents ... what else am i supposed to do? i have never been faced with rain coming in through the closed windows and walls and ceilings, but ivan is remarkably calm and level-headed. so we went on a search for silicon and attempted to seal the windows shut (yes, we knew that it wouldn't work well since it was wet, but what else is one to do???):



[it doesn't look like it, but it's actually soaking wet]


and it sort of worked ... it slowed down the inflow of rain at least. we moved my bed into the center of the room and just prayed that the ceiling wouldn't leak (it did, but briefly).

and then two days later, the sea was back to glass again and now i can't open my windows.

(thankfully, no huge disasters here in town ... lots of flooding and signs down, but it could have been worse)

do not let this beautiful moment

and as always, there are some good signs around here.

these are my favorite pinacate signs:



[lizard crossing!]


[on the rim of the elegante crater - it's a potential 800 foot fall]

off the grid

i have written about the pinacate biosphere reserve just north of peñasco in the past on here, but it's an amazing place, and one of the more unique/interesting places in the peñasco region. there are two main areas - the gran desierto de altar (the sand dune system, largest one in north america) and the volcanic range. both incredibly impressive and stunningly beautiful.

last fall (ack still in recovering mode here...) they opened up a new visitors center on the dune side of the main, huge volcanic shield mountain. ivan and i finally got out there.





it's completely off the grid - those are solar panels on the top, it has a wind turbine, composting toilets, etc. etc. it's really an example of what one can do around here. it amazes me that with our 363 days of sun (not sure of that statistic) a year, use of solar power is very limited. i hope that this building will stand as an example for the area.

in general, the building is still being developed - exhibits, a gift store etc. for the moment is has a beautiful display of photographs taken inside the park







and since it's built on the ives lava flow (the largest flow in the reserve and pahoehoe lava), they have some little nature walks that you can do. mostly it's a good chance to look at the landscape and view.





i am aching to climb the pinacate mountain, and definitely need to do it before i leave peñasco. we didn't have time this trip (it's something like 17 miles round trip, so you need a day to dedicate to it), but we decided to camp in the reserve. just to get out of peñasco for a while and do something different.



[full moon at the campground]


[pinacate morning]