ice cream cone life

No we have not endured lava burns or ash suffocation!!  The recent volcanic eruption here in Chile is pretty insane but we, in Valdivia, have felt no effects of the explosion.  On the contrary, today is a beautifully sunny Thursday.

In other news, I thought I would share with you a few photos from some of our recent field sampling trips.  Behold, Playa la Mission!  The water might be cold, but the beach is quite pretty I must say.  We don our 7mm wetsuits complete with neoprene hoods, gloves, socks, and booties and wade into the water outside the wave break zone.  We dive down searching for Piure and other lovely creatures. Sometimes we are successful, sometimes we lose to the current.

Big algae in photo above!!  Bright and shiney urchins in the photo below!!

Check out the tiny Piures sticking out their orange siphons!!

So many crabs... so much algae...