What exactly am I doing in South America?

A new tradition is developing. My skateboard was stolen my last week of school, perhaps signaling that this particular form of recreation was meant to be confined to board-safe college campuses, lacking cars and potholes. My last night of school, i lost my student ID...for the first time ever in four and a half years. They are golden for discounts; a student ID in the post-student world is comparable to a fake ID in the pre-21 world.

And now? Well, after another great night at Yogi's on 75th and Broadway, I headed back to Jen and Elihu's place in lower Manhattan, along w/ younger Bogan Rosie. The cab ride was highly amusing; the cabbie had a sweet accent and was gregarious. We get back to the apartment, start in on the late-night chips and dip...and I realize my cell is gone, no doubt still in the cab. Nuts. On the one hand, i've got a million and one things to do before I leave, and phones sure are handy. On the other hand, I can't think of a better time to lose a phone. I'm outta here for the next 4 months, I'm unemployed and unschooled, what the hell do I need a cell phone for?

Ok, that was a digression. Apparently I lose stuff right before I leave places (come to think of it, my last night in Vegas in summer '06 saw the end of my last wallet). Exciting.

But more exciting is that I'm bout to go to South America for four months. What's gonna happen? What am I gonna do?

Quito, Ecuador: I want to be fluent. Not competent, not functional, not good enough. I want it to be sweet and smooth. Good enough to woo a discerning woman, good enough to impress a suspicious employer. Or at least not screw me over from the get-go. Erin Noble has a similar aim (I think).
So, we are living in Quito for a month or two to learn Spanish real good. We'll rent an apartment, take Spanish classes, explore Quito, integrate ourselves into some sort of social scene, and go climb volcanoes on the weekends. Post-Quito, we head south to Lago Titicaca and the town of Puno, on the border of Peru and Bolivia.

Puno, Peru:
This is the science part of the trip. Pomona professor Heather Williams has been conducting nutrient testing of the waters in Lago Titicaca, which I will be continuing. There are nearly 3 million people living around the lake (it's really big), and there is precious little in the way of modern sewage systems. The result is a huge amount of shit (urban effluence, to use the lingo) washing down into the lake. The nitrogen in poop allows micro-organisms, such as algae and bacteria, to thrive; these algal blooms cause precipitous drop offs in oxygen levels, which in turn kills of the fish. This process is known as eutrophication. It is a fairly common problem in lakes around the world, but it severely harms communities who rely upon fish as a main source of protein and cash, as many communities around Lago Titicaca do.

So, the problem is eutrophication, and we will be sampling water around the lake to measure the water chemistry and nutrient levels. Pretty basic stuff; you stick a probe into the water, push a few buttons, and you get a number. Our results are interesting because they will allow us to compare rainy season nutrient levels with dry season nutrient levels, which were compiled last year by Heather Williams and Derek Young, another Pomona student.

There is a 2nd environmental issue. There are a series of artisanal gold mines (meaning worked by small groups of very poor people, as opposed to big rich mining corporations) located at the head of the Ramis River, a major river that drains into Lago Titicaca. Artisanal gold mining is characterized by the use of mercury to separate the gold from the motley of crushed ore that the gold is mixed up in. So, the crushed ore slurry is run down a sluice (think of a slide) that is lined with mercury. The mercury bonds to the gold particles, resulting in an amalgam. The amalgam is separated and then heated with a blowtorch, until the mercury evaporates from the gold. The end result is mostly pure gold, although a significant amount of mercury remains.

Mercury, eh? Isn't that incredibly poisonous? Yup. And thousands of poor, uneducated miners are turning it into vapor right in front of their noses, with nothing in the way of protective equipment. Yes, they are getting sick from it. And a huge amount of the dangerous stuff makes its way downstream with the waste ore, and into the watershed. Mercury is heavy, so it doesn't stay in the water much, and instead sinks to the ground. But it bio-accumulates; this means that little critters eat ground sediments that contains the mercury, then bigger critters eat them, and even bigger critters eat them. Throughout the whole process, the mercury is never excreted or broken down. The end result is that the top predator (say, lake trout) end up with a huge dose of mercury. As it happens, the top fish in Lago Titicaca have been found to have dangerously high levels of mercury. This is clearly a problem for the 3 million people living around the lake and eating the fish every day.

So, where do we (Senor Noble and myself) come into play?

We would like to conduct a survey of mercury levels in the Ramis River watershed. But it is very expensive to test for mercury and we lack the funding. So we are going to conduct a survey to set up a framework for a future (better funded) sampling project. This has two aspects, environmental and social. The environmental aspect is fairly simple. We go up the river finding good sites to sample, log them on a GPS, make observations of the water conditions (flow velocity and quantity, fish present, water quality, etc) and compile this into a database.

The social aspect is related to the disruption the mines and the mercury pose to the communities along the Ramis River watershed. Farmers are being negatively affected by higher silt levels in the water and possible mercury contamination. On the other hand, fishermen have no desire to be told that the fish they are selling is full of mercury. So, some people are being harmed by the mine, and therefore want a sampling survey to be done, while other people would be harmed by a survey. This makes for a potentially explosive situation. We need to talk to the people, figure out where everyone's interest lies, essentially make a report concerning how a future sampling project would be received. There is a very real risk of violence in the area, so it is important that we establish if a project would even be safe to run. Hopefully, we will end up with a professional looking report on the Ramis River watershed and a future mercury sampling project.


So...that is what I am doing in South America. Actually, there will be a whole bunch more. We'll be doing a ton of trekking in the Andes, climbing lots of mountains and volcanoes, perhaps visiting the Amazon, playing lots of chess, beating the crap out of each other on a regular basis (seriously, i'm bringing boxing gloves), carousing, making friends, etc etc etc.

If you want to see what actually happens...stay tuned. I arrive in Quito tomorrow!!!


As if things weren't exciting enough...Ecuador is on the verge of a war with Colombia