Sorry for the late post,
In the lab…
This week started off to a bit of a slow start with presentations happening on Monday and Tuesday. Monday starting around 9:45 am, some speakers came to talk about some of the projects being done at IRRI. To start there was a talk about IRRI’s mitigation and some of the developments as well happening correctly. Then my on site advisor Dr. Van talked about the project I am working on in the lab during my stay here. She talked about plant microbiomes and plant rates that correlate with low methane emissions. After a few more talks there was a break in which I ran up to our lab to put away the NA plates I made last week and to take pictures of the results from the salt resistance test, the nitrogen detection, and phosphorus detection. On the Pikovkaya’s plates there seemed to be no clearing which would make sense since we were missing the ingredient for the detection of phosphorus. For the Jensen’s Medium there were also no clearings which meant there is no nitrogen fixing bacteria in these endophytes. The salt resistance test was very interesting though. Most of the endophyte strains selected were resistant to salt and grew nicely on the plate. The two strains who were not resistant were In-b-714, and In-b-24. The data for In-b-24 is inconclusive due to the fact that we are unable to properly grow colonies in the tubes. When looking at the salt resistance plates I am looking to see if there is growth in the spots that I directly pipetted my colonies and NaCl solution on. For In-b-714 there was no endophyte growth, only the formation of some salt crystals on the plate. For the rest of the day on Monday I attended more of the talks that were held for science day. On Tuesday my supervisor returned to the lab so we were able to get a bit more done. He looked at the plates I had made a week ago and agreed with my conclusions. Later that morning we headed out to the lower land field to collect some leaf and root samples for the isolation of ‘wild’ endophytes. It was hot and humid and the smell of unoxidized dirt reminded me of the days I spent with my father in the taro patches at Kealia. It was nice to have that feeling again no matter how sweaty I was. From each plant we picked five leaves, and placed an entire root system into some conical tubes and let them rest there until we are ready for the disinfecting and isolation process. On Wednesday I was tasked with preparing a lab progress presentation for our lab meeting the next day. I included all the results from the tests that I have already completed as well as the plans of my next steps. During these presentations in the lab meetings the other researchers are welcomed to stop your presentation and make comments on your work, and sure enough that did indeed occur. They mentioned that I should be more specific on how exactly I will be plating the colonies and they decided we should try to acquire and characterize as many endophytes as we can during my time here. Dr. van also mentioned that we should test the other frozen endophyte strains that haven’t been stored in skim milk, as well as test the new endophytes in skim milk. Once we were finished with our meeting it was the end of the day and we were free to go home. I took my four day weekend this week so I missed the lab on Friday. More to come about the lab in week 6!
THE WEEKEND!!!!!!!
So for this weekend all five of us as well as Chrishana and Semaj, took a four day weekend in order to visit the island of Palawan and stay in El nido. The Los Banos group left our dorm on Thursday at 11:45 pm to reach the airport which is two hours away for a flight at 4 am. Once on the plane, the ride was a little less than an hour and we landed in Puerto Princesa where we then drove for almost 5 hours to El nido. Once reaching El nido at around 10 in the morning we checked into our hostel called the outpost and hung around talking to each other and enjoying the scenery. Later that day me and Julia tried to swim out to where Sam and some of the others from FNRI went but it was low tide and there were weird things in the water that we don’t have in Hawaii. When I was walking there were some crunchy things in the sand, there were also holes which could have been made by some sort of worm, and there was seagrass. The sea grass was gross, you could be swimming and then all of a sudden get touched and of course I freaked out. After our attempt at swimming we sat at the hotel’s bar and restaurant for some dinner and later headed to bed to prepare for our big day! On Saturday as a huge group we made sure to book for an island hopping tour which started at 9 in the morning. I made sure to get up early and have some avocado toast in order to prepare for the activities of the day. At around 8:55 am the tour guide started to yell around the beach for all of us to meet there so we could head over to the boat. Early in the morning the tide was low but steadily coming in. The boat was anchored not too far from shore but about a 5 minute trend through the warm ocean water. Once on the boat we had to put on our life jackets to make sure none of us fell in the water. The only size the crew had were Large’s so as I was sitting in the boat I was being choked from my larger life jacket. Once passing the safety check station we were allowed to take out hot life jackets off and enjoy the views. The short boat ride was amazing. The ocean was a calm deep blue in the areas where you couldn’t see the bottom. The cliffs were sharp and stood proudly out of the water. Since the tide was low we could see that some of the rocks coming out of the water had been eaten away from the ocean and looked almost as if they were floating off the water from the indent at their base. The first beach we stopped at was packed full of people but still amazing. The tour guides told us 45 minutes at this beach. Some of the others went to play beach volleyball but I immediately headed over to the water with Julia to jump in. It has felt like forever since I got to dive under the salty sea. The ocean was warm but the further you dove the colder it got. The water was crystal clear and you could see a bountiful life under the surface. Chrishana joined us a couple minutes later followed by Jessica N. and Semaj. I kept diving to see what I could bring up from the bottom which seemed to be a lot. I found rocks and shells and so many pieces of coral that have been snapped off. After a while me and Jessica decided that we would try to launch each other out of the water to do some flips, although we were not that strong and they didn’t seem to work very well. After a couple more laps we heard the outpost boat calling for us and since we were a little late we had to run to the boat. Once we boarded we headed off to our next destination which was less than 10 minutes away. At this place we were told we could snorkel to see the amazing reef. I was so excited, I love snorkeling and swimming with the fish. After diving in, I struggled a bit to put my mask and snorkel on but after a few attempts I dove straight to start exploring. When I tell you it was beautiful, that is an understatement. The water was so clear and there was just so much life. I felt like I was in another world. There were Christmas tree worms in all sorts of colors, there were brightly colored clams who would get shy when you swam next to them. I found some anemones with some clown fish hiding in them and just so much more. The coral was so healthy and abundant, if you listened closely you could hear the parrot fish crunching on the corals which I loved. I said hello to a puffer fish who to me looked like the puppies of the sea. I even saw some spikey looking starfish! After diving a bit more and admiring the ancient corals it was time to leave, I could have honestly spent another hour or two there. The next place we stopped was a smaller beach where we had lunch. I was so hungry that I inhaled my warp in like 6 minutes. After the other finished eating we went off to the big Lagoon! This place is amazing, I sadly forgot to take photos but this place is known as one of the top places to visit in the entire world. We were put on kayaks and set off to start exploring. My kayak partner was Julia, of course, but we unfortunately only had one paddle which made it a bit difficult but we pulled through. The channel into the lagoon was spectacular, the sharp limestone walls protruded in some areas in which we had to skillfully watch out with our kayak (but it was difficult due to the lack of a paddle). The water was a blue I have never seen in nature before, it reminded me of the water cup you have when painting and you just dipped a blue paint brush into the water which previously had a white paintbrush in it. We tried our best to explore every nook and cranny of this lagoon, which turned out to be quite difficult. There was an area where the mangroves almost hid you and we decided to take a moment and sit there. The area was quiet but loud with bugs and the stiffness of no wind. The smell of the salty limestone was strong as we admired the plants dangling above us. Once both Julia and got our fill of the beauty we went to explore the next part. We paddled out to the middle of the large lake and decided to see where we would drift. It ended up taking us to the Jessica’s and they told us of a place where you could see the sea urchins. So we raced over to the back of the lagoon where there weren’t many people. Near an overhanging cliff an underwater shelf housed a dozen or so black pointy sea urchins. They were so cute! In a little pocket I decided to slip out of the kayak and take a quick dip. As I floated there just listening to the sounds of the lagoon I felt a small soft raindrop smack my nose. The rain was beautiful, it was soft and refreshing and made everything quiet. Then as we were heading back to the big open lagoon we headed to the outpost once again, meaning we had to head back to the boat. Oh! I almost forgot to mention that before kayaking we were doing some jumps off the boat where I thought I could do a front flip but the second one I ended up hitting my back. Once the kayaking was over we headed to our final destination which was another beach, however it was smaller and there were less people. When I dove into the water I felt something sting my face so I decided to stop swimming and rather play some volleyball with the others. Once we got tired of volleyball we all ran to the ocean to swim. We decided that we would try to throw each other out of the water and see who has the best flip. When it was my turn I felt like I was 7 feet in the air! It was so much fun. Once we got back to the hostel it was time for a nice hot shower and some rest. The next day we all got up pretty late due to being quite exhausted from the day before, and since it was a slow day I decided to talk to my family since it has been a while. The next day was similar as well, another slow start but then I got to go out on the town with some of the girls where we had some good food at a nearby restaurant then it was back to the hostel to pack for our departure. Check out was at 11 am and after we packed we waited for our which was scheduled to arrive at 1:30 pm. During that time I enjoyed a relaxing reading session on the beach with Julia. In the middle of it Julia did spot a very large hermit which we got to say hello to as we crawled off to his next place. The drive back was just as beautiful as the ride to El nido. Although it was long, it was quite pleasant after our fast paced weekend. Closer to the end of the drive coming around the bend there was a huge tour bus that seemed to have rolled over. Our diver stopped to talk to some of the others who seemed to be helping, he said everyone was out, and there didn’t seem to be many injured who were still on the crash site. We then had to hurry to the airport to catch our plane back to Manila. The flight was pleasant and I watched little women until we landed, and back to Los Banos it was. This was the best weekend I have had here, and will forever cherish the memories and the people we met there.
Until next time!