Day Three - at sea - 10-11-2010

10-11-10 At sea, 62 degrees F, cloudy

Slept late - Jalil even later. Went to the lecture, then I worked on my pictures on my laptop until Jalil found me. There are not many places where I can sit as my computer battery is not working so I need an electrical outlet.

Morning lecture on Cabo San Lucas, Mexico:
The Mayan language had 800 characters.
The Catholic priests burned the Mayan books. The population was not allowed to write in Mayan.
The Aztecs were warriors who sacrificed humans to their gods - 70,000 per year! Initiation to manhood was to capture a prisoner and cut his Achilles tendon. That person was used for sacrifice.
The Aztecs fell to Cortez in 1521. The Aztec leader Montezuma believed that the Spanish were gods and he, therefore, did not fight the Spanish..
The population in the city could be 100,000. It is estimated that in 1491 (the year before Columbus) 100 million people lived on the American continent. But nobody really knows.
The catholic priests started to build missions from Loreto to Sonoma, California. They used Indian labor. Smallpox, chicken pox, etc. killed 80-90 % of the natives!
In 1810 Mexico became independent of Spain. In 1848 Mexico lost the war with the US, losing California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The California Gold Rush started in 1849! In 1850 California became a state of the United States.
In 1910 there was a rebellion - Poncho Villa in the north and Zapata in the south - which they won.
Common food that originated in America: tomato, corn, turkey, potato, cashews.
Belize was British Honduras so English is spoken not Spanish there.
Agriculture: bananas, pineapple, coffee.
10 pesos = 80 cents
　
Cabo San Lucas - population 56.000 - safe (the killing is in the border towns) but do not stray from tourist areas. Restaurants are OK but not vendors. Agree on taxi fare in advance. Is it $10 per person or per taxi?
We will need to use tenders to reach the town as the ship cannot come close to shore.

Cabo was founded in 1828 and now lives on tourism. It is expensive as everything has to be shipped there. Temperature is usually in the 80-90’s.

Jalil and I went to the next lecture on Tropical Lowland and Rain Forest by Jay Christofferson mailto:(jchristofferson@csum.edu) (It could be sen instead of son.)
My notes are scribbly and if anybody knows something that should be changed, please feel free to let me know.
Near the equator there is little seasonal change except wet and dry. The days are the same all year. Rain leaches minerals, etc. from the soil. On the forest floor there are decomposing fungi and bacteria converting organic tissue.
The rain forest is the most diverse environment on earth. Primary forest layers:
Emergent layer
Canopy - bushier
Middle layer
Bushes - have large leaves to catch the light.
Understory - the soil is shallow, trees blow over easily.
Waxy drip-tip leaves leads water away. Climbers are reaching for light.
Epiphytes - organisms that live on branches, like ferns, lichens, algae, orchids and bromeliads.
Bromeliads have their own water tank - their own ecosystem - and other critters use it.
How do plants protect themselves?
Spines
Stinging ants live there.
Toxins- quinine, strychnine, caffeine
Tannins - tea
Basil mimics insects’ juvenile hormones.
Some seed s need to go through a gastrointestinal system to germinate.
Leaf cutter ants farm fungus and cut leaves to feed the fungus. We saw some in Costa Rica. The cut leaf is larger than the ant so it looks like the piece of leaf is moving on its own.
The room was dark and many in the audience fell asleep. I got sleepy even though it was very interesting.

Afterwards, we were hungry but wanted to go to Afternoon Tea at 3.30 so we went to the cafeteria Horizon for fruit after a walk on the Promenade Deck.

Afternoon tea is served in the Traviata Dining Room. They serve it in large teapots and come around to serve frequently. It is Lipton tea bags but lemon slices are offered so it is OK. The waiters come around quickly, offering many little English double sandwiches, scones with whipped cream and strawberry jam, pastries and cookies. I asked what was in the sandwiches. The waiter did not know without peeking under the bread. I asked for what he called tuna but it was pink salmon. Anyway, I did enjoy my pink tuna.

Jalil had to watch the playoffs as the San Francisco Giants were playing in the so called World Series so we had an early Indian dinner in the cafeteria.

At night time we explored the 12th deck where there was movie time. We sat down to watch for a short while - some awful movie. But it was lovely to sit outside to watch. We had blankets to use, if needed, which we did as it was a cool night. A waiter came and served small pieces of pizza! The water in the pool nearby was sloshing back and

forth.