The long way home

Today, Chieh-wen and I went on a mission to collect seawater from my project along the East Coast of the peninsula. While I study the bacteria associated with lionfish as well as lionfish genetics, it is important to understand what is happening in the water column too, incase the patterns I see are due to different bacteria in the water. As we travelled along the Hengchun Peninsula, we made a complete loop around the Kenting National Park. I got to see so many wonderful things while we drove around taking pretty much the longest route possible to get back to the aquarium. Although it took most of the day, we stumbled upon some things I will definitely be taking the scooter back to check out further; specifically the Shihmen Historical Battlefield and the hiking trails I spied around it. Here are some of the things I saw today!

 (Longpan lookout spot, first time to the East side of the island)

 (Such a beautiful place)

 (Longpan lookout)

 (Fongchueisha area, one of my water collection sites)

 (Shrimp with egg masses at lunch, I just could not bring myself to eat them)

 (But there was plenty without egg masses: what was left of our food after lunch at a little harbor seafood place)

 (Construction had the little mountain pace clogged up; yep one of the workers is barefoot)

 (An aboriginal village tucked away in the middle of the mountains, the flowers smelled amazing)

 (More of the village)

 (Still more of the village)

 (Flower bud in the field)

 (The Mudan Reservoir provides running water to the Hengchun Peninsula)

 (The town of Shihmen sits below the reservoir)

 (Honey juice made from honey collected in the area)

(Me at the reservoir)

So you know how I love to give challenges? Well here is one for today: try to find something off the beaten path this week. We could have cut straight across the peninsula, collected my water, and been back by lunch, but instead we took in some of the sites and endless breathtaking views. Yeah, we might have "wasted" a couple hours, but I still got the work finished I needed to today and had some totally memorable moments.

Love to all!

-Jules