Week 13
Day 92 / May 28, 2026
Nicolas and I worked to innoculate the various media plates prepared the day prior with the respective bacteria. As we were working together in the laminar flow cabinet, things got shuffled around and all of a sudden the brown paper on top of one of the sterile jars got too close to the open flame and caught on fire. I saw flames, grabbed the jar and started to frantically pat the flames out with my hand. In just a few fell swoops the fire was put out. We looked at each other and let out a sigh of relief. Nicolas took the jar and turned it upside down before taking it out of the cabinet. He then gave the timeless reminder “remain calm under pressure”, or as I always think of the classic sign in my mum’s office “keep calm and carry on”. We got back to work and finished up not long after.
Later that night, after a quick trip to the climbing gym, I had a long phone call with Val. New England summer is coming!! He shared all about the lovely sendoff activities that were happening at school. Earlier that day a crew of younger faculty members joined him for a hike up nearby Mt Watatic. It is a special spot and the perfect send-off. Val has frequented Watatic in all seasons throughout his time at Cushing. I may or may not have cried a bit upon seeing the photos…. Very good eggs!!
Day 93 / May 29, 2026
Friday morning started off great with another Zumba class! The energy it builds on cold winter mornings in Talca is awesome. We took some goofy selfies after class and then I headed into lab.
In the lab, I inoculated various liquid media flasks with bacteria for Nicolas. Then Catalina, Cynthia, Nicolas, and I spent the afternoon doing a DEEP clean of the lab in preparation for a special conference hosted by the FuncPoly Lab team the following week. First we emptied all of the old dirt and water samples into the trash. These samples are collected to learn more about the environment where each bacteria is isolated in order to simulate similar temperature and pH conditions with the media in the lab. Then we gathered and discarded old materials, cleaned the surfaces, and Nicolas wrote a list including all previous project grant numbers on the board. After a few hours it was looking a lot better.
Coach Nick gave me a ring right around 6:00pm to talk competition strategy in preparation for my first Chilean bouldering competition the next day. We talked all things warming up, reading considerations, timing strategy, and more. Safe to say there is a lot more for me to learn. Afterwards I went to the gym for a short, light session as a shakeout of sorts. Once back at home, I made soft-shell tacos with beef, squash, and tomatoes. They were delicious!
Day 94 / May 30, 2026
COMP DAY!!! The local Talca route setters and climbing coaches have been busy helping Diego, owner of San Fernando-based gym Cuspide, prepare all week long. There were five different competition sections each with a unique time slot: kids ages 7-11, then kids aged 11-15, men and women beginners, men and women advanced (owing to low turnout, women's expert joined as well), and men's expert. Max Trigo, an incredibly talented climber and one of the coaches at Pared had kindly helped me find a crew driving to San Fernando at the same time and organized a group carpool. I had a hearty oatmeal breakfast then ran to meet the others at Mall Plaza Maule for 1:45pm. Charlie, Matias and sisters Belen and Paula were in the car. All of them are students at Universidad Católica de Maule (UCM) and the climbing comp today also served as a formal tryout for the UCM climbing team. Understandably, they were a bit more nervous going into it. We spent the car ride chatting about their favorite crags, what they were studying at school, and about the classic urban/rural debate. Charlie grew up in Panama but moved to Chile when he was 17. Though he held Panama city in high regard, he preferred Talca to Santiago; the others agreed.
A car crash on Route 5 caused a bit of unexpected traffic and the journey ended up being close to 2 hours. Fortunately, we had each brought snacks and drinks and passed around chocolate chip cookies and oreos along the way.
When we arrived just before 4:00pm, the venue was packed. The younger age groups had just received their awards and the families were slowly clearing out. We were given a tour of the wall, broken up into 8 zones, and instructions about the format.
Each zone would have its own judge. When you wanted to climb a problem, you would give your paper to the judge, start as instructed, and climb. If you fell, touched the wrong hold, or touched an area outside of the zone, the judge would mark the attempt as incomplete. You had the opportunity to try each problem only five times. As scoring was concerned, you awarded higher points from completing a boulder on the first attempt, a “flash”. Additionally, completing harder boulders awarded higher points.
After taking all of this in, the women’s groups and men’s advanced climbers started to warm-up. At 4:30pm, someone gave a countdown over a megaphone and just like that we were off! There were only five women climbing and roughly the same number of men. Shaped like a peninsula, spectators were spread around the pads to try and watch the various attempts. There had been 46 problems set. I thought back to my call with Coach Nick and tried to find a ‘goldilocks’ problem to start with; not too hard, and not too easy. I decided on 19, a slabby climb in a zone towards the back of the gym. I flashed. It was a good start and gave me a little nugget of confidence to continue with.
It’s hard to put in to words how hectic everything was in those first few minutes. The competitors were climbing frantically, racing to get judge’s attention. Beyond the pads, friends and families spectating were cheering and coaching. Meanwhile, the megaphone was being used to narrate everything.
I very much took the slow and steady approach. After doing my first problem I took a minute to study the others around me before choosing my next option. I decided on 23, a juggy problem with holds spaced a little further apart. Luckily my height made it pretty straightforward and I flashed again. I went on to flash 21 and 27 as well. At this point I was feeling warmed up and a bit more confident. I headed back over to the slabby section to attempt problem 26 as one last ‘doable’ problem to strengthen the base of my hypothetical scoring pyramid. It involved a committing step-up then a delicate traverse to finish at a slopey hold. I watched a few others before me as they all fell at the traverse. With a plan in mind, I gave the zone judge my score sheet and proceeded to climb.
The first two moves off the start hold were relatively easy. As I got in position for the committing step up and launched, my foot slipped unexpectedly and I crashed down onto the pads. Though nothing hurt and most of my weight landed on the pads, my legs fell awkwardly between the pads and the wall. The audience let out a gasp and several people checked on me as I got up. I took a breather, watched two other climbers attempts, then tried again. I was certainly frazzled. Before I even got to the step-up section, I butchered the hand sequence completely missing a hold and fell again. I took a longer break and tried to find another problem to boost my confidence.
I settled on 17, a slabby arete problem of sorts which was a softer grade than all of my previous climbs. I made both the mistake of starting without mapping the full sequence and watching someone else climb first (an error in a moment of hurry). I was unable to move forward about halfway and came off. Growing even more frustrated, I then went to problem 10 thinking surely I can’t read this wrong. Fortunately it was the boost I needed. I then went on to do 15, and 16. I watched someone climb 17 and realized I had gone off-route previously using using foot holds as hand holds. I did 17 and 18. Though the confidence was slowly returning, my energy was not. I tried and failed two attempts at 28, a slabby, delicate traverse passing under problem 17 at the arete. I then gave two pretty weak attempts at 25, a problem that started with a dyno to the roof of a cave then a funky section without feet that had everyone doing figure 4’s, before returning to 26. I gave my sheet to the zone judge, climbed past the start, stuck the leap, and slowly traversed. Sent. phew. Time was nearing the end so I tried to hit any remaining problems. I tried problem 24 twice, a juggy overhung route, but was unable to match on the slopey top hold both times. The timer went and everyone stopped. After a tense 1.5 hours of dashing around, it felt like the room let out a collective sigh. The calm didn’t last for long, in just 30 minutes the expert men group was starting and the energy was slowly building again as everyone warmed up.
Just 15 minutes after we ended, the megaphone called everyone’s attention to the podium to announce the winners of the advanced men group. Everyone cheered as the respective awardees took to the makeshift bench podium. Then they called for the women's advance group. The third place awardee went up, and then I heard my name called for second! Considering how awful I felt about my performance, I was quite surprised. Belen joined me at the front as she took the crown for first. We took a photo and then cheered for Paula as she received a prize for the expert women category.
It was time for the final competition of the night. As the expert men received their sheets and headed to the pads, I picked up a pepperoni pizza from Pared’s Ch.115 who had come to cater for the event. Though at the time I felt my group was hectic, nothing was quite like frenzy of the final group. When the start was announced they leapt into action. Around 15 climbers running around, brute-forcing up everything. It wasn’t long after some warm-up climbs that everyone on the mat was just focusing on working problems 35-46. They didn’t appear to take the time to study or chit-chat in the way I definitely had been. The whole hour felt so exciting but so tense. Huge leaps, balance-y steps, and technical top outs were checked-off one by one.
Even after just competing themselves, Belen and Paula were focused on filming, supporting, and giving water to their respective partners, Matias and Charlie, as they climbed. I was cheering, and running around the gym to try to see it all.
Ultimately Diego Sazo took the crown for the expert men. It was a great night! The UCM team, coached by Francisco, took a photo and shared some closing words. I packed up and joined the UCM crew heading to Martina’s house, a first-year UCM climbing team member and resident of San Fernando where the comp was held. We piled 8 of us into Charlie’s sedan (Paula may or may not have been in the trunk for the journey) and drove first to Papa John’s. When they said it would be an hour-long wait for food we opted to go to the nearby McDonald's instead. Charlie ordered 5 burgers and 3 large fries for us to share. As we waited outside I had a quick call with ‘coach’ Val. When the food was ready we piled back in the car and drove to Martina’s house. Her mum and three little white dogs greeted us and welcomed us in. She offered us a bottle of coke, which Belen evenly distributed between glasses, and condiments for our fries. We sipped and chatted about the competition and Maxi’s recent knee injury. He shared MRI scans to Charlie, studying medical physics and imaging, who was excited to examine them.
Not too long after, Francisco arrived to pick up some of the UCM climbers to carpool back to Talca. I headed back with Belen, Charlie, Matias and Paula who kindly dropped me at home. I had a quick shower then went straight to bed.
Day 95 / May 31, 2026
Sunday after a hectic Saturday was spent recovering and working on my paper. In hopes of spurring some productivity, I arranged with Aparna to send her a draft by the coming Friday June 5th. This productivity was quickly stalled when I received a family FaceTime call.
SURPRISE Mina and Jula decided to visit!! They have both been tied up with busy spring school and work schedules but at the last minute they had a relatively free window so gave me a call and we got to work planning. They decided they would fly out of Boston on Monday to arrive in Santiago on Tuesday June 2nd at 7am. Not long after a rough itinerary was put together and we were set!
After we said our goodbyes I tried to get back to work. Finally I felt the procrastination induced flow hit and I was able to make some progress. All the brain work left me feeling quite tired so I decided to take a nap at 5pm.
30 minutes later, I woke up feeling an ever so slight swaying. I looked around me and though nothing appeared to be moving, I was certain about the feeling. I hopped on Google and sure enough there had been an earthquake! The first noticeable one anyways since arriving in Chile. Clocking in at 6.0 (though first registering as a 5.9), this one was centered almost 300km north, just off the coast of Valparaiso. Though the international group chat filled quickly with memes and wellness checks, all of my other Chilean group chats remained quiet. A quake of this size was no cause for concern. I wonder if the day will come when such an occurrence feels normal to me, though I doubt it… nature is so cool!
It is worth noting that this Sunday May 31 was also Día del Patrimonio meaning heritage day. Today, there were events and celebrations to honor Chilean heritage. Historical sites were open to the public, traditional food was prepared in abundance, and individual towns had unique offerings too. The next day Nicolas told me that Talca organized free cooking classes in the O’Higginiano Museum. Visitors learned how to prepare cazuela, a delicious winter stew.
I was bummed to hear I had missed it, but excited still by the chunk of progress I had to show for staying inside.
Day 96 / June 1, 2026
After our deep clean on Friday, we did our best to preserve the appearance of the lab. Albert needed to send some photos back to his team in Kenya so I helped him take a few different photos. I also shared the news of Mina and Jula’s visit with everyone I could.
Catalina and I then headed out to Cafe Kaffee for a quick bite to eat. She shared all about her undergraduate studies and her plans now for a PhD in the lab. It was our first time getting to chat one on one and provided a great opportunity to learn more about each other.
After lab, I was able to squeeze in a quick trip to the climbing gym. At 5:45pm I headed home for another week of English tutoring sessions with Brisa and Francisca. Brisa and I reviewed her letter of gratitude before then moving onto the topic of writing a US College Essay. She already has a number of great ideas in mind, so I just tried to serve as a sounding board for her to continue developing them. Her homework for the week is to write a first draft of her essay. Francisca shared her version of the “Where I am From” poem and we then worked towards writing the letter of gratitude. She has been doing additional speaking exercises to strengthen her pronunciation skills and to cater to her interest in basketball, I shared an article about Elmo tweeting to the Knicks before the NBA playoff games. She sent a voice memo to share that she enjoyed reading about the interaction and laughed at the fact Elmo was involved.
Following the tutoring sessions I had to focus on getting the house ready for visitors. I cleaned what I could and stocked up on food for their arrival. When I tucked in for bed, everything was ready to go.
Day 97 / June 2, 2026
Across the pond a certain someone celebrated a quarter-life revolution today.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY VAL!!! He landed in Colorado at 10pm the day before to have some quality family and mountain time. Sure enough I received photos later in the day of his romp up the Arapaho(s), as he put it, already off to an epic epic start!! :)))
I woke up early on Tuesday to do one last clean around the house before dressing for the special lab event. I donned my blazer and professional attire then arrived at the lab for 8:30am. Today the lab was hosting an important summit to mark the start of Project ANID FOVI250129, a multinational effort between the U Autónoma FuncPoly lab in Chile, and microbiologists from the University of Concepcion also in Chile and the University of Sao Paolo in Brazil. This project aims to develop dual therapies using extremophile bacterial exopolysaccharides to treat colorectal cancer and antimicrobial-resistant, precancerous diseases.
The rest of the FuncPoly team was arriving and preparing to hand out U Autónoma key chains along with notebooks branded with the Chile Brazil partnership logo. I followed suit greeting visitors along with the rest of the FuncPoly Lab team. Local high school students, lab members, visiting professionals and more arrived to hear about the partnership. In particular I had an excellent conversation with Dr. Andrés Opazo who completed his PhD at University of Edinburgh in Scotland! We reminisced on UK culture together before grabbing a coffee along with Dr. Gerado González. Not long after, it was time to start. Everyone filed into the auditorium and the session began with a welcome from the U Autónoma Academic Director Gonzalo Huentemilla. This was followed by more words of welcome from regional governmental representatives and then an overview of the collaboration delivered by Professor Banerjee.
The lecture session finished with an incredibly informative round table discussion allowing all of the collaborators a chance to share about their expertise and their hopes for the outcomes.
After the lecture portion was over, everyone moved to the nearby art gallery which had been set up for a reception with snacks and juices. As people had their fill, the crowd slowly dispersed and the remaining guests were welcomed for a tour of the laboratory.
In the meantime, I had been scanning WhatsApp for messages and FindMy for location updates. Mina and Jula had arrived in Santiago as scheduled at 8am, collected their rental car, and started the drive down to Talca. They arrived at my apartment just before 12pm and entered with no issue. As soon as the lab tours ended around 1:30pm, everyone took a break for lunch so I headed home to say hello. They were understandably sleepy from their flight but all in one piece. We chatted for a bit then I returned to the lab at 3:00pm for an interview with Ciencia Chile journalist, Vicente Nicólas who was reporting on the summit today. To read the article he put together, go here. We got to chatting and I learned he had made the long journey to Talca from Valdivia just for the meeting. There were no direct buses returning to Valdivia in the afternoon, so Vicente was booked on one departing at midnight. As a climber, he saw the climbing gyms in Talca and decided he would pass the time at Gravity.
As Mina and Jula were still wrapping up work, I headed out with Vicente and Catalina who had offered to show him a bit more of Talca. She brought us to the O’Higginiano museum, also known as the house of independence (Casa de la Independencia). The 18th-century colonial home where Bernardo O'Higgins signed the borrador (draft) of the Proclamation of Independence in 1818. The house has since been converted into a museum displaying all kinds of works: art, historical documents, and city plans including the construction of the coastal railway connecting Talca to Constitucion. It was a great visit! As we were leaving, Vicente got chatting to one of the museum staff members and shared he was from Valdivia. The museum worker mentioned that Vicente had missed the best part of the tour, an exhibit about Bernardo O'Higgins, which had been closed owing to an electrical problem. Before we knew it, he escorted us to the closed room where we were able to walk around with flashlight to see the various pieces on display.
By the time we wrapped up, it was time for dinner. As Catalina and Vicente were walking in the same direction, I joined them. They stopped at the completo stand on 5 Oriente which was coincidentally the same place I had been planning to take Mina and Jula. I waited with them and instead texted Mina and Jula to come meet me. Catalina and Vicente finished their completos just as Mina and Jula arrived. Mina opted for the classic Italiano style featuring a beef dog, avocado, tomato, and mayo though chose the merken mayo which added a nice bit of heat. I had the same thing but with chucrut as well. Then Jula had a plain dog and added ketchup and mustard.
We ended up walking around together in one big group before venturing to a pub. Mina tried a local beer recommended by Vicente and Jula a Mojito. I had a Michelada con Merken, a Chilean specialty and my new favorite featuring half beer half lemon juice with a spicy merken rim. It is light and so delicious.
Mina and Jula were troopers for coming out for so long after their flight. I made the mistake of overlapping too much at once. As Vicente still had hours to go until his bus, I had offered my house as a place for him to wait (not much else exists in Talca as an option). So the whole crew came back until he left at 11:30pm. Finally we were able to go to bed.
Day 98 / June 3, 2026
Catalina had very kindly gifted me some homemade sopaipillas pasadas to try. This signature chilean dish includes bread (often made using pumpkin puree) soaked in brown sugar. It is a delicious, sweet, cozy dish which is very popular during the winter months. I tried them for breakfast and it was a great start to the day!
I headed to the lab where I translated instructions to Albert for Aylin and helped Eiber remove the cotton from his plants. Then at 2:00pm Mina and Jula joined me for a quick lunch at the nearby Sibarita gourmet. They both had the super relleno special with a stuffed chicken breast, fries, a green apple and celery salad, and merken mashed potatoes. I had the pesto spaghetti with chicken and mushrooms. Then we shared a lemon mouse for dessert. They headed home where Mina finished an afternoon of work while I went to my lab class.
In class Dr. Susan explained the format of our upcoming assessment. We are going to be individually assessed on our ability to focus a microscope and identify various types of tissues based on the structure alone. We must also identify the amplification level based only on the tissue appearance. The rest of class was spent reviewing slides of human connective tissues.
We finished just before 6:00pm, at which point I dashed home to see Mina and Jula. Mina still had a lot of work to do and Jula was tired so I headed to the climbing gym by myself. When I got home we watched Law and Order: Special Victims Unit together before turning in for the night.
Day 99 / June 4, 2026
Thursday morning, I got up early to meet Albert at the bus stop on Calle 2 Sur to ride to Universidad Catolica Maule (UCM) together. Aparna was giving a lecture on ecological considerations for extremophile studies to commemorate the launching of a new Doctorate program in Ecological Health at UCM. After a slight moment of panic when I could not find Albert (walking to the bus stop was the furthest journey he has done solo since arriving in Talca and his phone does not work offline) he suddenly appeared. We waited together for the A1 or B3 to come. The B3 arrived, we paid the 600 CLP fee, and walked to the back where there was just standing room.
Catalina met us at the school entrance and gave us a brief tour of the campus as we walked to the lecture hall. We greeted the rest of the attendees and headed into the room. After a brief summary of the program and recognition of the 3 current students making up the first class in the specialty, Aparna went onstage. She shared an overview of the ongoing projects in the laboratory then went deeper into the unique geology of Chile making it possible to isolate extremophile species. Her presentation featured videos from her time in Antarctica which brought everything to life. INACH, Fondecyt, FOVI, and ANID are just some of the funding bodies which have previously, and still, continue to support her work.
After the presentation, there was a brief coffee break. We enjoyed alfajores and sopaipillas while meeting UCM students and faculty. I had a lovely conversation with Dr. José Mesquita Neto about his work on bee communication.
Shortly after, Dr. Alexis Castillo Bruna, an aquatic biologist and vicerector of investigation at UCM showed us around the labs on campus. He also shared a bit about his experience onboard the research vessel to Antarctica and extended a warm invitation to collaborate in future.
As the event wrapped up, everyone made their way back to the U Autónoma campus. I rode the micro again with Catalina and Albert. When we arrived back at our stop on Calle 2 Sur, the others headed to the lab while I went home to meet Mina and Jula for lunch. Jula has been dying to try some Chilean fruit so we walked to the Jumbo grocery store together. We were partially successful acquiring just prickly pear, or tuna in spanish, before wandering over to the grocery store cafe. Jula had a sausage and papas duquesas (potato balls), Mina a prosciutto, tomato, and egg sandwich, and I had some kind of meatloaf with papas duquesas too. For dessert we shared a slice of banoffee pie, passionfruit cheesecake, and red wine meringue. It was a clear victory for the banoffee.
Mina and Jula walked home while I headed back to the lab. After a few hours, I headed home where Mina was just wrapping up work. The sun had set so instead of a hike up the cerro, we walked towards Rio Claro and stopped for dinner at The Patio. Jula had a burger, I had a chicken sandwich and a lemonade, and Mina had her first patacone sandwich (Venezuelan style with plantains). On our way back we picked up churros in the park and brought them back to the apartment. At home, we dipped them in manjar and snacked while watching more Law and Order.
Chau! Thank you for coming along! :)
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