Week 27
Day 191 / September 4, 2026
With Professor Luis’s generous contribution of the nanodrop, I spent all day Friday performing duplicate and triplicate measures of all my previous DNA extracts. I wanted to be sure of the concentration for each sample and update the best candidate list accordingly. Although special elution tubes are used with the Qiagen kit, some DNA still binds to the tube walls which can affect the concentration measurements. To mitigate this I did a brief vortexing and spin down, but the concentration remained slightly lower than the first measure for almost every sample.
After a long morning of measuring I went for a late lunch at Sibarita with Cynthia and Cathe. The bistec a lo pobre with a side of oregano mashed potatoes, celery and green apple salad, and fries was so yummy! After lunch we finalized our experiments then cleaned up the lab and closed it for the weekend.
At 6:30pm I headed to Bar Estado with Catha, Cathe, Ismael, and Don Carlos. After reading about the recent partnership between London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral and Fabric to promote concerts within the historic building, I asked the others what they thought about using churches in Chile for similar events. It was an interesting conversation and we had barely covered half of it before we arrived. After very quickly scanning the familiar menu, we placed our order for two mechada fries to share, as well as drinks from the happy hour menu.
I couldn’t stay for too long, and left from Bar Estado at 8:00pm. After quickly stopping at home to change clothes and get my climbing gear, I headed to Pared for a night climb! Today and today only, the doors were open all night long for adults-only climbing time. When I arrived, the place was PACKED!! It was lovely to see new and familiar faces filling up the gym. That said, I am always super awkward when climbing in front of spectators. In addition, the condensed wall layout meant that you had to wait your turn in between tries which often meant cooling down and getting stiff. After just a few clunky attempts, I resigned to watching and chatting.
I had a lovely conversation with Cristhopher, a sports photographer working at the night climb who had also been at the Cuspide competition a month prior. By 1:00am we were doing far more dancing and chatting than climbing. It was awesome!
The energy was still at a high, so Pachi, Matias, Cristobal, Cristhopher, Diego, Diego, and I headed to a techno event at Lua at 3am. The guys had all brought a change of clothes but Pachi and I hadn’t we we made a super quick pit stop at my house along the way. We stayed there until close at 6am then I went straight home to bed.
Day 192 / September 5, 2026
My alarm woke me up at 12:00pm prompting me to drink some water and have a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. I was dressed and out in the sun by 1:30pm en route to hike Piedra Peñon. I had clear views and enjoyed the empty trail all to myself.
On my way back I stopped at Jumbo for some groceries. After arriving at home around 4:00pm, I noticed some texts from the Talca crew confirming our plans for Creamfields: Chile’s largest electronic music festival coming to Santiago the weekend of November 13-15. I hopped online and booked my ticket for Sunday November 15. Calvin Harris, Charlotte De Witte, Loud Luxury, BassJackers and Fisher are just some of the many many artists on the setlist for the day. By then it was time for dinner so I cooked some green peppers and onions alongside some seasoned ground beef and stacked it all into a sandwich using the fluffy marraqueta bread.
Day 193 / September 6, 2026
On Sunday climbing plans were up in the air depending on weather and psych. Eventually I heard from Cristobal and Pachi who came by to pick me up at 2:00pm. Cristobal had a new blue Lexus and it was niiiiice. He drove the short 20 minutes over to Cerro Grande, a new climbing zone that has been developed along Ruta K 118 near Pecahue while Pachi and I sipped mate and chatted about our weekend. We pulled onto a dirt road and soon found ourselves near Francisco, David, Diego F, Seba, Connie and Rodrigo and their babies Flor and Nael. I mostly watched while the others chatted over GPS coordinates on a phone. Ultimately they decided to drive further down and hike up towards the new zone.
We parked up, loaded crash pads and climbing gear onto our backs and headed up. The determined grunts from a crew already climbing at the boulders gave it away. Carlos, Javier, Sophie and some others had been there all morning working new problems.
While everyone started working the incredibly overhung problems, I wandered around the surrounding area. I came across a far more approachable boulder with chalk on some very obvious holds. I took some reference photos then headed down to the rest of the crew to ask about it.
I was told it was a V3 and Pachi agreed we would check it out later. We lay out in the sun on the grass watching as everyone tried the routes in the cave. Meanwhile Nael and Flor played with a green dinosaur plush and cheered on mom and dad, Coni and Rodrigo, from the side.
At 5:30pm, Pachi, David, and I took a crash pad up to the V3 and took turns giving it a go. The song of the day seemed to be Cheri Cheri Lady by Modern Talking which Sophie had been singing at the lower cave. It was stuck in my head by then and I kept humming it every time Pachi’s cherry shirt came into view.
As we were each about to give it our second attempt, a chunk of rock came out of the third hand hold making it a way larger pocket. The following attempts were far cleaner thanks to the new jug.
Seba and Cristobal wandered up to say hello, by which point the three of us were getting tired. We headed back down to the big cave at 6:40pm to snack on the spread of shared snacks and slowly pack up our things.
As the sun was starting to set, we heard some mooing in very close proximity so David and I went to check it out. The cows were just as surprised to see us as we were to see them!
Not long after we headed back to the cars and drove to Bar España for some post climbing brews. I had a michelada then split a gin and tonic special with Cristobal. A lil bar dog came and chilled around the table for some time. Cutie patootie!
Day 194 / September 7, 2026
On Monday, Professor Aparna suggested that Catha should measure my proposed group of extracts on the Nanodrop to confirm the concentrations. At 3:00pm we went to measure and Catha was able to confirm the majority were low, between 3 and 20 ng/uL.
Once we had cleaned up the lab, I headed home to quickly change and grab my climbing gear. Vincente, the Ciencias Chile news reporter was in town again and reached out to say hello. I agreed to meet him at Pared and so we climbed while he told me about his time in Talca. He also shared that since I had seen him a few weeks ago, he had suffered a scary bout of illness resulting in heart inflammation after a flu infection. Today was his first time climbing since recovering so we took it slow and had long breaks to chat between pegues.
At 9:00pm we stopped to get completos from 5 Oriente then stopped at Oxo to get some sweets for Vincente’s bus journey back to Valdivia.
When we walked in the door of the apartment we were met by the unhappy surprise that my kitchen light was dead. With an hour to kill before his bus journey, Vincente hopped on the counter top and tried to help me figure it out. It was my first time taking apart the lights and we found they were LED panels with a funky LED transfer unit that I had never seen before. It left me with more questions than answers, but was the start I needed to order a replacement. We left the light dismantled on the countertop with the circuit breaker off.
With plans for a lab fonda (party or celebration for the Chilean Fiestas Patrias) the next day, I got to work making pumpkin bread while Vincente did some work.
While the breads were in the oven and once I had finished washing up, Vincente used the last bit of time before his bus to show me Chilean meme compilations on YouTube. I learned more watching a short 15 minute video than I have all week! At 11:30pm he ordered his uber to get to the bus. We said our goodbyes and I got myself ready for bed.
Day 195 / September 8, 2026
In Tuesday morning’s class with Professor Charles we learned about bacteria involved in skin infections including Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pyogenes. It was a sunny day outside as I walked over to the lab. The outdoor patio area was being set up as a mini fonda for various food stalls and activities! I made a mental note of it and continued down to the lab.
Just before 11:00am, confusion broke out in the lab as we all heard back from our applications to present in the Universidad de Talca X Encuentro Cientifico Biologia Vegetal y Biotecnología. Myself, Don Carlos, and Aylin had all received two emails: a rejection and an acceptance. We shared the two messages with Aparna who followed up with the event organizers. They replied to apologize for the confusion and confirm that we had all indeed been rejected. None of us worked directly with plants, making our proposals unsuitable for the conference.
Following the confirmation of low concentrations from the day prior, Catha had kindly agreed to perform the DNA extraction with the Qiagen kit. I watched as she performed the procedure from start to finish, noting any changes I had incorporated when necessary. We didn’t have time to measure the concentration today, owing to the early lab closure, so we stored the extracts in the 4C fridge and cleaned up.
At around 12:00pm, Dr. Iván Suazo Galdames, the newly appointed Vicerrector de Investigación y Doctorados (Vice Rector of Research and Doctoral Programs) stopped by for a visit. As well as briefly touring the lab and talking a bit about the ongoing research, we all snapped a selfie together!
At 5:00pm we finished making a grocery list then Catha, Cathe, Ismael and I headed to Lider to pick up supplies. On the way, we took a quick stroll around the mini fonda above the lab and I grabbed an anticucho to snack on.
By 5:20pm we were in Lider loading up a cart with meats, terremoto ingredients (Pipeño white wine, pineapple ice cream and grenadine), and Chilean themed headbands and decorations. All of this prep was to facilitate an early ‘dieciocho chico’ (small 18th party). Nicolas was moving to Brazil for his three month study exchange on September 10, so this meant he was able to partake in the festivities.
After completing our purchases, we ubered to Cynthia’s mom’s house and got to work setting up. Don Carlos arrived when we did, and busied himself with starting the grill alongside Ismael.
Some snacks were plated including chips, and cream cheese with soy sauce (a spread/dip of sorts that is often present at gatherings in Chile) then Cynthia and Cathe got to work making terremotos. Two scoops of pineapple ice cream, around two tablespoons of grenadine, then some pipeño and finish with sprite. They were delicious!
Nicolas and his partner Alexandria arrived shortly after, then Estibaly and her daughter Antonia, Shrabana, Aparna and Mario. While the rest of the adults were chatting about lab, life, and Nicolas’s plans for Brazil; I was busy playing makeshift basketball and soccer with Antonia and Alex.
By 9:30pm we were all sat outside eating delicious cuts of meat, singing, and dancing cueca.
Seeing Nicolas and Alex dance together was like something out of the Notebook! It was so beautiful. That is how you do the cueca!
At 11:00pm, tiredness caught up to all of us so we started to head our separate ways. It was a fantastic evening and I hope Nicolas had his dieciocho cup filled.
Day 196 / September 9, 2026
At 11:00am we went to measure Catha’s extracts on the Nanodrop and sure enough, the concentrations were even lower than mine. Though I was disappointed by yet another low yield, internally I was relieved it confirmed that the outcomes of my previous experiments were not a result of human error, or more specifically, Rudy error. I met with Cynthia and Aparna to discuss the low yield. They recommended I perform the CTAB (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) DNA extraction method. I had never heard about or tried this method before, so I spent most of the day researching a protocol and checking what materials were needed. Though I was grateful to have their suggestions, the thought of optimizing a new protocol on an already limited amount of soil was slightly stressful. I had neither the time nor the resources to make it happen.
In the lab I made a quick list of the necessary reagents. With the list in hand, I began to search for all the necessary materials. Unfortunately the critical proteinase K and Chloroform: Isomyl Alcohol mixture were nowhere to be found. I headed back to the office to share this update with Cynthia and Aparna, picking up a mini emotional support pizza from the UA cafe on the way. They assured me Professor Luis Morales performed this extraction on a regular basis and may have some reagents to spare. It was a slight relief to know we wouldn’t have to wait for a mail order of supplies.
As for next steps, I was supposed to continue to familiarize myself with the protocol while they confirmed the availability of supplies. It was quite late by then, so I headed home to change and climb at Pared.
On my way home from climbing, I chatted with Val for our longer weekly catch up. We were still talking when I walked in the door hungry from a long day so I busied myself with pan frying some frozen gyoza while he told me all about his first couple of days teaching as well as his current seltzer fixations. Before long it was time for bed.
Day 197 / September 10, 2026
Today was a huge plant day in the lab. We had to measure the total length, number of leaves, number of roots, length of the radicula, among other criteria for around 300 plants treated with different biostimulants developed in the lab.
We started by taking each plant out of the dirt and shaking its roots to clear the dirt then bundling them with the respective replicates on trays to organize the various treatment groups. Just this process took us until 2:30pm at which point we left for lunch. I headed to Sibarita with Cathe and ate a lovely pork roast with sauteed onions, ensalada chilena, and a side of the signature oregano mashed potatoes and fries.
Back at the lab we continued measuring and recording until 6:30pm. We wrapped the remaining plants in a moist paper towel and stowed them for the night to continue the next day.
Very much in need of a sweet treat after all the measuring, I headed to Hookie Cookie where I bought a pie de limon and red velvet cookie.
At home as I was cooking dinner, the hot water wasn’t working. I went outside to check the water heater, the first time I have inspected it since moving in, and noticed there were two tripped switches. I turned both on and soon realized one corresponded to the radiators which hadn’t worked throughout the entirety of winter. Live and learn. Let that be a lesson to anyone: when moving to a new home, familiarize yourself with how all the systems work.
Chau for now!! :)
Another epic, jam-packed, week you've so graciously shared...with the suspense building on your project/lab samples. Loved learning about the romantic bird like Cueca dance, the yummy sounding terremoto cocktail, and the anticuchos. I see you are back to the kabobs, lol. Are those anticuchos made of beef heart? Great climbing and hiking scenes! Keep on keeping on Miss Rudy! And yes, always check the breakers, first. 🤗