I am now the proud holder of a certificate stating that I attended the international conference "The Humboldt Current System: Climate, ocean dynamics, ecosystem processes, and fisheries".
The conference was held in the new national library in Aviación, Lima. It's a very posh building with a gorgeous theatre (where the conference was held) and a state-of-the-art wireless network, designed by someone with an infortunate affinity for rough concrete blocks, and no desire to use to spectacular views of Miraflores and the sea that the upper floors must command. I will have to go back and visit the library itself soon, because they seemed to have some nice reference works.
On the Monday I helped out at the conference registration desk. I'm not sure I was actually required in the end, because almost all of the foreigners could get by in Spanish (better than myself, most of the time), and all of the people from Peru and Chile seemed to have awkward questions or ridiculous requests that I only understood half of anyway...never mind, it was fun, and I could spend the day waving to Michael across the lobby, who was handing out conference badges and backpacks (I got one of those too, yayayay). People who helped out were rewarded with free lunches all week in the specially constructed tent in the library court. Lunch consisted of a buffet with lots of different Peruvian dishes. Unfortunately the hygiene and quality of the cuisine left a lot to be desired, and so for the first time in the month that I've been here, my stomach went on strike on Tuesday night...
The next problem was the very powerful air conditioning system in the theatre, which meant everyone was sitting in whatever long-sleeved, long-legged garments they could muster in an otherwise 25-degree Peruvian spring! And, of course, Michael caught a cold and promptly passed it on to me!
The first days of the conference we heard presentations on winds, forcing, waves and water masses, and I was left wishing I'd paid some attention back in those physics classes in secondary school...many models and incomprehensible graphs later, we got on to ecosystems, seabirds, anchoveta and...HAKE - Michael's main preoccupation at work. It was really interesting to see some of the theories on why anchoveta and hake and some other important fish migrate or disappear, and to learn about top-down, bottom-up and wasp-waist systems - well, learn is maybe a mild exaggeration, but now I can go away and read more, or at least ask my personal, domestic specialist slightly more enlightened questions.
For example, I understood that when predators or El Niño force the anchoveta to move to greater depths, that leaves the seabirds unable to feed on them (and vice versa).
Michael's presentation was on the last day of the conference, AFTER the Peña party (which I will get to in a second). Both of us had had enough of his speech by then, we both had a "mild" fever, and, yes, could still feel the effect of the pisco sour from the night before. He did an excellent job, making me proud and his boss relieved that some of the Peruvian speakers at least were fluent enough to represent IMARPE (these generally being the underpaid "younger" employees who are hired for a period of maybe six months, with no social security and no pension scheme, year after year after year at the risk of being kicked out at the whim of the scientific director - this is in a government-funded institution researching the basis of maybe the country's most important source of revenue).
After the speech and lunch, I gave up and went home to bed.
The peña:
A show based loosely on traditional music and dance from the tribes of Peru, the peña was hosted by La Candelaria in the Barranco district. It was a nice, rustic bar&restaurant with a band, and we, the people from the conference, were seated at long wooden tables with a view of the central floor. Drinks were pisco sour, Cusqueña (beer), red wine and water. The food was more snacks, but they were delicious: crispy yucca sticks with mayonnaise dips, homemade chicken nuggets, cheese-filled bits of dough baked in the oven, served with guacamole, and some sort of marinated beef with chips. The entertainment consisted in a loud host who could have been working anywhere (AND DO WE HAVE ANYONE FROM THE UNITED STATES HERE TONIGHT?!) and dancers, who were very good. First there were some flute and drum accompanied "indians" in colourful costumes, and later came the people dancing "black" dances.
In between, conference guests were forced to represent their country in various silly dances. Fortunately for me, people still find it difficult to tell Switzerland and Sweden apart, and so I managed to dodge nomination. Instead, Michael and I had a go once we moved on to normal salsa. At 1.30 in the taxi back to San Miguel, Michael offered to give his speech on hake a final go. I declined rather firmly.
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