Back home

Well, just to let everyone know, I made it back to Boston. This was an unforgettable experience and I cant wait to go back to Antarctica next January. Thanks for following!!!

Santiago

On my way back from Antarctica, I stopped in Santiago to enjoy 96 degree weather and finish a site installation. Eduardo gave me an excellent tour of the city and his family treated me to home cooked meals each night.

Back to the mainland

After leaving Antarctica, we spent a couple days in Punta Arenas. One of Edwardo's friends, Almendra, showed us around the city. She took us to a museum that was a old family mansion in the early 1900s before the Panama Canal was built when Punta Arenas was at its peak. In the basement, they had pieces of native artwork. Then we went to an old cementary where many famous families are buried.

She also treated us to a 5 course lunch at her Dad's restaurant. They offer native foods with a modern twist. We had garlic soup, an appetizer of goose, beaver, gnaco, and a ostrich like bird, then our main dishes were fettucini with crab, and chilean sea bass. Then for dessert it was the calafate (blueberry like berry in Patagonia) sauce with ice cream and chocolate mouse with sherbert. The lunch for the 3 of us was over $100. I told her that I eat better in Chile/Antarctica then I do in Boston. '

Picture from inside the mansion


This canoe belonged to one tribe of native inhabitants. Whole families would live in a canoe like this and they would hunt by diving deep to spear fish or catch other sea animals. Catching food like this would eliminate America's obesity problem.


this is the picture of some natives. Almendra's restaurants serves food they ate.




Picture from the cementary. Many famous ship captains, politicans, and business leaders are buried here

heading north again

David, Veronica, and me.

David is the head engineer for the base, and Veronica is head of scientific projects at INACH in Punta Arenas




We flew back on a Brazilian Air Force C-130. We had Brazilians, Argentians, Chileans, Chinese, and me on board. It felt like the UN.

Pics from around the base

Another pic of the base, I stayed in one of the middle blue buildings below

My room who i shared with Jorge, one of the base engineers

Paul's shack he shares with Aleco. It was funny hearing him comment how he lives in a house on a lake back in New York and he now is living in a trailer! Orginally it had no heat and he was survining off of cookies and mac and cheese. He said my place was like the taj mahal.

Another view of where I stay

final days at the bottom of the world

I apologize for being delayed with this post, but the last few days in Antarctica were busy. We successfully got the system working which made me happy! It was tough to say goodbye to Antarctica since I wasn't ready to leave. I could have stayed down there another couple weeks because I was getting used to the schedule and having a great time with the people there. At nights after dinner we would watch movies together and drink Cuban rum which was a lot of fun. Plus I wanted to see more penguins and seals.

One night Paul and I were talking to a Carolina, a Chilean woman who knows very little English and we know very little Spanish. Paul was telling her how he rode his motorcycle from New York to Ushuia, Argentina with a friend. "dos motorcylicade, dos amigos" he told her. Then later on he said "Morroco" like the instrument, but all of sudden everybody burst out laughing. The Chileans later told him that Morrocoo means "gay" in Chile. I then asked him if it was "uno motorcylicade, dos amigos!" and Carolina agreed.







One night Paul took me to see the seals...

penguins, penguins, penguins

The German biologists I met over at the Russian station let me them tag along with them today. They study penguin offspring each year and count adults/chicks at various colonies. Christina was telling me she's been here each of the last 7 years. They took me over to a neighboring island that is restricted to people except for scientific research. I never in my wildest dreams thought that graduating with an engineering degree would take me to Antarctica to count penguins, but I guess I wasn't dreaming big enough.

The sights were extraordinary! It was a once in a lifetime experience being feet away for these penguins and their 2 month-year-olds. The young penguins were so energetic and curious- I even have a video of a chick chasing its parent around the rocks! We were blessed with a rare day of sunlight and we could see the thousands of penguins on the island, the sparkling blue water surrounding the island, and the glaciers in the distance. Wow. absolutely spectacular!

joleen- i thought about you today :)

mother and her young

these curious chicks ran up to me to see what i was doing