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

Day 7

Today we got working putting the new magnetometer in. We made good progress until we realized we were sent the wrong magnetometer. It is for U.S. 120V power and not Chilean 250V power. We're working on coming up with an unique solution to this problem.

Tonight we had a delicious BBQ dinner with ribs, bratwurst, potatoes, Chilean wine, and homemade bread! I met Paul, an American world traveler who is from New York. He told me he was working here for a couple weeks. 2 years ago he rode his bike from NY to the bottom of Chile and sold it. The new owner, Aleco, is a Chilean and works for the airline company who flies from Punta Arenas to Antarctica. He asked Paul if he wanted to come down for a little bit and help him with the airlines.

Paul told me this was the best meal he's had. He has lived on mac and cheese, cookies, and salami the last week. I gave him a shocked look after he told me this and then he responded with "youve been eating good, right?" I eventually told him we had private cooks and tons of food everyday and he told me he needed to come over for dinner.

Me and mi amigo, Edwardo

From left:

Aleco (who runs the shipping company)

me

Fernando

Paul

After dinner we danced to some mirimba/reggaetone music.

Day 5- penguins!

Today I got a tour of the Cosmic Rays Observatory. This is the lab run by Dr. Cordaro of the University of Chile. There are about only 30 worldwide and he runs all 3 in Chile. He is practically a celebrity around here. With him, is Eduardo who is his student assistant in Santiago.

In the observatory is our magnetometer (used for Air Force space weather research), which I will be replacing with a newer instrument. It is part of our chain of 8 magnetomters in Chile and 4 in Antarctica.

My roommate is Jorge who was the engineer on the base for 4 years. He took me over to the Russian base where I had drinks (vodka of course) with the Russian scientists and some German biologists.



Here are the penguins who chill at our base!


Here is the picture of the base from our observatory and the dream team. From left is me, Fernando (the base engineer), Dr. Enrique Cordaro, and Eduardo. In the background are all the bases. The top right 3 buildings are Russian, in the middle are the Chilean Air Force bases, and the bottom is INACH- the Chilean antarctica group, we're I'm staying.

Day 4- Antarctica!

I had a rude awakening today at 4:30am to catch our flight to Antarctica. Wow, that was early. We ended up flying commercial and not on a Chilean Air Force plane, which was orginally planned. On the plane was about 40 people including me as the only American, 4 Spanish people, and the rest were Chileans.

The trip's sponsor for me is INACH (Chilean Antarctica Institute). They outfitted me with all the gear and provide all the accomodations at Escudero. Escudero is one of many bases on King George Island. As you can see on the map, King George Island is a little North of the Antarctica pennisula, which I call the Florida of Antarctica. There are Russian, Danish, Chinese, and Argentian bases on the island.

We landed on a gravel air strip. The weather was cold probably about 20 degrees, but very windy. We had to wait outside for a couple hours until all the bags were collected and we could get transported to our cabins.

From 4 straight days of travel and possibly drinking bad water in Santiago, I got really sick today. I had stomach congestion and a headache. After sleeping from 1pm to 8pm, I started feeling better, but we'll see how it goes.

Day 3- Punta Arenas

I got a hold of Marina today. She taught a few classes in the morning at the University, but afterwards came by the hotel to pick me and bring me to the airport. Because of the layover, I missed my flight to Punta Arenas from Santiago.

It was quite the chase to rebook my ticket. At first, I talked to American Airlines to rebook my ticket, but they told me to wait until Santiago and talk to LAN. Then in Santiago, the LAN people told me to talk to American. Since the American counter was closed last night, I spoke with them again today.

Both flights to Punta Areans were booked so I was put on stand-by. Marina helped translate and begged with me to get on one of those flights. We told LAN, I couldn't miss my flight to Antarctica the next day and had to get to Punta Arenas. I even told them I was willing to fly in a crew member's seat!

Success!!! I got a seat in the 6pm flight which I swore was the last seat on the plane. I was very relieved and made it to Punta Arenas around midnight. I had a quick dinner with Dr. Cordaro and then went to sleep.

Day 2- Santiago

After my layover in Miami, I flew to Santiago at 2pm. I arrived in Santiago around 2am in the morning. I figured it was too late to call Marina and get the tools so I looked for a hotel. The Holiday Inn at the airport was full so I took a taxi downtown.

The taxi driver tried to rip me off which didnt make me too happy at 2am. He orginally quoted the ride at $40. I baulked at that offer and told him it was outrageous. I said it was more than I paid in Boston and Boston is a much more expensive city. I finally got him down to about $20 and I found out later from the hotel receptionist that $20 is reasonable for that ride.

Day 1- Miami!

So today I left Boston to head to Miami. Since my flight got delayed leaving Boston I had a tight connection in Miami. However, things didnt go as planned. The plane to Santiago was having troubles and everybody sat on board for 2 hours. Then they finally realized, the plane couldn't fly so everyone got off and received hotel vouchers.

I guess this is karma because I was dreaming of eventually having a layover in Miami. I didnt think it would come tonight. The weather is gorgeous at around 75 degrees and I look out of place with my winter jacket.

I did meet a tour group going to Antarctica! They were going on an Antarctica cruise around the pennisula and King George Island (were I'll be at) They thought it was neat to meet me, who's actually going there to work and all agreed I have a sweet job. I definitely feel fortunate to be going there especially since the tour cost them $17,000/person.