Pictures

Little random order - sorry :)


View at the hotel from my front door


View from my porch to the beach


Beach right in front of the hotel


More ocean :)



Mi Casa!




My little porch




Inside




My bathroom




The view through my sliding door :)

Far from home

You realize you are indeed far away from home when the directional signs by a round-about just out of town indicate "Turn right for Bolivia" and "Straight ahead for Peru".

To help you orient yourself a little bit, here is a map - see Arica all the way in the north of Chile

Good morning

I now have some time for a little longer update :). Thankfully, this first day or two is fairly slow going, as we are waiting for the C130 to arrive, and the operations center to be set up. First flight is planned for wednesday I think.

The flight into Chile yesterday morning was absolutely gorgeous - we flew over the ocean, along the snow capped Andes mountains for about 2-3 hrs. Then we spent 5 hrs at the airport in Santiago, after which we flew back up north, again along the Andes towards Arica. Arica is only about 12 miles or so from the border with Peru.
At the airport, we (two coworkers form UW) got a rental car, and drove to the hotel, which is about 25 minutes from the airport (so not too bad of a commute on flight days).

Last night, I was, suprisingly enough, not too tired, and stayed up pretty late, getting used to the time change too I'm sure. It is actually not too different - we are three hours ahead of Laramie. Chile just changed over to summer time yesterday, and when Laramie changes over to winter time, the difference will be four hours. Me and two coworkers from Laramie went out to find a restaurant in the area for dinner last night, and walked along the beach for a little bit. The ocean is nice - every now and then you can see a seal head pop up, and there are always lots and lots of fishing boats around (fishing for anchovis is big here), which are very fun to watch. The area though has nothing to really write home about - it is very very dry - it never rains here, so there is not even a single blob of grass on all the miles and miles of sand out here. Of course there are some trees and green around the hotel, which makes it pretty nice.

This morning, after sleeping in a little bit, I had breakfast at the hotel (included) - pretty fancy! Everything you could ever want, as much as you want: fruit, eggs, sausages, wafels, all sorts of breads and cereals, coffee cakes, milk, yoghurts, a bunch of juices, and coffee and tea. After that, my coworkers and I headed into town to find a grocery store for some shopping - and succeeded - it was almost like a walmart but then of course with a flair of south american chaos. I bought some plug in converters, a water cooker (although I'm not allowed to have one in my room I think :) ), an alarm clock, LOTS and LOTS of drinking water, and a whole pile of groceries, to keep my pregnant belly happy and healthy. Though the food in the hotel restaurant is good, sometimes it is just nice to be able to make your own lunch.
I also realized, that my Spanish is definately very horrible (just as horrible as everyone's English here, which makes for a problem). Trying to explain to the sales person that you really only want a water cooker, and not one in an *on sale* combo pack with an iron and a waffle maker is not so easy!! Luckily I have both hands and feet to help me out :)

I was hoping to take some pictures from the area for you guys, but I just heard that we are leaving for the airport in 30 minutes... apparently the C130 (with my 'boss' on board) has arrived, along with all the equipment. Even though I will be pretty useless in helping them unload (not lifting heavy stuff came in my contract :) ) it would be fun to go along.
Till next time!

I do have one shot - the place I am blogging to you from: "lunch on the veranda"

More pictures to come tonight, I promise!

I'm here!

After 31 hrs of travelling on the most puny airplane seats, and most boring airports, I have arrived in Arica, Chile! Weather is nice, definately a desert here! Only sand to see.

I'm in my own cabana with porch and big windows overlooking the beach and the ocean! It is actually not THAT nice - 60s decor, and I don't think they've done ANYTHING to the place since the 60s - everything is pretty run down. But - for tonight I'm more than happy to lay my head here!)

I will write more tomorrow, I don't have a plug-in and power converter yet to hook up my computer, so I want to save the battery to talk to Ben tonight :) - Hope you all don't mind.

Baby update

Your pregnancy: 17 weeks (from babycenter.com)
How your baby's growing:Your baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5 ounces now (about as much as a turnip), and she's around 5 inches long from head to bottom. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop.

This morning I had another appointment at the women's clinic! It was so short after the other one, because this saturday I leave for my 6 week trip.
I'll be 17 weeks tomorrow, and everything looked fine - got to hear the heartbeat again!! :) - I've gained a couple of pounds since July (really have no idea how many - it depends so much on what scale I step, or on what (time of) day, but lets say about 5lbs or so). I only have 1 pair of regular jeans left that fit comfortably, and my belt is loosened by 1.5 notches :) - yes, a little belly is there!
The appointment for our 'big' ultrasound is set too! - Tuesday November 25th! I'll be 23.5 weeks by then, but the doctor said that they should be able to see everything fine, as long as you come in before 24 weeks (right now, at 17 weeks was a little too early). I cannot wait!
I also asked the doctor about the safety issue on board the research aircraft I blogged about earlier (can't fly beyond 20 weeks pregnancy), and he said it is mainly because by that time your belly really starts poking out, so if I was to get jolted around due to turbulence, my little one wouldn't be that protected anymore. I figure I will just see as I go along, and see how turbulent the flights are. If I find that everything is safe, I will continue my job, but if I think - in the least bit - that things are becoming unsafe, then I'll have someone else take over my job.

Lap dog?

Sage thinks she is a lapdog sometimes. I wonder if she realizes that she is in fact 85+ lbs?



She was quietly snoozing before the camera came out :)





I also wonder if she realizes I'm pregnant - you hear sometimes that pets can sense these things - she has become increasingly affectionate and cuddly with me.

Some C130 pictures

I did not have much time to take (good) pictures during and before the test flight, but here are a few anyway:

My seat!

My professor in the seat next to mine to train me during the flight. That little laptop is what we use to operate and 'check' the instruments. The actual data is stored in a much larger central computer on the plane. During normal operations, another person will be sitting in the seat next to mine (haven't met him yet), to operate the UWYO LIDAR.

This is the instrument rack that I'm responsible for. On top there is a CN counter (counts particles in the atmosphere), then a CCN counter (counts cloud condensation nuclei - the particles that clouds form on - in the atmosphere), then a UFN (a ultrafine particle counter), and a pump on the bottom to obtain flow through the system. Another person from our team will also be on the plane to operate the UWYO cloud radar, and LIDAR. I'm sure I will tell you more about the instruments as we get further into the project ;)

Another shot of the outside of the plane, right before take off.

Pilots doing their final safety inspections

Below the tip of the left wing, UWYO has an FSSP (Forward Scattering Spectrometer Probe - an optical probe that measures cloud water content and number concentration, and cloud droplet size; size 1-45 um), and a PCASP (Passive Cavity Aerosol Spectrometer Probe - again to measure aerosol particles in the (dry) atmosphere ; size 0.1-3 um)

I learned a LOT during the test flight, about operating the instruments, and what to look out for during ascent and descent of the aircraft. We flew around for about 3 hrs, basically going from Boulder over highway 287 towards Wyoming, then to the west over I-80. Then we found a cloud that we flew in and out of (saw-tooth pattern \/\/\/ - barf!) for a while, and then through the boundary layer of the atmosphere back to Boulder via Laramie and Cheyenne. Another thing I learned? That flying through the boundary layer for 2+ hrs is definately very, very much worse than my morning sickness during the first trimester EVER was. I sat there with a sic sac in my lap the entire time, focusing on the fact that I could make it to the end (!), I don't have to lose my lunch! It doesnt help either that the plane barely has any windows, only this tiny little round one you see in the picture. My professor ensured me though that the type of clouds we will be flying through in Chile will not be as turbulent, and neither will the layers of the atmopshere that we will be flying through there. Lets hope so, because I would definately have filled up my sic sac if that flight was 9 hours long!