Thank you...

Stephannie and Debbie for letting me borrow the most comfortable maternity capris and shorts! I wear them all the time - now I do hope they will survive the hotel laundry service :)

Kristen and Jo for providing me with downtime and in-flight entertainment - in the form of Christian novels - priceless!!

Whoever invented the internet :) - I'll see you online my man!

Sunday Mornings

On Sunday morning, the streets of Arica not only smell like urine (*), but they smell like urine, stale beer and sigarette butts - lovely.



Luckily, the ocean never disappoints, and on my walk this morning I watched the waves crash on the rocks, three seals play in the surf and some sea birds diving for fish. Also, apparently for the local population, sunday morning is the time to go sea-fishing. I don't know what they are fishing for, or what type of bait they use, but it was fun to watch:






During research projects, there is no such thing as a weekend, so I better get to work. I'm typing up the flight notes from the 9hr research flight I went on yesterday - more about that at some later point I'm sure!





((*)my theory on this: during the day, the local gardeners (and probably bums and drunk kids at night) pee on the streets, and since it never rains here, it never gets washed off, so it just piles on day after day, baking in the warm tropical afternoon sun - yuck!)

We made the local paper :)

Hotel Arica taken over by scientists :)

http://www.estrellaarica.cl/prontus4_nots/site/extra/pdp/pdp.html?sec=2&ts=20081017031513&fp=20081017&pag=15

Beach

I was getting a little sad, missing Ben, so he told me to walk out in the sunshine, sit on the beach, and take some pictures to share. So I did:


Ship - Fishing for anchovis (and others) is one of the main sources of income for the people here, so during the day, the sea is filled with little fishing boats (though this one might be a little bigger tanker of sorts). One of these mornings I'll take my camera to the next bay, where they tend to gather at that time - fun to watch!

Waves crashing on the rocks - sometimes some pretty big swells come in, and make for some nice splashy waves, but my camera (courtesy of the Antarctican cold 2 yrs ago) tends to shut really slow, always missing the action :)


A little bird I saw digging for clams and little fishies?



Also typical South American - on the big hill near the town (town is on the other side of this hill) there is a lady(*) with arms spread open. ... a zoom in: [(*) EDIT: upon closer inspection, the lady appeared to be a bearded man :) - probably a Jesus figure?]

(little blurry)


Oh - and the beach and streets and sidewalks are filled with little stray dogs like this one - some definately cuter than the others :) This one just found something to eat in between the rocks.

First flight

Yes, yet another post :) - these first few days are pretty slow (for me at least!), so I have plenty of time to blog :)
This morning we had a regulations and safety meeting out at the airport with the Chilean officials. I got my own ID security badge, so that we do not have to go through airport security everytime we go out to the plane(s).
The first research flight is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon - it will be a short one, only 2-4 hrs or so.
Here's the flight plan:


C-130 Flight Plan
VOCALS Research Flight #1
Location: Arica, Chile (18°20´55"S, 070°20´19"W)
October 15th 2008
Mission Scientist: Rob Wood
Take-off time: afternoon, precise time TBD
Mission Type: Shakedown/local recce

1. Climb out to maximum altitude (~20000 ft) at science climb rate of 1000 ft/min. Head out in straight line between Arica and 20°S, 75°W.
2. 15 minute run towards 20°S, 75°W at maximum altitude
3. Profile down to lowest level at 1000 ft/min
4. 10 minute straight and level runs below cloud, in-cloud, and in the lower free-troposphere in polluted and unpolluted layers, with 1000 ft/min climbs/descents between legs
5. Repeat #4 one more time
6. Turn around, head home carrying out runs at different altitudes above cloud, as specified by mission scientist on outbound leg.

Food

I'm sure I will blog much much more about this topic, but consider this food blog nr. 1 :)

So as I said earlier, the hotel breakfast is fantastic. No issues there. Hotel lunches and dinners are good too, except as with most restaurants it is sometimes hard to get your daily veggies in (haven't seen salads yet).
Today, 2 coworkers and I (there are 5 of us from Laramie now) walked downtown to find some lunch. Downtown was very interesting, lots and lots of people that all they seem to do for a living is lounge around under a tree. Either way, we ended up at this restaurant, and I ordered (from a picture) what looked like a regular old hamburger :). I was a little surprised then when what I got was this ENORMOUS bun, with shredded beef meat in between the buns, and tomatoes (very normal so far), and then - about a layer an inch thick of green beans!?!? Green beans from a can! Haha. On top of that there was this yellow melted goo that I'm sure was some sort of cheese :). Since I am not a picky eater, and figured that at least with this "green bean burger" I would get some veggies in for the day (even though from a can), I just went for it and ate the whole thing :)
There is also the "issue" that like most Latin type places, restaurants don't open till 8:30-9 ish, which means eating very late. This is not a problem if you're on vacation, but since I am here for work, I do have to get up a resonable time in the mornings - oh well - just have to get used to going straight to bed with a full belly I guess :) (and being starving all the way from normal dinner time till 9!).

Yet another post! Some short videos...

Driving towards the airport, and through town

Downtown traffic

Outside of town, there is nothing but dessert sand, for hundreds and hundreds of miles