1 October 1995
Well, this edition of my adventures seems to be quite long. Not all that much has happened, but I took notes and was a little bit more verbose than usual. Pretty much all I did was take two trips, one to Boise, Idaho and another to Chile and Antarctica. The second trip was quite significant as far as my world travels go because it was my first trip to South America. I have only one more continent to go before I will have been to all seven. That continent is Africa. The trip to Boise was significant because one of my long-time friends got married.
I had a good time in Boise, visiting with many friends. My friends' wedding went quite well. It was outside, just before sunset. I ended up driving about 1700 miles in the whole trip. I went on the freeway the entire way there. It was raining pretty hard when I left Denver, so I decided to stay on major roads. It took me just under twelve hours to get there. After the wedding I visited a friend in Pocatello, one from my days of living there, almost nine years ago. My friend, Christy, had just given birth to her second child one week prior to my visit, so it was a short visit. On the drive back I went on some smaller roads, which was quite fun. I stopped for the night in a place called Little America, Wyoming. They had a stuffed Emperor Penguin that was brought back by Admiral Byrd in the lobby. I thought this to be rather strange. It turns out that the place is named after the Little America station in Antarctica which Admiral Byrd used as his staging area for his flight to the South Pole. They had a bunch of penguin stuffed toy animals and other things to buy in the gift shop. From there I went down to Highway 40. Part of the way was on an un-paved road. My new car took it quite well. I took Highway 40 through a bunch of ski towns and I even got snowed on at one point.
I went on a two day kayaking trip on the Arkansas river last weekend (first weekend in August). I had a great time. It was a group of seven of us from work that went on the trip. We left on Friday, after work, arriving right about at sunset. We had a terrible time setting up the tents, quite a comedy. The next day we had a long six hours of instruction about kayaking on a small lake. We learned how to do a wet-exit, how to paddle in a straight line and to turn, how to do a T-rescue and how to do a brace movement. A wet-exit is merely getting out of the kayak when it is upside down. It is really not as hard as it seems it would be. The hardest part was to keep from panicking. The T-rescue is were another kayak will put its bow next to yours when you are upside down and you reach up and use it to roll yourself upright. Paddling straight is the hardest thing to do in a kayak. They really have a mind of their own. A brace is where you use the paddle along with shifting your weight to prevent yourself from rolling over. After this exhausting training we carried our kayaks about a half-mile to the river. We then went down the river about 3/4 mile. I was so tired by that point that I had a bit of trouble with the river. Right at the end I rolled my kayak and had to do a wet-exit. Getting out of the kayak while floating down the river upside-down was much easier than I imagined it would be. We all went to bed fairly early that night, I was not the only one that was thoroughly exhausted. There were a few sources of noise throughout the night. We were between highway 50 and railroad tracks, so we got to hear trucks and trains throughout the night. Then there was a lion on the other side of the river that would moan all night. Yes, an African lion. There used to be a zoo there, but it got closed down and for some reason the lion is still there. The next day they showed us the basics of doing an Eskimo Roll, which is rolling the boat back upright when it is upside-down. Then, it was back to the river for about 1.5 miles. I was not feeling quite up to par on this day, so I did not participate in the rolling or the river trip. I and another person who decided to not go down the river the second day went into the town of Salida to play tourist. It was just a few miles away, and it made for a real pleasant day.
My trip to Palmer Station, Antarctica started just after lunch on August 14th with the trip to the airport. I had to carry an extra amount of luggage for work, an aluminum trunk two feet wide by three feet long and a foot and a half high. It turned out to be 110 pounds, but the airlines will not accept any piece of luggage over 99 pounds. I had to transfer some of its contents to another piece of luggage. There were several other ASA employees on the same flight as myself, but I knew only one of them. We left Denver at about 3:30pm, for what would be over 23 hours of traveling. From Denver we flew to Miami, and then on to Santiago, Chile. The flight into Santiago was spectacular. It was right as the sun was rising over the snow covered Andes on a bright clear day. On the flight down to Punta Arenas we flew over an area called the Lake District. There were many beautiful lakes surrounded by mountains, glaciers and volcanoes. We saw one lake that a glacier was flowing into. There were many icebergs in the lake that had calved off the glacier. It made for an interesting mix of colors, the white snow, blue water and the icebergs were a mix of the two colors. Directly upon arriving at Punta Arenas we were whisked away to be issued our cold weather clothing and then on to the ship (the RV Polar Duke) where we settled in. It started snowing big white fluffy flakes a short time later. It was the tail end of a huge storm that had hit the area a week before. A bunch of us decided to head out into town for dinner. We ate at a Chinese restaurant, and had a great time. On the way back to the ship we stopped by the statue of Magellan that is in the town square. He is at the top of the statue, but there are two of his men that are lower down. The foot of one is at head height, and it is supposed to be good luck to rub his foot. So, we all did our obligatory rub. The statue is made of bronze, and the big toe of that sailor is polished quite bright from all of the rubbings it gets. The next day we received an orientation of the ship and were showed how to use the lifeboats and the cold water survival suits. The suits are nicknamed ``Gumby'' suits because that is what you look like when you wear them. The Polar Duke is an ice strengthened Research Vessel run by a Norwegian company for the National Science Foundation. It is just over 200 feet long. Because it is designed to cut its way through the ice the hull has a rather shallow draft and is rounded, which makes for a rough riding ship. We, quite fortunately, had great weather for the crossing of the Drake Passage on the way south. From Punta Arenas we went east through the Strait of Magellan, and around to the east side of Tierra del Fuego, which in English means ``The Land of Fire.'' From there we went south-east to the strait between Tierra del Fuego and Isla de los Estados and then into the Drake Passage. You probably wonder why the island is called ``The Land of Fire'' when it is only a stones throw away from Antarctica. Well, when it was first sighted by Europeans the natives had so many campfires burning that it looked like the land was burning. Half a day later we hit the ice flows. The crew said that this is the furthest north they have ever seen the ice. There is a large area around Antarctica where pieces of the ice sheet are just floating. They gradually became more and more dense. Then on the fourth evening of the journey we were completely surrounded by the ice flows and it was snowing. The ship has two large spotlights to light the way ahead of us. We crept along at 2.5 knots so that we would not hit any icebergs. It was a really eerie and beautiful view from the bridge. By morning we were in solid ice, not just ice flows. That really slowed us down. We spent the entire next day in view of a spectacular island called Smith Island. It is 6900 feet high and less than five miles across at its widest. We made very slow way through the ice, our forward progress was consistently coming to a complete halt, we then had to back up and pick a new path through the ice. Sometimes our lunges forward would only achieve a boat length of progress. Cutting our way through the ice like this is a very noisy process. It made sleeping at night much more difficult, especially since the cabins are near the bow and along the hull, which doesn't provide much insulation from the noise. We finally reached some open water, in an area called Dallman Bay. We did some fishing there. One of the scientist on board studies the natural antifreeze in the fish here. We fished by towing a net behind the ship and caught quite a number. Then a problem arose. The salt water intake for the equipment that makes fresh water has frozen solid in the cold water. That means that we can not make any more water until it thaws, which will not happen until we get to warmer water. So, we then began rationing water. That mostly meant shorter and less frequent showers. Then we hit some real thick ice with lots of snow piled upon it. That made the going real slow. Then, after spending two days to travel just a couple of miles it was decided that it would take too long to cover the 60 miles left to Palmer Station, so we turned around and headed back to Punta Arenas. The entire round trip was scheduled to take 18 days and at this rate it would take us nearly that whole time just to get there. One problem is that our ship is not a real icebreaker, so it can't handle very thick ice. Icebreakers break the ice by driving their bow up onto the ice and then the weight of the ship breaks the ice. The Polar Duke just pushes forward and tries to cut through the ice. Lastly, we had thermal images of the area that were taken from a satellite to help us judge the thickness of the ice in front of us and it did not look like it would get much easier. We did some more fishing on the way back, about where we did it on the way south. The scientists extract the blood from the fish so they can study it. The antifreeze that they have is in their blood. They had so many fish that they asked for help and many of us passengers helped, including myself. It is done by sticking a syringe into a vein near the spine of the fish, so we didn't have to cut the fish at all. It started getting real cold, reaching -20° Celsius a number of times, and the water temperature was consistently -1.5° Celsius. Salt water freezes at -2° Celsius. Then the wind started blowing real hard, up to 80 knots some times and it was coming straight at us. Many a day we would make ten miles of forward progress only to be pushed backward eight miles by the wind, along with all of the ice around us. Then we got stuck for a while. The ice flows were pressed around us so hard by the wind, that we could not move at all. The ice was about 16 inches thick in this area, too thick for us to cut through. After eight days of slow to no forward progress we broke free from the ice. Although, the wind had pushed us so far backward that we nearly collided with that beautiful Smith Island. We went on the other side of the island where we found open water. From there we made steady progress until we reached open water and a furious Drake Passage. It was three days of hell where nearly all of us passengers got seasick, myself included. We returned to Punta Arenas after being gone almost three weeks, which meant we were a couple of days late from the original schedule.
You might ask what we did to entertain ourselves for those three weeks. With the small exception of fishing (and bleeding the fish) and taking a few water samples we had nothing to do. At first, when we thought we would be on the ship for only a few days we partook in short term entertainment like watching movies, reading books and playing cards. We soon ran out of movies, books and card games to play. At all three of the U.S. stations in Antarctica there are science lectures given by the scientists to let us workers know what this whole U.S. Antarctic Program is all about. We had a few scientists on board, so we decided to have science lectures on the ship. First, Ed DeLong talked about the Archae-bacteria that he is studying, and for which we took the water samples. Art Devries talked about the antifreeze in the fish. Ed's two assistants (who are Ph.D. students) each gave a talk, one on her Master's thesis and the other on what she is studying for her Ph.D. There was a lecture on a piece of equipment called a CTD, which stands for Conductivity, Temperature and Depth. Those are the three things it measures as it is lowered into the ocean. There was another lecture on tying fancy sailor's knots. I was coaxed into giving a lecture about The Internet, which has captured everyone's attention these days, even that of Congress. I know quite a bit about The Internet, since that is what I work with much of my time at work these days. These lectures were not enough to occupy our time, so three of us started a newspaper. It ranged in length from one to four pages and we did it for about a week. It was mostly a very tongue-in-cheek humorous rag, but it had some real information in it too. It took us most of the afternoon to write and we delivered it around dinner time. A couple of times we didn't get it done by dinner, and we were queried numerous times about where it was. We had eager customers.
I worked in Punta Arenas for a few days. That went quite well, so the trip was somewhat of a success. It was real cold and windy there. A new group of people got on the ship for the next trip south. Seven of us from our trip did not go on the next one. No room for us on the ship or at the station. The ships crew changed out, also. A bunch of us took a trip down to an old Spanish fort called Fuerte Bulnes. It had been reconstructed in 1977, so it didn't look like an old fort. The day that the ship was to get underway it got quite windy. So windy that they decided to get underway early. They ended up getting underway even earlier than that because two of the bitts that they were tied to (both at the stern of the ship) pulled off the pier. That left only four lines holding the ship to the pier. I was on board saying good-bye to everyone when that happened. I made a quick dash for the pier so I would not get stranded on the ship. Three of the passengers were not on the ship when it got underway due to its early departure. They were really worried that they would be going home instead of to Antarctica at this point, but they got ferried out to the ship on a tug so it all worked out fine. I left for Santiago a day after the ship departed. I worked there for a couple of days, which went well.
I started my vacation at that point. I hung around Santiago for a couple of days. It is a very smoggy city. It is in a basin much like Los Angeles is, which traps the smog. It was warm in Santiago, which was a nice change. I did some shopping and sightseeing. There is a huge statue of the Virgin Mary on the top of a hill (Cerro Cristoból), with an amphitheater just below it. The Pope gave a sermon there a few years ago. To get to it you have to take a funicular up the hill. There is another hill not far from there called Cerro Santa Lucia. On top of it is a maze of walkways. There are no real buildings, but there are structures, trees and statues all around. It is a really pleasant place to just hang out at in the middle of this huge bustling city. From Santiago I took a bus to the coast, to a resort town called Viña del Mar, which is just north of Valparaíso. It was early spring in the southern hemisphere, so it was not real warm, and consequently not very crowded with tourists. It was pleasant, but it did not seem like a world famous resort, which I hear it is. On my last night there I went to watch the sunset. I was surprised to find a huge crowd (much larger than during the day) at the beach to watch it also. I stayed for five days before heading back to Santiago and my flight home.
Chilean society and culture had some noted differences from ours. Most of it is due to their Hispanic background, but there were some notable differences from the other Hispanic country I have been to, Mexico. First, there were a few word differences. In Mexico they say adios to say good-bye, while in Chile they say tchau (which is pronounced just like the Italian ciao). To say ``I don't understand'' (which I said quite often) in Mexico you would say ``no comprendo'', but in Chile you say ``no entiendo.'' All of the stop signs have PARE on them instead of the ALTO which is used in Mexico. The draft beer in Chile has its own name, schop. There are places that specialize in schop and they are called Schopeterias. Like Mexico, Chile is on the siesta schedule. The smaller towns follow this more than the big cities do, though. The eating schedule follows the siesta schedule everywhere, though. Breakfast is very small, coffee and some bread. Lunch is at 1:00 PM and is the largest meal of the day. Dinner starts about 7 to 10 PM and is more of a snack than a meal. Pizza is quite popular in Chile, but it is very different from our pizza. The napkins in the restaurants are rather bizarre. They are very non-absorbent, being somewhere between writing paper and wax paper. There were many more blond Chileans than I had expected. I even say a few blue eyes. There was a large immigration of Germans starting around 1848. There is even a region in Chile where German is spoken more than Spanish is. I saw many people in Viña del Mar wearing sweatshirts with Disney and U.S. university logos. The geography of Chile is rather unusual since it is so narrow and long. Due to the glaciers and rough terrain there are no roads through to the southern tip of Chile. So, to get from Santiago to Punta Arenas you have to go through Argentina if you go by road. Punta Arenas and Valparaíso were major world sea ports prior to the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914. There are twelve regions to the country, much as the U.S. has fifty states. But the regions are referenced only by their number. They start the numbering in the north of the country and go south, so Punta Arenas is in Region XII. Their coffee is not very good. It is generally powdered Nescafe and hot water. They have a version called ``café con leche'', which literally means ``coffee with milk'' and it turns out to be the same powdered coffee, but with hot milk instead of water. They also have ``té con leche'' which is a tea bag steeped in hot milk.
I got back to Denver a couple of days after a huge snow, from six to twelve inches. Yes, it snowed on the last day of summer. Since all of the trees still had their leaves and the snow was really wet many trees had branches broken off from the weight of the snow. This then brought down many power lines. It was estimated that 75,000 to 100,000 people lost power to their houses. Some people didn't have their power restored for a whole week, also. My house seemed to be spared this fate, as everything was fine when I returned home. I was gone for five weeks, and I was quite happy to be back. I will be taking another trip at the end of this month, to my ten year college reunion in Annapolis, Maryland. That is about all for now, take care.
