So how is one of the southern most towns in South America the middle of Chile? Well apparently, though not recognized by any other country in the world, Chile claims territory all the way down to the South Pole. Therefore, if you draw it out on a map, PA is pretty much right smack-dab in the middle of Chile. Chile has a few other quirks, that maybe match many other countries but are different from the US. Its a land where most drivers will stop for pedestrians, but seat belts appear to be entirely optional. The light switch for the bathroom always seems to be OUTSIDE the bathroom door, which always leads to some very personal stop and frisk moves on the bathroom wall only to be left in the dark cursing yourself for being fooled once again. Dogs roam the street, but it is near impossible to tell which are someone's pet and which are stray. Its hard to know whether to pet them, feed them, or run like hell when they cross the street toward you. They're always interested but rarely appear aggressive or even venture too close to people. Still though, they are almost all very large and hairy, unlike the mutts you often see in warmer areas, and present a very possible threat if they wanted to be. Chile is a land where anything they make is better than the Argentinians and DEFINITELY better than anything Peru could ever produce. Its an area where you tip your bagger at the grocery store and the check at a restaurant always tells you how much to leave to include 10% tip. They also include the tax in all prices, which makes life just that much easier. Currently, the exchange rate is about 600 Chilean pesos to 1 US dollar, which makes me feel incredibly rich and powerful without actually adding anything to my bank account.
Food here is something of a mix of flavors. The traditional drink is the Pisco Sour, which by most accounts actually originated in Peru, but the Chilean form of Pisco is obviously much better. So far I've seen menus with shrimp, ceviche, pork, chicken, lamb, rabbit, guanaco (which is basically a small llama), salmon, various other kinds of fish. And that was all at one place- La Marmita (The Mermaid). It appears to be the best place in town, especially for Pisco Sours, and so far we have eaten there twice already. We've also had awesome sandwiches, pizza, empenadas, and a bunch of candies from the hotel lobby. I've also eaten almost a whole bag of cookies from my mom, which barely made it through Chile's insanely strict customs restrictions.
So, onto the project. We have spent most of the last few days just getting all our gear together and checking that personal gear fits. The project is outfitting me with several thousand dollars worth of equipment just to keep me warm, from ski boots to about 7 pairs of gloves. Weirdly they do not provide hats or socks, but luckily I brought several for myself. We have also been repacking everything into a large shipping container to prep it for transfer to the boat. We spend our first night on the boat the night of the 26th before shipping out on the 27th. I am definitely a little nervous about the crossing. Not in the OH MY GOD IM GOING TO DIE IN FREEZING COLD 14+ FOOT SEAS! More in the- I might be hurling for 3 days kind of way. Apparently this boat is known for having a bit of a listing problem (rocking back and forth) and if sea are rough its one heck of a ride. As you can probably tell from the photo below as well, there are not a lot of large windows to look out either, which never helps combat Poseidon's revenge. So it could be a long trip. That being said, sometimes its nice out and sometime you see cool stuff like dolphins, whales (including stories of a Right whale one year), birds, icebergs, and who knows what else. Once we get to Cape Shirreff, which should be on the 31st (Halloween!) if all goes to plan, we have thousands of pounds of gear to unload via 2 medium sized zodiak boats. Our best hope is that a few people from the boat will volunteer to help us set up. Otherwise its get everything off the boat, start shoveling snow, and start moving the tons of gear the ~quarter mile to the camp. That being said, penguins and seals. Enough said.
Thats all I will include for now. I will try to update this in the next few days, even though I have yet to send out the link to anyone. I will have one email address on the boat and another at camp (my own at camp, but it's super restricted for how much I can send/receive). Future posts therefore will probably not be this long and unfortunately will not include pictures because of the data restrictions. Do let me know what you think though. I'm not sure how since right now comments are not set up to forward on to my email, but leave them anyway. Someone will pass them along to me. And if I dont respond to anyone, I apologize. From the sound of it I am going to extremely busy for the whole season and with weather and technology limitations I will do what I can, but I cannot promise much.
Most of our gear in "fish boxes."
The Laurence M. Gould- our transportation to the Cape. I recommend googling it.
Side of the boat. Its a NSF and US Antarctic Program ship that operates year-round in this area, primarily traveling between PA and Palmer Station, Antarctica.
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