It's That Time.

I really ought to update this thing. Canadian Christmas, Germany Hiatus, and my plans for the future... they are all there, but not on here yet. I'll get to it.

Back to the States

I failed to mention before, that I'm backtracking on my blog. I arrived back to the states on December 5, and am now finally catching up on the last bit of the year.

Although traveling in Central America was fun, eye-opening and new, there is nothing like coming back stateside to see friends and family. Strangely enough (since it always seems so difficult to plan these things) all of the girls who lived with me my senior year in college on Fulton St. in Grand Rapids were able to come to Colorado for my first weekend back. Several months ago I had rented a cabin near Colorado Springs, and I was a bit nervous about what it would be like after I had committed our whole group to it, but it turned out to be a great place and perfect for 6 girls. We had a great time catching up, and on Saturday we went to Garden of the Gods in a snow storm. It hampered our plans for a big outing, but we were able to do a short hike and see some of the main formations in the park under a layer of snow, which was so beautiful. It was a short visit since there were plenty of teachers who needed to get back to work. I love those ladies!

Playing games (guess who is losing):

Very talented:

Walking in the park:

Me and Brianne (who is always good for a "Come-back-to-Colorado-guilt-trip"):

We found this out a bit too late:


Once they had left, Brian came to Denver, which meant it was time for some snowboarding. We stayed in Frisco for the week and skiied and boarded at Breckenridge, A-Basin, Copper, and Vail. My brother was able to come up for a couple nights and Bri and Joel also made it for a day too. My legs had never done that many back to back days on my snowboard and I think they were ready to see the week finish up but I don't think I'd ever get sick of being in the mountains again and not have to worry about working or waiting in the weekend lines at the resorts.

Matt getting the hang of skiing:

View at Vail:

Hero shot of Brian:

Belize

I went to Belize since Jared, my college RD who I worked for, and his wife Meghan were living on a farm as part of a college program to teach students on a variety of topics from biology to sustainability. It was great to catch up with them and see their 'new daughter' and formulate a picture of what they are doing and what their program is about. I tagged along through various activities, listened to student presentations, made Christmas ornaments out of salt dough, went downtown San Ignacio for cheesecake, went horseback riding in the surrounding land and went to see some Mayan ruins (nearly in their backyard) called Xunantunich (surprisingly easier to spell than to say). It was a great stay and coming out of Antarctica is felt just fine to blend in the background and participate whenever I felt like it. The students were fun to talk to and play games with, and the rest of the staff that they work with were solid people and I enjoyed having some 'cultivated' conversations with them which seems few and far between during my time at the South Pole. Definitely a program that I would have enjoyed doing in college. Thumbs up!

Jared and Meghan's house:

Saddle up!:

The horseback riding was one of the highlights, we meandered through palm trees, crossed rivers, and enjoyed the sunny evening:

Xunantunich:




My last day in Belize I spent at Caye Caulker. I wish I would have stayed a bit longer and maybe gotten onto a snorkeling tour out to the reef. As it was, I spent the day swimming off the pier and did some snorkeling there, had some lobster for dinner and turned in early at my little cabina. I also took a walk through the locals' neighborhood before sunset, which featured a lot of colorful stilted houses and dirt roads.

My room on the top floor at Real Macaw:

A typical beach scene:

The pier (distorted from a past hurricane) where I swam and snorkeled at the end of the southern island:

Honduras

After a long bus ride from Managua to Tegucigalpa, I arrived there at noon and had a couple hours before my next bus ride. Everyone whose been here will tell me how great and hospitable all the people in Central America are. I don't doubt this and I'm sure if I was around long enough to get to know any of them I would sing their praises as well. However, I have found that in the cities people who supposedly would want my business (stores, ticket counters, etc) were consistently treating me curtly, if not, rudely. Ignored at the store counter, stared at while buying tickets, avoided until last when being loaded on the bus and all with not so much as a crack of a smile. Personally, I thought it humorous that I was bumbling through my minimal conversations with my weak Spanish, but no one else did. Traveling was already feeling a bit isolating, and even more so after every interaction I had. I found this especially apparent in Tegucigalpa. On the flip side, most of the hostels where I stayed were quite welcoming, and when I arrived late that evening in La Ceiba on the northern coast, the taxi driver was very helpful in getting me where I needed to be and the deskie at the hostel was very friendly.

I found out a bit too late that a ferry to Roatan left in the morning AND afternoon, so I missed that and walked around the town for most of the day. I had heard complaints about this city, but I quite liked it. It was pretty 'clean' and had a nice park in the middle. No way swimming could be safe, but the beach looked nice and there was a quaint neighborhood on the beach. My plan was to stay in Roatan for a couple of days with two girls who also went to my college, who I knew through a friend. In order to get back from Roatan and over to Belize on the taxi/ferry/taxi/bus/bus/ferry/bus it was going to take more than two days. So, after some indecision I stopped at the nearest airlines office and bought a plane ticket from Roatan to Belize which would only take a couple hours. A bit pricey, but all the legs of a bus trip would have added up fast, so I didn't regret the choice for a second.

Views from La Ceiba's Port:


But, back to Roatan. I rode the choppiest ferry I've ever been on over to the island. I didn't feel sick until I noticed that other people were getting sick, and then it was a battle the second half to keep everything in where it belongs. I survived, and after a rainy taxi ride across the island, I found Kate and Christie at a local bar/restaurant right on the beach in the West End.

The rest of the days consisted of sleeping in, going to the beach to hang out or snorkel at West Bay and catching up on some TV (which was very captivating after a year without).

The snorkeling at West Bay was pretty neat, although a bit 'regulated'. There were only certain places that you could go, although things got a lot more lax on the second day I went when all the cruise ship traffic had left and I was the only one on the beach!

West End near where I was staying:

West Bay (the crystal clear beach around coast from us):

Nicaragua

Granada was quite a busy place and my hostel was located very near the main market, making it extremely crowded. It was fun to walk around the city and see all the happenings.

My first day there, I took a day trip to nearby Laguna de Apuyo, a lake created from an old volcano crater, bragging to be the cleanest lake in Nicaragua (which I suppose, could mean just about anything). I spent the day swimming, reading, and napping. There was an American college group there, I guess from a semester abroad program, so the beach was a bit crowded and loud, but overall, it was humorous to listen to their oh-so-American conversations about their dramatic daily lives. I pulled out a beautiful sunburn that day as well, which started peeling right as I was ready to go back to the states.

The beach house where I spent the day on the lake:

The laguna:

Costa Rica

I don't have many pictures of the house Brian rented "Villa Olivia" in Playa Grande, since everyone else had plenty of pictures, and I was on vacation afterall.

Here's the moon setting over the Pacific out the back of the house. It's insane to me how fast the sun and moon set. Once it's near the horizon it's only a couple minutes before it's all the way down. We were blessed with many good sunsets, and I have yet to see the sunrise (around 5:30am or something ridiculous like that).

After the week on the beach and all of his friends had flown home, Brian and I camped out near 'Pirates Beach'. Once we got to the beach, there were a couple houses and some cars and we figured we'd be better off exploring more options, so we went down the road a bit further to a small beach where no one was. We climbed around the rocky beach as the sun was setting, teased some hermit crabs (they were everywhere!) and then went to sleep with howler monkeys barking in the treetops.




The next few days we went surfing in a couple of spots. We went back to Playa Grande on Sunday, and then to Playa Avellanas that night through Tuesday. The best day was on Tuesday morning when we beat the crowds out early in the morning and had all the waves to ourselves before locals came and 'took over'. I also saw a baby leatherback turtle swimming for it's life out to sea. He/she made it past the surf, but with all the pelicans swarming around, it's a miracle that any of them ever survive.
Tuesday night landed us in Santa Elena in the hills in the interior of Costa Rica and ate dinner in a tree house. It reminded us both of Queenstown, New Zealand, the countries 'adventure tour' capital, only a little tamer. This area of Costa Rica is big on Eco-tourism and perserving a lot of the forest around and they run a lot of zipline, coffee plantation and nature tours. We went to 'Sky trek' the next day, and 13 platform zipline tour. It was kind of cloudy and rainy, which I think made it even more fun. When you can't even see the other end of the zipline through the fog, it makes it even more exciting. It was neat to fly over the canopy and get an inside look of the forest. On our same tour there was a family from Seattle who knows a high school friend of mine from sailing and also an LA English teacher on a sabatical through a ton of spanish speaking countries which was interesting to hear about.


We made it back to San Jose on Wednesday, and ate at an Italian restaurant, which surprisingly enough (to me) was decorating for Christmas. Is it that time of year already? I suppose so. Thanksgiving morning, Brian dropped me off at the bus station before he flew out and I spent the day on a bus to Granda, Nicarauga. It was a tad interesting. I've ridden on a Mexican bus before from Denver to New Mexico so I knew what it was like to be the only english speaking person on the bus, but I didn't know what crossing a Central American border was like, and wasn't familiar with the city I was going to. But I made it safely, even though the bus driver could talk on his cell phone, eat a meat tortilla, put in 'Greatest Romantic Hits Volume #2' in the DVD player and manuever the windy 2 lane highway through the Costa Rican mountains all at the same time. The bus 'helper' was not so helpful, especially to me, so I had to try to ask the pregnant 15 year-old who was sitting next to me to go over anything important. But I made it to Granada late in the day and streets were very colorful and exciting and more importantly, they were actually marked as to what street they were, which made finding my hostel easy.

It's Not THAT Burnt....

I've finally had a chance for a little update on my travels. I got stuck in McMurdo for an extra two days as well, so I had to push back my Costa Rica ticket once more and hope for the best. I spent Sunday in Christchurch and left Monday afternoon after doing multiple errands that morning and running to the airport with a stress-attack.
View from the 11th floor of my hotel. I was actually staying on the other side of the floor, which was a sweet view at night of the whole city:

Street view in Christchurch:

I was then in for a marathon flight plan. I flew to LA overnight, then spent all of Monday at LAX where I took a red-eye to Miami and then to San Jose that morning. I took a taxi to the bus stop in the city, and onto a 4 hour bus ride to Liberia. I rolled in after dark and was getting a bit nervous walking around loaded with luggage, and when I came into the internet store, the rendevous point, Brian wasn't there and I was already late, but he walked in the door just after and finally the weight of travelling was off my shoulders, since I could be chauffered by someone familiar and would not be sleeping in a car/bus/plane/terminal for awhile.

Who cares you say? You want to hear about what life is like after being out of the Pole? I could hardly have told you until I came here, since I was rushing around from spot to spot, getting things organized and always trying to beat the clock for the first week. But, the best it gets is when you wake up at 7:00am in Playa Grande, Costa Rica with sun pouring through the windows, and roll over not to open your eyes again until 2:00pm. Not a bad first day. The waves break just in front of the house and it's great surfing at high tide. And although sleeping has been great, floating on a surfboard and watching the sun set (and it doesn't mess around with setting when you are on the equator) and the waves glowing orange and pink has been amazing. We were staying with several of Brian's friends from College Station, TX but they all left today. We had plans of heading to the east coast, but decided to stay on the peninsula since it had great remote beaches and we've enjoyed the last week so much. I might get some pictures one of these days. Maybe when this burn fades to a tan...

What is One More Day?

After all the delays, I finally made it out of the Pole on November 8, ironically, the day that I was originally supposed to leave, but begged to change to the 3rd so that I could make my vacation happen. So, I had to push back my Costa Rica trip which was a bit of headache, but I was sure even more relieved when I finally got there. Here is watching my plane come in:

The wait seemed atrosously (there might be a huge spelling problem with that one..) long, give it was the first "new" experience to come our way in several months and we'd been hoping for it all week. Getting out of that place was nearly as exciting as pulling in for the first time:

Because of the delays we picked up several other flight manifests with severalsummer people who were only down for a couple weeks. I just wanted to shake them on the plane and say "Hey, do you know how cool it is to get out of here!!!" since they didn't have the same glow as the rest of us. Some excited (and pale) faces as the plane took off (Me, Terry and Katie):

The always necessary porthole picture over the Transantarctic Mountains:

My time in McMurdo was hectic, and a my sleep schedule was slightly messed up. We left the Pole at 10:00pm so we got to McMurdo after 1:00am, then I visited Andrea at work, slept for a bit, and then got up for coffee at the Coffee House with a friend and then went right back with Andrea when she finished work. Ann Curry, from the Today Show was still delayed in McMurdo as well and since Andrea had already met her and told her I was coming out of Pole, she chatted for a bit, but was very preoccupied with typing 600 words per minute on her blackberry. Apparently the notes for her story. She was very congenial though and was buying coffee for nearly everyone who came in that morning. I think she got about as much sleep as I did that weekend, because she slept the whole flight back to Christchurch on Monday:

Between catching up with Andrea, visiting friends at work or at the bar on Saturday night, beating Super Mario Brothers, mailing back my snowboard and other errands, my weekend filled up fast and before I knew it was enroute to Christchurch. Up to that point I had taken much for granted on 'how things work'. The flight out from the Pole nearly seemed standard as it completed my 4th trip there in a bit more than a year, and the familiarity of McMurdo apparently hasn't worn off either, but sitting in the C-17 after take-off, which I had only done once before, I had an awakening that there were a lot of 'new' experiences ahead and life as I have known it was about to get more complicated and "full" again.

Bored Researchers Meet Bored Winterovers

Flights have been a bit hairy lately. Our weather has finally cleared up, but McMurdo's weather went down the tubes. Our closest call was on Saturday when we actually heard (and some even saw) the C-130 buzz by station, but visibility here had got downhill only 20 minutes before they arrived and they couldn't see the runway. How about you leave on time next time, A.N.G.? They had three planes in the sky when McMurdo's weather got real windy real fast, so they all turned around at once. The first plane landed ok, they had just left station, the second flight circled endlessly around McMurdo creating some 'sick' passengers and the third flight (the one that made it all the way here) aborted and landed at Terra Nova, the Italian station. They only had a few passengers, and we were all depressed that we had almost gotten on that same flight and would have been spending our weekend at a different station the few ever see. Sunday, the guard doesn't fly, but really, they should have. Monday more high winds in Mactown had them delaying and cancelling our flights all day. Yesterday was a joke, they shouldn't have even added the flights to the scroll, the last cancellation being at 7:00pm. They didn't even announce all of the cancellations on the intercom.

There are some benifits in staying longer than expected (one of them was NOT having to change my flight to Costa Rica yesterday).

1) I suddenly have no problem getting up at 7:00am for breakfast when I can sleep whenever I want.
2) I wear socks around the station all day, and don't bother with shoes.
3) Living out of one bag makes life so much simpler.
4) I work if I want to and sleep if I need to, and get paid all the same either way.
5) Free time to make travel plans I didn't make already.
6) The "midrats" dinner (at midnight) is WAY better than the rest of the meals.

Some things that aren't so great:

1) "Oh, you're still here. Weren't you supposed to leave on Saturday". Chuckle, chuckle.
2) Endless whining in the galley from everyone else who is delayed (it's easy to get sucked into that trap.)
3) Not knowing if I should put sheets back on my bed.
4) Not being able to open the door in my new room/closet even though I only have one bag (they kicked most of us out of our winter rooms.)
5) Gazing out the window at crystal clear weather and still seeing 'Weather Delay' on the flight scroll.

Since the MAYO clinic who is doing reserach on high altitude effects is missing most of their patiences who are stuck in McMurdo, and since we have nothing better to do, about 8 of us got suited up late last night in 'life vests' that monitor sleeping behavior. They are studying people's adaptations to high altitude when they first get here, but thought they would throw some well-adapted people (which I think we've got covered after 12 months) into the mix for further research opportunities. Creepy huh?


I slept pretty good last night, but when I got up this morning I felt like Elliot from E.T. ripping through his monitors.... only I wasn't in such a rush, since I woke up at 7:00am to "indefinite weather delays" over the intercome, a whole 2 and half hours before our flight was even supposed to leave McMurdo. And so, the drama continues. Brian and I pushed out our Costa Rica flight yesterday, which should cover us unless I can't get out in the next three days.

And this lovely poem from my friend, Kevin, in McMurdo, who was supposed to come hang out at the South Pole five days ago:

At the South Pole there’s a chica,
Who should be in Costa Rica,
But she’s stuck at the Pole,
It must be taking its toll,
And now she must feel like Guernica.

Pretty much sums it up.

Cancelled

Just came through that they cancelled all the flights due to weather today....

So, what does that mean? The Guard doesn't usaully fly on Sundays unless it's real important, but they might. If not, then it's a straight through on Monday. (Fly to McMurdo and fly to Christchurch the same day). That would be unfortunate since I wouldn't get time in McMurdo with Andrea and friends, and I'm restricted on my plane ticket to Costa Rica, so I can't really ask to stay a day or two anyway. Argh. That ain't good.

Although, they are opening the Post Office here tomorrow, so at least I can send out my packages from here instead of working out some convoluted flight path for them to get to Andrea. And I can take a breather before I leave!

The Waiting Game

I wish I had some good thoughts for my last day at work. It's been very hectic getting ready to leave and I'm still finishing up things for work before I'm supposed to leave this afternoon. The flights keep getting pushed back, this time for McMurdo weather, so we'll see what happens. All I know is that whether I am still here or not, I will be done with my job and ready to go to Central America.

It's definitely our time to go. I just walk around station like I always have and I have ended up bumping into or nearly blindsiding all kinds of people. Station is heavy with new folks and we already feel as if we've been squeezed our of our community. Since the last flight of winter-overs didn't make it out 2 days ago, they are all lumped into our flight too, so after this flight, there will only be a few winter scientist stragglers around.

Sort of a mixed blessing: I got the crud (bad cold) a couple days ago. Not fun since I was still trying to finish everything up, but ok now, because I think I'm nearly over it, so I won't be too sick when I get to Christchurch.

I'll come up with a better post season review later I suppose.

I've been swampped lately, but the end is close and I've almost finished everything up. Nice to get things wrapped up and actually have the time to do it right for once.

All in all, they ended up getting 5 of the 6 Basler flights in. The rest of those people were supposed to come on the first C-130 flight today (officially station open), but the flight was cancelled for predicted bad visibility here. The C-130 also needs 3 miles to land it's first PAX flight. Funny, well, not funny if you saw all the grumpy faces as breakfast, that the temperatures are a 'balmy' -43C, 7 degrees warmer than required, but still it's a no go.

I also got a nice surprise the other day. Heidi saw me in the hall and told me I had mail. I figured something came in on the planes from someone in McMurdo, but it was real live mail!


In support of Stephen Colbert's territorial claim, Michael and crew made a flag and a bunch of us went out to the Pole:

The heavy equipment operators have started moving snow all over station. There is a huge hill between station and the pole that is now eye level with the 2nd floor window. Nearly a ski slope.

No Going Back

The summer is back and we are gone, maybe not physically yet, but certainly mentally. Don't ask me where all these new people get all their energy from, but it's more than anyone should need. I'd like to compare the summer season to a broken water faucet. It was great when the first flight came down, but now the people just keep flowing and you can't put them back where they came from.

I did get a special message from Andrea yesterday. I've never gotten mail on a watermelon before:

Moments after the flight landed, 54 flu shots arrived in the galley and we lined up for service. Heidi and Robert did the honors:

I opted for the German physicist. Big regrets:

Here, Robert is sedating a wild animal:

Better Late than Never.

Our incoming passengers are officially late. They were going to try to send them in earlier than scheduled, but we had a nice little wind storm move through all this week. The Twin Otter pilots are leaving us shortly, but since the Basler is carrying passengers for the first time of the season, their visibility restrictions are much tighter. I think they need 2 miles visibilty to take off in McMurdo and 3 miles to land at Pole (for the first flight) before their requirements are reduced. It's frustrating for a lot of people especially since they fly all the time in a lot worse. Anyway, the official schedule was for them to come in yesterday, and now they will try again today. We shall see. Soon enough, the summer people will be here pushing their new agendas with there brown faces and elevated energy levels, and we will be cowering into the corner of the galley hoping that at least our flights out of here aren't delayed.

Here Come the Canuks

That snuck up on us very fast. Yesterday we saw new faces for the first time in 9 months. Kenn Borek (based out of Calagary, Canada... I think) flew in a Basler (DC-3) and a Twin Otter plane via South America and Rothera (the British Station). The Basler (with 4 people) landed, fueled up and was gone within 40 minutes.

Let's not underestimate their presence though, afterall they brought us two small boxes of fruit, causing everyone to congregate in the galley and pretend that they all liked eachother for a couple hours. Not only was it fruit, it was great fruit. Oranges, apples, grapes, pineapple and rumor has it, avacados for our fajitas today. What does fresh fruit taste like after 9 months? I'll let the pictures do the talking (Claire, Dainella, Katie, Kari):





The Twin Otter (since they have longer flight hours) stayed over night, and now are waiting for McMurdo weather to clear up before they fly on. The three guys actually came into station to eat and sleep so it's weird to see new (and tan) faces around.


Supposedly our first flight of South Polies comes in tomorrow if they can, so then things will start to get real busy again. A change in pace though is whatever everyone has been needing lately.