Tour of Santiago - Monday

Woke up on Monday to a wonderful clear sunny day (I have discovered this is the norm...) and had breakfast in the buffet restaurant in the hotel. I was overwhelmed by the options (though not as good as the Regal pacific), and ended up with bacon and eggs on toast, but nowhere to sit. I ended up sharing a table with a young spanish couple, from which I escaped as soon as was possible! Then it was up to my room to get ready for the half day city tour! Alejandra (lovely lady fluent in spanish and english) took me from the hotel to the coach along with another english couple. We toured a few more hotels picking people up, then went to the meeting point with another coach where we exchanged passengers so that those on our coach were doing the city tour, and those on the other coach were heading to Vina del Mar/Valparaiso (which I was due to do on wed and what the other couple from my hotel were doing!) Alejandra then went round asking people where they were from and then got everyone to raise their hands and cheer when she read out their country - it was a good way of meeting people! we had a very multi-national group - 4 English, 4 Canadian, 2 America , 4 Australian, 1 Mexican, 2 Brazilian and 3 Argentinian!
The tour took us to Cerro (hill of) Santa Lucia where Santiago was founded and we were treated to a little drama showing what happened then, Plaza de Armas (where all the weapons were kept and now a beautiful square) where one of the english women took my picture (proof I was there!), the palace of money - where the president (first female president for Chile!) works but does not live as they live in their own residences. This place was very interesting as you can only walk through the two courtyards one way, or the guards will stop you going back, and so the palace has one entrance and one exit! The first courtyard (cannon courtyard) has wires going across the top (Chilean joke is that these are for the presidents washing!) so that a white sheet can be drawn across it for helicopters to land on. The second courtyard (orange tree courtyard) had quite a few guards in it, as the press were waiting to do a interview. many of the guards were female, and all happy to have their pictures taken, very relaxed despite the palace having been bombed during the coup. I have to admit my knowledge of Chilean politics was limited to ´there was a bad man called General Pinochet´! I know a lot more now and apparently the Chileans both admire him for saving them from the awful president they had and hate him for the atrocities he committed. It was all very interesting! Im sure we went somewhere else before the end, but it currently escapes me! So we finished at a shop called Faba, where we got given free Pisco sours - very nice! This is a lapis lazuli shop and as only Chile produces it (the only other place it exists is afghanistan but the mines are closed) it is considered to be the best souvenir from Chile as you can get woollen items in peru! It is also their national stone. I caved in and bought a tiny penguin, and determined I would buy no more souvenirs here (haha...).
We were then given the option of being taken back to our hotels or being taken to the seafood/fish market (or it could just be the general market - but I only saw seafood and fish...) for lunch. At this point I had chatted a little with the English woman who had taken my picture at the Plaza de Armas -Barbara from Norwich who is spending a week teaching research methodology at the university here. In the shop we had sidled next to the other English couple - 2 retired londoners and we agreed to go have lunch in the market together - I had crab pie (Crab meat drowned in cheese, very nice!), Barbara had squid filled with prawns and cheese, and the couple had sole. We all tried each others, all lovely and was nice to have some conversation! Barbara and I then went up San Cristobal, stunning views! Bought a few souvenirs (oh Mummy and Medina could buy thousands of wonderful earrings...). Then we slowly made our way back to my hotel, finding tons of local craft shops (resisting so many beautiful things), eating ice cream and having a nice chat! I then gave her my room number and the hotel phone number so that we could meet later in the week for a meal as we had both agreed it was lovely having someone to wander around with. Unfortunately this never happened, she had said that she was only free on wed but that the 8 Bolivian midwives she was sharing an apartment with often arranged things and she said yes without knowing what she had agreed too! her spanish was a lot better than mine, but not up to conversational standards! But it was still a lovely day...

Arrival at Santiago - amazing place!

I have now spent a week in Santiago, and have totally fallen for the place even with the limitations of going solo!
The plane journey from Mount Pleasant to Santiago was reasonably pleasant, got put in the responsible seats - the ones by the emergency exits where you are required to read a special leaflet to know what to do in an emergency. I loved the seats, for a start, the legroom was so amazing I had to slump considerably to even touch the seat in front. Also unless they have a completely full flight, they leave the seats in the middle free (each side has 3 seats), so plenty of room to stretch out! So slept the first half of the journey to Punta Arenas, where we all trooped off with our hand luggage, left Paul behind for his trekking (minus his hold luggage, hope he has got it now!) went through customs, and then trooped back on again. More sleeping and snacks, and we arrived in Santiago. I had organised to stay in the same hotel as the rest of the BAS people for the first night so it wouldnt be a total culture shock, but a separate transfer to the hotel. So after collecting my hold luggage, I went outside and located my transfer (guy with a board saying Brony Hull.... one day I will turn up somewhere and they will have my name right...) and had a long car journey to the Hotel Regal Pacific. This hotel has to be the most ridiculously expensive hotel (for S. America) I have ever been in, and all we were doing in it was sleeping, I will never understand BAS... I got there half and hour before the others and checked in easily (Mr Bryony Hull this time - the plane tickets were for Mrs Bryony Hull...). Found everyone, then agreed that people would call me if they were going anywhere, and wandered back to my room. Never got a call, discovered later that everyone thought I had gone off with everyone else, oh well! The room had a GIANT double bed, bath, shower and widescreen tv, very nice... Got up reasonably early the next morning as I couldnt remember when the others wre leaving and I still had to hand over my laptop to Rob to take back to BAS for me. Got downstairs to discover Huw and Hilary there, so went to breakfast (included of course!) with them. They had enormous quantities of fresh fruit, bread products, scrambled egg, bacon, fresh fruit juices and cakes. I had a large plate of scrambled eggs and bacon, a huge bowl of strawberries and a plate full of pastries which were crammed full of chocolate filling.... mmm.... didnt need lunch! turned out they were all leaving at 3 (my hotel transfer was at 12) so bumped into Rob, handed over my laptop, then sat down with one of the Rotherites (sorry cant remember his name - very nice guy) and David Pearce, and discussed Santiago. The upshot - no bad areas, all pretty safe, make sure I visit the Museo Chileano de Arte Precolumbino (I am sure you can translate that!) and San Cristobal. So off I toddled with my luggage to my new hotel after some goodbyes and good lucks all round. This is where I am now, the Hotel Galerias, booked til Sunday when I fly to Peru. Very nice hotel, again a little on the expensive side for S. America (dirt cheap in UK!) but at the time of booking, it was a question of finding me somewhere at all! Amazing location, right in the heart of downtown Santiago which I have thoroughly explored and almost know my way around! Arrived at the hotel to discover I couldnt check in til 2pm (it was half 12) so left my luggage with them, and found a little park (later I was to discover this tiny park was right next to Santa Lucia Hill, a gorgeous park, but I missed out that day!), sat down and started perusing my spanish phrasebook (I had even forgotten gracias on the plane so some memorising was required!). At half 1, I was interrupted by a man handing out love poems (translation in english provided - urgghh!), unfortunately he spoke good english so I couldnt escape from the recitation of his life story - father exiled to Manchester by Pinochet, universities privatised by Pinochet, doing a medical degree, very expensive... then after listing a dozen places my group should visit (I didnt admit I was by myself of course!) on the back of the poem which was rather nice of him I thought, he requested money. I caved - after all it was nice to talk to someone in English when surrounded by Spanish speakers! Didnt give him a lot though and eventually he went away, telling me to be careful of the bad men that could prey on me because of my hair colour... hmmm... Wandered back to the hotel, checked in, and then Im afraid I watched TV and slept!

The end of Antarctica, the beginning of the solo adventure!

Hello again, since I was last on, we left Rothera - amazing place, got a sending off with flares (they were aiming at the ship and were pretty good shots!). The JCR was now loaded up almost fully (I think 82 people, max = 84!). The lifeboat drill was fun! The sea was pretty rough coming out of Rothera, but I only felt tired for the first evening (sea legs fully operational!). We then had a startling good crossing of Drake´s passage which puzzled everyone! Therefore we slowly crept into Stanley as we could have arrived at 10pm Thurs, but the berth wasnt ready til 7am Fri! During the crossing, I did the cruise reports for the equpiment I was responsible for, some of my 1st year PhD report and spent a great morning shadowing the engineers. When I had the engine tour, and from talking to the engineers I had thought the whole job sounded really interesting, so they offered to let me follow the duty engineer (which on that day was Jim - 3rd engineer) around for the morning. So we went up and down the entire ship (conquering my fear of ladders!) taking readings and checking everything. Was really interesting, could have spent a lot longer down there. He even let me press a button! Lol!
Arrived in the Falklands, and dashed into Stanley to sort out all my travel arrangements. Organised a week in Santiago with 1 night at the same place as all the BAS people to give me a feeling of the city with people to show me, accommodation at the Hotel Galerias for a week, 2 tours (city tour of Santiago and day trip to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar) and airport transfers. Had a bit of hassle sorting it (my own fault for giving them 1 day to sort it all for me!) but it was all done in time, with all the necessary documents ready for me at the airport. Had a last night in Stanley at The Brasserie with all the geos and bios, had a lovely smoked salmon starter and seafood spaghetti main course with plenty of wine going round the table. david Pearce and I shared a baked alaska, gorgeous... Started a game of chinese whispers, which involved clinking the glass next to you while whispering in the relevant persons ear, and seeing what it ends up as. It got quite rowdy and rude towards the end! Then we went to Deanos - a bar with music and a dance floor! very amusing and fun, they finished with a slow song (for all the 15 yr olds populating the bar!) which just reminded me of school discos!
More later (people are getting irate at my computer hogging...)
xxx

nearing the end.. sob...

Sorry (again!) for being so irregular with posting on here! It has been very busy and very interesting couple of weeks since my last post. We got out of Pine Island Bay, just in time according the next day’s sea ice map! We did a lot of trawls and some people went ashore to an un-named island in Pine Island Bay. This trip involved 2 boats, each holding one navigating officer (Tim – 1st Mate in one and Jamie – 3rd Mate in the other), 2 scientists (James and CD in one (GEOs) and Peter and Steffi in the other (BIOs)) and 1 other person (Ralph – 4th engineer in one and Tony – AB in the other). The objectives of the trip were:
To collect penguin guano (aka poo) from rock surface on the un-named island for radiocarbon dating.
Identify and survey raised beaches and sample them for organic material (penguin bones, seal skin etc) suitable for dating.
Got some nice photos of the boats on the way to the island, the internet is slowly improving so will hopefully upload some soon.
We also went trawling for corals, for dating purposes, which unfortunately we didn’t find. It was then off to the Polar front, looking for core sites, mainly for Claire, who wanted thick sediment, preferably ~10m of Holocene. This was pretty much the entire point of her coming on the JCR, but unfortunately she found very little of any use to her. So we then slowly made our way west looking for core sites as we went, and arrived in Rothera on the morning of the 3rd, earlier (!) than planned, after doing a live animal trawl in Ryder Bay just by Rothera. My shift had been very, very busy the night before, so I slept through the announcements about us arriving, and my cabin-mates getting up (Tara is now in mine and Hilary’s room too), so I missed our arrival.
Since we arrived, we have all been on shifts helping out with the unloading and loading of the ship. Most of the time, we have just been hanging around, but it has been nice helping out when we can. Yesterday we went down into the lower hold, and I went down a ladder to get there (it was the only way!) so I am feeling particularly proud of myself. Thursday evening we had an end of cruise party to which the Rothera winterers were invited. So drinks in the bar started at 6pm, food at 7pm (buffet including sausage rolls, and chicken satay sticks, plus a curry) and then sitting around chatting to everyone. Despite everyone on the ship knowing each other, apart from some introductions at the beginning, the room very quickly separated in scientists, officers and winterers! When there is separation like that, which happens most nights in the bar with some exceptions, I nearly always chat with the officers (mainly the engineers) as they have far more interesting stories to tell! They have all travelled all over the world with various ships (containers, cruise liners, RFA – Royal Fleet Auxiliary etc). It was a good party, finishing reasonably early due to Rothera’s normal rule of 2 cans per night not applying, and most people not doing any shifts (though some were on call, and the 2nd engineer – Tom was on duty) so everyone rather fell on the alcohol!
Today – skiing! In the morning we (GEOs) went to Fuchs House (Rothera) to borrow some skiing gear (skis, boots, poles) and then went to The Ramp (!). Here the two guys, who were field assistants, dragged us up the slope on skidoos. Those who were comfortable skiers were towed behind (2 behind each skidoo) and those who weren’t sat in the back space (1 person on each skidoo). The first time I went up on the back, and skied relatively happily down. The next few times I was towed up, almost as fun as the skiing, but very hard work on the arms as you go quite fast, up a reasonably steep slope, just holding onto a rope! The snow was really good, and the slope was just right for me (blue-ish), which was great. I felt pretty happy going down it, and didn’t fall over (until the end….). They gave me touring skis, which were interesting, as the bindings were very difficult for me to do up by myself. Each ski also attaches to each leg with a lanyard so if you fall over and the bindings release, the skis don’t go off on their own into the sea or into the fur seals near the bottom! We did a few runs each, then decided to head over to Vals aka The Bowl. This involved a 5 minute tow, I managed to not fall over on this and only let the rope slip through my grasp once. Claire – in the back of the skidoo, got the guy driving to stop and he came back for me. However this achievement has left me with very, very sore arm muscles, far more painful than my legs! We eventually all got there, but the skidoo ahead of us got bogged down in snow part the way up the slope there, so after some discussion and experimentation, it was decided that the snow was too soft for the skidoos to get up the slope, never mind tow anyone. So we sat in the caboose, a little hut containing a stove and a lot of food (mostly out of date!) and drank coffee. It took over half an hour to boil the snow in order to make the coffee! We also tried some of the biscuits and dried fruit there, and were dared to try the ‘French Rabbit’ Merlot (in a small carton like one for fruit juice) as it was considered terrible by the Rothera winterers! It wasn’t too bad…. Then after many pictures, we got towed back and did a couple of runs on the original slope. On the last one, I decided to try to do a little (very little!) jump at the end, and managed to do quite a spectacular ‘faceplant’ (Lewis’ phrase). It just went wrong from the moment I took off, landed, rolled a couple of times, and then went face first into the snow quite hard. My nose still hurts! A couple of the others were at the bottom and found it quite funny once I had given the thumbs up that I was ok. I then gathered my skis and started to walk back to the base, but halfway there I realised my glasses were gone, cue major panic and rush back to the bottom of the slope, where a few of us searched for them. I had almost given up when Paul found them, a little bent but intact. Phew!
More later….