Brett's Southern Crossing

At McMurdo we work a minimum of 6 days and 54 hours per week, so holidays are eagerly anticipated as a time to rest and unwind.  Since we only have Sunday off we observe our holidays (which during the austral summer are Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day) on Saturdays so we have a 2-day weekend.  The festivities started early, with a bunch of Friday-night parties in various work centers, complete with live bands.

The start of our Thanksgiving Day was the annual Turkey Trot 5k.  The route was from the Chapel of the Snows (on one edge of town) through McMurdo and up the hill to the Scott Base sign.  Scott Base is the kiwi base located 3 miles from us on the other side of a ridge.  Almost any event is a good excuse for the community to dress in ridiculous costumes, and the turkey Trot was no exception.  We ran to the sounds of Take on Me blaring from a boombox carried by one of the runners.  My time was glacially slow 31 minutes.

Thanksgiving dinner is an elaborate meal our awesome galley staff puts together.  In addition to turkey, stuffing, relishes and other traditional foods, they served king crab legs, massive amounts of freshies (fruit, salad, etc), and a full vegetarian and vegan menu.  Our bakers are always amazing but the desserts were a step up from what I expected.  My favorite were the chocolate mousse stuffed pastries shaped like Antarctic Skuas.

At home we always take a walk after dinner, so I went with a few people to walk the Hut Point Ridge trail.  This is a three mile loop from town that passes over a ridge and by one of the huts used by Captain Scott during his exploration of Antarctica.

The night was capped off with a party and jam session in the band room.  I have no musical talent but it’s always fun to hang out with some beers.  For whatever reason there is a lot of musical talent among the community here.  It’s hard to find anyone here who doesn’t play an instrument (Ukuleles are really popular!).

One of the bigger annual events at McMurdo is the Halloween party, which showcases the amazing creativity and eccentricity of the people on our station.  Most of the costumes are hand made on station from whatever we have lying around, which makes them all the more impressive to me.

I was short on time to make mine due to a trip out of town, so I quickly put together a South American Revolutionary costume.

My Costume

There are plenty of “normal” costumes, but I noticed a ton of costumes that were specific to our station.

Antarctic Skuas - a scavenger bird known for attacking residents carrying food

There were also a lot group costumes.  My favorite were the Tetris pieces.  The most involved was probably the Beer Garden…maybe a dozen people all connected by orange fencing, complete with tables.  Every so often you’d find that they had enclosed you and about 50 other people inside of them, and you pretty much just had to hang out until a gap appeared!

More great photos here!

Our group stopped in Christchurch for 2 nights to rest up, but mainly to spend a day at the Antarctic program’s Clothing Distribution Center picking up our Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) gear.  Almost everyone gets “Big Red,” our big Canada Goose parkas.  Then beyond that there’s a huge array of gear available based on job.  I ended up with wind pants, Carhartt overalls, a massive pair of cold weather boots, a light windbreaker, several types of hats/gloves/socks, polar fleece top and bottom, 2 types of thermal underwear, dark snow goggles, and probably a bunch of stuff that doesn’t come to mind.

My Extreme Cold Weather (ECW) Gear

My Parka Patch

Gear issue only took a morning, so I had the afternoon to have a look around Christchurch.  Of course the big news there lately was the earthquake that struck a couple of months ago.  The damage isn’t too obvious, but a lot of streets are closed due to unstable building facades so frequent detours kept it front and center in my mind.  There have been over a thousand aftershocks since the quake, including a 5.1 the night before we arrived.  I’ve never felt and earthquake so I was thinking this was my chance, but there weren’t any that I noticed during my short stay.

Gondolas in the Botanical Gardens

In Christchurch I mainly walked around town and spent some time in the botanical gardens.  I also stopped by the Canterbury Museum which had a special exhibition of photographs from the Scott and Shackleton Polar expeditions (both had photographers as part of their parties).  Shackleton was attempting to make a complete crossing of the continent but barely got started, his ship becoming stuck in the ice before reaching land.  He and his men were stranded on the ice shelf for over a year before some were able to sail in a makeshift raft to a nearby island and return to mount a rescue.

An old snowcat in the Canterbury Museum

Robert Falcon Scott’s Terra Nova Expedition was an attempt to be the first to reach the South Pole.  He was beaten to the pole by Roald Amundsen of Norway, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a photo more amazing than their portrait at the pole – 5 men, exhausted and dejected, faces absolutely black with frostbite, completely defeated.  The party died of exhaustion, starvation, and cold on the return journey from the pole, just 11 miles from a supply depot, but their efforts have made them heroes of the UK and among all Antarctic programs.

Scott's party arrives at the pole, too late

The Scott Party's Burial Cairn

The next morning I got up at 4am to head to the Antarctic Terminal at the Christchurch Airport.  We checked our luggage, had our bags weighed, and went through security.  (We each even had to step on a scale with our carry on bag).  We watched a short orientation video, and after a short wait it was time to board our flight.  Most passengers and cargo are taken by C-17.  We were allowed to take liquids and gels, but still no sharp objects.  The crew did a pretty typical safety briefing, although the military plane had some differences – in case of a loss of cabin pressure you don’t use a mask, you put your head in a plastic bag that either hastens your death or maybe has a little oxygen bottle attached.

The C-17 was surprisingly comfortable.  I sat in a jumpseat that folded from the side of the plane, while most people sat in regular airline seats that slide into a track in the floor in groups of 20.  Although it was physically comfortable the flight is very noisy and earplugs are a must.  The flight was 5-hours long, and we were allowed to visit the cockpit and chat with the Air Force crew.  I was a bit surprised to find we were at an altitude and speed typical of any other big jet I’ve been on (450mph and 31,000 feet).

Cockpit Tour

Landing was a bit strange because I could tell we were descending but with no windows I had this strange sense of anticipation, as though every bump was touchdown.  Eventually we landed, and I emerged into a shockingly white world outside.  We were brought to McMurdo Station in Ivan the Terra Bus, a 56-passenger extreme weather bus with balloon tires about 5 feet high.

My First Steps on "the Ice"

Manizales was pretty much the finale of my trip.  I spent a few more days in Medellin afterwards before flying home, but didn’t do much of anything.  Manizales is a midsize city near the mountains and is very hilly.  Like Salento it’s part of the Zona Cafetera, and it’s also near the Parque Nacional Los Nevados.

Dried, washed coffee. Broken and defective beans are sorted out.

My first day trip was to visit the coffee finca Hacienda Venencia, which is much larger than the little farm owned by my hostel in Salento.  The tour here is 2 hours long and very detailed…it covers Arabica vs Robusta coffee, the growing process, harvesting, sorting and washing the coffee, coffee markets and exporting, and roasting.  The tour also visits the massive hacienda of the family that owns the business.  Not only is it large and beautiful, but it’s surrounded by amazing gardens and grounds, swimming pools, and the view of the valley from the porch is spectacular.  These people have peacocks roaming the grounds, to give you an idea how luxurious it is.

The B&B/Hostel

Hacienda Venencia also has a smaller picturesque little house with rooms for rent.  It would be a perfect place to relax in a hammock and hike through the coffee farms for a few days.  But it is a bit remote, there are only a few jeeps each day that go between the farm and town.  These jeeps are the same old Willys that I mentioned in my Salento post, and the local saying that there’s always room for one more was definitely true here – on the ride back we had 17 people in the jeep and there wasn’t even anyone on the roof yet!

The next day I went to see Parque Nacional Los Nevados.  This park in the high mountains is supposed to have amazing views, but the day I went we basically spent the whole day driving around in clouds.  The scenery when you can see only a hundred yards is barren….just rocks, with no vegetation growing.  It also was amazingly cold once we got up to the higher altitudes!  I didn’t bring the right clothes for 32 degree weather.  Our last stop for the day on the tour was at 4800 meters altitude, where we hiked another 200 meters up the mountain.  For some reason on this day I had tons of energy, and while the group slowly plodded up the mountain I pretty much raced up, doing it in half the time of the others.  I was barely even breathing hard.

There were a number of national police doing this at the same time, for training purposes I guess.  As I zoomed past two officers, one asked me if I was a guide.  He was your typical officer….looking strong, with a buzz cut and a very grim look on his face.  These two guys were huffing and puffing, walking about 10 steps and then needing a few minutes to rest leaning on their rifles.  The climb was killing them, and I could tell he was really hoping I was used to climbing the mountain twice a day at the pace I was overtaking them.  I said no and he scowled a bit and started walking on, then he slipped and did a faceplant straight into the mud.  He had fallen on top of his rifle, which now had mud caked in the barrel and bolt, which is think is breaking the cardinal rule of soldiering (don’t wreck your weapon!).  Needless to say he was embarrassed and it didn’t help his mood at all, so I didn’t stay to watch and continued on quickly.

The tour was mostly a bust, but at least I got one good story out of it!

We stopped at some hot springs to warm up in this nice valley

Medellin was my favorite big city, but Salento was my favorite place overall.  The best time to visit is the weekend, when the village is overrun by Colombians taking a weekend trip.  Salento is about 3 hours from Cali ánd 5 hours from Medellin, and just an hour or so from the midsize cities of Armenia, Pereira, and Manizales.  So it’s ideally located for weekend family getaways.

I arrived on a Friday evening and found the restaurants lining the main plaza all had platforms set up with outdoor tables, many blasting salsa music from speakers the size of small cars.  The inner part of the plaza had lines of tents with a few picnic tables and grills, serving typical dinner specials: a choice of meat with rice, a fried plantain, beans or lentils, salad, soup, an arepa (flatbread), and sometimes a fried egg.  In Salento the specialty seemed to be plates with trout.  During the day there are a number of great cafes and coffee houses to relax in.  One place not in the guidebooks is Alegra’s, with great gourmet food and amazing cakes.

Our hostel's coffee finca

Coffee beans -- the red ones are ripe

My hostel was called The Plantation House, and was originally part of a coffee finca.  The place had a few dorms and lots of private rooms, and had a diverse group of guests including backpackers, older couples on vacation, and even a large Belgian family with lots of kids.  The hostel is owned by an English/Colombian couple, and they recently bought a nearby coffee finca as a side business, which they run informative tours of for just a couple of dollars.  The finca has lots of coffee, fruit trees, and a bamboo forest.  Beyond the tour it’s also possible to stay on the farm or volunteer to work a half day in exchange for lunch.

Inside the shell, a raw coffee bean

One of the most beautiful places in Colombia is the nearby Valle de Cocora.  It’s a lush green valley full of cow pastures, and is known for its wax palms, which tower 60 meters over the forest.  There’s a full day hike that’s possible to get great views of the valley, and it passes a humminbird sanctuary.  I went with a group and we decided to just relax and picnic by the river in one of the cow paddocks for the day.  Another cool part of visiting the valley is that transit is all done by oldschool steel jeep, mostly Willys but I saw a few Land Rovers and other makes as well.  Some of the jeeps are WW2 era, although most are from the 70s, and they would definitely be collectors items back home.  As the jeeps fill up people begin to ride on the roof, and on our return from the valley most of our group rode on the roof leaving the inside pretty much empty!

Trying to sneak up on the cows

Francesca tests a cow femur we found as a hair accessory

Salento was my favorite place just because it was relaxed, beautiful, and the small town was both active and had some nice quality places to eat and hang out due to all the visitors.

My trip has begun, starting with a day and a half of company orientation in Denver.  It was about 50% typical stuff (benefits, expense reporting, etc), and 50% specific to Antarctica (safety, travel logistics).  We also opened with an amazingly demoralizing pep talk from one of the bigwigs here…I almost wonder if he was seeing if anyone would quit on the spot.  But our spirits couldn’t be broken, and we’re all ready to go!

There are at least 50 people in our group, and we were told that the population of McMurdo Station this year should be around 1500.  This is unusually high and bed shortages are expected (due more to a higher than normal population of scientists, rather than support staff).  Right now quite a few people who will be continuing on to the South Pole station are also headed to McMurdo.  It’s still too cold to land at South Pole, so they’ll be staying temporarily at McMurdo for the first opportunity to head to their station.

Personally, I’m excited to see what everyone is up to so I don’t mind the crowds at all.  Having met a bunch of people during orientation everyone seems to be friendly and people have interesting backgrounds.  I think we’re all going to get along really well and the slight pang of regret I had leaving Austin after such a short time back has disappeared…I’m expecting the next few months to be a lot of fun!

So far the group I’ve met people who are cargo loaders and unloaders, materials workers (which sounds like tracking/managing/distributing from the warehouses), fire technicians, power plant operators, plumbers, maintenance workers, hazmat workers, communications operators, drivers, and electricians.  It gives an idea of how broad the range of jobs is.  There will also be hairdressers, postal clerks, dishwashers, and all kinds of other weird jobs I’m looking forward to hearing about!

We left the office in Denver today at noon for our trip to Christchurch.  I expect it to take 36-37 hours to get from the office in Denver to the hotel in Christchurch, and I’ll want to stay awake at least another 7-8 hours to get on the correct time schedule.  So my top priority now is to get a decent amount of sleep on the long flight from LA to Auckland.

Although it’s less than 200 km, the bus ride between San Agustin and Popayán takes over 6 hours on a very dusty and bumpy road.  Popayán is a nice colonial town, but I had seen plenty of colonial buildings by this time so after a one night stopover I continued to Cali.

Butterflys mating in the Cali Zoo's Butterfly House

Cali is known for being the dancing capital of Colombia, and the area of the city I stayed in was really nice – packed with upscale restaurants, salsa clubs and boutiques.  Despite its reputation as a party city my hostel was pretty much empty, and a bit dull.  I have a feeling I had an unusual experience here, but maybe it was just because I was in town early in the week and not around the weekend.

Giant Anteaters

I really only did two activities while I was there, the first being to visit Cali’s famous zoo.  The zoo is nicely designed, reasonably small, and allows visitors to get very close to the animals.  I had good luck on my visit, with most of the animals being awake and active.  The lions even roared a little, although I suspect they were just clearing their throats after waking up from a nap.  It was still loud!

The next stars of Meerkat Manor?

My other activity was to head into the countryside to visit the sugar plantation El Paraíso with a large historic hacienda on the property.  The house was large, and built into the landscape nicely with lots of gardens and an irrigation system that is fed from the mountains surrounding the valley flowing through channels throughout the property.  This plantation was owned by a famous Latin writer named Jorge Isaacs, who wrote the book María.

Water flowing through a canal at El Paraíso

Over 3000 years ago the region around the small town of San Agustin (in the south of Colombia) was home to a society that carved hundreds of stone statues similar to the statues on Easter Island to mark sacred areas and catacombs.  Archeological sites are scattered through the hillsides, and I spent a couple of days exploring them.  A bit about the culture has been deduced from the artifacts at these sites, but they’re mostly a mystery and the culture doesn’t even seem to have name.

A rare statue in which the original painted colors have survived over 3000 years exposed to the elements

There are a lot of archaeological variations in the stones.  Almost all of them show the hands in front of the chest, but they may be holding objects or children, playing instruments, etc.  Some statues are male and others are female.  If you look carefully you can see that some of the females are pregnant.  Many statues show human/animal hybrids, since the cultures in this era tended to place a special significance on animals like jaguars.  And a few of the statues are of the animals themselves.

A bird carrying a worm

A statue inside a funerary pit keeps watch over a tomb

The town is a small one, with mainly dirt streets and lots of bars that play salsa music at a shocking volume but then close at about 10pm.  The main archaeological park can be visited by taking a short trip on a local bus.  I did that, as well as a couple of tours to more remote sites by car and on horseback.

Exhibit A, demonstrating why I don't wear hats

It’s probably obvious by now that my blog updates are 1-2 months behind.  I’m working to catch up, and doing the blog posts is a great motivator for me to sort through my photos.  I returned to Austin the first week of September, and during my last week in Colombia I got an interesting call from Raytheon Polar Services, who I had submitted an application to a few months earlier.

They had a contract employee back out at the last minute due to a medical problem and offered me a job working from October to February at McMurdo Station.  I’ve only barely spoken with the manager who hired me about the job, but it sounds like what I’ll be doing is field work for the on-ice portion of a research project an Army lab is working on.  The base has 3 airfields they’re trying to combine into one, but there are a number of engineering problems due to  varying ice conditions throughout the .  The Army lab is collecting and analyzing data to see if they can engineer one airfield that will work for all types of aircraft, during all times of the year.

At this point I’ve filled out and submitted mountains of paperwork and had tons of medical and dental tests. I’m amazed there’s any blood left in my veins after all the tubes they collected for tests, and I discovered there is a definite limit to how many cups I can pee in before running dry.  My doctor also carefully noted all my unusual traits, like a slight pectus excavatum, which looks completely normal to me and nothing at all like the photo on wikipedia.  The EKG machine decided I had Pericarditis, which is an inflammation of the heart lining…the doctor walked into the room, grabbed the printout from the machine and said “That can’t be right.  You’re not experiencing extreme chest pain are you?” Since the only pain I had experienced was when the nurse ripped the EKG contact pads off my legs (taking a patch of hair with it) he consulted a cardiologist and they decided I have a variation in my heart’s electrical pattern called early repolarization.  About 5% of the population have this kind of heart, especially young people, males, african americans, and athletes.

Despite my numerous deformities and birth defects, the medical department at Raytheon Polar Services has signed off on me.  I’m leaving tomorrow morning for 2 days of company orientation in Denver, followed by 2 days of travel to Christchurch New Zealand, a day there to get my extreme cold weather gear, and my ice flight is scheduled for October 8th.

The title of this post is how my friend Leslie reacted when I mentioned all of this on Facebook.  Thanks for the support Leslie!  I’ll have you know I checked the weather the other day and the windchill was only –68F, if I just take the absolute value it’s practically shorts and t-shirt weather!

The next logical stop after San Gil is Villa de Leyva, which is known for its well-preserved colonial architecture and is a popular weekend destination for residents of Bogotá.  To me, it was just bland and boring so I only stayed a night and headed on to Bogotá.

Bogotá had some interesting things to do, but in the end it was my least favorite place where I spent any significant time in Colombia.  The common place to stay is La Candelaria, an “old town” neighborhood that is still within walking distance of the main tourist sights and central business district.

By now I think I could use a special acronym for places like this.  Maybe JABC (Just Another Big City).  It had museums, it had big government buildings, there were restaurants.  Yawn.  But I will say that the two museums I visited were top notch.  First, I went to see the Colombian Central Bank’s Botero museum which has a huge collection of Colombia’s most famous artist’s (no, not Shakira!) works.  The museum is free and one of several world class art museums operated by the bank.

Botero's paintings and sculptures are known for being in this "plump" style

I also stopped by the Police museum, where English-speaking officers give tourists guided tours.  The tour took almost two hours and included everything from varieties of uniforms and weapons, as well as famous events in Colombia’s police history.  The tour starts and ends with the most gruesome stuff.  To start, we saw exhibits on the drug wars of the 90s including big photos of the bloody bodies of the drugs lords who were killed.  At the end is an exhibit on the many creative ways of executing people that have been devised throughout history, with detailed diagrams.  The Spanish really took pride in their executioner’s creativity during the Inquisition!

WANTED: Pablo Escobar

My favorite museum was the Museo del Oro (Gold Museum), also owned by the central bank.  They have an absolutely massive collection of Incan gold, with around 35,000 pieces of jewelry and other artifacts that somehow survived the best efforts of the Spanish Conquistadors to steal and melt it down to return to Spain.  I spent almost 4 hours here, everything is really well presented.

For a nice view of the city, a $2 cab from La Candelaria took me to the funicular to Monserrate.  This hilltop is covered in gardens, miradors, and has a catholic cathedral that is bland on the outside but nice inside.

One of the stranger sights in Colombia is located in the town of Zipaquirá, which I went to see as a day-trip from Bogotá.  Near the historic center of the town is a large salt mine, which has been converted into a salt cathedral.  A tour is included with admission (in Spanish), and you see 14 small chapels each commemorating an event during the crucifixion of Jesus.  At the bottom, 180 meters below ground, is a huge chamber that has a full set of church pews for mass.

A wall encrusted with salt, with a baptism fountain nearby

If it doesn’t sound bizarre to you, let me assure you that it is.  I half expected to walk around a corner and find some kind of cult of the dead carrying out a secret ritual.  It reminded me a bit of that scene in Indiana Jones and Temple of Doom where they’re trying to sacrifice the woman into the lava.  No lava here, but definitely a creepy Temple of Doom vibe (still interesting!).

A balcony overlooking the main cathedral chamber

Zipaquirá has a nice outdoor market in their central park on Fridays and Saturdays.  Most street fairs in South America seem to have lots of booths, with most of them selling the exact same crap.  Here the booths all had different things from candy to clothes to souvenirs, as well as tons of food stands and some live bands playing on stage.  A weekend trip is best so you can enjoy the fair as well.  It takes almost 3 hours to get to Zipaquirá on public transit so leave early and plan for a long day.

Even though I did a lot of interesting things, the main reason Bogotá was down on my list of cities in Colombia was just a matter of feeling,  It was a bit dingy, and it seemed a bit unsafe.  Some people in our hostel were mugged the night before I arrived, and my first night in the city the FARC set off a carbomb outside a radio station, doing a lot of damage to the station and nearby buildings.  Having mentioned that I guess this is a good time to talk about safety in Colombia since many people back home have been surprised to hear how much I liked it here and asked if it was dangerous.

My opinion, after 5 weeks, is that Colombia was probably the safest place I visited, and I felt completely comfortable there outside of Bogotá (and even there, it was no big deal).  You may be thinking “Wow, in that case there must have been terrorist attacks by the dozen in Chile!” Ok, I admit that a car bombing doesn’t sound good for Colombia but you have to look at safety as a tourist in a nuanced way.  Many places, including Buenos Aires, are known for crime targeted at tourists.  Mostly things like bag snatching or stealing cameras, but many Argentines won’t even use their phones in public.  I didn’t feel like I needed to worry about this much in Colombia.  In terms of the violence, Pablo Escobar was killed in 1993 and since then drug violence has decreased a lot.  Over the past decade several guerilla groups have declined and died out.  A lot of the problems that still exist are in the jungle areas of the Amazon.  There have been moves towards starting peace talks between the FARC and the government (hardline elements opposed to peace are suspected of the bombing, the last bombing was over 10 years earlier.  Not more common than terrorist attacks in the USA).  You could also compare it to the situation in Ireland not too long ago, and people have always been willing to go there.

I look at it like this.  If you think about visiting LA, or Washington DC, or Baltimore you probably would have no issues with that at all.  But viewed at the right angle or without really understanding the area you could think it’s crazy.  I’ve seen The Wire, no way I’m going to Baltimore!  LA is full of gangs and rogue SWAT units and rioting and homicidal football players.  Washington DC was the murder capital the USA a couple years ago, who would want to go there?  Well, there can be lots of murders in Washington DC and it’s still safe to go see The Mall.  I guarantee you’ll love a trip to Colombia and you’ll both feel and be safe during your visit.