Lauca National Park

A group of seven of us just returned from Lauca National Park where we
saw 18000ft volcanoes and sooooo many camelids!!! I was in alpaca
heaven. There were vincunas and llamas and alpacas, oh my! I will mist
definitely be posting pictures soon. The trip up was fantastic full of
the Inca Trail, a stop at an ashram, and 7000 year old mummies! On
the return trip we stopped at some hot springs pools and bathed in mud
an hot water. It felt so amazing.

More to come! It's Emily and my last night in Arica before we head
north to Peru in the morning. Arica has been great an it's a very
safe city. Though apparently there was a 4.0 mag earthquake here this
morning! They are following us north as the fault line is unzipping.
Ha. Just kidding, Mom. ;) We were not here to feel it. No worries.

Onto Peru!

Exhausted.

Last night was pretty crazy with everyone going out for dinner and drinks. Everyone is pretty tired this morning as a result and some are feeling sick, in addition. I’m just exhausted and excited for a nap when we are allowed to leave the boat and go to the hotel.

I’ve decided to leave from Peru on March 10th or 11th. I won’t be staying for the portion of the trip in Arequipa and Cusco. Oh, well. At this point, I’m excited to get home.

Tonight and tomorrow we’ll spend some more time in Arica, Chile and then we are heading to Lauca National Park on March 6th and 7th. We have a beach day planned for the 8th of March and a penguin tour on the 9th. We then head to Peru on the 10th, passing through Tacna to Arequipa.

At port

We made it to Arica, Chile! As we pulled into land, Kendra, Julie and I watched from the bow, admiring harbor seals, military boats, and … LAND. Albeit dry, arid land. But LAND, nonetheless.

It’s a weird day today. Plans for Chile/Peru are up in the air again, so I may be coming home earlier than planned. They were up in the air a few other times during the trip, but I didn’t change my flight. Now I hope if I do need to change it the cost hasn’t gone up too much. :-\ The upside is that I may have more money for other trips if I don’t travel here (i.e. Miami, Julia and Jenna)! But those decisions are to come…

I’m so anxious about the travel AND just getting off the boat. A few of us are hanging around to see if we can get any liquid nitrogen today. It looks like that won’t be happening, but we’re still here just in case. Most of the scientists have taken off into the city. Hopefully the rest of us can leave soon.

It’s also an odd day because some of the new crew has showed up, so there are random new faces around. Everything is ending; no more laundry, no more meals together. It’s a bit of a sad feeling with everyone parting ways starting tomorrow. But I’m also very excited to do something new after 33 days of the same tasks and views.

Being on the R/V Atlantis in another country is also a bit strange because it’s like a little piece of the U.S. in a foreign nation. We have US outlets, food, ultra-distilled water, and reminders of home. We can leave the ship with our port passes to visit another nation and come home to the “comforts” of the U.S. It’s a bit disorienting.

So that’s the update for now. Hope you all are well!

Heading into port...

Hi everyone! As I currently write this we are heading into port in Arica, Chile! Yay, land! It's been 33 days without land and I'm so excited to see a new sight and walk around on solid ground.

We had our last sampling run on the 28th of February and my last data analysis on the 1st of March. It's good to be done!!

Tonight we're going out and celebrating in Arica and saying goodbye to some of the crew and scientists who will depart tomorrow. Many people are having trouble with flights due to the earthquake in Santiago and may not be able to leave for several days after this. Thankfully, my travel group is heading north to Peru so we'll avoid the mess of trying to reroute and get out of Chile.

That's it for now. More when we reach land!