URL: http://blogs.bootsnall.com/michelle/

<h>December 31, 2004

   <p>There's No Place Like Home

   <p>My flight from Miami landed early into snowy Detroit, where it then
   took over an hour to actually get to the gate and off the plane
   because of the 10 inches of snow. My parents picked me up from the
   airport and we made a mad dash for Taco Bell, where I finally
   satisfied my unrelenting craving for 2 taco supremes and a nachos
   supreme. I spent much of the last week bringing my house out of
   hibernation, catching up with friends, and eating my favorite foods
   that I have been deprived of since June.

   <p>And now, here I am, writing this last entry from the comfort of my own
   home, in exactly the same spot as I was back in May designing this
   blog and writing its first entries. My trip was exactly 200 days long
   and in just 3 more days I will be rejoining the "real world." Time
   sure flies.

<h>December 21, 2004

   <p>Advenures in Transit

   <p>I left Uyuni on the night train to Oruro, which was supossed to leave
   at midnight, but didn't leave until 1am. The only logical explanation
   for the delay is that, it is Bolivia. I have found that 'It's
   Bolivia,' is an excuse in itself for delays, cancellations, or
   overbookings of transport of any form. The only noteworthy event from
   the train ride was actually after it was over and everyone was
   collecting their baggage. Apparantly a lady had died during the ride,
   which was brought to my attention as the corpse was carried past me
   and tossed into the back of a van, as if she were unclaimed luggage.
   Sadly, the only people that seemed to think it was unusual were me and
   the other backpackers that had taken the overnight train. All of the
   locals seemed unphased by it. From Oruro, I only had a 3 hour bus ride
   to get to La Paz, which had been overbooked, but luckily I was already
   in my seat when someone came to claim it as theirs, showing a ticket
   that was identical to mine. I didn't budge.

   <h>December 18, 2004

   <p>Pass the Salt Please

   <p>The Salar de Uyuni in southwestern Bolivia covers 12,000 square km,
   and is the worlds largest salt flats. About 30,000 years ago, the salt
   flats were covered by a lake called Lago Munchin. When the sea dried
   up, it left the Salar de Uyuni, which contains about 10 billion tons
   of salt. At its deepest point, the salt is about 8 meters deep. I
   wanted to visit the salt flats when I was in Bolivia in October, but
   didn't have time. So when my flight from Buenos Aires to Lima was
   cancelled, I decided it was a sign that I should make my own way to
   Bolivia and see them. I arrived in Uyuni after a 2 hour flight and
   about 14 hours of bus rides and organized a three day, two night tour
   of the Salt flats and some nearby lakes.

<h>December 14, 2004

   <p>From Seasickness to Altitude Sickness

   <p>Getting from Buenos Aires to Uyuni, Bolivia, my jumping off point for
   the tour to the Bolivian Salt Flats was an adventure in itself. The
   flight from Buenos Aires to Salta was uneventful, and I only stayed
   one night there before leaving on a bus heading north to La Quiaca in
   the morning. The bus to La Quiaca was about seven hours long and not
   too bad of a journey, despite the sweltering heat on the bus, and my
   need to use the bathroom for hours but being afraid that the bus would
   leave without me if I went. For the first three hours, I sat next to a
   12 year old girl named Cynthia who was hopping off in a little village
   on the way to visit her four brothers. It was good to practice my
   spanglish with her, and I taught her to count to ten in english. After
   she got off the bus, I befriended an Argentinian named Jose Luis that
   had spent six months in Mossuri studying geology and spoke English
   very well. His destination was La Quiaca also, and when I told him I
   was planning to cross the border into Bolivia and head to Tupiza, he
   was kind enough to offer to escort me over the border and make sure I
   find the correct bus to Tupiza (where I would then have to find
   another bus to Uyuni). The random kindness of strangers is always
   refreshing. I must make it a point to be nicer to strangers when I get
   home.

<h>December 12, 2004

   <p>And For My Next Act...

   <p>So here I am in Buenos Aires. I spent about 75% of my first two days
   here blogging about Antarctica. I also made a quick stop into the U.S.
   Embassy to get more pages put into my passport, since it is full, and
   I stopped into a travel agent to reconfirm my flight out of Buenos
   Aires. When I got to the travel agency, I found out my ticket had been
   cancelled, inexplicably. What the heck? I knew I was too lucky leaving
   Ushuaia not having a kink in my flight plans like most others did. I
   think it's a blessing in disguise though, because I really wanted to
   see the Bolivian Salt Flats, which is sort of on the way to Lima
   (where I need to catch my flight back to the States). Sooo... I'm
   going to make my own way to Lima and hopefully stop into the salt
   flats on the way! Yay!

<h>December 10, 2004

   <p>A Mostly Smooth Drake

  <p> After our last two landings, it was time to head back into the Drake
   Passage, unfortunately. The way back was also mostly "smooth,"
   although it did get pretty rough in the middle of the night on the
   second night. At about 1 am, I woke up to everything not nailed down
   on one side of the room flying over to the other side of the room,
   including a ladder and a chair. The violent rocking only lasted for a
   couple of hours, but all night, I was involuntarily moving in a sort
   of elliptical motion, like my whole body was revolving around some
   imaginary axes. I didn't really sleep that night, but at least I
   didn't get sick.

   <h>Anyone for a Swim?

  <p> We had two more landings left before heading back across the Drake
   Passage to Ushuaia. After the morning wake up call and breakfast, we
   geared up for our landing on Deception Island. The "deception" of the
   Island is that it is actually an active volcano, which last erupted in
   1970. The island is shaped like a ring because of its collapsed cone.
   We landed at Whalers Bay, where there are remains from the old whaling
   station that closed in the 1930s. I walked up and down the sulphurous
   smelling beach checking out the whale bones and some of the old
   buildings. I also walked up to Neptunes window, which is a low point
   in the crater rim, where there was a nice view of the beach below.

   <h>Continental Landings

   <p>The next day we made two more landings, both on the Peninsula itself.
   After the excitement of the previous day, everything ran like
   clockwork. Delphin took us over in the zodiac to the first landing at
   Waterboat point, where two British researchers spent a year living in
   a shelter made from an upturned whalers boat in 1921. There is not
   much evidance left of the boat, its location is now covered in snow
   and nesting penguins under the Chilean Flag. Also at this location is
   the Presidente Gabriel Gonzalez Videla Staion, that is manned in the
   summer only. When we arrived, the four chileans had arrived only a few
   days prior and had just finished digging their summer home out of the
   snow.

   <h>Petermann and Lemaire

   <p>Leaving Mikkelsen Harbor, we were already at a latitude of 63 degrees
   south. Of course, part of being that far south at this time of the
   year is that it doesn't really get dark. I woke up at about 3:30 am
   friday morning to the crunching of ice against the ship. Looking out
   through the porthole, it was light enough that it could have been mid
   afternoon on a cloudy day. I went up to the bridge to see what was
   going on, and found out we were still trying to continue south to get
   to the Lemaire channel, but the ice was building up. The crew was
   intently watching the ice. I stayed up there almost falling asleep on
   my feet for about an hour or so, until I decided to go back to my
   cabin and try to sleep. It was tough though, I kept getting up and
   looking through the porthole to see what was happening.

   <h>LET US IN!!!

   <p>The next morning, thursday, we were supossed to have our first
   landing, but when I woke up and looked out the window, it didn't seem
   very promising. We were still cruising along the ice edge looking for
   a way in to the channel. After breakfast, Laurie had a meeting in the
   lounge to talk about our position and what we were planning to do,
   which pretty much came down to "try to find a way in." (map).The
   previous day we had been all the way down by Anvers Island and had to
   turn around after reaching the pack ice in the Bismark Strait. We
   sailed overnight back along the ice edge and tried to get in between
   Anvers Island and Brabant Island, but part way in had to turn around
   again because of the ice. So by the morning, we were still heading
   along the ice edge looking for a way into the channel.
 