Here Today\...Gone to Mars

Monday, June 19, 2006

A two week trip to a place that is 100\' hot in the daytime and freezing
at night means some thoughtful packing. The fact that it is half a world
away, 38\' South Latitude whereas I live at 47\' North Latitude, and
three time zones east, and we sleep in tents with one toilet available
to the group of up to fifty people, and we have been told to not expect
showers, adds many variables to the task of preparation.

It was quite a task. The airlines allow two checked bags, fifty pounds
or less unless you are willing to pay the surcharge, and two carry-ons.
The larger bag had to be the tent, ground mat and sub zero sleeping bag.
The other bag has to be the clothes and other necessities to make it two
weeks without doing laundry. Adding to that, we are bringing gift items
representative of our home for each of the teachers, and a gift for a
Chilean teacher. I intended to carry-on my laptop and my reading and
notebooks, etc.

I was lucky enough to borrow a nice tent and a good sleeping bag from a
friend at school. Washington has an 8.4% sales tax and so when we took a
trip to Portland, OR in May my husband and I did some major shopping. I
got a good ground mat, \$100.00, a head lamp, a thermal water bottle, 3
UV pants, 3 UV shirts, a hat and a vest and whatever else struck my
fancy. It was a \$700 shopping trip, and remember the tent and sleeping
bag were borrowed. Four items I took that were critical were an
international plug adapter, binoculars, baby wipes, and duct tape.
Remember: you can never have enough batteries.

My flight was from Seatac airport at 9:30 in the morning. We live eighty
miles from the airport and left home at 7:00 am, after a sleepless
night. I am always sleepless before a trip, a combination of anxiety and
excitement. Upon check in the handle of my large bag wouldn\'t retract.
I had to open the bag, move things around, get the handle down, squeeze
everything together and get it zipped back shut, in front of the waiting
people who were trying not to snarl at me. Everything got done and the
flight to Dallas was just fine. I was one of the first to arrive and
treated myself to a burger at "Champs". Around 7:00 pm I walked by the
gate and Dr. Penny Boston, Cathy Campbell and Cherlyn Anderson
recognized me and greeted me. Geoff Hammond, Dr. Henry Sun, Dr. Jim
Nienow and Rosalba () also joined our group. Kari Trupka and Matt
Allmand were there and Dr. Linda Powers and Shayne finally joined us.
Their plane had been delayed due to a bomb threat in Utah. We received
word that Dr. Liza Coe, our leader, and Pierre Cousteau were not going
to make the connection in Dallas because their plane needed repairs.

The plane to Santiago left on time, twelve hours after my first flight
took off from Seattle. The Flight Attendants served dinner, showed two
movies, and breakfast. I tried to sleep stretched over two seats,
keeping my seat belt on as requested. The middle row is the one to ask
for because there are five seats to stretch out on in that section. The
captain woke us with an announcement around 5 am, Chile time, 2 am
Seattle time, and we landed while watching the sun come up over the
Andes.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

See Collaboration

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Winter Solstice

8 am came too soon and Penny, Cathy and I had to scramble to get ready.
Others were already up and packing the trucks and vans. The breakfast
bar in the hotel was ham, cheese, fruit juice, nescafe, fruit and bread.
Apparently there had been two earthquakes here yesterday, one while we
were traveling and one, a 2.5, while we were sleeping, just before
midnight. (I was a little anxious about that because almost exactly a
year ago there was a 7.9 earthquake in the northern Atacama.) The rigs
were packed much more efficiently today and we were on the road by 9,
only an hour late. The first place we stopped for gas could not take a
credit card because the guy who ran the credit cards wasn\'t there yet,
so we moved on to the next station. While there Chris McKay called a
meeting and we gathered on the sidewalk. Since today we would start the
transects the scientists briefed us on what they were looking for and
how they were going to test.

Dr. Linda Powers explained that she was looking for microorganisms by
increasing metabolites using the light spectrum. She wants soil samples
at different depths up to twelve inches. Her light spectrum machine will
tell her if there is living or dead microorganisms, or spores, in the
soil. After the initial testing in the field she will take her samples
back to Utah to culture them, and see what grows out so that there is
more than one way to measure what is there.

Dr. Penny Boston explained looking for desert varnish, a layer of
bacteria and fungi on rocks with cyanobacteria under it. She wants to
look for rocks with a dark layer facing the sun, and a lighter color on
the ground side. After the initial testing in the field she will take
her samples back to culture them, and see what grows over time.

Dr. Henry Sun explained that he was looking for green algae growth under
translucent rocks. He would take the rocks back to the lab at camp and
"feed" them sugar water and measure whether carbon dioxide was emitted.

Dr. Jim Nienow explained that he was looking for hypolithic growth,
algae in layers of white quartz. He had a machine to zap the algae with
light which would interrupt the photosynthesis process and he could
measure the change in metabolism by measuring the background light.

Rosalba would be taking samples from any place we were so that she could
test for human contaminants so that those microorganism could be
discerned from the results of the other tests.

Cassie was looking for nematodes. She would be collecting soil samples
close to plants and looking for their presence all up the coast and in
the desert.

Kelly was looking for dust devils. She was collecting data for someone
else\'s project and was here to test electrostatic charges in dust
devils.

And in case that wasn\'t enough, at the camp in Yungay we would meet Dr.
Jacek Wierzchos who was studying organisms that grow in salt, a
groundbreaking discovery he had made last year. We would also meet Dr.
Lauren Fletcher, the camp manager, who was working on DNA tracking, and
Dr. Benito Gomez, who had identified the most Mars like area in the
Atacama, and had arranged for seven Chilean teachers to work beside us.
We would also meet Dr. Richard Quinn, who brought a twin of the Viking
Probe that had landed on Mars thirty years ago. His tests on the Atacama
Desert would be conducted by the Viking Probe and compared to the
results the original and identical Viking Probe had found on Mars. We
would also meet Toby, who had designed and built the small rover,
intended for lunar exploration, that was being tested at the camp.

Yes, we were in a swoon that we would not recover from until the plane
ride home.

All vehicles stopped for our first transect about twenty kilometers
north of Vallejar. We dispersed into the desert and collected soil
samples and rocks under the direction of the scientists. Linda and
Shayne had explained during the briefing how to make a sterile
collection. The critical tools are sterile spoons, (alcohol), baggies, a
sharpie (I call it a marker), and gloves. The soup spoons had been
sterilized, wrapped in sterile paper towel, covered with foil and placed
in baggies. We were to make sure that our hands did not touch the spoon.
My students will really go for this, it creates another level of
seriousness to the process.

Each soil sample, either a place or layer of soil, was taken by a gloved
hand using a new sterilized spoon and placed in a new baggie. The baggie
was marked with the date, time, and place, numbered as to the order it
was collected, then sealed. Each scientist also carried with them a mini
composition notebook where they noted the same information as well as
any other variables that might be important. The notebooks don\'t take
up much room, fit into any shirt or pants pocket, and are sturdy enough
for the field. I need some for my students.

We took a long time at the first transect because Linda and Shayne could
use their machine in the field and read results right there, so we got
to see it in use. In the interest of time we just collected at the other
transect stops. We pulled in at a bus station in Copiapo because it was
a wi-fi hotspot with restrooms and a grocery store. We learned that
there is a person at the banos charging 100-150 pesos for its use, and
they hand you toilet paper, and that this is a common custom throughout
Chile.

About thirty km north of Copiapo we pulled over for our tailgate lunch.
Penny went off to look for varnish, Henry and Jim to look for
translucent rocks, Linda and Rosalba to gather soil samples. Chris was
intent on getting us to the camp by 5:00 pm so we tried to head out as
soon as people had their food. He tried. Our next stop. a pit stop, was
at a large roadside memorial called St. Teresa of the Andes. It was 5:20
pm, getting dark, and we were still 400 km from Yungay. We made one last
transect in the dusk and then moved on.

We arrived in Yungay around ten pm. It was dark and cold. We crowded
into the kitchen area for introductions and welcomes. Then we unloaded
the trucks, went out into the dark, and set up our tents. As tired as I
was it was too cold to sleep. That first night I wrapped myself in all
my clothes from my suitcase and was finally able to drift off to sleep.
I learned from that night to put my sleeping bag in the middle of the
tent, not along the side.

This day was ***summer*** solstice at home.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Brrr. It was a cold, -2 C, fitful night. I waited until the sun had
warmed my tent before getting up, which means it was after 8 am.
Breakfast was cold cereal, boxed milk, and hard boiled eggs. There was
also hot water for tea and coffee, and there was fruit juice. This was
breakfast for the next two weeks, just like ham and cheese was our lunch
for the whole two weeks.

A major concern for us was that we had been away from home for going on
three days and had not had an opportunity to phone or email our
families. Chris was surprised of the concern because his family rarely
gets concerned even after six months of no communication. He was
sensitive to our needs and we wrote emails on his laptop which Lauren
took into town and so the emails were sent. We were also able to get
emails off using Liza\'s laptop as a conduit. Yes! Liza and Pierre had
flown from California to Antofagasta and had arrived to meet us!

Yungay was supposed to have been set up for internet communication weeks
before but was not. Another concern was charging the batteries on our
laptops. Yungay has a generator which is only on in the evening,
usually. Chris said we could use the car batteries to charge our
computers since the solar panels were also not set up.

Dr. Benito Gomez and the teachers from Antofagasta arrived mid morning
and we were all introduced. They set up their tents while we
familiarized ourselves with the place and the people. After they were
ready we loaded into the trucks and went to the place known as the "Rock
Garden". Rocks from a variety of places have made their way there as
well as rocks from Atacama. The garden is only one meter in diameter and
Chris had a rock from Israel that he placed there.

To get to the rock garden is quite the climb! My heart was pounding.
Only 4 wheel drives can make it even half way up and since I was in the
van I was one of the ones walking all the way. The last halfway up is
quite steep. Then we stood under the hot sun for an hour in the middle
of the desert, the desert that is the driest place on earth, fifty times
drier than the Mohave Desert. (Am I whining already? Ron knows I am
loving every minute of it!)

Brian Day had his video-camera and recorder all set for this momentous
occasion. Benito and Chris gave a filmed talk to the Chilean and US
teachers about the Mars analog. It was a bilingual explanation of why
Yungay is the chosen spot and what we hope the science will tell us.
Chris spoke and Benito translated. Benito spoke and Chris translated.
Teachers from both countries had questions as well. One of the desired
outcomes is that a documentary about this expedition will be produced in
both Spanish and English.

A salar is an expanse of salt that used to be a lake, or a salt lake
that used to be there but not is only salt. Much of the Northern Atacama
is salt, and there are several salars. The salar near Yungay is where we
went Thursday afternoon and met Dr. Jacek Wierzchos. He showed us his
measurement instruments and discussed the science he was doing. Until
last year no scientist thought organisms would grow in salt due to pH
and how water acts with salt within an organism. But then Jacek found
algae in the upper layers of the salt in the salar, in the driest place
on earth.

The salt is all knobby and some shapes are recognizable as a dog, or a
bird. It is also brown because of the dust, and the afternoon winds.
There are patches in the salar that look like puddles but are only
translucent halites, a mix of clear and milky mineral, nestled
throughout the knobby salt growths. The discovery this year is that the
salar is dynamic and has been growing measurably over the past thirty
years. The evidence is the pop top can that had a knob of salt growing
around it. The hypothesis is that the salt is getting water from
somewhere. Rain would dissolve the salt. It doesn\'t rain here and we
don\'t see dissolution. One theory is that the extreme change of
temperature may be causing dew from the radiant heat of the ground.
There is no dew from the moisture in the air because there is no
moisture in the air. Jacek wondered if it could be the groundwater,
which is 500 ft below the surface at Yungay. More awesome stuff to think
about!

The sun heads down around 5 pm and the temperature plummets with it. I,
and others, had expected that dinner would probably be around 6ish. We
had had our ham and cheese sandwiches around noon and were tired from
the day and getting colder by the minute. Dinner was eventually started
and we ate spaghetti with chorizo about 9 pm. That is late for an east
coast person, just right for Chilean habits, and 6ish for the west coast
people. I\'m west coast and I was tired and cold and wanted to go to
bed.

I heard Chris tell Liza that the Chilean Embassy had called and left a
message to contact them. I could imagine the message was that my husband
had called to see what had happened to us since he hadn\'t heard from me
since Monday. It wasn\'t, but I wouldn\'t have been surprised if it had
been.

Friday, June 23, 2006

I climbed out of my sleeping bag when the sun had warmed my tent. I
slept wearing thermal underwear, pants and a shirt, my coat, my towel
around my legs and a ski cap on my head. I wore them to breakfast too.
After breakfast it was warm enough to change out of thermals and use the
wet wipes to clean up before changing my underwear.

Liza had called a joint teacher meeting for this morning. Maite, our
Chilean guide and interpreter was there and Sylvia, one of the Chilean
teachers was quite good with speaking English. Linda Conrad from
NASAAmes was able to help. She was with us to get our logs and photos,
update the website and to manage the webcasts. We had a fun time
exchanging gifts and sharing about ourselves and our homes. Mark, Ivan,
Alejandro, Juana, Sylvia, Drina and Claudia were the teachers from
Antofagasta. Liza asked us to focus on a particular scientist and learn
about his or her work. Then we adjourned. Cherlyn, Cathy and I put our
notes together and created a log of the first two days that Linda put on
the webpage.

The afternoon had Cherlyn and I addressing a Life Support and Human
Factor issue. There was one toilet in the camp and the line was
noticeable. The guys walked over behind a dirt mound on the north side.
We decided that the women needed a place too. We were getting upwards to
fifty people in the camp, and more coming. I had brought a camp seat
just because. Cherlyn and I walked to the south end of the camp around a
dirt mound and set up the toilet seat. We both had walked and examined
who could see what where in order to determine the spot that would be
the most secure and comfortable. We dug a hole for the water to fall
into and placed the seat over it. There was a plastic bag that came with
it and we opened the bottom so it could drain onto the soil but kept the
sides to protect our legs from spray. We took a stick and used it for a
toilet paper holder, with a waste bag there for tissue, and a bottle of
hand sanitizer. I dragged dead limbs over to make a privacy wall and
Cherlyn made a flag. Chris let us use an old tablecloth to complete the
privacy wall and we were in business. We spread the word, and there were
no more lines. We are just a little proud of that.

Cherlyn and I and Cathy then solved an Energy and Life Support problem.
While we had been erecting our outhouse most of the others had gone back
to the salar to run tests. That meant that they had been out there
almost two hours without nourishment or liquid. We packed up some fruit
and cookies and bottles of water and walked over to the salar. They were
very grateful to see what we brought. We stayed a while to learn about
the probes that Jacek and Jim were working with.

In the late afternoon we had a meeting of the teachers to share our
adventures of the day. Our plan is to drive to San Pedro on Friday
taking samples, making more transects, along the way. An important issue
came up. Linda and Shayne want to go to Licancibur, a volcano in the
Andes, since we are so close to it. They can take two teachers and four
teachers want to go. Resolving who goes is one issue. The ones going are
gone for the week and will not rejoin us until we meet at the airport in
Santiago for the flight home. Splitting us up like that is another
issue. Emotions are intense around each issue.

The scientist I adopted was Henry Sun. I spent time with him in the lab
learning about what he was doing, what his machine was meant to measure,
and the meaning of it all. Cathy came by and signaled me to come out of
the lab. She whispered, "Want to spend the night in a hotel in
Antofagasta?" A room had been reserved at the hotel and the person it
was four was going to stay in the camp. Liza was ready to go so we had
to move quickly. Cathy, Cherlyn and I grabbed our stuff and headed for
the van. Ah, the old hurry up and wait routine. Someone thought of
filling the jerry cans to take on our trip to San Pedro the next day.
However, that meant that the cans had to be emptied into the generators
or another container. Hmm. It was getting onto 9 pm and dinner was
almost ready. We asked Liza if we had time to grab a plate of spaghetti
and she said go for it.

Now this is under the heading of stuff I never thought I would eat, like
ham and cheese that had been traveling for two days in the back of a car
in a plastic bag. We went into the kitchen and asked the man at the
counter if we could have a plate of spaghetti. He nodded and took a
paper plate in one hand, grabbed a handful of noodles with his bare
hands, and flopped the noodles on the plate. It is amazing what one can
get used to. I hesitated only a moment, said thanks, went over and put
sauce on the noodles, and went back to the car to eat.

The hotel was wonderful and modern. There was free wi-fi and we got to
contact our families. We each got a wonderful shower and a warm place to
sleep. I even did a load of laundry.

Saturday, June 24, 2006/ Sabado, 24 Junio, 2006

The price for this luxury was to be up at 6 am ready to go at 6:30. We
woke up in a warm room and it had been warm all night. And we were
clean. Aaahhhh.

We arrived on time at Yungay by 8 am. I stuffed my gear into my tent and
thought I was ready for the day. Linda and Shayne packed one of the
trucks for their trip to the Andes. Kari and Geoff were the ones going
with them. They will go to San Pedro with us then inland through Bolivia
to meet their guide near Licancibur. It will take two days to ascend the
19,000 feet to the top so they will spend the night on the mountain
which is an active volcano.

Penny and Pierre are in charge of selecting the transect sites. Penny is
looking for more varnish and Pierre is looking for vegetation on the
edge of the desert to see if he can collect nematodes for Cassie. Our
first stop was at 8000 ft. Yungay has an elevation of 5000 ft. It was
steep going and one of the cars overheated. It took a little time to
assure ourselves the car was fine and going to be fine. As we headed off
Kobe mentioned he had seen the prettiest flower all by itself on the
side of the road. I could see Pierre was stunned and speechless for a
moment. In playful? exaggeration he said,"Could you TELL the BIOLOGIST
when you see a FRIGGIN FLOWER in the DESERT!?!"

On the way we made a couple quick stops so Pierre could collect some
samples, and we made a longer stop for lunch and for Penny when the land
showed some outcroppings of rocks. We stopped at a salar that had
running water and ice. We were planning to see the Salar of the Atacama,
which is huge and has flamingos, and were told that this was a puny
salar. Then we drove for a long while after that and saw the largest
copper mine in the world. On the east side of the mine we stopped and
asked a truck driver for directions. The guys heard the hiss of a leaky
tire on the white SUV. Liza\'s joke at the broadcast was pretty funny:
"How many teachers does it take to fix a tire in the Atacama? Fourteen!"

It also took over an hour and now it was eating the afternoon. We drove
to Tocanao where there was a gas station, so that we could make sure it
was safe to drive. We were there over an hour and it only took them five
minutes to transform their sleepy town into a collection of open shops
and artist stalls. Even the toilet paper lady at the banos in the town
square was there. The sun was starting to go down and we had traveled
all that way without time to visit our destinations. Everyone was
disappointed. I wasn\'t. The day was what it was and we had an exciting
adventure and saw places in Chile that I had never seen before.

It was dark by the time we got to San Pedro. We had to drive the one way
roads in a circle until we got to the center of town where the gas pump
was. We were tired, hungry, disappointed and cranky, and not looking
forward to a four to five hour drive back. Liza made a gracious and
generous decision by offering to put us up for the night at the hotel
next door. It was also a prudent decision because we had been on the
road for twelve hours, it was dark, and the trip was long for tired
drivers.

At dinner I learned an important lesson. I had no cash so I offered to
have the drinks bill on my tab so that people could pay me cash. I
ordered a red wine and a white wine, and three beers. The lesson was
that I forgot to say ***glass*** of wine. Ah, well. We all enjoyed those
bottles of wine. And I was able to spend a second night in a warm bed in
a hotel and take yet another hot shower. Thank you, Liza.

Sunday, June 25, 2006/ Domingo, 25 Junio, 2006

The plan for this day is to go to the Valley of the Moon and through the
cave, then go to the geyser. We straggled in for breakfast around 8:30
am. Yes, it was ham and cheese and cereal and juices and watery
scrambled eggs and a lot of stuff. We made our ham and cheese lunch
sandwiches when we got our breakfast. Cathy and Kobe went back to Yungay
with the two journalists, and we made our goodbyes to Kari and Geoff and
Linda and Shayne.

The rest of us wandered around the town until eleven. I bought all my
souvenirs because I had a credit card and the shops at San Pedro are
equipped to take them. At eleven we met back at the hotel and got ready
for the journey to the Valley of the Moon. Cherlyn, Matt and I, and
Liza, Pierre, Whitney, and Geoff the photographer, and Ivan, Alejandro,
Mark, Sylvia, Claudia, Drina and Juana split up into the two trucks and
headed north.

The Chilean teachers wanted to be sure that we got the Chilean rate
rather than the American Tourist Rate at the park so they were our
spokespeople and negotiated our needs with the Chileans. Liza and I took
a walk up the mountain because we didn\'t particularly like crawling in
a cave. Sylvia had been firm about warning us to stay on the marked
paths. There were still mines in the ground from a border dispute with
Argentina. All the mountains here are salt, miles and miles of salt and
salt pillars and salt mountains.

They next had us drive to a National Monument, the Tres Marias. Only two
are still standing, one has fallen over. The Chileans were unhappy that
a woman was sitting on the monument for the longest time and wouldn\'t
get down. They decided she was crazy, no one should be on the monument.
We also saw the ruins of a house that was made of salt bricks, and
nearby was a small deserted salt mine.

Then we drove to the large dune which you can see on postcards. It is a
climb to the top but the view is stupendous. The day was waning which
meant that we would not get to see the geyser. We had dinner in a large
shopping mall in Colama followed by a four hour drive home. I drove with
the Chilean teachers and they sang all the way home. They sang pop
songs, movie songs, Disney songs and children\'s songs. They also wanted
to know about my family, my home, my salary and shared the same
information about themselves with me. They let me teach them "Little
Bunny Frou Frou". It has been delightful to use what little spanish I
know and work on the communication with them. They are very kind and
patient, and they want to practice their english.

Monday, June 26, 2006/ Martes, 26 Junio, 2006

The Broadcast crew had arrived. Mark Leon kept everyone on their toes as
only he can. The satellite dish went up and the internet became
available, sometimes. After my breakfast of cereal and boiled egg I
visited the lab to see what the scientists had done and were doing. It
was then that I met Dr. Richard Quinn and saw the Mars Viking twin. He
brought one of the six models that were made in the 1970\'s and used by
scientists as they guided the Viking on Mars. Richard said that the only
baseline we have are the tests that Viking did thirty years ago. It is
his hypothesis that if the Atacama is truly the most Mars like place on
earth then the results of the tests here should correlate to the results
Viking produced on Mars. The Viking model he brought did the exact same
testing that the one on Mars had done.

Richard had no results to share at that time and would continue with
cultures in the lab. Henry joined in and explained that even though
Viking produced data and successfully completed its tests, thirty years
later we still do not understand what the results tell us.

Henry was having the same problem. He was having trouble with his test
protocols, his testing methods. He had used his tool and method to test
in the Mohave Desert and thought it worked fine. Now, he questions the
results. He had set up a very sensitive probe that would measure
production of minute amounts of carbon dioxide. He put his sample into a
glass jar and removed the air by forcing hydrogen in. He then added a
type of sugar water and measured, noting the results as they appeared on
his computer screen. The results were not making sense to him. Over the
previous few days he had tried to change the order of his procedure,
checked the mechanics, and tried to figure out why the results were not
registering predictably. I listened while Henry explained the concerns
to me, and then to Chris. Chris had assembled the scientists, each one
searching for signs of life, each using their own unique method. Chris
was the linchpin. Chris conferenced continually with each one,
listening, conferring, analyzing, and suggesting, in a remarkably
respectful and positive manner. ***That*** is what I call a good
teacher, and good teaching.

The conversations among the scientists were exciting and enlightening.
They were the kind of discussions I would hope for my students and
triggered ideas for connecting with classes with the other Spaceward
Bound teachers. The scientists discussed their work among themselves,
sharing purposes and methods. They discovered commonalities, and I heard
more than once, "Will you keep me posted with your results? Your work
ties in with what I am doing and can be useful."

One exciting note: Cassie found a nematode in one of Pierre\'s samples.

That afternoon I volunteered to go to the area of the Rock Garden to
collect samples with Henry and Rosalba. Chris drove and we were
accompanied by two scientist writers who wanted to interview Chris.
Henry took some samples, Rosalba and I took samples from previous digs
to test for contamination, and the writers had Chris all to themselves
for a quiet hour. Rosalba let me unwrap the spoons, note in the mini
composition book, hold the baggie while she filled it, and even write on
the baggie with the sharpie. I watched as she measured the depths and
took the samples. I drew the locations in the notebook, and wrote the
depths. Dates, time, order, depth were all written in the notebook and
on the baggies. Then we took pictures of the site with a tape measure
beside it to show scale.

All of us headed up the road to the webcast location to watch the lunar
rovers perform. Toby had brought two rovers, made with off the shelf
items, that were planned to go to the moon. They would be remotely
controlled by people at NASA Ames who would try to have the rovers
follow a flagged path created in the desert. The glitch was that they
needed all the bandwidth they could get and for a reason discovered
later, someone had turned the internet on back at camp, there was
difficulty in getting the rovers to respond.

We had a tasty dinner of rice and beans *spooned* onto our plates by
Sylvia and Claudia. Lauren was our supplier and had been gone Sunday and
Monday which meant that the station ran out of food. No bread, no fruit,
no snacks. Of course, there may have been ham and cheese. The good news
was that I went to bed early and was able to do email from my tent.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006/ Lunes, 27 Junio, 2006

The Chilean teachers met with Benito and Linda to plan the webcast that
would happen around 11 am. Liza met with the US teachers and we planned
our webcast as well. Whitney was the emcee and would introduce the
program and direct the flow of people. First, Chris would talk about the
science, then Liza would talk about the goals of the Spaceward Bound
program. We decided that I would follow and describe the transects and
the science. Kobe would then discuss his idea about creating a station
model to use at his school. Cathy would talk about Henry\'s work, the
Viking expedition, and ideas for the classroom. Matt discussed Human
Factors that arise from working with a group in close quarters. Whitney
would then explain why Kari and Geoff were not present. We would end
with Cherlyn talking about Penny\'s work as well as the use of robotics.
Toby would send in rover and then talk on camera about the robotics
program. We were asked to work with Geoff the photographer to select two
photos each that could be shown during the webcast.

Showtime for the Chilean teachers. We went to the site and stood, or
found a rock to sit on. We had to be incredibly quiet. The generator was
off behind a rock with a long cord to the computers and camera. There
were also battery packs and a truck, motor running, connected to them
with cables. The process took about an hour, a tense, anxious hour.
Afterwards we took pictures of each other and then went back to camp for
the Chileans to pack up and head for home. We had made new friends and
it was a happy and sad farewell.

However, before they left Pato had to be rescued. Matt had brought a
duck arm puppet that was part of his family lore and would be in a
series of photos. I had brought a small Buzz Lightyear for the same
reason. Last Friday Pato had disappeared. Saturday Matt received an
email with pictures showing Pato tied up in thick rope and with a wide
carving knife at his throat. He was to wait for further instructions.
Well, Pato was returned in a box, but still viable. We made plans to
meet our new friends for dinner in Antofagasta the next night.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006/ Miercoles, 28 Junio, 2006

Showtime for us. The energy level was noticeably down with the Chileans
gone. We spent a tense morning working with Geoff the photographer to
prepare the photos that would be used. We also did a dry run through to
time ourselves and the program.

It was the same place, time and procedure as yesterday. The only
difference was that after the first hour we stayed online for questions
and comments from friends and family. We felt badly that Geoff\'s family
logged in a few times wondering where he was and we assured them he was
safe but off on a unique adventure.

Liza took a van load into Antofagasta in the early afternoon so that we
could shop for souvenir gifts before dinner. We also wanted to take
advantage of the hotel rooms and showers. I was commissioned to find
something for Henry\'s wife and two kids. That was fine with me because
I had done all my shopping in San Pedro. Whitney, Matt, Pierre, Cathy,
Cherlyn, and I headed towards town. As luck would have it, the van got a
flat tire. As luck would have it, the flat tire was between two gas
stations and not anytime the hour before in the desert. We got the baby
donut spare tire on and traveled slowly the rest of the way to town. A
helpful man had stopped to see if he could help and he gave us the name
of a good tire place.

We left Pierre near the University where he had to take samples in and
headed for the hotel. We stopped at the first gas station/tire place we
came to. It was another adventure. The servicio put on a huge tire and
we had a long argument and that tire came off. There was no shopping
that day but we did get a shower. I ran a load of wash and threw my new
red pants from San Pedro in with the underwear and socks from Cathy,
Cherlyn and I. Now we all have matching Andean pink garments.

Dinner was wonderful. Almost everyone was there. Liza had had a DAY and
was missed, but we understood. The Chilean broadcast with pictures of
Toby and the rover were on the front page of the newspaper in
Antofagasta.

Back to camp and to bed. The plan was to on the road by 8 am. We have
two days to go 700 miles and be at the airport in Santiago by 6 pm. We
wanted one long driving day and one short driving day so that we could
finally get to the souvenir shopping and perhaps some sightseeing.

Thursday, June 29, 2006/Viernes, 29 Junio, 2006

Cathy walked by the tent and called out that it was 7:30. I got up and
started chucking things out of my tent and packing. I went to the bano
for the last time and tore it down. I sanitized the seat and donated it
to the station. Then the word came that we were not leaving until Liza
had the tire fixed and returned to camp, with an ETA of 11:00.

The packing continued and the tents came down. The entire camp was being
dismantled and loaded onto a large truck. Chairs, tables, the toilet and
the stove were all being loaded onto the truck. Whatever stayed there
would be gone within days. The scientists were all packing up their
stuff as well, in large cushioned trunks.

The camp looked like a garbage dump. Bottles, dirty dishes, rotting food
stuff, ashtrays and other garbage littered the entire area inside and
out. There had obviously been a good time the night before while we were
in town. Cathy, Cherlyn and I had all taken two or three turns at
cleaning the kitchen throughout our stay. Lauren telling us we had to
clean up this particular mess did not sit well with us. Kobe and Matt
pitched in to do the dishes.

Matt had drawn the Spaceward Bound patch on the white kitchen wall where
people over the last three years had signed their names and date. Around
the edge of the patch he left room for each of us to write our names.
Cathy, Cherlyn and I worked on putting the color in and adding some
extra graphics. We put Kari, Geoff, Liza and Chris\'s name up with all
of ours. My extra picture is supposed to be a volcano, Mt. St. Helen,
and a fir tree. Cherlyn drew a palm tree because she is from the palm
tree state.

We were loaded and ready to go before noon. Four vehicles, no tasks or
sightseeing, just making tracks down the road. Water, chips, and
cookies, were available in every car. Ham and cheese, of course, and
peanut butter and honey, and bread, were packed in a common box for
lunch breaks.

We made a stop in the late afternoon for Henry to collect some data
using Kelly\'s instrument. He wondered if there would be more
electrostatic charge coming off the soil in the afternoon and evenings
and less in the mornings. The soil had all day in the sun to agitate the
electrons and get them moving. Kelly set up her instrument which is so
sensitive that when she took a reading she had to call red light/green
light because the instrument was so sensitive and could register a step
taken a quarter mile away. People before us used the rocks along the
roadside to build their names. We used our time by creating the word
MARS out of the rocks.

After dark we stopped for dinner and, knowing we would not get to our
destination until midnight, decided to press on. However, a long day and
full stomachs made at least one driver too sleepy. The fog was rolling
in and Vallenar was not too far off. It was ten pm and Chris decided we
should call it a night and return to the hotel there. There was no room
at that hotel but there was room at a neighboring hotel.

We had to completely unload the trucks and take all our stuff in with
us. The plan was to be up, showered, eaten and ready to go at 8 am.
Cherlyn and Cathy went right to sleep but Rosalba and I stayed up a bit
taking advantage of the internet and working on our email.

Friday, June 30, 2006/Jueves, 30 Junio, 2006

I may have the word for Thursday and Friday mixed up.

Cathy announced it was time to get up at the same time there was a knock
on the door asking for our luggage. Cherlyn was in the shower and
Rosalba was hesitant to enter to go to the toilet. By the time Cherlyn
was out and getting pretty Rosalba had had enough and knocked on the
door saying she was "Screaming to Pee!"

We treated ourselves to some lovely pastries at the breakfast bar but
resisted the ham and cheese. The guys were still tying down the luggage
when we walked over. We were entertained by the school kids arriving for
school carrying three dimensional projects that looked like models of
towns. **We wished that we could visit a school and classrooms, and
perhaps that is a thought for next time.** A few minutes later we were
getting fuel and then on the road. We still had almost 500 miles to go.
We hoped to be in Santiago by 6 pm. Our plane leaves at 9:30 pm and we
had to return the cars and check in.

An hour or so later Pierre asked me if I smelled poo. I said no. Then we
went by a farm with hundreds of bags of stuff that I thought might be
fertilizer because of the smell. A while later Kelly asked, "Did someone
step in dog poo?" Kobe looked at his shoes and took them off and put
them by the door. The smell was now overwhelming and we pulled over and
tossed the shoes out. Then we climbed out. Shoes were inspected and
cleaned, and the carpet was wiped down. Kobe lit a piece of paper so
that the smoke would dissipate the smell. Pierre and I put tangerine
peels along a crease in the car ceiling to help freshen the air.

Pierre commented on how bad we must smell if it takes us two hours to
register a dog poo smell in the car. Pierre has relaxed since the first
days. He had been quiet and aloof, smoking his hand rolled dark french
cigarettes. Now he was begging to read our journals, especially the
"juicy" parts. He offered to let us read his journal, then laughed and
said it was in French. He also made a comment that people had turned out
to be completely different than his expectations and first impressions.
He said it was a positive lesson for him to learn. He is young enough to
perhaps think of teachers as stodgy and authoritative.

All of us commented on how the trip up was full of conversations about
science and the work but that the conversations on the trip back were
much more casual and relaxed, and we were much more open and comfortable
with each other.

We got to the airport by 5 pm, returned the cars, met up with Kari,
Geoff, Linda and Shayne, checked in and shopped for souvenirs. The check
in and customs took long enough to hear the stories from Kari and Geoff.
My last task was to mail postcards. There was no one at the mailing
kiosk so I asked the girl in the shop across from it to please mail
them. I gave her twenty dollars and twenty postcards. My trust was well
founded, the postcards were sent!

I could tell we were disentangling and setting our hearts and minds
towards home. The next morning in Dallas we went to our separate gates,
more happy than sad to be parting, and anticipating sleeping in our own
beds that evening.

Epilogue:

The previous six pages that I sent with the replies to your questions
have this information.

The journey continues\...