October 26 would be our first day of heavy duty science activity. This means that today our job truly began after our long flight from the United States and our drive through Chile and into Bolivia.

The day started at 8am with our normal breakfast meeting. Nathalie outlined the plan:

Inspect the science instruments and experiments that had been in operation over the past year.

We split into groups to do this:

A group lead by Edmond would inspect some experiments designed to observe the impact of UV radiation [sunlight] on microbial life.

Nathalie's group headed off to Laguna Verde to sample rocks to complete a transect that was performed last year at the same place. The rest of the morning was occupied by trying to find a site for a new transect to compare with the previous one.

Andy's group would inspect some instruments that had been recording solar activity for the past year. He would retrieve data logged by these instruments and then place new instruments that had been shipped to Bolivia from the United States.

We split up and grabbed our radio transceivers that we would use to stay in communication.



I decided to join Andy's group today and will follow Nathalie and Edmond's groups later in the week.

Solar Instrument Group

With Andy and the solar instrument group, the day immediately started off with some technical problems. Unfortunately, the new instruments that had just been shipped from the United States to Bolivia had been damaged while being shipped.

Andy, Ross, and Rob spent some time trying to sort out this technical problem and then decided to head out to the site while it was still daylight. They planned to fix the instruments later in the evening.











We drove to the first instrument site and then began disassembling the instrument stand because the weather station and data logger were missing.













Next we clambered back into the truck and headed out to the instrument station that was designed to collect solar data.

It appeared that the solar instrument that measures solar activity [basically a solar panel] over the year was intact and had logged data for the past year.


[click on image to see a larger version]




[click on image to see a larger version]

At this location I ventured forth on my own in order to take a look at the textures on the ground, especially the manner in which the textures are altered as they meet the Laguna Blanca.

On the way to the Laguna Blanca I observed many, sharp angular rocks.





Closer to the lake I was interesting little formations of rock, sand, some life, and some ice. Too show the transition between what I was seeing directly in front of me at my feet and what I was seeing in the distance I took this vertical panoramic image:



We then drove back to a hearty lunch of soup at "The Refuge." The refuge is our base of operation. This was the end of the part of the day where we would work outside. We can't work into the evening because this part of Bolivia gets cold and dark very fast. Safety is our top priority.

Quote of the Day:

Person 1
"This arctic coat that I borrowed may be overkill out here."

Person 2
"40 degrees below is 40 degrees below any way that you look at it"