Aufwietersehen

Well, this is likely my last post before I head to the southern hemisphere, and ultimately, the southern most continent on the planet. Yes, you can say that I am excited. I'm quite nervous too. I've stocked up on some meclizine (I keep wanting to call this stuff mescaline, perhaps I 'm wishing it was, subconsciously) and crystallized ginger, in hopes to curb any unpleasant feelings that this land lover has never felt before. Hopefully I won't need it. I've never been motion sick before, but the ocean cruise is a new experience for me, and I figure I should at least come prepared, especially since the vessel is flat bottomed. I am required to work 12 hours days on the boat after all, being sick isn't conducive to work. The long hours shouldn't be too bad, I don't think. Not like there's much to do on a boat anyway... Work, eat, sleep, and take pictures. There's no science going on during this cruise, that I am aware of, so I probably won't get to see anything cool from that perspective. Let's just hope that waters of the Drake Passage will cooperate. I've heard the seas can be quite rough, and I've seen pictures of the boat I will be riding with its aft section under water. (sounds like fun, if I knew I wouldn't get sea sick, and was wearing a PFD, dry suit, and GPS locater beacon.) I suspect I'll still prefer bombing down mountain pass roads at 50+ mph on my road bike.

I've pretty much gotten all my stuff together. Camera is working and I'm comfortable with it. I've rented a Canon 70-200mm IS f/2.8L lens so I can only blame myself for the awful pictures I'm sure I'll take. From my experience with the lens so far, I'm sure I'm going to have a hard time sending it back to lensrentals.com. [speaking of which, plug for lensrentals.com, they have great customer service and very friendly staff, highly recommended]. I have to laugh, it's one heavy lens, and almost doubles the weight of all my camera gear put together, sans tripod.

I've got a pair of noise isolating headphones for the 11+ hour combined plane ride down to Chili too. I went the route of the Shure e3c's. From all the reviews, they seem to do as well as, if not better than active noise canceling headphones. The though of stopping sound from getting in makes more sense than adding noise to cancel the noise, from the perspective of my ear drums.

I have a new pair of hiking boots too, that are by far the best pair of hiking boots I have EVER put on my feet. They are Kayland Vertigo High boots. Maybe if I get a chance to write a review while I am on my way I will. There don't seem to be too many reviews out on the web about them. But to summarize quickly... As I was told by the super friendly staff over at bent gate mountaineering, the boots are designed for an asymmetrical foot, which from my perspective means the following: The have a nice tight well supporting heel cup, and the toe box is nice and roomy for toe wiggling. The lacing system brings the laces all the way down to the tip of the shoe too, kind of like rock climbing shoes, so you are able to get them laced up for a perfect feeling fit. I've hiked in them for 3 weekends now, and have worn them to the office a few times to break them in. Never had a single blister. So hopefully the time spent in Chili will involve some exploring.

I hope to be updating this blog significantly more often during my trip as well, at least every other day, if not daily. We'll see how that goes, and how I'm feeling. I suppose network connectivity will dictate that as well. If the connectivity is bad, I'll probably at least compose entries locally, and update them as I can.

On that note, cheers! and I'll talk to you all from Chili. Perhaps from a web perspective, this should have been titled aufwietersprechen. (talk to you later?)