27 October: Rio to Lima

It was a 0500 departure from the hotel on a wet and rainy morning to take flight #69 for the year. The work in Rio was done and now it was back to Lima. I was last in Peru in 2008 when I was on crutches which was not a lot of fun.

The drive to the airport was very wet with a lot of large deep puddles in places which slowed us up frequently. The airport was pretty quiet when we arrived so I set of through the only open door to find that my check-in was the other end of the building. Another new airline this time - TACA.  Anyway they have a deal with Lufthansa so I will get flyer points and I had a Business Class seat for the 5.5 hours to Lima which was nice.  Rio airport is a bit tired with quite a few puddles on the floor inside the terminal after the rain. I followed the signs to the VIP lounge but obviously 0600 was too early for the Brazilians to open up; many of the shops were closed too leaving many  passengers wandering around wondering what to do. So it was back downstairs to the gate area and  at least they did have a few seats. The aeroplane was an Airbus 319, probably not too old but the business class seats seemed older than the plane as they were quite scuffed. As we pushed back the heavens really opened up and the rain poured down.

 Despite the awful weather we left pretty close to time and were promptly served a breakfast omelette which was good but filled with onions and various coloured peppers- welcome to Latin America, again.



The flight was almost due west it seemed and we spent along time over clouds and then jungle

 before the landscape changed to hills

 and then mountains and finally snow covered peaks and alpine lakes of melt-water.

We crossed Lake Titicaca

 and then the land looked a bit more barren like the altoplano

 but before too long it was the top of descent. There were a few hilltops sticking out of the cloud and we were heading into thick clouds until we suddenly appeared above the sea and on short final approach to Lima.

and there were many fishing boats anchored in the bays along the coast and the heavy overcast made for a very grey day.

After we landed the first passengers were starting to queue in the gangway well before we finished taxying - memories of travel in Central Asia. Immigration and customs were straightforward and I was met by my counterpart and we set off for the car and the hotel. The traffic was pretty diabolical but this is South America. The hotel

is right in the centre of the arts and crafts shopping markets  with one of the largest Inca markets opposite

and I suspect I will be shopping there soon, after all Christmas is not so far away.

23-26 October; Return to Rio

The Windsor Palace Hotel Copacabana was the same as in February but the Wi-Fi has degraded which has made email and blog work very difficult. it is really too slow and unreliable for the  office email system which reacts badly to  low speed internet as a seurity risk.

I spent Saturday doing paper work after a lie in, a good bacon and egg breakfast, watching the Korean GP qualifying re-runs (in Portuguese), walking along the beach for a bit on a fine hot afternoon and then having a couple of beers with an old mate here. We ended up eating in the pavement bar as it began to rain buckets and there was no sense in going anywhere as we were already at a "dry" table under an umbrella. It was 2200 by the time the rain lifted and we went our separate ways. It was really good to meet up again.

Sunday I was awake at 0400 to see the GP live but of course it was delayed by rain and so I could have slept in for another hour or so!  Still it was an eventful race and worth watching, but a bit sad for Mark Webber. Then it was another breakfast and a walk again. The weather was overcast but still 20 degrees and the wind was low. The road along the promenade  (Atlantic Avenue) had been closed on one side to host a charity wlka/race. There were several thousand people involved, all with pink numbers and some with medals  because they had already finished.

The next two days were taken up with work. The seminar group had grown to 42 or teherabouts with drifters - a bit beyond the expected 20-25! Still they were a pretty animated group  and the discussions and debates were lively and good fun as well as instructive, for them and me.
The rain had come back especially at night, so there was little evening wandering for me. Not that it is advisable to go too far anyway.
Tuesday night about 20 of us went to celebrate the end of the work at a big meat restaurant at the waterside in the enxt bay. They carve hunks of really excellent roast beef in different cuts to order at the table. A coupleof caipirinhias to round off the meal and back to the hotel for an early start.

19-23 October: Salta and Don Otto

Well, the work in Salta has gone well. The seminar group was about 10 people and whilst they did not all have great English language skills the two days have been very good workwise. The questions were good and fast and furious at times but there were plenty of helpers for translation in both directions. It was a great group to work with. After work, which was usually about 6PM, we went back to the hotel and went for a wander around the centre of town before eating. Everywhere we went seemed to be past this spectacular church ...by day .........

and .....

...by night.

..............and then to the main square................

..where they have another fine church

The choices of food were extensive but we avoided the fast food and posh places sticking to generally local styles with empanadas and similar snacks interspersed with the local dark beer “Salta”.

One evening we went across town to the new tourist trap area near the refurbished railway station. We found a whole heap of pavement cafes and traditional bars. We picked one with live local music and had a very good evening with local food, great red wine and plenty of local folk type music.

Another time we went to an Irish pub! ......
 

Luis, Juan, me, two other local staff members

......but we ate very traditional “Bife de lomo” which is basically a fillet steak and a few chips. Very tasty meat and the red wines of the district and from Mendoza another uranium mining area to the south are excellent and we tried a few of them too!

On Wednesday we set out for the uranium mine at Don Otto. A drive of about 3-4 hours in a direct route but we stopped to look at the geology many times as the road passes up over a ridge at about 3400m (10000ft) and follows the main syncline. The variety of landforms and rock types was amazing

- as was the nature of the road at times. Much of the track was gravel but in very good condition, just a bit narrow and precarious, especially when big trucks came the other way;

A few narrow bridges

and many twists and turns.

As we climbed over the highest point, near the peak we entered the National Park

and the geology put on a splendid display which is hard to capture on film, even with a panoramic camera.

At this same point a large bird cruised overhead and everyone thought it was a condor. Sadly when we looked at my picture it was declared to be an “eagle” although I think it was a kite.

Shortly we came to the highest point on the road......

Eventually we came out onto a high plateau, not quite the “altoplano” of Chile but pretty close - Vast flat areas of tough grassland and very few signs of life.

We did see two real “gauchos” (cowboys) riding after their cattle........

........ and a few goats later on.

We left the park and had lunch at one old mine site where there were wild donkeys who watched us as much as we watched them.

By now we had descended to a mere 2800 m into a series of river valleys in a very dry basin with dunes, geology and cacti everywhere............................

Then we finally came to the former mine site at Don Otto which is being investigated for possible re-development.

The facility is a shadow of its former glory days of production but is under a care and maintenance regime and is in good condition generally. The bunkhouse is old and made of stone and is very rustic.

The meals were all taken in the old mess hall, a barn of a place with only 10 of us and then the local crew of about 6. Meals were basic but fine and still red wine to wash the meat down.

Luis drinking mate in the mess hall.

The scenery at the site was fantastic and the weather could not have been better although the sun was vicious and despite a hat and sun block my nose did get burned. The old miners had even labelled the mineralised strata they mined on the outside where they were exposed at the surface...

We looked at the old facilities and discussed the new plans. In the evening we had some presentations from the seminar members about the various aspects of their work and the new plans and how it all tied in with my work etc. Then it was off to bed as the generator was turned off and the weather was getting cool.


In the early morning the dawn light on the rocks was amazing.....

and it was still cool as we headed off for breakfast, past several of these trees,

which are endemic only to this area and have seed cases that look like plastic peanuts.

The trees are very spiky – I guess this protects them from the attacks of the goats and donkeys etc that seem to roam the area. We looked around the former processing site and discussed the new plans and then finally went to the old underground workings to look at the old decline and some of the galleries.



It was very dusty, very fine rock dust- a real nuisance hazard, so we wore masks but the tunnels were in great condition and it was very interesting. A return to camp for the last mess lunch – excellent grilled pork chops – then we began the drive back to Salta. The clouds were starting to build up but we stopped for a short while to walk up a narrow ravine to see dinosaur footprints. Sadly the very last part of the climb to the site was a bit too slippery for me but I got a very good view from the valley floor.

The drive back was marked by a few rain spots and some very impressive displays of threatening clouds. The road was still impressive on the way back.

On Thursday evening we arrived back in Salta at 1830 and after a quick shower and a change a small group of us went off to the GPO to post my cards and then to a pub to grab a few beers and a snack before heading off to the Central Theatre for a concert by the local symphony orchestra.

In true latin american style the show did not begin until 2130. The house was pretty full and the performance was very good:

Beethoven’s overture “Coriolanus” and Grieg’s “Peer Gynt” suite in part 1 and then Mendelssohn’s Symphony “The Scottish Lass” in part 2 and a great encore.

Friday morning was a rush to finish up the final questions and answers from the group, followed by a super lunch of local specialities before a mad rush to the car, a quick round of farewells and then the sprint to the airport to catch the Austral flight on an MD-83 back to Buenos Aires. The weather was grey again, but no rain. The flight was delayed and so although there was no airport change for my next flight it was a real sprint to get aboard the Aerolineas Argentinas flight to Rio. A 3 hour flight in a B737-700 and we reached Rio by about 2130 local time; someone from the host organisation was there to meet me and we set off for the hotel. Rio traffic has not lessened since February and we were some 45 minutes or more before arriving back at the Windsor Palace hotel just off the front at Copacabana beach, the same place where the team stayed in February. So finally, a long day over   and a chance to relax over the weekend before work starts again on Monday at 0800.

October 16th: Off again..... Latin America Calling

Saturday afternoon and I found myself back at the Vienna Airport waiting to board a flight again. This time it was the start of a 2 week mission to Argentina, Brazil and Peru.  The first leg of the trip took in a flight in an Airbus319 of Iberia from Vienna to Madrid. Good flight, on time and service was fine.

Madrid airport is vast but seemd to be well organised  and I found  the change to another terminal pretty easy, if a little time consuming. The Business Class lounge was calm and well equipped and my time there was very pleasant. The flight to Buenos Aires was also with Iberia and  the Airbus 340-600 seemed to be pretty new; and they had a weekend FT paper to read which was very good.  The flight to BA was about 12 hours or so and the plane seemed to be pretty full, certainly Business Class was full. I am not sure about all these airline stories about struggling to fill premium seats as I have not seen an empty Business Class seat on any long haul flight this year . Any way I arrived in Buenos Aires Ezeiza Ministro Pistarini International Airport on   time, paid my US $100  "reciprocal" fee for being an Australian wanting to enter Agentina and  went out to meet my local friend and counterpart Luis. This airport is about 34 km from the centre of BA. We drove off to his flat to sit out the time before our flight up-country to go to Salta which is where I shall be working this week.
Luis and his wife and 2 children live in a smart place,a top flooor apartment   on the ourskirts of the centre of BA. We had a coffee or two and then a lunch before heading back to the in-town airport for our  flight to Salta.  This airport, called the Jorge Newbery AeroPark  is alongside the River Plate and right at the edge of the centre of town, less than 15 minutes from the real centre of downtown BA.
Sadly I did not have a window seat on the LAN Argentina Airbus 320 but even so the takeoff from the cebnter of town  from what seemed to be a relatively short strip and an immediate turn out over the water was very scenic.  The Airbus had a very basic fitout but as we flew only 2 hours this was no real problem.
On arrival the mountains around the town were wrapped in clouds and the sky was very threatening, but the weather was cool. we were met by a local colleague of Luis's and driven to our hotel. The city is  at about 3600  feet with a population of about 4-600,000 people I  was told and is certainly quite  spread out. The main town is  a grid of narrow streets with many old buildings and plenty of traffic.
After checking in we met up with another geologist mate of Luis's   called Juan, who will be working with us this week,   and had a stroll around town .  An old place with colonial buildings and  churches and a lot of character.  After awhile we stopped off ata bar overlooking the main square  and sat down for an empananda and a couple of the local dark beers by which time it was 2000 and I decided that bed would be a better bet than waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive  and go out for dinner at 2200! I do have to start teaching in the morning.....
The room is vast,clean and comfortable but bit noisy as the street outside is a one way  through route from one side of town to the other and the traffic seems never to stop! The hotel is called the Hotel Ghala - and I working out if that should be interpreted as "Gala" or "Galah" ; Australians will understand that one!

12-14 October: Clausthal to Goslar and home again

Well, the weather was cold leading to plenty of ice on the car in the morning..............

The walk to the university was all of 300m along the main street of Clausthal ..............

The university was marked by an example of an old motor and wheel at the front door.................................

The classes went well.  The   class room was at the top of the building which meant we walked past this lovely stained galss window eveery day. It is a memorial to the miners who died in WW 1.

 The course final dinner was held  at an interesting loclae - n 18th century pumphouse in the woods about 70 mnutes walk away from the town.  So we all set off on the walk across the countryside...........................

......................................into the gathering darkness of the pine trees.......................................

Past an old powder house (see how one corner is brick built but the rest is wood so if the blasting powder explodes the force will all be in a chosen direction away frm the rest of the plant area).....

....until finally we arrived at the punphouse nestling in the centre of the woods.......

.....we sat down in a very cosy room and had a great 3 course dinner...............

Fortunately we had a bus to take us home.

The next day my work was done so I set out to drive to Hannover Airport but stopped off in Goslar on the way. A world heritage culturally listed area and a centre of the old Imperial Germany. 

The road was scenic but with plenty of frost  on the vegetation.

There is a great mining museum at Goslar  but I really did not have enough time to appreciate it so I did not even start. I wandered around part of the old town looking at some splendid buildings................

 ........ and then headed back to Hannover. Gave the car back to Hertz  and waited for Air Berlin to take off.  We left on time and then it was back to Vienna again.