Saturday, March 30, 2024

Home, Sweet Home

We are all back at our respective homes in Chile and the U.S.! Dr. Angelica got home to Concepcion, Chile late Thursday night. Friday morning, Hannah and Dr. Becky began the long journey back to Arizona. We left our hotel late morning on Friday, and 29 hours later we landed in the Phoenix airport! Our personal luggage traveled with us, and our cargo and samples will follow behind us. Some of our cargo and samples flew with us from Antarctica to Punta Arenas, Chile. They are being stored by the U.S. Antarctic Program until they can ship it to us in the U.S. The other half of our cargo and samples are still at Escudero in Antarctica! They will be moved by the Chilean Navy to Punta Arenas later in April, where they will get transferred to the U.S. Antarctic Program and eventually shipped to us. (They go the slow route!) We probably won't see the cargo for many months, and often the frozen samples take even longer! But when they eventually get to Arizona State, we will have a lot of work to do!