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We are here!
Tuesday, November 23, 1999

Sicola

We're here in Punta Arenas. We're scheduled to take off on Saturday. There's a couple of flights ahead of us and they had a day down to repair a broken windscreen.

It's a bit hazy, about 65°F. We've rented a van, stuffed it with gear and all seven of us, and were heading up (north) to Torre del Paine. We're hoping to do a bit of bouldering and possibly some climbing.

Last night we had an amazing meal of steak, sea bass and amazing wine. We walked around town after dinner and met some Americans on a huge ice breaker that's heading down to the ice to do some research. The C-130 broke a windscreen (windshield) and is going to be down for a day for repairs. So we're delayed another day. We are missing one satellite phone and digital camera, but hopefully we'll have it back today or when we get back from camping.

Second Dispatch

	Weighing food

We're in Rio Verde just north of Punta Arenas at a friend's ranch. They have 60,000 acres and we might help them mark a few lamb tomorrow. After that we're up to Torre Del Paine to do some climbing. We're all looking forward to getting down to the ice. We will be sending images daily of the crew. Our digital camera is lost with the Iridium (satellite phone). We will be in Punta on Wednesday in time for the ice. Good thing we have a Mini-M (satellite phone).

Spent the night last night at a sheep ranch. We had fresh lamb for dinner and were riding motorcycles 'til 9pm out in the fields chasing sheep! We stayed with a friend of Koch's whose father is a sheep rancher. The whole crew slept under the stars. It was a beautiful night...and not too cold.

Today, Stephen Koch and Mark Newcomb helped the ranchers herd up the sheep and then clip their ears and mark the sheep for sale or slaughter. It was quite a show with sheep dogs, horses and motorcycles. Koch was rounding up the sheep on motorcycles while Newcomb was putting rubberbands on the baby sheep's tails. We're in the van now and heading up to Paine for some camping and climbing... everything is good and were having a great time. Here's a pic of the crew packing and weighing food for the ice.

Ciao... the Boys!

EXPEDITION DISPATCHES