Day 14 in Chile (November 8, 2013)

Remember that I mentioned yesterday that I was waiting my flight back home? Well, here I'm now sitting in the VIP lounge of Lima airport in Peru. Peru? what a hell am I doing here? Just to make the long story short, our flight from Santiago was on time and we boarded and started our journey and flew about 3hrs. The pilot announced that he experienced electrical problem and he has to make emergency landing in Lima, Peru. When we landed safely, thanks to God, we were greeted by many fire tracks and police cars. After we landed, we were told to stay in our seat and we did for almost an hour, and the pilot again announced that the plane is out of service so we had to exit. They took us to the building by bus and we sat there and wait for their announcement, finally we were told to exit the airport and come back to the counter and recheck our flight with the available flights. At the end I got a seat on another airline, which is Lan airline that will be departed at 9:10am and arrive in MIA at 2:30pm. I'll catch another flight to BOS at 5:00pm and arrive in Boston at 9:00pm. Interesting incident, right? The good news is that everybody landed safely!! I'm now siting inside the VIP lounge of Lima airport and blogging the story. Cross your finger for me to have uninterrupted and safe flight.
O! gush! finally I made it to my home safely. 

Day 13 in Chile (November 7, 2013)

Marina and I went back to the site to check if everything is working ok, and yes indeed everything has been working as it is supposed to be. We then copied the data and left the site for Physics department to serve for Julio Martin’s MSc thesis defense, which went out very well followed by little cocktail. The department head then took us out for lunch. Finally, Marina drove me to the airport and that concluded my successful mission to La Serena.
O! Ya! Remember that I lost my Fitbit at Santiago airport security check point? Well, I found it. Here is how I did, when I passed through the security to catch my flight to Miami, I asked the security guy about my Fitbit that I lost at the airport security point. He asked me the date that I lost it, and I told him 26 October, then he took me to the lost and found department and introduced me to the lady. She made several calls and she found it and asked someone to bring it to her office. They did and it was my Fitbit. Thank you Santiago airport securities, you guys are so honest. And now I’m seating at Santiago airport VIP lounge, waiting for my flight back home. In general, my trip to Chile has been a success! Beautiful country and amazingly nice people, and looking forward a career long collaboration with Chilean scientist.        

      BTW, here is the compound where I stayed in La Serena!                                      

                                                    Physics department building of La Serena University!

Day 12 in Chile (October 6, 2013)

Early in the morning, Marian and I drove to the magnetometer location, and found everything in a good and healthy condition. We start excavating the sensor which we did it successfully. We then disconnect the electronic cable and load everything onto our car and said goodbye for the existing site and drove to our new site. The good news was that all external required job has been done and our task was to make the reconnection and align the mag. We did all before lunch and after lunch we make the final alignment and completed everything outside and inside. We accomplished our entire task around 4:30pm, and since we did not have anything to do, Marina and I went out for a walk along the Pacific Ocean beach, enjoying the beautiful sea breath. Finally we had our dinner at one of the beach side restaurant, enjoying the beautiful sun set.

                                                            The new house of the instrument

                                                            The new location of the sensor

                                                                   Enjoying the pacific ocean breath

                                                                      What an interesting shot!

Day 11 in Chile (November 5, 2013)

I traveled to La Serena for another scientific mission, relocating the magnetometer that has been deployed in 2008. I arrived at La Serena at 7:30pm (30 min late from the schedule). The physics department head (Dr. Pedro Vega) welcomed me at the main exit of the airport, and his friend drove me and Dr Vega to the new site of the magnetometer. It is magnetically quite place with very old building. He showed me around inside and outside. He told me that department already secured money to renovate and make the area to be one of the research center of the university. The they drove me to my hotel. I put my stuff and went out sniff around to get something to eat for my dinner. I found a vegetarian pizza at the nearby sushi bar.

                                                                           La Serena just after I landed

A new house for my instrument

Day 10 in Chile (November 4, 2013)

Nothing to report except being busy with the SANBA-iMAG meeting, which we concluded this afternoon.

Day 9 in Chile (November 3, 2013)

INACH building where we have our meeting

This morning we kicked off our SAMBA-iMAG meeting at INACH new building. Before we start,
One of the INACH scientist gave us a tour of INACH facility.  Here is what I learned from his tour, which is all new for me. A petrified log, right log, was found at King George Island in Antarctica 46 million years ago. Then on another room, the scientist told us the entire skeletal structures of dinosaurs was found and he showed us portion of it. Dinosaurs lived in Antarctica? Really? He also said the dinosaurs lived in Antarctica way before the continent split. Generally the meeting went out very well and it was very productive.