Life in Antarctica.

Coca leaves are the source of cocaine. The indigenous people there roll the leases up with some bird crap, IIRC, and chew it to help them endure the high altitudes in the mountains. Sorry, I thought you knew that.

paul1598419 said:

Coca leaves are the source of cocaine. The indigenous people there roll the leases up with some bird crap, IIRC, and chew it to help them endure the high altitudes in the mountains. Sorry, I thought you knew that.

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Nope, didn't know that. There is a cool artifact I remember on the river though. There was an old aircraft they tore up and made into a cool building. Check it out! :beer:



-Alex

Looks like an old plane they took the wings off and stuck in the river. What do they use it for?

paul1598419 said:

Looks like an old plane they took the wings off and stuck in the river. What do they use it for?

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No clue. I never did ask when I was there Paul. It just looks like a plane they put on a floating platform, so I am assuming a boat or something similar? Though, I don't think it'd be very comfortable being inside, especially with the climate of Ecuador

-Alex

I suppose that airplane fuselage now serves as a restaurant or somehting like that - it's not something totally uncommon. There is one on Bali that is a functional restaurant, and oddly several other aircraft parked all over the island with people wanting to do something similar, but probably ran out of money before completing the project.

End result is that there are a couple of fully intact fuselages on the island in fairly random locations. I visited a few last year, and they surely are there, intact but with the engines removed and such as those were probably sold on (enjoy your flights around these parts of the world, i spotted a plane with a registration code that was 3 years overdue for a C check being operated with paying pax on board).

As for interiors of jungles being remote, that really depends.

I visited the indonesian island of sumatera a few years ago with a friend. The major city there is medan which is mostly modern, in the sense that you can get anything you'd practically need there, as well as decent hotels and restaurants.

The plan was to go into the jungle around ketambe a bit, which is pretty remote. There is a road connection there, that takes 8 hours under normal conditions and longer when it's been raining a lot or such. My friend decided on taking that.

I figured out an alternative: There is a small airfield about 1 hours drive from ketambe in a town called kutacane. They fly cessna caravans between medan and this kutacane town on a daily basis. Now you may think that flying on these 6-passenger aircraft would be very expensive, but it turned out not to be, under $30 one way.

So yeah, i flew, taking me under 2 hours to get there including airport transfer on both ends, worked out well.

Funny thing: I was the tallest/heaviest passenger (i'm about 181 cm tall and weigh 75 kg or so, so not obese or anything like that). There was also an american man and his family on the plane, him being about as tall as i am but a bit heavier but also not seriously obese or anything.

They used the both of us as counterweights! We didn't get proper seats, but got told just to chill out, stretch our legs and all sitting at the very back of this little airplane flyting over the bordder between palm oil plantations and jungle.

The cool thing about it is that we were actually quite comforable for this short (30 to 40 minute) plane ride sitting on the floor: the caravan has it's entrance for passengers near the rear, and we were sat just behind that, giving an enourmous amount of legroom during flight.

^Thats pretty neat! I've never flown in a Cessna Caravan but do believe I've flown in a 172 and 150 I think they're called? I know FedEx uses Caravans for their operations. Yeah, $30 one way ain't too bad, especially when you are in the jungle!

-Alex

@Hap; I like your new avatar. It's the best I've seen in awhile. :gj:

BobMc said:

@Hap; I like your new avatar. It's the best I've seen in awhile. :gj:

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Thanks so much BobMc! I think the colors turned out pretty well! :thanks:

-Alex

BobMc said:

Man, I beat you could throw some nice beams at night down there, where it's just star light. Would make some awesome pictures with the ice reflecting the laser beam. It's a bit out of the way, but a man can dream.

Nice video Hap, thanks for sharing.

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Oh, definitely. Might be some airplanes, but high altitude for sure. But no light pollution and incredibly bright stars. There that would be different level of laserpainting. Just low temperatures could be problem for lasers.

Hap said:

Thanks so much BobMc! I think the colors turned out pretty well! :thanks:

-Alex

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I'm trying to learn some photography. If you wouldn't mind, what camera did you use? They came out so nice, gotta ask.

Radim said:

Oh, definitely. Might be some airplanes, but high altitude for sure. But no light pollution and incredibly bright stars. There that would be different level of laserpainting. Just low temperatures could be problem for lasers.

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I can only imagine your laserpainting down there. That would be awesome! Tell you what, if you ever decide to go, I'll loan you some of my lasers so none of yours get damaged. And even a winter coat or four or five.

Thanks, Bob. For me these temperatures would be horrible, but polar night would allow long time for shots. I've even ideas to project beams on night sky, but clear sky and good atmospheric conditions are needed to proceed. I even considered to get some filter to reduce light polution, but as it is of 589 nm from sodium lamps, my Spartan would not be possible to be used... Still solution might be after 589 nm beam is exposed, the filter might be attached. :thinking:

Radim said:

Thanks, Bob. For me these temperatures would be horrible, but polar night would allow long time for shots. I've even ideas to project beams on night sky, but clear sky and good atmospheric conditions are needed to proceed. I even considered to get some filter to reduce light polution, but as it is of 589 nm from sodium lamps, my Spartan would not be possible to be used... Still solution might be after 589 nm beam is exposed, the filter might be attached. :thinking:

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I don't mind cold weather but that's too cold. Or I'm too old or both.
I'd be like your Spartan not even wanting to get out the gate.

I think some enclosed heated case with AR coated window could help. Otherwise battery would not even allow to switch it on due to high internal resistance induced by cold I guess.

BobMc said:

I'm trying to learn some photography. If you wouldn't mind, what camera did you use? They came out so nice, gotta ask.



I can only imagine your laserpainting down there. That would be awesome! Tell you what, if you ever decide to go, I'll loan you some of my lasers so none of yours get damaged. And even a winter coat or four or five.

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I used a Nikon D90 I believe it was Didn't do anything special like long exposure or anything fancy. Lined up the lasers, then took a photo(no flash) :crackup: lol!

-Alex

Hap said:

I used a Nikon D90 I believe it was Didn't do anything special like long exposure or anything fancy. Lined up the lasers, then took a photo(no flash) :crackup: lol!

-Alex

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...and it went very well. I love your avatar.

Radim said:

I think some enclosed heated case with AR coated window could help. Otherwise battery would not even allow to switch it on due to high internal resistance induced by cold I guess.

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Probably something like that, heat enclosed case. Battery life would be a major issue. Wondering how it would work if you hard wired the laser up to a power source?

Hap said:

I used a Nikon D90 I believe it was Didn't do anything special like long exposure or anything fancy. Lined up the lasers, then took a photo(no flash) :crackup: lol!

-Alex

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Your Nikon 90 deserves a at-a-boy!

( ok maybe the operator too ).