Authentic Africa . .

"Authentic Africa . ." phrased from the Hermes Captain, Authentic Africa he described to me last week.  A place so natural, exciting and normal.  “You will surely like it”, Barnard (who is from France), said to me.  As I prep to depart Bissau, I share a few photos with you.  Ravaged from a set of intense conflicts, emerges a nation with an interesting history.  During my visit I found out President Ulysses S. Grant played a pivotal role in the 1870’s.  About a 100 years later Cuba helped the country obtain its independence.  The folks here remember their history and have statues, roads and landmarks that reflect the historic events. 

The architecture is beautiful, Portuguese style in old and new. 

A view of the hotel

One of the many roads in the center of town

Beauty Competition Ladies stayed at the hotel too.  We passed a pub where they were celebrating their winnings and were happy to pose for a shot.

Food was excellent.

One of the bonuses of being a Geologist is not only being the most attractive of the scientists  J  blink blink, but sometimes you are in the right place at the right time.  Sort of like time travel.  You encounter once in a life events.  While I was in the hotel lobby walks in the Prime Minister and his team, he knew who we were!!.  Later in the following morning, I got the opportunity to photograph the Official Futbol team who was at the same hotel prior to their match against Botswana.  I will surely listen in to the match via radio on Saturday.

Also visited the meteorological offices and had the chance to observe some of their equipment.  I'd like someone to comment on the name of the device with the two glass bulbs.

Overall, the country has considerable potential, friendly open people, and in the long run if they think and invest for the long run will compete with the world. 

An adventure being planned from Dakar…

The past few days have been quite exciting. It has been so busy I had no minutes for blogging.  Only a few hours left in each day for dinner, a few meetings, and sleep.   

Everything is finally in place.  A few visits to various parts of the city for food, and basic materials for a long term remote location. 

Upon my visit to the Dakar Yacht club I was greeted by Simba who was on patrol watch for uninvited guests.  Simba greeted me with smiles. 

Is that bird looking down at me?

Enjoyed a fabulous dinner on our sail boat as the sunset to the west.  Departed just in time before a late evening shower hit the coast.  

As we waited for our driver to pick us up, Simba came by for another cheerful visit but surely was tired of the long hot day too.

Testing Day - 1

Today was a positive day.  One of the vessels needed to go out and have its hull cleaned for the trip.  We took this opportunity to run live tests with the instrumentation.  I did not realize Dakar is the largest port in west Africa, busy, place!  Freighters and tankers are everywhere, dockside is active where you will observe dozens of folks loading containers, bags of rice, cars, and port control directing boat traffic via radio and GPS.   Fascinating.   I will try to get a few more photos next time, but here are a few pics from today's ops.

Today the weather was rather good.  It was hot, but could be another 15F more.  A very high altitude thin overcast made today's difference.  The captain told us the weather is not normal in the countries interior, a bit dry for this time of the year.  Modifications are still being made to the other vessels and I hope to test the second instrument boat tomorrow.

Calibration of the instruments can take a couple of hours.  During that time we multitask-ed.  We grabbed a few sandwiches for lunch and left for testing.

We anchored off of Goree Island which I will try to visit before I leave this week.  One of our divers lives on Goree Island. We were so close to shore he could yell to them.  As the divers proceeded with cleaning the hull we deployed the instrument and overall the test was a success.  This vessel is ready, we are happy.

At the end of the work day we had to pick up a few visa photos for the end of the week departure.  During rush hour in Dakar, I took a few photos of Dakar's citizens.

Peek - a - boo

till tomorrow . . 

HQ, Location Dakar

Its common for field assignments to have more than one headquarters.  We like to also refer to them as a field office.  Our first field office is not much in the field, but in a large city.

  Dakar, Senegal is a top city on the African continent. Geographically, the most western African location makes it closest to the Americas. Logistically and historically, a great deal of human history has occurred around here.  The city has the air of a place gone an eon and hints of the 21st century too.  The roads between the highway and hotel are excellent.  The interior of the hotel is quite stylish and modern.

 Today (Sunday) was mostly an off day, we met and planned all our tasks for trials and testing.  International business typically means your client who is paying for the job is also abroad.  He came in met with us over coffee where project details and final logistics were outlined.  Best and worse case scenarios were provided removing any bias.  The outcome presented is the safest, fastest solution while taking in consideration that weather can slow everyone down.

The seafood is abundant and fabulous.  Being a down day dinner was early and long.  I had the largest shrimp I have ever scene.  Very good stuff.  Here the restaurant owner claims he can personally fetch a 4 foot grouper, right off his dock.

Tomorrow we are off to visit our survey ships.  Lots of work to do.

Landed, grab your official visa and head to HQ

That was a smooth flight.  Managed to catch Grand Budapest Hotel, 5star, I recommend that to Eric, you're going to love it.  The plane was packed.  I had about 4hrs sleep, will need a bit more later.  Lights and announcements were 20mins before arrival.  We had to stack our bedding in the top rack.  The flight crew left with us too.  Only 30+ folks disembarked, 200 or so plus new crew continued to Joberg. There was a heavy cargo Lufty adjacent to us, lots of priority Euro cargo in and out of Senagal.

Visa processing was different, I forgot my print out so had to pull up a digital copy on my notebook.  Then they showed me a photo of this,

and requested I state its location in the US.  Unfortunately, I have never been to Monument valley a sacred location within the Navajo nation and lies in Arizona.  They used a biometrics device which took index finger and thumb prints.   All which occurred in about 10mins. 

We pre-arranged a transport vehicle to carry us to our hotel.  A very nice one too...

Long Haul...

Here we go.  These guys are super nice.  Lots of smiles.  Back to normal, a star alliance carrier, South African Airways to Dakar.  Just an 8 hour run.

I can also add, I have been running all day, on four packs of pretzels.  What's on the menu? Lamb..?  I have been trying to be a straight vegetarian, but there are just not enough options.  I will put in more effort.

Note, as a field geologist, you must be flexible....

Made the connection

That was a tight one.  Planes are so small these days.  If I did not have that new tiny carry on...  "Aka clambake", anyway I made the connection with 10mins before departure.

Beyond staged and ready...

Beyond staged and ready.
At the airport, Delta terminal.  I am amazed there is no free wifi.  At the check in counter were plenty of people consolidating their bags.  Sure is different than other airlines I frequent.

I have a few connections before the day ends.  Lets see how it goes.
I will try to update again soon.

Ready to launch . .

I was enticed by a few friends to write about some of my experiences while travelling and working.  This is the start.  A bit about the photo above; as most readers might know, this is a grab from the famous program called COSMOS rebooted by Neil deGrasse Tyson.  He and did an awesome job with the show and it is worth viewing with lots of friends.  As a Carl Sagan fan myself I have to post his comments when referring to the image; "Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe are challenged by this point of pale light.".  He could not be closer to the truth.  The more we learn about the universe or multiverse for that matter, the more discoveries and even more questions are encountered.  

So, to keep things short, I am a geologist with a focus on water resources.  I am an experienced hydrologist but am currently focused on biogeophysics.  A photo below is one of the rural locations I have worked in over the years.

In addition as a geologist I work on various field operations.  For the next two months I will be participating with a geologic field crew.  I will share some stories and photos to illustrate what life is like in the international geologic business.

In the next couple of days I embark on a trip to a far away land.  More news then . .