Petropavlosk Airport, June 23
Today I spent the majority of my day at the Petropavlosk Airport seeing the old passengers off and greeting the new passengers. This was supposed to be a quick affair, but turned into an entire day adventure. We left for the airport around 9am and quickly found out that the plane had been delayed.
Now, this was a charter plane coming from Anchorage carrying the new passengers so that helped to keep the day less confusing. At least I knew I wouldn't be having two groups of passengers at one time.
To pass the time, we stopped at a local supermarket. I was impressed with the variety of foods there and it really felt like I could have been in any supermarket in the United States. They had everything you could imagine, including gourmet food. I went to purchase some local honey and there was a whole isle of it! Everything from flavored honeys, to imported honey, to honey with nuts or dried fruits. Who knew? After the local supermarket, we went to another farmers market. This market was dominated by meats and vegetables. Again, the vegetables were brilliantly colored and the smells were wonderful from all the herbs. What struck me here were the nectarines.
Each of them, and I don't know how this is done, had a different design on the skins. It’s almost as if someone had put something on the skin as the fruit ripened, so that it would ripen in a design. I did not have my camera with me, but have asked someone to send me a photo. It was incredible. I ended up buying some home made salsa, which smells incredibly garlicky. It's a small jar and I'll probably end up sharing it with the rest of the expedition staff because I can't imagine trying to bring it home and getting through customs smelling so garlicky.
We finally arrived at the airport and I'll save the long story and just say that the rest of the day was not as fun. The old passengers ended up waiting for a long time on their buses because the pilots did not have visas so the officials held them up. The new passengers took a long time to clear customs, and in the end, I believe I was at the Petro airport for around 4 hours, mostly waiting around for something - planes, busses, customs, etc. The passengers all had good attitudes about the delays, but I especially felt bad for those passengers that were leaving, as they ended up waiting on the tarmac for about 3 hours until they could take off for Anchorage. The new group is very nice and they seem extremely excited about the adventure ahead - as do I.
Now, this was a charter plane coming from Anchorage carrying the new passengers so that helped to keep the day less confusing. At least I knew I wouldn't be having two groups of passengers at one time.
To pass the time, we stopped at a local supermarket. I was impressed with the variety of foods there and it really felt like I could have been in any supermarket in the United States. They had everything you could imagine, including gourmet food. I went to purchase some local honey and there was a whole isle of it! Everything from flavored honeys, to imported honey, to honey with nuts or dried fruits. Who knew? After the local supermarket, we went to another farmers market. This market was dominated by meats and vegetables. Again, the vegetables were brilliantly colored and the smells were wonderful from all the herbs. What struck me here were the nectarines.
Each of them, and I don't know how this is done, had a different design on the skins. It’s almost as if someone had put something on the skin as the fruit ripened, so that it would ripen in a design. I did not have my camera with me, but have asked someone to send me a photo. It was incredible. I ended up buying some home made salsa, which smells incredibly garlicky. It's a small jar and I'll probably end up sharing it with the rest of the expedition staff because I can't imagine trying to bring it home and getting through customs smelling so garlicky.
We finally arrived at the airport and I'll save the long story and just say that the rest of the day was not as fun. The old passengers ended up waiting for a long time on their buses because the pilots did not have visas so the officials held them up. The new passengers took a long time to clear customs, and in the end, I believe I was at the Petro airport for around 4 hours, mostly waiting around for something - planes, busses, customs, etc. The passengers all had good attitudes about the delays, but I especially felt bad for those passengers that were leaving, as they ended up waiting on the tarmac for about 3 hours until they could take off for Anchorage. The new group is very nice and they seem extremely excited about the adventure ahead - as do I.
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