A final morning in Moscow and we pack our gear and head for the airport. I seem to have immediately made the transition to the 8-hour time difference there, but today we fly to Petropovlosk-Kamchatsky. This will once again put us 8 hours ahead for a total of a sixteen-hour time difference from home. I anticipate that at some point I will hit the wall.
Arriving at the airport, there is a stark difference between the modern international airport in Moscow and the small airport on the peninsula. There are no gates to pull up to and we disembark the plane onto the tarmac. From there we walk over to a small building where there is one conveyor belt that is the baggage claim. Sportsmen pick up their fishing pole cases and hikers gather their backpacks as we all head to our own adventure. In the distance there are beautiful volcanoes. I think they are huge, but Greg tells me these are small compared to the ones we will see on our way to the field site.
Claude stands by the gate to the tarmac. Once all passengers have disembarked they lock the gates.
Avachinsky Volcano is one of the smaller volcanoes but is still a welcoming site at the airport.
The passengers go into a small side room to collect their baggage. There is only one small conveyor belt inside.
We're met by Irina, a professor at Northeastern State University of Russia. She is a co-principle investigator on the project. With her is Yuri who will provide us with many things we will need for the expedition. We arrive at the hotel. I am surprised to find that the rooms are segregated between males and females and you are placed in a room with the same gender persons, but you may or may not know them. I do not know my roommate. The rooms are rather bleak. There are three beds in each room, a chair and a TV sitting on a small table or chair. The bathrooms are shared between two rooms and toilet paper is not provided.
We are very hungry so, after we drop our gear we walk to the main street to find a market. There is a large farmer's style market and we get some bread, fruits, vegetables and the guys buy some dried and canned fish. We eat lunch back at the hotel and relax a bit before we are scheduled to meet with Tanya. Tanya is a geologist who studies landforms. She will discuss the plan for the field expedition with us this evening.
I am feeling a bit unnerved by the hotel setting and it actually makes me feel even more eager to enter the field. Hopefully, this evening's meeting will clarify the upcoming events.