Elisabeth SIEGEL #227
Letters to the Editor
from
Elisabeth SIEGEL
in CMO #227
@. . . . .
Thank you for the electronic "Season's Greetings". Unfortunately, they were not quite readable on our computer - this hasn't happened before. And thank you so much for all the CMO's - I envy you for still being able to observe Mars this late in the season!
This has been quite a "travelling year" for our family, and there is more to come. Wayne went to a computer music conference in Beijing in China in October and fortunately got some time for sightseeing too while being there. He enjoyed it, but would have liked more time to himself to see more of that huge country.
For my own part, I am very excited these days, for I shall embark on what hopefully will be "the journey of my life" on January 24th. Leaving the rest of the family behind and travelling with 29 other "adventurers", I am going on an "expedition cruise" to Antarctica. I have dreamed of this for about 15 years or so, but never believed it would ever become a reality. I shall go via Buenos Aires to Ushuaia, Argentina's and the world's southernmost town close to Cape Horn, and after a short stay there the travelling company will board a Russian-built Vessel and sail down to the Antarctic Peninsula and the islands around it. The plan is to go ashore in as many places as possible. The "expedition" part of the cruise will consist in going down into the Weddell Sea(on the eastern side of the Peninsula), where very few tourists go, and hopefully be able to go ashore in places where perhaps only a few scientists, and no tourists, have been before. Everything will of course depend on the weather and ice conditions. - After a 10-day cruise at Antarctica we shall return to Ushuaia and then fly up and visit the Iguazu Falls, the biggest waterfalls in South America, situated where the borders of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet. After 2 days there we shall return to Denmark, with expected arrival home on February 12. I do not usually travel alone, but no one else in my family shares my dreams about Antarctica - and besides, for both financial and practical reasons, it is impossible for Wayne and the children to accompany me on this journey.
I wish you and your family a happy and prosperous last-year-of-the-old-millennium (for, surely, the new one won't begin until January 1, 2001!)
(17 Dec 1999)
Elisabeth SIEGEL ( Malling, DENMARK )