In the van on the way back from the Scott Base Pressure Ridge Tour to McMurdo. Back seat (from image perspective): James Day (L), Scott VanBommel (R), Front Seats: Barbara Cohen (R), Juliane Gross (M), Ioannis Baziotis (L).

Today, is my turn to write down a few words about life here in the most cold, dry, and windiest places on Earth, A place, of spectacular beauty, a place where you hear the silence and that lets you keep calm from the alternate decibels of Jim, James and Scott (probably and mine, but when I sleep I cannot hear myself) concert in the dorm. It is really awesome experience, for a Mediterranean guy, and certainly a Greek one like me, to live the DREAM of participating in this ANSMET mission. A mission, dedicated to recovering meteorites from ANTARCTICA, that has brought to the NEW (SCIENTIFIC) WORLD around 22,000 meteorites (40% of the overall recovered from earth). I am pleased to say, that 1 meteorite, out of roughly 67,000, is verfied from Greece (Seres meteorite, a 1818 fall of H4 ordinary chondrite).

From a place like this, in McMurdo station, you are able to see all the different aspects of what a human can do, within just few hours. Preparing gear for the cargo, sleeping in the dorms, having breakfast at a table with at least 5 different nationalities, playing trivia as the “Venusuites”, hiking Observation Hill, inspecting the sea below 2 m of ice, cycling over the muddy or icy “roads” around McMurdo, visiting Hutpoint, and observing the seals sliding over the ice like the windsurfers in Australia are just a few of the experiences over the past few days – I am really grateful to be part of this great team.

-posted by Ioannis Baziotis