SATURDAY, 5 JULY 1997, THE ATACAMA DESERT
(Llano de la Paciencia)

Today was our first sunrise at the new base campsite; the view is extraordinary. In this second location we can see not only the peaks of the Andes in the distance, but also many more nearer peaks; there are nearby mountains, adjacent mountains, and far-away mountains. The terrain combined with the colorfully radiant beams of sunlight made for a very memorable and inspiring view.

Having moved all our equipment at night, we were faced with the prospect of having to set everything up again. Fortunately we are already quite familiar with all the equipment, so with the help of some folks from Entel who set up a backup telephone satellite antenna, we managed to connect with the US again by early afternoon. Unfortunately other problems with our hilltop relay station delayed the start of driving, so it was not until nearly sunset that we got a chance to do some preliminary tests of a new driving mode for "patterned search" of an area.

Still, we managed to squeeze in a good 298 meters of remote driving today in spite of the delays.


Last Modified on: Wed Jul 9, 1997