Russia: a week in Anadyr (airport ;) )

Well, for those of you who have not heard it from me already, I am back from Russia, mission unacomplished. We spent a week in Anadyr waiting to get out to Lauvrentia. No go. The plane could not fly on any of the days we were there. The weather was horrible- both in Chukotka and western Alaska. But Gay and I got to see and know Anadyr (and the airport) quite well during our stay. Denis took wonderful care of us, as did Aliona (the Radio Queen), a friend of Denis that was nice enough to allow us to crash in her apartment (she was waiting for the same flight as we were...trying to get to Lorino to see her husband and children). The trip to the airport was long, involved and expensive. Each day, we had to wake up around 6:30 to take a taxi to be at the ferry at 7:45. Then we had a 40 minute ferry ride across the estuary, into another taxi to the aiport...only to find out that our flight was, again, cancelled. We were taking the trip with the same folks every day...and finally our time to be there became so short, that it made more sense for us to return to Alaska rather than just spend a day ot two in the field...if we even got there. There is no guarantee that we would be able to get OUT of the field either, so it really made us aware of the logistics of working in Chukotka! It is NOT easy and makes us appreciate the troubles Denis, Eduard, Gena etc. go through every time the come to a conference or to Barrow to meet with us! Overall, though, even though we did not attain our goal, we met some great people which made a frustrating situation a lot more bearable. I am hoping we will be able to give things a try again next year... we will see...