After a month in Barrow and a quick trip to Peru, I shipped off to Kotzebue, Alaska, my new “permanent” pilot base. Kotzebue’s native name is, Qikiqtaġruk. Good luck pronouncing that. Kotzebue is ethnically Inupiat. I was scheduled to fly 18 days, but since I was burnt out on travelling, it was the best time of year to fly, and I wanted to grow my beard out I picked up an extra shift in Bethel which would make it 46 days in a row working in bush Alaska.
We have 5 planes scheduled to run at any one time in Kotzebue, 3 caravans and 2 navajos. So we have 5 pilots to fly those planes. Most recently the captains have been me, Zac, Sam, Andy, and Brent. We stay at the pilot house and spend 24/7 together. It is quite rare for there to be an issue between the pilots as we are all inherently relaxed people.
The entire 18 days in Kotzebue were nothing but sunshine and good vibes. There were no flights in billowing clouds, no icing, and no approaches down into the grimey bush tundra.
My copilot Jake and I worked our little pilot butts off and flew over 100 hours and delivered countless metric tons of pop to the surrounding villages. We also delivered all of our passengers safely and (mostly) happily.
However, being bush Alaska, we got to fly our fair share of whacked out passengers and got to play, “drunk, or just that way?” most days with help from the girls behind the counter. As pilots we cannot legally take passengers that are intoxicated so if we figure that they are we leave them behind for them to sober up. We carried a stab victim and caught countless bags stacked with drugs and booze being shipped to the villages. In Alaska it is illegal to have alcohol in a lot of the smaller villages so people can buy a $10 bottle in Anchorage and sell it for upwards of $300 if they can get it to the village.
Your package has arrivedIf it fits it shipsNative art made from a whale’s spine bone
One very defining feature around the Kotzebue area are the, “Gread Kobuk Sand Dunes.” They are enormous dunes seemingly in the middle of nowhere, formed by the glaciers of the last ice age. They are the largest active dunes in the arctic.
The Great Kobuk Sand Dunes
Because planes break sometimes there was a good 2 days in the middle of shift where I had the only working plane, so I flew from sunup to sundown grinding for the people of Alaska.
I eat in the plane because its fun and saves time
My favorite destination around Kotzebue is Red Dog Mine. We fly the miners in and out of the zinc mine there on charters and they give up donuts when we stop in!
Free donut thing!
Towards the end of my stint in Kotzebue, the clouds started forming, we had our first dusting of snow, and I was happy to head down further south to Bethel to continue my 46 days of work.
I got into Lima, Peru the 21st of August and met up with my friend from Guatemala, Ling. I spent one night in Lima, staying at a hostel named Zig Zag and tried my first bite of Chifa, the name for the baby that Chinese and Peruvian food made. The next day I took a LATAM flight out to Cusco, deep into the towering mountains of Peru.
Cusco from the hilltop
As soon as I got into Cusco I headed to the center of the city, Plaza de Armas, and got to see some of the ancient buildings that line the streets. I then climbed what appeared to be a small hill to get to some of the old Aztec ruins that are right outside of town. I wasn’t sure why my body was sucking so bad at walking until I realized Cusco is 11,200′ above sea level. There were a few ruins nearby so I decided to knock them out the same night. It was already 5 and they closed at 7 so I had 4 ruins to get to before they closed.
That street drank. Not a clue what this lady served me, but she scooped it out of a bucket and it was semi-sweet and semi-sour at the same time. She expected me to chug it from the glass, but I asked for it to go as it was a little hard to drink so she put it in a plastic sack for me.In Downtown CuscoCusco in the background
What was truly unique was the way the Incas placed the rocks to make the buildings and walls. Rather than using mortar like every other civilization they cut the rocks so precisely that they stick together like glue due to the friction. You can also see the marks from the notches they made in order to carry them. Over time they tried to smooth it out with the end game being ultimate smoothness.
You can see how precisely they cut these rocks and the carrying notches on the bottom
Since I didn’t have much time in Peru I did what I hate to do and I decided to cram everything into as little time as possible. I bought train tickets for Machu Picchu and back that left early the next morning and would get back at night. You have to buy the entrance tickets online which are $47. The train there and back was $180 total and a $24 bus to the top and back. All in all it’s a large price to pay for one of the wonders of the ancient world, but after going there and seeing it I can attest that it’s well worth it.
The trainride there was probably my favorite part of the trip. I had the privilege to sit next to Linda, an older lady who was an absolute ball of joy. It was the first trainride of her life so I felt the need to mansplain her all of my train knowledge of which I have none.
Me and Linda!Doze views
To get to Machu Picchu you have to take a bus from the town of Aguas Calientes up a really steep hill of switchbacks. The drivers drive like insane people and people get hurt there all the time.
Aguas CalientesMachu Picchu in all of her gloryMe in all of Machu Picchu’s gloryMachu Picchu in all of my glory
I met this really cool Canadian couple at the entrance of Machu Picchu and we decided to pay for a tour guide together because I like a good story. He showed us around the ruins and showed us these rocks that the Inca’s carved out to try to match the mountains behind them. He also told us that they had some crazy architectural stuff going on with their buildings matching astronomy and apparently, “Inca” is actually the word for the king of the people of the area way back when and the Spanish butchered the word and just started calling everyone Incas. Not a clue if any of it is true, but like I said I like a story.
Incas carved the rocks to try to match the mountains behindAnother carved rock
After Machu Picchu the train back had a fashion show where this terrifying sight happened. This guy just walked around the cab dancing and whispering in people’s ears for a solid 45 minutes.
I was exhausted but I decided screw it no time for sleep and I met up with some couch surfers the next morning to head on a hike at Rainbow Mountain. The locals actually call it, “seven color mountain” in Spanish but I guess they’re about the same.
I met up with Mathilde, a super sweet French girl and 2 awesome Peruvian dudes, Sebastian and Stefano. This is us suffering from lack of O2.
Ice, ice, babyMe and Mathilde
It has just recently become a tourist attraction so it was extremely hard to get to and the locals were excited to see us and interact with us. Children would run out of their houses to wave at our car.
We arrived at the base and started hiking. It was a wonderful 2 hour hike to the top where we got to talk to a lot of locals, I got to practice my Spanish, and I got to wonder why my legs wouldn’t move when I wanted them to. I didn’t find out until later that it goes up to above 17,000′.
Everybody poopsThese young girls would hike up and down all day delivering supplies to the topThey wore just sandals, and it was COLDA lady and her horseSnack at the topLittle dudesHawk
I have never hiked above 15,000′ before and on our way down my head started to pound with altitude sickness. We did the smart thing on the way down and decided if we went off the trail we could probably find a quicker way to get to the bottom. Of course we got desperately lost and here is me climbing up a ridge to see if I can see anything. You can also see by my dirty butt that there was a lot of falling. I can’t even describe how exhausting this was at 17,000′.
You can see that at this point I’ve fallen on my bum a few timesI was beginning to give up on life. So cold, but so fun
Eventually we finally found the trail again, made it to the car, and my head stopped pounding about 30 minutes into the drive down.
This is us enjoying some wine together the night after our adventure, and the night before I left
All in all Peru was an amazing experience. I had some of the most delicious fruits and vegetables in my life. Peru had some of the sweetest people I have ever met, always looking to help and loving my attempts at speaking Spanish.
When I got off work in Barrow I took an Alaska flight to Anchorage and was delayed about 8 hours on a cargo flight destined for Cincinnati.
Upon reaching Cincinnati I headed to Atlanta where Delta does a lot of flying. Unfortunately, I was about 5 minutes late to check in to list jumpseat for the flight to Lima so the gate agent turned me down. I headed to the departures board and saw there was a flight leaving for Bogota in about an hour. I went to the gate, handed my badge over, and boarded with the other passengers a few minutes later. I sent a message to Bailey in Bogota and about 4.5 hours later I was there.
I
reunited with Moe, Bailey, and Bailey’s girlfriend, Paula. I found out that I
could not have arrived at a better time. The day after I arrived Rock al Parque
began, a big rock festival in Parque Metropolitano Simon Bolivar. Outside the
festival we ran into a few heavy rockers and we joined them to take a few shots
and get properly oiled up for the festival. They were sharing some type of hard
alcohol from Brazil that came in about a liter bottle that was shaped like a
grenade and chased it with monster energy drink.
Our hardrocking friendsMe, some hard rockers, and Ling
We
saw about 5 different bands and most of them were heavy metal bands. Our rocker
friends with their spiky jackets ran into the mosh pits swinging because that’s
what you do when you’re at a metal concert. We watched them chug monster after
monster until their eyes turned red and they must have liked Bailey and I
because at the end they took a spike out of each of their jackets and offered
them to us as a token of their friendship. I didn’t remember that I had the
spike until it made a big clunk in the bin at airport security on my way to
Peru.
Don’t remember what band this was, but they jammed the hardest.Mosh pit. If you look closely you can see the closest guy curbstomping something.
I
finished my third trip to Bogota by walking through the famous square, betting
on some Guinea Pigs in the street and then saying till next time once again to
Bailey and Paula.
Guinea pig betting. You bet which little enclosure they will run into.