We are about to head to Dolinovka…

Its the small village about 200 miles north of Petropavlovsk.  Its the one where the infamous picutre occured.  We have bought nets, net clothes, net hats, sprays and gus has a mosquito sleep tent (which he sleeps in everynight).  There will be limited internet and no telephones.  So we will be out of communication for a little bit but will still update the blog as best we can (we have access to the computer once a week, according to the head of the boarding school we are borrowing to stay at!)

We will send a bunch of pictures as best we can and should have some amazing stuff. Horses, bears, meat, and accordions await.

Oh yea, we are making a movie here, right?

So while we were in NYC trying to prep for comign here, Irina was already here, digging up stories, talking to people, and navigating the waters ahead of time.  She spent a lot of time in Dolinovka (as you know from the website) talking to people, exploring “New” Dolinovka, and getting eaten alive by moquitoes.

When we got here, we talked story, people, subjects and horses.  Steve is on his way here as I write this and we should have a plan ready to go when he has recovered from his (possible life changing) flight to petropavlovsk.  We will plan to spend about 5-7 days in Dolinovka where there is neither internet or cell phone service, so this will blog will be a bit dry then.  But I assure you, there will be some good stories out of it, both for the movie and for “the bar”. Irina plans to enlist the help of a local horse farmer that has about 11 horses that we are going to heard into the city for.. well for reasons you will just have to find out later.

for right now.. here are some pictures of us preparing….

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After a long day of traveling and meeting people, Irina told us that we were just going to relax, eat, and talk (about movie things). So we got up, put on our swiming suits and went to the “hot springs”.
The “hot springs” is similar to the pool at the Y, except no chlorine, some bugs, and its heated water from volcanoes. There is a wooden deck that surrounds several pools and about 30 or so people lying around in their bathing suits in the hot pool. There are smaller pools where you can put a hot “hose” into the water to heat it up even more.

So “hot” means well.. hot. As in “not really that comfortable hot”. Some of the pools are warm and you can sit in them for a while.. like a hot tub – which are comfortable. Some of the pools are hot and you can sit in them for about 2 minutes.. like a lobster bath. After you are done, you quickly walk out of the tub, walk over to a door in the corner of the pool area, walk down a set of steps, then jump into a lake about 3 degrees or so above freezing. Needless to say, you dont stay very long in it. Then you get out, stand there for a while, some people smoke cigarettes, some people talk about how its cold, and then you go back up and start it all over again. Irina sat down by the lake a bit too long and got bit by one of those flies from the cartoon in an earlier post. At the time she said “its no big deal, tomorrow i will forget about them, takes just one day”.

All of the locals at the hot springs were wearing small little bathing suits. Gus was in a brown pair of swiming trunks that looked like shorts. I, of course, was wearing the marlin and sailboat swiming trunks that look like a 5 year old child from ohio would wear. I really like them, but I think everyone at the pool was making fun of them. Irina said that they wouldnt even let me into the hot springs in moscow with those on. Whatever, I think they are the new “thing”. you will see.

We went and got some beer at the little cafe next to the hot springs. We got hot sandwiches (a piece of sausage with cheese melted on top of bread) and Kamchatka No. 1.. kamchatkas local beer. Its pretty good and cheap, about 80 cents for a pint. Just what I need after dehydrating myself in a large vat of 140 degree sulfar water – cheap beer! I was drunk after about half the bottle.

We stayed at the hot springs for about 5 hours and then walked a bit to the camp where anfisa worked. When we got there, Anfisa was leaving and told us “work day is over, lets go”.. She told us that we were going to go to a beach where only the locals really go. We picked up some snacks for the beach and off we went.

The sand is black, because its a volcano beach and also along the bay. Irina and Anfisa chowed down on this dried fish chew which, they said, reminded them of when they were teenagers drinking beer, as thats what they would eat with that. I think i will stick with the pretzels and goldfish (crackers, not animal).

The time is strange here. We went ot the beach around 6, left around 8, ate dinner at 10 and went home at 12. The sun was setting on our way home – at 12midnight. It rises at 6, but the day seems to just last forever here.

Oddly enough, I started my summer in a almost tropical african country (mozambique) and been hanging out outside all summer in NYC and havent gotten much sun.. My second day visiting a siberian penisula and I get a sunburn.

After one 9.5 hour flight, a 2hour layover and another 8.5 hour flight.. we finally arrived in kamchatka… Petropavlovsk is the city, actually.

However, There was a bit of a trick in moscow, and by trick i mean waiting in line with a bunch of people who are all pissed they are waiting in line and trying, with no luck, to convince the security people that they are late for their corresponding flight.. but really, EVERYONE in line is waiting for this plane.

Irina had told us prior to coming that the flight from Moscow to Kamchatka was reminscent “of the titanic” and there were “children puking in cute little orange bags”. I brushed it off as a bit of over exaggeration. Gus and I had decided that most any of the advice or problems that Irina described could be divided by 3 in their severity and most times we would be suprised as how the situation wasnt nearly as problematic as Irina described. However, this flight was not the case. The best comparison i can make is that the flight was like sitting in the back of a yellow school bus, off roading through the rockies with a couple of obnoxious children running up and down the isle playing tag. oh, and no movie.

Needless to say, gus and I took some sleeping pills that my doctor gave me and hoped they’d last 8 hours.

After landing, we were bused off the plane to the “terminal” – a fence with a bunch of people waiting for the new arrivals. We were of course met by.. no one. Irina and Anfisa were a bit late. But they showed up eventually, running over, giving hugs, and irina saying “so things are a bit difficult here”.. Gus and I are still dividing that by 3.

We had been up since wednesday at 830PM.. in terms of NY time.. we arived THURSDAY at 4:30PM.. Kamchatka time, We arrived FRIDAY at 930AM. So we had a whole day ahead of us. We went to Anfisa’s camp where they recreate native housing and living. They are still building it and have a couple of structures built. We spent the majority of the day there, looking around, seeing the mountains, getting spooked by bear chasing dogs, and giving medicine to a dog that had been in a fight with another one. We meet the horse trainer/whisperer there, Zhenya, a guy who helps Anifsa with teh camp, and Sasha , the campgrounds keeper who lives in a small house on the camp. Everyone was excited to meet us as were we, but alas, our language skills were tough. Zhenya is younger and has a test in english next week, so we told him we would help him out.

There was a group of moscow tourists that strolled in to see the show at the camp. We joined them and Irina translated the russian descriptions to us. At one point, irina had stopped because it was just a lot of information that wasnt necessary. The Russian tourist mom yelled at her and told her to continue translating. She thought Irina was our paid servant translator. I laughed.. then told her to get to work.

We eventually wound up back at where we are staying, Anfisa’s mothers apt. A nice place, but for reasons not to be openly discussed, we are not to speak english or make ourselves noticeable.

Also, not toilet paper in the toilet.. gotta throw that out seperately.

48 hours after I woke up, I went to bed around 830 and woke up 12 hours later.

Gus’s advice for boarding. Which is working well in NYC. Gus is good at making friends.

This is his new one.

So now it really starts. Gus and I are at the airport checking in and getting ready for the 20 hour trek to the opposite side of Russia. Going through security. Just found out we have to uncheck our bags in Moscow, run to the next terminal with 100+ lbs of luggage and speak Russian to get on the plane. Should be fun, especially since it will be 4am New York Time.

So a lot of you have been wondering where exactly is Kamchatka and how long does it take to get there.

Well here is a map:

Hi,

So I thought I’d post some photos of where we are going prior to us leaving.. These are pictures of the area.  Anfisa, the woman in the photos AS WELL AS the photographer, is helping us while we are there.

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