The drillers went to the immigration office in Makassar to get their photographs taken today. In the first photo, taken while waiting at the office, they appeared a bit anxious as it took a while before the immigration official started calling them one by one for the photo-taking. They're also still adjusting to the heat and humidity of the tropics. As you can see from the photo, they were all converging near the AC system! In the second photo, taken right after all the immigration photographs have been taken, the drillers looked far more relaxed. Tika, another member of the drilling project from ITB in Bandung, arrived in Makassar this morning. Tika and I then went to the provincial forestry office to get the permits needed to do research in conservation areas such as Lakes Towuti and Matano. The permits were secured, and now we have cleared almost all official permits we need to do the drilling. As I am writing this post, Tika is riding the overnight bus to Sorowako! -satrio wicaksono An eventful day in Timampu, South Sulawesi. Satria and I started the day early at the Balantang port, helping with transfer of the T3W drilling rig from its flatrack to a lowboy. At ~40,000 lbs, it's a tricky lift. It's an even trickier thing to truck around, as even on a lowboy it is 4.5 meters tall. That was tall enough to require that we remove a couple sections of power line on the main road, cutting power to parts of the town. The things we do for science. But 5 hours after leaving the port, thanks in no small part to the folks at CKB logistics, the rig arrived at the Towuti shoreline. We got rig! And, in the middle of all the action, team member Chris Kelly rose from the dead (flu)! All in all, a great day. (TDP on facebook)