As we pokeabout the town, which spirals up out of the plain like the tip of a caramel ice cream cone, the first snowflakes drift down, foreshadowing an impending storm.
Seems a near-decade of comedy routines, movies and TV commercials that poke fun at foreign accents in distant lands answering questions about simple product information has had an effect.
When weather permits, NASA planetary geologists and biologists poke and prod the rocks and waterways of the island to dig up clues about terrestrial and perhaps martian natural history.