that probably also plays into why I'd prefer Georgia/ maybe Armenia/ Albania over South-America/ Venezuela
also besides South America's climate, economics (georgia, armenia are no socialistic shitholes like south america), just the long way..
it is the "other side of the earth" to me - to georgia or albania I could theoretically ride with my oldtimer motorbike (If I ever get it back, same with my driving license - and my pain allows me to)
you could still study these ecosystems ! wouldnt be the best idea to live in them (untouched ecosystems) anyways :P
but yeah I see you - I'm also more of a cold boy, a viking..
would also tend north normally - but one of my companions wont allow that (he can't manage the cold anymore - even though cold is healing)
have you heard of the big caves in china with giant mammoth trees underground?
I read as a child the lurid pulp fantasies of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and similar authors that conjured vivid hallucinations of cavernous worlds subterranean. Mere reality cannot compete LOL.
The ability of living things to habituate to environments on Earth is astounding. Microbial species live kilometers deep in suboceanic rock, feeding on the sparse resources that percolate therein. While microbes in active ecosystems can reproduce every ~20 minutes, deep in the lithosphere they can only reproduce once in a century.
Archaia is yet remnant in such places.