Mouth of the Fish

Kei Ora,

The Maori imagine that the two islands of New Zealand resemble a boat and a fish: The South Island is the boat, and the North Island is the fish. Wellington is the fish's mouth, and Wellingtonians say Auckland is the fish's butt hole. Aucklanders argue that Auckland is the tail of the fish, but Wellingtonians counter that the strip of land that heads toward Cape Reinga is really the tail, that Auckland is located just beneath that extention of land, and thus Auckland is where the poop exits the fish.

Saw an impressive Chinese movie last night at the Embassy Theatre, the theater where the "Lord of the Rings" films premiered here in New Zealand. As most of you already know, much of the films were filmed around Wellington and on the South Island. Before the premier of the first movie, Wellington spent $5M to rennovate the Embassy Theatre to return it to it's 1920's art deco glory. It's one of those old fashioned single screen theaters with a stage and a wide screen. The preferred seating area has comfortable leather seats. The theatre is beautiful: wood paneling, stained glass, lush tiles, a grand staircase. Even the restroom was gorgeous!

The movie is "The Curse of the Yellow Flower", by Zhang Yimou. The story is simple, but the cinematography is magnificent. The battle scene was unbelieveable. (The last great movie battle scene I recall seeing was the one in Kurosawa's film "Ran". Yellow Flower's battle scene was much more spectacular.) The most remarkable aspect for me was the quantity of extras used to make this movie. I suppose only in China could you actually hire and pay the quantity of extra people used to make this movie. Zhang Yimou triumphs again.

Wellington is so cool! Located at the bottom of the North Island, the city is surrounded by water on three sides, and so there is a combination of gentle sandy beaches and rough rocky shoreline. There are hills throughout the city, and houses are stuffed along these hills. Due to lack of space, earthquakes and wise urban planning, there are not many tall buildings. Most houses are one and two story, wooden colonial style houses. Colors tend to be muted. Many of the houses located at the top of these hills have their own private cable cars to move people and purchases from the lower street level to the house. There are lots of trees.

Art is very important important and is evident throughout the city. Art is on display in public spaces, and there are lots of art galleries. There are many cultural activities here as well. Lots of inexpensive theater as well as broadway style productions. Between the gardens and trees and art and natural beauty of the coast line, Wellington is an attractive city.

And there is at least one coffee shop in every block. There are more cafes per capita in Wellington than in any other city in the world. And like in Seattle, you have to work really hard to find lousey coffee.

Today I spent the day at Te Papa: the New Zealand Museum of Art and Culture. It's a huge museum that does an excellent job of displaying different aspects of New Zealand history, culture and art in an easy to understand and fun way. It's really kid friendly, too.

Actually, New Zealand is family friendly. If you can afford to fly your family here, there are ways to travel inexpensively throughout the country: renting a car or campervan, camping on many of the public camping grounds, staying at hotels and motels with cooking facilities or renting a flat for a week at at time. There's lots of nature and outdoorsy stuff to do that kids would love. Traveling between the middle of March and the end of May provides decent weather and prices (Fall) weather, as does late-September to late November (Spring). I'm sure you can get even better deals between June and mid-September, but it might be too cold to do some of the outdoor activities.

Tomorrow I catch the ferry to the South Island. EVERYONE tells me how beautiful the South Island is. I can hardly wait.

cheers,
Stacey

To Zorb or Not To Zorb

Kei Ora!

Greetings from Wellington, New Zealand.

Updating this blog in NZ has proven to be a bit challenging: cost and blogspot server accessibility being the two main issues. Cost: NZ isn't cheap, and that includes the internet. An internet cafe that charges $5 or $6 per hour is a bargin. Also, since NZ is about 17 hours ahead of the East Coast of the US, and the blogspot server is on Pacific Time, it is not uncommon that the server is not available when I am fortunate enough to find reasonably priced internet access.

Oh yeah, and sometimes the problem is me: I just don't feel like writing.

However, desire, cost and server access are all in alignment, so I'll fill you in on my exploits.

After Auckland I took a long distance bus to Rotorua. Rotorua is located about four hours south of Auckland, an the Eastern side of the island, about "an inch" (on my map) south of the Pacific Coast. Rotorua is famous for its boiling mud and hot springs, maori culture, and timber industry. And adrenelin junkies can get satiated here as well. There is zorbing, swooshing, sky diving (tadem and solo), white water rapids rafting and sledging, going over a waterfall in a rubber raft, and of course, bungy jumping.

I almost zorbed. It would have been cool to have told people that I zorbed in New Zealand. Apparently you can't zorb just any where in the world. But I just couldn't overcome the imagined feelings of nausea of rolling hiney over head down a hill (down a straight or zig-zag track) strapped inside a huge, plastic ball. Or, you can do it hamster style: they don't strap you in and you run (or flop) free in the plastic ball down the hill. Water is optional(??????). Nope, just couldn't bring myself to do it.

Swooshing was definitely out of the question. You sit in a pod with two or three other people. The lift you high up in the air, between two towers. Your pod is attached to the two towers. A crane pulls the pod back/out as far as it will go and then releases. You swing back and forth between the two towers at a bizillion mph. Yeah. No.

I seriously thought about tandem sky diving. Yes, I understand the incongruency: I am unwilling to free fall to earth only a few hundren feet with a rubber band around my ankles, but I AM willing to hurl toward the earth from several thousand feet with a parachute on my back. However, with tandem sky diving, I can blame it on my partner if the parachute doesn't work.

As for sledging, I'm not exactly sure what that is. I think it's white water rafting, but somehow they pull you faster through the water. This means I can avoid slamming into bolders at a faster rate.

No, being the couch potato that I am, I went for the soaking in hot mud and hot spring water at Hell's Gate. Hell's Gate is a thermal reserve that is filled with boiling mud and boiling mineral spring water. The water gets as hot as 148 degrees celsius. Boiling mud is so cool! It looks and sounds like boiling oat meal, without the lumps. Lots of steam and ploping sounds. Sulfur Oxide makes the air smell like rotton eggs. After marinating in warm mineral mud and water, my skin felt so wonderful.

Other activities in and around rotorua included a sheep and cow performance, a visit to another thermal reserve (this one had a geyser and kiwi birds), a recently recovered village that had been buried when a volcano exploded in 1880, and a Maori Hangi.

The Maori Hangi was interesting. A performance group enacted a first time meeting between Maori tribes (their tribe meets YOUR tribe), demonstrated aspects of Maori life in a small village setting, performed several Maori songs and dances, and then served a dinner that was roasted in the ground. The ritual meeting was amazing. I can only imagine the astonishment the European explorers must have felt having been greeted by growling, stomping, spear-waving, burley, tatooed, Maori warriors. Their eyes wide open, their tongues sticking out, and growling. And if you didn't respond the correct way, you started a fight, and could possibly end up as dinner. (yes, Maori were cannibals). But if you were Maori, then you knew to expect this sort of greeting, so unless you came looking to start a fight, you knew how to respond. Any way, it was all very intimidating and wonderful to watch.

I had some amazing food in Rotorua. Food in NZ has been really good, but also really expensive. There's a restaurant in Rotorua called the Fat Dog Cafe. The coffee is perfect. And they make pancakes with blueberries and whipped cream to die for. I had pancakes two days in a row! And the restaurant's ambiance is fun. Poetry on the walls and on the back of chairs. Lots of bright colors.

After Rotorua I went to Napier. There's not much to say about Napier. Napier suffered a horrific earthquake in 1931 which destroyed the city center. The city decided to rebuild the buildings in an art deco style. So many of the downtown buildings are attractive. There city is on Pacific Coast, but the surf and undertown are too strong for swimming. The beach is black pebbles, not sand.

The area is also known for its vineyards. Did a wine tour one day. Had some good wines. Red are not that great in New Zealand. They tend to be thin in body. The best reds I tasted were syrahs, which tend to be less full bodied, anyway. The chardonnay's were excellent, very buttery. NZ is known for sauvignon blanc. This is not a wine I drink, so I will learn about this type as I travel through the country.

Now I'm in Wellington. Arrived last night. In a few minutes I will join a tour that will explore the greater metropolitan Wellington area. The only thingsI can report right now are: The city has lots of hills, and the building in the area where I am are pretty. Oh, and my bed has fleas.

Will tell you more later.
cheers,
Stacey

Hello From the Future

Keiora, (hello in Maori)

I arrived in Auckland, New Zealand last Tuesday. I can't believe that it's been only a week since I left South America. And it is still strange to hear English, instead of Spanish, spoken around me. Actually, I hear and see more Chinese around me, but more about that later.

New Zealand is about 17 hours ahead of the east coast of the USA (or about 12 hours ahead of my friends in Europe). I say "about" because they went on Day Light Savings Time, and the US went off DST (or is it the other way around), so I'm not exactly sure how far into to tomorrow I really am. This means that when folks back home on the East Coast of the US are waking up and starting their day at 6AM, it is 11 PM that same day, and I am getting ready to go to bed. [just in case you are wondering, the future is looke good from my perspective: Monday, April 23, has been a perfect day here]

Auckland is beautiful! Green and lush, with with rolling hills (after so many months in the Andes, I just can't bring myself to refer to this hills as mountains). Auckland is in the middle of the peninsula on the Northern Island, and has the Tasman Sea on the West/Left and the Pacific Ocean on the East/Right. There are many islands and gulfs and bays and alcoves and such around Auckland. It's a watersport and beach person's paradise: fishing, boating, swimming, beaching, surfing, diving, as well as hiking and camping (and bungey jumping off the Sky Tower, the highest structure in the Southern Hemisphere). You have the big city excitment of Auckland, and within thirty minutes you can have small island solitude. The weather has been sunny and in the mid to high 70's (20-22 degrees Celsius).

Auckland is big city. I don't know the population, but it is relatively crowded for New Zealand. And it is ethnically diverse. People of European descent make up the majority of the population at 50%, Maori are 30% and Asians (1-Chinese, 2-Indians and 3-other Asians) make up the balance. When I first arrived, I thought I was staying in the Chinatown section of the city. There are so many signs in Chinese, and it looke like one in three people on the street were Chinese-looking. I hear lots of Chinese spoken around me. On the plus side, there is plenty of inexpensive and delicious Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Indian food all around me.

I spent three days in Auckland before heading up North to the Bay of Islands. The Bay of Islands is comprised of 145 islands, and is where Captin Cook arrived when he came in search of New Zealand. Abel Tasman, a Dutchman (and after whom the Sea, Island and Devil were named), found New Zealand first (New Zealand is dutch for New Sea Land), however he never stuck around after being greeted by the Maori with the traditional Maori greeting. Imagine a dozen large, burly, tan skinned and heavily tatooed men, dressed in grass skirts and carrying spears, squatting and stamping the ground with their feet (think Sumo wrestler, the move, not the size), sticking their tongues at you and yelling as loud as they can. How would that make you feel? Abel decided to leave, but wrote about his experience. Captain Cook decided to check the place out, brought a Maori translator (Maori inhabited Hawaii and many other Polynesian Islands), and thus knew what the proper response to the above described Maori greeting should be if you don't wish to start a fight (slowly bend over and pick up the branch placed before you, never breaking eye contact). The rest is history. The British claimed New Zealand as a colony in 1840, at a site just outside of Paihia (Pie-heeya), and the initial capital of the country was in a city located across the bay from Paihia. Kokorareka, today known as Russell.

Anyway, I won't bore you with more fascinating history of the Bay of Islands and the North Country. I spent three days up north, exploring the area by catamaran, airplane, 4x4 bus, and an amphibious "duck" boat (they even gave us a kazoo to quack at pedestrians as we passed by). I went as far north as is possible in New Zealand. The area is spectacular: rolling hills, clear multi-hued turquoise water, white, golden and black sand beaches. And of course, perfect weather -- not too hot, not too cold. And not too many tourists. Tourist season is over, and it is the perfect time to visit this area. Eating was pricey, but the food was superb. Lots of great seafood.

Today I'm back in Auckland, and tomorrow I start my journey down south. The next stop is Rotorua.

Today I mailed a package home. And what a joy that experience was. No, really. Mailing packages from the various countries I've visited over the last year has been a special kind of hell. But not so in New Zealand! The people who work at the post office are pleasant and reasonable. And compared to what I've spent to mail stuff home from countries that are much closer to the US than New Zealand, postage was cheap! And they accept credit cards!!!!!!!! It was a truly DELIGHTFUL experience.

And that's a little of what I've been up to. I like it here, at the other end of the world.

cheers,
Stacey

Iguazu Falls

Hola,

Iguazu Falls are amazing! Yeah, yeah, Niagra is nice, but Iguazu Falls are amazing! There are over 200 falls in Iguazu Park. Iguazu Falls are not as high as high as Niagra, but it is much wider, with more falls.

There is the Argentine Side, and the Brasilian Side. You have a panoramic view of the falls from the Brazilian side, and you are IN the falls on the Argentine Side. I visited both sides. The Argentine side was clearly more fun. There are three circuits that guide through out the main portion of the park, and give you spectacular views of the major falls. At the end we took a small boat that takes very close to the Throat of the Devil, the major cascade. Of course you get soaking wet, but boy is it exciting.

The Brazilian side is mearly a single circuit that gives you different view of the Falls. The whole visit takes no more than two hours. The Argentine side took a little over eight hours.

Officially, you need a visa to enter Brasil to see the Falls if you are American. It is payback for the visa fee their citizens have to pay for a US visa. But, if you find the right taxi, you pay him and he takes you through. I did this, and crossed over with no problem. It was amazing how easily it happened. Gotta love tourism and entreprenuerism.

On the morning of my last day, I went to the Iguazu Forrest. There I did the Zip Line - you zip through the tree tops in a harness on a cable. Also rappelled down a small waterfall. Both were easier than I had imagined. I had a blast.

Gotta run and catch a plane.
I´m off to New Zealand.
Chao.
Stacey

It´s Pouring and I¨m Sick -- Again

Hola,

It´s pouring rain, and I have another head cold. But this is all new since my last entry.

Last week was short on work and long on vacation. And the weather was spectacular. Last week was Santa Semana, which can be translated as Holy Easter Week, more or less. I worked only two days. Monday commemorated the war over the Malvinas Islands, a.k.a. the Faulkland Islands. You may recall the war between the Argentines and the Brits in the 1980´s over who owned the islands. Argentina lost. And they remain unhappy about this outcome some 20 years later, understandably so. Tuesday and Wednesday I worked. Thursday and Friday I did not, Something Thursday and Good Friday. Whatever. The weather was spectacular, and I used the time to explore the city further.

Ayacucho is famous for its Santa Semana celebration. It´s a week long affair (that really started 8 weeks ago) with processions everyday. They observe Painful Friday, on which day grandparents flogg their grandchild first thing in the morning with branches, and people stick each othr with pins and nails. Dodging water balloons and shaving cream during Carnival was bad enough. I´m am SO glad I´m no longer in Ayacucho.

Unlike the Peruvians in Ayacucho, the Argentines, also predominantly catholic, are much more mellow. You wouldn´t really know it was Easter weekend. Many businesses worked on Friday thru Sunday. I was even able to attend Tango classes on Easter Sunday night. No Easter baskets, chocolate eggs, special dinners, nails or shaving cream. Life as usual.

Porteños (natives of Buenos Aires) tend to leave the city during this week, taking advantage of the extra days off from work. As a result, there was less traffic and fewer people on the streets, in the parks, at the street fairs. And as I said, the weather was perfect, perfect for walking and just hanging outside.

Things I did include:

Attempting to add more pages to my passport. The US Embassy is ALWAYS a joy to work with -- NOT! Waited an hour for service, and then two more hours only to be told that the computers were down and to come back NEXT WEEK. They didn´t know they had computer problems three hours earlier!!!!!!

Went to El Tigre, a town near the coast, about 30km outside of BA, where five rivers intersect. It´s kinda like the Thousand Islands north of Syracuse. There are lots of islands and rivers and streams. It is vacation spot were people keep summer homes (camps for you CNY folks). Travel between homes and islands is by boat. The area is beautiful.

Took two tango lessons, and much to everyone´s amazement, I was actually able to learn the steps fairly quickly. But two lessons does not make one a tango dancer. Much like lindy, you need to learn and practice a lot to dance this dance. I had taken a couple of classes a few years ago in Syracuse, and just couldn´t get it. But last week something clicked and I did very well. I might have to give this dance another try when I get home.

Saw a Tango Show. A Tango Show has music, singing, and of course dancing. All threee parts were excellent. The dancers were phenomenal. I am continually amazed that no one trips or gets wounded doing this dance.

Also saw two drag queen shows. Both were different in character. The first was more interplay with the audience and male dancers revealing their assets. The second was more entertainment and dance routines, with more clothes. While both were entertaining, it was clear that I was not the target demographic.

After both shows I went dancing and stayed out until the wee hours. I´m usually waking up for work at the time I arrived home. This city never sleeps. At 3 AM, people are sitting in outdoor cafes drinking like it's 7 PM. It´s wonderful.

Well, I need to go in search of food. The rain has let up a bit.

Tomorrow I go to Iguazu Falls, and then I leave for New Zealand. My Latin American tour has come to a close. I probably won´t write again until I hit New Zealand.

I added some more pictures to older posts.

cheers,
Stacey

It´s Pouring

Hola,

It´s been pouring rain all night and all mourning, and will probably continue all day. Luckily I have my Cusco-tested rain poncho. It´s not very elegent, but it keeps me dry.

I´ve given up the ideal of looking stylish. I´ve been wearing the same t-shirts and jeans for several months now. No make-up. Hair in a ponytail most of the time. I´ve lost a lot of weight, but not enough to fit into clothing sold down here. They seem to think women are skinnier than they are. Some of the women are very thin, but most are normal and a few are overweight. And women here wear their clothes very snugly. But even with my new thin-ness, I can´t fit into the clothing available for gorditas (fat women). Sigh.

Today walking from the subte stop to the foundation was alot easier. The street normally bustling with pedestrians crawling or racing down the sidewalk, and sellers of umbrellas or some useless gadget or toy. In front of most stores there are people handing out fliers to intice shoppers into the stores. And there are the bus stops and the people waiting for the bus. So walking down the sidewalk from the subte to work is really an obstacle course. Today there were fewer people, but those people had umbrellas. I decided to forego the umbrella and use the poncho to make the walk a little less challenging.

And this morning, the park through which I pass each day, was empty. Usually it´s packed with people awaiting the bus, vagrants, people meeting and waiting for others, christians preaching, kids playing, trash and unbelieveable smells.

There is a monument in the middle of the park. This is where the cats live. There are a hundred cats that I can see, and there are nooks where I´m sure more cats are lurking. They seem quite content to be there. There are not cat fights. And this morning, the cats were the being hanging out in the park, sheltered by the monuments, watching the people scurry by.

I think the rain just got harder. It´s like God turned firehose on Buenos Aires. It´s incredible! And I have to go outside now. Great.

By the way, I´ve added some more photos to past posts.

Need to get going.
cheers,
Stacey

Buenos Aires

Hola,

Buenos Aires is great!

I arrived a little over a week ago, and have been busy wandering the streets, exploring neighborhoods, hanging out at cafes. Crucial activities.

If you appreciate big cities, then Buenos Aires is a special treat. It´s noisey and chaotic and people walk like their pants are on fire. Cars DO stop for pedestrians here. There´s the Subte (the subway), and over 400 different colectivos (buses). The blocks are long, the avenues wide. And for a moment, on certain streets, if I don´t look at the names of stores or at the billboards too closely, I feel like I´m back in New York City. Not the NYC of today, but the New York City I recall from 20 years ago (yes, there is a difference). The streets are full of business people, tourists, students, average people, wealthy people, beggars. Trash is everywhere. The Subte smells of people, but it is very clean. It´s a big, beautiful, vibrant city.

And the neighborhoods! Each one has it´s own personality. The architecture is different in each one. Old and majestic buildings, new and metalic ones. The buildings in some neighborhoods are painted bright colors -- pink, turquoise, yellow, orange, lime green. There are lots of trees and parks and green space. The blocks can be long, and the distances great. Even one or two hours of meandering doesn´t scratch the surface.

I´m staying with a family instead of in an apartment as I had originally planned. The taxi pulled up to the beautiful old house on Sunday, and I was met by this wonderful woman, and so I decided not to move. The house from the outside is not much to speak of, but that seems to be the case for most of these houses in the countries I have visited in Latin America. But once inside, it´s a palace. There are a million bedrooms, a large backyard, a spacious kitchen, a livingroom with a chimney, a familyroom, and a couple of decks upstairs.

The owner of the house is Alicia. Alicia is ten years older than I, and has four teenaged childeren. Three girls and a boy. There is no husband. I don´t know if they are separated. No speaks of him. I should ask. And there is a Canadian student who has been living with them for almost a year. He is studying spanish and taking classes at one of the universities. And despite the number of people living in this house, you don´t hear them. It´s very quiet.

Alicia is bright and has a great sense of humor, when I can understand what she says. The accent is very different, and I have difficulty understanding much of what the Argentinians say. She used to work doing something with taxes, but for some reason no longer works (not by her choice, I think), and currently brings in income by renting rooms in her house and in another building she owns. This what I think I heard. Anyway, I enjoy talking with her even if I only understand half of what she says.

As for my work....
I´m working at foundation called Fundamind. Fundamind provides services to poor children and families, most of whom are suffering from AIDS. They do alot of AIDS prevention training in high schools and in the community. They help kids and families get the medical treatment they need, and provide any needed psychological counseling. They teach women how to sew using sewing machines so they can get work. They have kindergarten during the day, and help kids with homework during the evenings. And they support a couple of soupkitchens in the community. A few nights a week I help kids with their English homework. During the day I´m writing an English presentation and strategy to be used to solicit donations and support from foreign companies and donors. They have been in operation since 1990, and receive support from several international organizations, as well as from Argentine donors. So far I´m enjoying the work.

Last weekend I went to Mendoza. Mendoza is on the other side of the country, to the north. It is famous for wine. There are many vineyards in and around Mendoza. The area is extremely arid, and this results in excellent, full-bodied red and white wines. The Malbec grape produces excellent wine here.

I stayed at the Cavas Wine Lodge, a high-end resort located about 35 minutes outside of Mendoza. It´s in the middle of a vineyard. There are only 10 or so rooms at this resort. Each room is really a small house. I had a private dipping pool on the patio, and an outside fireplace on the upstairs patio. The inside was gorgeous. The price of the room included all transportation, all activities, a massage, and all food (consumed at the resort, and at local restaurants as well). I had to pay extra for wine. The wine ranged in price from affordable to outrageous, but everything I drank was excellent. The food was amazing. You could eat in your room or in the diningroom. All food was gourmet quality.

One night I ate at a local famous restaurant called 1884. The chef is one of the top 50 chefs in the world. And I only paid for the wine I consumed. The dinner and ambiance were exquisite. It´s been a while since I have eaten such divine food.

And such as been my life these last few days.
I need to get off the internet. I´ve been here way too many hours (yes, hours).

Time to go roam the city.
cheers,
Stacey

Machu Picchu

In a word: Amazing

Words cannot express the beauty you experience in person.

I took the train to Aguas Calientes on Tuesday, and then the bus on Wednesday morning to meet the Inca Trail group with whom I would have traveled had I done the Inca Trail. We entered the site at 8 AM. When you turn the corner, you see a city of ruins floating in fog. As the fog slowly lifts, you see that Machu Picchu is on a mountain peak, and is surrounded by other mountain peaks. The ruins suggest buildings and other structures that made up the city of Machu Picchu. And given that about 2000 tourist visit the site daily, Machu Picchu is in amazingly great condition.

And what is even more amazing is the fact that the Incas moved many huge stones from mountains far a way. The moved them UP and DOWN the mountains. They didn't use metal tools to cut, carve or polish these stones. They used other stones, wood, and water to cut and shape these intricately carved stones. And these structures were so well designed that they survived 400 years of earthquakes. And they survived the Spanish Conquistadors because the Spanish never knew that Machu Picchu existed. Thank goodness for that.

The tour guide took us the more famous points in the city, and explained the history of the area. After he was finished, we were left to explore on our own for a few hours. I wandered another hour before heading back to Aguas Calientes. I left at about 11:30 AM, the time when bus loads of tourists started arriving. When you take the train from Cusco, you arrive in Aguas Calientes at about 11 AM. And then you arrive by bus at Machu Picchu at 11:30. When the hordes arrive, the magic of the place diminishes. It was so worth spending the night at Aguas Calientes so that I could have an early start the next day.

cheers,
Stacey

Cusco

¡Hola!

Cusco is wonderful, despite all the foreigners. And it seems so odd to see so many non-Peruvian faces on the street after having spent four weeks in Ayacucho where every foreign face was a surprise.

Tourism has served the city well. The buildings and streets are well maintained. This morning I visited an area that doesn´t see much tourism and the contrast in the state of the infrastructure was great.

I arrived yesterday morning after an uneventful trip. In the afternoon I took a tour of several Incan ruins located within a 45 minute drive outside of Cusco in the mountains -- Sacsayhuaman, Quenka, Puca Pucara (I think) and a third place whose name I can´t recall at the moment. All were amazing as ruins. You can only imagine how they were in their original state when the Incas used them. The Incas were skilled craftsman and builders, especially when you consider the rudimentary tools they used. Many of these structures would probably still remain in tact had the Spaniards not destroyed them. The remaining structures that have survived for 500 years, still function.

This morning I visited one Incan ruin and one pre-Incan ruin (the Wari who preceded the Incas) that are located outside of Cuzco. Most travelers don´t have the time to visit these sites, and so the sites are tourist free and tranquil. They are part of the Andean country side. And I´ll say it again: The Andes are f***ing amazing. I can´t get enough of their beauty.

My tour guide was excellent. Arturo knew so much history about the area and the Incas. He explained everything in Spanish, and I understood it all!

Tomorrow I go to Macchu Picchu. I´m so glad I cancel my four day Inca Trail hike. While I love these mountains, my body just can´t cope. I´ve been living in the mountains at over 10k feet ASL for the last nine weeks and my breathing STILL hasn´t adapted. It´s so frustrating. Walking four days to Macchu Picchu would be hell for me. So, I will take the train tomorrow and meet the tour guide at the gate the following day. I´ll still get to see the splendor of Macchu Picchu without the agony and stress.

Cheers,
Stacey

A Detour

¡Hola!

This morning was not a good morning.

Ava, another volunteer, and I were supposed to take an early morning flight to Lima this morning. However, the planes were delayed about one and a half hours due to inclimate weather, so I missed my connecting flight to Cuzco.

But even if the plane had arrivedon time in Lima , there would have been some confusion about which airline I was to fly to Cuzco. The travel agent gave me paper receipt for a flight on one airline, but then last night "someone" left me a message telling me that my flight was with a different airline. So when I arrived in Lima, I spent several hours trying to figure out what flight I was supposed to have taken. I eventually tracked down the guy who made the arrangements for me, and he sorted everything out. Unfortunately the result was that I would have to spend the night in Lima so that I can catch a flight to Cuzco tomorrow morning. The travel agency is paying for my hotel tonight.

So I had my first glimpse of Lima. Lima is much better than I had expected it to be. And it is VERY DIFFERENT than Ayacucho. This afternoon I explored the area around the Plaza Mayor (also called the Plaza de Armas). The area is colonial, with many pastel colored buildings. There was an exhibition of "before" and "after" photos of different areas around Lima. Apparently the mayor has implemented a lot of urban improvements around the city. The parts of the city I have seen so far are quite nice.

Tomorrow I will catch an early flight to Cuzco. I can hardly wait. The pictures I´ve seen are amazing.

cheers,
Stacey

Take a Seat

¡Hola!

Yesterday I bought 45 desks for the school that´s located near the prison. This school is quite poor. There are about 200 students and not enough desks. A catholic school was selling their old desks to make room for new ones, so I decided to buy the remaining desks and donate them to the school in need. It was only 45 desks, but now 45 more students have places to sit.

cheers,
Stacey

Leaving Ayacucho

¡Hola!

I know I haven´t written for a while, but I´ve been busy BEING SICK!!!!! ¡¡¡¡¡Again!!!!! I THOUGHT I would escape the dreaded gripe (the flu in spanish) this time, but NOOOOO. And each time seems worse than the last. Unfortunately I won´t be finished recuperating in time for my planned four day Inca Trail hike to Macchu Picchu. Looks like I´ll have to take the train to Macchu Picchu. Darn.

Friday, tomorrow, is my last day in Ayacucho. My flight to Lima, and then Cuzco, is early Saturday morning. I am so ready to leave. I will spend five days in Cuzco, two days in Lima, and then it´s on to ARGENTINA!!! Buenas Aires, here I come.

I didn´t tell you about the Llama Trek.

Three weekends ago five of us -- the more mature ladies -- went on a two-day llama trek in the mountains about two hours north of here. Ayacucho is at about 10K ft ASL. The llama trek started and ended at 13K ft. The highest point we climbed was a little over 14,500 ft.

The drive was spectacular. The vegetation changed as we climed in altitude. The vegetation in Ayacucho is mostly desert: lots of cactus and other succulents, a little grass, and some sorry trees. As we climbed, there were more trees and more vegetation, then these were replaced with short grass that looked like moss. No trees. Some of this moss stuff was soft and spongey, and some was sharp and prickly. And the mountains themselves were magnificent. In the distance you could see a couple of snow capped mountains.

We were greeted at our starting point by a herd of llamas. Black ones, brown ones, white ones and multicolored ones. All wore dangling red yarn earrings (used for identification purposes). A few wore cow bells which jangled as the herd approached us. We could hear the bells before we could see the llamas. The llamas traveled in a tight group, and they refused to have their photos taken. Each time I pointed my camera in their direction, they would ALL turn and point their butts in my direction. I have lots of llama butt shots.

The llamas were attended by three young men and two horses. The llamas and the horses carried our packs and supplies. Llamas look cute, but are not agreable animals. The llamas selected to carry the supplies were none too happy about the task. The three men had to wrestle each llama to tie the packs down. Disgruntled llamas can be very vocal. The llamas accompanied us as we walked to our campsite.

The three young men seemed to be between 15 and 19 years old. They were cousins. One wore large gaudy fake flowers on his hat to signal that he was single and looking for a girlfriend. That certainly makes dating easier. They didn´t spend any time with us as they tended to walk way ahead of us. Only one of the three spoke spanish; the other two spoke quechua.

At this point I don´t remember how many miles we walked, but it took us 6 hours to hike to our campsite. Hiking at 14,500 feet is very slow. As you ascend, your heart beats faster and your legs feel like lead. We stopped alot for breathing breaks. One of the women in our group got altitude sickness at 14k feet. Her head felt like it was going to explode, and she was nauseated. At 14,300 or so, my legs felt so heavy that I couldn´t take one more step. I decided to take up the offer to ride one of the horses. Climbing steep mountains on horseback is exciting. I had to have faith that the horse knew where to step because I certainly had no control in the matter. Once we reached 14,500 feet, I got off the horse and walked the remaining hour to the campsite. The other woman had to continue on horseback she was so ill.

The hike was amazing. It was a sunny, but windy day. And at that altitude, windy meant cold. We passed lakes, and groups of grazing llamas and alpacas. This is the season where llamas and alpacas give birth, so we also saw lots of new borns grazing with their mothers. Our picnic lunch was especially wonderful so high in the mountains surrounded by llamas.

At one point we passed a hamlet of what looked like abandoned stone houses. Since the families need to move a lot to provide food for their grazing animals, they take up residence in these hamlets as needed. These houses looked like they were built 400 years ago. They live in single room houses. The families sleep, cook, and store supplies in a space that is about 8 feet by 5 feet. They burn llama poop and peat moss for fuel.

Our campsite was a one room school house. School was not in session, so we were able to use it to sleep. We slept in sleeping bags on a long mattress. And once the sun set it was so darn cold we all climbed into our sleeping bags for warmth. The toilet was an outhouse. This outhouse didn´t smell bad, probably because the locals didn´t use it. Don´t know where they went to do their business.

The next morning we watched an alpaca get sheered. Alpacas as a little smaller than llamas, and the wool is much softer. Alpacas don´t seem to enjoy being sheered. The first challenge is to capture the alpaca. The guy doing the sheering used a lasso to catch an alpaca. It took a couple of tries until he cought the one he wanted. And what a fight this alpaca put up! They make a very high pitched squeal when they are upset. You wouldn´t expect this sound from such a large animal. Once caught, the alpaca is wrestled to the ground, and it´s legs are tied together. The sheering guy kneels on the alpaca´s neck as he sheers it. One adult alpaca yields about six pounds of wool.

While the alpaca was being sheered, a baby alpaca was born in the pen. It came so quickly and silently. And within 30 minutes it was up and walking and grazing with it´s mom. Another thing happened once the baby was born. Suddenly several of the alpacas started mating. There were four couples going at it within minutes of the birth. All the excitement took away from the alpaca sheering demonstration.

After the sheering and mating demonstration, we took a horse ride around the area. That was enjoyable. There weren´t many people around because that weekend was the official start of Carnival. Most people were down in Ayacucho getting drunk, spraying people with water or shaving cream, or enjoying the parades.

When it was time to return home, our van never arrived. I suppose it broke down somewhere. So we had to walk back to the main road to catch a bus back to Ayacucho. Our guide decided that we should take a short cut down the mountain and across a ravine instead of staying on the easy-to-navigate dirt road. This was the long march of hell - in the rain. After two hours of walking we made to the road.

The bus that picked us up was quite an experience. It was a microbus that was supposed to carry about 20 passengers, but there were easily 35 people and all their parcels, two sheep tied to the roof, and a sack full of live guinea pigs (apparently one guinea pig escaped). There were lots of interesting smells and sounds. This was my first chicken bus ride.

And that was the llama trek.

That´s all for now.

Cheers,
Stacey

Catching Up, Again

Hola,

There is so much to tell. Let´s see how much I can recall at the moment.

Today marks the middle of my third week here in Ayacucho de Huamanga. Only ten more days to go. As usual, time seems to be flying by.

Since my last entry (more or less), I´ve changed assignments. Since this program doesn´t require me to commit to a single activity, I´ve been jumping around a bit. In addition to the soup kitchen and the nursing home, I´ve worked in a medical clinic, visited the local prison, and visited a health center located in the mountains. Not sure where else I´ll go in the coming weeks.

In the medical clinic I served as translator for one of the non-spanish speaking volunteers who was a neonatal nurse (Mandi). That was fun and also challenging as I haven´t studied medical terminology. I could understand most of what the doctors explained, but I had difficulty expressing myself. At one point the doctor left and allowed Mandi to diagnos patients, which meant I had to do the translations. Some how we got by.

One morning I accompanied one of the nurses as she went to a neighborhood to seek out pregnant women who had missed their scheduled check ups. The way the neighborhoods are organized makes it difficult to find houses (and some people don´t know their exact address). We found three of the five women we were seeking, and met three other pregnant women who had not yet come to the clinic to get check-ups.

I also spent a couple of days in the pharmacy doing drug inventory. Counting inventory was boring, but I enjoyed chatting with the women who worked in the pharmacy.

The clinic, located in a very poor neighborhood, does a good job of treating the patients. They can handle basic needs, and then they refer patients to the main hospital for more complicated treatment. The place is clean. Privacy during patient examinations is non-existent as various people feel free to enter the room during examinations with no consequence. The pediatric doctor handled two or three patients at a time. Things appeared a bit disorganized at time, but everything seemed to work out.

One day I accompanied Mandi to the prison while she did an examination of a 1.5 year old boy who has cerebral palsy. Lenny is the boy´s name. Lenny was born in prison to a woman who is serving time for some drug related crime. She never received treatment for high blood pressure and an infection during her pregnancy, despite her visits to the prison doctor. Lenny was born with cerebral palsy. Despite his issues, Lenny is a beautiful child. He has a sweet temperament, and often cracks up with laughter. Mandi did an examination for a report that will be sent to a treatment center in Lima,Peru. If accepted, Lenny will go there to receive treatment for his cerebral Palsy. The sad part is that he will be separated from his mom.

Another day a group of volunteers took all the children who live at the prison with their mothers out for the morning. Children under the age of 5 years old can live at the prison with their mothers. And every Friday our organization takes the kids out of the prison to various places in Ayacucho. Last Friday we took them to the Zoo. Yes, Ayacucho as a zoo. And what a sad zoo it is. It has birds, a snake, a couple of bored pumas, some turtles, and several monkeys. But the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. My little boy was named Beckham. He was a sweet, calm boy. About 2 years old. He liked to stare out the car window as we drove through the city. On the way home he fell asleep, and had nightmares. What kind of nightmare does a 2 year old boy have?

The prision is not a scarey place. It feels more like a community, than a prison. There are about 1000 prisoners, both male and female. The inmates spend time making crafts that are sold outside of the prison. And sadly, for many of these people, the conditions inside the prison are better than their living conditions at home.

Most of the people in prison are there for drug related activities. The foothills of the mountains in Ayacucho is where 180k tonnes of coca leaves are grown. Pervuians consume 80k tonnes of coca leaves in the form of leaves. The make tea, and they chew the leaves for energy and hunger, as well as other health reasons. The remaining 100k tonnes are used to make cocaine. Some peasants make paste from the leaves. Cocaine is made from the paste. Paste is transported by people in backpacks. And so the prisoners in jail for drug related crimes are in there for production or transportation of paste. Coca production, as well as the production of coca paste and cocaine provide a major source of income in Ayacucho for hundreds of thousands of people.

Today a group of us went to a health center located in the mountains. This health center is the only health center within a three hour walking distance for several communities. Sadly, it´s the closest place for medical care for these communities. And the people are so poor that they cannot afford the medicine that is prescribed to treat their illnesses. One of the volunteers is a mid-wife in England, so she did examinations of patients. The rest of us gave demonstrations of proper hand-washing techniques. Most of the people know how to do this, they just choose not to do it. Many people in the mountains wash their hands once a day! and maybe they use soap. So we did a demonstration using paint to show how easily germs can be spread from person to person, and then reviewed proper handwashing techniques. Everyone left the clinic today with clean hands.

Well, I need to head back for dinner.

cheers,
Stacey

Carnival

Carnival sucks!

Today is the last day of Carnival, thank God! What madness it has been! Women and foreigners are walking targets for water balloons and squirt guns, talcum powder, and shaving cream. Guys walk up to you and spread paint or motor oil on your face. Gangs of boys will hold you and pour crap on you. When I leave the residence, I am armed with a large can of shaving cream (especially created for Carnival). The can of cream doesn´t prevent the attacks, but I can get even with my attackers. Retribution feels sooooo goooooood.

Carnival started last Saturday, and ends today. And there was the PRE-Carnival water bomb squirt gun attacks that took place the prior week. During the actual days of Carnival, groups of people dress in traditional Carnival costumes and march in an endless procession of groups through the city center. Marchers do a little traditional dance. People in the crowd shoot water, cream and talc at the marchers. Marchers shoot water, cream and talc at the people in the crowd. Marchers stop and drink booze along the way. Marchers and non-marchers start drinking after lunch and continue drinking and dancing all night long.

Carnival in Ayacucho is much more tame than Carnival in Brasil. And we wear more clothing. (Thank goodness. Some sights are not worth seeing.) Apparently many children are conceived during these five days, so many that there is a festival in November that celebrates the births of Carnival-conceived babies.

Our residence participated in the parade. They taught us a simple dance, and we wore traditional costumes. Women wore a white skirt and blouse, a striped manta (a cloth used to carry things on one´s back), and a white hat with a black ribbon. Men wore black or brown pants, a white poncho, and a brown or black hat. The women did the dance choreography, and the men walked behind us playing instruments (or pretened to do so). We also hired a group of rasta-looking musicians to play traditional music. And we had a capitain who marched in front. Our capitain was tall and thin, and was dressed in purple, with a long purple cape and mask that made look like the psychotic from A Clockwork Orange. We received a lot of applause from the audience along the route. We walked for four hours in the hot sun, but we did manage to stop for a beer along the way. It was fun, I guess.

I´m so happy that Carnival ends today.

cheers,
Stacey

Running here and there

¡Hola!

I am beat. Today was another busy day. The people running program the volunteer program have almost every minute of our day planned this first week. There is little time to relax between activities.

Today was my second day at the nursing home. I decided to change from the soup kitchen to the nursing home because there wasn´t enough work to fill the morning at the soup kitchen. The nursing home at least keeps me busy. I work in the women´s section, playing with whomever is willing and able to interact with me.

The nursing home is clean and bright and not depressing. The place doesn´t smell. And the women sit outside in a courtyard surrounded by flowers and plants. There is a cage with three peacocks, and there is a small tucan who visits with the women from time to time.

The home is divided into male and female sections. I work in the women´s section. These ladies are native Quechua, and dress in the traditional dress. They are really quite striking, even in this environment. Most are about half my height. They are so tiny. While the cognizant ones understand Spanish, most tend to speak in Quechua. That makes attending to their needs difficult as I don´t understand Quechua. Yesterday I played catch with some of the women. Some of these ladies have quite an arm. We also played with Leggos, and I massaged lotion on their arms and legs.

Today the ladies preferred to sit in the sun and sleep. Guess I wore them out yesterday. So today I helped the girls who clean the diningroom to clean the diningroom, to serve food, and to hang up laundry. It made the day pass quickly, but I was exhausted when I left.

The girls who work in the diningroom are cute. There are very giggley. One is 18 and one is 14 years old. The 14 year old lives at the nursing home and travels home to visit her family once a year. She tried to teach me some Quechua, and I taught her some Chinese and Japanese.

After lunch I started private Spanish lessons with Gustavo. Gustavo is the handsome young Spanish teacher who teaches at the residence. All the women have a crush on him. By chance he also teaches my private lessons. The others are jealous. I will take four hours of class each week. Classes are inexpensive at $5 per hour.

Then I had to go to dance practice. This weekend is the start of carnival. The volunteers will dress up and perform a traditional dance on Monday. Today we had to practice. Luckily the dance is not difficult. they also want us to sing a quechua song, but that´s not going to happen. Quechua words are very long, and so trying to memorize a song is impossible. It´s enough that we have to dress up as Quechua women.

Yesterday we visited the site where the Peruvians defeated the Spanish and won independence. The site is located in the mountains. The ride was spectacular. This part of the Andes is even more dramatic than the part outside of Quito. And there are alot of cactus growing everywhere. They grow on rocks and on the walls of houses (used instead of glass shards to keep theives out of the yard). On the way home we stopped at village that makes ceramic sculptures. And we also visited the ruins of the Wari culture. The wari preceded the Incas. For me the scenery on the way to the sites is more interesting than the actual destination.

Tomorrow I will go on a two-day llama trek. We will hike at 14K feet ASL. Vamos a ver....

cheers,
Stacey

Where there´s smoke there´s food

¡Hola!

Today was my first day at the soup kitchen.

The soup kitchen is a cooperative effort of several women that provides a low cost lunch (30-45 cents) to about 60 people every day. Everyday a different member of the cooperative prepares the food. The facilitates are very basic. There is no electricity or gas. They use wood to fuel the stove. The single room where they cook the food is so full of wood smoke that I can´t stay inside more than a minute.

Today I peeled over 200 medium sized new potatos with a large dull knife. Then I cut them into tiny pieces. I also cut onions and tomatoes into small slices. It took me three hours to complete the work. Fortunately I enjoy cutting and chopping vegetables. Since this will probably be my job for the next four weeks, I went to the store and bought some sharper knives and a peeler.

One of the two ladies that prepared the food brought her two year-old daughter to the soup kitchen. She was a doll. It rained all morning, and as a result the dirt floor of the courtyard was muddy. The little girl played in the mud with a bottle cap and a plastic bag. She would occaisionally¨"wash" her hands in a mud puddle. She seemed to enjoy herself. Two year olds are easily amused.

When I came back to the residence, I smelled of smoke.

Well, that´s it for the moment.
cheers,
Stacey

Safe and (still) Dry in Huamanga

¡Hola from Huamanga!

Huamanga is the colonial name of the city of Ayacucho. The Peruvians use the old name of Ayacucho (Huamanga) to distinguish the town of Ayacucho from the province of Ayacucho. Huamanga is located south and east of Lima, in the Andes Mountains. The town is poor, and is not as attractive as any of the places I have visited thus far. Even San Jose, Costa Rica looks beautiful compared to this place. But it is calm here.
There are many native indians here. They speak Quechua, a version different from that which is spoken in and around Quito, Ecuador. They dress similarly to the indigenous people that live in and around Quito. The poverty rate here is 70%. The literacy rate is 50%.

The government spends little money to support the province of Ayacucho. Most of the money used to support the people in the province of Ayacucho comes from the cultivation of coca plants. The type of coca plant that is grown in Ayacucho provides a larger yield of a more potent chemical that is desired for cocaine. About 99% of the coca grown here is used by drug dealers. Drug dealers pay farmers alot more money for coca leaves than they would receive growing other crops. And there is a supporting industry in the growth, processing and transport of the leaves and paste that provides a source of income for many, many people in the region. Jobs are scarce here, so coca agriculture supports many people.

The remaining 1% of the harvest is used by the people for private consumption. People make tea from the leaves (it alieves altitude sickness), and chew it to for energy and to alieve hunger. Coca leaves are not addictive.

I arrived in Huamanga early Sunday morning. I arrived in Lima from Quito at 10:30 PM and had to wait in the airport overnight until 4 AM to check in for my flight to Ayacucho (Huamanga). That I was able to stay awake through the wee hours of the night is amazing to me. As many of you know, I´m not a late night person. There were ten volunteers who joined me in the cafeteria awaiting the same flight. We had time to talk and start to get to know each other.

The managing director of the Ayacucho Program came to Lima to flew with us to Huamanga. He was there to attend to any glitches there might be. And there was a glitch: Since were were a group traveling together, they made us pile all of our luggage on the scale at once. The combined weight was more than the weight allowed for the tickets we purchased, so we had to pay more money (over $80). But it was impossible to determine whose luggage was overweight. Rudy was able to convince the airline to charge us less money for the overage. Thank you Rudy.

There are 14 volunteers who started with me in Huamanga. Three others from a previous group are still at the residence finishing their time here in Huamanga as volunteers. Most are from the USA, but two are from Canada, one is from Ireland, , one is from Scotland, and is from England. Two are men, the rest are women. And the ages range from highschool on up. We all live in a residence house. There are two to a bedroom, but each room has two sets of bunkbeds (and a private bathroom). Four people to a room would be awful! My roommate, Rosemary, is from San Francisco. She´s older. A former stock trader. A very smart woman. So far we are getting along fine.

Today we took a tour of some of the places where we will do our volunteer assignments: a soup kitchen, a boy´s orphanage, a prison, a school, a health center/ clinic. I´ll be working in the soup kitchen. The soup kitchen is a cooperative started by several local women to provide inexpensive meals to women and children. The kitchen itself is small and smokey. Very low tech. They use wood to heat the stove. I start tomorrow.

Yesterday a group of us took a walk around the town. As we walked, we had to dodge boys throwing water and water baloons. This is week preceding Carnival, and the boys have a habit of throwing water at women and each other for Carnival. This peril lasts for about ten days. they appear from out of no where. They are on the tops of rooves. The roam in packs. They carry balloons and buckets full of water, and super soaker waterguns. Yesterday I avoided getting hit. Only my feet got wet. Other volunteers weren´t so lucky. But I expect my time will come soon. It´s only a matter of time.

Time to get ready for this afternoon´s activities.

cheers,
Stacey

Galapa-glorious

¡Hola!

Last night I returned from 8 days in the Galapagos Islands. What a marvelous place!

The plane lands in Baltra, a small island off Santa Cruz. A bus takes you from the airport to the boat dock, where you then take a short boat ride to northern part of Santa Cruz. Another bus takes you to Puerto Ayora on the southern part of the island.

Baltra is arid, with low, scraggly, silvery ground and a special type of small green tree. A special desert. The soil is rocky, deep red and black. This is all you see until you approach the port. And what a gorgeous sight! The water is several hues of turquoise blue. It looks surreal. As the bus approached the dock, I saw a pelican land and scoop up a fish. Immediately two other birds landed on the head and the back of the pelican! Even with the boat traffic, the water is clear. You can see fish swimming around dock.

The landscape from the northern part to the southern part of the island is similar to that of Baltra, however, there are mountains in the distance off to one side.

After a 20 minute ride, I arrived in Puerto Ayora, which the town where most people live, and is the center of tourism for Santa Cruz. For a tourist town, it is very clean, and extremely safe. And also very expensive, for both locals and tourists. Quito is inexpensive. The Galapagos Islands are not.

There are two types of touring you can do in the Galapagos: Ship/yacht-based, and land based. A ship-based tour is more expensive, ranging from $4000 for 8 nights on a luxury liner, to $1000 for 8 nights on a small boat. You sleep on a ship and visit the islands from the ship. You also get to visit more islands than if you do it the land based way. The land-based tour means that you return to a hotel at the end of the day to sleep. Land-based tours are less expensive. My host organization in Quito arranged a 5 day land-based tour for me based in Santa Cruz, and then arranged a three day homestay on the island of Isabela.

While in Santa Cruz, I visited the Charles Darwin Research Center which is devoted to preserving the iguanas and giant tortoises of the galapagos. That the government takes great steps to preserve the wildlife of the Galapagos is magnificent. The tortoises would be extinct if the government took no such steps. Tortoises in the wild have a 1% chance of survival due to predators introduced over the years. Wild dogs, pigs, goats, as well as rats and ants all destroy the tortoises in the wild. The center has a tortoise nursey where they collect tortoise eggs in the wild, and in the nursey, hatch and raise the tortoises until they are 3 or 5 years old, then place them in the wild. A five year old tortoise is about 8 inches in diameter. The really big tortoises weigh over 600lbs (300kg) and live to be over 150 lbs.

I don´t know what the danger to the lizards are. There seem to be alot of them in the wild, especially the marine lizards. There are two types of lizards: Marine Lizards and Land Lizards. Marine lizards are black, with bodies of about 12 to 14 inches long, and tails equally as long. They live near the sea, and you can see them sunning themselves on the rocks. Their long tails help them swim very long distances. One sailed out to our boat in the middle of the sea from who know where. Guess he was curious. He stopped a while to allow us to take photos.

Land lizards are dark yellow. I didn´t see any of these outside of the Charles Darwin Research Center.

One morning we took a walk through a forest where tortoise live. One tortoise met us in the road. She was big one, about 85 years old. She watched us for a while. However, as we passed, she became scared and retreated in her shell. We saw several tortoises bathing in a pond of bright green tortoise vomit (tortoises tend to spit up their food while in the water). And we saw two tortoises mating. The male tortoise climbs on top of the female, and will stay there for 4 to 8 hours. He makes a loud groaning sound as he mates. The females don´t like being mounted (Gee, I wonder why), and try to escape when a male approaches.

The guide said that every now and then a big tortoise will walk on to the road, then get scared by the cars and won´t move. It takes 8 strong men to lift the tortoise off the road and back into the woods.

We did a lot of snorkeling. Snorkeling in the Galapagos is easier as the waters are relatively calm. You didn´t need flipper to swim and stay afloat. One day we snorkeled off the beach. The fish were gorgeous, lots of different colors and sizes. Another day we swam with sea lions. A snorkel allowed you to see the sea lions swimming and playing around you. And we snorkeled over white-tipped sharks. The sharks ignored us -- thank goodness -- as we swam over them. The guide swore they were vegetarians.

And the beaches are magnificent. White, soft sand, warm blue clean water. We visited three beaches in Santa Cruz -- the one where we snorkeled, and then another, more secluded beached that required a 45 minute walk in the hot sun to get there. The walking keeps the number of visitors down. But boy is it worth the walk! The third beach is easier to access and so has more locals swimming in it. The water is as warm as bath water, and is very calm.

We also visited a natural pond that is located in what looks like a quarry. It is surround by rocks, and is 14 meters deep in the center. After the walk of death over slippery jagged rocks in the blazing sun to get there, the cool water is refreshing.

To get to Isla Isabela, you have to take a speed boat. The ride is 2.5 hours (8 hours in a regular boat). The ride is choppy. One thing I know for sure is that I don´t get sea sick. There were 18 people packed in the boat, with no room to move. And no place to rest my back as I sat near the back next to the motors. But the ride is peaceful. The sound of the motors and the rhythm of the boat was hypnotic.

Isabela is the largest of the islands, but it the newest island, and has only 2000 inhabitants. It´s also much hotter than Sant Cruz. Santa Cruz was hot, but Isabela awfully hot. It´s the hottest place I´ve ever visited. Even at night it´s hot. And the proximity of the equator makes it feel even hotter. The humidity wasn´t bad. The sun was strong. Even I got burned on my shoulders and back while wearing number 30 sunscreen.

On Isabela, I stayed at the house of a woman who usually houses volunteers who come to work at the tortoise nursery on Isabela. Gladys is her name. Gladys and her husband have three bedrooms that they rent to people associated with the organization I am working with. I got to know Gladys, her aunt and uncle, and her adorable, precocious 2 year old neice.

Her uncle owns horses, and is a tour guide. He was my tour guide while I was there. His specialty is a tour of the Sierra Negra Volcano on horseback. The day I went, I was accompanied by a swedish honeymoon couple. The horses are small and scrawny, and we were three big people. Part of the road up the mountain was muddy and slippery, and so the horses had a hard time walking. They almost fell several times. On the way down, we dismounted and walked for a while until we passed the dangerous part. As we rode, I thought of the spanards who traveled the Central and South America on horseback. And they work heavy, hot clothing. My padillas hurt after only 3 hours of riding. I can imagine riding for days. But maybe your padillas get used to the saddle after a couple of days. Actually, my padillas are still sore, two days later!

Horses aside, the scenery up the mountain was beautiful. And the volcanic crater was amazing. It is about 6 miles in diameter and is the second largest volcanic crater in the world. And it was filled with lava. The lava looked like black and gray mud. And we also had a view of Isabela from where we were. It was green and looked similar to Central New York farmland. It was also much cooler up in the mountains.

In addition to the volcano, I visited the Wall of Tears. It was used to torture prisoners from 1945 to 1959, although I´m not exactly how. It´s a high wall of lava rocks located far off the road in the middle of no where. Isabela also has a tortoise nursery which seems more organized than the one on Santa Cruz. I also did some snorkeling in a laguna, and spent the afternoon at the beach relaxing.

All in all I had a wonderful time in the Galapagos. I´d love to visit again.

Cheers,
Stacey

Catching Up

¡Hola!

Since I have some time to kill until my boat for Isla Isabela departs, I thought I would catch you up.

My last week in Quito went well, but was a little sad, too. But endings, or transitions, are always melancholy for me. Despite all the years of moving and traveling, leaving and saying good-bye always make me a little blue. I even cried when I traded my old car for the new one!

The last week at school went amazingly well. Fortunately, due to student government elections, I didn´t have to teach as many classes. Several hours of class were used to allow the candidates to talk to the students. Fortunately/Unfortunately, I had to listen to the campaign speeches. These student government campaign speeches were no different than those made so many decades ago when I was in high school. Although I did learn something new: kids in Ecuador don´t have health insurance! One of the campaign promises was to find a way to make available low-cost health insurance to kids who wanted it. Actually, very few people have health insurance here. Natural medicine is big here, probably for that reason.

In the classes I did manage to teach, the kids behaved a little better. Who knows why. They certainly didn´t know it was my last week until I told them at the end of each class. One thing I finally realized was that the screwiness of the children and the school had nothing to do with me. The school imposed situations on other teachers as well. One subsitute teacher was asked to fill in for a month for another teacher, but the school wouldn´t give him the teachers´ manuals or lesson plans for the classes he was taking over! (probably because they didn´t have any of these things) So the guy had to come in cold to take over the classes. Imagine having to assert classroom control over 36 kids without having a clue what they kids are doing! That´s what happened to me, however, I had the "foreigness" factor on MY side. Granted it lasted only about 15 minutes in some classes. So, in retrospect, my teach-22-classes-a-week situation was nothing unusual.

As for the kids issues, they don´t listen to anyone. They talk in class. They walk aroung the classroom. They do homework of other classes while the teacher is teaching (until I started collecting notebooks). They just wouldn´t shut up during the student government campaign speeches. The ONLY thing they feared was the Principal, Mrs Valaresa. In one class exercise where we practiced the phrase "One thing I fear is....", her name came up several times. I wonder what her secret is.... (On the flight to the Galapagos, there was a group of kids who would not stay seated during flight landing. The flight attendent was very angry, imploring many, many times "¡¡¡¡¡¡children, shut up and stay in your seats!!!!!!!!") But despite the fact that they don´t listen, they are actually good kids. For the most part, they want to do the right thing, however, their mouths and hormones get the way.

So my last day was a day of gifts: chocolates, jewelry (string bracelets that the kids here wear), farewell cards and notes, and even a seranade from the director of the school. Before leaving the school, the director and I discussed my impressions of the school, the students, Ecuador. Several weeks earlier, the director told me that he had visited Japan many years ago, and practiceds the few Japanese phrases he could recall. So at the end of our farewell discussion, he got his guitar, tuned it, and started playing a Japanese song of farewell that he had learned while there! Then he sang it again in Spanish. Then he concluded with a third song! He was very good. What a wonderful farewell present!

Before I left, I finally made it to the Museo de Guayasamin. Guayasamin is famous Ecuadorian painter (and sculptor) who paints beautifully expressive portraits of people. His subjects tend express either intense agony or feelings of love and caring. There is something about the way he painted the eyes. One look in the eyes of his portraits and you know EXACTLY the emotion he tried to convey. One painting even made my cry, and I wasn´t feeling sad at the time. He is now one of my favorite painters. The grounds of the museum itself are beautiful, and the museum is on a hill that overlooks Quito. I think it may have been his house before he died.

All in all, it was a very good last week in Quito. On February 9, I will spend one night in Quito so that I can catch my flight to Lima, Peru, the next day.

I´ll miss it here.
cheers,
Stacey