there's no place like home...there's no place like home

I might as well make the last post from the conclusion of the trip reminiscent of more music lyrics...the whole adventure had such an Ozian and Wonderlanian feel to it that its just fitting. Woke up in my bed for the first time in 2 1 days so that feels great. my girl's and boy are gathered round after an appropriate lenght of rejection time and little nipping which is incredibly predictable. I hope all will excuse if I don't call right away but am getting caught up in the "here" reality so I can escape back into my Peru reality through my goodies and photos and movies...hasta luego

date night in cusco

ok before you all get any bad thoughts you should know that my date was 9 year old edwin and his 8 year old cousin alex. the story is one of street vendors who work after school selling finger puppets. they live an hour outside of cusco and must wait each night for their sister to come get them at midnight. so they work but clearly dont eat or bath much. the street vendors and shoe shine boys have tremendous memory and they remembered that Tresa had promised them a hot chocolate so off we went. as their story unfolded we realized that their mother worked farming potatoes in chinchero, a town miles away and their sister was a server in a restaurant around here. they sometimes got leftovers from her but had never eaten in a restaurant. so we all went to one of our favorite hangouts for pizza. tresa has such a way with children. we turned it into a sink bath in the banos, table manner lessons and just general fun. of course they sold me some finger puppets as well. they have a way with sales...
inti rymi was not necessarily what i had expected as it is essentially a tourist reenactment that began again in 1944 but it has served to reignite indigenous pride. the indigenous flag is the rainbow flag that has been adopted by our country as the gay pride flag. it was amazing to see hundreds of them all over the place. the reenactment at sauchyhyman was a combination of catholic mass components such as ancient readings, offerings , confession of sins and absolution at the end. just picture this all done in indigenous costumes from peru and bolivia. the best were the costumes from the jungle. they were made entirely of spanish moss... the site that wayne and i had seen earlier in the trip was completely transformed by the reenactors and the crowds of over 200,000 people. that was sight in itself.
since then i have been making up for lost shopping time. i love the indigenous markets the best where you get to haggle and actually buy from the people who made the goods. it makes the experience much more human. it is hard to believe that we will be leaving cusco tomorrow morning for lima. instead of staying in lima for the last 2 days we are hopping a bus down the coast to a town called pisco. it is just a hop, skip and a jump to the ballestros islands by boat. we will end our trip with a boat tour of the islands which promises glimpes of sea lions, dolphins and all types of bird life. how fast and slow time goes depending on what the perception is...

its a jungle out there...

i have just emerged from 5 days in the jungle. no communications. nada. time told only by the position of the sun. the land that time forgot. literally. amazing varieties of fruit and birds and animals and insects. oh my where to begin. i feel this blog will bounce around alot because so does my head and heart. i just recieved an email that my beloved timmie cat died while i was away. she was almost 16 years and had been with me for 12 years. pray for wayne who i know is sad too. my other animals are also grieving as wayne has told me. i am grateful for the kindness that my dear friends michelle and cherie took with her earthly remains. that had to have been difficult for them as well. thank you my friends. i also thank god that i was not the one to find her. these things do not happen by coincidence.
i am stunned at the beauty of this planet and am more aware now than ever that it truly provides all that we need. again, our arrogance that we could do a better job of providing for ourselves than what our creator has already provided. i implore everyone to see AN INCONVIENT TRUTH even though i have notyet but intend to because my understanding is that is addresses what i have personally witnessed. pharmacuetical companies are the height of arrogance. when our creator gave us plants for all our ailments and they need to warp our perspective that if it isnt in pill form it isnt good. lets face it. its all about the money. where did the u.s. go so very wrong. isnt anyone willing to stand up for what is right. our own declaration of independemce states that if a govt. ceases to act to the benefit of its governed then it needs to be disposed of.
hmmmmm.... i project these thoughts in cyberspace because i can but perhaps not for that long.}
google just accepted a deal in china that they, google, would allow censorship on their search engine just so they could do business with them. the almighty dollar. remember everyone, that qwest communications refused to comply with the nsa request to monitor residents phone calls so somebody has the balls to stand up to the govt. bravo qwest communications. i am reminded of the writing by maritn neimoller, a nazi victim who stated, and i paraphrase,
when they came for the catholics i did not speak up because i was not catholic. when they came for the jews i did not speak because i was not a jew. when they came for the trade unionists i did not speak up because i was not a trade unionists and by the time they came for me there was no one left to speak up. there is more but i am just winging it. so when people state that they dont
want to fight the status quo then are they living up to the creators intention. it literally is a jungle out there but one worth fighting for. my grief is pouring out in this blog and my grief is usually through anger .
tomorrow marks the largest indigenous festival in all of south america. inti rymi. inti is sun in the quechua language and rymi means festival. the indigenous from all around peru are pouring into cusco as i write this. the colors, music, smells, humanity, gloriousness of this planet and its unfolding right before my eyes. each time i journey outside the comfort zone i am changed forever and this is no exception. i hope my photos and movies do this justice because my brain is just not adequate enough to express what has happened and what will happen. there is a shaman coming monday at 2 for a personal experience of which i could only speculate. have i written all for now. i believe so.

one more thing...world cup soccer

there are no words to describe futbol down here. its mesmerizing to get caught up in both sport and politics together. maybe this sport could be used to settle our political problems. these athletes put all others to shame bit time. the next time i hear a u.s. athtete complain about anything i think i will throw up. these players are incredible in their abilities. i am not rooting for the u.s because they are the only country not to travel in a bus with the colors flying proudly because of our fear of terrorism.. how egotistical to think that way. dont worry i wont go off on a political rant here but our view of ourselves and how others view us is vastly different. hopefully i will remember to bring home some of the english language newspapers from here so perhaps those who are interested will get another view of our country other than the drivel that passes for news these days..

blenderized frogs and no car keys

both happened today. wayne left for the u.s. and when i returned to my hotel i found our car key...so calls were made and emails flew to make arrangments for pickup at the buffalo airport. also i have his cell phone so he wont have his number working till june 29th. just in case anyone tries to call him you can try but i doubt i will answer...tomorrow its off to the jungle, baby. oh yeah about the blenderized frogs...we took a little day trip and landed in a small town, name i cant recall only to walk into an indigenous market. one of the first things i saw was a shaman peddling this frog shake concoction for health reasons. but it gets more interesting...there was a tank of frogs next to him and he reached in pulled out a live one, skinned it and dropped it in a blender. i kid you not. then he added more crap and people actually drank it. i have pictures but these are ones you might want to skip...like a bad accident, you dont want to look but you cant take you eyes off it. anyway, tomorrow we leave for the jungle and the manu biosphere. we will be there mon thru friday back in time for inti rymi which is the huge winter solstice festival. they expect 200,000 people in the city of cusco alone. i really cant do this trip justice by describing it in these pages. more to come...

poki and the police

not as bad as the title sounds. actually after spending an afternoon with special needs children, poki decided to hit the streets of cuzco and found out early that clowns have no place in the plaza de armas. however, the police were quite amused by the whole and were laughing as they asked us to cross the street. after that of course, it was a mob scene with poki and the crowds of people of all ages. today we spent cruising around the city and went to visit 2 beautiful churches. you know what jon stewart says latin america, 500,000,000 people with 700,000,000 churches. anyway, humor is difficult without the correct punctuation. tomorrow is an indigenous market and monday we leave for the jungle. hasta luego.

sorche, macchu picchu y huana picchu

New words f0r new experiences! Soroche is the Quechua word for altitude sickness an experience poor Wayne has gone through. We all have had mild altitude adjustments to the 11,000 ft that is Cusco. we spent a day and a half in lima with a speed tour some museums but just as well because lima defines the icky part of south american sprawl. no me gusta lima. however, once we established ourselves in cusco we felt immediately at home. cusco is the oldest most continuously inhabited city in the americas that includes anything we might have to offer. i haven´t been able to blog simply because of the activity level of the last few days. we made it to macchu picchu wed. the first vistas of this glorious place and you feel and know you are in the presence of the creator of your understanding. it also debunks any theory that people from outer space built. in fact that idea is an insult to the amazing people who created this citadel. many theories as to what m.p. was but it is inspiring. you could close your eyes and shoot a photo and can´´t go wrong . punctuation and capitalization are out the window here as the keyboard is confusing for me. so... then we awoke at the crack of dawn to return to the summit of m.p. to watch the sunrise. my lord... then we began the climb for huana picchu which is the taller summit overlooking m.p. thought to be a citadel of protection for that city that indigenous built long before the incas. and were long gone before the incas took over then they moved on and thankfully the spaniards never found this treasure that should surely be considered one of the seven wonders of the world. back to climbing huana picchu. it ranks as one of the truely crazy things we have done but oh so magnificant. once you see the pictures you can understand both. today is friday i think, remember i didn´t even bring a watch with me so poki will make his appearance today at an orphanage here in cusco. any donations given to me will go there. i am amazed that peru is clean and punctual something that other places i have visited have lacked. there is an indigenous festival going on right outside as write this. i have also found an internet cafe that works well so perhaps more frequent blogs will come and i have also downloaded my first set of photos so off we go for more.
hasta luego,

next stop...lima

off we go...lima, beach town, centro historico, just a warm up for the real adventure. All the folks we love will be there in our hearts. hasta luego y dios le bendiga.

I need to stay here I want to go I need to stay here

I want to go...The battle rages within to stay focused on the here and now knowing that a big adventure is beginning. Should I respond to things that are occupying my thoughts or tell myself that it really doesn't matter and that it will all be here when I get back. I find myself forming an editoral opinion about the whole marriage amendment issue. Another red herring. To quote the Us News and world report Iraq "has decended into the lower level of hell' and what else should you do as the leader of the free world but distract attention at home with something new or old. So marriage should be between a man and a woman only.? Any constitution is a document between the governing and the governed. The only duty a constitution has is to improve the life of the governed. Our federal constitution restricted alcohol at one time and that eventually was repealed. Do we need another amendment to restrict marriage? We would then need to also examine polygamy. No longer can it hide behind the shield of the constitution itself. I believe it will stir up alot of distraction and little more. Early opinion is that it won't leave the senate floor. It will be necessary to look to the state constitutions in this case. Here in Pennsylvania 2 of the supporters of this "amendment" were swept out in the primaries. So, PA residents, look closely at what this would mean to change the constitution to "exclude" a group of people. Allow consenting adults to form first and formost a spiritual union followed by legal protection under the law.
Also, voting Rick Santorum out of office is a must.
In Peru there were recent elections . Thank God the election is over. Latin American elections are like their stereo types in which people drive around at all hours of the day and night politicking with loud speakers and horns.

Our tentative itinery is to arrive Lima the 9th, hang out in Lima the 10th (the Spanish Inquisition museum anyone!!??) leave for Cuzco the 11th and this will be my home for the next 3 weeks. Cuzco is the oldest, continually occupied city in the America's (don't know how long) and its altitude hovers around 10,000-11,000 feet. From here we set out for Macchu Picchu. At least several days right there. Poki will come along and who knows where he will turn up.!
We turn our attention to the amazon and the Manu biosphere. In between there is always the good chance we wake up one morning and completely do something else or nothing at all. Catch ya on the flip side!

what am I thinking?...

My bags are packed and I'm ready to go...Everything truely can be reduced to song lyrics.
I'm in that pre phase of anxiety where I question every breath I take as far as why I need to leave my comfort zone and push myself to new levels. Why can't I be content to stay put? Rhetorical only. I do hope people can find this blog and share this adventure with them. It's partly why I do it. How frequently I can access this technology and from where will be one of the interesting journies. We seem to be ready to incorporate more video this trip as well. So, off we go, into the wild, blue yonder...