Today we visited the Magdalena Market in Peru. This a typical Peruvian outdoor market where the locals go to get all of their goods. There are supermarkets in the wealthy areas but they are very expensive. In these markets it is important to know your source. You can see from all the meat and fish hanging and lying around in the open that this could present...

c Last night we went to the Peruvian Dinner Theater. These are a few photos from the tradional dances of Peru. The one with the large head is like the lucky Buddha of Peru. The show had dances from many of the areas and cultures of Peru – Lima, Cusco (Inca), Puno, Ica and other coastal regions. The costumes were very colorful. My favorite dance was the...

  Today our program director Edith took us with the social worker and a child from PPA (Juan) to look for his home for a surprise visit it was an unbelievable day. To get there we took a taxi from the children’s home. The air quality in Lima is very bad. They do not have emissions control. They dump there trash all over the place in the shanty towns that...

Yesterday was September 11. For the first time it didn’t seem like there was much made about the day. It has been seven years. To me it seems like it was last year or at least no more than a couple of years. That day stands out in my mind as one of the most memorable in my lifetime. And the days following when three of us, my boss and another friend/employee,...

I just went to the specialty meat market to get some steaks. I always ask them to cut my filets because I like the smaller than they come pre-cut. Its way to much meat for a person to eat an 8 oz filet. So I asked the guy for 2 – 6 oz and 3-4 oz. filets. So as far as my math goes that’s 24 oz. which makes 1.5 pounds. He hands me the package and I go up to...

It is so much easier to write little snippets here than it is to work on my book. I find every distraction in the world to stop me from making progress. Actually, that’s the problem with the world today. There are SO many distractions – constant media bombardment, options for entertainment, cell phones, handheld email devices. We are always ON and...

Fall is here. Or at least for tonight. There is a crisp breeze blowing through my window. The temperature is going to drop down in to the 40’s tonight. Sounds like fall to me. Of course my tomatoes are just starting to ripen so I hope that the colder air with hold off for another 15 or 20 days. I love the fall. I am going to miss quite a bit of it this year. I...

I have always been a “foodie”. My mother was a great cook. When I was growing up we always had a big garden. You may recall one of my blog postings last year about a tomato. Well, this is the first year in Colorado that I actually have some really large beefsteak tomatoes growing. I can’t wait until they ripen and I can gorge myself. But there are...

Great nights sleep and feeling rested now. It was a good idea to come in a day ahead of everyone else and make sure we got over the jet lag. Doug has caught a cold from someone on the airplane and I am worried about him, for his own sake and for the possibility of transmitting it to the other climbers. I have started taking loads of Emergency and my Coptis Chinesis...

Yesterday was fairly warm and sunny. Today I woke up to about 8 inches of snow. In a way the reluctance of spring to arrive reminds me of my current state of transition. Transitions are not easy. For a time you exist in a state of void – who are you, who are you going to be? You aren’t what you used to be and yet you aren’t something new yet. It...