The expression a picture is worth a thousand words is the impetus for this latest entry! Enjoy! [View Full Entry]

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There is another story I chose not to write. It is a tale of the battle for world domination between two of the most powerful organisms to ever grace this planet: the ant and the sandfly. Or is it the bacteria and the virus? Regardless, perhaps it is a story that will be written sometime soon. But not today. It is much too frightening, and considering the time of year, our cup of frightening images is already nearly full. No, today I must reserve words for an organism with which I am much more familiar-- myself. And for a place in [View Full Entry]

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Walking down the Prado (the main road) in the heart of La Paz I can´t help thinking of Detroit. My memory isn´t envoked for the similarities, but for the stark differences. And for that matter I might as well picture Any City, USA. There is a life here that permeates every corner. Every park bench. The life is outside. Walking down the street. Selling vegetables while huddling over a bowl of soup and a plate of rice. It´s eating ice cream at 10 in the morning, and walking hand in hand with a relative or a friend. It fills the futbol [View Full Entry]

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Jump in a car, catch a bus, pedal the wheels, or lace up the shoes and follow the road. Stop to eat. Use the bathroom. And keep going. Follow it all the way to the next metropolis. Use the phone. Have a drink. Put on your seatbelt and turn up the volume. Make sure the camera is charged. Open up the guidebook and read about places others have been. Adjust the temperature. Keep going. It´s what we do. Yet somehow, from time to time, we are pulled off the road. Into the ocean. The desert. A foreign country. Atop a mountain. [View Full Entry]

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At the bottom of the world´s second deepest canyon (the first being the neighboring Cotahuasi Canyon) breakfast is nothing more than stale bread and Nescafe. The fact that I´m being served breakfast at all is a bit of an improbability. A few hearty families, spending the better part of a decade, chased the tourist dollar nearly a mile below the canyon´s rim and the agricultural outpost of Cabañaconde. Beyond the stale bread and instant coffee is a range of bamboo shelters, somewhat natural swimming pools, and warm beer. The hike down was nothing short of ridiculous-- one steep switchback a [View Full Entry]

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I'm staring at the cross bearing pinnacle of the white-washed Christian monastary (the name escapes me-- San something). There are many here in Arequipa, the grandest of which presides over the Plaza de Armas in the central square. They are impressive and along with the narrow cobblestone streets create a very European aesthetic. Buildings are all made of stone, and once entered, generally reveal immense courtyards and terraced levels. To my left, from our rooftop hangout is one of the three neighboring volcanoes. Again the name escapes me but it is either Mt. Mishu or Pichu Pichu. Ei [View Full Entry]

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