Downes Family

Dear All: Before our final entry about the trek, we must tell one funny story: On Friday, December 30th, we hired a taxi driver from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm to take us to various ruins around Cuzco. It was immediately apparent that he did not speak one word of English and, initially, we were disappointed. However, about 30 minutes into the ride, Lauren and Kate decided it was a great thing, because it made us use every Spanish word we could. The challenge turned out to be fun and effective! Toward the end of the day, as we were re-entering Cuzco, countless dogs would race into the road. Kate pieced together a sentence in Spanish that said, “In the United States, it is a law that dogs have…” We could not think of the word ... read more

Dear Family and Friends, We apologize for not sending photos, but are having tech difficulties on public computers. We will try to go to an Internet cafe tomorrow to upload pictures, which have not been uploading properly. Before we tell you about the Grinch, we forgot to mention the tremors that woke us in the night during our stay in Lima. Just after midnight we were awakened with the whole bed and building shaking for about 10 seconds. It brought back memories of earthquakes we have experienced in Alaska and elsewhere. The town of Paracas, where we spent two nights right on the Pacific coast, was amazing (our hotel was so close to the beach that our GPS thought were were IN the ocean and wanted us to take a U-turn!). The entire coastline from Lima ... read more

Preparing to depart on our S. American adventure in Peru. Map and Itinerary attached.... read more

SUBTITLE: Australia: Home of the 1/2-Hour Time Change! Dear Family and Friends, It is hard to believe that our summer adventure is nearly over. As we write this blog on our travels downunder and outback, we are already in Hawaii with just a one day left before our return home. Very sad. We spent 2 weeks in Australia, flying from Bangkok to Sydney. The kids were torn between 1) excitement that everyone would speak English (first time since England, back in early June) and they could safely drink the water and 2) sadness that this was our last country. Just for fun, we stayed 2 nights in Sydney, in the Rocks district, just 3 blocks from the main harbor where the opera house is. We loved the brick buildings and walkways in this historical section. Although ... read more

Dear Family and Friends: OOPS! HOW WONDERFUL THE KILI KIDS ARE Poor Kate woke in the middle of the night after writing the last entry and realized that she had neglected to include at least a sentence or two about the children at the orphanage....you have to understand that the entries are always written piece-meal, sometimes over a week's time, often with someone waiting to use the computer, and, on some occasions, large amounts of text are lost and, when re-typed, end up shorter (as frustration increases, text decreases!)....so...we just want everyone to know that the REASON we left part of our hearts (I know, Mom, it's a dreadfully inaccurate sentence, but it beats "parts of our respective hearts!") is that the children are beautiful and wonderful and warm and good and eager. You want to ... read more