pictures and down to patagonia

hi all,

i have not been the one to write for a good while. i left the duty to my traveling partner and better author, jess. i am still wondering around south america as of right now. i have about three weeks left.

i am currently in ushuaia, argentina. this is the southern most city in the world. it is on an island called tierra del fuego, which means land of fire. when the white folks came here for the first time, they were in search of a trade route to get to the other side of north america..

what they found was a land that was cold and wet and mountainous..and randomly enough. there were fires all over the place. this was because the natives kept fires burning at all times.

since the europeans did not get off and look around, it was just a magical, mountainous area full of fires..

hence, land of fire. that is enough of that..

it has been cold and rainy, and punctured by moments of great weather and beautiful views of the beagle channel and the surrounding mountains that are both in argentina and chile. i head out tomorrow morning on a bus to chile.

going to a place called torres del paine national park. any of you who are mountain nuts like me, know this place well. if not. you have seen it on a calender in a n office someplace. it is wild ,wild mountains. i have been looking forward to seeing this place for as long as i can remember. pick up a backpacker magazine and i am sure that some company has used it as a n advertisement backdrop this month..

so that is my direction. i am officially headed north. for the first time in over two months i am headed north. admittedly i am headed way north. like 10,000 kilometers north. but i will be there in about three weeks. headed into the guts of patagonia first..

i have put some pictures up from the last month of travels. sorry it has taken this long to get some pictures up here. i will put a heading for each picture so you know what it is. but they are of the trip to argentina as of so far.

jess and i went to machu pichu and iguazu falls along with some beach and city time around buenos aries. it was a wonderful trip...but she has now headed back for christmas and that leaves me flying solo. i will be home soon.

so i hope every one is not too freezing cold. i have seen some rough temperatures on the forcast when i check on all of you. i wil l come and join in the fun of north american winter , very soon...

till then,
much love,
marc







camping in tierra del fuego national park. three isrealis, one hitch hiking frenchman and on e big amercian and a bottle of wine



the sign marking the end of the pan american highway. check out how far from alaska.a random game of soccer played in the parking lot at the end of the pan american highway. three isrealis, three argentinians and one big bald american.
an old ship in the harbor outside of ushuaia argentina
the boat we eventually went on that drives directly into the freakin falls.
getting drench at the devils throat in iguazu falls.
the boca junior fans doing what they do best.
jess and i watching part of the boca game from a ceiling support beam cause there was no where else to stand to watch.
out paradise digs on the rio parana. if only for one night...yeah.....


this is just one row of ladies selling fruit a market near cuzco.

the classic calender shot of machu pichu and the huana pichu which jess and i climbed




jess and i chillin at an over look of machu pichu while climbing huana pichu

part of machu pichu in the early morning. talk about a peaceful place two weary travelers on one of many bus trips. you are lucky we dont have our eye covers on.

jess at an inca ruin outside of cuzco. it is crazy how the blocks are huge and fit together perfectly

a 5000 ft scree ski down back down to base camp from the top of 19000 ft volcano el misti
looking into the crater of the volcano which is still very active
about two thirds of the way to the top of el misti
my guide, the three other climbers and i at base camp. 15,000 ft
myself at base camp on el misti

hello all!

greetings from argentina! we have been in this fine country for a week now. i am rounding the corner and headed for home, i will be back in the states in less than a week. this will be my last blog entry for the trip.

we flew from lima to buenos aires on december 2nd. buenos aires is a beautiful city, but quite a switch for our pocketbooks. (who says pocketbooks anymore?!) anyway, it´s back to reality, we´re no longer traveling cheaply. we are just about into the peak season for beachgoers, as it is spring in argentina, so this has made our travel plans difficult. it has been hard to find lodging at times.
we have had fun in the city, the first day we went to see the museum of eva peron, ¨evita¨and the cemetary she is buried in. we also took in a tango show one night, with a lesson before the show and you should see marc and i tango. i mean really.. and you should´ve seen how ready marc was to tango after the three bottles of wine with dinner...
we also saw an argentinian soccer (football) game. we watched the best team in the city, the ¨boca juniors¨ play. being in the stadium was like nothing we´d ever been a part of. we have pictures that simply won´t do it justice!

today we find ourselves in a pretty beach town called pinomar, about three hours down the coast from buenos aires. we have been here for a few days, and i will tell you that yesterday, our FIRST day on the beach, marc and i got sunburned. big, bad, red, hot sunburns.. so today we´re taking it easy roaming around the town. the town is only semi-ready for the tourist season to begin. there are still several shops that won´t even open until early january.

tomorrow we head back for our last night in buenos aires, and on friday we will fly up to iguazu falls. iguazu falls is one of the largest waterfalls in the world, situated right between argentina and brazil. i can´t wait to see it, the pictures i´ve seen so far are incredible! we will stay there for the weekend and i fly to lima on sunday and home on monday. marc will then fly to ushuaia, argentina, the southernmost city in the world..
we splinter in completely opposite directions again in search of adventure. mine will take the form of playing ¨little people¨with grace and aidan on their bedroom floor, (i wouldn´t have it any other way) marc´s will consist of seeing the southern tip of south america, some of the largest glaciers in the world, and much of the patagonian andes.

i will wrap this up. i hope you have enjoyed the adventures of jessi and marc, and i can´t wait to see you!
love to you all,
jess

Happy thanksgiving everyone!

i hope this finds you well and enjoying the holiday! eat some sweet potatoes for me!!!
mom, you will be happy this year that you don´t need to make vegetarian stuffing!

marc and i celebrate this fine north american holiday today in cusco. we will be visiting four different archeological sites (inca ruins) around the cusco area. This evening we will celebrate the holiday with friends we have met along the way. marc has two friends from his volunteer position currently in cusco, so we will meet up with them. my roomate stephanie from atlanta will join us and we will all find a spot to have "thanksgiving dinner.."

this trip has been many "firsts" for both of us, this included. a holiday in another country. today it is sunny and temps in the 60´s. not a trace of holiday decorations anywhere! i find it funny that i´ll be coming home to snow after spending this time in such a sunny, warm (sometimes hot) climate!

marc and i leave for the big daddy tomorrow-machu pichu! we are looking forward to seeing this once in a lifetime destination. the weekend is spent exploring that area and we return to cusco sunday night. on tuesday, we both depart peru for argentina. i will say goodbye to cusco with mixed feelings, it has been really difficult at times and really wonderful at times. needless to say we´re both really looking forward to a change.. we will spend two weeks in argentina and at that point i will return to the states. marc will then head to the southern tip of the continent and work his way up chile where in santiago, three weeks after me, he departs for home.

we will keep writing as there are more adventures ahead!
love and happy thanksgiving,
jess and marc

hello!

my turn to update, it´s been a while! greetings from cusco, peru, week 3.
marc should be joining me by the end of this weekend. i look forward to reuniting with my traveling partner!

i find myself approaching the end of my public health clinic days, which i´m ready for.. i have enjoyed the opportunity but am ready for a change. the one thing i see over and over again that i grow tired of are the YOUNG, very poor pregnant girls. abortion is illegal in this country, and there is no real sex education to speak of. new and expecting mothers occupy about 70% of the patients. i realize that in america we have the same problem, but there seems to be government assistance, what little amount it is. these girls get nothing. strangely most of them are so excited. sometimes mothers with their young pregnant daughters come in for the consult and they are both giddy. i do not understand this. i think this is my biggest frustration at the clinic.


the other faces at the clinic. some so foreign and some so familiar. a homeless nine year old. a pregnant fifteen year old. an old woman carried into the clinic in a blanket by her two sons because they could not afford a wheelchair. a man with a finger almost detached. a woman yelling at her child as he crouches in a corner. women coming into pediatrics with 21 day old babies, admiring them with awe and touching them like they will break. butts. butts. butts. old men who shuffle in with their old wives, to stand by them and hold their hand during the office visit. men and women whose sandals have become part of their bodies with age, dirt, and wear. kids with rotten teeth. kids discovering that old, discarded plastic water bottles are the best new find. children with baby teeth drinking coke. four year olds being breastfed by their mothers. the list goes on. my favorite are the elderly people who look at me through milky eyes and don´t judge me but greet me or thank me warmly. i also love how the staff refer to the elderly in the affectionate terms of "momie" and "papie." i wish we had terms like that. it´s like they´ve earned them with age. i love it.
the challenging things i´ve witnessed have also been matched with positive things. it is only based on my judgement, through my eyes, that any of these are negative or positive to begin with.

this weekend i will travel to lake titicaca with my roomates. we will visit a native family on one of the islands for a homestay. i´m looking forward to it! i have no idea what to expect.

in my peruvian family house this week a member of the family was lost. gloria and pepe, with their son diego, have been my "family." pepe lost his mother this week. she died of old age, she was 86. it was both sad and interesting to witness how another culture grieves of their loss. i found it interesting that what we refer to as the "wake," or "visitation," was held in the deceased´s home. all family gathered in that home to pray, laugh, cry, tell stories, and eat food. the funeral was then similar to what we do in america.
it´s been touching to see gloria and pepe´s friends come into their home to each take their turn "running" it. witnessing this reminded me of all of you and what we would do for one another. last night for example, one of gloria´s oldest friends from high school was in our "home" to prepare our dinner, serve us, and clean up after us while gloria had the chance to sit with her friend, giggle, wear lipstick, and reminisce. i loved it. today a completely different woman was in the house, cleaning. i loved it.

well, i wind this up to head home for dinner. i will write again soon, and will have marc with me in the same room! yea!!

love to you,
jess

a stolen story and the next attempt

hello all,

i believe what i am about to do is against the blog ethic, but i was told by the author that it was ok. i am very busy and getting ready for a very crazy endeavor. so a girl that went on our guided trip to colca canyon wrote a very well worded story about the colca canyon trip that i just went on. it is entirely more elaborate than i would have given you and i would not have time to write anything worth while right now...so, i will cut and past it. here name is ashleigh vogstad from vancouver british columbia. just so i gave my correct copy right credits.

other than that,...i cant beleive this one,..it might be very painful. but i am going to attempt to climb a 19,222 ft active volcano called el misti tomorrow and will potentially summit on friday at about noon eastern time. it is one day of hiking 4000 ft with a full pack. we start at about 11,000 ft and we climb to base camp at about 15,000 ft. then the next morning at midnight we wake and with head lamps start the last 4,000 ft with a day pack. everyone i know who has done it has vomited on the summit from altitude sickness. that is the worst of it though. for all the moms out there, it is very straight forward. nothing but a walk on loose gravel up a enormous hill. but a really enormous hill. so, i am at peace either way, summit or no. i just could not be in peru and in my hiking days of my life and not attempt it. just so everyone knows, there is nothing in the lower 48 that is over 14,500 ft. so, this is by far uncharted territory. so that is it, i am going to go pack and get a good night sleep.

here is the poached story about colca canyon...much love, marc




Hola mis amigos y mi familia!

Time for another update from your far flung (and hopefully much missed) traveller.

Colca Canyon. Dropping 11,000 feet it is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. We hiked down and back up the bottom 4,500 ft of the canyon from out start and end point. . Desolate yet cultivated, impervious yet permeable. One of the worlds deepest canyons cuts through the Arequipian desert on the Western most side of the Andes where it is home to a lively, colorful, and hardy Quecha culture.

Peering from our lookout into the depths of this laceration, the stratified browns and beiges turn lush with green where the life-giving Colca river is able to support myriad growth. Green bananas, hibiscus and prickly pears (the national flower of Peru) abound and aloe vera grows wild. A plethora of cacti flourish including the spiritually important San Pedro which local Shamans use to induce a healing, hallucinogenic state.

The local people continue the ancestral tradition of maintaining the pre-Inca step terraces along the less percipitous canyon walls making for a landscape that is at once unkempt and yet profoundly ordered. Local women return home in their hand-woven traditional dresses and matching bowler hats, sturdy sandals made from car tires strapped to their feet, a harness of coca leaves slung over their backs. After an early 4am start much work is still to be done from hand grinding semolina into flour to preparing traditional cuy dishes.

The villages that dot the Canyon walls are inaccessible accept by foot or donkey along a percipitous cliff-hugging trail. Formally horses were the dominant mode of transportation but their less robust stature caused them to jump into the canyon from fatigue on occasion. (Watch out!) As we pass through each village a Chrisitian cross stands grim against the stark landscape, reminant of the Spanish conquesition, protecting inhabitants from evil spirits passing by. Many crosses are adorned with red roses, each flower representing a married woman from the village, with occasional white ones encouraging suitors to come find their future wives.

It is a five hour walk to collect salt, six hours for some children to attend highschool and about four days to pack in something the size and weight of a refrigerator. Solar energy is predominant though electricity was brought through the mountains 9 months ago.

Over the course of three days a group of 11 of us treked this canyon and witnessed its beauty and vitality. The Andean condor, largest bird of flight in the world, soared overhead its black coat a shadow of warning to weary travellers against clear blue skies. Part of the vulture family the Andean condor is a formidable carrion eater, friend of the fox, enemy of the eagle.

Another member of the bird family (but at the other end of the size spectrum) was the "burro qentis" or Giant Hummingbirds which are only found 2000-3000 meters above sea level in the Andes and measure about 8 1/2 inches in length. We were lucky enough to spot several.

Alright loved ones, hope thats enough adventure for a little while. I am back to volunteering all this week and nursing a slight cold. Miss you all lots and Ill continue to do my best to keep you updated.

a toast to Ron Sieg.

today was quite wonderful.

i did not teach. i went to my spanish class first off. after doing half way well with getting the taxi driver there using my obviously steller spanish. i did try and get him to drive down a wrong way..but i regrouped and told him no problem, that i would just get out and walk the two blocks to the house...

the spanish classes are good. freakin overwhelming but good. my teacher is so helpful. we are working on irregular verbs. i am having trouble remembering them. not really having trouble working through the verb tenses or concept of them...just simply remembering them. virtually everthing that is told to me about the language. i understand...but then when it comes to having no paper in front of me, to remember the words is tough.

especially keeping in mind that i have two weeks to try and retain as much as i could about an elaborate topic. if i tried to learn quantum physics in two weeks. the broad concept might make sense,..i may enjoy the lectures...but i certainly would not walk away having retained more than 10 percent of what was told to me...it is a practice thing.

but i then headed to the job site..which is the same as the school site. an hour combi-bus ride up to the outskirts of town. today was cement the floor of a small school building day. i mean small...12 foot by 12 foot. but that is all you could do with such conditions.

they were waiting on the man with the concrete mixer to show up when i arrived. when he did it was a small concete mixer,..not a truck or anything...the engine started like one of those crank engine cars from like a hundred years ago. he got it started and left us to our devices. we used filthy water, cement bags and the gravel that was on the ground to make concrete.

there is one volunteer named andrew from the uk that has been the main construction force at the school. he does constructon for a living in the uk. there was a few other volunteers there to assist. i told him that i worked for a concrete company back in the late 90s. that officially made me the main cement finisher.

he had a thousand jobs..he had to make sure concete was being made properly, pointing folks in the right directions, over see the whole situation and not to slight the idea that he is the only one with a firm grasp of spanish...so everything falls on him....

well, being the main finisher and organizer of when the concrete is laid down was mine.

i would like to raise a toast to one Mr. Ron Sieg. he was the man whos company i worked for and the man who taught me how to finish concrete. although it was with large scale driveway concrete tools, a cement truck, american oranization and he still was the one who did most everything.

today, i finished my first concrete floor in a school building at the base of a mountain in peru with ultra subpar conditions. he was toasted this evening.

Ron past away a couple years ago of lung cancer. he was a good family friend and a wonderful person. he would be proud that such a humble skill to teach was used in such a way as today.

i am very proud of the whole experience. there is something tangible in ariquipa peru that marc ankenbauer made and would not be there if i did not show up to this country. or at least it would not have a nice M in the corner scratched in the floor with a trowel.

to ron,
be well all,

marc

Hello everyone. greetings from cusco, peru. day 10, week 2. wait that doesn´t make sense. oh well.

where to begin? i´m keeping extremely busy every day! i would like to walk you through a typical day being jessi adams in cusco, peru. for your reading pleasure.

the alarm goes off and i sprint to the bathroom. (can any of you actually believe that? i know.) i do this because i share this bathroom with 4 other people. (it is a race to beat out three other shower seekers.) i then dart downstairs for my coffee, and my house mom Gloria can´t believe i´m so crazy and late and unorganized. it makes her laugh. she has now just gotten out of the way of the tornado that blows through her kitchen seeking REALLY BAD, and i do not use that term lightly, really bad coffee. i believe it´s like some sort of scoop powder stuff. i bought a "to go" mug in a local market this past weekend. it is like a child´s thermos, only cheaper. like it should have scooby doo on it. i think i really shouldn`t put hot liquid in it. oh well.

Now it´s time for the bus. let me explain. i rush down the street about 3 blocks and stand at the bus stop. there are "combi´s" which marc explained, (picture mini vans with a few extra benches for good measure.) so the morning commute involves being packed like a pickle between a child going to school and a wierd old man who´s trying to sit real close to you and smells funny. oh and you have to yell "baha" really loud when you think it´s your stop. if you don´t, they won´t stop. then you´ll go on a nice tour of the city.

i go to one stop and change combis and hop on another for the ride up the hill to the clinic. the road is cobblestone, but rises above cusco to reveal the entire valley. it reminds me of missoula. this is the most peaceful part of my next 4 hours. and i did explain what riding the combi is like, for some perspective.

i go into the public clinic where you are first faced with wading through a long line of people waiting for triage, where i worked last week. patients need height, weight, blood pressure taken before proceeding upstairs. it costs 3 soles 50 centiminos, which equals a little over a dollar, to enter the clinic. beyond that, every service is free.
i have survived the line, and head upstairs. this is where the waiting room is. it is a circus. there are at any time 40 patients with wailing babies or extremely old parents waiting to be seen.
the waiting room is packed with people, and smells bad.
i would like to briefly mention breast feeding. the reason i mention it is because i witness four year olds toddling up to their mothers, lifting their mother´s shirts and going to town. i do not understand this. there is much breast feeding going on, fun for the whole family.

i now go into my new room, "topico," which i refer to as the "stitches and shots" room. this room is a trip. we have to keep the door closed while working with one patient at a time while others knock and try to bust in. Picture a famous singer trying to get away from crazy fans and the security guard is fighting with arms, legs, hands, etc. to close the door. that´s how it feels! i´m serious! i am not, however, a famous singer, and i hardly suppose they´re seeking me... anyway, i digress.
i´ve seen so many butts in the last two days, giving shots. it has been a festival of butts, if you will. keep in mind that as all of this unfolds before me, i hardly understand the language. i have never experimented with hard drugs, but this must be its equivalent.

so, the 4 hours at the clinic come to an end as i hop on the combi to go to my school. i meet with a local girl who wants to learn english as i want to learn spanish. her name is kelly and we talk for an hour. she is very good at english, i a dullard at spanish. kelly finds it helpful to correct my "tenses." (i feel a major victory when the point of what i´m trying to say is understood, needless to say what tense i say it in.) whatever.

i proceed throughout my day, and finish with my two hour spanish class taught by my new friend george, pronounced "horhay." we had some drinks last weekend and he is a hoot. needless to say i know way too much about horhay. anyway, my spanish class is fun. it is fun only because horhay is extremely patient and has a good sense of humor.

i end my day by rushing home for dinner. dinner is a formal affair. my housemates, gloria, pepe, their son diego, and joe cocker. joe cocker is their cocker spaniel, and pepe is very proud of that name. every time he says the dog´s name he looks at me, waiting for a reaction, because the first time i heard it i just bust out laughing, loudly, at the table. there are 7 of us eating dinner. they all chit chat away the hours while i play with my food. i see how many small bites i can take just to kill time...sure i understand what they are saying.
then there is dessert. dessert varies on how much time gloria had to go for it. last night, for example, was cherry jello with fruit. it was not set. so it was like jello soup. very interesting.

my treat is being able to watch "friends" with spanish subtitles in the evening. then i go to bed, only to start the whole cycle over in the morning.

i hope i have amused you. i am now at the section of my schedule where i pack into a combi and head home for dinner and hopefully a repeat of the jello...

love,
jess

the volunteer haps and tuesday aftermath in peru.

hola, que tal?

i am enjoying a well deserved lazy morning at the hostel. a few coworkers and i were going to try and get off work, pack packs and get picked up by a bus at 1am to be shuttled to a three day trek to colca canyon. the second deepest canyon in the world, next to the one that is right next to it. we decided we would do it next week, as it was a complete rush and stressing us all out.

so instead we all got to gether for a girls birthday from the house. played drinking games around a big table. about 80 percent brits. they are so entertaining to listen to. i love it.

so now i pulled a jess and slept till 11 and am drinking coffee at my leisure and going to go see one of the tourist destinations in town. a slow weekend up ahead, maybe a day hike somewhere tomorrow.

as for my day to day. it is wonderful i am going to easily see these couple or few weeks as the best part of my trip. i dont care where i go or what we see. this just feels great. it feels so good to have a purpose. traveling is often aimless, which is wonderful also, but to have such a defined purpose obviously is great. and to know where i am at, to take left hand turns through ally ways with purpose and with out consulting the map in the travel book..etc...
so, i officially have two crushes. or i should say i am the focus of two crushes. two 9 year old peruvian girls, stephanie and something like marliana or the like... it is "teacher" this, and "teacher" that.

i have to hold both of their hands on the way from the school to the playground. we were all dividing up for our daily soccer match. they walked up to one of the captains and explained in spanish to them that if they pick me they are picking all three of us. so i come as a package deal on the soccer field now.

i was goalie because i have been beating the hell out of myself everyday trying to keep up with these little peruvian kids at 9000 feet. (though, for a huge gringo, i think i hold my own). but, i was sitting in goal and they just stood back there and talked to me, asked me questions. kinda good for my spanish really. it is funny.

the kids in general are really taking to me. jess told me to be goofy. that they would love it. well it worked...

the word, "piscado" is fish. and we were playing word bingo and my terets syndrome (i dont really have terrets for those that dont know) kicked in and i kept singing this soulful version of piscado. you would have to be there. but they had me keep doing it...piscado...yeah...

what else. i taught them to hit the rock and yell bamm when they do it. i feel like i have already written this, but it is worth mentioning again. our friend, wes would be proud. that is one of his trade marks, in missoula.

so, when we score a goal, they all run back to me and hit my rock and we yell bamm. they ask me what in the world it means and i have to explain in terrible spanish that it is not even a "polabra" or word. they dont understand, but they still like it.

they also are completely taken by my bald head. keeping in mind that we have 9 year olds and we have 2 year olds. little kids have no issue with just walking up to you and rubbing your bald head. it is quite easy for them as i have to pile my entire 6 foot 4 frame onto a 12 inch high wooded childrens stool while we teach.

but in the world of everyone having dense, thick, never ending black hair. a huge, bald, white guy is an attraction that is not to be missed. one needs to reach up and just wrench on my head to touch it in wonder.

so in turn i taught them bald is beautiful. they think that is funny. "calvo es bonito". that one gets me pretty far.

the way to the school is about a 45 minute combi ride. the classic chicken bus, although in the city we have yet to have chickens...but in concept it is absolutly the same. i have gotten stuck standing a few times and the top of the bus is probably 2 feet shorter than i am so i am this enormous bent over gringo. they feel bad for me and try and find a spot to stash me. at least they tend to try.

what an experience the transit is in this country. the taxis are nuts and so are the busses. five minutes in the streets of a peruvian city is like a life time of bad driving in the states. it is not bad, it is just completely and utterly without rules. and what rules there are, certainly do not favor the pedestrian.

jess and i were writing each other about the concept of just blanking on our spanish. during class, my teacher and i are back and forth and i try to force myself out of my comfort level. tell a story in spanish and allow her to critique it. she laughs as i am animated with my attempts. but it helps. but when, i get out of the house and dont have a thousand note books and pieces of paper around me...i blank on the most basic things. but it is coming along. we are working on verbs and they just blew my mind yesterday with the most important 10 or so irregular verbs. i can work with rules but just memorizing every single version as they follow no rules is hard. welcome to english, we make language rules and shatter them within the same sentance. the kids tell me that espanal is "mui facile" but to me "es mui difficile". i am sure jess would agree.

on a completly different note. every american i have met has been floating along on a cloud of pride for the last few days. not even just americans as i have had 100 conversations or interactions with people from around the world who feel as for the first time in 8 years we have something absolutly good to look forward to. i would have loved to be in the states to celebrate with my peers, but that was not to be. i even have a friend who was at obamas acceptance speech in chicago,...what a moment that would have been.

i would also like to give a unexpected lot of credit.
john mccains speech was everything i could have asked for. he stepped out of his parties bias and anger and pleeded for his contingent to melt with the rest of america and make it whole again. he expounded upon obamas accolaids and asked for respect to be shown to a man who undoubtedly deserves it. for that he gained my respect. dont get me wrong, i am beside my self with happiness that the man did not win, but that was a respectful plea for bipartisan politics.

so, i will continue to explain our pride as a country to those from around the world who ask for my insight into the situation and there are many who do.

i am proud of all of you who changed the world on tuesday. we should be proud of ourselves as a country. we made truth and good prevail,..that is all we can ask for in this world.

to brighter days,
be well,
marc

Good day from Cusco!

This is a quick one, I just want to make sure we all keep track of my rapid grasp of spanish...Yesterday my supervisor was asking me for something, did I have "blahblahblah?" It seemed like she was in a hurry. I was digging through my pockets in front of the whole waiting room and got excited as I realized she must want the crumpled up toilet paper in my pocket! (Why I thought this I have no idea.) So, I pulled out my stash of toilet paper and handed it to her, proudly! She laughed so loud as she explained to me that she was asking for a pen..
Then today, I tried writing with a thermometer. What? It looked like a pen. I´m glad that was infront of my supervisor as well. I am making an absolutely stellar impression. I know it.

On an exciting note though, I got to work with patients all morning. I got to observe a young mother breast feed for the first time, with a team of "mothers" (nurses) around her. At one point my supervisor must´ve been talking about her own experience, because the next thing I know she´s decided to show all of us her breast. So she just took it out and showed us.
The End.

Love,
Jess

WWWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Obama is our president!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When it was announced that he won, I was in a pub in the center of Plaza de Armas, Cusco Pero. I won´t forget that for a long time. There were mostly Americans in the bar, eyes glued to the tv, and when he won I think there was this split-second moment of shock, then it sunk in, then we jumped and cheered. When I heard Obama´s speech I cried. I couldn´t believe this wonderful man is about to be our leader. I love this man & I love his family.
My sister asked me via e-mail this morning if I woke up with a smile on my face like she had. I did. I´m not even in the country and I feel like a weight had been lifted off of me! I have a renewed faith in this country and am so excited.

So back here in Cusco.........This morning I wore a white coat and was a nurse. After trying to communicate that I was there to volunteer, they gave me an enormous lab coat. (I think it said ¨pharmacy¨on it.) That must be why so many people were asking me the same question that I didn´t understand while holding a small white piece of paper...
Anyway, I put that on and went into a tiny office at the end of a hallway stuffed with people. I took people´s weight, and blood pressures. I did this without comprehension of spanish numbers, so that was fun. Then I weighed people on this old old metal scale where everyone´s weight was in kilograms. I spent two hours trying to learn how to say blood pressure and weight. The words just wouldn´t stick. I was a shining star. Mom, Dad, I made you proud. Trust me. Either that or you would´ve just had a good belly laugh. One of the two.

Isn´t it interesting how life just seems to work out sometimes? I ended up in this tiny office with about 5 young nurses and an older nurse and they are all so friendly. Within an hour we were out sitting on a bench in the sun helping each other learn our languages.

I´ll wind this up with a few examples of my exemplary grasp of this language. After eating lunch yesterday, I walked into the kitchen to return my dishes and wanted to tell my host mom that the watermelon was delicious. I walked in, handed her my plate and declared loudly, "Nice to meet you!" Bless her heart, I think she choked trying not to laugh as I realized my mistake...

And finally, when asked last evening how long I would be in Cusco, I declared proudly, "One table!" I was serious. I was also infront of the entire computer lab.
The end.

GO OBAMA!!!!!!!
Jess

Hello,

Greetings from Cusco, Peru!

I can´t wait to update you on all of my news, but I think tomorrow will be much more comical as it is then that I start my volunteer position at the public health clinic. I´m cast to the wolves. Thrown off the dock.

On to the topic at hand....can you believe this is election day??!! I sit here in South America getting my information from both the internet, and a very static radio in a taxi this morning.. GO OBAMA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I thought I´d pass the following along, because it´s heartwarming and honestly to me, very emotional. In the past three weeks of traveling I´ve had the opportunity to speak with people from all over the world. And, would you believe-every single one of them, without exception-from New Zealand, Germany, France, Peru, and on, ranging in age from 18 to 60, wished me luck for Obama to win. That´s a powerful thing to hear in general, and even more powerful as their thick accents prounounce his name, Barack Obama.

It´s not just our country that wins, it´s the world. There will be eyes glued to tv´s tonight everywhere from Wisconsin to Beijing. This evening I will sit in the upstairs bedroom of my Peruvian family, the eight of us gathered around their small television, crouched on their floor and most likely on their bed, and just watch. My host mother offered to buy champaign. That´s how real this is. How much bigger than we realize. A memory I won´t soon forget, I´m sure.

(Then of course we will proceed directly to a pub in the center of Cusco and hopefully CELEBRATE the most moving election in my lifetime.)

I wish so much that just for the next 24 hrs. i was back in the states. Know that I´m cheering just as loudly as you are, just from a point farther south.

Love to each of you,
Jess

ariquipa and election day well wishs

hello from ariquipa, peru...

i have arrived in the city that i will be doing my volunteer work..and taking spanish classes.

when i arrived, i did not dig it, really at all

the hostel was quiet people wise and loud as any place i have ever laid my head in respect to it´s surroundings...i found out today that the hostel is actually at one of the busiest intersections in downtown.

so in the morning i´m going to pack up and take a taxi over to a new place...it seems wonderful

so for one more night i will endure the outright screaching of taxi horns..for what reason...my god, i have no idea..they have so many reasons for honking..all of them i´m sure make complete sense to them..

i will enjoy my tiny television and watch something on hbo in spanish subtitles. it is remarkably helpful when it comes to figuring out a language..

so, on to the work. the main point in all of this...loud hostel aside

i love it..
i went to the office and met a few of the main players..nice people..
spanish classes will start tomorrow at 10 to 12,...

12 to 145 i will,.... i don´t know..study, eat something..etc...then catch a collectivo to the school...

i went and worked today...
the area is about 45 minutes away..it is on the outskirts of town up against a dry excavated mountain side...little mud block stuctures that are houses but are the size of a shed in an american back yard..and next to them is one complete block structure and three incomplete mud block structures...that is the school...

there was four little tables in the building which is hardly high enough for me to stand up in..tiny little stools for the kids...a dry erase board on the wall with the days of the week in spanish and english on it.

it is funny i am to teach them english but my spanish is so bad that i am teaching my self spanish in turn...i can benifit from the basic stuff that that four year olds are learning...

and little by little the kids started to stream in...little ones, middle sized ones...little ones that bring their snot faced two year old sister with them because they need to be watching them...about 6 dogs that come and sit out side and try and come in and hang out...just awesome...

we worked on body parts today and the clothes that go on those body parts...
so, i ended up at a table full of 4 year olds having them repeat, knee, leg, nose, ears, eyes, mouth, hands, feet, etc...over and over again...it was the bomb...

then we had play time...teach for an hour and then we go to a concrete area with soccer posts...we just all freaked out and played soccer for 45 minutes...me in my sandles...need to wear boots tomorrow...they all can´t say any thing other than teacher over and over again in little peruvian accents...but they sure can school me in soccer...even the tiny ones..

i took a couple pictures and they loved it...i could take 400000000000 pictures of these kids and they would not get enough...as long as i show them the picture of them when i´m done...

there was this one little girl who took to me and just came over and sat on my lap and said all kinds of stuff that i in no way understood...hopefully i can work on that...but she was great...

so that is the story...all is well, the job is good, the hostel is going to get much better and soon i will start taking spanish classes...

and as of tommorow morning, i do not have to listen to litterally the most honking that i have heard at one intersection in my entire life...
so, all is good in ariquipa...

oh, and before i left lima..jess and i got a bunch of hard candy and walked around passing it out on halloween...we eventually ended up in this playground in the middle of downtown miriflores which for the parents out there is a very nice, safe neighborhood...kids in costumes everywhere. and i handed a few kids candy..yelling feliz halloween

then came the onslaught of kids...tiny little peruvian kids all dressed up and yelling feliz halloween...i handed out candy as fast as my hands could pull it of. i felt bad, i wanted jess to be a part..she loved it though..6´4 me being mobbed by hundreds of 3 foot kids in costumes..she just smiled and took pictures...some which i will try to get on the blog someday...

other than that i felt a tiny little earthquake...shook a couple of windows...folks took a minute,...looked around..and went upon their way...i guess it happens pretty often.

that wraps up my side of things..

pick up someone and take them to the polls tomorrow,

to the end of the worst administration in american history..may we stand up and make our voices heard, finally..

not just for us but for the good future of the world as we hope it to be.

may our great country stand for truth and rightousness once again, unfettered by pirates

may we march on to election day,

as we storm the polls, an army with the most poweful weapon at our disposal...to vote

to the united states of america

be well,
marc

Greetings sports fans!

We find ourselves back in Lima for two days until Marc & I split for different adventures in separate parts of Peru. Yes, this dynamic duo will cease to double team the Peruvians..

We are back from Huarez and the Cordillera Blanca Mountains. This is the rainy season in Peru but somehow Marc & I imagined we would be exempt from bad weather. We weren’t. We stayed at a lodge much like the previous one with no electricity but the lodge was nestled beneath the largest mountain in Peru, Huascaran, at 22,000.’ You don’t go to this lodge for the amenities, you go for the view. In the span of three days, I saw this giant twice, for a few minutes each, due to it being overcast and rainy and that I don’t ever get out of bed in the morning.

It was usually sunny in the morning which was just plain trickery. We headed out to hike anyway. The first day we hiked into a mountain valley to see the second largest mountain, Hondoi, at 20,700’ which was stunning. Lots of blue glacier and tons of snow. I’ve never seen anything like it.
The second day we hiked up a massive mountain ridge with the idea that we would have a mind-blowing view of Huascaran. This is a great idea in theory, but allow me to paint the picture: Marc & I wheezed and panted, dragging ourselves up this ridge (stopping every few steps to recover or just sit down for a break so really this took hours) We got ¾ of the way up the ridge and then clouds came and surrounded us so that we could see only 50’ in front of us. Luckily then the rain came. We just sat down and ate an orange and rode it out. Only we didn’t ride it out. We called it & walked back down the ridge. I believe then we just drank heavily for the remainder of the day.

Yesterday we went to the “Smithsonian” of Lima, Peru, “The Museum Nacional,” only to find it completely closed due to renovation until 2009. We were very disappointed, to say the least. We went to a second museum, the Larco Museum, which housed “one of the largest ceramic collections to be found anywhere, a selection of gold & silver pieces, feathered textiles, and pre-columbian erotic pots..” (I copied that description out of the book because it’s far more eloquent than me saying we saw a bunch of perverted pots and some gold earrings.)

Our spanish is coming along nicely. We like to call it “caveman Spanish.” Marc does this thing where he walks up to someone with his nose buried in the Spanish phrasebook and starts to make this guttural noise, “Aaaaahhahahahahahah……” or “Oououoooooooooooo” as his segway, his “lead in” if you will.. It just plain scares people. He’s working on it.
While at the previous lodge we made friends with Tito & Luna. They are two young locals who cook for the lodge. They are saints. I say this because they were so patient as they rode through our caveman Spanish (we say things like, “Me like drink. You like drink?”) We sat at the counter as they cooked, and we had happy hour each night with them. It was a very special way to while away the hours during cold, rainy evenings again by candlelight.

So on Saturday Marc heads to Ariquipa, Peru to volunteer in an orphanage or community center, he waits to hear. Personally I hope he ends up in the orphanage, due to the fact that every child we’ve encountered in this country is enamored by Marc. (I picture him with three laughing children hanging off each arm.)
I head to Cusco, Peru, to volunteer in a public health clinic. I’m so excited for this, I’m sure I’ll have stories to share..

I’ll close with the llama. One day I paid .33 cents to be kissed by a cape wearing llama. This is the truth. I thought this wonderful Peruvian woman in the city square just wanted her llama to kiss me. Perhaps she thought I needed a kiss, a pick me up, if you will. Whatever, I let her Llama kiss me. Then she wanted money! She was a heckler, too, let me tell you.

Love to each of you!
Jessi

Hello all,

Marc & I greet you from Huarez, the town from our previous blog, which we are using as base camp as we travel about the Cordillera Blancas. We have just returned from three days up in the mountains in a lodge called "The Way Inn" named for its prime location in a huge mountain range. At this lodge were were at 12,700'. It amused us that our lodge sat roughly 2,000' higher than Mt. Cleveland, the largest mtn. in Glacier.
We spent the first day hiking around a small mountain village trying to get acclimated. This was a great day, we got to see up close and personal the lives of the villagers working in their fields, women washing their clothes in streams, and the local ice cream man walking the cobblestone streets honking a bike horn carrying ice cream in a sack on his back.. Along this walk we had the pleasure of meeting a small eleven year old boy named Edgar who walked with us along our path, the same path he walked to and from school each day. We attempted to communicate and realized only after speaking with the lodge owner later that Edward spoke only the native language of the village, quechan.
We also met an elderly woman on our path who kept repeating the same phrase over and over that Marc & I were not understanding, to the point that she was yelling to us; it ended up being "what country are you from" while we thought she was warning us about bugs as she feverishly swatted & itched her legs..

The second day we hiked to an elevation roughly equal to the summit of Mt. Rainier, we reached 14,600'. It was a very dizzying, hard push with several stops to rest, and unfortunately almost all of this was done in the rain. All things said though, it was still a beautiful hike up to a waterfall.

The lodge itself was full of character. It was stone, with thatched roof. It had no electricity except for the 10 min. in the evening before dinner when the chef needed to use an electric appliance, so on came the generator. Our evening dinner, discussion and beer drinking were all done by candlelight, with a small fire in the fireplace.
One of the evenings we drank a few beers with two great guys from Holland. One had worked for Doctors Without Borders for several years, most recently returning from four months in Darfur. Late in the evening, we held up our glasses and toasted new experiences, friendship, and my dad's birthday. I told the men that I was sad that I didn't get to call my dad on his birthday, and they both, being about his age, reassured me that without a doubt, my dad knew I was thinking of him. Happy birthday, dad.

We now head back up into the mountains for a few days. We are headed to a lodge nestled between two giants-the largest mountain in Peru, Huascaran. This mtn is 22, 205' and the worlds highest tropical mountain. The other mountain, Huandoy Massif, is 20, 981. We will be doing some day hikes up there. We will come back with more amusing stories to share, I'm sure.

Hope each of you are well, we send our love!
Jess

Hi All!
My turn to write.. we left the bustling city of Lima on a tour bus headed north for Huarez, Peru, and the Cordillera Blanca. This is the second highest mountain range in the world, second only to the Himalayas. What you imagine when you read that sentence-what your mind paints for you-that's what this is. That's what surrounds us 360 degrees. The Rockies are but a distant memory!
So the 7 hr. bus ride here was surreal, a big bus on a small, windy mountain road where bus meets semi truck on hairpin curves and only the strongest survive! I breathe deep and chew my gum...(mom-totally kidding, that last part.) Anyway, all that said, we are safe and happy in the mountain city of Huarez, pop. 80,000.
Without a novel, it's hard to condense all of the adventures we've already had into a blog entry.
I will begin by humbly admitting that never in my life have I seen anything like the Lima we saw on our expensive tour bus exiting the city. Marc & I had the privlidge of staying in an area of the city called Miraflores. It was the "safe" part of the city. Needless to say, when we left the safety zone, my eyes were wide open and I was dumbfounded. I saw the city-the real Lima. The families, faces, people-the LIFE of Lima. The buildings were what the privlidged in the United States may refer to as squallor. Buildings were caked with the thick black residue of too much traffic and not enough rain, as the gray cloud of exhaust hung low in the air, making it hard to breathe. Dirt roads led in & out of neighborhoods with bars on every window and door. Women did their laundry in gutters along the highway, and lines of clothes of every color hung from lines on rooftops. I expected people to appear miserable! But that's just it-these people who live in these colorful buildings were happy, walking to the market, waiting for a bus, laughing and talking with friends & family. Marc & I were really moved.
We now find ourselves after a full day in Huarez thankful for seeing it and ready to move on. Today for the first time we witnessed the absence of the USDA; whole, plucked dead chickens, flies optional, strung up on clotheslines by their necks during mid day sun in markets ready to sell.
The people. I have seen Peruvian women with long, black braids and beautiful lines etched into their aged faces each line telling a different story. They wear fedora hats and beautiful full skirts, with shirts and shawls of every color of the rainbow. I will say too that so far it has been impossible for me to find a child in this country that is not beautiful. Thick black hair and huge brown eyes, each one I want to hold, but they all seem to be afraid, if not completely baffled by me. Marc, on the other hand, is another story. They look at with complete adoration and big smiles, laughter, the older children calling out to him, "hola!" They are so excited to see if this big one will talk. They are thrilled when he answers them. I should be so lucky.
Goodnight from Huarez,
Jess

big, bald and white

i am a really big, bald, white guy in a world of tiny tan people. today was the day i have been waiting for all my life. i was a very serious minority. we went to a religious holiday in downtown on a saturday in lima, and then to their china town. it was like the biggest concert that you have ever been to in you life, all full of peruvians was letting out at every moment of the day. people were absolutly everywhere and i was really big, bald and white. god love travel. all is well and we are headed to the mountains tomorrow..

much love to all,
marc and jess

a day in mireflores, lima

hey, hey.......hola

so, i got my bags and all is right with the world...

jess and i slept in and then woke up for our hostel breakfast which was butter and jam on hamburger buns with coffee.

took a long walk through an area called miriflores which is the neighborhood that we are staying in and one of the nicer parts of town. it is still absolutely mind blowingly nuts. really, i´ll take that back. at first it all seems so crazy but i think it is the just franticness of the people and the driving. run down strange store fronts, etc. after a little while it just becomes kind of normal. the craziness of the drivers really covers this city in a feeling of like mad max meets cheap 4 cylinder car. people do what ever the living hell they want to in the road. i think the only rule is no driving on the sidewalk. and i´d say in the right situation that would be fine too. keeping in mind that the area we are in is one of the richest and nicest-safest in lima and this is what i´ve seen. can´t imagine what the bad neighborhood drivers are like. there is 8 million people here and they all drive like nuts. it´s kinda great!!!!

add to that that 1 in 7 cars is a taxi. that helps the craziness.

anyway enough about driving.

we had pisco sours in a small little local place. found out that they have egg white in them. they are amazing. like a margarita with liquer made from grapes, about 4 other ingrediants and egg white. quite wonderful. sat with a peruvian woman who lives in paris who is visiting family.

the coast is right here in this area. the city is situated on top of cliff-bluffs over looking the ocean. beautiful. supposedly you are not supposed to go down the bluffs to the ocean cause it is kinda sketchy when you get off the beaten path. hooligans about, i suppose.

oh, i don´t know why this entertained me so but there was a guy standing on top of a fire truck with the hose in his hand and they just drove along the street and he watered the plants and grass with the fire truck. you know, how ever you get it done. right

luckily things are very inexpensive as a whole. we are on a super tight budget, but we figured we should live it up while we are in the city. we had a nice dinner of shrimp in a resteraunt that is built into the cliffs over looking the pacific. entirely above our budget and worlds above our budget if it was anywhere other than peru. nice.

we are going to hang another day in lima tomorrow and check out further downtown. we have a bus ride set up to go to a town called huaraz. it is about 8 hours from here and is at the base of the cordillera blanca. that means the white mountains. they are that, 20,000 ft mountains covered in glaciers. one of the highest areas in the andes mountain range. will be a comlete 180 from lima.

so, i´ll be back tomorrow for more details. off to bed. i hope everyone is good...

much love,
be well,
marc and jess

made it to lima

so, were here! i would have written last night but i could not figure out how to make the @ symbol to sign on to the blog. obviously i found it but now i can´t figure out how to make things capitalized....crazy south american keyboards..

so, all in all everything is good. i mean that fact is that jess and i are safe and at the hostel and in south america. aside from that i just finished having the absolutely worst set of flights, connections and scheduling of my life. it would make your eyes roll in the back of your head if i told the whole story. so as of right now my bags are lost...it would be better if i wrote this last night since i just got an email from my mom that said that the airline has found my backpack. so not as big of a deal now.

just don´t go with cheaptickets.com. while for most of you that would be pretty obvious, i overlooked the obviousness of that idea in july when i was purchasing my ticket...

anyway, lima is wild. we had a craziest cab ride of our lives. i was delayed by 17 hours and god love her, but jess was still in the airport waiting. so i´m sure she is the one with the entertaining stories, really. but the traffic is nuts. imagine 4 to 5 cars driving on a 2 lane road through town. cops would not know who to pull over first for reckless opertion in the states. it is absolutly no holds barred driving.

our hostel is nice, quiet and surrounded by barbed wire ;-)

we have been brain storming on what to do for the days while my baggage showed up, but now that it has been found, i´m not sure that we will stay in lima any longer than we have to. it´s cool in a life experience, craziness way. but i don´t hang out in gary, indian, east st. louis, or compton normally. i probably could find places in peru that i am more interested in than lima. but it is wonderfully nuts

off to try and say anything correctly in spanish.. maybe use a banyo or two....

be well,
marc and jess

the last few days....

So, welcome to MJTRAVELER.BLOGSPOT.COM

Actually, I'm pretty sure it's lower case, but I'm excited!

I wanted to get a picture on this blog before we left the country. It will get much more difficult to post pictures while we are away. It is much easier to write a short narritive about the day or week without having to mess with downloading pictures on a hostel/hotel computer. So, from the slight amount of pictures that I could find on my moms computer that had both of us in them...I select this fine photo from Slide Lake in Glacier National Park. She is going to kill me for posting this photo...but folks need at least one picture to see who we are...know?

Well it is late night on Monday the 13th of October. We leave early evening on the 15th, for Lima, Peru. What about 36 hours now that we leave in...Crazy..

We both have to soak up the wonderful moments with our family and friends cause sooner than we know we are going to be in another galaxy. So to the last few days..May they be great and may we not forget something important when packing...

till next time,

Marc

First Entry

Hello,

Just set up the blog... MJTraveler was the first blog address that I could get to work...All the good ideas were already taken...Ain't that life for ya...

This is the blog that will chronicle the travels of Jessi and Marc. Headed to South America...Yeah!!!