Post #1, Upper midwest to the Atacama

Hello all!

Here goes my first stab at web logging, I hope it is worth your time. Pardon the off punctuation, as I am still not accustomed to the keyboard set-up that prevails in this part of the world--I´m not interested enough in figuring it out to stay on the computer any longer than I need to (isn´t that partly why I quit my office job and went to go see nature happen in hitherto unfamiliar climate zones?)


The trip started with Sarah Wolken driving me from Columbia to Camdenton, MO, where some folks I found on Craigslist (James, Rachel, and their son Austin) welcomed my company on their drive to Sarasota, FL, where I met some of their friends and family, toured a frisbee golf park for its ecological merits, tried conch fritters (a purported aphrodisiac, to which I conclude to be immune), and sat in on a drum circle under a beachside pavilion despite the rainy weather. We got to walk around a little in Big Cypress Nat´l Wildlife Refuge, and then headed for the Miami international airport; after some difficulty in figuring out where to store my knife that was too big to carry on the plane with me, found myself to the departure gate where I was an outnumbered gringo amongst a crowd mostly Latin American and heading home.

The overnight flight afforded me views of the moon above the clouds, as well as reflected off of open ocean, and Orion in a sweep of angles from which I´d not yet seen it. As dawn approached, our plane made its way to the ground in Lima, Peru.

I quickly ate all the fruits and vegetables I´d brought with me, so as not to have trouble at customs, which I got through fairly effortlessly, and entered into the main arrivals area, drivers holding signs with names and taxi drivers ready to follow new arrivals around, convincing them to pay for their services. I thumbed through my bird book, dictionary, and phrase book, alternating between the three, waiting for Ryne and Jen to show up from Guyaquil, Ecuador.

Somewhere along in there, a few inquisitive children sat in some of the nearby chairs, greeted me and began probing my language skills with some simple questions...the exchange largely happened through written phrases and slow searching through my bilingual dictionary; eventually an extended family amassed, who were keen on taking pictures with me (towering over them in stature), buying me a beer (8 in the morning) and offering a stay at their home and a meal at their cevicheria (later on in the trip, I lose my notebook and hence contact information for them (and most anyone reading this), so won´t be able to take them up on their generosity), soon enough Ryne and Jen showed up, and we took a ride from one of the family who had a taxi car, through chaotic Lima gridlock, to the Cruz del Sur bus station, on our way to Paracas and the Atacama desert.



Well, I´ve been on this machine for a good hour, and it´s time for me to go to bed so I can get up early tomorrow and see the rainforest of the Amazon at the foothills of the Andes... I´ll keep posting regularly, and hopefully catch up with current doings.

Live well!

Steve