Hi Susan, and Kristen ...

Not quite sure who else is reading this.

I will do my best to post pictures from my summer travels these next couple months, many of which will feature a certain PBJ.  For those of you who are not Susan and Kristen, I'm not referring to a peanut butter & jelly sandwich ... that's so 1990.  I'm talking about Plastic Baby Jesus.  It's pretty much exactly what it sounds like (I think).

I was up doing work then started eating cookies (true to form) and figured that 1:04 on a Tuesday morning was as good a time as any to write a quick post acknowledging my serious delinquency.

Now I shall go to bed.

Delinquent

More than two months have passed since I last updated the blog.  Hi, Susan!  I think you are the only one who probably still checks in here.

And I didn't log on with lofty intentions of a long post ... instead, a brief overview.

I started my new position as Global Explorers Leading the Way Fellow at the beginning of August.

I decided to embrace autumn instead of cringe at its arrival.  (To my surprise, we've had a hot one ... today it was 75 degrees!)

I resumed my vegan diet, which I've maintained very sporadically since my senior year of college.  This decision was prompted by a viewing of the movie Forks Over Knives.  It was a pre-screening -- the movie comes out in March.  It's about the health benefits of a whole foods, plant-based diet.

I found a cat and about a week later the cat's owner found me.

Tomorrow I hope to bring home Tula, a very shy kitty at the Fort Collins Cat Rescue, where I volunteer.  I am not adopting her, but fostering her.  She is stressed out at the shelter and needs some love!  (Interestingly, thula, which is pronounced the same, means "quiet" in Zulu.)

I dressed up as Liz Lemon (30 Rock) for Halloween and it was marvelous.

I got a one-month new members pass to Old Town Yoga.  I am excited.  I've attended yoga classes taught by friends, but never really gone to studio classes.  Last Monday I practiced "yin yoga" and yesterday yoga and meditation.

I joined a church!  I'd been attending Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ since March.  I became a member two weeks ago.

I just ran out of news, which means that I shall go to bed!  Happy Daylight Savings Time!

National Parks Extravaganza

A friend from Munster, France came to visit for a couple weeks during her school holidays -- she is an English teacher outside of Paris.  Her family took such good care of me during my time away from home that I wanted to give Joanna as thorough a tour as possible.  I planned a trip to some National Parks around Colorado, including a dip into western Utah to visit Arches National Park.  I also made sure she experienced some American traditions: a drive-in movie (we saw Inception), a diner, a milkshake, a root beer float, a pancake breakfast, and s'mores.

On Monday I started my new position as Leading the Way Fellow at Global Explorers.  I'm responsible for coordinating our travel programs for students of mixed abilities.  (This past year I was Leading the Way intern.)  In summer 2011, we'll be sending Leading the Way teams to the Grand Canyon, the Southwest, and Machu Picchu.  I'm so excited!

Below are photos from the National Parks tour.

Rocky Mountain National Park

Joanna and Me

RMNP

Aspen in RMNP

A rabbit hiding

Setting up the tent . . . it wasn't this much fun the subsequent nights.

Elk chilling outside a church in Estes Park, CO

My neighbor lent us her sand board . . . Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve

Woohoo!

Southern Colorado . . . driving from Great Sand Dunes to Alamosa

The sand dunes are other-wordly!

Joanna on our climb up the dunes

View during our climb

Great Sand Dunes!

Mesa Verde National Park

Ruins from the cliff dwellers

Ancient handprints near petroglyphs in Canyonlands National Park

View from our campsite at Arches National Park

Sunset at Arches National Park

Devils Garden campground

Landscape Arch

Arches National Park

Beautiful light after a storm

Another sunset at Arches

Peru Highlights

I am not in the mood for much writing, so please accept these photos as insight into my 10-day trip to Peru.  Perhaps I will be able to do some writing at a later date!  You may want to read about the Hear the World Expedition here.  It includes regular journal entries about our time in the Peruvian Amazon.

I flew from Atlanta to Lima, Peru (6 hours) and then from Lima to Iquitos (2 hours), which is only accessible by boat or plane. It's that one city identified up in the NE corner of Peru, in the green region.  (www.geography.com)

Not a fun thing to see upon touching down in Iquitos, Peru

 A street on the outskirts of Iquitos.  There are almost no cars in Iquitos - just mototaxis.

A boat on the Amazon. From Iquitos, we traveled by motorboat down the Amazon River to Explorama lodge (1.5 hours).

Mmmm . . . a piece of sugarcane is delicious when dipped in sugarcane molasses and rum!

Amazon Kingfisher

I think this is a Scarlet Macaw. There were several living at Explorama.

I caught this parrot sneaking some food.

I've already forgotten the name of this seed that is used as a natural red dye among the Yagua indigenous people.

Poison Dart Frog: "These amphibians are often called 'dart frogs' due to indigenous Amerindians' use of their toxic secretions to poison the tips of blowdarts." (www.wikipedia.com)

 The crew at the lodges prepared delicious local food for us.  Here we have heart of palm salad (the long white stuff), yam, lima beans & rice, and fried manioc/yucca/cassava.

I believe this is a Tamarin monkey.

One species of many butterflies found in the Amazon

Another gorgeous butterfly

Beginning of a trail into the rainforest

The rainforest has some big leaves!

Along the bank of the Amazon River!

Arriving at a small community called Sapo Playa (Frog Beach) where we helped plant fruit trees and paint houses.

Shannon and a local boy planting a tree

I just love this one! Girls in Sapo Playa

We watched part of the World Cup final with the community.  They may live "in the middle of nowhere" but the community had a satellite and TV.

Soccer in Sapo Playa

These two girls showed me some traditional Peruvian dances.

Tarantula!

Purple undersides to green leaves in the rainforest - on our night hike

Walking to visit the shamans.

One of the shamans gave us all temporary tattoos using a natural dye from the rainforest.  I asked for a capybara.

Back at ExplorNapo lodge (2 hours by boat from Explorama), this was the scene I encountered.  Two parrots, a trumpeter bird, a dog, and a capybara all chowing down on scraps by the kitchen!

I'm so happy to meet a real, live capybara!  This is Charlie!  Her mother was probably killed for meat and Charlie was kept as a pet when she was a baby.  ExplorNapo rescued her and she is now 3 years old.  They expect her to go looking for a mate soon.

Duck!

Tree along the canopy walkway

Looking into the rainforest from the canopy walkway

It was pretty rainy in the rainforest.

Starfruit tree! My first time seeing one

 

Piranha teeth

A Red-Belly Piranha that one of the students caught while fishing

Pink River Dolphin!

Yagua dancing in a nearby community

The Hear the World team!

Can you hear the world?

Hear the World

View from our boat during the ride back to Iquitos.

"Jesus Loves the Deaf"  We had the opportunity to visit a small school run by a Peruvian pastor for deaf children in Iquitos.  Most people in Iquitos with hearing loss have little hope for a decent future.  Many children end up on the streets.

Limes in Iquitos

Palm leaves in the market in Iquitos

Persimmons

View from the market in Iquitos

Aguaje fruit

What?! Not only do they serve gelato in the Lima airport, but they also have a flavor called "speculaas" — I had to get some — we ate speculaas (a spice-filled cookie) in Luxembourg all the time.  It was yummy.