Halloween and Happy Birthday

I was up early, probably because we went to bed so early, and met my friend Emily for a yoga class at 8 AM, a good time to get moving and start the day right. I was hoping to join her and Nathan for a bike ride for the first 'Cyclovia', which was a chance to ride bikes up and down Roland Avenue, which would be closed to car traffic for the morning. Instead, I met Maya and the Benichous at the Farmer's market downtown. We wandered through the stalls and chose vegetables to buy and snacked on muffins and smoothies. It was too late to ride when we were done, and Maya had a session with her accompanist Jake at Peabody at noon and a soccer game at 1 :30. I find her soccer games painful to watch because the girls have not been coached well, and are incapable of being effective in their play. They play a defensive game and are scored against many times a game. It is frustrating that in all these weeks they have yet to learn how to throw in the ball from the sidelines, or strategize or dribble the ball. I want to tell the coach to do his job, but I say nothing and just cringe. Thankfully, the season is almost over.

Halloween turned out to be a party for Julien. His birthday is on Wednesday next week. The family came over at 5, Belina and Daphne and Marius in their costumes and ready for trick or treating. We joined another friend of Maya's (Emily) with her parents Deb and Mike and while Eric and Julien stayed home to give away candy, the rest of us walked over to Roger's Forge where almost every house is lit up and giving away candy, and the children ran around in excitement. Marius was a ghost, Belina a pink and black witch, Emily an Iron woman, Daphne a dark witch, Maya a sexy witch and I was a Vampire princess. We all gathered at our house for dessert and Happy Birthday songs, and the children sat on the stairs and emptied out their candy bags, counted their hauls, traded and gave away what they did not want, and amazingly, they were so tired, we were able to get everyone out of the house and Maya in bed by 9. Whew, what a day.

Rally on the Mall

Our day started early. Once we dropped Maya off and checked online to decide where to leave the car and take the metro from, we picked up Sid, a student from the MBL who took the train from Boston to go to the rally. It was a sunny warm day (or warm enough not to wear more than a windbreaker and a scarf) and the drive was lovely. The fall colours were stunning and the traffic tolerable. When we got to the Greenbelt metro station, we saw a long line snaking into the station. The parking lots were almost full. We skipped past the line and bought our tickets from the machines inside, and stood with hundreds of others inside the crowded metro.

We got off near the mall and waded through the crowds. Trying to get into the middle of the mall was exhausting, so we decided to walk up the sides and settled near the National Gallery, where we had a sliver view of the stage and more of a screen close by. There was music and entertainment, and watching the crowd and the many different handmade signs was amusing too. I was glad to be there and part of something, but I was not sure what I was part of. The rally was aimed 'to restore sanity' in a wild and raucous election season. Everyone appeared exceedingly polite, and the signs were homemade and covered all sorts of ideas and proposals. It was truly a free for all, with many in Halloween costumes. Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert were funny and irreverent and there was music and singing and jokes and seriousness as well.

My friend Emily ran into us in front of the museum and we wandered around some more, discovering that the place we had settled in had the best view and sound.

When the crowds broke up, Eric and I had lunch at the restaurant under the National Gallery and then wandered through some exhibits in the East Building. Taking the metro back to the car was a challenge. The stations were crowded and two of the six trains we took were put out of service in the middle of our rides, and so it took far to long to find our car and get back on the 95 and to Daphne and Julien's house, where we ran into Maya and had dinner together. We left Maya with Belina and came home early, exhausted and ready for bed. I checked CNN to see if there was any coverage of the massive crowds and the event but found nothing but election coverage. I was hoping to watch the event over again on Comedy Central or online, but did not find anything, and was too tired to search further.

Free Fridays

I am getting better at organizing my free day. I took a pilates mat class at 9 and another equipment class at 1 PM. I found myself wandering through Nordstrom's trying out makeup and creams and then took my time grocery shopping at Trader Joe's (there has been no food in the house for a week and it did not appear that Eric was going to shop....I forgot toilet paper after not having toilet paper for a week). I did a little paperwork and answered a few phonecalls at the office, but not for long....

The best part of the day was sneaking out to the movie theater to watch the third Steig Larsson movie. It was a matinee and I somehow sped across town after dropping Maya off at ballet, and arrived 10 minutes late but just as the movie began. It was a wonderful escape, and Eric took Maya from ballet to soccer, so I was able to get back to my office to turn off the lights and lock up, stop by to buy a lottery ticket (I want to win 140 million dollars so I can do whatever I want) and get a few movies for Maya and me. Dinner was Chicken Tikka Masala and broccoli, and then Maya and I snuggled in bed to watch 'The Karate Kid' together. I was surprised that she was so scared and uncomfortable watching the movie...we did not quite get to the fun parts...or perhaps it reminded her of how difficult it was to move away last year and start in a whole new school and city.

We are planning to go to the rally tomorrow on the mall. Maya will go to music conservatory all day, and our friends Daphne and Julien will pick her up and take her home and when we are done we will join her at a piano bonfire party. Sounds like a hoot. I have no idea what the rally is about, but it will be my first rally, and I plan to enjoy it.

Christmas Decorations

I wandered through Towsontown Center Mall and was surprised to see Christmas decorations all over the stores. I did not feel ready for Christmas, but clearly, the stores are gearing up for the occasion. Forget Halloween, Thanksgiving, Maya's birthday etc, it is onward to the Christmas season. I guess we can start planning now.

Politics

MondayMonday

Recovering

Emily thinks I may have had swine flu. This was certainly the worst flu I have ever had, and the symptoms fit the description. I am recovering, so I am not pursuing any more treatment. I am hoping to wake up tomorrow morning feeling healthy and back to normal.

Meanwhile I took it easy today. I went to bed before midnight last night, started my day slowly with a bubble bath, met with Eric's parents for breakfast at the 'Shiny Diner', spent time reading the New York Times, sat lazily in the sun watching Maya's soccer game. Eric took Maya and Belina and Marius for an event at the Science Center while I met with Sharon to discuss an impending meeting this week over a glass of wine.

Sounds like a stultifyingly boring day, which it was, but I am still coughing and recovering and I am tired of being ill and hoping that keeping things quiet and unremarkable, will help me heal some more.

I have missed yoga all week, and Eric will be gone for a few days, so I will have to hold off on anything extra for a few days. I am looking forward to getting back to normal.

Finally Human

I am on the mend and finally and deservedly had a day to recover from my horrendous week. I was up at dawn of course, and prepared Maya's clothes and lunch and breakfast and got her moving, but then woke Eric up, crawled back into bed, and slept in a little. I took an easy Pilates class, stopped at Starbuck's for a macchiato, took a long long shower and caught up with the news on CNN and NPR, and settled into a few hours looking at photos from our trip to Peru.

The neurosurgeon who examined me and suggested surgery in Quito is in Baltimore this week. He was sent to take care of a patient who was shot in the 'coup' attempt in Quito a few weeks ago. He is staying in Alexandria and coming to Johns Hopkins daily to help with translation for the patient and his family. I had hoped to meet with him today and take him out for lunch, but although I waited for his call all day, he called once at 10 and said he just arrived at the hospital, and again at 3 PM to tell me he was still waiting for the ICU specialist to come. He did not leave me a number and we did not connect. I imagine he is busy working and helping out. Maria and Gabriel, his wife and son, were close to Maya and me when we lived in Quito, and I hoped to show him a bit of Baltimore.

So I waited and worked on iPhoto, admiring the beautiful views of the Amazon. I had a patient to see and some shopping to do and Maya to pick up from Peabody, but the day was calm and quiet and peaceful and not at all stressful. The sun was shining and it was warm and fresh and the sky was a gorgeous blue.

Eric's parents had been flying across the country for the past month and came to visit with us for dinner. Maya brought them to the Tot Lot to play. I was surprised that that would be her choice, not having visited for months. She helped train a very well behaved dog, and it was tough to drag her away. We later had a wonderful meal at 'Teatro Tapas' near the Charles Theatre, so to be close to the Everyman Theatre, where Maya and I had tickets to 'Shipwrecked', which we both enjoyed thoroughly. I love to hear her laugh in delight throughout the comedy. This has been theatre weekend. 'The Wiz' at Centerstage last night and the season opener at the Everyman tonight.

I am better. Still coughing and sniffling, but much much better, thankfully.

Antibiotics are the Best

Worse

Bronchitis? Pneumonia? Anitbiotics?

Still Sick

I did not have a voice today and could hardly hear anything....and managed to see patients from 8:45 to 7:30 PM. I am not sure how I did that, but I do feel wasted....I must sleep well because I return to the neurosurgeon tomorrow for a followup and decision regarding surgery. I am afraid I will look so very pathetic!

Neurologically I look good, but surgery may still be the best option for me. Lots of decisions to make in the next weeks.

Maya was doing her violin project and looking up sites and ran into a porn site that freaked her out. She was clearly fearful and disturbed and cried and cried and cried. It never occurred to me that this would happen. I have never been redirected to pornography in all the time I spend on the computer and now we have set limits on all the computers in the house but not in time to protect her from such horrors. She is so young and innocent and deserves to be protected and I have failed her. Eric is less disturbed than I am, not sure what that means. Life is certainly more complicated now than it was when I was 10.

Sick and Suffering

So it is not malaria, or meningitis, thankfully, just an intensely awful flu/cold/Upper Respiratory Infection that has swept through the household (Maya is not yet ill, but it is inevitable that she will be) and hit us hard. Eric was in bed all Sunday and into Monday and is dragging himself around in agony. I don't believe I have ever had such a horrible cold in my life. I am sore all over, headachy dizzy, shivering regularly, and I cannot talk or hear anything. Great for being a psychiatrist!

Poor little Maya is not getting a whole lot of care taking. She seems so self sufficient. Her life is quite ordered and organized and she knows where to go, what to do, and Eric and I share the driving now. Until our neighbours Noah and Susie left for a sabbatical in Seattle last week, we had one car and one motorcycle. Eric tried to rent 'zip cars' when I needed his help, which is rather expensive, so I felt guilty about asking him to do the driving. Noah has given Eric the use of his car when necessary, so for now we do have two cars and can share the considerable amount of chauffeuring required in Maya's considerable schedule. So she is well taken care of by very impaired parents, who are marginally functional. AT least for now. I am debating antibiotic treatment....this may be more serious than I came to believe after initially discarding my first concerns.

Whew!

Floating Down the Amazon

Oct 17

Oct 16

We were exhausted after watching Dr. Lam's slideshow of over 900 photos, all of which were amazing and gave me a severe case of camera envy. I will need to upgrade and get a better macro lens and a better camera altogether. My Nikon is 10 years old, at least I bought it when Maya was born, but have replaced it once when stolen....and clearly the technology has changed remarkably. Once I pay off all my other expenses, it will be time to focus on camera purchases. I was blown away by KK's technology, and aim to improve mine.

So it was late when we finally crawled into bed. Eric and I are convinced that our cabin was infested with some sort of bug, perhaps a nocium, not a mosquito, and both of us are covered with bug bites mostly on our legs, but into my chest and arms. Eric has scratched his and they have become inflamed and secondarily infected and he has been using Neosporin daily and his wounds are improving, but I am waking up scratching all night and am going a little crazy. I think planning to return home brings to the forefront all sorts of worries and realities although I am eager to see Maya and hug her and kiss her and love her. I miss her terribly, especially these past few days, and want to be back as soon as possible.

I was awake before our wake up call, and packed and dressed and ready to go early. This group has been quite wonderful and we have enjoyed many of the individuals whom we have met. There was time to say goodbye and exchange email addresses and reflect about the very intense experience we have had this past week.

We had motored to Nauta last night during dinner, and it was a short boatride across the river to meet our bus and head back to Iquitos, an hour and a half away. I felt overwhelmed by the evidence of the destruction of the rainforest so evident along the road. This has been a theme this entire trip. I remember this from our last visit to the area. Humans populate both sides of the river and work the land and dirty the streams and deposit their garbage everywhere. This is certainly a disappearing jungle, and although we saw many species, many more than expected, the destruction is the image I will return home with. I feel sad and helpless with this image and of course Eric;s lecture about the 6th extinction and the end of biodiversity terrifies me and there does not appear to be much we can do to stop the inevitable.

Our busride to Iquitos in the rain was slow....we passed a few small and dirty towns, many people were on the road, we passed a dump with dozens of buzzards circling above or perching on trees nearby. I saw many birds along the way, but did not take the time or energy to identify them.

Iquitos airport looks the same as it did in 2006, with the same decomposing airplane dead next to the runway. We flew on LAN to Lima and landed in Callao where it always seems to smell like dirty fish. A hotel room was provided for us for the day where Eric worked all afternoon (thrilled to have internet for the first time since we left Lima) and I joined a couple from the San Fransisco area for a visit to the Larco Herrera mseum, which I had visited in May but was quite happy to visit again. It is a wonderful museum with an amazing collection of ceramics and gold artifacts with excellent descriptions that were helpful in understanding the different early cultures.

Oct 15

It was destruction of the rainforest that struck me most this morning as we took a boatride down the tacaya river from our base on the Ucuyali. We are at the confluence of the Maranon and the Ucuyali flowing together to make the Amazon River. The sides of the riverbank are populated by natives who are farming much of the land and very little of the forest remains. We saw many beautiful birds along the way, but the mostly we saw people along the river, bathing or washing clothes, fishing or building boats, trying to sell us their handicrafts. I don't know if this is the way it has been here forever, but I saw very little primeval forest during our journey and today was exemplary of that. This is very much a part of the rainforest that will not recover, and that does not take too much away from the beauty or the strangeness, but clearly the rainforest is lost and cannot be recovered.

That said, we had an interesting morning identifying birds and enjoying the cool breeze and freshness of dawn. We were lucky to be back on the boat when the dark rain clouds gathered and suddenly poured buckets of water on the boat so that the roof was leaking in the dining area and the room where Eric was to lecture was unusable because the roof did not hold out the water. The rain was dramatic and sudden and terrifying and then gone for the day. Everything is fresh and clean afterward.

Eric's lecture was confused, and he started with the question 'Who cares?' about biodiversity, but then went off to talk about 'the 6th extinction of species, then defined species and then wandered off and ended with solutions to the problem, the first being to stop using carbon, which is impossible, and then to killing much of the population, which did not really offer a solution. I think he was trying to put together some ideas, and is on his way to a good lecture, but has not quite formulated his ideas or his conclusions yet. This was a trial lecture and we were the guinea pigs and next time it will be better. I believe using an already prepared and sensible lecture would have made more sense.

Eric is worried about getting home and getting back to work and all day I have been missing Maya and wanting to know what she is up to and whether all is going well in Baltimore. Not having contact is awfully difficult and I am not accustomed to it. I wish I could call home and talk to Karen or Maya and at least know where Maya will spend the night tomorrow. Karen leaves in mid afternoon and we arrive the next day in the afternoon. My original plan was for Daphne to care for Maya, but Karen informed me that plans had changed. I suggested Sandi or Emily, so I am sure all will be well, but I am still uncomfortable. I do not like to be away from Maya and away from the internet for so much time, I would rather be able to email or call my parents or Tara or Maya or even my office. Did Rina take good care of my patients? I wonder. Will they be upset with me or will all be well? Tomorrow in Lima we may not be able to contact family at all....and I have so little control over any of this....

Our afternoon on our wet boat was devoted to reviewing the species we had seen over the week and planning for our departure tomorrow. Several of us gathered and discussed the original natives of the Amazon and what happened to them. One of the participants from the Dartmouth group is an archeologist and expressed his views on the subject, but we ran out of time before anyone else had a chance to offer further insights. I wish we had started the discussion a few days ago and explored it further, but in truth there has been little time for anything more than the jampacked program offered by 'Jungle Expeditions'. I am napping as much as I can just to keep up.

A little more than half the group took a short boat ride to the water lilies which were all dried up and shriveled and decomposing and at first I was horrified, but with time, I began to find myself interested in the formations and took some photos and became more intrigued. I guess I had expected Giverny and Monet's water lilies, but these were huge and colourful and reminded me of 'The Little Shop of HOrrors' or some alien life forms from a bad science fiction movie. Eric stayed and slept for the afternoon and when we returned he was working and continued to do so until dinner. Themusic playing for the evening was not great, but I dragged Eric on the dance floor for a short dance. We shared our wine at dinner with a couple from Minnesota whom we had not spent much time with, and had a pleasant conversation with them. Dr. Lam, who has an amazing set of D3 Nikon cameras with a suitcaseful of equipment and has been photographing thousands of photos a day, put together a slide show of absolutely amazing photos of all we had seen over the week. It has been a n amazing six days, we have seen marvelous things and after seeing his photos I am convinced that I must have a new and better camera so I can do the same. I also need to use better software to improve my photos. These will be projects for the next few months so that when we return to Ecuador, I will be ready to do more and better photography. For now it is late and time for bed, with a 6 AM wakeup call and a return to Iquitos and Lima and home all in one day.

Oct 14

Today was an absolutely wonderful day, except that I woke up at 4 AM and could fall back asleep. I was exhausted when I fell into bed last night and expected to sleep like a log all night, but began to think about missing Maya and not having a chance to speak to her for days and wondering whether she and my sister are doing fine, and who my sister would arrange to have Maya stay with after she leaves a day before we arrive back. I was also preoccupied with my work and what to do about my embezzling former secretary and whether it made sense to work with a lawyer and go after the stolen money or to let it be. I finally gave up stewing in bed and began to get dressed hoping to see the sunrise, but I was too late and sat with Eric having a coffee (he had a coffee, I watched, since I gave up coffee three days ago and decided to stick with not drinking coffee after suffering with headaches for the past two days). We were all off on the skiffs at 6:30, planning to spend all morning on a river in a Nature Preserve for the morning including having breakfast in the boat.

The creek was called 'Yanayacu' and we had to stop at the Ranger's Station to register before we moved on. The boat was surrounded by locals selling necklaces and handicrafts, but none of us had brought any money so we disappointed them terribly. The river was misty and as we went along the fog was rising amongst flocks of egrets and large billed terns. We encountered both pink and grey dolphins all the way up the river but I was unsuccessful in my efforts to photograph them, always being too late to catch their dorsal fins. We saw kingfishers of several sorts, the Amazon kingfisher and the ringed kingfisher and more, and different sorts of hawks and vultures and birds of prey. Many other colourful birds, a sloth and squirrel monkeys joined us as we motored up the river and the pace of the day was quite perfect. We stopped for breakfast in a shady spot, and later stopped again to do some more piranha fishing. As a group we caught some 17 red and white bellied piranhas, but they were all smaller than the ones we caught the day before. We used a few to try to get hawks to fly out to catch them in the water, but the hawks were suspicious and only one picked up a fish.

I did not want our excursion to end, I was determined to catch a dolphin picture and for the first time set up my new tripod and tired to wait for the perfect shot. The boat did not sit still long enough and now I have one more day to make an effort again. There are dolphins everywhere. I will have to sit still on the side of the boat for several hours tomorrow and see if I can finally do it.

We arrived at the boat later than planned and after lunch and a siesta (I am enjoying my daily naps on the boat, and would not make it each day without them) listened to Lisa Baldez, the professor from Dartmouth, give a lecture about women in politics in South America. It is remarkable that in such a macho culture, women are making significant strides politically in a way that seems impossible in the US.

The boat was moving and reached the confluence of the Maranon and the Uculali rivers, where the official start of the Amazon begins. The river is wide and a sand bar occupies the middle of the three rivers. We took the skiffs to the sand bar to take a walk, where we met a 50 year old woman who was picking beans (black eyed peas) to bring hone to shuck with her family and sell for 1 sol per kilo. He brother in law, who farmed the rice paddy nearby was helping her. Antoinette and Eric decided to have us all help pick the beans and then pay three dollars for a bagful. I am not sure who will prepare the beans, but we now have tomorrow's dinner. The woman was named Marina and had 12 children, ages 6 to 33. She looked strong sand healthy for her 50 years, with a weathered face and strong legs.

I was still on our dolphin watch as we motored back to the boat. Instead the sunset was spectacular and once onboard the evening festivities began. Dr. Carr bought us all drinks and I ordered a 'Piscarita', a margherita with Pisco instead of tequila. I like it with alot of lime juice, but the amount of alcohol was substantial, so I could really fee the alcohol. We danced along to the music and I was even able to coax Eric into joining me for a dance. Lisa dances well and was on the dance floor too. Earlier when we were walking on the sandbar, one of the two boatdrivers had written love letters to her in the sand. Someone has fallen in love with her and she will have to decide whether to acknowlege or reciprocate the proposals of love from her boatman.

A night boatride after dinner did not iyeld much, but was pleasant. The sky was cloudy but full of stars and the air was cool and comfortable. Our last day is tomorrow!

Oct 13

We were all relieved to be back in the boat after our night in the jungle. Eric and I were both eaten up by bugs during our adventure, and used neosporin (which was ten years old and provided by one of our boatmates...their first aid kit must have been years old, but that was better than the fact that we had none at all). I had to drag Eric out of bed. He wanted to sleep in after sleeping well all night. I had woken up to use the bathroom sometime early in the morning and did not sleep much after that. I also had a headache, probably due to not drinking coffee, and had to take Ibuprofen in the early hours. Wake up knock came at 6 and we were off the boat by 6:30 and up the river past a rather large community alongside the river.

The landscape was covered in mist, which rose slowly and so the scene was a little eerie. We stopped at the meeting of the Tigre and Maranon rivers with a smaller black water creek to look for dolphins which tend to congregate where rivers meet. We saw both pink river and grey dolphins, but they are difficult to predictably photograph, so we were lucky to see them pop up for a second or two and then disappear. Victor guided us up the very shallow stream, and we saw kingfishers and orioles and hawks flying along the sides of the stream, along with swallows and terns and a few other identifiable birds. I think Victor was looking for monkeys in the trees along the sides of the stream, but none appeared. We returned to the boat for breakfast, and headed out piranha fishing in the same stream. We had some luck, catching red and silver piranha species, and Rosario suggested that we had just caught our lunch. Thankfully there were other choices for lunch, and only a few bold passengers tried the piranha (I had tried them before and that was enough).

Our afternoon excursion was to a village nearby, where we learned about manioc farming and visited the home of a 65 year old woman and her family.. Houses are built on stilts and are usually open to the outside and only one room with hammocks, but this structure had several rooms with a separate area for the kitchen, so clearly this family was doing well. Our waiter Pepe from the boat had family in the town we learned that this was his mother's house. THere were dozens of children, and we visited them at their school where they sang for us and then we sang for them and distributed school supplies. The children were poor and barefoot and dressed simply, but appeared happy and engaged and came out with their parents (the men finished their soccer game) to sell us trinkets before we left. This was the same town we visited when we were here in 2006, but appears to have prospered and grown since then. It is always a little awkward to experience these village visits. The children are dirty and some are ill and crying but most are happy and engaging, however they know to expect money and gifts from us, and although they do not beg, we are sources of income, and there is a nongenuine quality to the visit. Eric stayed in bed at the boat for the afternoon, refusing to join us for the village experience, having done it before and clearly uncomfortable with the interaction. He was also suffering from dozens of bugbites which were inflamed and secondarily infected. We found someone with ancient bacitracin to smear over his red and angry legs, and he was clearly suffering.

The sun was setting as we left for the big boat. Eric was still in bed and joined us for drinks and appetizers on the top deck before dinner. Music and dancing kept us busy until dinner where we sat with Didier (from France) and his wife Dodi. Anne had a party cake for her birthday and she was serenaded and feted and then we all shared her cake with her.

They are keeping us so very busy on this trip and I am falling exhausted into bed each evening. I find that I have not much reserve and wonder if that is age or worse. I am sleeping more than I do at home, and eating more as well. For the first time ever I am full of bug bites. I asked Eric to buy DEET in Baltimore and he assured me that he had some in the lab. Unfortunately he had none, so bought 'Mata zun' in Lima, a local brand of mosquitoe repellant, which does not work for anything and my body is full of all sorts of bites which drive me nuts and wake me up in the middle of the night. Yikes! A true jungle experience.

Oct 12

Oct 11

Oct 10

Our day began too early, with our alarm sounding at 4:15 and just enough time to shower, dress, pack and meet our bus and our other traveling companions at 5. Our trip through the dark streets of Lima was quick and uneventful. Limenos were just leaving nightclubs and taxis were lining up to take the night revelers home for the evening (morning?). The airport was bustling with activity and we waited an inordinate amount of time to be checked in, so that we arrived at our gate just in time to catch our flight to Iquitos.

Iquitos is deep in the jungle at the north eastern tip of Peru. It in fact belonged to Ecuador until the end of a war between Peru and Ecuador that ended in 1999, after which Peru laid claim to it. There are no roads to Iquitos; the 500000 inhabitants can get there by plane or by river. The plane ride is almost two hours, and iquitos looked exactly as it did when I came four years ago, the same plane junked to one side of the runway, the airport crisp and clean and functional, and the city bustling with activity at the daily market.

We were bussed to the same hotel we stayed in last time for breakfast, and then rode to a typical department store to find socks and shorts for Eric. I had hoped to visit the busy market, but that was not in the agenda. Instead we drove out to Nauta where we were to meet our boat, and stopped at a handicrafts market on the way. The ride to Nuata was uneventful, with fincas and a few small towns along the way. The houses were made of wood for walls and palms for roofs, there were banana plantations and fish farms and some cows grazing. The jungle was clearly destroyed and the land was used for farming. Eric was intrigued by the white sand he saw. The Amazon was once an inland sea, and it made sense that sand remained from millions of years ago, but it still seemed bizarre.

We embarked onto a boat once we arrived at Nauta, and motored over to the 'Turmalina' houseboat which was to be our home for the next several days. It is small and quaint and serviceable and not much different than the boat we took last time. Our cabins were small and efficient. While eating lunch a huge rainstorm ensued, with buckets falling from the heavens. Everyone kept reminding themselves that this was the rainforest, albeit now is the rainy season. We left for our afternoon excursion with the rain still falling, taking a skiff down the banks of the river and seeing several birds, from road side hawks to collared hawks to herons, kisadees, anis, oropendolas, aracaris, parrots, and a dozen other colourful busy birds. We saw two sloths climibing up trees, and both pink and grey dolphins played in the water. It was rather idyllic, and everyone was pleased. I tried my new camera and was not too successful with it (will have to read the instructions). I kept reminding myself that this will be the last time we do this trip so I ought to document everything I can, but I was not too successful today. I wll bring out my old camera and my new tripod tomorrow and will try to do better. Eric and I are exhausted after a long day and ready to sleep at right angles in our cramped room. Eric will give a lecture tomrorrow hight, so he is busy putting his slides together for the event.

Sun in Lima

For most of the year, Lima is grey and overcast, and the air is sodden with moisture, and when it is windy, it feels awfully cold, but today the sun shone through, and the city looked entirely different. We had lunch at Larcomar, a complex of shops and restaurants built into a cliffside with a view of the shoreline 200 feet below and the Pacific beyond. Peruvian cuisine is sophisticated and quite wonderful, so I took advantage of the buffet and 20 different dishes, and then as many small samples of each dessert on my plate as well.

Eric worked on his computer all morning. I joined the group of alumni on the bus with Sonia, our guide (the same one we had five years ago) and Antoinette, the tour leader. We are staying in San Isidro, one of the 40 or so neighbourhoods in the city of 9 million inhabitants. The city is spread along the coast for miles and miles. and all the sites are far from one another. It makes sense to take a tour, which turned out to be exactly the same as the one we had five years prior. Sonia added many more comments this time and pointed out many buildings and oddities on the way.

I learned that the country bird is the cock of the rock (we tried to find one when we traveled to Mindo without sucess), the country tree is the quinine tree and the flower an Andean lily. The flag is red white and red, much like the Canadian flag without the maple leaf, but has the Peruvian insignia (with a vicuna and a quinine tree) in the white part of the flag. The government buildings hoist flags up with the insignia, but private establishments can only use the white and red one. Everyone in the country is required to vote, and if they do not, they are fined and cannot get married or have a bank account. Sonia never stopped talking as we drove along, and I wish I had jotted down all the interesting anecdotes she offered. I hope they come back to me later.

We drove to the historical centre, where we circled the Plaza San Martin twice as we were instructed to pay attention to the woman with the llama on her head. The story was that the sculptor of the memorial to San Martin, an Argentinian who helped liberate Peru from the Spanish, got sick and had his assistant add the last flourishes to the statue, mistakenly adding a llama instead of a flame to the head of a woman. We stopped at the main Plaza de Armas, where we walked around the beautiful square. The cathedral and archbishop's palace occupied one side, the presidential palace another, the city hall the third side, and shops appeared all over the plaza. Beautiful wooden balconies stand out as architectural oddities. The buildings are painted yellow, apparently because that was the colour of the Hapsburgs, who were the royal family of Spain at the time of the conquest.

La Casa de Aliaga was nearby, a lovely colonial house which has been in the hands of the same family for centuries, and has been preserved and unchanged since the time of the Spanish conquest. We had visited the house five years earlier. The cathedral has been restored several times, due to repeated earthquake damage, and is famous for being the resting place of he conquerer Pizarro. The San Francisco church and monastery are walking distance away, and there our goal was to see the catacombs, which are the burial places for Limeno inhabitants from the 1600's to the early 1800's. My favourite part of San Franscisco is the library, which is one of the oldest in the Americas and full of dusty deteriorating volumes.

It was when we left he skulls and femurs in the catacombs that we encountered the sunshine. It is the first time I have seen sun in Lima and it was lovely. We dove through more of Lima, dropping off many of the tourists at Larcomar and having this wonderful momentary view of the ocean glinting in the sunshine. By the time I drove back to San Isidro and returned with Eric via taxi, the sun was gone and it was getting colder. We had lunch at 'Mangos' and then headed for the gold museum, where the first floor is full of weapons and uniforms of war. I almost questioned whether we had come to the right place, but we found the vault underneath, where thousands of Chimu, Vicas, Moche, Lambayeque, and Inca gold artifacts were arrayed in a rather disorganized and cacophanous way, to overwhelm me. I believe all the gold was stolen from graves, so there was no provenance, no way to know where anything came from . The pieces were impressive, the precoumbian cultures quite sophisticated with metallurgy, with an abundance of gold and silver to work with (Peru's number one industry is mining, with vast deposits of all sorts of precious metals and materials.)

I liked the mummies too, which are amazingly well preserved, with natural hair and often displayed with grave goods and textiles and ceramics. I loved the museum, but Eric just tolerated it, and was eager to move on and shop for nets and batteries so he could catch fish in the jungle. Our taxi driver had waited for us and agreed to take us to the mall for 10 soles an hour. We spent alot of time looking for the items Eric wanted amongst the Saturday night crowds. When we got to the hotel, Ricardo our friendly chauffer, wanted 10 dollars an hour instead. I was ready to fight him, but Eric insisted on paying the outrageous amount he asked for. I think that Ricardo decided after watching us buy batteries and nets and a flashlight, that he could ask for three times as much and we would pay, so we did.

Our flight leaves early in the morning for Iquitos, which is closer to Quito, and was once part of Ecuador until the war between Peru and Ecuador which the latter lost. We have a 5 AM wakeup call, so it is early to bed for our adventure in the jungle tomorrow.

And we are off!!!

Eric and I slept about two hours last night. There was so much excitement with Tara visiting from Montreal, Karen arriving at 10:30, and packing and organizing to do. I had a second lecture on Andean Cultures at 6:30 to 8:30, so I had enough time to finish at work and drive to Hopkins to meet Eric and Maya (Eric had picked her up with the Zipcar). ERic took my car to drive Maya home, and picked me up later. When I arrived home, Tara and Maya were making chocolate chip cookies in my kitchen and it reminded me of having the whole family home together. It felt absolutely wonderful.

There was time to hug Tara and urge Maya to get to bed. Eric and Tara were to go through boxes to find warm clothes for Montreal. I headed to the airport to meet Karen. We spent the ride home and an hour or so later to go through the detailed instructions I had typed out for Karen, including maps to all of Maya's activities. Karen thinks that I am nuts, that I plan too much for Maya; I think she has no idea that this is what parents do, or at least any parent I know. We all work and plan activities for our children. When my inlaws came to care for the children some years ago, my step mother inlaw was so offended by the instructions, she promptly left and we had to beg her to return so we could leave. Needless to say, the inlaws have never offered to help out again!

Finally there was time to pack and prepare. I was insistent that I clean the fridge and the bathrooms in anticipation of the cleaning person coming tomorrow. Karen laughed at me, as does Eric every time, that I clean before I pay someone else to, but I learned that from my mother and it makes me feel better. Although there I was spraying and scrubbing while Karen and Eric and Tara looked on in confusion.

I got to bed at 3 AM and the alarm dinged at 5. We were ready to go soon and goodbyes took longer. Maya was in my bed and up far too early. Eric had slept on the floor in the living room, there being no room in my bed with Maya in it and Karen and Tara sleeping in the only other bed upstairs.

Tara had to be in DC by 8 to meet her father and his family for his big event (retirement from the navy). Eric drove Ron's big diesel Mercedes (trying to find diesel was our first adventure) to Reagan International Airport. The traffic was horrendous, but we did arrive in time, and Tara did get to her event. This had all been arranged last minute (Tara's father sent her a ticket to come to his retirement event and to visit Oma and Opa for Thanksgiving Day weekend) and Tara decided to visit us and to pick up warm clothes and my old iphone which she has been coveting for months).

I like to travel and airports are always an adventure. Once we got rid of our bags, we relaxed with Starbucks coffee, wandered through the stores before and after security, and settled in to read the New York Times and the Economist and wait for our plane. We were squeezed in middle seats far apart on the way to Miami, but Miami airport offered us miles and miles of corridors to walk through, and rather horrible airport food to complain about.

Our flight to Lima was about five hours, with more time to rest and read and watch the movie set in Tuscany and Verona, so I watched it and remembered Italy. Everything about the day was easy and relaxing and perhaps I like it so much because I cannot control anything and all I am able to do nothing and not feel guilty about it. We arrived in Lima late, caught our ride to our hotel and had bubble baths before bed.

Ready to Go

I am never ready to go on a trip until the very last minute. I rarely pack ahead of time, and therefore the night before I leave is intense and sleepless and exhausting. I am also anticipating the arrival of my sister to care for Maya, and it appears that Tara, who is flying to DC to see her father, is coming to visit for tomorrow evening as well. Such excitement. Eric does not want to go to Peru at all. He prefers to work on his research and papers. Taking the alumni to Peru is a service for the university and he does not get paid, nor is it useful for his career, so it makes no sense to do it. I enjoy it far more, except that I have done the trip before and it will not be new at all. We are going anyway, because we are committed. Actually, Eric never remembers committing to the trip. He agreed to do the student intersession course in January and take the alumni to Galapagos in February, but suddenly he received an email with the plan for this event, and was scrambling to sort out what happened. It appeared too late to say no, so he reluctantly agreed to go, so we are going.

I emailed my sister not expecting her to agree to come to help out. I was going to use that as an excuse not to go, since I never leave Maya with strangers, but Karen decided to come and care for Maya and Maya is super excited to have her aunt with her for a week. Karen has spent a week with my sister in San Francisco, and two weeks prior to that in Edmonton with my parents. I am sad that she is not spending time with me, since she leaves a day before I return. But I believe she has never actually visited me, whatever that signifies, but she is willing to care for Maya and I am very appreciative.

My day was busy, but not awful. I seem to have a very nice rhythm going in my office, so I enjoy the pace. The day was marred by the realization by one of my colleagues that her laptop computer was stolen at the open house yesterday. The police came to make the report, and the office has rental insurance, but it still felt awful that we had been robbed, and that all the work and time Barbara had devoted to getting her office billing program started was lost.

Eric used the Zipcar to pick Maya up and I was able to pick her up after soccer. I spent the evening getting my suitcase and house organized. I missed my dance class and my yoga practice, but I was determined to do as much as I could a day ahead of time, so that tomorrow night would be easier. We will see if that actually happens.

Open House

Today was not an official working day, but my very energetic office mate put together an open house, so I spent the day getting my office in order, filing piles of paper, finishing up the billing for last month, vacuuming, dusting, buying hummus and pita bread and pistachio nuts for a kosher event, and finally networking with the visitors. I am realizing how senior I am amongst all the young clinicians. I have been practicing psychiatry for almost 30 years, so much longer than anyone else I encounter. I remember once being the youngest at every gathering. Suddenly I am the vintage one, the senior, older, wiser woman. Such a strange feeling.

I met with my former colleague Mimi to discuss our shared patients. It is odd to interact with her as if all was normal, knowing that my former billing person stole thousands of dollars from the practice and will likely never face any consequences. I wonder why no one does anything about it and why I don't make more of a fuss. I am squeamish about going to a lawyer, but I am curious about the process too.

We are gearing up to go on our journey to Peru. It is a working trip, I will be 'on' all the time, providing for the travelers, helping Eric, translating. But I am excited too, I love Lima and the jungle is always compelling. I feel lucky to have the opportunity.

Failure

Working on a Sunday

Tax Time

We deferred our taxes to October 15, which is the latest we can turn them in. Of course, despite my pleadings, Eric has not provided me with the papers we need to do this (our renters threw out our mail, so most of the tax forms we need have disappeared), so I have had to figure out ways to make them appear, but it turns out that the limiting factor is that somewhere amongst our hundreds of boxes in four storage stashes, there is a bunch of files detailing my income from my private practice, and that is what is essential for us now. Eric made several trips to Daphne's house to bring back boxes, each of which we checked for the necessary papers. Nothing from Daphne's or the garage or the basement or the sunroom or from Eric's office yielded anything. I focussed on getting everything together while Eric went back and forth. He truly wanted to do research work, there being so much on his plate and so much pressure on him to accomplish far too much in too short a time, but he patiently went back and forth. On the other hand, I have been nagging about taxes for a time, never having been comfortable with deferring them anyway, and as is typical for Eric, he does not do anything until the last moment, when he has no choice. Which is now.

I had wanted to finish up some CME credits again today, (there was a daylong conference at Sheppard Pratt about YOuth Substance Abuse and Comorbidity, which looked good and is certainly relevant for my practice. Instead, after dropping Maya and her friend Sarah at Peabody, I took my usual hot vinyasa power yoga class, caught up with phonecalls at the office, and then began the tax journey. By the end of the beautiful sunny autumn day, after our unsuccessful search, I finally put together all that I had, and had Eric fedex it to our accountant in Salt Lake. I have used him for almost 20 years, and trust him, so I still do. I will have to devote some time tomorrow to more searching.

Meanwhile, tonight Eric and Maya and I babysat Noah and Susie's children, Genna and Jonah, ages 3 and 19 months. They are off to Seattle for a sabbatical next week, and needed a break from the children. Maya loves to take care of little ones, and is now asleep on the couch with Eric, who is still recovering from his trip to Blacksburg.

The Deluge