Seattle and re-entry

On the road again . . . Willie Nelson comes to mind, but without all his enthusiasm . . .  time's flying.  Our two weeks in the Oak Park area were a blur -- of much loved people, wonderful conversations, parties, coffees, dinners and get-togethers, a visit with Millie in Evansville, and the troubling awareness of not having time to hang out with everyone we wanted to see.

And the food!  The food cooked by excellent chef Ann (our host), and the potable and delicious tap water, special items cooked by friends, and turkey and dressing and pie, and the delightful assortment of vegetables!  Add to that the fullness of the grocery shelves and their delights:  real peanut butter!, bread, sauces and condiments, hot peppers (oh, how we missed the heat!), fresh milk, great coffee -- how very delightful and fattening to be back.

There's a paragraph at the end of this on re-adjustments, because many of you have asked.  But we're in Seattle now, and want to share a bit of it.   We attended the 26th Annual Great Figgy Pudding Street Corner Caroling Competition on Friday.  While not a religious procession (more of Peru's to come), it contains an element of devotion.  Anyone can organize a chorus, and they sing for a couple of hours in downtown Seattle and raise money for a senior's charity.  It's a big deal here, and fun.  

There was tap dancing by a cloggers group, who also sang.

Lots of people come -- they close off Pike Street.

This was the Seattle Labor Chorus - union folks.

These ladies were adorable, singing and dancing Andrews Sisters stuff. 

One of the Beaconettes, the great hair ladies. 

A marching band ended the singing competition and many followed the band to the final judging.  We didn't.

There they go, to the final judging.

Seattle has an annual event hosted by the Seattle Diabetes Foundation -- a fully-edible gingerbread/candy house competition and display.  No hint of irony there.  Disney's presence was heavy.

The Beast's castle.

Yep, Beauty and the Beast, Disney style.

Marshmallow and licorice sheep.

Alice in Wonderland theme.

An architectural firm did this one.  

Seattle has water access everywhere, and parks abound in the city.

Puget Sound from a park in the Ballard neighborhood.

The sound from Carkeek Park, a little north of the park to the left.   Doesn't feel like the city at all.

I went to one of many sets of locks in the area one morning.  This one had a fish ladder (Steelhead still climbing) and cool access to walk over the locks.

Big water + big machinery = very interesting stuff.

Hard to see, but they holiday-decorate their construction cranes in Seattle -- this one shows as a green line.

It's nice to be moderately functional again, with a new camera and binoculars.  This sunset appeared on our drive through Indiana and my new camera caught it.  

November sunset in central Indiana.

So, as to re-entry adjustments :

• The overwhelm of language has been interesting -- all the signs are readable, all the conversations eavesdroppable, all the music understandable, TV accessible and completely making sense, newspapers fully meaningful and relevant.  Everything's accessible -- sort of overwhelming to be in that sea of stimulus.  
• So many good options:  foods, people, books, avenues of pursuit, grocery shelves.  Pretty much related to the point above, in that it's all understandable, all accessible, all possible.  Takes a lot of thought to resist, to not be pulled in every direction.
• The need to decide and then plan the next steps -- it never ends.  We're here and have to keep going.  We're enjoying the respite, but are aware of the pull of the future.  It took forever and major work to line up the 6 airbnbs, four hotels, car rentals and transportation necessary to have us in the PNW for the three months we're here.  
• Obesity and its troubles.  Not a factor in Ecuador or Peru, and frankly it's nice not to have to think about the species' stupidity in that arena.  We're back to it.
• And contentment.  Not so apparent here in the states, as it is in Ecuador and Peru.  Lots of poverty there, lots of troubles, but a basic apparent contentment among the people, the kids.  Wish I felt it here more.
• Communications.  It's wonderful to have a cell again (let me know if you need my new number), and to be reachable anytime.  And it's a big responsibility and tiresome, too.  I'm sure you understand.  Internet is awesome here.  Love it.
• Full pockets.  Must carry a wallet again (south america was cash-based for us), and the phone. And keys. 
• The fullness of politics in this country - argh.  And we missed the worst of it.  This is also one of the delights, sort of understanding the process.
• This life of leisure is interesting.  Easy and natural in another country, but weird here.  I'm not used to not being engaged -- working, volunteering, being with the community, etc, has always been life in the US, and of late, packing and planning our exit.  It somehow doesn't feel right to be a tourist here.  I feel a little antsy about it; Steve's more okay.  We both miss the routine of a normal life, though.    
• And people.  We both realized how much we missed family and friends, and easy access, easy gatherings, easy conversations.
• Travels have complicated life, for sure.  And this sort of re-entry, this life is sweet, but incomplete.  

Sigh . . and some random photos

We're back in the land of excellent peanut butter, whole wheat bread, brown rice, kale, friends and family, easy communication, innate cultural and satirical understanding, easy humor . . .  home.  We've seen a few good friends so far (yay! more to come!), have had family phone conversations (without  the conversations freezing!), have been eating well and are thoroughly enjoying our time, looking forward to our full dance card of friends while we're here.  And we've not been paying attention to the stuff that's fully occupied our lives for the past 6 months -- making plans and reservations, updating, communicating.  Life's current is strong here, and we're happily floating down stream for awhile.

Our day of Paracas-Chicago travel was a 40 hour one -- bus from Paracas to Lima, flights Lima to Houston and Houston to Chicago, complicated by the United worldwide computer glitch.  The "day" underlined how much easier and more comfortable it is to travel in Peru (Ecuador, too) than in the US; TSA is a pain with its disorganization and inefficiencies, the planes and airport travel/transfers are more complicated here, and staff is less helpful, more stressed.  But we're here, safely, with all luggage intact - truly feels like a miracle.

Now that we're back in the states for 3 months or so, we're not sure how to approach the blog.  There were some outstanding places in Peru that didn't get shared because of sketchy internet, and because they required too much thought/time to do well, and some random stuff, too, that was entertaining.  Those will get posted as time allows over the next few months, but I don't expect this blog to be very active until we're out of the country again, likely in March.  Some of you have signed up for email notification of this blog, and that's probably the easiest way to know if anything's been posted, because we'll be intermittent for a while.  The email notification option just feeds a new entry to your email; nothing else. 

We've had a few people ask us to write reflectively, about personal adjustments, challenges (including what it's like to travel with a spouse so constantly joined at the hip), delights, observations on cultural stuff.  I can't decide if there's really value to putting that in this blog . . . any thoughts?  We'll see.
 
It's our plan to be in the Chicago area until early December, when we'll fly to Seattle to hang out with John.  Just before Christmas Ross and Gen will join us and we'll all drive to Ashland OR for Christmas with my sister.  After that Steve and I will settle in a furnished apartment in Portland for a couple of months, to check out the city fit and decompress.  Then we'll take off to Cambodia? Vietnam? Portugal? New Zealand? England?  Scotland? Wales?. . . not sure, but somewhere for more adventures. 

Here are a few random photos from Peru.

A truck full of egg-sized ball bearings.

This was actually posted on the Yavari, the B&B ship on Lake Titicaca.  With a woman captain.  Argh.

Views from our Puno hotel balcony. Hard times in Puno.

This, and the three photos below -- lines of "old people" waiting for their social security money.  They line up at the first of the month, and wait in hours-long lines to get their 200 soles, $80 for the month. 

 

Common sight anywhere in Ecuador or Peru, folks standing by a newspaper stand, reading newspapers they can't afford to buy, to get the news.  Probably 10 different editions available in most bigger cities. 

Typical Puno (Lake Titicaca area) lady, in a cotton skirt and the typical bowler hat.

Giant condor overlooking the city of Puno.

This sign in the bus station.  Don't get the ambulatory services part. 

School kids field tripping to see the arch, below.  Getting a nice talk from their teacher about local history. 

Colonial arch into the city of Puno.

National flower of Peru, the cantuta.  Hummingbirds love it. 

Heading back!

Another hurriedly done entry - sorry - the bad internet connections take their toll.

We're spending our last day in Peru with lunch overlooking the Pacific in the town of Paracas.  We'll hop on a bus for Lima (3 hours) this afternoon, then take a taxi to the airport where we'll board our plane for Houston at midnight, change around 6, and arrive Chicago around noon.  Can't believe our South American adventure is over! 

Our dear friends Ann and Ates are generously hosting us for the 2.5 weeks we'll be in the area, during which time we'll visit Evansville for a few days, our Thanksgiving will include Ross, and we'll get to see Steve's family while we're in town and they're gathered here, too.  Lots of catching up to do with friends, too.  Can't wait!

In Tambo Colorado, Inca ruins outside of Paracas.  We're in the Inca royalty bath.  The Inca and his mujere.

We still have South American stuff, that has gone unposted, and will likely follow through on those as time allows -- there's so much we haven't covered -- other ruins, lots of fantastic monasteries and convents, foods, street scenes . . . but perhaps we should be done.  We'll see.  It will be fantastic to have predictably good internet in our lives again.  Sigh.  That's been hard, in part for the uncertainty, but also because it's been our lifeline to communications with kids and friends, with investments, with Steve's fantasy football team, with life as we've known it in the states.  

Paracas National Reserve - birds! sea lions!

This is hurriedly being done, so forgive, please.  We're off to Paracas for our final night, after a visit to local wineries and factories.  I'm not sure we'll have decent internet again before we leave, so want to get these amazing birds out there before we depart.  Can't wait to be back in the states!

The Paracas National Reserve is huge (139,000 square miles), encompassing tropical dessert (an extension of the Atacama desert in northern Chile), and with 2/3 of its area comprised of ocean and coastal habitat.  We boated out to the Ballestas Islands (aka Guano islands, as they're literally covered in what was once quite profitable bird poop).  The area has hundreds of thousands of sea birds -- mostly three varieties of cormorants (neotropic, red footed, Guanay), Peruvian pelicans, Peruvian boobies, Inca terns and Humboldt penguins -- and thousands of sea lions.  Then we drove around in the desert area, vast expanses of nothing but sand.  The area gets 20 mm of rain a year, almost always in the form of mist.  We caught the rain.  Not an inconvenience. 

The jelly fish near the shore were gorgeous, and the size of manhole covers.

But hard to photograph in the morning sun. 

Waiting cormorants and pelicans.

This candelabra (barely visible in the mist, and in the photo) is like the famous Nazca lines (which we didn't see).  It's on one of the Ballestas Islands.

Rock island, littered and by birds  -- a mix of birds and their droppings; the ones that show up whitest are the Peruvian boobies..

 

Humboldt penguins, by the thousands.

Beautiful rocks and water, covered with birds -- see the ruffle along the top -- a Pelican ruffle.

Lucky to wee this red footed cormorant, much rarer than the other two. 

Peruvian pelicans of various ages.

Such beautiful beak coloring.

More and more and more Peruvian pelicans. Sigh.  Healthy population.  Sea lions on the rocks below the pelicans. 

 

Inca terns -- so beautiful.

 And thousands of sea lions.  Big, little, mostly sleeping, resting, hanging out -- although there were probably many more in the water that we didn't see.  There was an hours' old baby and mom, blood still apparent, delineating their relationship through sound (to make theirs recognizable voices.)

A little one, not the newborn.

Sea lions like to play, and our guide told us this one was taking seaweed up to play with (they don't eat it, nor sleep on it.)

Sleeping, odd position.

Pair playing in the water.  Turkey vulture, likely waiting for a dead sea lion baby or its placenta. 

Don't know how this sea lion got up there, but resting.

They still farm guano from here, once every seven years, so as not to seriously disturb the residents.  This pier is for their use, but mostly used by the birds. 

The famous headless Peruvian booby. 

On our lunch stop, a relatively tamed or hungry pelican. 

 

Our lunch stop, an area that had been wiped out by the tsunami of 2007, recovering . . . and delicious!

The Reserve, 140K square miles of this, nothingness.  Fascinating.