We are in the U.S.

Peter and I are in the U.S.  My mother died on August 12th, at 4:03 in the afternoon.  It was a peaceful passing with relatives surrounding her.

We were in Switzerland when the phone call came through at 4:00 in the morning.  We were on a plane a bit more than 24 hours later.

Back home.

We are back in the Hunter Valley.  Easy trip home if you can call sitting on an airplane for 16 hours 'easy'. It is now June 11th. We crossed the timeline and lost a day, so June 10th didn't exist for us.

I will now sign off this blog until our next trip, whenever that may be.

Taste buds are weird.

Something very strange has happened to my taste buds. I don't seem to have any.  I can distinguish temperature and texture of the food, but not taste. Toast, eggs, and coffee all taste the same...awful.  I am hoping it is because of the Medecine the local pharmacy gave me for this terrible cough and cold I have.  And now Peter has the start of a cold.

We took the bus back to Lima today. 

Ataca Desert

We are in the Ataca Desert, the driest place on earth with 0% humidity. The scenery is like a lunar landscape. The town gets their water from the Andes Mountains via an underground aquaduct, over 100 kms long, built by the ancient Nazca people over 2,000 years ago and still in use! Today, we saw a sand dune that was 6,000 feet high. And deep in the desert, we visited a Necropolis where the ancient Nazca buried their dead, perfectly preserved mummies due to the dry atmosphere. But this remarkable site is in very poor condition with human bones scattered everywhere and looting still going on. 

Nazca Lines

We are on another bus trip down to Nazca. Eight hour trip, but seats reclined, they showed two movies, and the bus had wifi. 
Upon reaching Nazca, we were taken straight to the airport and flew over the Nazca Lines for an hour. The hieroglyphs, some miles long going over hill and dale, are remarkable. How and why they did it is still a mystery, although one theory for the 'why' is that they were an ancient calendar. Again, ancient civilisations and what they accomplished still amaze us. 

Another airplane.

We left our jungle lodge via trek, boat ride, bus ride, then taxi to the airport. We had 3 hours to kill before our flight left so we went into Puerto Modanaldo and found a 'Chifa', which is a Chinese Restaurant. All four of us (we are traveling with David and Roberta Levin) ate beautiful, fresh Chinese food for $5 each. Got to Lima and we are staying at the most beautiful guest house called Antigua Miraflores. 

Jungle Treks

Day started at 4:30 am with a trek to a 'Canopy tower' in the jungle, followed by breakfast and then a 2 1/2 hour trek through the jungle. Saw different species of birds, monkeys, insects, and learned about plants in the rain forest. Ground was muddy, decaying matter everywhere, and leaves and tree trunks were wet. So were we by the time we finished but is was a really interesting expedition.  In the afternoon, we visited a farmer from the local tribe.  He wore blue jeans and a tee shirt, had a wife and four children, and had a farm for papayas and bananas.  His local garden for his family contained corn and other grains.