It was a few days past my 9th birthday. I was probably eating the last of a Bill Knapp’s chocolate cake when it happened. A mudslide triggered by a massive earthquake wiped out the town of Yungay, Peru. May 31, 1970. Many children were spared due to a circus being in town that day. They received free tickets and we’re […]
Yungay
lluvia
This weekend in Lima, I saw something rather unusual. It wasn’t seeing a guy getting beat up downtown –which I did see–near the used bookstore street–about five guys pummeling one guy. Yep, just another day in the Lima city center. The unusual thing I saw in Lima wasn’t the rare yellow-tailed oriole–which I also saw– the bird looking like a […]
Cusco: from sexy women to llama drama
OK. So if you heard of Cusco, you might consider it the jumping board to get to Machu Picchu. Well, consider not jumping. Cusco has more to offer than alititude sickness pills, all more reasonable than the $400 price tag for a day trip to the ruins. Well what’s to do in Cusco? Let’s start with the llamas. They are […]
Wild Ones
Being typical Peruvians, piranha do prefer chicken.
Winging it in Oxapampa
If you see a little Smoke-colored Pewee in Oxapampa, Peru, don’t call your doctor. Call a birdwatcher. Yes, a bird watcher. A smoky-colored pewee is just one of the three hundred bird species that will blow up your Merlin phone app in this high jungle bird mecca of Peru. Who named these birds in Oxapampa? Who knows. But you got […]
SH#T!
Little birdie in the sky, Dropped some whitewash in my eye. Wait–it wasn’t bird poop! It was a clever phone stealing scam! Yes, I lost my phone on my last day in Santiago, stolen, in spite of having it in my front pocket. I was in a crowded area in Santiago, Chile, near a famous landmark I really didn’t care […]
Santiago: Read First.
The flight was bad enough, having to get up at 2:30 to be at the airport at 3:30 for a flight that left at 4:45, only to sit by that kid–you know that kid– that four-year-old who doesn’t understand the concept of seat belts and crawls on the floor, while his father plays games on his phone. If only he […]
Brutiful: Torres del Paine
On a Christmas, thanks to a shaky WIFI connection, I watched my sisters take part in a cookie decorating contest. Obscene amounts of frosting were being smeared over ginger-men, the winner of receiving upwards of five hundred dollars. I smiled at the Christmas festivities, thinking, why am I not there? That’s because I am here, and so is the Torres […]
End of the year, End of the world.
Some may think life slows down once you are eligible for AARP discounts and the highlight of your day is posting your WORDLE score. But this last year? It was insane. I survived (not necessarily in this order) moving from China to Peru, even though my boxes didn’t arrive until six months later, a concussion, a torn ACL, and the […]
Books, crooks, nooks
There is more to Buenos Aires than food. If you love to read, you’ll have to visit the El Ateneo bookstore. Once an opera house, the impressive space is filled with thousands of books and a nice cafe. If you hate crowds, skip the San Termo Market. Thousands of vendors, selling everything from Malbec to vintage art fill these space […]