12. They Call Me the Gimp

Woodworker's shop @ Isla Negra, Chile.

pa la calle!

Cartas de Cuba, 1: Pennsylvania pre-trip

George School's logo is a tree, which is fitting, since there are a ton of them spread out over their expansive campus.

There's a large garden, horse stables, an Alternative Energy Center...

and the new LEED certified library (below), which opens in the fall.

The pre-trip workshops were well organized and packed with information, so it was a nice change of pace to start the second day with some cheery team-building exercises...

Behold our fearless leader!

I talked a little bit w/ Rafaela (above, left) from Nicaragua re: the possibility of bringing some of my students to visit her school.

And here is our happy crew outside the meeting house, eager to get on with our aventuras cubanas!

Do you know the way to Holguín?

(photo by Felip1)

Well, first you have to apply for the special license, then wait for months for it to come, and meanwhile work on a "plan B" since the license may not arrive in time, then just when your "absolute last deadline" has come & gone with no license, you hear that it really might still happen, that the license may indeed be on the way, but who knows if & when it comes if there will then be enough time to book a group on one of the limited flights to the island from Miami? Alas...

(1) Luckily for me, other people have been doing all of the above planning, and even more importantly...
(2) I'm realizing a dream next week & going to Cuba!!

I'll be in Holguín for 2.5 weeks, helping to repair a church that was damaged last year by Hurricane Ike. No Havana (as originally planned), but we will get to visit Santiago de Cuba & Gibara. Stay tuned for at least some reports from the road...

And in the meantime, here's an interesting and award-winning blog to check out, written "from the island, about the island": Generación Y (English version), as well as two audio programs put out by Afropop Worldwide re: "The Golden Age of Cuban Music": (part 1)+(part 2)

philly nilly

the last picture i took in new york...well, almost

coupled with the almost-first i took on a sunday morning last october:

2b - Climbing Cotopaxi

1/2 way up the active volcano, parked in the lot &
up to the shelter. avalanche of tea. brilliant sun.

emergency lunch, in need of a report
from our scouts:

and throughout it all, the luck & smile

of the punctured goddess of altitude:

Day 2: Hacienda Porvenir

high up in the altitudes, stayed @ this working farm (llamas, cows, sheep: oh my) & woke up every night @ 3am w/ a throbbing headache. but the scenery was fab, cotopaxi & raminahua were snowy, and we got to volcano hike & ride horses....everybody enjoyed the 'comfy rustic' vibe of the hacienda, but they didn't complain later when we moved on to the tropical swelter of Tena...

Day 1: llegada en Quito

give thanks to y'all:

finally posting some ecuadorian mashcards for everybody who was expecting to get something old-fashioned & papery in their metal mailbox, but din't. these are the backs of the cards i bought (but didn't send) after doctoring on a hike (read: lazy foto walk) a day or two after we got home. tops are real w/ this after-scribble (but not necessarily city-specific) addenda, bottoms are my pix from then there.

gettin' on wit it: can't remember if this one had anything to do w/ the after-scrawl, but did plan on using it for my 'walking thru el centro' lead-in, the chance this time around too good to desert...

here's what i remember now re: them times --

• uneventful, easy flights (+ miami diversion)
• Stace left her cell phone in the mag. pocket of our 1st plane & had to almost chase it back down the run.way in panic
  
• meeting Cary @ aeropuerto/Quito, 1st glimpses of the city @ night thru bus eyes
  
• nighttime walk to Casa Sol: pedestrian, colors, digs
• meeting Stefi next day & asking where i could find a copy of Los detectives salvajes (LibriMundi blocks away hooked me up 2x)
• walk downtown, exploring the Basilica: impressive round the corner, but no expects for attic-crawl & ladder-hoist up to the tippy towers
• E. jockeying for space on the pivot-circle of the ecobus, holding straps as the bellows skeleton turned
  
• rainy streets a week later as we enjoyed our farewell dinner & packed up to leave hotel @ 4am

<< reminds me of houdie, but better decorated... >>

retorno a Misahualli

resting up (here) after 10 days in Ecuador w/ students last week (there).
the guide in canoe front wore a faded Auburn U. baseball hat.
trip recap soon come....

love in the mtns.

. stolen book . cracked sole . guineas, beagles, sheep .