27 OCT 99

I spent the night of 20 October on the plane to Peru. By my own rating scale for international flights, Delta scored very poorly. They never handed out any hot towels. On the morning of the 21st, I met Fiona in the Peru airport and we headed outside. My roommate from college, Luis, was there to meet us with his girlfriend, Karem. It was five o'clock in the morning and they went above and beyond the call of duty.

Fiona and I hung out with Luis and Karem for a few days. They are the best hosts and I highly recommend them if you are ever in the area. We went to the movies, hung out in the fashionable mall area and went on a nice city tour. Fiona and I also joined the South American Explorers Club and visited a church and a museum.

Last Monday, we took the bus up to Huaraz. It was an eight hour bus ride and cost about $15, but it was worth it. The bus was very clean, they served lunch, we watched two movies and even played bingo. I can handle this first class travel.

We are now at 10,000 feet above sea level and are spending a few days to acclimatize. Yesterday we went on a four hour walk into the hills for practice. Today we bought lots of food and are getting our things together for a walk in the mountains.

Tomorrow we will take a bus to Yungay and then another one east to a little town that starts with a V. Then we have planned four days of walking in the mountains. We will walk almost thirty miles and cross a really high mountain pass. I hope it goes well. It should be fun.

I have spent six of the last twelve months in Nepal and India, so I find myself comparing Peru to those countries. By Indian standards, Peru is quite rich, so far as I have seen. I have been impressed with how well the transportation works. Also, Lima is a reasonably clean city with some very nice areas.

I'll let you all know how the walk goes next week.

Internet access is well under two dollars an hour and not too uncommon, so feel free to e-mail me all you want.

14 OCT 99

On the 29th of August, I met my new group and we headed north. We spent two days in Denali National Park. On the first day we took the shuttle bus really far into the park and on the second day we only went in a little way and then went for a nice hike up a valley and into the clouds. From the shuttle bus, we saw many grizzly bears, some wolves, ptarmigan, caribou, eagles, moose, mountain goats and sheep. This was probably my best trip into the park all summer for animal sightings.

Another amazing thing about my final visit to Denali, was the color changes that accompany Autumn. The mountain tops were all white with snow and the tundra was full of bright reds and yellows. I now think that the first two weeks of September are probably the most beautiful time of the year to visit Denali.

Then we continued north and went to Fairbanks for the day. From Fairbanks, we went south-east to McCarthy. From McCarthy, we drove out to Kennicott and then walked the rest of the way to the Root Glacier. It was a nice cloudy day with a bit of rain and drizzle. We put on crampons, picked up ice axes, tied onto ropes and spent the day learning to ice climb on the glacier. I have now added ice climbing to the list of really cool things I have done and would like to do again.

At first glance, the perfectly vertical wall of ice looked impossible to climb and the very steep wall looked extremely difficult. But, amazingly, after a little training, we were all making headway. The crampons had points on the front and we literally walked up the wall. We kicked the wall and stuck our toes into the ice. Then we reached up and stuck the ice axes into the ice above our heads. Then, one foot at a time, we walked up. I will definitely do that again someday.

At the end of the first week, we went back to Anchorage to drop off one passenger. We spent the night there and had a little night out. For most of the first week it had rained, but the weather cleared as we headed south to the Kenai Peninsula. On the 5th of September we drove to the end of the road, Homer, Alaska. We took a float plane across the Kachimak Bay to a tent and breakfast place. We spent two nights there. They made great meals for us and had a nice living room to relax in and play games and read.

While there, we also went on a kayak trip. We paddled out among the islands and had great views of the distant ice covered volcanoes. We saw some otters and had lunch on a remote beach. In the afternoon some of us went for a bike ride or fishing and I mostly relaxed. We spent the second morning in Seldovia. We looked around the small fishing/tourist village and then took a water taxi back to Homer. Along the way we stopped to look at some nearby whales.

We spent the night in Anchor Point. We rented a small cabin with a kitchen. The cabin was high on a cliff over looking the bay and looking across at the giant volcanoes. It was a perfectly clear night and we had great views of Jupiter and the Milky Way, after a nice sunset.

We took a small hike in the Kenai Peninsula Wildlife Refuge and then went to Seward for the last three nights of the trip. We took the eight hour Kenai Fjords boat trip. We stopped at Fox Island to eat some salmon and then went on to the Holgate Glacier. I took this trip last year and this was my favorite part. The boat parked near the end of the glacier and we spent nearly an hour just floating there and looking at the glacier. Some really big pieces fell off of it with great noise and fell into the ocean. On the way back to Seward some porpoises played in the wake of the boat and entertained us all.

On the 10th of September, we went out to Exit Glacier and took the trail up to the Harding Ice Field. It was a nice hike, but it got a bit cold and windy near the top. On the last day, we stopped at Portage Glacier, but it was not visible because of the rain. We had our last night dinner and that was the end of the trip

On the morning of the 12th, Carolyn (another tour leader) and I started the drive south. We each had our own vans and just met for meals and parked near each other each night. The first day we drove from Anchorage to the Canadian border. Now that it was late fall, the colors were amazing. The trees on each side of the road were an incredible bright yellow and further south there were some nice oranges and reds.

The second day of driving brought us almost to Watson Lake, Yukon. The Northern Lights were incredible and we had to pull over to watch. We spent a few hours watching the lights. We were lucky, they were pink and green and white. They were like nothing I have ever seen before and one of the highlights of my summer.

Two more days of non-stop driving brought us to Seattle. I spent three days there hanging out with Sue and cleaning all of my equipment. I eventually finished all of that and continued south. I went to Portland, Oregon and visited Michele. She lives in a nice neighborhood with lots parks and good places to eat. I then continued south and went to Oakland, near San Francisco. I had a good visit with Uncle Lenny, Aunt Charlene, and cousins Isaac, David, Josh and Marcus.

One more full day of driving brought me to Los Angeles. I went over to Marty's for a family visit and one of her always interesting holiday meals. On the 26th of September, I flew to Boston and spent a week hanging out with dad, Elizabeth and Emily. On the 2nd of October I flew to Florida and have been hanging out with my mother and Milo since then. I have had a few good visits with cousins Dori, Uri, and Taylor.

A few days ago, Fiona arrived and we have been doing research for South America and getting ready to leave on the 20th. We also went down to the Everglades for a few hours of canoeing in the swamps. We are now taking care of all the last minute details before we get to Lima, Peru.