I wanted to write a quick update on the last month or so, which has been a transition from my life in Colorado to my summer plans in Peru, with a few random adventures, both planned and unplanned, thrown into the mix.

It snowed over 6 inches in Steamboat the first week of May. My Dad came into town for the weekend of Eric's college graduation, and the two of them flew back together on Sunday. Aaron and I decided to spend one last afternoon skiing, and we headed up to Rabbit Ears pass. I was on borrowed telemark (or “telly”) skis, a new experience for me. We had an awesome time squeezing all the life we could from a dying winter, and the powder was remarkably well for May (while borrowing some boots at the ski shop, we ran into some girls about to go kayaking!) The snow was preceded by several weeks of warm weather, and leaves had already started to grow on the trees. I'll never forget the brilliant contrast of perfectly white snow with the light spring green of the leaves, which created a stunning, almost unnatural brightness. Driving back down to Steamboat from the high pass, we were surrounded by snow covered pines, a common Coloradan winter scene, when we rounded a sudden corner and the entire Yampa valley came into view three thousand feet below. Framed on either side by the white, wintry evergreens were juxtaposed the lush spring meadows filled with all shades of lively greens.

After bidding goodbye to Aaron and Aneta and thanking them for their extraordinary generosity with a gratitude I could not possibly express, I headed back east alone. I had spent many hours with Aaron over the last week fixing up my car, and believed it to be in at least decent shape for the trip back. I was wrong. To make a long, only moderately interesting story short, I ended up breaking down twice on the way home, first in Nebraska after only about 6 hours on the road, when my alternator belt broke, causing the water pump to stop pumping, which in turn caused my radiator to overheat. Of course it was Saturday afternoon, which meant that I got to hang out in North Platte Nebraska until Monday morning to have it looked at. I actually had a rather interesting day, wandering aimlessly through I town I doubt I ever would have visited otherwise, and seeing Spider Man 3 to boot! It oddly reminded me of all the other more exotic places I have visited in my travels. The tow truck guy (thank God I had AAA) had basically told me the engine was toast, but fortunately he turned out to not know what he was talking about, because on Monday they had the car running within half an hour. The starter had somehow broken, however, and I now need to start the car by sparking a wire to the battery with the hood open (I've learned through experience to make sure the car is in neutral before starting it, fortunately I didn't get a Darwin Award in the process!) Back on the road, I was happily listening to my e-book on my new MP3 player and had just made it past the Illinois border when the engine died like an old man with heart problems running a marathon. I got to meet another tow truck driver and, not feeling like getting a hotel room, pitched my tent in front of my broken car in the repair shop lot. The next morning, I was once again told that the engine was toast and not worth fixing, only to find out a few hours and a new fuse box later that, like Rocky, my beat up old 1990 VW Fox is an underdog, come from behind champion that just doesn't know when to throw in the towel. Frustrated but also amused by the existential humor in the situation, I decided to make a straight shot back to Connecticut, driving through the night and seeing the sun rise while driving over the George Washington Bridge into New York City.

I spent the last few weeks visiting family, getting everything in order for my summer plans, and trying to relax as much as possible in my down time. I went down to Baltimore 2 weekends ago to see the Hopkins 4K for Cancer (the bike trip I did 3 times in college) send off, en route 4,000 miles to San Francisco. It was kind of a mixed experience. On one hand, it was great to see that the 4K is still continuing, years after those of us that built it have graduated and left. The system I helped construct is functioning, which brings the immense pride and satisfaction that comes with creation. On the other hand, it was eerily nostalgic, a bit sad, for me to see how removed my life has become from the 4K, which had been one of the central focuses of my life on and off for several years. I guess it was more of a reminder of the inevitability of change, both within ourselves and in the external conditions that surround us. In any case, it was a lot of fun to go back to Baltimore, see some old friends (shout out to Dave!), once again don my Hopkins 4K jersey and spandex and ride 75 miles to Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, even if I was a bit less in shape for the ride than I was in previous years!

I spent the last week in Raleigh, North Carolina at Broadreach staff training. It was a pretty intense week, with work days ranging anywhere from 9-14 hours. I love the Broadreach office because it's possibly the most internationally connected headquarters I've ever seen. We now have programs on 6 continents, every one except Antartica. One person will be on the phone with China while someone else is talking with South America, while someone else is trying to make hotel reservations in France, all while the people in Fiji are panicking because they lost their luggage. It's a paradoxically ordered chaos, and I think it's highly symbolic of the globalized world we're now living in.

I realized how much I learned last summer leading trips in Ecuador, when all the scenarios covered in staff training made me think, “oh yeah, I remember that”. I feel very confident in my skills and experience, and am looking forward to a great, if exhausting, summer. I also had some great times in Raleigh and met lots of awesome, inspiring people, including Dora, my co-lead in Peru. We worked hard and played hard (if only a bit), and got to have a few fun nights on the town while I was there.

I flew down to Peru four days ago to take care of all the logistics and pre-trip preparations. I spent a day in Lima to confirm hotel reservations and transportation logistics, and flew in three days ago to Cuzco, the ancient Incan capital, and also the oldest continually inhabited city in the Americas. I've been pretty busy, but have enjoyed the work immensely. When running from place to place around town running errands and meeting with different people, I like to pretend that I'm a covert agent on a top secret mission in a foreign country. I want to make sure that everything is taken care of before the group gets here so that we're set up for a successful trip.

Dora and the group will arrive in only a few hours, I think everything is set for their arrival! We'll spend a few days in Cuzco getting acclimatized (we're at 11,000 feet, I was even feeling a bit winded yesterday) and preparing for our hike to Macchu Picchu. Then we'll spend a few days in the Sacred Valley taking Spanish classes and doing afternoon excursions. Afterwords, we'll head north to the Cordillera Blanca in the Northern Andes to work for 10 days with the Peace Corps in 2 rural villages on public health projects. Then I have a few days off and get to do the entire 23 day trip over again with another group of kids! More to come soon...

Also, if you want to follow our progress online directly, you can read updates and see pictures at the following website: http://www.academictreks.com/whatsup/update.asp?sid=290&date=6%2F12%2F2007
(you can also read a flattering little bio of your truly :) )