Updates!

Hey everyone,

It's been a few months, and so I don't know if anyone is reading this blog anymore.  Honestly, this is a little bit of a cathartic exercise anyway, just to get some things off my chest.  I am giving my presentation to the three Florida chapters of the Circumnavigators Club on Sunday (12/5) and I am both extremely excited and nervous.  My report is coming along as well, which is nice.  I am a little behind schedule on that, owing to a very busy and somewhat frustrating semester, but it will soon be done and ready to be turned over to the Club for their records.

Anyway, pictures to come soon, and be on the lookout for my closing article for the blog, which will get done some time over winter break before I leave for Edinburgh.  Speaking of which, I think I will probably create a new blog for that, so be on the look out for that too.

Thanks for all of your support, it has been and is much appreciated.

From the Land of the Inca to the Land of La Florida - Lima,Cusco, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and Home - Friday, August 6th through Saturday, August 14th

Getting close now.  Even having had some time to reflect on the trip, I can't believe it all went so quickly.  I had enough experiences to last a lifetime, but it all happened in the span of one summer, and that is a truth that my brain has had trouble grasping.  Anyway, on to Peru.  I have decided just to merge the Lima and Cusco entries into one long update, so I apologize if it's a tad lengthy.


My first day in Lima was a bit of a slow day, just because I needed some time to recuperate from the time zone changes and the long day of travel yesterday.  Jet lag is a real thing, to those who doubt its existence, and it has been getting to me more and more as the trip wears on and I go longer and longer without proper beds (I love the prices that hostels offer, but their beds do leave something to be desired).  No matter, because of the time difference I woke up the next day around five.  I obviously couldn't go to the local cafe and take advantage of the complimentary breakfast yet, so I used the vacant computer on the second floor to surf the web for an hour and a half, sending emails and checking on the news.  Once the hour had arrived I went down the block to Cafe Z where I had a delicious breakfast and coffee, while wondering just why I had come to a winter country yet again.  The breakfast alone, though, made Kokopelli Hostel worth staying at.  After breakfast that day I went back to the hostel, then out to a cafe for some work.  For lunch I had some of Peru's famous ceviche, which was devine.  After lunch I wandered around Miraflores, which has a nice park in the middle of it with a church on one of its sides.  I also walked down to the cliffs to get a view of the Pacific.  Down by the cliffs was a large shopping mall, the Larco Mar, in which I found a TGI Fridays, Chilis, and Tony Romas, only reinforcing my belief that the plane had actually landed in Miami and not Lima.  For dinner I went out to a restaurant, El Restaurante Tres Marias, in a another area of the city called Surco.  There I had some of Peru's most famous, and one of her more traditional, dishes, Cuy.  Cuy, by the way, is delicious, despite being the cooked remains of a guinea pig.

On Saturday I spent a large portion of the day going to the remains of a sacred site of the Lima people right in Miraflores.  The Lima people, a coastal predecessor of the Incan Empire, were very impressive builders and this is evident at the site of Huaca Pucllana.  This is a religious and administrative site that they used for hundreds of years.  When I arrived, after having walked about 20 blocks to get there, my first thought was that this was a large trash dump.  This was only because I saw the side that had yet to be properly excavated first though, because once I saw the proper site I was very impressed.  The main religious half of the site is in the shape of a stepped pyramid, about 50 to 60 feet tall at its peak.  Much of the site was covered up with debris or been demolished when surrounding houses were built.  The Spanish never even took notice of the site, because in their day it was just a dirt hill.  Nowadays though, it is an excellent example of coastal architecture in South America.  The Lima people were excellent architects, even stacking the bricks in a special "bookcase" style in order to guard against the frequent earthquakes in the region.  When I entered the area I was forced to go on a tour, which was the only way visitors were allowed on site.  The tour took us around the religious structure, past some current excavations, over to the much duller administrative section, and the past a garden featuring plants and animals that would have been kept by the Limans, including maize, cotton, and coca, as well as llamas, ducks, guinea pigs, etc.  The site was very interesting, especially once we were told about the sacrificed bodies and sharks found during excavations.

The next day, a second glorious weekend day, I took the tour bus going around the city.  It started in Miraflores right outside the Larco Mar, and then took a turn towards Huaca Pucllana.  Once we had driven around the site (and once all the other travelers had stopped gawking at the site which they had never heard of) we set off towards central Lima.  We passed through several neighborhoods and areas of the city, including San Isidro, the financial sector of Lima.  Eventually we got to the historical center, where we drove around several plazas and older buildings.  When we got to the Plaza de Armas we got off the bus and out tour guide took us on a walking tour.  We saw the Archbishop's Palace, the central Cathedral, several Social Clubs which played an important role in the turbulent history of Peruvian politics, and the Presidential Palace.  We then walked past the church where the bones of Santa Rosa de Lima, the first saint to be beatified in the Americas.  We then went to the Franciscan convent of Lima, where we took a detailed tour of the structure.  The ornateness of the church was very impressive, but I was much more enthralled by two other sites in the complex, the library and the catacombs.  The catacombs were not nearly as impressive as those in Paris, but still had their own spooky air about them.  The library, on the other hand, was very neat.  It was a very old room with an even older collection, mostly from the early to late 1600's.  In the front, on display, were the meter wide choir books which were used during services.  The convent was a great window into the sycretism of Spanish catholicism and Peruvian native religions, because there was integration in almost all of the artwork, though the Spanish probably didn't like to admit it.  After the tour I went back to Miraflores for the night.

The next day, Monday, was a slower day because I spent it trying to call contacts in Lima.  Fortunately my main research appointment for the trip was already well set up in Cusco, but I was trying to add some extra little tidbits.  This was not to be though, as I found the officials at the Department of Health to be very reluctant to help me.  It was very frustrating.  It was not so much cultural or language difficulties, as in France, but suspicion of my purposes, because it is well known that a certain amount of prejudice and ill service permeates the Peruvian healthcare system.  I did take some time that day to go down the cliffs to the actual coast.  I walked along the beach for about an hour, taking in the cool Pacific breeze and dipping my feet in the water.  Unfortunately the waves on the Lima coast are pretty lively so my shorts were unexpected victims of the watery attacker.  I was lucky to have my phone and camera escape their demise, although the same could not be said for my dryness.  I took a cab back up to Miraflores and spent the rest of the day there.

The next day, after checking my email for any possible responses, although not expecting them, I went off to the center of Lima for some walking around.  I had lunch at a Peruvian burger chain called Bembos, which was surprisingly good, and then went back to the Plaza de Armas.  There I camped myself out in front of the Presidential Palace, ready for a spectacle.  I was not disappointed, because very soon after I arrived the official changing of the guard ceremony began.  This ceremony took about 30 minutes in total, and was filled with all the pomp of a South American military ceremony.  First the two guards at the main door of the palace blew on their trumpets and put their swords out in an aggressive manner.  Next, a large military band came out of a side gate and assembled in the square to play several Peruvian patriotic songs.  Once these songs were done an armed detachment came out of two side gates and met in the middle, only to have two members detach themselves from the detachment and replace the main guards.  Once this was done the whole process reversed itself.  During the whole thing a Baptist mission group had been handing out Spanish bibles, which were met with suspicion by the Peruvians on account of their being from Baptists.  It was an interesting cultural divide to watch devout Christians turn away other Christians.  From there I went over to the Parque de las Leyendas, where the national zoo is housed.  I thought it would be neat to see some rare South American animals, but the visit was short lived because I just couldn't deal with how sad the animals' situations all were.  I quickly went and saw the jaguar exhibit and then left, disgusted.

The next day was my last full day in Lima, and so I decided to make the most of it.  I woke up early and went over to the Museo Larco first.  There I discovered an immense collection of pottery found all over Peru and Bolivia, by none other than the archeologist whose name now sits upon the museum.  Most of the pottery was in exquisite condition, had very strange artwork painted onto it or was in strange animal shapes, and was pre-Incan.  I really enjoyed this museum, and spent some significant time there.  The storeroom was equally impressive as it just went on forever with countless shelfs of pottery.  This man was certainly a most prodigious archaeologist.  There was even a special room for the numerous sexually explicit pieces of pottery that Larco had found.  This was an interesting, if somewhat disturbing, room, to be sure.  I next followed a blue line on the pavement about two miles away to the National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology, and History, which was mostly just fairly normal historical displays, with the exception of some shrunken heads from the Amazon and a lot of artifacts from the early years of the Peruvian Republic.  I even got to wander around the house in which Simon Bolivar lived while he was in Lima.  To round out my day I visited the Museum of the Nation, which was a repository of nonsense and bad exhibits.  It was the worst museum I have ever been to, and I left quickly.  I then went back to Miraflores for the day.

On Thursday the 12th I got a cab early in the morning to the Lima airport where I caught a flight on TACA Airlines to Cusco, the heart of Inca territory in Peru.  The flight was short and the mountain scenery we passed over was spectacular.  It took a while to land, because the thinner air provided less friction to slow the plane down with once it touched the runway, but we did eventually come to a stop.  Once in Cusco, and taking it easy so as not to get altitude sickness, I got a cab into the city and to my hostel, Pariwana (the name is a reference to the local name for a Flamingo, which is one of the few birds in Peru to live in all three ecosystems: the coast/desert, the mountains, and the jungle).  Once I was checked in I left to go explore the city.  I went first to the Plaza de Armas, where I saw the main Cathedral, its side churches, and the church of the Company of Jesus.  These were exquisite examples of the Cusqueno school of art and again displayed beautifully the syncretism of Peruvian catholicism with Incan sun worship.  An example of this is the use of mirrors in several shrines in the main Cathedral.  Mirrors were a sinful sign of vanity back in Europe, but in Peru they took on religious connotations because they reminded the Inca of their sun god with all of their reflective power.  I then walked up a steep hill to the Museo Inka, where I saw several very interesting exhibits on Inca society, warfare, culture, food, etc.  I even got a delicious avocado sandwich right outside of the museum.  Next I walked up a steeper hill to the area of San Blas, where I visited a small church with the most intricate altar piece I have ever laid eyes upon.  It is carved out of one piece of wood and is meticulously detailed.  I also noticed the many women who flocked around tourist sites, dressed in traditional indigenous clothing, and carrying baby llamas, in order to draw tourists over to take pictures and donate money to them. I then wandered down a small alleyway full of crafts shops, intrigued by the Incan stonework holding up some of the buildings.  It was here, also, that I bought myself a charango, or Peruvian miniature guitar.  After the shops I wandered back to the main Plaza, where I went to the small Museum of Natural History, or room of dead animals as it should be known.  Regardless, some of the animals were quite rare and neat to see up close.  I then went back to the hostel, where I rested for a little while, and then walked to the nearby open air market.  For dinner I went to a restaurant close by and had an alpaca steak.  I then went back to the hostel and went to sleep.

On Friday I woke up early and made my way over to the Pututi Road bus station, where I caught a minibus going out of town.  I took it as far as the small town of Coya, past some mountain roads and into a valley.  Coya is where I visited the KausayWasi Clinic, run by Sandra and Guido Del Prado.  This place had been recommended to me by a professor at the University of Miami, and once I did some background research on their work I reached out to them.  They, in turn, were very willing to help me in with my project.  After some initial wandering around the town I found the place and walked in.  There I met with Sandra Del Prado, an Oregonian woman who met her husband while working with the Peace Corps in Peru.  Once she and her husband retired they went back to Peru to open this clinic.  The work of the clinic focuses on providing affordable, respectful care for indigenous patients who are often treated with disdain at government hospitals and clinics.  The place is relatively small, but packed with patients and the recipient of lots of donated equipment from US hospitals and corporations.  We spoke for a while, and she was extremely kind and helpful.  After we had spoken she took me on a tour of the facilities, introducing me along the way to nurses, doctors, pharmacists, and locals who had come in for care.  I really respect the work that they have been doing, and I hope that it continues, because it is important to a lot of people in Peru, and not just from the valley.  When I was visiting they were treating a patient who had traveled all the way from Arequipa.  For those of you who want to know more about the work that they do, their website is http://www.kausaywasi.org/  and there is an informational video about their clinic at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An8hjdNIl00  Please do take the time to visit.

Once I was done at Kausay Wasi I took another minibus, but this time I got out at Pisaq for lunch.  I also bought an awesome hammock that will come in handy down in Miami.  I then took a taxi back to Cusco, where I briefly visited the Korikancha site, where the remains of an Incan sun temple had been used as a base for a large catholic convent.  Later on in the day I went to the market, where I had some local cheese, an olive sandwich, some roasted corn, and a large glass full of a mango and banana smoothie.  I also bought a bag of brazil nuts for tomorrow.  All of this cost less than three dollars.  Later I had some street food, which was beef and potato skewered and grilled, and was delicious, like most street food.

The next day started pretty early for me, due both to my alarm and to some annoying behavior between a fellow hostel roommate and his female accomplice for the night.  I had to get up anyway, so by five in the morning I was out the door and in a taxi on my way to the Poroy train station.  I was pretty cold, because I was only in shorts and a light jacket, but I was prepared for later in the day, when it would be hot.  I took a 3.5 hour scenic train ride aboard Perurail to Aguascalientes, which is the boarding point for buses up to Machu Picchu.  This would be my last non-travel day in Peru, and so I thought I would go out with a bang by visiting the lost city of the Incas.  The train ride was comfortable, and we were even given a small breakfast.  I then took a bus up a winding road to Machu Picchu.  The site was absolutely breathtaking.  I cannot describe in words the beauty of the location and the amazing engineering it must have taken to build such a city on the high mountainside.  Due to the location I felt miles above everything, but I was actually about 1000 meters below Cusco, so I was full of energy.  I hiked around the whole site, taking in about 7 miles of terrain and four and a half hours of time.  I was completely gassed by the end of it, but it had all been worth it.  When I left, I left with a supreme respect for the culture and science of the Incas.  The place was a perfect end to the journey, with plenty of places to sit and reflect on what I had seen this summer.  I spent the whole day traveling to, visiting, and traveling from Machu Picchu, but it was one of the most fun days of my summer, easily.  When I got back to the hostel I packed up and crashed.

The next day, Sunday the 15th, would be my last in Peru.  I woke up, had breakfast, and went to the Cusco Airport.  I had my bag wrapped in plastic, only to have the security official cut that open with a razor and rummage through my bag for artifacts and/or cocaine.  I then had the bag wrapped again, for free, while the security official said some not very nice things to the plastic wrap guy, all of which I understood.  The flight to Lima was fine, no complaints there.  Once I got to Lima I was a bit disappointed to learn that I was not going to be able to check in for several hours, so I bided my time in the departure mall/food court.  Once I did check in, paid my airport tax, and got through security, I was not allowed to go to my gate for another hour and a half.  Once I did finally board my plane and we took off, I was pleased to hear no Spanish in the announcements at all.  Culturally insensitive of Spirit though it was, it was a nice indication that I was going back to the US.  The flight took from about 11:00pm until 5:40am, when we landed in Fort Lauderdale.  Although the flight was remarkably smooth I couldn't sleep, although this did give me the benefit of seeing several Caribbean islands all lit up at night by a large, but harmless, lightening storm.  Once we passed over Cuba I took a small 30 minute nap, at the end of which we had landed.  Due to some stupid scheduling of their flights, I was forced to wait in line worried that I would miss my next flight, even though it was still a Spirit flight.  I went through a long immigration line, then a long customs line, then a long bag recheck line, then a long security line, and then had to run to make my flight.  They closed the door right as I boarded the flight to Orlando.  The flight was short, but I was disappointed once I got to Orlando.  Once I got there it became evident fairly quickly that my bag had not made the trip with me.  I arranged for it to get to Jacksonville and was then picked up by my mother and little brother.  Reuniting was a wonderful feeling, and it's not right for a son to be away from his mother for that long.  I then drove home, and saw my father for lunch.  Good old Florida BBQ does not get better than it does with your father.  Once I saw my sister and puppy back home, all was well.  Goodness it is great to be back home.  I wouldn't give up my trip for the world, and I want to take the time to thank the Circumnavigators Club for this wonderful opportunity, but being back home was a glorious feeling.  For those of you wondering I did manage to recollect my bag the next day at the Jacksonville airport.

Well, that's been my travels. I thank you very much for following along all this way.  Soon, I will post one of my final two updates.  The penultimate update will be a conclusion, featuring some reflection from me on my travels and on my research, as well as some interesting statistics about all of my time abroad.  The final update, of course, will come when I have finished my research paper and submitted it to the Club.  Once again, thanks for the time, it's been quite a ride.

The Long Flight - Madrid to Lima - Thursday, August 5th

This update is really short, but I had to get it out of the way, so here it is.  After this it's just four more (Lima, Cusco, Florida, and a Conclusion).

I woke up early today, got dressed, and got ready to check out.  This proved to be a little difficult, though, as my sheets had somehow gone missing in the middle of the night.  This was a problem, because I needed to turn these back in in order to check out and receive my deposit.  I needn't have been concerned though, because the women behind the desk was cool about it and gave me my deposit regardless.  Having checked out and put my pack on, I walked out to the Anton Martin Metro station and began the same convoluted three line change route I had used to get here from the Madrid Barajas Airport, only this time in reverse.

Once I arrived at the airport I followed the signs laid out for my airline, AirEuropa, and after some snafus going to the wrong terminal, I got my boarding pass for the flight to Lima, Peru.  I was soon checked in and had my bags on their way to the cargo hold.  I then passed through security without any issues and found myself in the international departures terminal, only to learn that my plane had yet to arrive and that the flight would be delayed by at least two hours.  With all this extra time on my hands I had some airport lunch, wandered around the terminals, and did some work.  Almost as soon as I had finished my second set of wanderings though, the plane was ready for boarding, right on time.  I was thus confused, but not unhappy.  We did wait for for about an hour out on the tarmac, though, ensuring a late departure.

The flight, aside from being a long journey over the Atlantic Ocean and the Amazon rain forest, was a fairly normal one.  There wasn't even that much turbulence as we passed over the parts of the ocean which regularly spawn hurricanes.  To start things out, about an hour into the flight, we were given a meal of pasta, chicken, and olives, which was actually quite good.  Soon after this the entertainment system was switched on and I found myself rewatching Invictus, but this time with much more understanding of the events and people involved, thanks to my visit to South Africa and my having read Long Walk to Freedom.  We got two more meals on the flight, both of them sandwiches, and I slept for a little while.

Our landing went off without a hitch and I cleared immigration in Peru very quickly.  Once I got to the baggage area the carousel had yet to start and so I took the time to configure my phone to be able to call both Peru and the US for relatively little cost.  Once the carousel did start I was forced to wait for about 45 minutes until my bag eventually did come out.  I don't know how Cole could have lived with so little on his trip (he only brought a small backpack with all of his possessions) and I admire him at times like this.  At the same time, having multiple pairs of underwear is nice.  Once I got my bag I then walked out into the arrivals hall, where I was very pleasantly surprised to find that my ride from the hostel was still there waiting for me, despite all of the delays.  We walked to his car and then drove over to Miraflores, a suburb of Lima.  On the drive I couldn't help but noticing that Lima looked very much like Miami.  Even while living in Miami I had not noticed just how Latin the city is in its design and look.  The driver's obsession with American disco music was a bit odd, but somehow relaxing.  Once at the hostel I checked in and was shown around.  It's a nice little place, although the hallways are all outside, which is a bit of a hassle since it's winter down here.  I went up to the rooftop bar, had a look around the area from up high, and then crashed in my bed, since there was a big time difference between here and Spain.

El Oso y el Madroño - Madrid - Thursday, August 3rd through Wednesday, August 4th

Today, the 3rd, was yet another travel day for me, but by now I have become quite adept with these, and so I was ready to get a move on.  I would be entering the hispanophone world today, and I would not be leaving it again until I touched down in the US, so I was busy mentally preparing myself for this new reality.  Although I have taken many years of instruction in Spanish, I was still a little apprehensive, especially given the notoriously lispful accent I would be encountering in Madrid.

I woke up a bit early, got my bags completely packed, took a shower, and headed downstairs to check out.  Having handed in my room key, I spent the next 20 minutes on the internet (I wasn't going to let my internet card from the night before go to waste).  I then walked to Cornavin, with both my bags on my back.  I took a bus from there to the Geneva International Airport, which was a free trip thanks to the complimentary transport card which all guests in Geneva are given upon their arrival.  This made Geneva just the second city in my travels, after Melbourne, in which transportation was free.  At the airport I went through Easy Jet's hoops to check in, first getting my uniquely shaped boarding pass at an automated machine, then checking my bag in for the flight after waiting in a very long line.  Why the two couldn't be joined into one process is beyond me.  After checking in and passing through security I got some lunch and used the last of my Swiss Francs to buy some Swiss chocolate (which happened to be out of this world tasty, by the way).  I then walked to the very end of the airport to find my terminal and gate, in a strange circular building in the same vein as one of the terminals at JFK International Airport in New York City.

Eventually the plane came around and we all boarded.  EasyJet being a discount service, there was nothing remarkable to report about the two hour flight to Madrid, except that some of the initial flying and the landing led me to believe that we were under the control of a pilot in training.  It was all just a tad too wobbly for my tastes, but I've already admitted to being a somewhat nervous flyer.  Once we did touch down in the Spanish capital and I collected my bag from the carousel, I followed the signs to the Aeropuerto Metro station.  I took the Metro through three station line changes and about 20 stations before getting off at Anton Martin, at which point I realized that that was where the directions given to me by the hostel stopped.  I asked some locals and was soon on my way regardless.  I checked into the place, La Posada de Huertas, and had a walk around the neighborhood, which was very old Spain in its appearance.

Once I was all settled in, I went downstairs to the internet lounge.  I spent half an hour on the computer checking my emails and corresponding with a few people.  Then I walked back out to the local plaza, which was very nice, with restaurants, bars, and cafes flanking it, and a small park in the center for the children to play in. I took my walk in the late afternoon, and even though the sun was in its descent I could still feel the heat of a Madrid summer bearing down on me.  It was nothing like India, but it was still quite a bit hotter than the Alps had been.  When I got back to the hostel I went out on a tapas tour that they had organized.  The tour was very cool and we walked to three nearby tapas bars which each had a different style.  The first place was a tapas bar representative of Andalucia, while the second was from Asturias, and the third was more Madrid oriented in its menu.  I had some excellent food, including some crazy good murcilla, or blood sausage.  After the tour I returned to the hostel and passed out.

Since I was in Madrid on a layover (I was leaving for Peru tomorrow, but I had decided, due to how the flights worked out, that it would be best to arrive a day early) I had no real work to do and so I decided to take Wednesday off to tour around the capital.  I had previously been in Spain, but that was in Barcelona, which is very much in Catalonia and not really as Spanish as Madrid.  I woke up around 830 in the morning, a little tired from my late night last night (Spaniards eat late, and so my tapas tour had been from 9 'til 11:30) but still eager to begin today's explorations.  After walking downstairs and observing that the complimentary breakfast was only complimentary because it was inedible, I walked outside and made my way down the Calle de las Huertas to the Paseo del Prado, a main thoroughfare of Madrid, especially for fans of art.  I walked first to the Reina Sofia Museum, but it was closed until later in the day, so I walked elsewhere.  My wanderings took me to the Prado Museum, one of the largest and greatest art museums in the world.  The Prado is much like the Louvre, in that it has artwork from a similar period of time and has a collection too vast to be visited on one trip.  I did my best, however, and really enjoyed some of what I found, including The Garden of Earthly Delights and numerous works by Goya, de la Vasquez, and el Greco.  Something political that I found to be interesting was that El Prado is full of Spanish art, but also with Flemish work.  I pondered over this for some time until I realized that the Netherlands and Spain were one Kingdom at the time.

After the Prado I went to the Royal Palace, which was opulent from the outside.  Unfortunately, I did not get the opportunity to go inside because the line was too long.  I took some time exploring the area (and having a calamari sandwich for lunch).  I visited the Royal Cathedral, which was grand in scale, but lacked any of the distinguishing features of the cathedrals of Europe's most important cities.  After that I went over to the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, home to the Real Madrid Football Club.  Before I got there I quickly stopped by the Temple of Debod, which is an Egyptian temple that was rescued from the flooding of the Anwar High Dam and moved to Madrid, where it sits incongruously atop a hill.  I then took a self guided tour of the stadium, gazing upon their hundreds of trophies and getting to walk into the locker room and onto the field.  It was a cool tour, but my heart will always be with Barcelona when it comes to Spanish soccer.  I just couldn't bring myself to cheer for the team that was representative of Franco's Spain.  After the stadium I took a bus back to the Prado, where I walked to the Reina Sofia.  There I saw a much more modern collection of artwork than I had in the Prado.  I saw works by Dali, Picasso, and many others.  Of course, chief among these, and the main draw of the museum, was Guernica by Pablo Picasso.  It was a stirring tribute to the pain and suffering brought about by war.  After the museum I went out and had some tapas for dinner, then packed up in the hostel for my travel tomorrow.

Oh, How Neutral of You - Geneva - Wednesday, July 28th through Monday, August 2nd

Hello again.  Not many more updates to go now before the end, just Geneva, Madrid, Lima, and Cusco.  For those of you who wish to see them, I have now put my Paris photos online, and the Geneva ones should be there by the end of today as well.


Geneva was a very interesting city.  I didn't have nearly as much to see there, although the work that I got done there for my project was invaluable.  I had the wonderful chance to meet with representatives of the World Health Organization, or WHO, which I will detail a little later on.  I was also very happy to get to visit the headquarters of the United Nations and CERN, but outside of these three major things, there was no great amount of things to be done in this city.  It was a gorgeous place, nestled on the banks of Lake Geneva high in the Alps, and it would be a wonderful place to live, no doubt, but as a traveler passing through, it only held a certain amount of appeal.  Anyway, enough with my musings, and on to the update.


On the morning of the 28th of July I woke up around nine, checked out of my place, and took the Metro over to the Gare de Lyon train station in southeastern Paris.  It was from there that I took a high speed train to Geneva, passing first through some beautiful French farmland and then on into the Alps and mountains of Switzerland.  I even got to see my first real Medieval castle along the way.  I passed most of the journey talking to my neighbor, a nice lady from Washington, D.C., and we soon arrived in Geneva, the capital of Francophone Switzerland.  As a country with four official languages (those being French, German, Italian, and Romansch) Switzerland is, by necessity, a country suffering somewhat from multiple personality disorder.  I found the sentiment in Switzerland to be much more federal than even in the U.S.  People were very proud to be from whatever canton they called home, and proud to be Swiss second.  It was strange to me, but not something I could really criticize in a country where one's neighbors might not understand your language.


Once I arrived in Geneva I walked the 10 blocks or so between the Cornavin train station and my hostel, where I checked in and was shown to my room.  The room was fine, with the exception that the floorboards were very creaky, and possibly noisier than an entire herd of elephants.  From the room I walked downstairs and had a stroll along the lake and the many parks that hug it.  I also walked through the carnival which had set itself up on the banks of the lake during the summer.  It was entertaining, if a bit cheesy.  The lake really impressed me, what with its crystal blue waters, small waves, cold breezes, and a number of wake boarders to boot.  The town was also very pretty, sitting right on the lake, although I did not go and explore the town today, as that would have to wait for another afternoon.  I was fairly tired by this point, so I had a quick dinner and went back to the hostel to sleep.


The next day I woke up at a reasonable hour, and after getting showered and dressed, headed downstairs to the lobby, where I spent some time sending emails to Lima, trying to plan something to do there for my project.  The emphasis of my time in Peru had always been my time in Cusco and the surrounding towns, but I thought it would be nice to try to work something out for Lima as well.  Alas, I was mostly unsuccessful since the health system in Peru is very suspicious of inspectors from the US, even if they are only students.  Once I was done emailing I went on a long walk up north of the city to the epicenter of international organizations in Geneva, which is quite a busy place, as you can imagine.  Over 300 international organizations call Geneva home, and so the area is fairly built up.  Chief among these organizations is the United Nations.  Although it is also centered in New York City, it has a home in Geneva because this is where the League of Nations was founded, in no small part because of the influence of US President Woodrow Wilson (the man is pretty big in Geneva, with lots of streets, buildings, etc named for the great internationalist).  Sine the UN was my point of interest, it was there that I walked first.  I went to the Palais de Nations, or the Palace of Nations, where the League of Nations had its home for a while and now several important organs of the UN exist.  I first had to pass through some intense security, including handing over my passport, and was then led to my tour group, in another, more modern, building.


Our tour was led by a very competent German man who had a very heavy accent.  It was actually quite entertaining to watch the tourists who had come on the English tour because their first language was not offered try to understand this man.  The effort was most often an exercise in futility and I had to help them with his accent.  On our tour we first walked through the immense UN shop (if I say nothing else for them, they do know how to market themselves quite well) and then on into the chamber for the UN Council on Humanitarian Affairs, which was a large circular debating chamber.  We then went on to the a larger chamber donated to the UN by the King of Spain, Juan Carlos.  The ceiling of this room was filled with very vibrant, if a bit frightening, modern art.  We then moved over to the older building in the complex, which had been built in the 1930's to house the League of Nations.  After the League's collapse and the founding of the United Nations in the aftermath of World War II, the UN took over the Palace of Nations as their home.  The building showed every possible indication that it had been designed in the 30's, but it was somehow still a charming structure.  We paused on our way for a moment to observe a titanium structure donated to the UN by the USSR as a monument to mankind's dominance of space.  From there we saw the original debating chamber of the League and the newer, much larger, chamber of the General Assembly in Geneva.  This chamber is not used nearly as frequently as the other General Assembly chamber in New York, but it has still seen some important moments in international diplomacy, including most of the treaties and negotiating over the situation in the Balkans in the 1990's.  


After the tour I left the UN complex and walked across the street to the headquarters and museum of the International Organization of the Red Cross and Red Crescent.  Although I still begrudge the fact that these organizations were so opposed to allowing the Red Star of David to exist, I did decide that a visit was in order.  I walked downstairs to their museum, which was small, but very interesting and full of information.  It was not as enthralling as the UN had been, but the documentation of the history of this organization was still very neat.  The organization has won numerous Nobel Peace Prizes and continues to do important work to help those injured by war or conflict.  Following this I walked back to the hostel, where I had a light dinner and spent the rest of the evening on the computer.  


The next day was my meeting day in Geneva.  I had set up a meeting with two representatives of the World Health Organization, through my own persistence and the assistance of Dr. Buch from South Africa, who does extensive work with WHO in the region.  I woke up early and went to Cornavin train station, where I got a taxi over to the international headquarters of WHO.  Once I arrived, and got over the shock of the horribly 1970's building, I walked in and told the security guard about my meeting.  While I waited I watched people wander by, all of them seemingly intent on doing their important jobs and not really paying any attention to anything around them.  Eventually my host for the day, a Mr. David Evans, arrived and took me on a brief tour of the complex.  We walked down to the library, the cafeteria, the bookshop, and a few departments (Immunology, Infectious Diseases, Tropical Diseases, etc) until we came to his department and took a seat in his office.  He was previously the Director of WHO's Global Programme on Evidence for Health Policy, but since 2004, he has been Director of the Department of Health Systems Financing.  We spoke in his office for a while on his work and the work of his department in fighting health inequities and inequalities in the world.  His work mostly focuses on analyzing the deficiencies of various national healthcare systems in providing equitable care to all sectors of their populations.  His department mostly focuses on statistic analysis of such problems, while a department that he works very closely with works to provide suggestions and solutions to the governments that ask for them.  After our interview he led me down the hall to the office of one of his team members, a Ms. Priyanka Saksena.  She was a very intelligent woman and we discussed in detail a specific problem that the department has been tasked with fighting, financial catastrophe as a result of seeking care.  This situation arises when seeking and receiving care for an injury, infection, or malady is necessary, but would cause the person or people seeking it to become destitute or to fall into such massive debt as to affect subsequent generations of the family.  Ironically enough this is mostly a problem of the middle class in many countries.  The poor are very often given free or very subsidized care while the rich can afford the care that they need, leaving the middle class in a no man's land of not enough benefits and not enough resources.  It is a sad situation, but the discussion we had was very enlightening, especially in regards to what I had observed in India.  I spent the remainder of the day doing work back at the hostel.


Saturday was a fun day for me.  I woke up early and got on the tram out to Meyrin, where I caught a bus and was dropped off at CERN within sight of the French border.  CERN, or the European Center for Nuclear Research, has been for quite some time a very intriguing site for me.  I had always wondered about the environment in which scientists from around Europe were breaking the barriers of our knowledge of the universe.  To that end I traveled the 30 or so minutes out of town and took a day trip there.  First, having entered the lobby and been directed down a hallway, I visited the Microcosm, or the official museum of CERN.  This museum started off simply enough, with the four basic forces of the our world (gravity, electromagnetism, strong nuclear, and weak nuclear), but it very quickly accelerated in complexity and before I knew what had happened I was in way over my head.  I wandered through the modestly sized museum for more than an hour absorbing every detail I could.  Nuclear physics has always been somewhat of a side interest of mine, and now I was being indulged.  It was all a bit too much, to be perfectly honest.  I was very excited by what I saw, especially the details of the work being done by the scientists at CERN.


After visiting Microcosm I went across the road to the Legion of Doom, or at least a very close approximation of it.  Inside was a conference center and a temporary museum which was housing an exhibit based on the Power of 10 video, examining how perspective can change our understanding of the world around us, from being massive combinations of infinitesimal to being insignificantly small members of a universal existence.  There were also exhibits on the Big Bang and on the ideas behind String and M Theory.  It was, once again, very interesting.  I had lunch at the CERN neighborhood restaurant, where I had some delicious, and cheap, smoked salmon pasta.  After lunch I went back to the information desk, where I joined a tour of ATLAS, which is one of the detector units of the Large Hadron Collider.  The tour guide was a bit long winded, but getting to see the scientists at CERN conducting their research on the spot was very cool indeed.  The ATLAS was a huge device, and we watched a video about its assembly, which took almost as much engineering know how as the LHC.  After the tour I went back to the hostel.


The next two days, Sunday and Monday, were relatively uneventful.  I spent most of my time in cafes doing work on the internet and catching up with my journal.  This is, as I said, not a very exciting task to write about, so I will spare the details.  On Sunday, though was Swiss National Day, and there were many fireworks to be had that night.  The Swiss don't do national holidays very well, since they are less of a nation than a confederation, and so it is up to each municipality to decide how to celebrate.  There is no speech from the Head of State, or parade in the capital (Bern), or anything of that sort.  Geneva had decided that fireworks were in order, and I greatly enjoyed them.  The following day, Monday (my last in Geneva) was a day off for government workers, and so I was precluded from doing any more interviews at WHO.  As I said, I took the time to work online and work in my personal journal.  Switzerland had been a good place to go, especially for my research, but I was ready for the next stop on my journey, Madrid.

La Ville-Lumière - Paris - Saturday, July 17th through Tuesday, July 27th

I'm back, and ready for more.  Or so it would seem.  More blogging to do, and certainly some paper writing to do between now and the end of the next 30 or so days.  Anywho, here's Paris.

Paris is an extraordinary city, and I really love it, but there are certain things about it that can become frustrating over time.  Certainly the lights of the Eiffel Tower, or the splendor of the Louvre, are not brilliances which quickly fade in the mind, but neither is the annoyance of millions of people being slightly aloof.  Although I did my best at French (a language I am not fluent in by any means) I was, at best, a nuisance, and at worse, just another American.  That's not to say I didn't enjoy my time in Paris, just that it wasn't the kind of welcome I was expecting.  In a previous very brief trip to the city the French had been very kind to me, indeed, so I was a little taken aback by their behavior this trip.  Oh well, I suppose most Americans would react poorly to a Frenchman butchering English to ask them a question too.  

Paris was always a bit of a special case in my journey.  I had been given a briefer period of time to plan my voyage than I had initially thought, and thus I was unable to really set up Paris as well as I would have liked.  I figured that this would be not big deal, that I would simply work things out from the road, making calls and emails as I traveled.  I have been doing this, and yet, I found it to be of no avail.  Paris was a maddeningly fruitless city, as far as my standards are concerned.  I did do some things which were very helpful for my project, certainly, and I will detail those shortly, but I was not nearly as busy as I would have liked, and this put my in a worried, annoyed mood during some of my time there.  Once I arrived in Paris, having had most of my emails either responded to in the negative or simply ignored, I set about calling potential contacts.  I had hoped to study the situation of immigrant healthcare in the country, particularly as it pertained to immigrants from France's former colonies in North Africa, West Africa, and Southeast Asia.  To that end I called government officials (almost always too busy to help me, despite my having had success in most other countries with their ilk), hospitals (always suspicious of my motives in requesting information, interviews, or tours, despite my having been able to break through that barrier of suspicion in New Zealand, Australia, India, and Peru), scholars (always too confused by my rather straight forward topic or reluctant to help in fear that I might steal some of their research, despite, once again, my success on having spoken to academics in every other country besides India), etc.  

While I was there I was certainly not inactive.  I found a treasure trove of helpful and informative shcolarly papers on the subject of interest.  I traveled to and saw, to one extent or another, several famous, representative, and noteworthy hospitals (including the first pediatric hospital in the world, the Hôpital Necker - Enfants Malades, or Necker Hospital for Sick Children, the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, one of the largest teaching hospitals in Europe, and the oldest hospital of Paris, the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris).  I also traveled and visited briefly the Ministry of Health and Sport.  And despite all of my early frustrations, I did get on the phone with one women at the High Authority for Health who was quite helpful, although she never did provide her name so that I could thank her properly for her assistance.  So, clearly I was not inactive; I did have a good deal of success in the city in finding information and research to use in my project.  I was simply a little put off by what I sensed was a reluctance to help the American student, whereas in the other countries I had traveled to there seemed to be exceeding goodwill and desire to help me as much as possible.  This was, clearly, a cultural difference, or simply a result of my inability to speak proper French, but more the former than the latter I think.  I did not let this slower pace deter me from a few important things.  A) I took a bit of a respite from the hectic travel research of the previous four countries and B)I used this time not only to pursue scholarly articles and papers to use in my own project but also to conduct some advance planning for my next two (and last two) stops, Geneva and Peru.  I would be going to Geneva for a meeting with a few representatives of the World Health Organization and to Peru to meet specifically with the head of the KausayWasi Clinic in Coya.  

Now, having detailed in short order what I did during my time conducting research, I will take the rest of this post over for the purposes of detailing my free time and "sightseeing" in the City of Lights, as they call it.  I had a very good time, and I saw an amazing amount of things, helped partly, I suppose, by the breakneck speed at which I visited and toured around the city in order to leave myself a good amount of time every day to work and attempt to find contacts.  On Saturday the 17th I woke up at 5:00 in the morning in order to get from Mike's apartment to the St. Pancras Rail Station in London.  I would be taking the chunnel to Paris' Gare d'Nord.  After some initial trouble getting my ticket I managed to find it, and was whisked through security.  Unexpectedly I then had to pass through French immigration control, and so I have been given the truly odd passport stamp stating that I entered France in London.  The train ride was mostly uneventful, and I slept for most of it, but the moments of shooting into and out of tunnels really made it obvious how fast we were moving, i.e. extremely.  After arriving in Paris I went over to the place I would be staying, near the Gare de l'Est metro station, and settled in.  It was a nice place, and I was sure I wouldn't have any trouble with it for the next little while.  For the rest of my first day in Paris, still a little tired from all the travel, I took it easy, just going out for some cheap Turkish food and a quick stop in the supermarket.  The only other noteworthy event that day was the large Kurdish protest that moved down the Rue de Magenta later on in the early evening, which brought everyone out onto their balconies to see what all the noise was about.  


The next day I took one of those "oh so touristy" double decker buses in order to see the city and get my bearings for the remainder of my stay.  I felt bad being surrounded by family bedecked in sunscreen and fanny packs, but there really is no better way to quickly see a city and to figure out directionally where you are in relation to everything you might want to see or do.  The bus took me past all the main sights, but I did get off on the Ile de la Cite for a quick break.  I took a walk down the left bank of the Seine and had lunch in a small Italian place.  While I was strolling I saw the Palace of Justice, the Hotel Dieu, and several other sights.  On the bus I was fortunate enough to see the Madellaine Church, the Garnier Opera, the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and all the major sights of the city.  After lunch I walked over to a small South Tunisian Bakery, and had some out of this world baklava.  After the day of busing around, having also seen the Moulin Rouge and the burlesque district (why this family oriented tour went by a neighborhood housing an establishment known as the "Sexodrome" is beyond me, and I apologize if it offends any of the readers of this blog's sensibilities), I went back to my place and chilled with some bread and cheese.  I will say that Paris has really found out how to eat.  it is ludicrously inexpensive to have pastry for breakfast and bread and cheese for dinner.  This is the way it should be everywhere, in my opinion.


Now, in order not to bog down in a day to day style of blog, I will go over what I saw, or at least the noteworthy things I saw, and then we will be off to the next stop on my trip, Geneva.  I was very pleased with my time in Paris, and the rich history and culture of the monuments and buildings I visited certainly added to that.  I spent one day visiting the Louvre, Tuleries Garden, Arc de Triomphe, and Avenue Champs d'Elysees.  The Louvre, let it be said, is a decadent, opulent, splendid piece of architecture.  It is as astounding to look at the palace itself as the artwork which it houses, and it houses some fairly astounding artwork.  I spent hours inside, and I still feel like I only scratched the very surface of the collection.  Of course I wandered past the two hallmark pieces of the Museum, the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo.  They were both surrounded by throngs of people, and, in my opinion, also by much more stunning artwork.  The sculptures in the hall with the Venus, in particular, were absolutely extraordinary.  Really, even though artwork from this time period (1500 - 1800) is not really my favorite, I couldn't help but be impressed and taken aback by what I saw.  My favorites were easily the Persian blue tiled collection, the hall of French statues, and the large tablet featuring Hammurabi's Code written in the original Cuneiform.  As a student of political science, it was very neat to get to have seen the first legal code in the world (Hammurabi's) and the first document of rights (the Magna Carta) on the same trip.


The Tuleries were an immense palatial garden which had once been the private playground of the royal court which  resided in the Louvre.  It was a very well manicured garden, and when I had finished walking through it I took the Metro over to the Arc de Triomphe.  This monument to the armies of Napoleon is a grand thing, if a bit ostentatious.  I really like it, though, especially the view from the top, which is much better than any other view in the city.  The perspective that you can get, going down past all the avenues and wide boulevards is just beautiful.  


I then took the next day going to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, the Crypte de Parvis, the Cluny/Museum of the Middle Ages, and the Pantheon.  The Cathedral is a real masterpiece of Christian architecture.  While I would never wish for all churches to look like it, I am very pleased that one does.  Its iconic towers and the enormous rose windows, which are brilliant from the interior, are testaments to how the power of God can inspire men to create visions of heaven on Earth.  I don't mean to sound so poetic, but the beauty of religious structures is something I really enjoy, and the Cathedral is no exception.  The Crypt is right under the square in front of the cathedral, and it is one of the most overlooked major tourist attractions in the city.  It features the remains of Roman, Medieval, and Renaissance Parisian buildings, in a very interesting exhibit.  I am very upset that this place does not receive as much notoriety as it deserves, because it is a very cool place to visit.   Next I went to the Cluny, but this was a very short stop, because it was closed on Mondays.  From there I walked to the Pantheon.  Originally built to be a church for royalty, it was reclaimed after the French Revolution to act as a final home for France's heroes, great minds, and patriots.  The building is impressive enough, but it is what is inside that is the true treasure.  In the main hall are statues of great French men and women, as well as Focault's pendulum, which is a very neat mathematical tool which changes its rotation each hour as the Earth moves below it.  Downstairs is the crypt, where are housed the tombs of France's greatest minds, including Voltaire, the Curies, and many others.  Surprisingly there was also a memorial to the actions and life of one Toussant L'Overture, despite the fact that he revolted against the French in leading the Haitian Revolution.  


I also went to the Musee d'Orsay, which is my favorite museum of the trip.  It is an immense museum housed in an old, and very elegant, train station, and the collection focuses on art from the 1800's through to the first half of the 20th century.  This includes impressionist artwork, which tends to be my choice in any selection of favorite artwork.  The paintings of Monet, Manet, Cezanne, Van Gogh, and others were all there to move my heart.  Needless to say, I spent a good deal of time there.  I even found my favorite painter of all time there, or at least his artwork, in the painting of Paul Signac.  This day I also stopped in a French pastry shop after lunch, where I picked up a meringue, which was the size of a football.  I then went to the most interesting non-artwork museum of the trip thus far, the Museum of the French Legion of Honor and Orders of Chivalry.  This museum is dedicated to the various Heraldic Orders of the nations of the world.  They have a copy of the various orders from most countries on the planet, or at least those that give such orders, including the United States (where the orders are the Congressional Medal and the Medal of Honor).  The jewels and gold involved in some of these orders, and the extensive collections of some countries, such as the United Kingdom, Spain, and most monarchies, were an awesome sight to behold.  It was an extremely worthy museum of the hour I spent there, and I wish it was mentioned in more overviews of the sights of Paris.  It is literally right next to the d'Orsay, and so it couldn't be located any better, and yet it was completely empty when I visited.  From there I walked to the Orangeries Museum in the Tuleries Garden, which was renovated in order to house the famous lily pad paintings of Monet, which were very beautiful.  I also managed to stumble upon a statue of Simon Bolivar along the Seine, donated to the city of Paris by about 15 different Central and South American countries where Biolivar played a role.  The man was nothing if not prodigious in his ability to birth nations.  


I also stopped by the Centre Georges Pompidou, which was an intriguing building, what with all the pipes placed on the exterior of the building and painted in bright colors, but I was not a fan of the artwork housed inside, which was mostly modern and postmodern in style.  The only noteworthy exhibit was a temporary one which focused on the various visions of the future provided by the past, including Las Vegas and EPCOT.  In the bookshop of the museum were several books detailing the work of a relative of mine, a Mr. Ed Rusha, which was a very cool find.  I spent the remainder of that day visiting the Jewish Museum, which was a moving tribute to the sizeable Jewish population of pre-WWII France and European Jewry as a whole.  The documents and paintings on display were simply extraordinary, including the first book ever printed in Portugal (printed in Hebrew I might add) and numerous paintings by renowned artist Marc Chagall.  In their bookshop I found some very interesting books, one on learing Ladino and another on the arguments put forth in past Latke-Hamantash debates at the University of Chicago.  I decided right then and there that I need to make this debate a reality at the University of Miami.  I also quickly stopped by the Jewish Deportation Memorial on the Ile de la Cite, which was a moving, somber testament to the lives lost because of the atrocities committed in Paris and France during the Nazi regime, not least of which was the deportation of tens of thousands of Jews to their deaths in concentration camps in Poland and Germany.  To finish off this particular day I went to the Galleries Lafayette, in honor of my sister, since it is a very similar immense shopping mall to Harrod's in London.  There I found a huge tub of Nutella as well as a 16,000 Euro bottle of wine from before the First World War.  Honestly, I can't imagine it being anything but vinegar now.  


The next day I took a walk through the Luxembourg Gardens, another of Paris' former palatial gardens that are now given over to the public.  This one was very nice, with the French Senate overlooking it on one side and a nice lake in the center where little children could rent toy sailboats and race them against each other.  The scene was only interrupted by the unharmonious noises of an American high school band, who began to play (I wish I were making this up) Stars and Stripes Forever before I had a chance to leave.  I also walked around and under the Eiffel Tower, although I did not go up it because this would have taken an entire day, what with the lines being the way they were.  That night I climbed atop the Arc de Triomphe for a view over the city once all the nighttime lights were on.  It was an enchanting sight, especially once the Eiffel Tower lit up.  


On Sunday the 25th I went over to the Champs d'Elysees and watched the Tour de France as it finished up in Paris.  It was a fun experience, and the French treat the event like their Super Bowl.  To watch that many cyclists go around a tight track in such well organized packs would have been entertaining enough, but there was also the spectacle of the advertising floats, which came before the cyclists and played loud music and threw things to the adoring crowd.  There were large numbers of Spaniards and Luxembourgers present, as a result of the top two contenders for the prize being from those two countries, but the most boisterous nation, by far, were the Norwegians, for no obviously discernible reason.  The next day I went to the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, which is a glorious, Byzantine style church built up on a hill in Montmartre in gleaming white stone.  I also took the yellow Metro line out its terminus in the Defense area of Paris, where they have built an artificial CBD.  The buildings are very urban, and reminiscent of Manhattan, but with their own indescribable French flair.  


The next day, the 27th of July, was my last in Paris, and so I did something I had wanted to for a long time, ever since my mother had given me the idea.  I took the Metro out to the Catacombs, where I quickly found myself in a terribly long line.  I waited in said line for about two hours before I finally made it all the way to the entrance of the Catacombs system.  The reason for this was that there was a set number of visitors allowed in the complex at a time, and so no more could be let in until these exited.  I had arrived at 10, when the complex opened, but I was beaten to the chase by a significant number of people.  Once I had gotten in I was led down a hallway, at the end of which I found a stairwell.  This stairwell led me down, down below the city, below the sewers, and below the Metro system.  Once down in the cool, damp, dark tunnels of the Catacombs I had to walk a long, solitary, spooky pathway to the first tombs.  Once there the complex soon began to show its most extraordinary sights.  I was soon surrounded by the skulls, femurs, and bones of millions of Parisians, placed here centuries ago when the city's funerals had lost their ability to deal with more corpses.  The bones down in the Catacombs are intricately arranged into religious displays, and the effect is certainly macabre, if not downright evil at times.  The number of bones really put into perspective how many people used to live in this city, down through the centuries. Once I was done there I went back to my place for the night, had dinner at a Jewish deli, and packed my bags to move on tomorrow to my next port of call, Geneva, across the border in Switzerland.

Waterloo Sunset - London - Friday, July 16th

Not for nearly the first time on this Foggian journey I awoke in the uncomfortable seat of an airplane.  No matter the circumstances it is an unpleasant feeling, since it is a fair bet that the sleep will have been brief and painful, and this was no exception.  I had been made to pay once again for the anatomical misunderstanding which led engineers to design airline seats as they did, and I fear my tailbone will never quite forgive me for it.  It was both odd and a little disconcerting to have flown for 13 hours and only shifted over one time zone (and it would have been no time zones if the United Kingdom didn't insist on being different from her continental neighbors).  I'm much more used to longitudinal flights than latitudinal ones, and this flight threw me for a mental loop.  It was also strange to know that the plane had been over land for most of the flight, with brief exceptions near West Africa and the Mediterranean Sea, as well as the couple of minutes or so we spent over the English Channel.  As we descended into Heathrow Airport my ears began to hurt as a result of the change in pressure, and the agony only began to increase as we circled above the airport.  We had gotten there a little early and due to noise regulations no planes are permitted to land before 6:00 in the morning.  By the time we landed I was actually in a decent amount of pain from not being able to clear my ears, which was a new experience for me in flying.  Sure, it had happened to me before underwater but never in an airplane.

At passport control, after a 30 minute wait in the queue, I received a grilling from the immigration officer, in order to make sure that I was entering the country for legitimate reasons.  It wasn't quite up to Israeli standards, but it was certainly pretty vigorous, much as customs had been in New Zealand.  I then collected my bags and proceeded to walk across the Atlantic (or at least it felt like that kind of distance) to find the Heathrow tube station.  It was well marked, just very far away from the international arrivals area.  The tube ride into London took a while, because Heathrow is so far out of town, but it was refreshing to be in a familiar place (as I had been to London before).  I switched from the Picadilly line to the Northern line at the Leceister Square station and then rode the tube to another four stops to the Goodge Street station.  From there I got back up to street level and went to a cafe, to wait.

I was soon greeted by Michael, a friend from UM who had been taking some summer courses here in London, as well as interning with an English law firm.  Since I was only in London for a day, on a kind of extended layover, I was very happy to be able to see him and to have a free bed to sleep on that night.  Today was my only day in London and it was also his last, as he would be heading home tomorrow after six weeks here.  After meeting some of Michael's friends and other UM people here, and letting him find a place in his room for me to put my stuff, we set out on a day of exploration.  It was nice to have a day to relax, without having to worry about the research.

I had been to London before, so I had a pretty good feel for it, but it was still very exciting to see it again, and especially through the eyes of someone who had been living here for weeks.  After leaving his place we took the tube over to St. Pauls Cathedral, which is a personal favorite of mine as far as churches are concerned.  I love the intricacy and opulence of religious buildings, and St. Pauls holds a special place in my heart, since I first visited it with my family on my other trip to London.  Mike had not yet been, so I enjoyed watching his expression as we entered and he first saw the massive interior hall.  We spent some time wandering the main floor, then took to the crypt to see the tombs of Lord Nelson and the Duke of Wellington.  We then climbed all 365 steps to the top of the cathedral, stopping in the whispering gallery along the way.  The view of London from up there was magnificent, and the squatness of the city became pretty evident.

After St. Pauls we headed down Fleet Street, fortunate not to run into any demon barbers, and went into the office where Mike had been working this summer.  He took some time to say some goodbyes to his coworkers and then we were off again.  I had a quick half of a sandwich at Pret a Manger, for old times sake (The family had eaten there a lot during our first trip to London) and then Mike and I went and had a proper lunch at a Tex-Mex restaurant.  It was being run by a real Latino family and we got some delicious burritos.  I was very impressed, because in my travels I have found that other countries do a very bad job of understanding that Mexican food should be cheap and easy.  After my epicurean experience we walked across the nearby Millennium Bridge (no dementors in sight) to the Tate Modern, Britain's premier museum for modern and postmodern artwork.  It has a vast collection, stretching from Monet, Dali, and Picasso to Pollack, Warhol, and several more contemporary artists.  I actually enjoyed the museum, which I had been suspicious of given my track record with modern art.  We also got to witness some ballet and interpretive dance in the main atrium.  Molly, another Cane and a friend of Mike's who was studying abroad in London this summer, then joined us.

From the Tate Modern we walked to the tube, stopping momentarily to get me some coffee before I fell asleep standing up.  We took the tube over to Knightsbridge, to go to Harrod's, since Mike still needed a gift for his mother and I enjoyed the place anyway.  We wandered through the many floors, gaping at some of the opulence (a solid gold set of Monopoly comes quickly to mind).  I got a few trinkets for my family and Mike got his mother a present.  After Harrod's Molly left to go back to her place, and Mike and I strolled around the neighborhood, since this had been where I had stayed on my first visit to London and was thus quite nostalgic.  We took the tube back to Mike's place, where I rested and he packed for a little while.  Eventually we went out to dinner with Steph, a friend of his, to a fun, funky outdoor market, where I got some crappy Chinese food (which is, by the way, the best kind of Chinese food).  Following this we went back to Mike's room, where he continued packing.  He took a short break as the sun was setting, around 10 pm, to walk to the pub with me for a celebratory pint.  I also had some Irn-Bru (one of 3 drinks in the world to outsell Coca-Cola) to keep with the pledge I made in Australia to try all three drinks this summer.  Only Inca Cola stands in my way now.  After that we went back to Mike's place where I crashed.

To The Cape! - Cape Town - Friday, July 9th through Thursday, July 15th

Hello once again from around the world.  As promised, following this introductory paragraph will be the update concerning my last stop in South Africa, Cape Town.  I thank all of you for bearing with me through these sometimes trying weeks.  I expect to be able to continue these regular updates right up until we're current again, which shouldn't be too much longer.

So, I woke up on Friday, the 9th of July, a little early in order to get packed up and ready to leave Pretoria.  After I got my bags in order I said my goodbyes to some mates I had met there, as well as Tim and Monique, the hostel owners, and got in a cab to OR Tambo International Airport.  I passed the long ride in the company of a driver from Zimbabwe, and we spent a good amount of time discussing life in that country, and how he deals with being an immigrant in South Africa (a xenophobic country at times).  He also showed me some awesome Zimbabwean music, which was a great change of pace from the international pop playing over the South African radios during the World Cup.  When we got to the airport he gave me a cut on the fare for having talked with him for the drive, since long drives are boring for taxi drivers as well, which was a nice thing to do, I thought.

Once at the airport I checked my bag, got my ticket from Mango Air to fly to Cape Town, and passed through security.  In the terminal, while waiting, I had a quick breakfast.  The plane took off on time and I had a good seat up near the front of the cabin, so I was a happy camper.  I was pretty amused by the fact that Mango appears to have stolen South African Airways' safety video and photoshopped Mango logos over the SAA logos.   It was extremely amateur hour, and I was loving every minute of it.  The flight itself was very normal, with nothing to report except for the amazing scenery as we passed from the High Veld of Johannesburg and Pretoria to the lower plains and their mountains around Cape Town.  Descending into Cape Town International Airport must have been a trick for the pilot, given how steep the drop off in altitude is between the nearby mountains and the seaside city.

At the airport, after retrieving my bag, I was not surprised in the least to find that my prearranged ride into town was a no show, or was at least so late as to force me to consider other options for transportation.  No matter, I took a cab into town and to my hostel, Penthouse on Long, which is, conveniently enough, on the corner of Long and Wale streets.  The hostel was, unsurprisingly enough, a nice enough place that resided on the penthouse floor of a purple building done up in Cape Dutch architecture.  My room here was my largest room of the trip, with 20 beds in all, although the room was fairly large and so it didn't feel at all cramped.  The hostel had all the common amenities, and even had hot water with good pressure in the showers (a definite plus).

Once I had settled in and got my stuff unpacked and/or locked up in my locker, I gave a call to my friend Andrew, who had been working in Cape Town the whole summer.  He had been doing work for the Amy Biehl Foundation, a really promising organization devoted to improving the educational opportunities of children in the townships of Cape Town.  If you're interested, their website is http://www.amybiehl.org/ .  Anyway, I was meeting up with Andrew, both to see a familiar face and for him to show me around the city, which he is pretty familiar with at this point.  We agreed to meet up on Long Street, after I had done a little emailing, and then he showed me around the city center, including the area around Long Street, the Company's Gardens, the Parliament, the Parade (from where Nelson Mandela gave his first public address after being released from prison), etc.  It was great to walk around an unfamiliar city with a friend, and we both reveled in the fact that we could talk about football without getting a blank stare from the other.  We spent the day wandering, and relaxing in each other's company, since we had both been pretty well alone all summer.  For dinner we went out to the waterfront area, within walking distance, and had some Cuban food, which was pretty good for whatever reason.  All in all, a very good day.

The next day, Saturday the 10th, was a pretty slow day, so I won't bore you with all the details.  Suffice it to say, it was a rainy day and that limited the activities that we could pursue.  I did meet Andrew that morning at a place called the Old Biscuit Mill in the neighborhood of Observatory, near his lodge.  There we explored a food and crafts market which sets up weekly.  Completely out of the blue I suddenly found myself surrounded by amazing gourmet feasts.  From smoked fish to cheese, vegetables, fruits, desserts, sandwich, you name it, it was there and delicious.  I had a bagel with lox for breakfast (a first since Miami, and something I had not expected to do on the whole trip) and grabbed a bag of wasabi peanuts to go.  It was a great find, and the cheapest place I have ever seen for gourmet food.  After the market we went to Andrew's place for a little while, then to my hostel, and then spent the rest of the rainy Saturday walking around Long Street, having some lunch, some local and Namibian beer, and some dinner.  We found a really cool, if a bit funky, place called Mr. Pickwick's, but that was our only real victory for the day.  We also discovered just how hilarious it is to watch cricket if you have no idea what the rules are.

The following day, Sunday the 11th, was glorious day, weatherwise, and we decided to take advantage of that fact.  Andrew met me on Long Street, after we had given our previous plans (which had been based on all the forecasts of rain) a facelift.  We caught a cab up to the Table Mountain Cable Station, from where you can choose either to walk to the top of this monolith or take the cable car up.  Alas, when we arrived at the station, we saw that the mountain had clouds settled over it, a phenomena known locally as the Table Cloth.  As the clouds were unlikely to move, due to the shape of the mountain, we decided to do something else.  We drove back down into the city and walked over to the Company's Gardens.  In the Gardens we found the oldest synagogue in South Africa, now home to the National Jewish Museum.  It was a very interesting museum to visit, given South Africa's rich history in Jewish culture.  The most interesting exhibit was, by far, one on the 11 Jews who had played rugby for the South African national team, the Springboks.  The exhibit was called The Springbok Minyan, and focused mostly on Joel Stranksy, who had kicked the winning ball in the Rugby World Cup (the same one featured in Invictus).

After the museum we went to a local food favorite of Andrew's, the Eastern Food Bazaar, which had a huge selection of Indian, Pakistani, and Middle Eastern food.  We got some pizzas (I know, not what you would have expected to find there) and stuffed ourselves.  After that we were going to go the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, but had run out of time, so we headed to the FIFA Fanfest.  There we found a huge TV screen, which would later show the World Cup Final tonight, as well as a carnival atmosphere and some very fun stuff.  We stayed there for the rest of the day and hung out with Dutch people.  We stayed until the end of the game, and then went our separate ways.  It was a great evening, although I was very interested to see how South Africa reacted to the World Cup being over tomorrow.

Monday morning I had my first project work of my time in the Cape, which happened to be a make up from Pretoria.  I had a long, and very productive, phone conversation with Dr. Claasen of the Ministry of Health.  It was very interesting to hear the government and ministry opinion on the health situation between the races.  Dr. Claasen was an older white man, who had been working in the health field during the seismic changes that happened in the system following the first truly democratic elections in the country.  It was a very interesting chat, and I was glad to have completed it, given that Dr. Claasen was out of town while I was in Pretoria.

For the rest of the day I spent some time with Andrew exploring the city.  First we had lunch at a nearby Ethiopian restaurant, because it was a cuisine I had never tried and I was intrigued.  Having reunited for the day, we took a cab over to the V&A Waterfront, to finish our plans from yesterday.  The area is really nice, and it looks much like some of the picturesque harbors in Maine.  We wandered around, went in to a mall, got some tasty ice cream, and generally enjoying the weather, which was spectacular.  We bought ourselves some tickets to tour Robben Island, the former epicenter of political prisoners in Apartheid South Africa.

After waiting at the dock for about half an hour we eventually got on board the ferry which would take us out into the Bay and to the island.  Our ferry had the absolutely unpronounceable name Sikhululckile, which Andrew and I had fun with.  The island itself is not too far past Cape Town's harbor.  It is only about a 20 minute boat ride away, and is clearly visible from most high points in the city.  This was surprising to me, as I had expected it to be out, alone in the ocean, battling the elements by itself with no sign of help from the mainland.  But that was just my romanticized picture of the place, and these imaginings are very rarely how reality takes shape.  As it was, the short ferry ride there was mostly smooth sailing, and we were all treated to a whale off the port side, at a time of the season which is a little early for the whales to be arriving, I was informed.  Once we got to the dock on the island we all unloaded off the boat and reloaded into a few buses. We began our tour with a hilarious guide, who spent half his time explaining the island and the other half telling off color jokes about the various nationalities represented on the bus.  The bus took us around the perimeter of the island, where we saw the wardens' village, the remnants of the leprosy colony founded here when the Dutch first arrived, the limestone quarry where many prisoners toiled, and the private prison built for only one inmate, Robert Sibukwe.  We also stopped to get off near the edge of the island for the spectacular views across the water to the city and the mountains behind it.  Seeing all of these remnants of the brutal prison system really made me think about just what these men and women were forced to endure, and how lucky I was to live in a democratic society, where most rights (if, admittedly, not all) are protected.  After the bus tour we were led to a walking tour of the main prison buildings, including the group cells and the individual cells.  We made the obligatory stop at the cell where Nelson Mandela lived for something like 18 years.  I cannot imagine the mental hardship of living in a prison system for as long as he and some of his peers did.  The tour was led by a former prisoner here, which added both a trace of bias and a fair bit of poignancy to the experience.  It occurred to me that not only have all of South Africa's post-Apartheid presidents been exconvicts, but it might be the only country in the world where most of the government is made up of ex-prisoners.  It was a very interesting thought.  As we were leaving the island I got a few pictures of the penguins which inhabit the island, in great numbers I might add.  Once back at the waterfront Andrew and I had dinner and then parted in separate cabs back to our beds.

This morning I once again made a call to a health expert stationed in Pretoria.  This time I called Dr. Eric Buch, a professor and researcher at the University of Pretoria.  He had been referred to me both by the head of the Health Sciences department at UvP and by Dr. Claasen, whom I spoke with yesterday.  I gave him a call and we had a good conversation.  His work specializes in healthcare inequities and inequalities, mostly due to economic causes.  He was very helpful and gave me a lot of good information on the topic.  He also emailed a few research articles of his to me.  Most helpful of all, though, was that he promised to help me get in touch with his contacts at the World Health Organization in Geneva, which I would be visiting later on in the trip.

After my phone interview with Dr. Buch, I had a busy day seeing Cape Town.  I first called Andrew, and we met up for lunch.  He was working today, so I was mostly on my own, but we did manage to get together for some lunch.  He took me to a small shack nearby where we ordered a sandwich called a Gatsby.  I have no idea how it earned such a name, but my guess would be that it is a reference to the extravagance of the thing.  The sandwich has a lot of boerwors meat, some lettuce, a basket of chips, and lots of sauce in it.  Between the two of us (well sized, hungry, college kids) we only managed to eat 3/4s of the monster.

Following lunch I took a cab up to the cable station on Table Mountain.  I took the cable car up to the top, in order to save time, and the view was absolutely remarkable on the way up.  The floor of the car rotated as we went, so that everyone could see in a complete swing of 360 degrees.  It was truly awe inspiring.  Once at the top, I immediately regretted not kitting up for an Arctic winter, as the wind coming across the top of Table Mountain was frigid.  I soldiered on, however, and walked across the whole thing.  On the summit, it really is very level, and so it was an easy hike to walk the whole perimeter.  It took me about 20-30 minutes to complete, all in all, and I met another Hurricane up there!  The view from Table Mountain was extraordinary, and I felt like I could almost even see the very edge of Africa from up there.  The city looked so small and picturesque from way up there.  After Table Mountain I toured around the city, seeing the beach communities and the mansions in the windless areas of the city on the opposite side of the mountains.  I also got to drive through the colorful Bo Kaap neighborhood and the destroyed former home of the neighborhood of District Six.  I met up with Andrew for dinner at & Union and then at Mr. Pickwicks, and then I called it a night.

I woke today (Wednesday the 14th) with a hearty serving of cheerios and milk and then got down to work.  I worked on the computer for a little while, then got ready for the day.  Looking outside it appeared that the weather was not going to cooperate with me, not as much as it had yesterday at least.  After some more work on the computer I gave Andrew a call and we met for lunch at the Eastern Food Bazaar.  After lunch I went back to the hostel, where I confirmed a meeting with Dr. Rauf Sayed of the University of Cape Town for tomorrow morning.  Once that was taken care of I went to the District Six Museum, which was quite small, but very neat nonetheless.  The main goal of the museum was to commemorate the active neighborhood that had once stood in the area, before Apartheid planners decided it should be an all white area and bulldozed the whole thing.  Due to international pressure nothing was ever really built here, and so most of District Six is now just grassy fields.  This is why it is important for the museum to show that a thriving community once stood here, many of whose residents still live nearby.  The only other highlights of the day were my visit to the decadent Charly's Bakery (evidence of which you can see in my photo album) and dinner with Andrew at a pizza place.  I spent the night packing my bag for my long flight tomorrow.

The next day was a strange mix of hectic busyness and relaxed boredom, which was odd.  As today was my last day in South Africa, I wanted to make the most of it, especially from a research standpoint.  Very soon after working and eating some breakfast I headed out for my meeting with Dr. Sayed, which would take place before I left for the airport (my flight to London was tonight).  I got a taxi over to the medical campus of the University of Cape Town.  Things then began to go sour, as I was unable to follow the directions given to me, and was thus unable to locate the proper building in which to find Dr. Sayed.  I asked myriad security officers and they were just as clueless as I was.  Finally, running out of time, I went into a building that I believed to be the correct one and followed the instructions from there.  Alas, it turned out not to be the right place, and to top it all off, while I had been inside I had been in a dead zone for my cell phone.  I thus missed a call from Dr. Sayed asking where I was.  When I emerged from the building I tried to call him, but by then it was too late and he had left for another meeting.  An hour's time had been wasted, and I had missed my first appointment on the trip.  I then took a minibus taxi back to the hostel, where I called Dr. Sayed.  He didn't have time to talk at that moment, but he did promise to send me an email with helpful articles, which he did later in the day.

Back in the city I met up with Andrew for lunch.  Once we had finished, we said our goodbyes, sadly, and went on our ways.  He would be leaving South Africa soon as well, although he would be going back to the US.  In fact, he would be getting back to campus at UM before I was yet back in the States.  I then got my bags from the hostel and went to the airport, where I waited diligently for my flight to London.  I spent some time wandering the shops in the terminal, working on the computer, and eating at a cafe, before my plane finally arrived.  Eventually we were allowed to board, and so began one of the longer flights on my trip: 13 hours over mostly land, changing merely one time zone.  I quickly went to sleep on the plane.

So, next come London.  Stay tuned!