A long goodbye...

Kia Ora,
After living 26 yrs in the USA I have left, and I am going to blog about my life in a new country . I am moving to Australia and currently am “stopping over” with my family in New Zealand .  What a whirlwind of exiting the States - what a crazy race to slide into home plate with the deadline of Nov 24 fast approaching . I did move the deadline for many reasons , Matthew my Aussie husband already living iback in Brisbane almost 2 yrs had come down to saying he would believe it when he saw it ..
I look back,  exhausted from here at months of packing and months of saying my goodbyes . I had 2 going away parties at my work at the hospital but ran out of time to say goodbye to One of my office workmates ( of 12+yrs) , just like the “Freshman 15 “when kids headed to college without parental guidance/ supervision and access to alcohol and junk foods on campus  there is a saying in the USA that there is often a weight gain of 15 lbs ... I had my own version. Of the “Exit 15 “...so many wonderful lunches / dinners and going away parties with friends , patients . And packing and moving - boxes for months and preparing for shipping , then shipping and then moving out of our apartment and then finally moving out of my friends' house after staying for several weeks ...
A world of boxes , and packing tape and permanent marker pens .. and I had 2 surgeries this  year also ... which had me on lifting restrictions - now that was rough !  I truly am full of so much gratitudec and love for all of you who helped me pack / move / assisted me after surgery. I have such a wonderful village of  people I am honored to call friends ... and for those  who couldn’t/ didn’t head physically but provided emotional support also . The idea of moving / packing by myself seemed so daunting as it wasn’t financially feasible for Matthew to return . I even hired a professional organizing company which was a revelation that I could keep working but have someone come and meet me when I could clear a four hour block of time andGael and I would just go for it .
I started selling furniture and appliances/ gadgets - sadly the voltage difference 240 vs 110 and the different hertz cycle between Nz and Australia vs USA meant I had to sell all my beloved kitchen aids - my dehydrator , my food processor and my vita mix and juicer . I will have to begin again in Australia . Though much more expensive there... it may be a slow return ...
As you might well imagine shipping internationally is not cheap - that is an understatement but we decided  to fill a container as I had some furniture pieces I had gathered over the years as well as sporting  equipment and gear . Matthew had figured once one is shipping a container then we may as well fill it - he researched and bought a used ride on lawnmower several years ago that had been sitting in our garage hungry for some grass to chew on ... kayaks , canoes  we thought we can fill those empty vessels with our clothes and put them in. Turns out on the day of moving I found out that they were not putting our clothes in them as they didn’t want them to be unexpectedly heavy when someone was handling them  en route causing them to be dropped . Anyway I am way off topic and will blog about shipping another time . Back to my peeps that I had to say goodbye to - friends and families that had become my family over the years .... I always thought I wasn’t so deeply rooted as I was never planning to stay but shaking my roots from their pot was much more difficult than I thought !
I want to thank those who made it happen , who showed up at the moment of need whether it was an SOS call after surgery, or coming to help me pack boxes as the deadline loomed, so grateful for Greg, Andrew, Tony  and Alex who showed up at different times  to lift and move furniture whether it was the beast of a sleeper sofa just moving it  from one room to another which took an hour and was much more complicated than imagined . It involved taking legs off couches and doors off hinges all for better placement to be  more enticingly a shorter carry for a potential buyer ( fortunately the woman moving into my apartment decided to buy it solving all such problems )
Greg helped my pick up and move Pilates equipment ..( I am a PT and instructor) move kayaks from garages and furniture and bicycles and John Deere trailer later to a garage for selling . Ruth , Sandy, Guy, Corie,Madeline , Starlight, Joseph, Fran all came to help. I had a “house cooling “potluck for the last gathering at Casa de Bueno Fortuna as we affectionately called our place and mg last night there - my landlady Andrea came down for a glass of wine and to answer the Knock  on the door of the kids trick or treating ... all wonderful gatherings and memories . Kristin & Ruth organized a fabulous going away party at the “Five and Dime “a local Evanston restaurant/ bar and I had to severely  restrict my guest list due to # of occupants allowed. I know I had to not invite my hospital work colleagues as that is a gang of carribean blue scrub wearing therapists ... I also worked for NorthShore.
Dinners and lunches with so many - so good , so much love and so much gratitude ( from me )
It truly took a village ... staying my final few weeks with Deb and Rens in their beautiful Evanston home -whilst I was still selling and packing and working . I am so sorry I couldn’t have had more time for elevenses ...
Allegra and I ( she lives on Maui and was in town for grandmother duties ) went to Amiitabal a vegan buddhist restaurant for the last time twice ! Lori introduced me to a new fav restaurant in Wilmette Torino Ramen , one last visit to Blind Faith Cafe , Vera -my hairdresser and I went to Rezas in Andersonville...lovely meals shared in homes too Sallie Stanley and the gang ,Paula &Louis, Claudette, Kristin and Susan TePas.
... so many of you- starting with Iris and Paul taking me to lunch back in July as I thought I was moving then  (LOL)
Thankyou to all my friends who bought my furniture pieces ... and kitchen gadgets ...
My last night I went with Rens and Deb to the Chicago Botanic Gardens for their amazing light show . And my last day was chaotic whirlwind of packing and sorting ... but more about that later ... in honor of thanksgiving I am giving thanks  -you know who you all are ...I know I may have forgotten to mention someone ...
I am deeply grateful for Matthew for his patience  love and understanding as my move date kept moving  ... hang in there ... pigs are flying , fat lady choirs are singing...

Rio Ucayli and Contemana

Jeff, Bob and Joseph arrived from the States and Armando,Naida,Matteo and I met them at the small local airport... then headed back to the hotel for some breakfast and orientation. We spent the next several days and nights taking in some of the sights, evening boat rides on the Lago Yarinacocha and meeting Jorje our translator - a really vibrant 21 yr old who Matthew had used on a previous trip to Contemana... we got to benefit from his misfortune since he broke his arm in a motorcycle accident a month or so ago and had a combination of internal fixation with a strange pin sticking out of his skin and he had suspended his Law studies for the year to recover so was free to travel with us again. He is definitely an asset on our adventure. He was happy to have a little private physical therapy treatment as he had pain and was not using his hand at all so it was extremely weak. But would soon improve...
It is hot and steamy here in Pulcallpa and the streets are full of tuktuks(motorcars)... We were able to spot some fresh water dolphins from the boat and visited a small zoo on the opposite shore where there was an opportunity to say hello to a partially blind ocelot, a wet and slinky Anaconda who wiggled and jiggled and shed some skin in our company....

On to the Amazon...

Hola,
I am a little later adding to this as we have had limited internet access.  I will return to the story of the Santa Cruz hike at a later time, Let us just say we will not be recommending Johnny,s tours or Galaxia for that matter with poor communication and a need to organize our own transport back to Huaraz(and pay for it and our cook who hiked with us). Johnny had offered us a hot shower at his place upon our return and we were met with the offer of a cold shower on the rooftop of his guesthouse after 3 days of hiking and imagining a nice warm shower...before our night bus back to Lima. No towels were provided either... and then we had the pure pleasure of going to Cafe Andina for a REALMEAL! WE had had really poor and inadequate food on the trip ...fruitloops and yogurt for breakfast, or bread and jam... nothing else and hiking 10hours per day. More to come I promise.... so after a great meal of curry, tofu and rice, hot chocolate with leche de soya and limonade fresca Matthew and I took a night bus back to Lima. I was so tired after hiking 20kms all downhill on the last day that I slept the best I ever have sitting up right in a bus!! Arriving in Lima at 445am and jumping in a taxi to get ot the airport and a flight to Pucallpa.
This was my first time to Pulcallpa though Matthew has been here many times but never by plane... flying over the Andes to the edge of the jungle...by road it takes more than 20hours!! We had hoped to do a cross country adventure via collectivos but with RObert, Jeff and Joseph meeting us on the 25th we did not want to chance being stuck in a freezing cold high elevation town waiting in the middle of the night for the next connection by bus or collectivo (communal car)...

Pulcallpa is really a frontier town in a way ..the closest town to Lima and transportation for all that has to be sent up the river as cargo to the people who live in the towns and villages along el rio. The rio here is the Ucayali River which is a tributary of the Amazon that meets up with the Maranon river ( which Matthew and I took from Yurimagua to Iquitos by Cargo boat on a previous trip to Peru)
We arrive at the airport and immediately take a motocar (tuktuk) to Maestro Armando`s friends house where previously matthew had stayed in their very simple accomodations. But this time the nusic was blasting and they had turned their front room into a bar with TV yelling loudly into the street at 9am. Their bed was in the kitchen now...which has a dirt floor, bathroom and shower out in the back yard. Armando and his wife Naida were coming from their Amazon town Contamana via the slow boat to meet us. Matthew had lived with them at their house before for a month or so with their 9 children and grandchildren....sleeping on a wood floor with chickens running around:)

It was hot and steamy in Pulcallpa and overcast...as we were just setting off to go look at a hotel or two when Armando and Naida arrived...so after welcome hugs we took Armando to check out some accomodation options for the group in a nearby lakeside town Yarinacocha... and as is obvious by the lapsing of 18months since our last visit...alot can change in this time and one hotel recommended by Lonely Planet has since gone into some decay since Matthew was there last... but it was on the lake and seemed quiet enough but we checked out another place Las Gavilanes ...which was quieter still, cheaper and had a nice swimming pool. We met George (Jorge) our translator and great guy who was really excited to work with Matthew again and his Father ,also George (jorge - a phys-ed teacher)  And we all shared alovely lunch at the hotel set it up for us to stay there the next night but for this night we decided to stay at the one on the water La Maloka...Matthew and I promptly fell into a deep sleep despite the now pumping loud music playing competing restaurants that line the waterfront there...especially it being a Saturday where the locals flock there for the weekend...
Fortunately the music mostly stopped at 7pm...the gates locked us in, they have some very sad small animal cages most of them now empty but there was one monkey (mono) and a rabbit (coheno)
 So after days of sleeping at elevation or on buses we were able to have a night of sleep and a lovely COLD shower  in the morning:)Is a hot shower with agua caliente becoming a vision of the past....? Hasta lluego,
Wendita

Santa Cruz Hike

The Santa Cruz Hike is one of the more famous hikes in the Cordillera Blanca Mountains - 50km long and involves crossing a pass at Punta Union (elevation 4700m) Usually starting in Valaquia at 3900m and a gradual climb a 4 day/3 night hike finishing in Cachapampa. It can be done in 3 days from this direction and based on our schedule we had opted for the three day route. It became very clear from the beginning having booked with Johnny's Tours out of Huaraz who basically got a commission for us to go with Galaxia Tours that this was no National Geographic trip....and after heading out with some day trekkers and the rest of our group , eating breakfast and heading up to our starting point that the guide got a call to say we had to hike from the other direction as the route on this side of the pass was closed for trail clearing prior to the high season and there were no burros waiting for us there (to help carry our bags,water and food) So a U turn and a longer drive to Cachabampa to start our trek.... the guide Daniel informs us that Matthew and I will have to carry our own bags the last 20kms on the final day as the burros will stay with the group. This was news for us since we were sold the bill of goods that burros would carry our extra stuff and we had just brought dry bags for sleeping bags and clothes as on our previous Burro supported trips these were easier to pack...but hiking 20kms carrying dry bags in both hands down deep descents did not sound like much fun... so the guide says "Don't worry about that today ...just enjoy your hike for today" And so it began....
8 of us - from NZ, Australia,Argentina, Spain,Israel, England, and the United States...set off for an Andean adventure along with Daniel our guia and Julisa our cook.

Beautiful Alpine Lake

The remains of the forest and river

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fruitloops for breakfast? Really? I couldn't do it

Vacas - surrounded by 22 of them - they sure liked Matthew's singing

What remains of the forest after the mudslide 2 yrs ago

Our second campsite

Sharing our lunch with the Donkeys

Donkey love? I think not