Some Things About Me

JUL 11 2012 Saturday, November 15, 1997   (11:34 am) I am sitting on a bench overlooking a fenced-in pond stocked with tropical wading birds. It is hot, so I sat in the shade. Yesterday morning when I got up to spend a couple of hours in my Boulder, Colorado office before I left, I had to shovel six inches of snow off the sidewalk. I’m at the zoo in Santa Cruz, one of the ways I plan to spend the day here in Bolivia’s second largest city. I expected a raw, thrown together town in  the jungle. Instead, it is very clean and well-organized,  situated in a verdant savanna. The zoo, a green oasis in the concrete city, is the best I have seen South America.I arrived here this morning, leaving Denver 17 hours ago. I feel pretty well, as I was able to get 4 to 5 hours of sleep on the leg from Miami to La Paz. Tim will be coming in on Lloyd Aero Boliviano this evening from Cochabamba. I will join his flight as it continues on for another two hours t...

JUN 16 2012 In 1996 my son Timothy followed in his father’s footsteps and joined the Peace Corps. In the spring of that year he headed off  for three months of “in-country” training to prepare for a two-year assignment in that high altitude, South American country. Having been a volunteer myself 28 years earlier in Venezuela, and later obtaining a degree in Latin American Studies, I was looking forward to visiting him down there once he got settled. Here is an account of my first visit. Thursday, September 26, 1996 Tim and me at lunch first day in Cochabamba I left work at mid-day to catch a 2:45 p.m. flight to Dallas. From there I will go to Miami and finally to La Paz, Bolivia where I will arrive at 6:30 a.m. local time. Tim has a ticket waiting for me at the LAB office in the La Paz airport that will take me to his nearest airport, Cochabamba, later in the morning. I have two bags weighing 90 lbs. and about 30 lbs. more in a backpack filled with gifts that Ti...