Evacuación

(*For those who would like to skip right to the photos, you can find them here*)

We got the call at 4pm: pack a few things—at the very least your passport—and do whatever you can to get to Sucre by this evening. Under most circumstances, this would be a wildly audacious set of instructions, since Sucre was 7 hours away. Yet this is what we’ve feared over the delicate past few months and so in some way, as our bodies were hurriedly putting items in backpacks, it didn’t seem so outrageous.

All told, we would get 40 minutes to pack up and run around town to secure a rare taxi ride to another regional center an hour away where buses ran to Sucre (ours had just left, precisely at 4pm). We wondered: how many people who have ran over the scenario in their heads of “what would you throw in a bag if that twister or flood or fire was coming” actually got it right? And what exactly does one bring if the limit is a single backpack in a handful of minutes?

Well, in some ways, it doesn’t matter—sitting here in Lima, Peru, the last things we’re concerned with are the laundry hanging still on the line, the rising bread left on top of the oven, or the one pair of pants John grabbed to wear this past week… the rotting tomatoes on the counter, a bucket of worms waiting to transfer to new bedding sitting on the back patio, and unwatched episodes of Gray´s Anatomy (a new and strange addiction) sitting in a box next to the couch.

Instead, we fixate on the people we may never see, the work that was only begun, the talented Peace Corps staff that no longer have jobs, the beauty in each morning as we started the day unaware of exactly how much we’d miss those things we once took for granted. The Bolivia program has been suspended and we and the other 111 volunteers were flown out on C-130 military transport planes to neighboring Peru.

For those who may have missed a few blog entries or who may not know exactly where to locate Bolivia on a map, a question that may come up is, simply, why? This CNN article is a good primer on the events that have unfolded, but to summarize, it’s likely a messy combination of an unstable political situation, presidential desperation and scapegoating, the tossing of our US ambassador to Bolivia, 30 dead protesters in one region of Bolivia, violent protests and sieges in other major cities, martial law in at least one area, and Hugo Chavez’s antics. Ten presidents from South American countries met today to discuss the Bolivian crisis, rigidly divided governors (or at least the ones who haven’t been recently arrested by the president!) just met with President Evo Morales, and we’re wondering how much concern to place in the editorials that warn about Russia’s joint military exercises with Venezuela and the potential revival of the cold war.

It’s hard to imagine how it may have been avoided given this perfect storm of events. And it’s really hard to imagine what steps we’ll take over the days and weeks to come. Of course there’s the reams of paperwork and processes to engage in to terminate our work in Bolivia. We’ll know more tomorrow, but what we know right now about our options: we could call it quits right now and head back to the good ol’ USA to work for Lehman Brothers or AIG, start service in another country soon (?) or make our ways back into a fragile Bolivia to tie up some loose ends and try our hand at living in our site without having to call headquarters every few days. Sounds simple enough to decide, but there’s lots on our minds.

After the last consolidation at the posh resort, our general enthusiasm and mental health took a dive—the magic of our town had worn off a little, we had some difficulties in the work world and between each other. But, remarkably and unexpectedly, a month or so later, we started making some pretty serious progress. We both started radio shows 3 days a week each as a way to reach communities in topics of beekeeping, ecology, and natural resource management. Sarah got a great project signed, stamped and ready to reach 4 communities with beekeeping training and—moreover—seemed to galvanize solid support and involvement with a few of our counterparts in the mayor’s office. John started actually implementing the school nutrition/chicken project with surrounding communities. We began another round of English classes, building on what we had done before—the kids now learning their ABCs and we still have worksheets to hand back. We both finally started learning the charango, taking classes several times a week at our local school of fine arts. And we also made some new friends, had some fun meals with folks, and got ourselves ready for serious week+ long festivals that our town will start celebrating as soon as this weekend.

So, in brief, we hurt. We hurt in the reality that we’ve taken so much from this wonderful community without having a real chance to give back that much. We hurt in the sudden loss of friendships—and people we care about to whom we didn’t even get a chance to quickly wave goodbye. We hurt that we will not be able to repay the generosity and kindness from our friends and the community after gaining trust from people who were hesitant to trust us for a variety of good reasons. We also hurt in the realization that our lives had started taking on a routine of balance—that we had started learning the Bolivian ways of friends and family first, of courtesy, of living in the moment, and, ironically, of reducing our expectations of what might happen from one moment to the next.

It’s a lot to process, and we’ve got a long way to go yet. But we thought we’d share some of what’s happening now for those who have already heard about the evacuation on NPR or CNN.

We appreciate your thoughts and messages in this time of transition for us—

Love,

John and Sarah

(For those who want to head right to the photos, click here for July and here for August.)

We´ve been advised to avoid political conversations here in Bolivia, but how can we when it´s the one topic that ties us all together, gringo and Bolivian alike, in an uncertain future. The latest political news here is, as usual, pretty interesting. A few months ago the U.S. embassy was besieged by protestors (eventually tear-gassed) who are calling for the extradition of a former Bolivian president and his defense minister who have been granted asylum in the U.S. They are wanted for their involvement in a bloody protest in which the military killed 67 protesters in 2003. More recently, USAID was kicked out of the Chapare region which has the largest coca production in the country and is where Pres. Evo Morales has lived. It is unclear what this political posturing will mean for USAID in the rest of the country and for U.S.-Bolivian relations in general. Finally, our own department (Chuquisaca) recently elected an opposition Prefecta (governor) who supports regional autonomy and will press for a vote on the issue. This added to the momentum against the President as the country geared up for the August vote to revoke or endorse the continuation of his term.

In our site we are spared much of the political acrimony other volunteers may see. We continue to eke out a role for ourselves trying to adjudicate between the project goals Peace Corps has set for us and the wants and needs communicated to us by our community. We just finished our first English courses, one for adults and one for kids. Before we arrived we swore we would not teach English classes but after many requests from the community (and a band of 7 year olds knocking at our door) we were convinced that it truly was something the community wanted and we gave it a try. We finished each month-long course with a cultural activity. For the kids we had an afternoon party with pin the tail on the donkey, limbo, musical chairs, chocolate chip cookies and-- the all-American favorite-- the hokey-pokey. For the adults we simulated a Seattle coffee-shop experience in our living room with poetry reading, music, games, and good home-brewed coffee. We hoped they would stay from 8-9:30 but at 1am we found ourselves having to give the strong hints that the party must end. It was a rare non-alcoholic event in our town (but with dancing and singing), particularly on a Saturday night, and we speculate that folks stayed so long because they too are frustrated with the lack of alcohol-free fun and wanted to take advantage of the novelty.

Sarah gave her first full-on beekeeping lecture that lasted about an hour and was followed by a practicum nearby. About 25 campesinos attended and we were encouraged by the enthusiasm and potential of the group. At the moment they are organizing themselves to be able to request funds from the municipality and other NGOs. It´s a great starting point for strong beekeeping projects. There are already some resources in the community and some knowledge—but they lack some of the more technical skills needed to really profit from their endeavors. That´s where Sarah can help. John gave a talk and practicum to the same community on natural pesticides and continues to work on the school breakfast and chicken project while developing ideas for more natural resource (and, perhaps, climate!) projects.

As of today, we´ve arrived back to our region after a little "vacation" of sorts. Leading up to the vote to revoke the president that just occurred, it was hard for anyone to predict what might have happened. Some were saying the scary words "civil war" while others thought that nothing would become of it. Despite the pain of interrupting our work, the Peace Corps took no chances and brought us all together in case of the worst. That meant, actually, a series of work-related meetings at a very comfy resort (think beach volleyball courts and swim up bar in the pool)-- true suffering, of course-- until the coast was clear. You´ll note that we had an "all vol. cross dressing ball" if you check out the pictures. We´ll post more once our friends hand them over, but it gives you a flavor of the silliness we continue to get ourselves into (for those who know our exploits in Seattle, sure enough it came complete with full-on Snoot Jones british accents).

We´re eager to return to our site tomorrow to see our friends, continue our work, and plan our birthday parties (the same week). Until the next post, we wish you all well and look forward to your updates!

Love-- John and Sarah

Paro

*For those who´d like to skip to the photos, check out this link*

Paro. Actually, Paro, Paro, Paro. This blog is brought to you by the national transportation strike that keeps us in the city of Sucre a couple of days longer than we intended. The heavy-cargo drivers were pissed off about the government raising taxes on cargo and used their big ol´ trucks to block the entry and exit points of all major cities. That´s one paro. When we left our site the teachers were on strike. Two. And upon arrival to Sucre, noting things were a little quieter than usual, we were told the city was in the middle of a civic strike. Three. (Technically, the public construction workers are upset about the price of bricks and iron almost doubling and are also threatening to strike in a few days-- but that doesn´t quite count.)

While (John thinks that and Sarah cries hyperbole and threatens to stop writing this blog) in the U.S., a transportation strike might lead to a bunch of arrests, suburbanite road rage incidents, or a raid on supermarket shelves, from what we´ve seen, the paros aren´t unusual. We´d wager that they will become more frequent in the coming months, with two more departments having voted "yes" on autonomy earlier this week and with at least three more departments to go. Also, people are gearing up for the vote to decide whether to revoke Evo´s presidency in August. Inflation is skyrocketing, people are pissed, and the President was prevented from visiting one of two national capitals just a week ago. In short-- and with renewed emphasis-- it sure is an exciting time to be in Bolivia. Just remember to tack on time to paro when you´re planning your visit.

Despite so much talk about "stop," things have been mostly a go at our site. The chicken/school breakfast projects were approved and funded for ten schools in our district. We´ve been invited to work with a nearby community in the themes of soil conservation, natural fertilizers/pesticides (John), beekeeping and small scale agriculture (Sarah). We´ve also visited school gardens throughout the district, spoken with local PTAs and town leaders, and seen lots of opportunities for work that will augment school nutrition programs. And, though we´re surprised to write this, there´s more. We´re preparing to do a day of hands-on activities with the local alternative ag. high school, dreaming up a plan to redirect the 70% of organic waste currently going to the landfill to compost and worm projects, and starting English classes for children and adults this week.

For fun, John has taken every opportunity to jump in the back of a jeep to go anywhere with anyone. Sarah´s gone along on a few trips but has stricter criteria for tussling her hair and getting dirt under her fingernails. And let´s be honest here-- it´s cold as shit on the back of the truck after the sun goes down in 40 degree rain. We also got bikes! Dirt roads and no cars = awesome biking. You´ll see from the photos that our little district boasts a wide variety of landscapes, from high plains and rocky ridgelines to deep river valleys and misty moorlands, and that it´s peppered with pastoral agricultural landscape of mainly corn, wheat, barley and potato.

We continue with the ups and downs of integration in our community-- we´ve had a few awkward meals with folks, enjoyed some boisterously fun evenings out, been on the wrong end of broken plans without notice, seen basketball and soccer games, marched in a parade, and threw back a few sips of whiskey with the mayor´s wife. Despite feeling more at home in our town, we take great pleasure in getting our fix of US news and friend emails, as well as the ability to communicate in a language that allows us to sound stupid only when we´re trying to.

For the dads out there-- everything is perfect and safe and we´re brushing three times per day. For the rest of you out there keep those emails coming and remember that there´s no minutiae too boring when alls we need is a fix of our native tongue (please note: the news about a Chinese Crested Powder Puff attacking a small rabbit named Bun-Bun during a sociology seminar dropped us to the floor for minutes. Thanks Patty and Stew!).

Until next month, know that the ringing in your ears is mainly from our conversations (over homemade pancakes, thank you very much) about how much we miss you. Take care and be in touch!

Love,

Sarah and John (4 eva-- and R and S 4 eva 2)

Felices como Lombrices

(*To go directly to the photo set, click here.*)

Some might say that the best way to celebrate something in Bolivia is with a dead pig and fermented corn drink. That´s what we found when we arrived in Cochabamba and that´s what our last few days were all about with our host family. There were two kinds of goodbyes, one with our host family and the other with the volunteers and peace corps training. We´ll let you guess which was more difficult…

During our last week in Cochabamba we learned how to dance the cuenca in time to perform it for our host families at our going away party, we were visited by the deputy Ambassador and sworn in as volunteers (finally), and shook it down on the dancefloor at the local bars with our fellow volunteers. And then we went to Sucre.

For us, the transition from Cochabamba to Sucre was like going from any mid-sized sprawling American city (except with better public transport) to a sweet little European city. In Sucre, the people are more easy-going, the city feels safer, the pace of life is slower, the architecture more impressive, and there is much more litter-free green space to enjoy. Needless to say, John still pines for a city 6,000 feet higher in elevation, but we´re quite happy to find ourselves in the Chuquisaca department with Sucre as our regional capital. Speaking of high elevation, you may have read the news about the departments comprising the altiplano calling for civil war over the autonomy vote that took place in Santa Cruz department on May 4th. The richest department of Bolivia wants-- and has gained-- more control over the spending of petroleum revenues, and the altiplano-supported government wants to continue with or increase massive centralization and re-distribution of wealth. We´re not out of the woods yet (other departments vote in the coming months) but we´re glad that we didn´t endure training only to be evacuated just a week afterwards.

After orienting ourselves in Sucre, we set about buying our first home appliances and housewares and made a relatively quick exit to our site 5.5 hours from Sucre. So far it has been fantastic. We´ve been cooking great meals, baking when we can, checking in with our work partners and attending meetings, going for runs in the hills, little hikes to scenic viewpoints-- see photos here--, and starting to make friends.

It has been fun to learn the little subtlties of our new town: salteñas on Sundays, cake on Friday nights, church starts precisely at 7:35 am, and meetings scheduled for 8:30 am on a Sunday really don’t get going until about 11. We´re discovering the ins and outs of how not be electrocuted in the shower and how to avoid fireballs in kitchen. We find that the kids next door only see Sarah-- John has only recently gained visibility (occasionally they scream “Tio!” or uncle from ½ a block away). We´ve also lamented that it´s a cruel world without butter in our town, and that habitations only come in 2 sizes: dusty dirt floor room or House. Being the rough-living, humble Peace Corps volunteers we are we did what any other decent 3rd world-living American would do: we chose House.

More obvious attractions our town has to offer include: 4 internet cafes without internet connection, a river named “fish” that has no fish (that we have seen), running water! But not in the heat of the summer when crops and people need it most and the temp hits 112 F, a great little market every day of the week, open until noon and located on the first floor of the mayor’s office

a lack of butter-- but if you ask enough times someone will ask a sister/cousin/aunt to fetch it from Sucre. We´re off the beaten track with very few cars—but with twice daily bus service to Sucre (administrative capital, 5th largest city) and twice weekly service to Santa Cruz (one of the largest cities). We have access to generally yummy and locally produced eggs, corn, hot peppers (the 2nd largest producer in Bolivia), wheat, peanuts, potatoes, peaches,and citrus.

The town has a great central plaza, library, musuem, multiple soccer fields, raquetball and basketball courts, a colliseum under construction, and the largest charango in the world, two touristy trail hikes only 5 minutes from the central plaza, a radio station, incredible mountain biking potential, 2 footbridges to cross the river Fish, 2 karaoke bars, a sauna (questionable spot, only/never open on sundays), a boarding school, two high schools, a small college, a fine arts school (where music lessons are free!). Not bad for 3000 people.

And finally, the work. Like many things in Bolivia, it takes time to get acquainted before much can get done. We´ve attended meetings and been introduced to bunches of people, have read proposals for agriculture and natural resource projects, and have seen a high amount of enthusiasm for our work and the potential of our town to make good things happen. Our first project will likely be linked to the school nutrition initiative aimed at ameliorating the 70% malnutrition rate among children within our region. The initial plan is to augment the already-existing school garden program with a wider variety of school-grown fruit and vegetable crops, enhanced soil conservation techniques, and chicken-rearing for meat and eggs. There are a lot of other hooks out there and we´re remembering to be patient about the projects we get involved in, particularly before we get to know the community better.

Before signing off we have to give a few shout outs to the couple of folks who got packages to us through the sometimes unreliable Bolivian postal system. Thanks to Dad Mauro for the package of photos and to Sarah’s sister Rebecca for the care package of kid-drawings, photos, treats, music and coffee. If you have that care package half-started and are just waiting for a new address to send it, here it is:

John Mauro/Sarah Sausner – PCVs

Casilla # 749

Sucre

Bolivia

South America

* POSTAL TIPS: Large envelopes are best, less than 4 pounds, mark “gift” of $5-15 value to avoid us paying customs fees. Replace jars or other heavy packaging with ziplocs so it’s lighter and smaller.

Things we miss dearly include—but are certainly not limited to—

American cinnamon and vanilla, peanut butter, parchment paper, nutritional yeast, kitchen thermometer, interesting newspaper clippings, Trader Joe’s snacks (salted PB filled pretzels, for example), photos, locally roasted coffee, exotic spices (rooibos, chai tea mix), powdered things (falafel, veggie bouillon without MSG), magazines like The Economist, Utne, Mother Jones, Sunday NY Times, local baseball cap, maple syrup, chocolate. Oh yeah, and cheese steaks and Ben & Jerry´s, thanks.

And last but not least.... You can call us! We now have a cell phone and if you have or are willing to download the program Skype you can call us virtually for free! Email us for tips if you need help, but if you figure it out on your own, our number is 591-728-89738.

Hope to hear from you soon!

Sarah and John

Again, more photos can be found by clicking here.

¡Bolivia!

(*For those who just can´t wait, go straight to the PHOTO LINK*)

¨Buen día, Doctor.¨ (Good day, Doctor)
¨Buen día. ¿Estás mal? (Hi. Are you not well?)
¨Sí¨ (Yep)
¨Muestrame tu lengua. Ah, sí... Necesitamos admitirte a lo menos por 3 días.¨ (Show me your tongue. Ah, yes... we need to admit you for at least 3 days.)

...And that´s how we ended up at the hospital with ample time to write this first Bolivian blog entry. They tell us that after 3 days of IV fluids and antibiotics, Sarah´s amoebic-dysentary-biohazard-belly will be contained enough to let her back into society.

Intenstinal bumps and squirts aside, it´s been a rewarding and ridiculous 8 weeks.
We spend 4 hours each day in small 4-person language classes in our communities. It helps to have those formal classes to augment the informal learning opportunities we have with our host family and other Bolivians. Yet, we greatly look forward to being in our site where the obligation to speak English with the other 29 volunteers won´t exist.


We return from our separate language classes to have lunch with our host family and enjoy a lively Spanish conversation. Following this, we meet up for 4 hours of technical training-- Sarah is in an agriculture group of 15, John is in a Natural Resource Management group of 9. We´ve had varied experiences in these technical classes-- the 2:9 instructor to student ratio compared to the 2:15 ratio makes a huge difference. John´s been particularly impressed with the professionalism, breadth of knowledge and philosophy of his technical trainers. Sarah, however, has gotten into trouble for being inquisitive and having opinions. On the positive side, though, she has gotten more experience in bee keeping than she ever expected in an agriculture program.

They certainly hold our hands here in Bolivia. From carting us arond in Land Rovers to giving us curfews and doling out special spending allowances for weekend trips, we´ve had to adjust to some limits to our independence. We´ve also learned the horrors-- in life-size color photos and explicit gory detail-- of STD risks (thank god we´re married), chagas (that´s why we have mosquito nets), brainworm (don´t eat pig), and dengue fever (¨Can you avoid getting it? No. Is there a treatment? No.¨) That said, the medical staff are phenomenal. For example, Sarah called at 7 am on a weekend with her soon-to-be amoeba report, got a call back within 5 minutes with instructions to take a taxi to the hospital, where Peace Corps staff had already called ahead for speedy attention, and the Peace Corps doctor made a special follow up visit on Easter Sunday. Sure beats the last year we spent uninsured!

The family we live with consists of an 86 year-old grandmother, two 40 year-old-ish sisters, and the 17 year-old daughter of one of the sisters. John and the family dog are the only males in the house (Lobo hasn´t protested since the first day when John nearly lost a leg.) The grandmother is a beautiful woman who prefers to speak Quechua over Spanish, contributes to household chores, cooking, cleaning and gardening despite her age with an uncanny strength and resilience.
The sisters´ work centers around household agriculture. They grow most of our veggies and fruits (like onions, herbs, pumpkins, squashes, hot peppers, celery, turnip, tomatoes, corn, lemons, figs, peaches, apples, and certainly things we don´t have names for) and raise pigs, chickens, ducks, cows, and the fabled guinea pig (¨conejo¨) that occasionally shows up on our dinner plate.

Despite their long hours, they find ample time to patiently help us improve our Spanish, giggle and gossip about other volunteers, hypothesize about the etiology of common maladies (mango gives you fever, running brings on amoebas, showering at night leads to strep throat...), and tease us endlessly about how each of us is likely to run away with a Bolivian farmer. Like any 17 year-old girl, the daughter is at times willing to give us the inside scoop on family politics and make jokes and laugh with us, but at other times is shy and reclusive with an edge.


We´re just back from separate weeks in different places for full-on technical training. Sarah headed down toward steamy and green Santa Cruz (viva la autonomia!) to learn more about bees and agriculture, while John headed up to the altiplano (between 12,000 and 14,500 feet!) to Oruro to learn more about Natural Resource Management. The week went well for both of us, and we returned with an increased sense of, well, we really wanna get to work.

We know we´ve got a long way to being fluent in Spanish, but it´s satisfying to be far enough along to be able to hold more in-depth conversations about gender roles, politics, and development. Moreover, it really is a fascinating time to be here. In less than 2 months, Bolivia will vote on a new constitution, and the proposed autonomy of half the country. (See: this). And as we´re here trying to foster a sincere intercultural exchange between our countries, a misguided embassy offical recently set off a firestorm by insinuating that the Peace Corps and Fulbright Fellows should keep tabs on our communist neighbors. (See: this.) McCarthyism lives on... or viva la revolucíon, depending on your point of view.

Given all of this, sometimes we´re a bit nervous about the possibilities of fulfilling our 2 years of service and the future of Peace Corps in Bolivia. But we also think that there´s no better time to be here, with a front-row seat to massive social and political change.


We want to keep this relatively short, so check out the photos (PHOTO LINK) for a more visual (with a few captions) take. Also, we got word that our site for the next 2 years is in the Chuquisaca department, near lovely Sucre. We should be settled in there by mid-April.

Look forward to hearing your news, receiving those packages of cookies and other treats, and perhaps seeing you down here.

Love,

Sarah and John

PCV Cuerpo de Paz
Casilla #1603

Cochabamba, Bolivia

South America

(For those who have asked or those who are inclined: packages less than 4 pounds make better time and are cheaper overall... make sure not to mark on the customs sheet that there´s anything of real value, since that´ll run up our cost at customs. Thanks for a taste of the northern hemisphere!)

Bolivia

Hello All. It's been a good half-year since our last post from the summer, when we were returning from our 3 month bike trip in Europe. We've been in and around Seattle since then, getting ready for our next adventure.

(For those who want to see visual highlights of the past few months, check out http://picasaweb.google.com/maurotrips.)

As many of you know, we're heading south to Bolivia this week for 2 years in the Peace Corps. Stay tuned for more as we find ourselves getting settled in to our placement community after 3 months of training in Cochabamba.

We'll miss you... but know some of you have already starting thinking of a visit!

Final Blog Countdown

>>>Our photos from this trip can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/johnandsarahm<<<













10
Slovenia: We left the coast of Croatia for the inland forests of Slovenia. Despite only existing for a little more than a decade (formerly part of Yugoslavia), Slovenia charmed us with quiet roads, good foods, and a quirky capital city, Ljubljana.

9
Hungary: Bike trails, Balaton, Baths in Budapest. We stumbled through the first day without a map but found ourselves bathing in thermal-fed waters of Lake Balaton by the next day-- now enjoying, for the first time on our trip, a nation-wide attempt at a comprehensive bike trail system. We did have to dig deep in our bag of tricks to get ourselves into Budapest, enabling our cloaking device to sneak past the NO BIKES signs as we sped into the city on major roads.

After arriving in Budapest, we spent a few days enjoying the thermal baths, taking in the incredible architecture, and initiating a new obsession over strudels of all varieties. Up until this point we had been unsure of whether we would be able to reach Budapest and be able to bike all the way back to Munich in time for our departing flight. After a few calculations and trust in rumors we had heard of the fabulous Donauradweg-- we realized we would be able to take that Danube River trail all the way back and have plenty of time to kick off the bike shoes now and then for some R&R.



8
Slovakia: As we approached Slovakia, it quickly became clear that the gates of Bicycle Heaven had opened, revealing a seemingly endless length of paved bike trails, bike cafes, bike signs, and bike culture. Tempted as we were to follow this yellow-brick trail, we stopped in the great city of Bratislava for such delights as the Spanish Harlem Orchestra, a Celtic festival, and lively pedestrian center. The most enjoyable moments in Slovakia-- and perhaps of our entire bike journey-- were spent visiting with Sarah’s cousin, Katarina, and her wonderful Slovak family.


7
Czech Republic: We took advantage of safe bike storage in Bratislava and hopped the train to Prague for a day to take in historic architecture, a yummy meal recommended by a Seattle friend and Czech beer.

6
Austria: Crossing from Slovakia into Austria was a treat for the cyclist: instead of lining up behind cars and trucks at the border, we kept pedaling the bike trail as we switched languages and readied our appetites for schnitzel. More than any other country we visited, Austria seemed a cycling mecca-- we didn’t have to get off bike trails to find groceries and camping, to cycle clear across and around Vienna, or even to cross the Danube (bike-only trail on both sides with bike ferries and bridges!). We weren’t the only ones, of course; we likely encountered more than a thousand other bike tourers each DAY. Our “odd-ball” status continued, however, as we rode one of few tandems and still raised lots of eyebrows.


5
Germany: We found only subtle differences between Austria and Germany as we pedaled back and forth along the border where most inhabitants consider themselves Bavarians first. The most memorable moment came at mile 2607, when an unnerving crack scared us out of our saddles. At the rear of our heretofore undamaged tandem was a ghastly sight: the weighted rack had snapped off two tiny sections of bike frame that the rack screws into! There would be no more pedaling-- unless, of course, we had an arc welder. We ferried our gear to the nearby train and, 25 miles later, found ourselves in the middle of Munich three days before our flight back to the USA.

4
Buffalo: Reoriented ourselves with our native tongue by having actual conversations with people. Sarah’s annual family camping outing gave John ample time to both pass with flying colors and fail miserably various tests that 8 out of 10 siblings present set for him.

3
Vermont/NYC: Reoriented ourselves with ourselves by having actual distance between our physical beings. Sarah went down to the NYC area to play with sisters, while John biked over to Vermont (and then to Maine) to visit friends.

2
Maine: John arrived early to spend time with his dad and sister. Sarah flew up from NYC a few days later. Spent nearly a week on the beach!


1
Seattle: Looking at the post-sunset orange/blue glow to the west as we write this, we’re at 35,000 feet heading toward the Cascade mountains and our home town of the past 5 years. It’s been a wild past seven months traveling through Patagonia and Europe, and we’re eager to share the next month or so with our friends before the next big adventure: our 2 year volunteer experience with the Peace Corps.

There have been countless lessons in the past few months-- one we’ve taken with us all the way back to Seattle is the heightened importance of surrounding ourselves with good people. Thanks to those who have kept in touch, silently followed our whereabouts and musings, and have thought about finding us in Latin America in the next few years!

Much love,
Sarah and John

PS:
>>>Again, our photos from this trip can be found at http://picasaweb.google.com/johnandsarahm<<<