azette G December 2015
Seattle U Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Cusco Kochi, Lima, Machu Picchu New York Tennis Bahnd Mountains Cycling Sciatica Murphy
susan@voicedoctor.net sydney@twinsis.us jim@voicedoctor.net (503) 341-2555 moogen@twinsis.us (503) 867-0796
Sydney, Morgan, Susan & James Thomas & Murphy 1316 SW Mitchell Lane Portland, OR 97239-2826
It was another wonderful year of travel. Whether walking to work on forest trails, rolling thorough rain soaked leaves on a bike or frequenting the friendly skies, travel is an honorarium life has bestowed.
(503) 341-0767 (503) 867-0798
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though Pike Place Public Market. We a d m i re d t he vivid flower stalls, bought fresh
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produce, watched the salmon fly between the men in rubber coveralls. Then I was asked what to do. We had seen everything. I didn’t have the persuasive energy to say, “Just wander.” After all, we already visited the sites discovered on previous urban adventures. They were nice, but we checked them off already this morning. My in-laws are slowing down, so no long distances, no uphills. Susan could do coffee, but long walks without a goal don’t seem interesting. Someone suggested getting back in the car and heading up Capital Hill.
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2015 cycling totals for James — 152 hours in the saddle, 2567 km horizontal, 40 km vertical—strava.com
I framed a photo in my mind, capturing a time worn face, centered in the frame of his graying brown hair. He wasn’t wearing a smile, nor anger, just a worn visage, fatigue. Should I shoot his face? Perhaps a vertic a l shot of his ohso-thin frame? His ref lection in the rain on the street? A low f-stop to blur the background. A great photo, but I just didn’t lift my camera. Sunday morning in uncrowded downtown Seattle, I was almost alone, except for him. It was my daughters’ 21st birthday and together we started the morning around a substantial extended family breakfast at a trending brunch spot. We wandered down 2nd Avenue, then 1st Avenue, then
Gazette inspiration from: Apple, iPhone6, iOS 9, apps, Filterstorm, Daring Fireball, Medium, Instagram: voxdoc, Moment lens, Canon, River City Bikes, cylindric Mac Pro
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he light turned green and cars started rolling, passing behind him. Long flowing hair, not really brushed, indigo blue shirt, black jacket, black slacks and black shoes, he continued through the 3rd lane of the 4 lane street. His hair, most notably, on either side of his head was thicker than his thighs. By twisting his slender, perhaps cachetic frame, his feet would rotate forward. His left shoe was a platform shoe, the sole 2 inches thicker than the right. The cars avoided him. He wasn’t a jay walker. It just took more time to shuffle across the street than the signal gave him. He swung his left foot up on the curb, then bent the right knee a bit to bring the other side up.
When I am asked what to do, it is tough to predict what 6 people of different ages, different backgrounds, different interests would like to do and I am often asked to come up with an idea (with the implication my idea will please everyone). It goes like this. I am asked, “Where can we go for dinner?” I suggest a place. One person says, “No, I don’t like that.” No other suggestion is offered and someone turns to me and says, “Pick a different place.” I might take another go at it and pick a second place. A second person says, “No, I can’t eat there and anyway I don’t like it.” I have given up trying to be a fortune teller and pick a restaurant that 5 other people are all thinking about, but cannot name, and are asking me to pull that name out of the cobwebs of their mind. I offered to meet them back at the apartment, in a bit. I’ll walk up the hill and they can drive together. That is what everyone is thinking, but unable to express. They want to drive to the next destination. I want to wander. We will all get to the next destination. It is just that my destination begins here, or several street corners away when I observe the man in the blue shirt and flowing mane pivot his legs back and forth crossing 5th Avenue. I never pull out my camera. Our eyes never meet as he stares ahead and I stand off to the side. He looks poor. He looks refined. Half a block
away, Mario’s, an upscale clothier, has windows filled with cashmere sweaters. The blue shirt, flowing hair on the shoulders of his black jacket evoke understated elegance. I miss my walk signal, turning my gaze to watch him slowly shufflerotate down the block. After, I turn and continue up the hill. I wander into Mario’s and an Annie Liebovitz megabook graces the lobby. I gaze through Annie’s eyes into portraits of the famous. Photography can focus one’s attention. Mine returns to the man with the mane. Should I head back out, find the man? No, I continue on, find the Victrola Cafe and sit out in the rain, espresso in hand. No, I don’t need to run back down and find the man. In my mind I have captured the moment. I look around and see faces, fantastic faces, some that evoke a story, just in the lines on their face or their hair tied on their head, their tattoo peaking from beneath the soft hairs on the nape of their neck, the pink dyed strand of hair, the eyes squinting. I never took a photo, with my Canon anyway. I was just seeing the city through the faces around me, random, ephemeral encounters. The Canon in my hand was just focusing my eyes on small details of the city. My destination was the wander. No doubt you have heard that all who wander are not lost. Wandering is a fascinating destination.
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silhouette of Lady Liberty, from the cavernous Grand Central to the boutiques of the Upper East Side, it is a mini-cosmos of humanity.
New York - My friend & colleague, Frizzi Linck hosted the girls and I on Staten Island again. The city’s magic persists for all who wander there. From the depths of the World Trade Center Memorial Pool to the
Back surgery
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efore the year even started, I felt a pinch down my left leg. You may know where this is headed. It progressed to a searing pain. One Saturday I stretched to slam the winning tennis shot cross court and felt a pop. I could barely walk and I could not get into my car. There was no way I could bend to sit. By March, I was standing to operate. Then I couldn’t ride my bike, or rather I couldn’t get off it without falling. I couldn’t lay down, so sleep was --- improbable. I watched every season of Mad Men. Now that I could no longer get into a car, I found a neurosurgeon and a week later, asleep on the operating table, I went under the knife. I awoke completely free from pain, having part of my L5-S1 disk removed where it had herniated. Well, not completely free. He had put staples in to close my skin - a little barbaric IMHO. I avoided sports for 2 months, more than my surgeon recommended. I had no interest whatsoever in another round of that pain. It was the first time I had really experienced the benefit of narcotics. They got me through the last week prior to surgery. I didn’t need anything after. Banned from the bike, recovery included walking 4 miles to and from work, discovering many new trails through Portland’s woods and neighborhoods. In June, I entered a tennis court again, in Prague, on wonderful clay courts - a delightful way to play gently. Finally, I got back on the bike. I logged about half my usual distance in 2015 though all seems to be well at the end of the year. I hope it stays that way!
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The Bahnd continued this year with concerts feeding the hungry and covering; Billie H oliday, U2 & Bjรถrk.
Music
Performance The Bahnd - Alternative Liturgies for the hungry.
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The Trinity Choristers keep my piano skills from rusting.
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Another year bites the dust
Reflection
It is amazing that as I write our Christmas letter each year, I am not sure what happened to the year. Since I was done with school I was thinking I would have all this extra time to get many of my unfinished projects both at home and work completed. Somehow we are at the end of the year and I can say that many of the projects remain unfinished, yet the year has been extremely busy.
Finally Finished
I think the one thing I was determined to complete this year was Julia Rabin’s graduation quilt. With her graduation from Bates in May looming, I had significant motivation to get the quilt completed. While I didn’t get her quilt totally done by her graduation date, it is now found a home
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on her bed in Boston. In addition to Julia’s quilt I have made several baby quilts that have been sent to beautiful new babies in Pennsylvania, New York, Portland, Mexico, and Belgium. With all these baby quilts, the girls are beginning to wonder if their quilts from their gymnastics t-shirts and sweatshirts will ever get completed.
Knit Night
Knit night continues once a month providing me a wonderful opportunity to knit and socialize with a wonderful group of women. I finally finished a knitting project, completing a sweater for myself. Although I have made great progress on my next sweater, it is still missing the arms so won’t get completed until next year. Hopefully the weather will remain cold enough to get some wear out of my sweater once it is done. Since I am currently in Peru as I finish my story for our Christmas c a rd , I a m tempted by all the beautiful and relatively inexpensive baby
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alpaca wool that is readily available here and I am sure that I am adding to my unfinished project list as I purchase wool for projects unknown, but oh well. Amy and I continue to can the fruit produced by our numerous fruit trees. I think this year we made several hundred jars of chutneys and butters from the pears, apples, plums and figs.
Work
The beginning of the year was extremely busy as Cathleen and I were the conference co-chairs for the 20th Annual Gait and Clinical Movement Analysis Society (GCMAS) meeting in Portland in mid March. The meeting went well, with great presentations, speakers and even the weather held out and allowed attendees to get out and experience what Portland has to offer. Cathleen and I have vowed that this is our last time we would be the conference chairs for the meeting since this was our third time in 21 years that we have been the conference chairs for the meeting. With the meeting over, it was time to get back to all of the other projects ongoing in our department. We continue to have several drug studies that keep us (mostly Maria), extremely busy. Currently, we have two very active drug studies for boys with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) with more to start in 2016. It is a very exciting time for families of boys with DMD and we are hoping that all the work our department and the efforts by the boys and their families result in a drug or combinations of drugs that can alter the course of this disease. We had our final meeting of our DMD research team after our
nine-year collaboration. Although we are sad our collaboration is over, we are excited about the potential manuscripts that will result from the findings of our study. In early January 2016, one of our collaborators, Kent, will be defending his PhD dissertation at UCLA using some of the data collected as part of our work. In addition to Kent’s dissertation, we have participated in teaching courses on the gait patterns of boys with DMD in Austin at the annual AACPDM meeting and in Oakland at the first annual Motion Analysis Research Center (MARC) symposium. It is great to see the results from our research presented to our colleagues within and outside the US.
Visitors
As always we love when friends and family come to visit. This year we had visits from my highschool friend Julia for Easter, Sylvia, Jim and Nevin from Connecticut, my sister Stephanie, Julia’s daughter Kirstyn and Anita a colleague from Sacramento. We love to have visitors and with the girls living in Seattle most of the year we have lots of room for guests.
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Exercise
Running took a back seat this year, as Valarie, Kirsten, Michelle and I only did one organized running event this year participating in Bridges to Brews in mid-April. Despite trying to plan additional runs together, busy lives and injuries have prevented us from completing any half marathons together this year. We are looking into the possibility of participating in a one-day relay or different ½ marathons that are available in our area. This year I did a little more hiking, thanks to Murphy for starting my training program. Thanks to the organization and leadership skills of Amy, we completed several summits this year with the highlight being South Sister, 12.3 mile hike, an elevation gain of 5,000ft reaching 10,258 at the peak. I continue to try and improve my
Overall, our team did well with many of our players moving up to the next level by the end of the season. I have again signed up to play USTA, so we will see if my numerous tennis classes will improve my game. This year I got up the courage to sign up for two different tennis tournaments held at our club. At the beginning of the year, Jim and I won the mixed doubles tournament (6.0), which was great since we don’t often practice together. In the fall, I decided to try the singles tournament. Despite loosing my first match, I was able to win the consolation round, hopefully with all my practice I will be successful on my 3.0 team this year. During the summer, Jim and I continued to play tennis and enjoy eating at the numerous restaurants around town with our World Team Tennis group. We had a wonderful time, even winning a few matches this year.
Travel
This fall I felt like I had a travel schedule similar to Jim’s. In five weeks, I was in a different city each week, in three different countries for a combination of work and social occasions. I had the opportunity to go with Jim to Mexico for my first time, since Tijuana doesn’t count. We went to Guadalajara, to attend the wedding of Alberto and Melina. While in Mexico we had a great time meeting up and exploring Guadalajara and Mexico City with former fellows and friends. We enjoyed exploring the area and eating all of the wonderful food, Mexico has to offer. In November the girls and I flew tennis game by taking weekly group tennis lessons. I played on a women’s to Toronto to celebrate my dad’s 80th 3.0 team in the winter and spring. birthday. Stephanie, Stephen and I
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planned a party for my dad and 40 or so of his closest friends and family were able to attend . It was fun to visit with our friends a nd fa mi ly, m a ny of whom I haven’t had the chance to spend time with in years. It was a wonderful weekend celebrating my dad. The highlight trip was our visit to Peru with our friends, Amy, Oscar, Sofia and Gabriel Polo. We spent almost three weeks exploring the various ruins, culture and food Peru has
to offer. We visited Ollantaytambo, Machu Picchu, Pisac, and Cusco, then hit the big city of Lima followed Arequipa, Colca Canyon and the beaches of Lima. We had a wonderful time learning a b o ut t he I n c a culture and seeing the many amazing ruins throughout Peru. Since it was very different not b ei ng home for Christmas and New Years and all the traditions we
have around these holidays, it was wonderful being included as part of the family in the celebrations with Oscars’ relatives on Christmas and celebrating New Years at the beach house of cousins Antonio, Jazmine, Antonio Jr. and Alejandro. Certainly the summit of Machu Picchu mountain will be something I will remember. It was wonderful to experience the diverse culture and geography that Peru has to offer.
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Woof! Well it’s hard to believe that it has been one year since I came to the Thomas house. Life is good. I have walked Susan on many paths in my neighborhood that she didn’t even know existed. We walked more than 1,000 miles with an elevation gain over 85,000 feet. After Jim’s back surgery Jim joined us on many walks during his recovery, as we would meet him somewhere on his path as he started his walk home each evening. He also taught me how to roll over. I like this trick because every time I do it I get a treat. Jim normally gives me the best treats, cheese rinds! Even though Jim and Susan are gone some weekends I am
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never sad because it means I get to go to my best friends house, and who doesn’t love that. At Sundance’s house I am allowed to sleep on the beds and Sundance’s parents and kids are the
My bags are packed, I’m ready to go!
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best! They always play with me and Sundance keeps me company when everyone else is at work and school. I love when Sydney and Morgan come home from school because it
means I get a lot more treats and attention! They take me on long walks and snuggle on the f loor with me. They came home for Thanksgiving when they brought a new friend for me to meet, Kirstyn. I got to celebrate my third birthday or my 21st birthday in dog years with my family and some friends! This was my first birthday w ith them a nd man was it a good day! Filled with treats and love. I spent t wo weeks away from my fami ly at Christmas and I
was really excited to have them back even thought the girls had to go right back up to Seattle! I am looking forward to what 2016 brings. This years’ firsts include: First trip to the Ocean at Cannon Beach with my family and Auntie Julia. I love chasing the ball in the ocean waves and running up and down the beaches. First hike up Dog Mountain to see the wildflowers in full bloom. First camping trip. Jim gave up his spot in the tent to allow me a space to stretch out and lay on the very comfortable sleeping pad. It was a great weekend, with lots of hiking and spectacular views. First sleepover at my house with my best friend Sundance. First birthday celebrated with my forever family. They gave me a lot of gifts but my favorite was the stuffed dragon. First Christmas away from home. Thankfully I had a good home to take me in with lots of attention. Thanks Tracy, Hannah and Zach. Talk to ya’ll next year! Woof Woof! Murphy
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T E
ime
veryone gets younger. I know the theory is that as time passes, we get older, but I swear, other people are getting younger. I went to my 30th medical school reunion and I feel the same as I did when I was a student in Hershey. A few of my classmates look older, but the new medical students, they are really young! I am surprised the dean is letting them in. The school tried to give me some award just for being alive thirty years after I left. I thanked him, but the reward for being alive seems being alive, not a glass plaque.
I am serious that every day I feel the same --- until I became ill, until that pain started in my leg in late 2014. Then all of a sudden, when I couldn’t even
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work, I felt old. Age doesn’t creep up. It jumps up and bites you. With appropriate modern medicine, I am back to feeling as before and still being amazed at the ongoing youthfullness of the world. In the area of perception, travel doesn’t feel like motion, it feels like a time machine. When I leave Portland on a jet and wake up 24 hours later in Mumbai, time warps. I am not thousands of miles from home, I am in a different place and time. I am living a different life. Every time I board a plane, it feels like magic. Perhaps the addiction of travel lies in the playful alteration of time. Near the end of a Tokyo to Seattle flight, descending in the Dreamliner, I calculate 98,820 miles for the year on United. And my ongoing convoluted routing takes me next to San Francisco, flying over Portland before I catch another flight back to Portland adding more miles, which will likely put me close enough to 100,000 miles for the year to move my status up a notch and give me another four first class upgrades in the coming year. Or, I can hop off the plane, ride the train into Seattle, zip in a Smart Car up to Capital Hill for breakfast with the girls at Oddfellows cafe. We can spend the morning wandering, photographing local color, like the Capital Hill rainbow crosswalks, chat, find another independent cafe for lunch, then Uber to the King Street station and for $19 bucks Bolt to Portland in time for a couple hours of tennis at the MAC club. Time, even though I feel the same age as I always have, keeps rising in value.
e Lov gh, u 17 a ,L Live
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Judging from my posture above, my form has a long way to go. :-)
Tennis remains a favorite hobby. USTA teams (lower right), tournaments (above) and Men’s Open play at the Multnomah Athletic club fill in the hours and in the summer I captain a World Team Tennis team (below left). At the end of the year my rating slipped up to a 3.5.
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Morgan's Memories by Morgan
School This year started off with finishing up my sophomore year at Seattle University. This past year I declared Marketing and Management majors with a minor in Entrepreneurship. I am enjoying taking the Intro to Marketing and Management classes and look forward to the higher level classes. This year I had a sports marketing internship with my school working on marketing our school’s soccer and basketball games. I am currently a junior. This past quarter I lived on campus with Sydney and two other roommates, Katy and Gerline. Starting this January I will be moving off campus for the first time and living in an apartment with Sydney and our roommate from last year Tori. We went to Seattle Sounders soccer games and Seattle Mariners games together.
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Summer This summer I worked at the MJCC again doing Summer camps. Half the summer I worked gymnastics camps and the rest of the summer was spent doing regular camps. We also went on some small hikes, camping, watching soccer games and spending time with friends. My friend from Seattle came down and spent the weekend with Sydney, Tori and I. We did the Bubble Run and spent time in Portland.
Travel
For Easter we came home to Portland for the weekend and got to spend time with family and my mom’s friend from Canada, Julia. We took Murphy to Cannon Beach for the first time, which of course he loved. During Easter we also went to the Portland Timbers soccer game which was the only one we made it to this season. In June we went to Bend to hike South Sister with the Polos, which was a hard hike that took ten hours. The only downside to this hike is we couldn’t bring Murphy due to the rocks and the heat, so he had to stay home.
I went on a couple trips this past year. The first trip was in the spring when I went to California to visit my friend Hollynd at Santa Clara University. This was a lot of fun and very sunny, which was a change from the cool Seattle weather.
Labor Day weekend our family went up to Spokane to spend the weekend with friends. Although it rained most of the weekend we still went to our friend’s lake house. Murphy made a new friend with their dog Lily. In September, right before I went back to school, I went to the East Coast to Pennsylvania and New York with Sydney and my dad. New York is one of my favorite places to visit and shop. We went and visited family
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as well. In November I went to Canada for my Grandpa’s 80th birthday. This was a lot of fun to see family and friends. There was a birthday party for my Grandpa where all our family was there along with some of his friends.
For Thanksgiving I came home to Portland where we celebrated with friends and family. Kirstyn (my mom’s friend’s daughter from Canada) came to visit us and spent the holiday with us. We went Black Friday shopping, visited Hood River and Multnomah Falls. It was very nice to have her come out to visit us. This past fall I went down to Eugene and spent the day with Hannah at the University of Oregon. This year ended with a family trip to Peru. We spent the first week visiting Machu Picchu, Cuzco and Ollantaytambo. Machu Picchu was amazing. We hiked to the top of Machu Picchu Mountain. It was cloudy in the morning but cleared up and got very warm in the early afternoon. I learned this trip that the sun is much stronger in the Southern Hemisphere.
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I used more sunscreen in two weeks then I did all summer and still managed to get burned. After the first week we met up with Oscar and Gabriel Polo. We celebrated Christmas with them and their family who live in Peru. We spent a couple of days, including Christmas in Lima, Peru. This was a change from our typical Christmas but it was very nice to spend the holidays with friends and family in the sun. During the second week we traveled with the Polos; Amy, Oscar, Sofia, and Gabriel, to Arequipa where we visited the town and took a tour to see condors and other animals. On the tour we saw flamingos, alpacas, llamas, foxes, vicunya, and condors. It was amazing to see these animals which we do not have in the wild in the USA. The trip finished with celebrating New Years at a beach south of Lima. We spent a couple days there with the Polos and their family. New Years was also different from our traditional New Years eve party but I would trade it any day to spend New Years in the
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warm sun. It was great to spend some time out of big cities on a beach where the water is
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This past year I turned 21. We celebrated with our Grandparents f rom Ca nada who came down for the weekend to spend our birthday with us. My parents also came up from Portland for the day to spend it with us. We spent the day shopping, going to Pike Place Marwarm ket, eating and drinking. enough to swim We had a birthday dinner in. The trip was amazing and I with my parents, granddidn’t want to come back to cold rainy parents and friends; Iman, Seattle. Someday, I would love to come Katy and Gerline. I am excited to see back to Peru. what this next year brings.
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Happy Holidays from James, Morgan, Sydney & Susan
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Thomas Family Portrait
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21 Years
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by Sydney
his year has flown by. It is hard to believe that I am over half way done with college. I was able to travel some, work in the summer and enjoy the year.
Seattle University
I have finished my second year at Seattle University, and am currently in my third year. This past year I declared my major, which is a double major in Marketing and Management with a minor in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. I am still not sure where I would like to go with this, but am keeping my options open.
Summer
Summer was filled with work and friends. I came home to Portland for the summer and worked. After work, the summer was filled with hikes with friends and Murphy, swimming and enjoying the sun. We ended summer with a trip to the East Coast. We started off in New York City and ended up in Pennsylvania. New York was lots of fun, as there is so much to do there, and with one
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and a half days, we didn’t have much mer. When we would come home from time. We went to Hershey, Pennsyl- work, it was nice to take him outside vania for my dad’s reunion and saw and enjoy the weather. his family as well, which was nice as it has been a few years since we were TRAVEL last out there. Along with the East Coast trip, I also traveled a few other places. First, Murphy we went to California to visit our Murphy is now one of the main friend Hollynd. We went to Santa reasons why I come home from school. Clara University for the weekend. The sun was amazing and the weather was perfect. It was good to see her, as we don’t get to see each other often, as well as see a little sun during the year.
He is always so excited to see us when we come home. Over this past year, we took him to the water, which he loves. It was very fun to have him this sum-
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In November we went to Canada for my grandpa’s 80th birthday. This was a great way to see everyone and many people who I had never met before. It was nice to have a little break from school and enjoy Canada. Kirstyn came out for Thanksgiving, which was a very fun time. We went Black Friday shopping, shopped on 23rd Avenue, and had lots of good food. It was fun to spend time in Portland and enjoy everything there. This made me realize how much I love living in Portland.
to see many of my friends. We started the Peru trip off with Machu Picchu, which was one of the most amazing things to see. We climbed up to the top, which was a steep hike up, especially at the high elevation. It was foggy and cloudy when we started the hike up, but when we got to the top it was sunny and clear with a great view. After Machu Picchu, we went to Cusco for a few days. This city was amazing with many historical
Winter break in peru
Winter break was very different this year than in the past. It almost didn’t feel like winter break, except for the pictures from home of the snow. This year we went to Peru for the holidays. It was a big change for us, as we normally always spend the holidays at home with family and friends. But with a small Christmas party before leaving to start the holidays off, it felt a little like the break. With only four days at home, it was hard
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sights to see and lots of tourist shops as well. We learned a little bit how to bargain for things, which was something new for us. From there we went to Lima and met up with the Polo’s and their family for Christmas Eve and Christmas. It was nice to spend
Christmas with friends and family, even many miles from home. Lima was a huge city, which allowed us to do lots of exploring. After Christmas we went to Arequipa with the Polo family. This was a fun city to see and very different than the other ones we had been to. We went on a tour through
the Colca Canyon where we saw many different kinds of animals. This was a fun and new experience. The views were amazing. Finally, from there we met up with the Polo family and their cousins from Peru at their beach house to spend the New Year, before we had to go back home. The beach was amazing, with great views, warm water and sandy beaches. It was a great way to end the year. Spending time swimming in the pool, and the ocean and the sand was a nice way to end the year, before heading back to school. Overall, the food was amazing, but we had to always watch what we were eating. The fruit juices were my favorite part. They are everywhere and are really good. In the end, it was an amazing experience and it is something I will remember forever.
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Fellows
new & renewed relationships Ibrahim Issa began his fellowship in November 2015, from Amman, Jordan.
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Fellow Andres Montoya invited me to Barranquilla, Columbia to enjoy all the fresh fruit.
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L ek sh m yR Mumbai, aja gopa l v isited India (no ph f rom oto) .
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Rama Vaidyanathan visited from Mumbai, India - and we sampled her culinary talents. Visiting Somyos Kunacha k & Ornouma Shriwanishvipat in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
hoa’s to Oc first r e b l for A with ex ico eeting up w César M o t m llo A trip g included vin and fe r in e d S d r e za w Ba lta fellow . ez Cháv
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India raising my fees
Colorful Kochi. Nupur Nerukur leading the laryngology conference, Rajeev Nerukur, Frederik Dikkers & Sujata Muranjan dining out with me at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Mumbai.
Pradeep, in his beige uniform, stars on his epaulets, sat on the edge of his beige desk, stacked with white papers and a single lamp glowing dismally. “Well, do you think I should get them out?” he asks. “There are pros and cons” I reply, “and in your case, I would keep your tonsils in.” After inquiring about infections, snoring at night, sore throats and other symptoms, while passengers moved through the line in the distance, I replied with my lengthy explanation. Other customs officers sat behind windows in the background. Before this consultation, I had arrived in Mumbai, as usual, in the wee morning hours (2 am), moving through lines. Filling out the customs form, I noted the usual prohibition about carrying any inappropriate maps (depicting India’s borders with Pakistan incorrectly), then I noted the limitation against bringing in more than 7,500 Indian Rupees. Ooops, I have more than 100,000 Rupees in my backpack that I had saved from previous visits, with plans to buy a silk carpet. I was quite likely not to be searched, but then losing the equivalent of US $2000 because someone, somewhere, decided that Indian currency shouldn’t be transportable seems quite unreasonable.
Then again, governments don’t necessarily include “reasonable” in their legal diction. They can do as they please and that likely includes taking my cash. I decide to accurately write down how much Indian currency I have and walk though the declarations line. I am waved over to a desk with the palm down flexing of the fingers and stand before the desk. I explain how I received the money as reimbursement for airfares to teach physicians about how the vocal cords work. I explained how I planned to spend the money on a hand woven, silk carpet which seems like a good thing for the Indian economy. I wasn’t making much headway with a rational discussion. Then Pradeep, in his beige uniform, came around his desk, sat on the edge and asked me about whether he should get his tonsils out. He had been to an ENT physician but wasn’t sure how good the advice was. So I discussed tonsillectomy indications in fine detail With a new education about Indian rules, I was waved through the customs room, my Indian currency still in the pocket of my pack and walked out into the humid Mumbai night air. If you ever have a question about your tonsils, I am happy to answer it.
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Peru Three weeks in Peru spanned half a millennium of recorded history and about 5000 meters of elevation. Ollantaytambo lies in the Vallee Sagrada and along with Pisac and Machu Picchu, holds one of the Inca centers of massively terraced landscape for farming. Much of the town remains native american, transporting the willing wanderer back centuries in the narrow alleys. Including Sacsawayman and Cusco, the stonework in the region is massive and incredible. Peruvian food and drink are the elixer of life. Each day in the Andes started with Mate de Coca. Cacao is also delightful in Peru, as is coffee. The Sacred
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Valley descends into Amazonia while fruit, wind and rain are transported directly uphill from the east. While mango and bananas are wonderful, lucuma, chirimoya, maracuyรก, tunรก and granadilla are especially succulent. I learn that avocados are paltas, delicious in so many varieties. Shopping village open air markets for fresh fruit yields gold for the palate. Quechua language and Incan culture seem to be making a comeback from 500 years of repression. Our taxi driver for the week, Jaime, talked about being beaten for speaking Quechua in grade school. Slowly opinions changed and recently the roads throughout Cusco have been renamed in Quechua. I only picked up a scattering of Quechua, but with
visits to Columbia, Mexico and Peru this year, my Spanish is coming along, not fluent, but getting me more into the local culture. Our itinerary started at 3400 meters of elevation in Cusco and descended to Ollantaytambo to try and avoid siroche, altitude sickness. However, at
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gone and the Inca terraces empty. K i m MacQuarrie’s books were my constant companion, addi ng i m mensely to high elevation touring. Each of the towns in the area surrounding Cusco are steeped
some point GI poisoning took some in history. of us down for a day or so. Machu After time at elevation, where Picchu cost a fortune to get to and the Peruvians are sticklers for pristine currency. Everyone holds each bill up to the light and snaps it a few times. A pen mark, cut or even too many folds leads to a rejection and credit cards are uncommonly accepted. It is amazing how easy financial transactions are in the U.S. While it should feel like summer 13 degrees south of the equator during the December solstice, daily rain squalls in the Andes lead to quite a chill. The weather changes every moment and overheating is followed 10 minutes later by drenching cold. While afternoon rains are a bit predictable, by heading out to tourist every step uphill strains the heart and sites later in the day, all the buses are lungs, we drop back to coastal Lima for
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a sampling of Garua - the continuous gray skies haunting Limeños. Sea level walking though is a piece of cake. We celebrate Christmas at midnight, after a dinner of turkey, courtesy of the Ciudad family. The third set of locations on our itinerary, Arequipa, the altiplano and Colca Canyon take us up to 5000 meters with glimpses of flamingos enjoy-
ing the antipodal summer. Camelids; alpaca, llama and vicuñya scatter over grassy plains. Two active volcanos in the region belch smoke and I tempo-
rarily succumb to altitude sickness or chewing coca, not sure which. I construct an apacheta near the Apus of southern Peru. Condors soar and Sancayo cactus fruit makes an excellent sorbet. For New Year’s celebration, we head to the coast near Pisco at the Ciudad beach house at Punta Corrientes. My family seems amenable to this beach life. At the seaside Mercado, I am introduced to pacay fruit, seeds wrapped in nature’s version of cotton candy. Sunsets dazzle briefly each eve-
ning. Crabs dance en mass each morning. While body surfing the waves on the final day, a sea otter swims up and says goodbye.
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o c i x e M Fellow Alberto Ochoa married Melina in Guadalajara, Mexico in October. After all night dancing, we hopped to Mexico City for a weekend exploring present day Mexico City and more ancient Teotihuacan, courtesy of Fermin Zubiaur, Paty EnrĂŽquez and young Fermin and Sofia
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Streets of Tlaquepaque above. Fermin, Fermin & Sofia left. PopocatĂŠpetl puffs below.
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s Spokane hills, Lake r o o Oneonta utd Gorge, SantiamPendriver,Oreille, Cascade Range,
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Angel’s Rest, Dog Mountain, Olympic range, Colorado Rockies - stay wild!
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B
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eau t y in orc hids, s h ro o m s , t re e s t u m p s a nd d e w o n au tumn l eave s.
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a n d e r i ng, m y iP ho n e w i t h M o m e n t l e n s e s e n c o ur ag e s a p p re c i at i o n o f d et ai l s. My Canon does too.
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Mt. Jefferson
Outdoor adventure has ups and downs. We reached the top of South Sister volcano in central Oregon (opposite). In Mt. Jefferson wilderness, three of us found a hornet’s nest - 17 stings total.
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Wy’East, Oregon (above). Machu Picchu, Peru (right), Wind Mountain, Columbia Gorge (lower right) and Snowmass, Colorado (below).
a i ns M ou n t
c a l li ng
Opposite page Upper right: climbing above Washington’s Palouse country. Middle right: The sunrise passes the peak of Wy’East twice a year. Lower right: descending home through the cloud layers with Loowit mountain.
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Dance to your inner flame!
To be alive
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