Day at Mariposa Butterfly Park with our @Compassion-sponsored child, Nellie | Aug 2009, Santa Cruz, Bolivia

These photos capture our day in Santa Cruz, Bolivia with Nellie, the child we sponsor through Compassion International [http:www.compassion.com]. There were many firsts for us, and even more for Nellie—including visiting the Mariposa Butterfly Park, riding a horse-drawn carriage, going down a water slide, and using a digital camera.

See all the smiles! Especially the one on Nellie at the end of the day (last photo taken with her Compassion project director before she returned to her village in Chané, located an hour’s car drive from of Santa Cruz).

Each of the families on our tour visited with the children we sponsor in Bolivia, and we saw first-hand how we truly impact the life a child with a little more than $1 a day. It was hard to tear ourselves away from these sponsored children after the day that we enjoyed with them, but that just means more letters going both ways from now on and more love.

For more information, visit Compassion’s website at http://www.compassion.com.

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Peruvian bean salads

Cold bean and lentil salads from the sumptuous lunch buffet at Machu Picchu’s only hotel. So yummy, I could eat these every day.

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Dinner at San Francisco's "Heavenly Dog" on Mission St

Needed a quick bite before "Wicked" at the Orpheum on Market Street tonight, and my daughter Noelle recommended "Heavenly Dog" on Mission St, just 3 blocks away. She usually goes for drinks by Erik, the fantastic mixologist there, but we were there for the grinds.

My fare tonight:

• Pisco Apricot Tropical Sour
• Vegetarian Pork Belly Buns
• Shanghai Dumplings (Xiao Long  Bao)
  

Highly recommend the vegetarian pork belly buns. Pisco sour was good, but a little sweet and hence not as much to my liking as the Pisco Sour I had in Cusco, Peru over lunch the other day and pictured last. (I would have had more in Cusco, but everyone recommended staying away from alcohol at such a high elevation.)

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New personal records today in Peru: 14,000 ft elevation, guinea pig farms, llama encounter, Incan fortress

Photos from today's excursion through Peru's Sacred Valley:

• The Andes “alps” taken from our 14,000-ft elevation on the road between Cusco and the Sacred Valley
• Yup, those are guinea pigs, one of the popular sources of protein in the Peruvian diet going back to ancient times. Our guide said she was taking us to a guinea pig farm. I imagined pens and cages. Turned out to be the dirt floor of a Peruvian farmer’s home. Afterwards, we went to lunch and I had…vegetables.
• Llamas, beautiful lamas of many varieties. Some look like Jar Jar Binks, others like Tan-Tans. Okay, I’ve been watching too much Star Wars.
• An amazing Incan fortress built into the Andean hillside, photos first from below and then from atop the fortress.
• Peruvian mountain fields at the end of the day.
  

Tomorrow: back to the States.

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An amazing day at Machu Picchu.

I've traveled and seen some of the greatest wonders of the world - the
Pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China, the Colosseum in Rome, Petra in
Turkey. But Machu Picchu supercedes all. Simply incredible.

 Machu Picchu is breathtaking in every way. And to think that a fellow
Punahou alumni (1882-1892) discovered it in 1911 on an overgrown mountain in
the desolate reaches of the Peruvian Andes.
[http://www.labyrinthina.com/bingham.htm]

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