On the Extinction of Species

The article below on the Galapagos Islands was scanned from an article on page 46 of The Economist June 5, 2010 issue (double click on image below to enlarge):

For us seniors-Remember when video

Click on the lower left start arrow to open video:

News from Nicola in snowed out DC

Hi all,

As I'm sure you have heard, D.C. is snowed in! So I wanted to share some of our photos and walkabouts! The videos are clear, but not as clear as the originals ;-). We also have another good video of Ruben digging down in the snow on the Mall...but it seems to be to big for the blog.

Hope you enjoy the photos! http://drkola.blogspot.com/

And I hear we have another 10-20 inches coming tomorrow around noon....so lots of apartment time for us! For those of you who haven't been to D.C. often, the metro can't run with snow greater than 8 inches...so even if the government wasn't closed today, I couldn't have made it to work!

Stay warm and dry - whereever you may be.

Smiles, Kola

Hi Kola,

We enjoyed seeing your blog as passed on to us by Chuck. You've certainly had your share of snow. In the Pacific Northwest the weather has remained mild, and except for a deep 1-week freeze prior to Christmas, we feel we truly haven't experienced winter. It's stayed quite mild here ... just a bit rainy now and then, but still many days of glorious sunshine and mild temperatures. I've already been out gardening twice since the New Year!

Rufus and I have just returned (VERY early yesterday a.m.) from another OAT trip, this time to Costa Rica. It was an action-packed trip and we loved it! The routing for us was from Seattle through Dallas and on to San Jose. It was a wonderful trip, but a bit sketchy on the return. Dallas attained at least a foot of snow on Thursday where we arrived from San Jose in mid-afternoon, just in time to mess up flight plans from Dallas back to Seattle. Fortunately we got seats on Alaska Airlines, and after 3 hours on the tarmac in line for de-icing we were finally able to fly home, arriving only 3.5 hours later than originally planned.

Have you taken any big trips lately? Hope you are well and happy. Please greet your parents for us.

Best regards,

Jane LIttlefield

P.S. Marilyn and I also went on the OAT Costa Rica and found both tour and tour guide (Victor) absolutely the best.....

Chuck

Peru Pours and our Tour Group Comments

Recent heavy rains in the Peruvian highlands washed out part of the
Inca trail and the railway leading into the base of Machu Picchu, Aquas
Calientes, the town where we stayed. Hundreds of tourists and hikers
were stranded for days. The picture below was carried in the LA Times
(double click on picture to enlarge):

From:	Carol & Richard
Sent:	Wed 2/03/10 10:02 AM
To:	Chuck

Hi Chuck!!!

How are you guys? Thanks for the picture. We have been reading
about that mess and said "Good thing we did that LAST year!"
Is that our hotel in the lower center? Kind of looks like it.

So what have you and Marilyn been up to? We went to Panama in
August with OAT. Great trip. It was very easy and relaxing compared
to Peru/Ecuador. We're off to Tanzania with OAT in September.
Not sure where we'll go between now and then, but it will be somewhere.

Take it easy and say HI to Marilyn. Thanks again for the picture.

From:	Gary & Tooie
Sent:	Wed 2/03/10 2:16 PM
To:	Chuck

Thanks for the picture. We are sooo glad we went their last year.

How many years will it take, if ever, to repair the area to look like it did before the rains?

Our hotel, along the river, was an experience of a life time. I sure hope it wasn’t damaged.

A friend from OH just called to let us know PBS Nova has a great hour

show about MP. Gary just set our DVR to tape it.

Hope all is going well for you two, 2e

From:	Jay
Sent:	Thu 2/04/10 7:53 AM
To:	Chuck

Hey Chuck,



Thanks for the news. Peruvian tourism will surely take a big hit

with Machu Picchu not accessible.



After hearing me raving about how great our trip was, some friends

signed up for the same trip beginning in March this year. I passed

this info about the problems at Machu Picchu on to them and they replied:

"I just spoke with OAT and they say the Peruvian government now estimates it

could take 7 weeks to get things going again.  That's about the time we

leave. OAT is willing to let us postpone to another time or take a different

trip."



An internet search on "Machu Picchu news" gives more details on

how bad it was for the tourists in Aquas Calientes.



Jay