Papua New Guinea

Fish dance

Woman making a pancake from the Sago palm flour

Woman extracting flour from the Sago palm tree

We flew from Easter Island to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea with a 40 minute layover to refuel in Cairns, Australia. Total time around 11-12 hours. Once we arrived we had an armed police escort to a museum. There was a 1 hour tour of the museum before going to the Airport Hotel. This was a fantastic hotel. Port Moresby is the capital city. There are no roads going out of the city; only boats and planes. The next day we flew on Air Niuguini (pigeon English) to Mount Hagen, where we transferred to a 10 seat plane to our final destination on the Karawari River in the middle Sepik River valley. We landed on a grass runway. Then we took a boat to our lodge, teh Karawari Lodge.

Easter Island

A vulcanic caldera on Easter Island

More Moai

Moai

Judy avec Moai

One of many wild horses on Easter Island

We are at Raratonga, Cook Islands. We have spent one night here and will be leaving in an hour. The following photos are from Easter Island. We had the 3 leading authorities about Easter Island as our tour guides. It was an incredible experience. The island is much prettier than we were expecting. The climate is very similar to ours in La Jolla with a bit more humidity, but not too bad. The flight from Iquitos, Peru was 6.5 hours and we had a couple of lectures by Wade Davis and Keith Bellows from National Geographic. The flight to the Cook Islands was 7 hours and also had a couple of lectures. One was about ancient navigation techniques by the polynesians. Wade accompanied an expedition from Hawaii to Easter Island aboard a replica of an ancient polynesian canoe with a group of polynesians that still knew the ancient navigation techniques. The teacher was an old gentleman from a tiny island near New Caledonia. He taught everyone his techniques. This was an amazing lecture. I want to find some references so I can learn some of these techniques. Today we leave for Papua New Guinea to explore the Sepik River. This is one of the places that I am looking forward to the most. We have a technical stop-over in Fiji to refuel. Our total flight time will be around 8.5-9hours, not including the layover. Our luggage is severely limited and I will not have the laptop for the 3 days that we are there. Therefore, my next entry will be at least a few days from now when we get to Cambodia.

A capybara, the largest rodent in the world. His name is Charlie!

Tim on the canopy walkway, Amazon jungle

Moai, Easter Island

Rapa Nui (Easter Island) View from our hotel.

Amazon Jungle and Easter Island

We have been traveling at a rapid pace since we left Washington. Wednesday, we left Washington in the morning and had a 6.5 hour flight to Iquitos, Peru. Then, we boarded the Amazon Queen boat for a 2 hour trip downstream on the Amazon River. We arrived at our lodge in the jungle at dusk. The next day we were up at the crack of dawn and took a 70 mile trip further down the Amazon River and up the Napo River to another lodge. There we saw a Capybara, the largest rodent in the world, named Charlie (he is a pet). We then embarked on a 4 hour hike through the Amazon jungle, including a 0.6 mile hike through the canopy at a height of 115 feet. Then we went to a botonical garden where we learned about the various natural medicines in the rain forrest from a shaman. Tim tried a marigold that numbed his mouth like a local anesthetic.
The next day we flew 6.5 hours to Easter Island (Rapa Nui or Big Island.). That night, we met-up with a National Geographic Photographer who had just returned fron Nepal setting the world record for the highest altitude parachute jump from over 30,000 feet. Film at 11. He took us to some of the Moai (large stone statues) for a photography lesson. We enjoyed this immensely.
The next day we went on a tour of the island with the leading authorities in the world as our guides. These people have made this subject there careers for 30 years. Incredible.
All of the plane flights have lectures by National Geographic experts, and the food is superb. Here are some of the photos. There will be more from Rapa Nui when I can get internet access again. It is 10:30pm on Rapa Nui and we have to be awake at 4am tomorrow for our flight to Raratonga, Cook Islands.
I seem to be experiencing technical difficulties and cannot upload any images at this time. I have some great ones.
Rapa Nui is one of the most remote locations on the earth. We were informed that if we could not land on Easter Island, the closest airport is in Chile! Maybe the Cook Islands will have better internet service.

Library of Congress

This pizzeria in Georgetown has incredible pizza. We had a lamb sausage and fennel pizza that was made in the Italian tradition....thin crust and not stuffed to the gills with toppings. Awesome. Also, they had one of my all-time favorite beers: Dogfish Head Palo Santo! We toured the brewery in Delaware a couple of years ago and saw how they produce the beer. It is brewed in a 10,000 gallon cask made of Palo Santo wood from Paraguay. This wood is so dense it feels like a brick and sinks in water, like a rock. These are the largest wooden casks used for fermenting beer since prohibition. I wish that I could get this beer back in California. If I could drink only a few beers, this would be at or near the top of the list. If you haven't had this, you need to make the pilgrimage to the brewery and try some. It is as good as the finest wine.
We had this one for you, George.

Judy on "The Exorcist" steps. I don't remember there being any landings on the steps when I was there in the 70's. If someone owns a copy of the movie they may want to check it out and get back to me. This may be the light version.

This is something someone put on the "exorcist" steps in Georgetown

Our next home?????

Hello again! Today we visited the Library of Congress and the National Geographic Society headquarters. Unfortunately, there are no pictures as we were advised that, for the most part, photos are not allowed. So.....I have a few photos from our exploration of Georgetown the other day. Tomorrow morning we are off to Iquitos, Peru in the Amazon jungle. We will be arriving at dusk, take a boat down the Amazon river and then hike through the forrest to our lodge.

Georgetown University

Healy Hall

Healy Hall, Georgetown U.

Georgetown from Dahlgren Chappel

Dahlgren Chapel

We ran into a plastic surgeon from Los Angeles who graduated about 20 years ahead of me. He confirmed that these are the same seats that he sat in.

This one is R-rated (you will have to ask about it).

We actually found a professor's original hand-written lecture notes in our old lecture hall.  Here is Judy lecturing from the notes about systemic lupus erythematosis.

Georgetown University with boathouse on Potomac River

Potomac River viewed from Key Bridge

Re-capturing our memories in Washington, D.C.

Circa 1980, Judy and I met In Washington, D.C. She was a dental student and I was a medical student at Georgetown University. We started out as friends. She had a boyfriend. When I was on-call at the hospital I would call her in the middle of the night just to hear her voice. We would share our thoughts and a laugh. This quickly grew into something much more.

The Journey Begins

We invite you to join us on our journey around the world with the National Geographic Society on their "Places of a Lifetime" tour. This is much more than a celebration of our 25th wedding anniversary. It is a celebration of our lives, which have been enriched by each other and by all of the wonderful family, friends and colleagues that we have been blessed to know over the years. Every single one of you has contributed significantly to our joy and well-being and we want to thank you for your support and friendship.
Okay, enough of the mushy stuff. This is our itinerary:
Tuesday, October 19: Library of Congress and National Geographic Society Headquarters, Washington, D.C.
Wednesday & Thursday, October 20 &21: Amazon river and rainforest, Peru.
Friday & Saturday, October 22 & 23: Easter Island, Chile.
Sunday, October 24: Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Monday, October 25: Crossing the international date line.
Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday, October 26, 27 & 28: Sepik River, Papua New Guinea.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday, October 29, 30 & 31: Angkor Wat, Cambodia. Happy Halloween !!

We didn't even think about not being able to host our annual Halloween party when we scheduled this trip. We really enjoy the great effort everyone puts into their costumes, and how it can get a little risque as the evening progresses. Rest assured, next year it will be better than ever.

Monday, November 1: the terra-cotta warriors of Xi'an, China.
Tuesday & Wednesday, November 2 & 3: the great wall of china and Beijing.
Thursday, November 4: the Taj Mahal, Agra, India.
Friday & Saturday, November 5 & 6: the Serengeti plain, Tanzania. We will be camping on the plain in a mobile tent camp. Judy's first experience at camping!! I hope that someone has a rifle.
Sunday & Monday, November 7 & 8: the lost city of Petra, Jordan.
Tuesday & Wednesday, November 9 & 10: Istanbul, Turkey.
Thursday, Friday & Saturday, November 11, 12 & 13: London, England.