dinner, halloween, hikes about town and roo's

we've had quite a first week in derby!  place is still great, so are the people - super friendly. we went to a co-workers place for a great dinner (8 of us), then the next night played beach volleyball (which i suck at), then we had a big dinner at jila's cafe with work friends (great pizza and we tried kangaroo! yummy). Then last night we got dressed up as vampires and went to the local halloween party which turned out to be super fun. All the hospital staff and friends were there in great costumes with good drinks and finger food. we have a lovely neighbor who took me out this morning very early in search of kangaroos in the wild!  We saw tons of them on our walk but they are too fast to photograph.  i will try another time.  then i decided to stay home and make cake instead of doing anything social.  so far so good here...our derby album has been updated with more photos - see album link in sidebar for those.

Final Destination Derby

after tons of travel and at long last we rolled up to our final destination (for now) in Derby.  It was about 6pm, full moon out, and we met my lovely operations manager from the hospital who was kind enough to meet us at our new digs to give us keys, info, etc.  Our new place is amazing!  We've been here two nights now and love it.  The town is very small but everyone is nice, the views are stunning and we have most everything we need here.  It does get super hot here and there are a lot of mozzies but other than that it's really lovely.  we went grocery shopping, walked around town, saw their small saturday market, went to the jetty at sunset, i have started cooking now that we have a real kitchen, and i've been doing tons of laundry now that i have a washer again!

Broome, new job, 100 degree weather, and more!

it's been a bit since we wrote last...i've been super busy getting oriented to my new and intense job in the kimberley.   Everyone here is great, super fun, nice and easy to collaborate with.  The weather here is really hot, almost 100 degrees most days, and now it's almost wet season so it'll get even hotter!  The food here has been really yummy (expensive though) and the local brewery is fantastic.  The beaches are so blue, clear, warm and fun to swim in. Luckily it is safe to swim here (until november when the jellies come out) and we are getting our fill before heading to Derby today where we can't go in the water at all because of the crocs. I drove on the left side of the road yesterday which felt super weird.  to my delight they even have a target here which i fully intend to check out today!  can't wait to see our new digs in Derby this evening. 

opera house, harbor, zoo, manly beach...

We have had an amazing time in Sydney so far. On our second day here we took an epic walk from our hostel in Potts Point around the harbor, through the botanical gardens, to the opera house, to circular quay where we took a ferry to the Taronga Zoo. We spent several hours there and it was Jose's first time at a real zoo! Then we caught the ferry to Manly beach where we walked around the boardwalk and got little cakes to enjoy on the beach. We took the ferry back to the opera house and walked home through the park at sunset with tons of cockatoos flying about. 

First day in Sydney

It was rather cold, windy, and drizzly on our first day in Sydney but it's spring here.  We walked all over Potts Point and Kings Cross and the city center to get a book on Australia and get our internet and cell phones squared away.  We walked through Hyde Park where Jose's picture was taken and then stopped off at Joe's Cafe on Victoria Street where we are staying and had some of the best food I've had in ages.  My soup was enormous and almost as good as mom's.

long travels

We had very long travels to finally get to Sydney... flight from Cusco to Lima, then one short hour to get through customs, security, etc to fly from Lima to Buenos Aires. We had beautiful views of the mountains to Lima at least. Then we flew from Buenos Aires to Sydney...15 long hours.  But we flew over Antarctica and got to take photos!  The last photo here is as we came into Sydney.

Palermo Hollywood!!!!

Wow! All I have to say is I love this neighborhood. It has chic stores, boutiques, tons of clothes and shoes and delicious cafes on every corner. We went shopping all day and then ate at the BEST place ever called B.Blue where we had filet miñon in oyster sauce, spinach quiche, salad, and roasted potatoes and squash with grapefruit-ade and a little cappuccino to top it all off. I actually found frozen yogurt after at a little shop and had my first taste in over four months! Then we shared a bottle of wine and had a great conversation. I could totally live here...if i never had to work again and could eat as much as I wanted without gaining weight. Tomorrow off to Sydney on our 16 hour flight.

Pizza in Palermo

In buenos aires again to get paperwork done. Got in late last night with limited pesos and ended up getting the best pizza ever! We went to la torre de pizza in Palermo and got an Americana. It had tomatoes, olives, cheese, hard boiled egg, hearts of palm, and spicy chunks of bell pepper. Amazing!

last day in cusco...for now

Had our last day in Cusco today, at least for a few years. Didn't do anything special, just cleaned up our place, packed, watched as Jose played futbol, shared some drinks with friends, went out to dinner. It was nice and relaxing. Tomorrow we are off to Buenos Aires for 3 days, then to Sydney for 6 days, then Broome for my orientation for 5 days, and then finally to Derby.  Should be a pretty crazy journey. Just 16 hours from Buenos Aires to Sydney. Yikes!

Voting in peru is weird

Today was Peru's national voting day, they do this every three years.  I was surprised to find that they were only voting for Mayor, no other bills or laws or elected officials to vote on.  They have 18 parties just for Mayor and they have slogans like bread, condor, or potato.  They have little logos of bread, condors, or potatoes, etc for people who are illiterate.  The way they market themselves is also very strange, they drive down the streets with huge loud speakers taped to the tops of the cars and fuzzy banners hanging off the trucks and loudly proclaim their propaganda at all hours of the night and or day.  They give our candy and trinkets to kids.  Jose had to check in this huge newspaper about where he would be voting and some people are randomly selected to be poll helpers (it is not voluntary here). Everyone in Peru is required to vote or they are fined quite a bit of money. If their ID cards are not up to date then they are not on the poll lists and are not allowed to vote and then are fined anyway even if they show up to vote.  We went to the university where he was scheduled to vote and had to look at yet another long list of numbers for what polling group he belonged to. We then had to find the building it listed for him (no maps provided) while armed policeman patrolled the area.  Hordes of ladies were selling sweets, food, snacks, drinks, and gambling games outside. We found his building and went to the designated classroom. His name was on the list thankfully. I was shocked to see that they only let one person vote at a time, one person per classroom. It was SO slow and inefficient. They gave everyone their papers and one pen for each classroom and then had them vote behind a little plastic board at a desk.  It takes 3 seconds to vote and then they have to sign and put their fingerprint on the paper. Then they get a sticker on their ID card and their middle finger is dipped in this purple-blue ink to show that they voted.  It was really strange.  I wonder who will win...the bread man, potato man, etc?