September Spring

Dearest friends,

Time continues to fly by, and I'm back at school after a glorious 4 days off last week for R&R. Despite a flu and fever, we made a great escape to Coroico, a town in the Yungas jungle 2 hours outside La Paz (pretty much downhill.) We stayed at a resort with 9 swimming pools, and took great pleasure in sunning ourselves by most of them, though didn't get to try all the funky slides. Next time! It was wonderfully relaxing to hear the river, and we "roughed" it upon arrival, walking with our pack from the crossroads where the bus deposited us to the resort, about a 45 minute "hike-ette" during which we were surrounded by exotic butterflies!!

I'm glad we got out of the city albeit briefly, but spent most of the rest of the week grading exams and doing errands. I was able to finish reading Angela's Ashes and start The Human Stain, and just generally chill. We've been socializing a bit more and now that spring is in the air I'm sure we'll swing even more BBQs, though knowing many of you are enjoying Labor Day in far different a fashion than are we still gives me a pang of jealousy. Looking forward to hearing from all of you, and until our Vonage phone works again (by October, surely) we're easily reached on skype or the landline or by email....besos y abrazos and all happy thoughts!