He eats, sleeps, poops... and hugs!

We're learning so much about taking care of little Eamon and we're loving every moment of it. Tired though we may be we're totally smitten.

The other day Rory called me into the middle room where he was getting in some "skin to skin" time with Eamon ("Skin to skin" is this revered practice of taking your shirt off and getting your baby's shirt off and hanging out. Rory is a big fan, but he has grown tired of the reverent tone used to talk about it by pretty much all medical professionals we've come in contact with). Anyway, Rory calls me into the room and says, "Take a picture of him hugging me." How could I say no to that....

Eamon Charles Ramberg Foster

Many of you know that we welcomed our sweet baby boy, Eamon Charles Ramberg Foster to the world on Tuesday, October 25th at 2:01 a.m. He weighed in at 8.9 lbs and measured 20.5 inches. (His name is pronounced with the "ea" saying long A - and trying it with an Irish accent makes it all the awesomer.) Rory came up with Eamon in his search for boy names that started with the letter "E" and we both loved it. Also Rory's great grandmother was Irish. Charles is for my father - it was his first name. And the rest is probably self explanatory. Another fun fact is that Eamon now shares a birthday with Rory's grandfather on his mom's side and another of Rory's cousins, Jackie. What a lucky kid!

Clearly we think he's perfect.

We're all doing well and adjusting to life at home. We look forward to you all meeting him or hanging out with him again some time soon.

And then there were 5 (almost)

A bit of a blog reboot here....

I look like this. Or I did a few weeks ago when this picture was taken. No worries, the baby is still safely inside and I probably look even larger and in-charger.


Also, we now have two cats! The all black one is Clint (named for Clint Dempsey, a US mens soccer player) and the colorful kitty is Hope (named for Hope Solo, the US womens soccer goalie). Though many things have changed in the last months we remain big nerdy soccer fans.


Our baby is due in a few weeks! We're excited and nervous, but mostly excited. We thought adventures in parenting may rival our travels last year, hence the blog reboot.

But just so you don't think we haven't been doing anything the last few months here are some highlights, in no particular order: Rory started work as an attorney; we attended Marshmallow Fluff Festival and I tasted my first fluffer nutter; I started work as a 1/4 time librarian at the school I used to teach at; we traveled to Madison, WI, Austin, TX, and Charleston, SC to see our lovely families; we hosted visitors from Philadelphia, Peru, and NYC; bought, and taught my mom to play, Settlers of Katan; we attended an Atmosphere concert, took in the Chihuly exhibit at the MFA, and saw 2 shows with our friend Fitzy; I perfected a buttermilk waffle recipe; we moved next door; I started some graduate classes toward my certificate in Parenting Education at Wheelock college; we crafted curtains for our baby and a new cover for our crazy-long pillow, affectionately known as the "snake;" we enjoyed sunny days and warm evenings on our porch; we started up indoor rock climbing again; and most recently Rory scored an AWESOME goal for the first win of the season on our coed team.

I'm sure there's more not just because we are incredibly interesting people, but also because I'm incredibly absent-minded what with being mega pregnant and all.

Home Sweet Home and 6 weeks before

It has been quite an adjustment the last month. We got back to the apartment on December 30th, 2010, after being gone for 5 months. Since we have been back we have done a hefty mid-winter cleaning of our apartment, we got magical smart phones that have changed our lives, Rory has started his job as an attorney at Holland and Knight, I've succeeded at many domestic projects, and my graduate school applications have been submitted. We've also watched the Packers kick some ass (well, I have watched obsessively, while Rory vaguely pays attention), we've visited lots of the Boston folks that we missed while we were gone, and I have shoveled many many times. In fact, I don't even get sore anymore when I am out there and I still kind of enjoy it.

Here's picture of what it looks like around here. I forgot to get a picture of the before scene, but if you can see the car in front of ours you'll get the idea of the shoveling I just undertook. And don't even get me started on the Somerville snow emergency parking enforcement because you would be subjected to a torrent of swearing and ill-wishing on ignorant violators.


And, as promised, a few photos of what we were doing about six weeks ago in the Amazon Rainforest. We spent most of our time on this river, the Marinyon, which is one of the two feeders of the Amazon River. Our last day we went about an hour downriver and saw the actual Amazon. We were out of camera battery at that point so no photos. But it was absolutely breathtaking.


Most travel in the area is done on boats, so we spent a lot of time in inner contemplation as the drone of the motorboat made conversation difficult. There we so much to take in that I don't think either of us noticed. Our tour lasted a quick, but full, 2.5 days. We walked through both high rainforest, which is never submerged under water, and low (I think) rainforest, which is submerged during the wet season. We were there in late December which is the start of the wet season. By March and April you would have to take a boat to get to this tree that Rory climbed during his ultimate Tarzan moment. (There was no Jane moment for me).


We also got a chance to see some nifty wildlife and learn about the medicinal quality of loads of plants. Many of the plants are still regularly harvested by local communities for their natural cures to common ailments. Maybe some of you have heard about Cat's Claw and it's use against some forms of cancer - we saw that one. And one that helps women stop bleeding after childbirth. But the animals were perhaps more memorable to us because we surely would have forgotten what pictures of plants were. Our guides spotted the animals as we were speeding along riverways, as skill that astounded both of us. Here's a shot of the second sloth we saw. It's really there, look carefully!


Most of the communities along the river and in the preserve are subsistence farming and fishing villages. We got to partake in fishing with our enthusiastic guide, Neyser, and our talented boat driver, Jairo. What were we fishing for? Piranhas! You could hear their jaws snapping and see their vicious teeth as we brought them into the boat. It turned out that I was the luckier fisherperson this trip. Piranhas are tasty too! The staff back at the lodge cooked them up for us!


And on our last day we got to visit a local village. We walked around and saw the different types of plans that they kept - various kinds of bananas (which do taste better there than here), papaya, yucca, and others. We also got to see Victoria Amazona, those ginormous lily pads that could hold up a baby. At the end of this tour we also were introduced to what some folks favor as a house pet. Snakes seem to be great for catching rodents that might bother chickens or mess with food stores. This anaconda was caught trying to kill a chicken, and though the chicken could not be saved this woman kept the huge animal for a few days to impress and scare the bejeezus out of visitors. Can you tell from Rory's smile how much he is LOVING this?


And to think, 2 months ago, we were on the beach, watching a surf competition....


Can't help but miss it a little on a day like today....

We're Back!

Hey, hey!

After a great, long trip, we're back in the States and currently enjoying a happy Christmas with my family in Wisconsin. Next week, it's off to Boston - our final leg of traveling - where we'll settle in so that I can start work on January 10. Hoping it won't be too ridiculous a transition...

We still have a few more posts - a bit more from Cusco, a bit from Lima, and a bit from the jungle - so hopefully we'll get those up here before too long. Hope that everybody has enjoyed reading, it's been a fun way for us to keep in touch (and reassure our families that we weren't getting into too much trouble). Who knows, maybe we'll even keep it up from time to time even after we finish the Peru posts. I can't say that my life at home is likely to be all that interesting to other people, but maybe Erica gets up to craziness when I'm not around...

Merry Christmas to all, a belated Happy Hanukkah, and an early Happy New Year. Prospero ano y felicidad, as the song says.

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu seems to be the iconic representation of the Incan empire and it is indeed somewhat breathtaking. Surprisingly, as far as Incan cities go, it is not particularly ancient. Cuzco was the historical capital of the Incan empire for its entire duration, with major temples like Qorikancha, and elaborate palaces, as well as canal systems to control the two rivers and extensive neighborhoods of both royal and ordinary dwellings. By contrast, Machu Picchu was only in use for about 100 years by the time the Spanish defeated the Incas. And, despite (as you can see in the picture) being located on top of an almost inaccessible mountain, it is quite a bit lower in absolute elevation than Cuzco.

Here's some proof that we were actually there, and that there were Llamas present...

The city itself is a mix of religious, residential (royal and common) and agricultural sections. The religious buildings, as elsewhere, can be distinguished by the absence of mortar between the stones, while the residential and agricultural building use less finely-worked rock and employ mortar in the construction. Theories as to the purpose of the city suggest it was primarily a sacred site, a sort of royal retreat, or a guard-post and garrison to help control conquered territory. Here I am at the city entrance, testing out the guard-post theory. Seems pretty solid...

And here (below) is one of the sacred areas. This particular temple is dedicated to the condor: the rocks to the sides are the wings, with the head on the ground below. It was probably a place of sacrifice, which was seen as a great honor for the sacrificial victims, an assurance of entrance into a paradisaical afterlife.

Erica has heard that the city as a whole was dedicated to the sun - there are various remnants of astrological structures at the highest point (in the religious zone) - and that Huayna Picchu was dedicated to the moon. Huayna Picchu is the mountain rising above the city of Machu Picchu in the first picture. You can see, from long-distance, people climbing and exploring it in this picture.

It takes about an hour to ascend and another to come down, and the way is very, very steep. Given our time limits - and that Fredy would have never made it due to his acrophobia (we're proud he did so much this trip!) - we didn't climb Huayna Picchu this time.

Even here, where the drop-off wasn't so extreme, Fredy stayed pretty far back.

Eduardo had no problems with the heights.

All told we spent three or four hours wandering around, listening in on various tour guides to learn more about what we were seeing, posing for pictures, taking pictures, and generally enjoying really amazing sensations of time and place. In a city so well preserved, it seems easy to imagine day-to-day lives of people so long ago as well as to lament the loss of an ancient and vibrant culture to European colonialism. It was also neat to see near-complete buildings to understand better the anti-earthquake engineering. In a seismically active region, you would think that more ruins would have fallen by now, but the preventative architecture - the walls all slope slightly inward and the doors and windows are generally trapezoidal - has helped the structures endure.

Erica wrote already about the train ride out to Aguas Calientes / Machu Picchu, but she wanted me to mention the ride back too. It was a bit more luxurious, with a delicious dinner of steak, vegetables, potatoes, cheese and a dense tart. The flower arrangement on each tray was a nice touch too.

But that's not all! In addition to dinner, we were also treated to a traditional dance, complete with elaborate devil/cat costume and some impressive leaping about in the aisle of our constantly rocking train. And, afterwards, a fashion show of sweaters, shawls, hats and other wool products. (The train-attendants put on the fashion show and the dance, to much applause from the passengers.)

All told, a long day, but full of exciting sights and quite luckily free from rain. Definitely worth the trip.

Catching Up

So I just wanted to catch up with our posting - in Cusco we didn't have internet so it put us behind....

We did go to Machu Picchu and it was astounding. We took a train last Sunday from Cusco through the valleys that were so narrow at one point the train did some switchbacks. We took some awesome pictures that we will probably put into a Picasa album, so you can check them out if you are interested.

Last Monday Fredy and Eduardo returned to Lima, leaving us to explore Cusco and the surrounding areas. Left on our own, we checked out some local museums, went shopping, and to top it all off took a tour of closer-by ruins on horseback. Again, photos coming at some point.

When we arrived back in Lima on Thursday, Fredy and Eduardo greeted us with their customary generosity and a delicious lasagna. They kept us busy for the next few days eating and touring around their city. On Friday we saw a Christmas spectacular that consisted of about 60 children belting out tunes in Spanish from the windows of a HSBC building in the Plaza de San Martin. This did include a rendition of Michael Jackson's heal the world. That evening we also enjoyed the famous Pardo's Chicken, a Peruvian roasted and grilled chicken chain that did not disappoint. They apparently have a restaurant in New York City!

On Saturday we continued our exploration of Lima and visited one of the two zoos. We learned the difference between vicunyas and llamas (vicunyas are skinnier, but both spit when approached). We saw giraffes, jaguars, zebras, the tail end of a tiger as it went inside for the night and all sorts of different birds and monkeys. Later that evening (as in 10:00) we headed to an amazing pena, or dinner show, at Brisas de Titicaca. We got some close up exposure to various different Peruvian folk dances, including a Limeno (from Lima) Marinera, as well as a northern one that we are more familiar with. There was also the Tijeras (scissors) dance that was crazy - men in some heavy costumes bouncing and flipping around while holding scissors. It was all very impressive, was interspersed with live-band open-floor dancing, and lasted until past 2:30 in the morning. We also got to try chicharron (double fried) chicken that was delicious. (We've already had chicharron de puerco - cooked, then fried pork - so just the fish variety left to sample.)

After lunch on Sunday our animal body parts eaten has expanded greatly. We have enjoyed beef heart, beef stomach and chicken kidney as well as gizzards. Yum!

We are now in Iquitos (ee-key-toe-s), a town on the edge of the Amazon river, very close to where it begins. One website that Rory read said that this is the biggest town in the world that is not accessible by road to the rest of the country. We still have to corroborate that. There certainly aren't very many cars, as you might guess: the main form of transportation seems to be motorcycle and motor-rickshaw. Tomorrow, we'll embark on a three day tour of La Reserva Nacional Pacaya Samiria, a national park at the head of the Amazon river. We are pretty excited to get to experience the Amazon, though our short trip will limit the amount of wildlife we will get to see. Also we will again be without internet, so you can expect further updates when we get back to Lima on Thursday evening.