Machu Picchu Trip

For our 10th anniversary, Jen and I took a trip to Peru.  Normally we wouldn't leave the country so soon after arriving, but we decided that the availability of Liz to watch the kids, a long weekend to minimize vacation time use, and our 10th anniversary justified it.  So we (actually mostly Jen, surprise, surprise) planned the trip, and we mostly forgot about it until it was upon us.  We figured we must be too accustomed to international travel when we took about 30 minutes to pack up everything we needed.

Anyway, we flew from Santiago to Lima, then missed our flight to Cuzco.  We were fortunate that there was another flight a bit later, and we arrived just an hour or so after our expected arrival.  There were people from our hotel waiting for us, which was particularly good since there was a general strike that day, and so taxi drivers weren't really working.  But we got checked in just fine, and went for a walk in lovely Cuzco.  The next day was spent seeing the sights, although most of them didn't allow photos of the interiors, forcing us to just enjoy them rather than trying to frame photos that most likely wouldn't turn out well anyway.

Cuzco town square at night.

The last part of the protest that night.

The main entrance to Cuzco cathedral

The front of the Jesuit church on the square

Some of the many people out enjoying the weather

After Cuzco we took a train to Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of the mountain housing Machu Picchu.  We wandered the town, had some food, bought lots of stuff, and attempted to scale a mountain using ladders.  We did not finish scaling the mountain, but we did have a good time there.

A shot from the train windows

The view from half way up the mountain

Me at the base of the first of many ladders

After our exhausting attempt at climbing, we had a nice dinner and went to bed early, ready to begin our ascent to Machu Picchu early the next morning.

We were waiting at the bus stop at 5:30 or so, but the line was so long already that we waited until around 6 before we were on a bus.  Apparently people start lining up around 4 to try to get up in time for the sunrise.  We didn't miss much, though, as the day started like this:

We headed straight for the other side, taking some time to enjoy the sights, but we really wanted to get a ticket to climb another mountain very nearby, from which spectacular views are possible.  We got tickets for the 10am entry, and then proceeded to explore the rest of the site before the hordes on the first train from Cuzco arrived.

Smiles in the fog

We made some lovely friends

The view from the entrance area

And the view from the mountain we climbed at 10, after the mists cleared

A glimpse of part of the path we climbed to get there, and the road the busses take up

to Machu Picchu proper

After our morning in Machu Picchu, we went back to town for lunch and a bit more shopping.  Yes, many of you will be getting a bit of Peru for Christmas.  Then we got on a train and went to Ollaytantambo, one of the ancient towns in the Sacred Valley.

We managed to get from the station to our hotel, had a nice dinner, and settled down for the night.  The next morning we headed to the fantastic fortress/religous complex on the edge of town.

The fortress is built into the side of the mountain

The ruins just blend into the modern town

We met a wonderful guard at the site who said he is a descendent

of the people who inhabited the city long ago.  He gave us a great

tour, and really made the visit worthwhile.

After Ollantaytambo we headed back to Santiago, where Liz and the kids were sleeping soundly.  We had a great trip, and look forward to another exciting excursion in 10 more years!

Spande Spanglish

People often ask how the kids are doing with Spanish. Truth is, it's a bit hard to tell. The kids--like most their age--aren't terribly revelatory when we ask how their days were or what they've learned. But their understanding of what their teachers are saying at school is increasing dramatically, Ellie knows most of her colors, and they both have figured out "Mira!" (Look!).

Sometimes, they ask excellent questions that show not only that they are understanding Spanish but thinking intelligently (or at least age-appropriately) about it.

For example:
--Ellie asked me the other day, "Why do people here use the letter C to say yes?"
--We had a great time at dinner tonight playing a game we made up called "Donde esta?" where asked the kids where various parts of their body were. Ellie knew a lot more than Ben, but we knew that they were both following and enjoying it when Ben said "Uno, dos, trasero!!" (one, two, butt!) and laughed uproariously. They say humor doesn't translate across languages, but I guess it does when you're three!

Unpack Fest 2008

We finally received all our things from Cambodia about 10 days ago. Who would have guessed that our possessions could have filled 164 boxes? Opening the boxes, my moving theory was confirmed: there is an inverse relationship between the level of development in the country you are packing out of and the care and amount of packing materials used for your stuff. Those Cambodian movers did a great job of protecting every $3 Crate and Barrel glass as if it were Haverford Crystal!

The big challenge for us has been trying to unpack while also entertaining the kids. Last weekend we hired some sitters. This weekend, as it is a long holiday weekend in Chile, everyone seemed to be away so we were more on our own. I decided to enlist the kids' help in unpacking, which went pretty much as you would expect...

At first the kids were very happy to use plastic cups to move the styrofoam peanuts to a garbage bag so we could reuse them as packing material later...

Then Ben decided it was really more fun to dump the peanuts on the table...

Then came the big discovery...it is so much more fun in the boxes than outside of them! Here Ben is pretending to be a "water monkey" in a tank of water at a zoo, "peeling" the water. I played a variety of zoo visitors who were amazed to discover that the water monkey could speak to them! That provided at least 30 minutes of entertainment...

By which point Ellie had discovered that packing paper was fun, too...

And Ben moved on to burying himself in peanuts and emerging happily from the deep...

Not the most efficient unpacking effort, but at least it kept the kids entertained while Mom and Dad worked!

Three Cheers for Liz

Nathan and I just got back from a fabulous five day visit to Peru, made spectacular by friendly Peruvians; ingenious Incans who constructed Machu Picchu; and Liz, who watched the kids for us while we were away.

Liz has been a huge hit with the kids. In fact, just this morning as we were eating breakfast and talking about how Liz would be leaving soon, Ben said: "Next time let's invite her for an even bigger playdate so she can stay much more longer!"

Photos of our trip and travel tips to Machu Picchu to come in the next few days (we hope).

A Lazy Saturday Being Inspired

We've been running at full tilt for months now--buying cars, moving into our new house, finding a school for the kids (itself a part time job), meeting people, and hosting lots of new friends at our house.

I, of course, have a long list of things I still think we need to do pretty quickly, but Nathan, being the Type B voice in our house and, at least in this case, the voice of reason, convinced me that we needed to not make any plans for today and instead just relax, run a few errands, and get ready for Liz's arrival tomorrow (yeah!).

So, we had a lovely time this morning catching up on current events by watching the Democratic convention speeches over the internet with the kids. The kids were surprisingly interested and paid reasonably close attention. Ellie picked out the part of Hillary's speech where she mentioned Harriet Tubman and excitedly pointed out that we have a book about Harriet Tubman. I was proud to talk to the kids about how decades again people thought that women and blacks weren't as smart as white men, but today they can be important leaders.

Normal Life: Playdate with Asher

We're slowly getting settled in to normal life...accomplishing all the pressing immediate details of the move and able to occassionally just relax and have fun. Last weekend we did something utterly normal and low stress: we invited (new) friends over for a play date. These were part of an embassy family--3 year old Asher, his 4 month old sister Liesl, and their mom Julie.

Ellie and Asher had a great time playing musical instruments--including an unusual xylophone/drum thingy I got in Namibia or South Africa, and an impromptu drum Asher made out of a plastic bucket and shovels.

Then Ellie, displaying that leadership (or is domination?) eldests are known for, declared that they should all pretend to be brothers who were cowboys. Here are Ellie and Asher wearing their "cowboy hats" and "masks".

Where was Ben in all this? Well, he did go along--a little--with the cowboy theme, but he's decided that he really doesn't like to be in photos, so here is hiding from us.

More and more Nathan and I are noticing the kids' distinctive personalities. Ellie is the family extrovert who came home with four best friends her first day of preschool. (Whether they knew they were her best friends is a different story.) Ben does fine playing with other kids, but often prefers time by himself or playing in parallel with other kids rather than playing with them. Recently he's really gotten in to very elaborate and creative Lego creations, using unusual pieces in ways that his dad (himself a Lego expert) never imagined. We coaxed Ben into posing for a picture with a new Lego car that he was very proud of.

Spande Children Deny Torture Allegations

Children of an American diplomat living in Santiago have denied allegations that they have been secretly torturing their playmates. Disturbing photos which recently came to light show their friends suspended upside down, with eyes and nose covered with an impermeable substance, and in other cases restrained en masse while hanging from what appears to be a wall, while one playmate appears to be passed out near by and a potential instrument of torture--a rope--lies just inches away. One human rights representative said, "People say that children are cruel, but this case shows graphically just how cruel they can be. We're taking this case to the Hague."



However, Ben Spande, 3, and his sister, Elena, 4, defend their actions and appear to even express pride in them. Ben stated, "Elmo is pretending to be SuperElmo. He's upside down because he is flying. He's wearing a mask because he's a superhero." Ben declined to comment on allegations that the photographs show Elmo in the act of crying for help.


For her part, Elena Spande claimed responsibility for the suspension of four individuals but denied that she had any malevolent intent, saying, "They are all on a ride at the fair. The one laying on the counter is too scared to go. And the string is to help them in case they fall."

Child psychologists are puzzled by several elements of the case, noting that Elena Spande appears in the photos for both incidents, despite her brother claiming credit for the Elmo suspension. They also note that Elena appears to be grimacing in the photo with the four suspended playmates. Sigmoid Freund stated, "In this case, the older child seems to be claiming credit for her brother's work. This is a common behavior among disturbed older children who are used to being the smartest and most advanced children in their families. Her grimace in the second photograph may indicate that she is beginning to be capable of some moral reasoning and may be feeling remorse for her actions." When asked about these observations, Jennifer Spande, mother of the "preschool torturers", said, "Remorse shmorse. Ben is just going through a phase where he doesn't want to be in photos, but Ellie is a total ham. And yeah, sometimes her photo smile does look like a grimace, doesn't it?"

Hallelujah! Spandes Join the Modern World

OK, this is going to sound whiny and improbable coming from someone who has spent the greater part of the last decade living in the developing world, but it is so hard to get anything done without internet at home!

I guess one of the consequences of living in a developed country like Chile is that everything is online here. Movie listings, yellow pages, point to point directions and maps--it's incredible how wired this country is. I read somewhere that 87% of Chilean have internet access. Amazing! Is that higher than in the US?

Our efforts at settling in here have been very much stymied by lack of internet access at home. Information about schools (the little that is available publicly), adds for nanas, used car inventories, etc--everything is online. Thank goodness that after 6 weeks in country we finally have internet at home! Yeah! The wi-fi doesn't reach as far as the dining room table, where someone likes to eat her breakfast while reading the NY Times, but we'll fix that later. Now we are just so happy to be connected!

Jen's trip to Congress

It's been a very busy week. Nathan's been having back problems, so he's been going to the chiropractor 3x per week...and having to take the kids with him. Jen accompanied the Ambassador on his first trip to the legislative capital of Chile, Valparaiso. Plus we moved into our permanent housing on Friday (yeah!) and went car shopping on Saturday. The kids start preschool tomorrow.

Here are a few photos of the trip to Congress:

Meeting Senate President Adolfo Zaldivar

Pol/Econ Counselor Juan Alsace (my boss), Ambassador Paul Simons, Congress professional staffer Julio Camara, and me

It's a beautiful clear day today so hopefully we'll get some photos of our neighborhood and the terrific mountains nearby. Life is a bit more complicated now that we are out in the 'burbs and still have no car and now can't walk to places to get internet access. But hopefully we'll have internet at home in the next few days!

Mountains and Wild and Wacky Ellie

Last weekend it rained, washing out all the much-aligned (and we think overblown) pollution out of the air. We have to admit that the mountains--which we could always see as somewhat indistinct shapes in the skyline--were particularly beautiful when visible in sharp detail through a smog-free sky. Here's the view from our apartment:


The kids seem to be excited about learning Spanish, which is great since they'll start in a Spanish-only Kindergarten tomorrow. Here they are reading along with a Berlitz CD reading a story in Spanish:


Meanwhile, they continue to be wild, wacky, and fun (at least most of the time). Here are a couple of photos we snapped this week of Ellie being silly: first wearing her version of a five year old onesie--Ben's shirt tucked in to Ben's underwear, and then goofing off with the vacuum cleaner attachments and gloves on her feet.

Developed World Problems in Chile

After almost three weeks in Chile, one of the things that keeps striking Nathan and me is how normal and pedestrian social problems seem to be in Chile.

Our first few days I kept noticing the graffiti that I saw around time. I never saw graffiti in Cambodia--people didn't have money to waste on spray paint.

Chile has its homeless population just like Cambodia does, but in Chile, they look more like homeless in the US--wearing lots of clothes to stay warm outside, carrying all their possessions with them. In Cambodia, the very poor simply didn't have possessions, and homelessness wasn't uncommon. Many cyclo drivers, for example, simply sleep on the streets in their cyclos.

Thinking about the national political issues here is also illuminating. People are upset because--after many years of admirably low rates--inflation has reached double digits. Pollution (In the winter, Santiago has a brown cloud similar to Denver's) and traffic are considered to be major issues. And the big scandal of Bachelet's term as President was that her public transportation inititiave was unpopular. After Cambodia--where the big issues are big league corruption, selling girls for sex, and trying the Khmer Rouge--this all seems laughably minor.

Military Standoff at the Thai-Cambodian Border

Our Ambassador often used to say that having the ancient temple of Preah Vihear, located in Cambodia right on the northern border with Thailand, inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage list was Cambodia's top foreign policy priority. Getting a set of ruins on a temple didn't seem like a big deal to us, but it was a huge issue of honor, pride, and potential tourist dollars for Cambodia.

Cambodia succeeded in getting Preah Vihear added a few weeks ago, but their success has angered Thailand, which says that part of the greater temple territory is in Thai territory, and wanted to have a joint listing. Now, in response to pressure from a group called the People's Alliance for Democracy, Thailand has sent troops to the border, and Cambodia has responded by sending its own troops.

All this, and the presidential elections are to be held in 10 days...

Cambodia: Little hope for Thai talks

By SOPHENG CHEANG – 13 hours ago

PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia (AP) — Cambodia has informed the U.N. Security Council that Thai forces have violated its territory near an ancient World Heritage Site temple where hundreds of troops continued to face off Sunday.

Cambodia's permanent mission in New York submitted a letter to the chairman of the Security Council and the chairman of the General Assembly to "draw their attention to the current situation on the Cambodian-Thai border," Information Minister Khieu Kanharith said.

"Cambodia is not asking for U.N. intervention. We still stick to Prime Minister Hun Sen's instructions to try to solve the problem peacefully between the two sides," the minister told reporters in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

It was unclear when the letter was submitted.

The conflict over territory surrounding Preah Vihear temple escalated when UNESCO recently approved Cambodia's application to have the complex named a World Heritage Site. Thai activists fear the new status will undermine Thailand's claim to nearby land since the border has never been demarcated.

Troops from the opposing forces were on the brink of a shoot-out Thursday night, which was avoided when Cambodians retreated from a site occupied by the Thais.

Opposing commanders and their troops have tried to defuse tensions, sometimes even sharing meals, snapping photographs and sleeping within easy sight of one another.

A Cambodian general, meanwhile, said he had little hope that upcoming talks between his government and Thailand will resolve the tense border dispute.

Cambodian Brig. Gen. Chea Keo said Thai troops have deployed an artillery piece about half a mile northeast of Preah Vihear temple — the latest escalation ahead of Monday's meeting aimed at averting a military confrontation.

"Regarding the talks tomorrow, we have little hope about the outcome," Chea Keo said.

He said the reason for his pessimism stems from a recent counterclaim by Thai Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej that the area around a Buddhist pagoda near the historic temple belongs to Thailand. Thai troops have been stationed at the pagoda since Tuesday.

Hun Sen wrote a letter to Samak on Thursday saying relations had been "worsening" since Thai troops "encroached on our territory," and asked him to pull them back.

Responding to his Cambodian counterpart, Samak said the area around the pagoda referred to in the letter "is within the Thai territory," according to a statement Saturday from the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

While urging both sides to exercise restraint, Samak's letter said the settlement of Cambodians in that area constitutes "a continued violation of Thailand's sovereignty and territorial integrity."

Despite their pledge to hold talks Monday in Thailand to try to defuse the tensions, both Cambodia and Thailand have massed troops at the site.

"We continue to be on alert at all time. And at the same time, we keep instructing our soldiers to be patient and avoid being blamed for starting a war," Chea Keo said Sunday.

The dispute has taken a toll on tourism in the area, with the Thai side closed to visitors. It also is starting to hurt economic relations between the two neighbors.

Associated Press writers Ambika Ahuja in Bangkok, Thailand, and Ker Munthit in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, contributed to this report.

Bienvenidos a Chile!

Greetings from Santiago! After six peripatetic weeks in the US, we arrived in Santiago on Tuesday. I'm experiencing a very pleasant culture shock--it's so strange to have a foreign service posting in such a developed country! Although of course it will take time for us to learn the city, become familiar with Chilean culture, know where to go for dry cleaning/internet/clothes/groceries/etc., at first glance this just seems like a really easy place to get around in. Our Spanish from Mexico is coming back to us, and it is exciting to feel like we are more self-sufficient here than we were in our first few days in other posts.

We packed our home leave with tons of visits to family and friends, so we didn't get a chance to do as much blogging as we had hoped. We'll try to catch up on posting photos from that soon. In the meantime, here are some pics from our first few days in Chile.

Here's the view from our apartment. Our permanent housing--a house in the 'burbs--won't be ready for a month, so we are staying in a nice apartment downtown (in the Las Condes neighborhood) about a 15 minute walk from the embassy. You can see how modern Santiago is with all the big buildings surrounding the little Catholic church.

The kids are enjoying the cold. To Nathan and me, this feels less like winter and more like fall, with daytime temps in the 40s to 60s.

In our first few days here, Nathan and the kids found two great playgrounds within walking distance of our apartment--that's two more nice playgrounds than there were in all of Cambodia for most of our time there.

The embassy is a nice, modern building.

Ambassador Paul Simons and Deputy Chief of Mission (ie #2 at the embassy) Carol Urban watch the flag raising ceremony at the embassy on July 4.

A Chilean military band played American patriotic songs at the flag raising.

Well, the kids are starting to tear apart the Starbucks where we are, so I need to go. One note for all our friends and family is that we will have trouble staying in touch for our first few weeks here. We can't set up internet or long distance access until we are in our permanent housing and have Chilean national IDs, which basically means that we can't even start that process for another month. In the meantime, our internet access will be limited to periodic visits to Starbucks and other shops with wi-fi (and Jen squeezing in a few minutes to check personal messages from work), and the only way we can call the US is to make a special trip to the embassy on the weekends. But we'll do our best to stay in touch despite these limitations!

Home Leave 2008 Round One

We're baaaack!

Although plans are still a bit unsettled, we are officially back in the US, and are loving it. The jet lag is starting to wane, we hope, although we are all certainly a bit off our normal schedules. This morning I was partially awake at 3:30, and managed to doze on and off until 5:30, when I got up. As I write this we are in Northfield with Jess, Andy and Simon, so of course Andy was long since up. Simon was sleeping, but we chatted a while, and then when Simon woke up, we played with him until his morning nap time, at which point Jen and the kids were starting to stir. In any event, clearly if I am an early bird and Jen sleeps in, we are not in our normal sleep schedules.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Round One of home leave 2008 took us to Wisconsin, where we arrived sleepy but happy after an entirely routine set of flights. Not great, but no flight from Cambodia to Madison ever was, I suspect. John and Phyllis were waiting for us with two cars, so we were able to load all of our luggage up and get back to their house.

Rather than describing the rest, I'll show off some of the work of our lovely new Canon S5 IS camera.

We started off our visit with a round of letterboxing in Owen Park,
or a temperate forest, as Ben and Ellie would call it.

The walk there and back had many sticks and flowers, which delighted the kids
and adults alike. Ellie was particularly happy to have the weather
cold enough to actually warrant a long sleeved shirt.

We also took advantage of familial photographic skills to get the
first of what will no doubt be many family photos.

The kids enjoyed going on John's nightly inspection of the grounds.
They are exhibiting a fondness for the outdoors that is making us very
excited for a place where the outdoors is actually inviting!

We spent a bit of time in Appleton with great-grandpa Howard and great-grandma Carole.
We started this time planting flowers at the graves of many relatives from both sides of their families.
This was actually in Manitowoc, WI, where I think they must be related to nearly
the entire city in one way or another!

Ben was excited to be there, and of course did what all young children do in cemeteries.

We then went to Appleton and helped Howard plant his front garden. Ben liked the digging part.

All of us really got into it, in fact. Jen also helped plant when she wasn't photographing.

And what planting session would be complete without some watering?

The next day we took all four generations letterboxing, which Howard really got into!

The kids saw their first white-tailed deer while out in the woods.

We even found two boxes, although sadly after Carole had gotten too tired and
went to rest in the car. We all had a blast, enjoying the outdoors and each other.

And because I just can't resist, here's a shot of our kids giving some cousinly love to Simon.
More shots like this will follow, I'm sure, but you'll have to wait until the official Round Two
entry, coming straight from Minnesota!

On the move

Well, it is finally happening! This weekend (starting in about 8 hours) we'll be packing up our things, and in about 10 days we will board a plane. In case you haven't heard, our next home will be Santiago, Chile, where we will be arriving in early July. Until then we'll be wandering around the US visiting family, friends, and doing the odd spot of work.

One of the things that packout means is that we are no longer going to have access to our US phone number, and won't until whenever our things arrive in Chile. We'll still have access to voice mails, which will be e-mailed to us, but you will be unable to actually speak with us on our 703 number. You can try Skype (nspande) if you'd like, but e-mail is probably the best bet for the next month or two.

Wish us luck!