text:
Right at Singapore's first eco-friendly shopping mall, also known as City Square Mall, is a restaurant which serves different kinds of pastas, main courses, Western dishes, delectable desserts and mouth-watering Buffalo Wings. It's called Breeks Cafe and it's unlike any other restaurants you have visited before.
Located right in the heart of Farrer Park, the lesser-known area of Little India, is filled with lots of Indian-oriented shops and restaurants. You'll find shops selling Indian merchandise, the mega department store known as Mustafa Centre and Indian restaurants like Komala's located just right across the street from Farrer Park MRT Station. But we're not going to concentrate on that now, we're going to concentrate on City Square Mall and the awesome Breeks Cafe that's in the mall.
|Baked Dory S$14.90
The Baked Dory was cooked properly as it was soft and it melted in my mouth. The mushroom sauce was also creamy and tasty and it complemented the Fish and pasta. The pasta was a great addition to the baked pieces of fish and for those on a diet, you should get the Baked Dory because it's baked and not fried. Not only that, it comes with a side of fresh salad. It's also a great alternative to Fish and Chips or any other fish dish.
|Fish and Chips S$12.90
Anyway, Breeks Cafe's Fish and Chips was big and generous in terms of the portions served and that the 'chips' was actually criss-cut fries. I love criss-cut fries. They have a unique patterned shape and it's all golden brown, crispy and spiced. One thing I noticed about the fried fish that was served (you can see it in the picture right above) was that there were 2 lines across the fish. I don't know what's the purpose of that, maybe it's for decorating purposes. The fish was great and it was somewhat similar to Swensen's Fish and Chips. There's also fresh salad served at the side if you're into that sort of thing.
|BBQ Chicken Pizza S$12.90
|Plain Water
Breeks Cafe is definitely a great place to check out and dine. All the food's here is delicious especially the ones I just mentioned. On my previous visits to Breeks Cafe, I got the Buffalo Wings which was indeed delicious and worth getting if you're that kind of person who loves Buffalo Wings and especially those who are wanting to try Halal Buffalo Wings. Breeks Cafe also has mock cocktails and various kinds of desserts and ice blended drinks. The prices here are steep so i suggest you to eat here once in a while or if you have money. Breeks Cafe is available islandwide with outlets at City Square Mall, HarbourFront Centre, Northpoint and much more. Do bring your family or friends along especially if they love Buffalo Wings or Western dishes.
Breeks Cafe is HALAL certified
Getting Here
Bus services available: 21, 23, 64, 65, 66, 67, 125, 130, 139, 147, 857, NR6 (Bus stop along Serangoon Road outside Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple)
Nearest MRT Station: NE8 Farrer Park MRT Station (North East Line)
Website: http://www.breeks.com.sg/#/home
View Larger Map


text: Great Sew Forth meeting on Saturday when Christine took us through making buttons (but not as we knew them). Great pictures of the day can be seen on www.sewforth.org.uk Sew Forth group are also organising an outing to Heatherslaw Mill in the borders in June, just come in to tell me if you wish to come too. Cost will be £15pp.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Al Qaeda in Iraq offered a bounty today for the death of the Swedish cartoonist who drew a raunchy cartoon of Mohammad.
The Al Qaeda group upped the ante if the cartoonist is slaughtered like a lamb!
This threat, of course, comes from an Al Qaeda that is not operating in Iraq according to Nancy Pelosi.
The BBC reported:
The purported head of al-Qaeda in Iraq has offered a reward for the murder of a Swedish cartoonist over his drawing depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
Advertisement - story continues below
The $100,000 (£49,310) reward would be raised by 50% if Lars Vilks was "slaughtered like a lamb" said the audio message aired on the internet.
The speaker, said to be Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, threatened a new offensive during the holy month of Ramadan.
TRENDING: Portland: Women Defending Police Precinct Attacked by Antifa Terrorists
Last month's cartoon showed Prophet Muhammad's head on a dog's body.
…And he (Al Qaeda) said the Swedish government ought to apologise – otherwise al-Qaeda in Iraq would target "their economy and giant companies such as Ericsson, Volvo, Ikea, Scania".
Advertisement - story continues below
The cartoon's creator, Lars Vilks, told Reuters news agency he was not worried by a threat from people representing "a very small branch of our Muslims". But he could not disregard it, either, and was in contact with the police.
Good idea, Lars.
Certain factions don't seem to appreciate your work.
Supporters of the Islamic Shabab-e-Milli youth group burn an effigy of the Swedish prime minister in Karachi August 31, 2007. About 20 members of a Pakistani Islamic youth group protested on Friday over a sketch of the Prophet Mohammad published in a Swedish newspaper, witnesses said. (REUTERS/Athar Hussain)
Oh… And, Al Qaeda in Iraq also declared war on the Sunni tribes– after Sunni tribed declared war on Al Qaeda.


text:
Total noob : where to store my qtum? Is there staking?
Pretty new to crypto, bought some QTUM and saw that some currencies allowed staking (daily income in said currency) for holding in appropriate wallet.
Is this the case for QTUM? Where can I find the wallet, whether staking is involved or not?
joejoeadams last edited by
Hey, frenchfilm
Nice buy! :)
You should download the official QTUM Ignition wallet, from here: https://github.com/qtumproject/qtum/releases/tag/mainnet-ignition-v1.0.2
Yes you can stake QTUM. Please have a look at the following articles and guides written by a fantastic community member.
A thousand thanks, with all the scams happening in crypto, I really wanted to head in the right direction
I have a question : I downloaded this wallet qtum-0.14.3-win64-setup-unsigned.exe
and upon installation my windows defender antivirus tells me that it has a trojan horse inside... Is that normal?
joejoeadams last edited by
Hey, it's been mentioned as a non-issue. I'm going to paste a quote from a QTUM team member, but take it with a grain of salt, as I am copying and pasting it from the Slack channel/discussion.
qtum-earlz [6:06 AM]
We are aware that several people have scanned Qtum Core and found that some anti-virus companies report that it contains a virus or trojan. These are false positives, we have made sure that our binaries were not tampered with on Github, and additionally we use Gitian so that any community member can confirm that we are not tampering with the compiled release files. If you would like to compare your Windows 64bit files to our own, these are the sha256sum hashes:
If you are interested in comparing the files/hashes yourself, I could post the second part of qtum-earlz's quote so that you can ensure for yourself that the file is safe.
Hope this helps. Let me know!
This post is deleted!


text:
Was ist neu?
Clip Bibliotheken
Pad einem Freund
Tagestipp bei ZDNet
netnewsletter 06/2001: "...das Zusammenführen von Texteditor, Textverarbeitung und Bildbetrachter kann dem Anwender schon
die Arbeit erleichtern und gleichzeitig Arbeitsspeicher sparen."
Höchstwertung, Tagestipp (22.1) bei ZDNet Deutschland
Downloadtipp bei best-downloads.de
5 von 5 Sternen von ZDNet
Pad is an excellent productivity application that combines an image viewer with a powerful text editor that has lots of bells and
whistles. It offers an attractive tabbed multidocument interface and a host of tools that make it a fine choice for writing HTML
code. Change case, HTML conversions, an HTML color picker, template support, and an integrated cliplist are among these
features. An integrated file browser, full .rtf support, text and file bookmarking, print preview, and powerful search-and-replace
features are also offered. A glossary feature lets you save keystrokes by using your own shorthand techniques. For all it does
well, Pad doesn't offer multilevel undo (upcoming) or spell-checking. Excellent documentation is available.
Eine kleine Auswahl von Kommentaren der Benutzer:
Wirklich gutes Programm indem alle meiner Wünsche erfüllt werden...
Ich habe mir vor einigen Tagen Pad 2.7beta heruntergeladen und muss sagen, dass es ein Tool ist, um so ziemlich ALLES zu
erledigen! Ich zum Beispiel benutze es hauptsächlich zum Editieren von HTML-Seiten, und es hat all' die Optionen, die man in so
genannten "HTML-Editoren" vergeblich sucht, beispielsweise die Möglichkeit, eigene Vorlagen zu benutzen (was für mich recht
wichtig ist).
I've grown to really love Pad. I use my computer almost every day, and save to text files as they leave a smaller footprint on my
hard drive. Now, every morning, a beautiful image of a butterfly clinging to the petals of a flower greets me as I open Pad. I have
two well known, expensive word processors on my machine and I prefer Pad for all my initial drafts and writing, copy-pasting into
the word processor once all the real work is done.
Nowadays, I'm resentful when I get into any situation where my Format: UPPERCASE/lowercase is absent!
Pad does all for me and is the ONLY tool i use for making my website, it is easy to use, quick and is a perfect replacement for
people who use Notepad to edit their websites. (it also made me think sometimes because i had german messages come up now
and again):) GREAT PROGRAM.
I love your text editor. Its one of the best I have happen to ran across to. As for improving Pad, well, just keep updating and
fixing those unfound bugs. :)
Just wanted to say thank you again. Pad replaces a few bulky and slow programs and still performs more tasks than all of them
combined. Why aren't you working for Microsoft? Oh right, I forgot - you write good and stable programs. Well thanks a million.
just wanted to thank you for the best Editor i have ever used in my life!.Far out!, i just love it!.I'm serious man..this is the best i
have ever used and i have used them all.I gave it a 10/10 on www.download.com co's man you deserve it.
I was very impressed with the graphics capabilities. I was able to open a graphics folder and view them very clearly, and very
fast using the floating pad browser. I also liked the way it displays the text files, I could access them easily using the tabs at
the top of the taskbar. Just wanted to let you know that I think it's a very fine product, and I intent to use it in place of my
other editing software. Now I can view text files, and graphic files with one program.
Very good job thank you.


text:
Results Found: 1
Package Deal
Pick 5 of the same service, and get 1 of your choice free! This could include a gift certificate, massage, treatment, or just a body scrub! Save the hassle of purchasing every time or forgetting your wallet by purchasing this package! Visit our website or call us for details on how to purchase.
Buy 5 Get One Free!


text:
Who We Are
The Belfort Group is a Boston-based integrated digital marketing and PR agency that brings clarity to disruption. We have extensive experience developing multi-layered campaigns for corporations, colleges and universities, developers, municipalities and nonprofits. Our clients are in industries that are extremely competitive, fraught with uncertainty, and under constant pressure to perform. They call us because we find or create the path forward.
Public Affairs
We are the agency that secures city/town votes for rezoning/permitting initiatives for residential, commercial and mixed-use projects; launches grassroots influence campaigns to generate public consensus on local and state legislative issues; or attracts new tenants for commercial and residential properties. For public entity/municipality clients, we spark economic development campaigns; promote land-use opportunities; and bring the vision to life.
Higher Education
We are the agency that turns around declining enrollment trends; creates and launches annual giving and capital campaign programs; spearheads new marketing strategies and activations; introduces new leadership to the community; and, promotes academic thought leaders around the world.
Professional Services
For corporate clients, we drive business inquires through creative marketing strategies and integrated campaigns; enhance corporate reputation and thought leadership efforts; and train executives to utilize cutting edge sales techniques to drive business. For non-profit clients, we generate revenue through volunteer and donor activation campaigns; promote the impact on communities; and generate public support for the mission.
From graphic design and brand development to website development and paid social media campaigns, creative design and digital integration are at the foundation of all that we do at BG. Our creative team is comprised of experienced graphic artists, brand visionaries, paid digital media experts, social media content creators, UX designers, website coders, creative writers, CRM and technology specialists and data analysts. We design compelling integrated campaigns and creative assets backed by performance data to drive business success.
"Working with Belfort Group has been extremely positive. I have never felt such a close working relationship with an outside group before. "
"If I had to use three words to describe Belfort Group and my dealings with them it's their quality of work, responsiveness, and the integrity of their advice. "
"I love working with Belfort Group because it's a lot like working with friends who have fun and exciting ideas and are willing to make things happen. Every day we have exciting conversations and we look at new ways to do things. I am constantly learning from them. "
"Our work with the Belfort Group has been wonderful and complex…it's been a very rich and rewarding collaboration. "
"I am happy to say a few great words about our strategic partner that we've worked with over the past 20 years, Belfort Group…Phil Pennellatore and his team at Belfort Group have been with us every step of the way. "
"If I had to focus on three words to describe the Belfort Group team I would say dedicated, highly committed, and extremely responsive. "
Public Relations & Thought Leadership
Build visibility and awareness for your leadership and organization as a catalyst for growth.
Digital & Integrated Marketing
Leverage the right media mix for your goals – multichannel, omnichannel, traditional, digital or social – we know how to segment personas and blend activation for high impact.
Branding & Creative
Invest in a refresh, makeover or ground-up rebuild for your brand – our design and concept team activates ideas that resonate.


text:
Date: 11-13 July 2018
Location: Charles Perkins Centre, Building D17, John Hopkins Drive (off Missenden Rd), University of Sydney
Recent years have seen social, criminal, and legal justice campaigns for sexuality and gender diverse people gain increasing visibility and popular support in many jurisdictions, while repression and discrimination have increased in others. At the same time, academic LGBT and queer scholarship in fields such as criminology, criminal justice studies, sociology, and socio-legal studies, has grown significantly.
Despite reversals of enfranchisement for sexuality and gender diverse people in some countries, important changes in the interests of social and legal justice have been achieved, and there is a growing space in some legal and criminal justice contexts for the needs of sexuality and gender diverse people to be recognised. However, more can be done to respond to the intersections of inequalities in these contexts. Culturally diverse people, Indigenous people, and people seeking safety, among others, have not always benefited from these gains. A gulf remains between academia and practitioners in these areas, with greater opportunity to pay attention to the voices of those in the Global South in these debates, and to how 'Northern' frameworks guiding research and practice in this area may need to be reconsidered. These issues are central to ongoing campaigns to achieve greater social and criminal justice for sexuality and gender diverse people globally.
To further explore and respond to these issues, and strengthen the international networks of scholars and practitioners working in this area, we invite proposals to speak at an upcoming conference on 'Queer(y)ing Justice in the Global South'. We hope to question how justice can be 'queered' and queried from the perspectives of sexuality and gender diverse people.
The conference is an opportunity to bring together researchers, community members, and organisations working at the intersections of sexuality, gender diversity, and justice, broadly conceived.
Further information about the conference can be found here: http://sydney.edu.au/news/law/457.html?eventid=11768


text: Hi, my name is Michelle Henderson (Tengu Arts) and I'm a digital artist from Scotland. I've been fortunate to work with many amazing people all over the world, creating character designs, book illustrations, video game art, comics and more! I like to create art that is colourful and bright. If you are interested in working with me, please get in touch by emailing me, using the contact form on my website or just sending me a message on social media. I hope to hear from you!


text:
A time-gated ballistic imaging instrument is used to obtain high-spatial-resolution, single-shot images of the liquid core in a water spray issuing into a gaseous crossflow. We describe further development of the diagnostic technique to improve spatial resolution and present images and statistics for various jets under crossflow experimental conditions (different Weber numbers). Series of these images reveal a near-nozzle flow field undergoing breakup and subsequent droplet formation by stripping. One can also detect signatures of spatially periodic behavior in the liquid core and formation of small voids during breakup.
© 2005 Optical Society of AmericaFull Article | PDF Article
OSA Recommended Articles
Jacob B. Schmidt, Zane D. Schaefer, Terrence R. Meyer, Sukesh Roy, Stephen A. Danczyk, and James R. Gord
Appl. Opt. 48(4) B137-B144 (2009)
Sean P. Duran, Jason M. Porter, and Terence E. Parker
Appl. Opt. 54(7) 1743-1750 (2015)
Megan Paciaroni and Mark Linne
Appl. Opt. 43(26) 5100-5109 (2004)


text:
The Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE) named Victor W. Wong, a principal research scientist in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and manager of the Sloan Automotive Laboratory, a fellow of the Society at its May 18 annual meeting.
Wong was nominated by the STLE Fellows Committee and selected based on his having made "outstanding and recognized contributions to the sciences and engineering in research in the field of lubrication." In his 24 years at MIT, Wong has co-founded two research consortia in lubrication, including the more recent consortium on the interactions of lubricant/additives on engine durability and diesel engine emission aftertreatment systems.
Wong is already a fellow of the Society of Automotive Engineers and of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and has recently been named an associate editor of Tribology Transactions, STLE's prestigious journal of technical publications.


text:
In preparation for the next unit, I have decided to go over what we've already learned about PHP, a scripting language for designing websites. I decided to use Codecademy to revise what we had done, as well as practise using the code a bit more. Codecademy has been very useful for revising and catching up with what we've done in the recent workshops, as it's free to use and easy to follow. It also has a wide range of courses for different coding languages (e.g. HTML, JavaScript and jQuery). Our upcoming unit, "Design for Digital Media Environments", will focus almost exclusively on coding, creating and programming websites and databases.
As shown in the screenshots below, I have also been experimenting with the different functions and variables that can be used with PHP (e.g. "echo" and "string").


text:
Till the next spat then!
We promise this is the last you'll hear about literary battles and lit fests. (That is until the next storm in a chai cup brews)
>> We promise this is the last you'll hear about literary battles and lit fests. (That is until the next storm in a chai cup brews).
But according to Litlive's Chairman Anil Dharker there's an interesting little post-script to the Karnad- Naipaul controversy. After Karnad's speech, he was due on the stage the next morning for a panel discussion. "Am I still welcome?" was the message he sent to Dharker. 'Yes,' was the response he received.
The story doesn't end there. A day later, Anil rang Girish and said, "You are my first invitee to next year's festival." There was stunned silence at the other end says Dharker. "I will be happy to come," Karnad finally said. It was Dharker's turn to pause. "You will now talk about theatre."
Till next year then!
Misplaced Gallantry?
>> In recent times, we have been witness to many a gallant gent standing up for his lady love. Shashi Tharoor's elegant riposte to Narendra Modi won him many admirers and of course Barack Obama's declaration of love to Michelle during his victory speech had the whole world applauding.
This gallantry is not restricted to politicians alone. Sanjay Kapur, the swashbuckling polo playing CEO of Sixt India whose marriage to Karishma Kapoor has been on a rocky stretch apparently made a similar stand for his alleged paramour Priya Chatwal recently.
"When he was invited for his (former?) sister-in law Kareena's nuptials, he said he would not attend unless he was allowed to bring Priya," informs an insider adding, "Given the circumstances, it is no surprise that his presence was unwelcome."
Well, gallantry works- but timing's important too.
Talented foursome
>> We chanced upon this adorable picture of jewelry designer Farah Ali Khan and her handsome DJ husband Aqeel holidaying in Goa with their kids, Azaan and Fizaa.
"We had gone to Goa for the kids' Diwali vacations. They love the sand, sea and beach and can spend hours in the water. We try and take 3 to 4 vacations as a family together every year," she said.
DJ Aqeel with Farah Ali Khan and their children, Fizaa and Azaan
And given their famous parents accomplishments -have the kids inherited their mother's artistry or dad's musicality?
"Azaan is hyper energetic and very interested in Lego, art and craft. Fizaa is artistic too and loves writing and making cards but also loves music and dancing. But Azaan also gets his knowledge of gadgets and technology from his dad," says Farah, who has just set up a 9,500 square feet state of the art jewellery manufacturing unit, to take care of her successful high-end business. "I have an in-house design team, along with designers, model makers and all the artisans that go into manufacturing beautiful pieces," she says.
We guess that's why she needs all those holidays!
Full disclosures!
>> Readers of the pink press were pleasantly surprised to see the interview that Bombay Dyeing Chairman Nusli Wadia gave to Business Standard recently. The once high profile tycoon is now famously known to speak to the media 'once in five years'.
The Chairman of one of the country's oldest corporate groups spoke candidly about his erstwhile battle with the late Dhirubhai Ambani that had almost driven the nation apart.
"I missed the bus because I didn't manipulate the system," said the 68-year-old Parsi industrialist. "All the policies related to polyester and the polyester chain during the eighties were manipulated. You had to manage the system for all licenses."
But perhaps what is most interesting about this interview, is the fact that one of India's finest business journalists R Jagannathan has commented on it in his excellent web-zine Firstpost.
'Now that crony capitalism is firmly on the nation's agenda as one of the evils leading to corruption, some of those laid low by it in the past are voicing their views on it,' writes Jagannathan.
Why is this of particular interest? Well as the disclosure at the end of Jagannathan's column states - the Reliance Group has an indirect stake in Network18, publisher of Firstpost.
We like this trend of disclosures. They are healthy, fair and very necessary to bring credibility to our business. And inspired by this long overdue trend we would like to disclose that we write for Business Standard too.
Poison Pen missive
>> The lengths to which people go to destroy their enemies have always shocked us. Vicious whisper campaigns, rumor mongering, character assassination, media plants and the carrying of tales have always been par for the course in the Mumbai social scene, but even by these standards, the recent anonymous letter that's doing the rounds about a pretty lady married into a prominent industrial group takes one's breath away.
Not only has the derogatory missive made its way into the lady's social group, but also, we hear, to the principal of the schools where her children study.
We do not wish to dignify the contents of this anonymous communiqué by discussing them. We have just two points to make:
The first is that it is the easiest thing in the world to identify and catch the wielder of this poison pen.
In the past, we have assisted friends who have been vilified in similar ways and know that there are more than a dozen experts in the police department who can get to the bottom of the matter in a jiffy. We urge the lady to give over the matter to competent authorities.
The second point is: going by the allegations made in the letter, even a child could tell you whom the needle of suspicion points to.
As for the lady in question-chin up!
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text:
The 140-Character Me
Author & songwriter, lover of little notebooks, dark chocolate & creative energy; inspired by fans to write even on the hardest of days.
My first drafts are always horrible. My writing process is messy.
On Writing
When I was ten years old, my mom died, and a terrible silence descended over our house. My little journals helped me to survive. In the pages, I gave voice to all the things I couldn't say out loud: my fears, sadness, confusion, and dreams. Writing made me feel better.
I wanted to be a writer but didn't think I could because I didn't have the chance to meet any real writers. Although I secretly wrote many poems, stories, songs, and more, I didn't try to become a professional writer until I was already out of college and working as a teacher.
My first stories were rejected and rejected and rejected. It took me about ten years to learn my craft, but I didn't give up.
Now, I write YA novels, fiction for younger ages, songs, articles, essays, poems, plays, postcards, letters to friends, and more.
I am still learning how to let go and just sing.
On Singing
My dad, mom, and sisters loved to sing, especially in the car, and we always played with harmony. Often our songs were silly, but sometimes, as we were driving home at night and singing a melancholy song, the moment was so intensely beautiful, our voices joining in harmony and spilling out of the unrolled windows into the moonlit sky, I would start to cry.
In school, I lived for chorus. School could be boring, other students hateful, rules unbearable, but as soon as I got to chorus, I would take a deep breath, wait for my cue, and let my voice commune with all the beautiful voices around me.
Now I sing to connect with joy. I can be having a very bad day; and, if I remember to sing, the vibrations of my song will push all my troubles away.
I remind myself: you have to sound bad for a long time in order to learn.
On Playing an Instrument
Can you tell what you're looking at in this photo? Indentations across the tips of my fingers from pressing down on the guitar strings. I bear my calluses with pride.
As a kid, I tried piano lessons and violin lessons and grew quickly discouraged. I didn't like the fact that reading music and playing an instrument wasn't easy and that I wasn't immediately good at it, and so I quit. As a teen, I tried and quit guitar, too.
In 2006, I picked up a guitar and made myself play for at least ten minutes every day. I was horrible at first, but I improved week by week. Now I'm hooked on both guitar and uke.
I often get ideas when I'm walking, so I carry my writer's notebook with me everywhere I go.
On Songwriting
When I was in the eighth grade, my English teacher brought in Paul Simon's song, "I am a Rock" and we analyzed the lyrics. I remember how the room changed when he put the music on. It was as if the ceiling had lifted off. That moment, I knew I wanted to write songs.
Now, I write songs for myself and songs for a lot of my books.
Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and Soundcloud.
Workshops and Appearances
- See my Upcoming Appearances schedule.
- Learn more about my workshops in songwriting, fiction writing, and more.
- Schools and libraries: connect via Skype.


text:
Goal 13: Help Our Citizens Get Healthy
Goal Description:
Increase Louisville's health ranking among 15 peer cities to the top half by 2020, and top 3rd by 2030, by implementing the community health improvement plan, Healthy Louisville 2020. (HL2020). HL2020 is a public health agenda that aims to guide Louisville Metro towards becoming a healthier city, narrowing the gap in health disparities among its residents and achieving health equity by 2020. The Healthy Louisville report and areas of focus can be viewed at:
According to the latest analysis conducted by the Greater Louisville Project using Robert Wood Johnson County Health Rankings 2015, Louisville ranks 12th among 15 peer cities in health outcomes. Improving health outcomes will directly improve the quality of life, prosperity, and competitiveness of our city. While we have many great health programs in Louisville, we still have a long way to go to move up in the health rankings. Health is everyone's business and improving the health of our community will take a collective effort.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation County Health Rankings relies on multi-year averages and data that lags up to 2-3 years. We are able to monitor related sources with available data as recent as 2014. This allows us to react to the current state of health in Louisville and improve our ranking in the years to come.
Health Legend
Initiative Health: What are we doing to accomplish this?
Louisville ranks 12th among 15 peer cities with regard to the health outcomes composite score measured by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's County Health Rankings.
Healthy Louisville 2020 identifies 13 focus areas designed to address some of Louisville Metro's most pressing, as well as emerging, public health issues. Within those focus areas 50 indicators were selected, each having a baseline and target measure.
The first draft of Healthy Louisville 2020 was completed on time. A finalized version was released in February 2014.
3. Publicly announce Healthy Louisville 2020 in 2014 in conjunction with The Greater Louisville Project.
In 2014, Healthy Louisville 2020 was publicly announced via press release by Dr. Nesbitt and the Mayor in conjunction with The Greater Louisville Project. It can be viewed in a web-based format at healthylouisvillemetro.org.
4. Engage employees in wellness issues and provide on-site resources for making healthy choices by FY15.
We created an employer on-site wellness clinic and pharmacy in conjunction with a Wellness Program and other tools to enhance the quality of life of all Metro employees. A tobacco user surcharge was implemented which promotes healthy lifestyles, changing unhealthy behaviors, disease prevention, and nutrition & exercise.
5. Increase health insurance coverage to all Louisville Metro residents by decreasing percentage of uninsured residents from 17% to 0%.
The implementation of the Affordable Care Act provided health insurance coverage to many citizens for the first time. As a result of efforts to encourage enrolment, the percentage of uninsured residents has substantially declined.
The Board of Health Outreach and Enrollment committee is working to ensure all Louisville Metro residents eligible for Medicaid are enrolled as part of the expansion under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The group meets monthly. The original goal was to enroll 55,000 of 101,366 residents eligible for Medicaid. As of August 2014, 70,281 residents had been enrolled in Medicaid. As of September 2015, a total of 163,324 individuals were enrolled in Medicaid or a Qualified Health Plan (QHP).
6. Improve Louisville's ranking among peer cities to be among the top half by 2020 with respect to the percent of adults who use tobacco.
From 2008 through 2014, a combination of public health initiatives and policy has led to a 7 percentage-point decline in smoking rates in adults.
1. Currently transitioning smoking cessation classes to the American Lung Association Freedom from Smoking model.
2. Advocating for the Louisville Metro smoke-free ordinance to include e-cigarettes/vaping and hookah.
3. Partnered with Waterfront Parks to expand smoke-free zones in outdoor children's recreation areas.
4. A collaboration with Louisville Metro Department of Parks and Recreation lead to designating 19 'spray-grounds' as smoke-free areas.
7. Improve the quality of the air that Louisville Metro residents breathe by reducing the number of days with AQI that exceed 100 from 54 (2010) to 34 days per year.
The number of days with an Air Quality Index exceeding 100 has declined tremendously. However, Louisville Metro is ranked 13th of 15 peer cities with respect to air pollution. We continue to monitor and look for opportunities to partner with other agencies to improve air quality.
Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness
1. Take a coactive approach to improving air quality by promoting environmentally friendly transportation modes, and advocating for increased greenspace and sustainability. Serve on the board of AIR Louisville which is focused on asthma outcomes due to poor air quality.
Public Works & Assets:
1. Increase percentage of people traveling to work by utilizing public transit, bicycling, and walking from 8.1% in 2013 to 25% by 2030. See Goal #1.
Transit Authority of River City:
1. Replaced 10 downtown trollies with zero-emission electric busses, with plans to increase fleet to a total of 15.
2. Replacing older busses with 11 hybrid-electric and 28 clean diesel busses.
Jefferson County Public Schools:
1. Prohibit school bus idling on days where AQI exceeds 100. JCPS policy is enforced at all locations.
Air Pollution Control District:
1. Monitor and report air quality; enforce regulations, advocate for policy change.
2. Working with LG&E to convert Cane Run to natural gas, improve pollution control equipment at Mill Creek plant. Will reduce 4823 tons of NOx and 52 tons of VOC thru Cane Run conversion by end of 2015. By end of 2016 will increase SO2 removal at Mill Creek from 90% to 98%
3. Kentuckiana Air Education (KAIRE): community outreach, promote green infrastructure and tree canopy commission, support Complete Streets initiative, analysis of air quality.
Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness continues to take a coactive approach to decreasing obesity rates in Louisville. The following initiatives are currently active with collaborative agencies.
Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness:
1. Hosts wellness classes for the public with topics covering diabetes management and smoking cessation.
2. WIC: Provides medical nutrition therapy (MNT) for obese participants. Initiatives are ongoing to increase participation and solicit customer feedback.
3. Building relationships with the Food Port project to inform programming related to healthy eating/nutrition.
4. Grantor to the Food Literacy Project and the People's Gardens.
5. Piloting a healthy vending policy, if successful will roll-out to other metro government sites.
6. Through collaboration with Humana's Bold Moves program - YMCA Diabetes Prevention program focusing on weight loss and healthy eating
Public Works & Assets:
1. Create/maintain 66.63 miles of bike lane miles as of 30 Nov 14.
2. Expand implementation of Complete Streets policies
3. Currently rehabbing sidewalks in poor condition to ensure walkability and accessibility. See Goal 1
Develop Louisville:
1. Repurpose empty and vacant lots into community gardens, playgrounds, or greenspaces. Since 2012, they have worked with 7 Community Partners on 9 projects that repurposed 18 vacant lots totaling more than 2.5 acres.
Parks & Recreation:
1. Increasing shared use paths (57 miles as of Dec 2014 vs. goal of 72 miles by Dec 2016).
2. Healthy opportunities: Printed recreation guides distributed to community partners/centers, social media posts, limited advertising at golf/community/athletic centers, materials provided to health fairs and public events.
3. Increasing community center Kids Cafe programing
4. Ongoing expansion of Louisville Loop: Current mileage as of Oct 31, 2015: 40.55 miles with 15.09 miles of paved connecting/alternative routes.
10. Reduce the gap in life expectancy between whites and blacks in Louisville Metro from 4.6 years to 4.1 years.
Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness (LMPHW) uses a Health in all Policies approach to promote healthy social and physical environments for all Louisville Metro residents
1. A new director for the Center for Health Equity has been hired and will ramp-up work in 2016.
2. Pivot to Peace: LMPHW participates on the steering committee of this interventional program directed at males age 18-34 in the Louisville Metro Police District 1st and 2nd district.
3. Continued support of the Office of Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods with the One Love Louisville initiatives. One Love Louisville Action plan addresses the socioeconomic determinants of disparity in life expectancy.
4. A process that allows LMPHW to systematically review proposed laws, ordinances and regulations at the state and local level is being developed.
5. LMPHW routinely collects and analyzes data from a multitude of sources to understand the contributing factors to health disparities and the gap in life expectancy.
1. Healthy Babies Louisville and its strategic plan were announced Jan 2016, a culmination of a year's work with community partners and stakeholders to create and implement a plan to improve health outcomes and reduce infant mortality for babies born in Louisville.
2. WIC program: Medical nutrition therapy for WIC users with a medical condition including pregnant women with gestational diabetes, etc. Piloting an online WIC education program to make access easier for women.
3. Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness Office of Health Promotion administers several programs to prevent abuse and promote infant wellness:
- Periods of Purple Crying program to provide early intervention in preventing infant abuse.
- Early Periodic Screening Diagnosis and Treatment (EPSDT)
- Cribs for Kids
- Partnership with March of Dimes to create grand rounds programs for obstetricians and pediatricians restarting the Fetal Infant Mortality Review
- Baby and Me are Smoke Free program
4. Renewed Healthy Start grant: restructured to a 3-tier plan where the highest risk/highest need women in 6 zip codes receive case management/home visits, and promote social support groups for moms.
12. Increase the percentage of people who are infected with HIV and know their status from 87.2% to 90%.
HIV is too often discovered at an advances stage. Identifying persons early in infection and providing them with appropriate counseling, education, and opportunities for linkage to care are necessary steps to controlling HIV.
Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness:
1. Implemented and monitor a Syringe Exchange Program that includes HIV and Hepatitis C testing for these high-risk participants.
2. Implemented a policy in 2014 for all clinics to offer HIV screening.
3. Expanded Disease Investigation Specialist (DIS) workers' duties to include conducting contact investigations.
4. HIV prevention workers conduct regular outreach with community partners.
Community partnerships:
1. By December 1st, 2015, will have 2 Volunteers of America sites for HIV testing. Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness works closely with the 550 clinic for referrals of HIV positive individuals to start treatment.
2. Promoting and supporting new/planned PrEP HIV clinics managed by KentuckyOne and Norton.
13. Improve Louisville's ranking with respect to the average number of days that mental health was not good over the prior 30 days to be among the top half by 2020.
Measuring the number of unhealthy days is an indicator of quality of life. Analysis conducted by Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness indicates that some groups of citizens are more likely to have a high number of mentally unhealthy days, such as young adults, racial and ethnic minorities, and women.
1. Targeting adolescent/pre-teen population through the BOUNCE coalition's training teachers to work with students who have experienced traumatic events in their lives.
2. Received a grant to convene organizations that use a trauma-informed-care approach in order to collaborate and develop best practices.
3. Other partnerships include Community Shield with Center for Women and Families and Convene, Connect, and Celebrate coalition that targets social support for women and families.
4. Collaborating with Jefferson County Public Schools to improve suicide prevention training to students and improving access to centers for counseling. Jefferson County Public Schools also has begun incorporating mindfulness training for students through the Compassionate Schools program.
4. Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness senior staff participate and/or are committee chairs on the Health Advisory Council organized by Humana. Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness collaborates through this organization to contribute to Humana's Bold Moves Initiative which uses healthy days as a benchmark. This organization includes a committee focused on improving behavioral health in Louisville Metro.
5. Collaborate with the Office of Safe and Healthy Neighborhoods Taskforce on Suicide.
6. Dual Diagnosis Cross functional Team: Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness is a part of the Dual Diagnosis Cross Functional Team, which addresses the system impact of dual diagnosis individuals (mental health and substance abuse disorders) who frequently cycle through the system, and the need to develop community-wide pathways and protocols (including a complex case management network and specialized public safety protocols for early diversion prior to arrest).
14. Improve Louisville's ranking with respect to the average number of days that physical health was not good over the prior 30 days to be among the top half by 2020.
Measuring the number of unhealthy days is an indicator of quality of life. Analysis conducted by Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness indicates that some groups of citizens are more likely to have a high number of physically unhealthy days, such as older adults and those with certain chronic diseases and health risk factors like obesity and smoking. Thus, work being done to address obesity and smoking initiatives contributes significantly to this goal as well.
1. Conducted analysis and presented to the Louisville Health Advisory Board describing unique attributes of the population of Louisvillians who report 30 unhealthy days in the prior month, in order to inform policy and program targets.
2. Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness senior staff participates and/or are committee chairs on the Health Advisory Council organized by Humana. Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness collaborates through this organization to contribute to Humana's Bold Moves Initiative which uses healthy days as a benchmark.
3. Grant agreement with Colon Cancer Prevention Project (C2P2) providing a central navigator who receives referrals from the community. Client receives a screening (either FIT or colonoscopy).
4. Administers the Kentucky Women's Cancer Screening. Cervical cancer screening, clinical breast exams, and HPV screening performed at Family Health Centers. Abnormal results referred on to Norton or James Graham Brown Cancer Center (for abnormal results) for diagnosis and treatment.
5. Participates in Partnership for Cancer Control, along with local hospitals, Family Health Centers and Federally Qualified Health Centers, focusing on colon cancer and women's cancer.
6. Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness conducted the Community Health Needs Assessment in conjunction with all area hospitals. Results will be published in early 2016.
7. Engaged in a pilot project to assess the effectiveness of implementing blood pressure home monitoring training, equipment and education, in helping Family Health Center patients with hypertension.
8. Starting asthma work in collaboration with clinical partners, University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences, Air Louisville, and others, we anticipate improving healthy days for people with asthma.
9. Provide community health worker/diabetes educator to make in-office and in-home visits to Family Health Center patients diagnosed with diabetes to ensure patient understands how to take medication and modify lifestyle to manage their disease


text:
Ever since the start of the World Cup, I've been waiting for a showdown between Spain and Portugal. But my two-and-a-half weeks of impatience doesn't even compare to how long the Portuguese have waited for this: It is a chance at revenge 516 years in the making.
It was this month in 1494 that Portugal and Spain decided to update their global colonial claims with the Treaty of Tordesillas, which in principle divided the world between the two Iberian nations. I know, heady stuff, but it's not like it wasn't somewhat justified at the time. Columbus had just reached the New World under Spain's flag, and Prince Henry the Navigator–arguably one of European history's most famous princes*–had established a strong exploratory culture in Portugal earlier in the century. Amerigo Vespucci, like Columbus an Italian, sailed for the Portuguese and was the first to discover that this South America continent was pretty big, at least from north to south.
* Off-the-top-of-my-head-and-surely-missing-some-pretty-important-people list of the most famous princes in European history:
4. Prince Henry the Navigator
3. Prince Hal
2. Machiavelli's hypothetical prince
1. Prince Hamlet**
**The list for the U.S.:
3. Prince Fielder
2. The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
1. Prince
The problem is that Portugal, in working out the Treaty of Tordesillas with Spain, did not realize how big South America was from east to west. The treaty, a reworking of a papal bull issued by Alexander VI,* was actually a positive move westward for the Portuguese, who gained a wider swath of Brazil with the Line of Demarcation moved west. Of course, the line didn't move that far west; it essentially gave Portugal half of what would become Brazil and Spain the rest of South America. In the ensuing years, Spain was able to move into and conquer the wealthy civilizations of people such as the Aztecs to expand and fund its empire. This isn't to say Portugal didn't have its own empire (they did get to colonize western Africa per the treaty), but their colonies did not house the wealth that Spain eventually encountered in the Americas. It can be argued that Portugal overextended itself as it was anyway, and that a more central line of demarcation in the Americas would have done it little good; it never could have defended all that land. But come on, look at where that line is! John Jay could negotiate a better treaty than that!**
*When was the last time we had a good old papal bull?
**This joke really depends on your stance on the Jay Treaty. Suffice to say, my high school history teacher was con: "Jay had to be drunk, bribed, or blackmailed to sign this thing."
So now, this afternoon, the Portuguese can finally get their revenge against the Spanish on the pitch. In the process, they can reverse one of history's repeated flaws, and win the war after losing the treaty.


text:
Sync is co-founded by building designer David Tennant and interior designer Carly Tennant. With this integration of disciplines, the directors bring a broad-minded and holistic approach to their projects. Sync's design capabilities incorporate building design, interior design, colour consulting and sustainable design across a broad range of building typologies.
The studio's philosophy of being intimately involved in each and every aspect of the design process achieves a refined, well-crafted, personalised outcome for clients. Sync works collaboratively with a strong team of consultants who deliver projects of wide-ranging types, scales and complexities.


text:
There is always something happening at Tropical REIA! Our biggest event each month is Tropical REIA's General Meeting, held on the second Wednesday of every month.
Join us on Wednesday, March 14,2018 starting at 5:30 PM for our Main Monthly Meeting. We will be talking about Real Estate Investing and what you really need to succeed!
Ever asked yourself these questions?
We know a lot about Real Estate Investing and we share our knowledge - for FREE - on the second Wednesday of the month. Join us and a room full of Investors to find out how you can create success in 2018.
Make the change you've resolved to in 2018 and join us at the Courtyard by Marriott in Boynton Beach (1601 N. Congress Ave) on March 14, 2018. Doors open at 5:30 PM.
Let us know you are coming: RSVP Here!
We'll see you there!
Wednesday, March 14, 2018
Doors open at 5:30 PM
Meeting begins at 6:30 PM
Featured Speaker starts at 7:05 PM
Courtyard by Marriott
1601 N. Congress Ave.
Boynton Beach, FL


text:
STARmeterSEE RANK
Up 386,233 this week
Michael Huang (I)
Michael Huang is a Los Angeles based sound editor and re-recording mixer working in TV and Film industry. He's been providing audio production services since the early 2000 and has been credited in more than 300 TV and Film projects. He is an alumni of Video Symphony TV & Film school in Burbank California where he was taught by working Hollywood ... See full bio »
Born:in Guangzhou, China


text:
OK, so I am back with LTE NAS next episode. After EMM and ECM, we discussed some basic concepts about ESM. So now, we can have a look on ESM procedures.
ESM procedures also have two categories. However these categories are quite different from EMM procedures category. In case of EMM, the specific procedures are optionally made up of common procedure. So first, an EMM specific procedure starts. Then it optionally invokes one more EMM common procedure(s). Then EMM common procedure(s) get completed and finally the EMM specific procedure also get completed. ESM case is different. ESM also has two categories. (1) "Procedures related to EPS Bearer Context". These are ESM procedures used for EPS bearer. So this category makes sense. (2) "Procedures related to transaction". Generally the former one is invoked by network and later one by UE. What if, UE want to manipulate EPS bearer context. No. UE cannot do it directly. UE can invoke specific "Procedure relate to transaction". In the response to that network invokes "Procedure related to EPS Bearer Context". When network invoke corresponding "Procedure related to EPS Bearer Context", then at UE end, the "Procedure relate to transaction" is declared/assumed as completed. These both categories of procedures are in sequence. So indirectly UE can also invoke EPS procedure !!!
Ok whenever network starts any "Procedure related to EPS Bearer Context" in the response to UE initiated "Procedure related to transaction", it uses PTI in first message. Its value is same as UE have used in its earlier "Procedure related to transaction". So that UE can co-relate about incoming ESM message to its ongoing transaction procedure. Till that time, PTI is used to co-relate the procedures for a particular (default or dedicated) bearer. Later on EBI is allocated to that bearer (default or dedicated), by network. So both start using EBI to mention about that bearer. UE and network both use LBI in "Procedure related to dedicated EPS Bearer Context" to point to default bearer for that particular PDN.
This table provides a relationship among UE initiated "Procedures related to transaction" and network initiated "Procedures related to EPS Bearer Context"
|Procedures related to EPS Bearer Cxt -->
|Default EPS bearer context activation
|Dedicated EPS bearer context activation
|EPS bearer context modification
|EPS bearer context deactivation
|Procedures related to Transaction
|PDN connectivity
|PDN disconnect
|Bearer resource allocation
|Bearer resource modification
|ESM information request
|ESM status message
Yes almost all transaction related procedures are invoked by UE with two exceptions. (1) ESM Status message can be sent by anyone UE or network. (2) "ESM information request" is always sent from network to UE. UE responds with "ESM information response".
Almost all "Procedures related to EPS Bearer Context" can also be invoked by network, in response to UE initiated transaction related procedure, with two exceptions. (1) EPS bearer context modification (2) EPS bearer context deactivation. For such cases, obviously network skips PTI IE in messages and EBI IE becomes mandatory.
So now, we have enough building blocks about EMM, ECM and ESM. So next article will be some real scenarios. We will see, bundled EMM+ESM procedures. Yes, in practice, EMM and ESM messages goes as a single message. It's implemented first time in LTE. It has its own challenges. We will see that in next post.
2 comments:
- Hiral Shah said...
Nice article...and waiting for the next article for more practicle scenario.
one thing..just mentioning..while reading yr post, I was not clear about EPS bearer context...I asked google and found sort and sweet info about EPS bearer context is:
EPS is effectively a connection-oriented transmission network and, as such, it requires the establishment of a "virtual" connection between two endpoints (e.g. a UE and a PDN-GW) before any traffic can be sent between them. In EPS terminology, this virtual connection is called an "EPS Bearer";
indeed nice series..
- February 3, 2010 at 10:09 PM
- Manish Panchmatia said...
Hi all
Please have a look to this complete white paper about "LTE NAS Procedure" http://layers7.blogspot.in/2012/09/lte-nas.html
-Manish V. Panchmatia
- September 18, 2012 at 12:31 AM


text:
Our last morning in Peru :-(. We went for breakfast and again spent an hour talking to Angelo and getting a virtual tour of downtown Lima and its history. He gave us all kind of interesting details about all the places we were going to go visit. We then took a cab to Plaza de Armas in downtown Lima. The Plaza is a beautiful square with the Government Palace, the Cathedral, and other great buildings. When we arrived, the changing of the guard at the Government Palace was going on so we watched it for a while. It was really hot that day. After the changing of the guard, we went for a walk around the square and the area. We made our way towards Santo Domingo church but could not see much because it was during mass. Santo Domingo is home to the remains of Saint Rose of Lima, Saint Martin de Porres, who was the first black saint in the Americas, and San Jaun Masias. Since we couldn't really visit it, we decided to go for lunch. We had some chicken Peruvian style, it was really good. After that, we made our way to the San Francisco church where we had a guided tour. The tour was very interesting and gave us a lot of great information. Built in 1674, the yellow church is considered the best example of the "Lima Baroque" style of architecture. The carved portal would later influence those on other churches, including the Iglesia de la Merced. The central nave is known for its beautiful ceilings painted in a style called mudejar (a blend of Moorish and Spanish designs).
Monthly Archives: April 2008
Lima (April 3, 2008)
That morning, we woke up around 9:00 am and walked to our B&B for breakfast. Even though we were staying at a hotel two blocks away, we still had breakfast at our original B&B. After breakfast, we talked to Angelo the owner, who gave us some very useful information on the city and historical facts. We then headed out to walk around around Mirafores which is the neighborhood that we were staying in. We were headed towards the ruins of Huaca Pucllna and went through the Petit Thouars market on the way there where we spotted places to come back to for shopping. The Huaca Pucllana ruins are ruins of a 5th to 8th century AD ceremonial and administrative centre of pre-inca Lima culture. The pyramid of small adobe bricks is 23m high. We took a tour of the ruins which was very interesting. Our tour was given in french. On the tour was another couple. The girl was from France and the guy from Lima. We started talking with them during the tour and found them very nice. At the ruins, they also have a small zoo with Alpacas, lamas, guinea pigs, and the Peruvian hairless dog also called "hot dogs". They are called this because their body radiates heat. Due to the dogs higher body temperature, the owners of these dogs used to use them to warm their beds before going to sleep. The visit to the ruins was very interesting. Once again, we saw a culture that was able to build structures that have survived numerous major earthquakes while buildings that are built today can't. The only bad thing with the tour is that we were exposed in the sun and we ended up pretty sun burnt. It was a bit frustrating because we had been so careful up to now.
Puerto Maldonado to Lima (April 2, 2008)
That morning at breakfast, we told Freddy that some money and our swiss army knives had been stolen. He seemed quite mortified and went to talk to the rest of the staff. We got out stuff ready and went down the rugged path one last time. Before we got in the truck, Freddy explained to us that a young man who had an accident with a brain injury, was working at the lodge for a few days as part of his rehabilitation and had been stealing. When we got back the office in town, Tatiana was very apologetic. She said they had searched the young man and found the money and the knives and gave them back to us. The priest running the shelter also came to offer him apology. After we left the office, we went to the market to do a bit of shopping, went for ice cream and them made out way to the airport.
Puerto Maldonado (April 1, 2008)
This morning, we were woken up in the early hours of the morning by the torrential rain. Just the sound of the rain was impressive, try to add thunder and lightning while you are in a little straw hut and you have the full effect. It was kind of cool. As a result of the rain, the description of the day will be pretty quick. It rained most of the day and we just chilled… We read, slept a lot, of course went for breakfast and lunch. Roger and I watched the Motorcycle Diaries in bed that morning on our Itouch – what a great movie. After lunch, the four of us played dice with Freddy.
In the afternoon, the rain stopped and Roger went on a jungle walk with Freddy. He didn't see many animals as it had just stopped raining but was impressed with how dense the forest was. When he came back, Kevin and Roger went down to the pool while Melissa and Marjorie sat on our longchair on the deck chatting and appreciating the magnificent view of the jungle. That afternoon, Melissa realized she was missing money in her wallet. So we all decided to look and see if anyone else what missing anything. Kevin realized he was missing his swiss army knife and after a while Roger realized he was missing his too. It really sucked! We were the only guests there and we were in the middle of the jungle so it tends to limit the number of potential suspects… We decided to wait until breakfast the next morning to talk to Freddy about it and just enjoy our last night there.
That afternoon, we had a few drinks on the deck overlooking the jungle. We then went to the bar to have some Pisco Sours. The Pisco Sours were great. We ate another great supper and then played cards for a while (well until we had lights as we had electricity only from 5pm to 10pm.)
All around, despite that we didn't get a chance to visit much of the jungle because of the rain, we enjoyed the day as it was the first day since the start of the trip where we really just hung out and relaxed.
Puerto Maldonado (March 31, 2008)
We had to get up at 4:00 that morning (I know, yet again another early rise). But as they say, the early bird gets the worms. Speaking of birds, this is why we had to get up early that morning. Ever heard of Macaws clay licks? Well, neither had we. Macaws and Parrots in the Amazon rain forest come in flocks to the clay river banks to lick the clay early every morning. The clay appears to detoxify the nasty poisons in their diets of seeds of rain forest trees and vines. It is pretty cool, except you have to make your way there for 6 in the morning.
So we jump back into the pick up truck at 4:30 am and back onto the very rugged path to get out of our lodge territory. We then drove along the road up to someone's house on the river bank and got into a boat. After some driving on the river, we stopped along the clay cliffs and waited for the Macaws to come and lick. I have to admit that we were all a bit sleepy… So we waited for a bit and they slowly arrived. It was pretty neat. Freddy was telling us that some days a few hundreds come and it is very impressive, and other days they don't seem to show up at that particular spot. So we had an average day, saw a bunch of them but not hundreds.
We then drove down the river and zoomed by the town of Puerto Maldonado where a girl was waiting for us with warm lunches for the afternoon. We then stopped in the middle of the river to have breakfast on the boat: coffee, tea, great lemon cake, buns, butter, jam…it was great. We then made our way to the Tambopata Reserve and the entrance to Sandoval Lake. There is a 5km trail to get to the lake. Because it was the end of the raining season, they got us some rubber boots. I think before we saw the path we thought it would not really be needed. Well, did we ever need them! A good part of the path was pure and deep mud. I can tell you that in the humid heat of the jungle, dredging through mud for 5km is quite the workout.
Despite the difficulty, it was a pretty cool walk. The trees and the vegetation was impressive. We finally made it to the banks of the lake and it was really beautiful. We got into a canoe and started going around the lake. The lake has a few giant otters (up to six feet long) but unfortunately we did not see any. We did see some beautiful birds as we paddled along the banks of the lake. At one point we got off the boat to walk up to a lookout where we had a nice view of the lake. After rowing a bit more, we stopped again and Freddy told us we were going to have lunch. We were walking down the path when Freddy told us we were having lunch right there. We looked around and there was this huge amazing tree with roots zooming around everywhere. It was really cool. So we climbed up some root and set up camp. Our lunch was chicken and rice cooked in a banana leaf. It was really delicious. Quite a cool experience! After lunch we went back to the canoe and continued our way around the lake. After a while, we saw a caiman, a type of South American alligator, just peering out of the water. Freddy spotted him which was impressive as the caiman only had his eyes out of the water. Freddy then says let's paddle towards him. Kevin and Roger seemed pretty into it, meanwhile I was wondering whether it was a good idea… Turns out, he seemed more scared than us and just swam away. We however get pretty close to him. The forest around the lake was really cool as the trees on the edge seemed to be growing right out of the water. We saw more birds and turtles. We slowly paddle our way back to the path. We were so excited to be back to the mud… Again, the walk was challenging but cool. We saw some leaf cutter ants crossing the path with their load. We also come upon some lizards. At one point we saw an anteater which was really cool. He was up in the tree, using his snout to eat ants and mites. Even though we felt sorry for ourselves having to walk through the mud, guys pulling carts full of bottle and food kept going past us to bring them to a lodge by the lake. It seems like the most difficult job ever! These guys were just dripping sweat.
We finally made it back to the shore and we were quite happy to see our boat. We jumped in exhausted from the walk and the heat. I think we were all very much looking forward to getting back to the lodge to relax and maybe wash the layer of sweat and mud off ourselves. Of course, just as we were about to head back, the boat motor doesn't start. And we were way down river from where we picked the boat up. So we waited in the hot sun hoping that the driver and Freddy managed to fix it. After about 40 min. they got it working and off were were. We made our back up river then took the ride back to the lodge. We then had a well deserved rest in the long chairs on the deck of the lodge. After supper we played some games. While we were playing, Marjorie went to the bungalow to go to the washroom and came face to face with a huge spider on the door of the bathroom. It was quite the traumatic experience. She had to open the door to get out but it took her a while to gather the courage to move towards the door (of course, the other option was staying in the bathroom with the spider…). So she opened the door as the spider jumped towards her. She jumped out, closed the door and bolted to the dining room to get Roger. Roger came back to the room to dispose of the spider. He was making fun of Marj for being so freaked out until he actually saw the things and it took him 5 minutes to actually kill it!
After a long day, we headed to bed around 11:00 pm.
Cusco to Puerto Maldonado (March 30, 2008)
Today we flew to Puerto Maldonado which is a city in the Amazon jungle. We grabbed a cab for the airport and then hung out there till our flight. The guys had a beer since it was the afternoon somewhere else in the world… (even though it was 10:30 am there) The flight was pretty cool as we were flying over the amazonian rain forest. We could see the river meandering.
From Cusco, we had reserved a three nights/four day package at a jungle lodge called Estancia Bello Horizonte (www.estanciabellohorizonte.com). We had a guide assigned to us for the full four days. Our guide Freddy, his assistant and the driver came to pick us up at the airport in a pick up truck. We were wondering where everyone was going to sit until the two guides jumped in the back of the truck. We made our way through town to their "office" and checked in with Tatiana. The lodge is run by a priest from Switzerland who has been in Peru for a long time. He runs a shelter for children and single mothers. They now have three businesses to support the shelter and which also give jobs to the young adults: the lodge, an ice cream parlor and a library. After we checked in, we went for ice cream. It was very good and neat to see all the different flavors made from local fruits.
To get to the lodge we had to cross the river Madre de Dios, drive for an hour on a dirt road and then drive 5 km through the jungle. Each step was an adventure. First we took the "ferry" across the Madre de Dios. Road. It is hard to describe – it is best to look at the pictures for that one… The boat was essentially a small wooden platform. We all got off the pick up truck, they put two planks on the side of the river and the truck backed up onto the two planks and right onto the boat. It was pretty impressive. Once we crossed the river, we started the hour drive out towards the lodge. On this leg, we were thinking that the road was really lousy. This was of course until we pulled off the road to head towards the lodge which was 5 km off the main road into the jungle. Now that road was lousy. Because it was the end of the raining season, there were huge craters on the road. Inside the truck, we were bouncing all over the place. It took a good half hour for 5 km! On the plus side, it was lush and beautiful and we saw a whole bunch of the beautiful big blue butterflies called Morpho. We eventually got to the lodge which was very pretty. There were bungalows that overlooked the jungle below. Each bungalow had a bedroom and a bathroom.The view was great as you are on top of a hill and you can see pretty far. There was a dinning room hut as well as a bar area. When we got there, we found out that would be the only guests for our 4 days there. It was just us and the staff. Sweet, our on jungle lodge all to ourselves. Once we relaxed a bit on the hammocks, we went for lunch which was very nice. They served us some chicken along with some fresh fruit juice from jungle fruits.
After lunch we decided to go to the pool which was a ten minute walk through the jungle. Freddy our guide brought us there. The pool is great. Because we are in the middle of the jungle, the pool didn't have any electricity. It was a fresh water pool supplied from a natural source. The sun kept the water temperature nice and comfortable. As it was hot, we really enjoyed the swim. There was even a little slide to slide down on into the pool.
After the swim, we headed back to the huts. By this time, it was getting close to sunset. As we mentioned in another post, the sun sets every night around 6:00 pm. The guys had a beer and the girls had a Pisco Sour and we all sat on the patio in front of Kevin and Melissa's bungalow to stare out into the jungle. It was really something to see. While the sun was up, you could hear all kinds of birds in the jungle. The second the sun set, all the birds went quiet and the crickets all came to life. It was like someone turned a switch.
After relaxing for a good hour and a half, we went to the dinning hut for supper. Once again, it was great. After eating, we went back to our bungalows and chatted for a while. It was once again not a late night as we were getting up at 4:15 am the next morning to head out into the jungle. Early to bed, early to rise…
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Machu Picchu (March 29, 2008)
Another early morning as we woke up at 5:00 am (I know, getting up early again but how many times in your life are you going to be at Machu Picchu??). We had a quick breakfast and went to the bus station to grab the first bus at 5:30 am. Of course we were not the only ones, there was a pretty big line up already. Thankfully, they lined up buses and we got on the third or fourth one. As you may be able to see on the pictures, the road to Machu Picchu is very windy. And it was pretty early in the morning… I think a few of us were feeling a bit queasy. We arrived at Machu Picchu at around 6. We took a small path and went above some of the terraces to a promontory called the Watchman's Hut. From here, you have a great view of the Inca city with the mountain Wayna Picchu in the background. It was really cool and we spent about three hours just taking it in and taking pictures. We also had a little friend with us visiting from Paris, Minivenz, with whom we took pictures of along the way. You can check out his website at www.minivenz.fr which have pictures of his visit in Canada and and his trip to Peru. While we were taking pictures of him with Machu Picchu in the background, two Japanese ladies were killing each other laughing and then shyly asked if they could also take a picture of him. It was really funny. We spent quite a bit of time just sitting on the terraces and taking it in. Every once in a while Roger would go off and listen to tour guides to get some extra information. Of course that wasn't the best idea – who sends the guy with the not such a great memory… The joke was that Roger would come back saying: "I don't know, something about Incas and stones". Anyway, between reading the book and listening in on the guides, here is some information on Machu Picchu.
Machu Picchu is an Inca site built around 1450 situated on a mountain ridge. It was abandoned during the Spanish conquest. For centuries, Machu Picchu was buried in the jungle, until Hiram Bingham, an American Historian from Yale, rediscovered it in July 1911. He had heard rumors about a lost city and found some locals who brought him there. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the new seven wonders of the world.
Kevin was saying he really wanted to climb up Wayna Picchu, the mountain on the other side. They only allow 400 people a day to climb up. It look high, steep and scary. Melissa and Marjorie were like "Have fun you guys". I think the guys thought the girls were sissys but they did not care. So Kevin and Roger started their ascension while Melissa and Marjorie went to explore the ruins, armed with the book and their ears (as in listening to other tours). They managed to understand a good part of the back ruins but ended up completely lost in the front part of the ruins. So after about an hours of exploring on their own, which was a lot of fun, they decided to go back to the entrance and get their own guide! Enough with the free loading :-). As soon as they started the tour it started downpouring. But the show must go one so out came the rain jackets and umbrellas. The girls were pretty worried about the guys on the steep path under the rain but thankfully were able to do quick therapy on each other (that's the advantage of being two psychologists traveling together :-)) and enjoyed the tour. The tour was a bit short because they had to meet the guys at 11:00. It still was pretty informative. The tough part was trying to remember everything to tell the guys after.
Meanwhile, on Wayna Picchu, Roger and Kevin started the accent to the top. The sign at the entrance at start of the climb said that it would take between 45 to 60 minutes to climb. Ha, there was no way that it was going to take them that long so off they went. While the climb was pretty tough, after climbing at 4000 m at Lake Titicaca, this was certainly much easier. It was a hot and tough climb but they made it to the top in 32 minutes. Not bad for a couple of old guys… And wow, was it ever worth it. The view from up there was stunning. From up there, you were surrounded by some amazing mountains and you could look down on Machu Picchu. Many pictures were taken and they also relaxed for a bit after working so hard to get up there. Once the rain started, they decided that they had better head down. What was most challenging both on the way up and on the way down was the steps. These steps were built 500 years ago and as one American put it "The sure aren't up to code…" Despite the rain and some slippery rocks, they made it down safe and sound. They were even early for our rendezvous.
Once we met the guys, we brought them on our tour of the ruins, except we kept on getting lost trying to find places such as the Condor Temple and the Royal Palace. The front ruins can really be confusing… We also didn't remember everything she told us so we had to make things up along the way. I don't think they noticed because we can be pretty creative (or maybe they did notice because they did not give us a very good tip…). We then brought them to the back ruins where we had a lot more info and at least knew where we were going (between our tour and all the other ones we listened to). I am pretty sure they were impressed then. After we were done exploring the ruins, we went back up on the terracing to hang out with the lamas and take it in. The scenery is so beautiful it was really hard to actually leave. We left at around 3:00. It was crazy to think that we almost spend 9 hours there, it sure did not feel that long.
We took the bus back to town and we were pretty starved and exhausted. We went to find a restaurant but actually sat down at two restaurants and then left because they did not have the deals they had told us they had for beer. You have to understand that after a long day like that, beer is certainly important! We finally picked one and it was quite good – a few beers later and some Peruvian specialties, everybody was feeling more energized. We then headed back to the train station to take the Vistadome back to Ollantaytambo. The comfort was not quite the same as on the way back. We had less space and Kevin was pretty squished. But at least we got some entertainment. First, we got some folkloric dancing with a funny looking guy wearing a mask, and then we got a full blown fashion show – yes a fashion show in the train! The woman and man serving us the food modeled a whole bunch of alpaca wool sweaters for us. It was absolutely hilarious, cat walk, blue steel look, the whole deal. We were killing ourselves laughing.
We arrived in Ollantaytambo some time after 6:00 but we still had an hour and half cab ride to get back to Cusco. It occurred to us as we were in the cab that driving at night trough the mountains on not the best roads was not the smartest move. It was pretty scary and stressful. We had no seat belts in the back so we hooked arms and held on tight! Kevin was in the front which was probably more scary as we only had one headlight… Once we got to Cusco, we went back to our hotel and relaxed and went to bed as we had a pretty exhausting day.
Ollantaytambo and Aguas Calientes (March 28, 2008)
That morning, we spent some time blogging while Kevin was finishing up at his conference. In the late morning we grabbed a cab to go to Ollantaytambo, which is a town about 60km Northwest of Cusco. It was from Ollantaytambo that we were catching our train to Aguas Calientes (the city just outside of Machu Picchu). The cab ride was an hour and half ride. While Kevin was talking to the driver, we realized that we payed too much for the cuy in the touristic restaurant (which we knew already, but what can you do?). The cab ride was another interesting one (which one isn't in this country?) On the way there, we pulled into this little town and the cab driver turned off the highway and started on a small road. I think we were all wondering what was going on and whether we were going to ended naked on the side of the road (best case scenario). Our cab driver took a short cut through the mountains. Although it got a bit scary at times, looking down the cliff, the scenery was absolutely breath taking. Roger was in awe and trying to take pictures along the way. The cab driver was very nice and stopped a couple times for pictures. He even pretended to take off and leave Roger there after Kevin asked him to. It was pretty funny. Oh, I almost forgot, as we came around a bend in the road we had to stopped as there was a guy on the road and a whole bunch of tree trunks in the middle of the road. I guess a guy was cutting trees above us and throwing them down. It took a few minutes of the guy franticly making signs to his friend to stop with his arms and then he had to remove all the trees one by one. For a few seconds there we were wondering if we were going to backtrack on that small windy road.
We ended up getting to Ollantaytambo in good time, even with the photo op and the tree trunks. The first thing we did was to go get our train tickets that we had reserved by internet before we had left. Ollantaytambo is an attractive little town at the foot of some spectacular Inca ruins and terraces. We had a bit over 2 hours and a tough decision to make as we were all starving: eat or visit the ruins. We found a compromise and had a quick sandwich and spent a bit over an hour in the ruins. It was SO hot that day. We had a lot of fun just walking around the ruins and taking pictures. It is the place where the Inca emperor Manco Inca was able to defeat the Spanish in a battle. The finely cut rocks and plantation terraces were very large obstacles for the conquistadors to surpass, and the fortress was also used by Manco to conduct successful attacks on Francisco Pizarro.
We then went to catch our train. We took the Vistadome to Aguas Calientes which is the city where you sleep at the bottom of Machu Picchu. The vistadome is a very nice train with panoramic windows in the ceiling so that you can see as much of the beautiful scenery as much as possible. It was very nice and we even got a meal. When we arrived, we went to look for a hotel right away. Thanks to Melissa's, who had done a good job looking at their travel book in the train, we found a hotel right away. Second stop was to buy our entrance tickets to Machu Picchu for the next morning as we where planning on getting there very early. We also went to the bus station to get the bus tickets for the next morning. All this being done, we felt we deserved a drink so we found a terrace with a 4 for 1 deal for drinks. While having our drinks, we checked our travel books to see where we would be eating that evening. We saw that there was a French Peruvian restaurant that was highly recommended, so we decided to check it out. It was Called Indio Feliz and is run by a French guy and his Peruvian wife. It was a very good 3-course meal. We also had some nice wine, a must with a French-style meal. After the great meal we headed back to the hotel to catch some shuteye as we were getting up at 5:00 the next morning (funny but it seems we are getting up early pretty often on this holiday!).
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Cusco (March 27, 2008)
Today was another day that Marjorie, Roger, Melissa checked out the sites as Kevin was at his conference. After a busy day yesterday where we visited many sites inside Cusco, today was our day to venture outside of the city. The first stop was Pisac. Pisac is about 1 hour outside of Cusco and we had two different ways to get there – via a local bus or a taxi. Well, being the adventurous ones that we are, we decided to go with the more interesting option and take the same bus that the locals do. We weren't exactly sure where the bus was leaving from but eventually found the so called "bus depot" behind some metal, shady looking fence. After paying the 80 cents bus fair, we were off. The bus was filled with a mixture of locals and "gringos". The bus ride was a good old fashion white knuckle ride. The majority of the trip there was on a small road with huge cliffs. The bus driver was driving way too fast and of course, there were no guard rails to protect us. One little slip up by the driver and we would have been over a 500 foot cliff. Oh well, nothing like a bit of adventure. That why one travel right?
We made it safely into town we set out to visit the Inca ruins that Pisac is famous for. Our options were a 2-hour hike up the hill or a 10 minute ride up. In an effort to visit as much as possible, we took the taxi option. Honest, it wasn't because we didn't want to climb for 2 hours. This was our first real visit of Inca ruins and wow, was it ever beautiful and impressive to see. The ruins overlooked a beautiful valley and the scenery was amazing. Just as we started a visit, a guide approached us to offer his services. He seemed knowledgeable and the price was decent ($5.00) so we decided to go for it. It ended up being a great idea as he gave us all kinds of great explanations.
Pisac's Inca ruins were divided into 5 main areas – military, agriculture, religious, storage facilities, and an Imperial Palace. The main Sun Temple is in amazing shape and showed the impressive Inca masonry . Vast agriculture terraces are still there and looked liked they had been recently built despite the fact that they've been there for 500 years. While visiting, you can see holes in the hillside that were used as tombs. None of us were really experts on Inca construction and were amazed to see how well built the buildings were. It was also equally impressive to see how they built water channels to transport water for baths as well as agriculture irrigation. The channels all still work.
After visiting the ruins, we took a taxi back down into town. Pisac other main attraction is the local market. It is one of the most famous markets in South America. Hundreds of stalls were set up with the locals selling a wide variety of textiles, carvings, jewelry, pots, ceramics as well as other items. The market runs 3 days a week (Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays). The busiest day is Sunday when many people from the neighbouring towns come in to go to church and visit the market. We visited on a Thursday. Because it wasn't the high season for tourist, the market was pretty quiet.
We went for lunch at a local restaurant where the owner cooked the empanadas that we ate outside in a stone oven. Needless to say, they were great and really hit the spot after walking around for 3 hours in the heat.
After doing some shopping (where Melissa bought a t-shirt for Kevin and Marjorie bought a beautiful silver necklace and pendant), we set off to figure out how we were going to get back to Cusco. Our initial plan was to take the same local bus back. However, when we arrived at the place where the bus was leaving from, we realized that there was a long lineup of school kids waiting for the bus.
After being approached numerous times by a taxi cab driver, his persistence finally paid off and Melissa entered into the negotiations (in Spanish) to figure out how much it would cost us to get back to Cusco. After a tough bargaining session, the price was set at 5 soles for each of us (about $2.25). Now all that was left to do was to find a 4th person as he didn't want to make the hour and a half trip without a 4th person. He put us in the backseat of the taxi and started walking around the area trying to find another passenger. At one point of time, he brought over two other female tourists who promptly figured out that 5 people in a space for 4 people wouldn't work (nice try buddy…). After about 10 minutes he finally found a 4th passenger – in comes in a grandma. We thought ok, we off. But a few seconds later, the hatchback opens up and in comes in 2 more people who sat in the trunk area with 2 bags of potatoes. Our little entrepreneur taxi driver was able to get 6 people in his taxi – not too shabby. We found it pretty funny. It felt like we were in a movie.
We asked him to drop us off on the outskirt of Cusco so that we could visit Sacsayhuaman (or as it is known to the tourists as Sexy Woman as it sounds almost exactly like the proper pronunciation). Sacsayhuaman is considered by some of as one of the best monuments that mankind has ever built. It sits on top of a hill and offers a magnificent view of Cusco. While many stones have been taken from the site over the years (some used to build houses in neighbouring Cusco), it still has impressive walls and ramparts. The main rampart that faces the open square has 25 angles and 60 different walls. It is thought that the form of the rampart with all its different walls and angles was to represent the teeth of the Puma. What is most impressive about the walls is some contains boulders that weigh up to 145 tons! These, like all the other stones found on the site, were taken from a quarry that was found 3 km away. Can you imagine transporting a 145 ton boulder for 3 km?!!? Each stone fits perfectly together and still stand despite the fact that no cement or mortar was used. Some reports say that it took between 20,000 and 30,000 people 60 years to build Sacsayhuaman. While we could on and describe more about Sacsayhuaman, a great writeup can be found here:
After visiting this impressive site, we took a taxi into town. We met up Kevin. He had spent the day visiting potato farmers as well as a potato park where the Peruvian government was producing seed potatoes for many of the different varieties found in Peru.
That evening we went for a local Peruvian delicacy – Cuy (or as it is called in English "Guinea Pig"). Some people believe that eating Cuy can prevent and even cure cancer. With credentials like that, we were certainly not going to give up the opportunity to eat it. We went to a restaurant that is supposed to be known for its Cuy. We ordered it prepared two different ways – fried and roasted. When they came out, the head was still on and for presentation, they put a pepper in its mouth as well as a tomato as a hat. After a few pictures, off our Cuy went to be cut up for us. Kevin, Marjorie and Roger all had some Cuy (Melissa doesn't eat red meat) and we were all pleasantly surprised that it tasted really quite good. If you think about it, here in North America and in Europe, people eat rabbit. How much different is a Guinea Pig?
After supper, we headed back to our hotel. Every evening, as we walk back, we are asked many times by people if we wanted to buy different products like touques, scarves, finger puppets, and sweaters. On this fine evening, we were approached by a young finger puppet vendor (about 10 years old). While most times we say a polite "No Gracias", this little salesman was very persistent. He started chatting with Kevin and discovered that we were from Canada. Kevin decided to start asking him what he knew about Canada. And let me tell you, he knew as much about Canada as a lot of Canadian do. He was able to answer all kinds of questions, and in particular the different Prime Ministers we had in the past. When he mentioned that he knew that Kim Campbell had been the first female Prime Minister between Brian Mulroney and Jean Chretien, we were amazed to say the least. How could a 10 year old kid selling finger puppets in Cusco know a fact that many Canadians wouldn't even know? He claimed that he learned it in school but we suspect that it was something he learned from other tourists. Regardless, it was a very impressive display of knowledge/memory. We quizzed him on a few other countries and he knew many facts about them as well. Needless to say, we bought a number of finger puppets from the little guy.
After being amazed by the young salesman, we headed back to the hotel to get a bit of shut eye.
Cusco (March 26, 2008)
While Kevin was busy presenting at the conference, Melissa, Roger and Marjorie spend the day discovering the many wonderful sites in the city of Cusco. Cusco is the ancient Inca capital and it has lots a great sites in the city and all around it. We started our day at Qoricancha (also spelt Koricancha) or the Temple of the Sun. Inside the walls of the Catholic church are the remains of what was once the centre of the Inca Capital. It was filled with such fabulous treasures of gold and silver it took the Spanish conquistadors three months to melt it all down. It contained life size gold sculptures of men, women, children, animals and flowers. On the walls were more than 700 gold sheets weighing about 2 kg each! When the Spaniards arrived, the complex was awarded to Juan Pizarro, the brother of Fransisco Pizarro who was the conqueror of the Inca empire and the founder of Lima. Juan Pizarro in turn willed it to the Dominicans who ripped much of it down to build their church.
We visited the cloister and church and the remains of the temple. It also had a great garden in the back. After the visit, we went for lunch at a very nice spot called El Encuentro. Once again the menu was so cheap for so much food!
Afterwards, we went to the Plaza de Armas. We went to visit the cathedral which was very impressive. Beautiful altars, paintings and silver pieces. There are two important paintings: one is the oldest surviving painting in Cusco depicting the 1650 earthquake. The other one is a local painting of the Last Supper. The food on the table is local, with local fruits, local roasted rodent, and Chicha, the local drink. In the church, there is also a Christ that looks black. It is El Senor de Los Temblores, The Lord of the Earthquakes, who is being paraded through the main square the first day of the Holy Week every year. He is black because of the flames of the candles through the procession (so we were told). The choir was also amazingly sculpted with 80 saints and virgins.
Next we went to the church La Compania de Jesus which is on the other side of the street. Another beautiful church with an altar made of gold leafs. We actually took a guided tour and it was very interesting. She pointed out to us how the indigenous artists added their own intricacies based on their own beliefs in the many sculptures and paintings. We went up to the top and had a great view of the Plaza.
Since we weren't yet churched out, we went next to the church of La Merced and visited the monastery and the museum. It had a beautiful cloister and nice paintings. The most amazing thing though was a gold montrance that is 1.3 m high and 22 kg incrusted with hundreds of diamonds and pearls. It was amazing, we were in total awe. It is crowned by an immense siren-shaped pearl, which is considered the second largest in the world . The guide had to get us out the room, we just could not stop looking at it.
We then had to go buy a tourist ticket to go visit ruins the next day. Since it was where we had to buy our tickets we did a quick tour of the Museum of Contemporary Arts which was really cool. All is all it was a busy day of seeing so many beautiful things, our head was spinning.
We met up with Kevin and went with him to an event from the conference. It was an exposition of photos on potatoes. It was great with beautiful pictures (plus the free cocktails :-)). Kevin's thesis supervisor and wife highly recommended a restaurant called Map Cafe. We decided to go try it and were not disappointed!!! It is found in the Museo de Arte Precolombino. It is actually in the courtyard of the museum. The restaurant is housed in a glass and metal square box which in itself was very cool. The food and the service was just as amazing and unique as the setup. While it was certainly expensive for Peru it was still much cheaper that what an equivalent restaurant would be in Canada. It was a great way to celebrate Kevin finishing the "work" part of the trip.
After supper, we walked home and got another great night's sleep. Kevin was presenting at the conference the next day and we were all tired from a very busy day.


text:
ECOBAT's two Italian smelting operations, Eco-Bat SpA in Paderno Dugnano and Marcianise, are among the most efficient in the group, recycling around 96% of lead acid batteries.
Based in Campania and Lombardy regions, the two sites employ 144 staff and recycle some 100,000 tonnes of waste lead acid batteries.
The Paderno smelter has been in existence since 1938, Marcianise since 1970, and over the years they have undergone a programme of continuous improvement to ensure maximum operating efficiency with minimum environmental impact. The ECOBAT standard is much more stringent than the law requires. The annual lead output of the two sites is some 70,000 tonnes.
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Eco-Bat S.p.A.
Direzione Generale
Uffici Commerciali
Strada Statale dei Giovi, 5
20037 Paderno Dugnano (MI), Italy
Phone +39 02 91003-1
Fax +39 02 91003-225