Useful vacations

It is summer in the southern hemisphere and the children are out of school.  We are running our annual 'vacaciones utiles' program which is a mixture of fun activities as well as some academic work including English classes.

Yesterday Lourdes and five volunteers took over fifty children on a lake excursion which included lunch and swimming.

Lourdes leading children from Sauce to the dock where two excursion boats await.  They are singing a song which begins, 'vamons en paseo en un bote feo'  (let's go on an outing in an ugly boat).

Our house with 'mirador' is on the right.


Lourdes and four volunteers are offering this summer program to 120 children in three different locations.

Kind of a grey morning following some much-needed rain during the night, but the sun came out later.

New roof

It has been very hot and dry here lately but we expect the rainy season to be here soon.  Accordingly we have just had our roof at Estrella de Sauce replaced and at the same time added a large skylight.

Sailboat update

Back to the repair dock again after finding some problems in the mast.  Here is the mast being lowered to the deck.

Estrella del Lago sails again

Our unique 10 meter jungle sailing catamaran is back sailing on Lago Sauce a.k.a Laguna Azul after extensive repairs that had the vessel out of the water for about a year and a half.

Here is our volunteer Victoria helping me raise the mainsail for a run down the lake with the family of another volunteer, Luka, who have been visiting Peru from Germany.

 Luka's father Thomas has sailed various boats before and is here working with Victoria who is also a sailor to get the bamboo boom into position as the mainsail is hauled aloft.

                                        








                                           The mainsail going up.    

                                                     Thomas steers the boat.

 Luka's sister Anna hangs out under sail. What could be more relaxing?

Luka working the jib sheets as we cruise downwind. Just in case you're wondering, the blue, yellow and green flag on the left is the town of Sauce banner, while on the right the peruvian national flag flies over the British red ensign which is the civilian cruising flag of the UK. And in case you are wondering some more, those deck boards are made from 1x5 inch balsa wood which grows in abundance in these parts and is just about strong enough to support a human adult while being the lightest wood to use for a catamaran platform. The light-coloured board is one I just recently replaced as eventually this wood deteriorates in the tropical sun and rain.  Thor Heyerdahl had the same problem on his Kon Tiki raft which was made from the same material as my deck boards.

Lourdes and I both work pretty hard so it feels really good when we finally get to relax out on the water and I love it when someone else steers the boat.

 Back at the dock right before the tropical sunset..

A belated happy new year to all of our friends and family!

Due to acute inability to operate computers I have been unable to access this blogsite for a while.  Fortunately Luka, who is very cyber-savvy, came to my rescue this morning and I'm now back to blogging.  Please watch this space for news and updates from our headquarters in the small community of Sauce, located beside a beautiful lake in the northern peruvian jungle not too far from the city of Tarapoto.

Hello Yorick!!

Congratulations Lief and Betsy!

 
I was fortunate to get to know Betsy when I visited Asheville, North Carolina back in July and August.

Having seen how well my son Lief and Betsy were getting along exemplified by cooperative cooking efforts including the pie above which was entered into the annual all-Asheville pie party

and smootching in the kitchen.  It was therefore no great surprise to hear that they decided to get married on December 30 2015.
Congratulations to you both and here's wishing you a lifetime of happiness.
Milo is the King Charles Spaniel and is very cute (as are Lief and Betsy).