Welcome to the world, little one, now get off your ass and get to work! (The calf is about three hours old, which is about two hours too old for him to have been taking up so much space on the grass, so thought my host.)

I spent the night before last up in the hills on a farm of a new friend of mine who is interested in possibly setting up his home and land as a tourism operation, with a food and accomodation deal, horseback riding, cow milking, cheese making, and visits to the forest for bird and wildlife viewing. He also lives nearby some archeological ruins that I didn't have time to check out (always leave the door open for a return visit, eh!?!) and some ancient terraced landscapes that were created by civilizations past. All this not to mention the incredible views from his house and yard down into the valley and of the surrounding mountains. All in all, he has a sweet set up and it was a good day and a half.

The waterfall I showed pictures of a number of weeks ago called Chorro Blanco ... this is it from a muuuuuch different angle. It's located directly across the valley from my friend's farm and you can see it if you walk about thirty feet from his house. Remember, there are two waterfalls here, and the bottom one is the short one. The one you can see in this photo is the top one and it's 300 feet high. THREE HUNDRED, and from here it's almost too small to hear. Hard to believe. The entire quantity of water comes from a spring higher up on the mountain, which incidentally climbs and climbs until it reaches its summit, which incidentally is known more commonly by another name: Chivaturco. Oh yes, you've heard that name before. Let's just say that this guy has a really really nice location....

Here's a shot of Chivaturco from a new angle. This was taken from the same general area as the cow pic and the waterfall pic, but the weather has changed a bit. If you were facing this same direction but just turned your eyes down down down, eventually you would see the waterfall far below in the valley. Freaking awesome.

Speaking of freaking awesome, how about this sunset taken from a few hundred feet up the slope behind the house there ... you can't see it in this pic, but I assure you that within this view lies my city, perched on the southern slope of one of these ridges. On a clear daylight photo I could point it out, but not here. Yep, that's where I live. Come visit and see for yourself. We'll camp out with this view outside the tent door. -MJ