Delay in uploading this blog made worse by D&V all day. Many sluggish apologies. It has taken 11 months to walk from the Colombian border to where Cho and I are now – on the Nhamunda River – the channel that splits the Brazilian states of Amazonas and Para. 11 months to cross one vast [...]

This short message is dictated by satellite phone. Ed and Cho are well and have arrived at the Nhamunda river, which marks the border between the Amazonas and Para states in Brazil.  They have no battery power to put a blog up today.  Hopefully a blog will follow on Sasturday.

I’ve long known for a long time that I can’t leave my mind to wander freely on this expedition. If I do, as I did earlier this week, I focus on each labored step, each cut, each sting and each minute of each grueling hour drags on and on. A day becomes an emotional mountain, [...]

Apologies to those who couldn’t read last week’s blog. If you have any dramas again open it in Firefox rather than Internet Explorer. No change on the Leishmaniasis ulcer (which is now what I think it is). I’m not worried about it and am resigned to living with it for a few months. Nothing serious [...]

Warmest decade on record According to NASA data, 2009 turned out to be the second warmest year on record.  Year-to-year variability is inevitable, so averaging the temperatures over a longer period of time is important.  Their data also shows that January 2000 to December 2009 was the warmest decade on record.  In fact, the last [...]

My current worry is a small one – quite literally: a small ulcer-like sore on my left bicep that won’t go away. I think it was a wasp sting on New Year’s Day that started it and left a small open lesion that has been wet (weepy) for nine weeks now. The “crater” is the [...]