For those of you who may still be paying attention to my life, it might please you to know that I am alive and well. I apologize for the time it has been since last I posted, but so it goes. I also apologize for the paltry amount of information, emotion and experience I can convey on this blog, especially in trying to cover such an extended amount of time. Now that that's out of the way here is my attempt:

I went to Valle de la Concepcion to be around wine, and get to know a family that made it. In both of those I had moderate to complete success. As in, I successfully surrounded myself with wine, and tried to get to know the family that I was living with. The Quiroga family makes a thoroughly inorganic “vino patero” or artisanal wine. They grow thoroughly inorganic grapes of a few varieties which they sell to Kohlberg which is the larges wine producer in the region. The person who makes sure that the wine and grapes are thoroughly inorganic is Simbar, the perhaps lover of the divorced head of family Doña Chela. I did not get to know him, but did learn to avoid contact with him. He is the kind of person who is so diametrically opposed to change, any alternative idea, and must be involved at every minute level, that being around him made everyone including myself on edge. In contrast, the rest of the family was warm and inviting. Still it is hard to say I got to know anybody in particular.

As my last post indicated I picked a lot of peaches. This continued. After the first week Kendra my friend from Patagonia showed up and helped me pick peaches. We spent many days relaxing, watching movies, chatting idly, and others doing hard labor for half the day and then relaxing and watching movies. It is hard to express how sleepy this town was. Even Tarija, the main city of the region, only 30 minutes away, closed all shops (including eateries) between noon and 3:00. You can imagine what happened in the rural town of Concepcion. But when work needed doing all hands joined in. This was finally evident on the last two days of our stay (Mar. 1^st). This was the wine making day. The store closed, everyone convened in the Bodega and work began. Grapes stained our hands and made all my peach and membrillo* cutting scars look like x-men scars. We stomped on so many grapes. Sadly they insisted we wear boots.

There is of course much much more. Including our almost adventure with an amateur archeologist (El Profe) who digs up bones in the countryside. But that is for another time in a personal email probably.

We made it to Sucre a week ago and met back up with Caitlin who has been working at a not-for-profit trekking company Condor Trekkers. They donate all their profits to local communities and organizations. So yesterday we got back from a three day trek through the gorgeous and bizarre geology of the Altiplano. Being back with Caitlin meant a return to thinking about Camus, the connection between ideas and language, and just a general confusion about the world and its order. All is well.

My mom and brother show up in three days! Wish them luck with the altitude.