San Fran 7

and we'll wrap up where we started a week ago- atop telegraph hill.

San Fran 6

out of town

San Fran 5

above town.

San Fran 4

japantown.

San Fran 3

chinatown.

San Fran 2

golden gate. enrique rented a car and we drove out into marin county. he used to live in sanfran and with the few spare minutes we had, he cheerfully shared some of the must sees and some of the quirkier places.

San Fran 1

back in may i went to a conference in sanfran. the conference was in japan town and at night i went for long walks. through run down neighborhoods. through upscale shopping areas. through chinatown. up hills. down hills. past laundromats, buddha heads, strip clubs, coffee shops. here are a couple of pics from telegraph hill. alcatraz. fisherman's wharf. more to follow.

bug pickin'

one of my favorite jobs was working in the stream ecology lab at virginia tech. there i picked bugs out of rotting leaf packs. there's a lot more to the story, but for now, i'll leave it to National Geographic to explain a little. they recently wrote two articles on some of the work we are funding in peru, where researchers are using leaf packs and bug picking to measure impacts of new roads through the amazon rainforest.

i hope to join roger and the team next time i head down and do a little bug pickin' myself...

July: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/07/17/leaf-packs-help-measure-water-quality/

May: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/05/120518-leaf-packs-transoceanic-highway-amazon-water-quality/

Caterpillar fungus

You may or may not remember me writing about the Tibetan communities of Yushu digging caterpillar fungus in June each year. It's an annual harvest that accounts for the majority of the cash income of many families, and has been growing increasingly profitable over the past few years. When I was in Bhutan, I heard rumors of yak herders there paying cash for Toyota Land Cruisers, all earned from caterpillar fungus sales. It will be interesting to see if the high demand persists and local communities and governments are able to manage the harvests well enough to keep up production. Even better if they can manage the profits.

National Geographic even had a short piece on the trade: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/08/tibetan-mushroom/finkel-text

Passing time

More from Yushu, July 2004. We were taking a break from translating and subtitling video footage, playing something roughly equivalent to hacky sack.

Portraits of Tibet

Kids playing in the door yard at Vincent's home in Jaegu.

Portraits of Tibet

My good friend Vincent Van Gogh. Yes, he was trained as an artist. Late June/early July 2004.

Pentax K1000se

Bhutan: gho ii

Four years ago Bhutan came to us via the Smithsonian Folklife festival. The gho was not so well suited to 90+ degree heat and humidity. Nor was Benny so well suited to the gho. A funny twist: in Bhutan last month, one of our key contacts happened to have been an organizer of the DC event, and was one of the women helping to tie on the gho!

 

Bhutan: windows and doors | orange & grey

For Rob,who calls these "Ben's Doors"

Bhutan: windows and doors

Lingmethang. June 16th. The days were mercifully overcast; very warm and very muggy- but not the 40+ (104 F) weather of the weeks prior.

Bhutan: girls

  

Bhutan: boys

 

a little out of focus...

Bhutan: awesomest airport in the world

Jakar. Has all the necessities: short runway, fire engine, 1-room pine bark terminal with control tower.

Bhutan:gho

In Bhutan, men employed by the government and those visiting temples or partaking in formal activities must wear the traditional gho. More refined than the black robes of the Khamba, the style was introduced in the 1600s as part of a series of measures to create a strong Bhutanese identity and carries over that same utility of the nomad garb: a host of goods and chattels can be stored within its folds just above the belt, normally to include eating and drinking implements.

The robes come in a number of nice prints, usually within a range of tans to reddish browns, with black also very common. You'll notice them in most pictures of people in Bhutan, and I may even try to dig up a photo of myself in one for a future update...

The scarf is a required addition when visiting temples.