Burrito chowfest! Tom, Tommy and Kelsy enjoying lunch at the US office

Last Thursday, October 11th, we got a surprise visit in the New York office from our colleague Tommy Zhang, the Desk Officer in Shanghai, China. Tommy was taking a little vacation, visiting the sites in the city and staying with a friend across the Hudson River in Hoboken, New Jersey. He stopped by the office and we had an “authentic” New York lunch of burritos. Apparently the days of reubens and delicatessens are gone!

We really enjoyed his visit and loved hearing all his stories about Shanghai. Tommy, please come visit us again soon and I hope you had a great vacation!

Tom, Tommy and Kelsy

Brombus, the first place almost all of our Peru Conservation volunteers saw when they first arrive.
The friendly family atmosphere, the nice service we all got, the amazing food and of course all the help the Rosemberg family have given us over the years will be missed greatly.

Yes ladies and Gentleman, Brombus is no more. Over the years Brombus has slowly gotten smaller and smaller, firstly with the closure of the restaurant, then the closure of the actual hotel (It was only kept open for exclusive use of the volunteers). And now finally the whole place has been sold to a local business man.

Fernando had tried many things over the years to increase business, building a swimming pool, dropping prices and even trying to link the hotel with other tour operators. But unfortunately due to the night club la Chorza (which is just down the road and making a real noise as I write this!) has caused Fernando to move on. We don’t know what Brombus will now become. But we will miss the times we have all had in Brombus. We are of course now looking for a new hotel where volunteers can spend their weekends where new memories be created and fun can be had.

-Richard Munday

I visited Lord Malloch Brown in London today. He is Minister of State at the UK Ministry of Foreign Affairs with responsibility for Africa and Asia. He likes the idea of Projects Abroad internships in medicine, law and business. He is specially interested in making this work in India. UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown will be visiting India in January 2008 and Lord Malloch Brown thinks that encouraging and possibly sponsoring internships in both directions would be an interesting idea to promote on that visit. I agreed to prepare a paper on this, which can be passed on to 10 Downing Street in the next few weeks.

Lord Malloch Brown is a very interesting character. He was Number Two to Kofi Annan at the UN and has now had to make a transition from being an international civil servant to being a British politician. It has not always been easy for him and he has been trapped once or twice by our vulpine journalists – but he reckons he’s getting the hang of it.

The bulk of the visit was about the Labour Finance and Industry Group, the organisation for Labour Party members in business – I’m Vice-President. The broad aim of this Group is to contribute a practical business perspective from Party loyalists to policy development. We have recently established an India Study Group to work with Labour ministers on relations with the sub-continent. Labour Government relations with India generally are politically and economically important.

By the way, this was my first visit to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A nice lady took me past the staircase which gets in all the press photos and showed me the room occupied by the top civil servant, the Permanent Under-Secretary. I’ve just been reading the Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan written by the man who held that post during the Second World War. Now I’ve been in his room. Exciting (for me anyway)!

Peter Slowe

On Friday, I was fortunate enough to visit the ancient site of Incallajta, 132 km east of Cochabamba, with Ana Silvia, the Desk Officer in our Bolivia office. It takes three hours to get there through the beautiful scenery of the highlands and it was a perfect trip for a art history buff like myself.

A view from the car ride to Incallajta

The ruins are set in a remote valley and rarely visited. On the day Ana Silvia and I visited, we were the only ones there! It was certainly a nice change of pace from the busy commotion of Cochabamba.

A set of ruins at the entrance to the site

More pictures and information about Incallajta after the jump

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More ruins

Incallajta was most likely built in the 1460s by the Inca Emperor Tupac Yupanqui and it formed the easternmost outpost of the Incan empire. Although it looks nothing like Cuzco, Peru at the moment, several researchers believe that is was also designed as a sort of ceremonial replica to Cuzco, the Inca capital.

The first thing I noticed was that the site is enormous as it covers over 12 hectares! The main building is the kallanka, which served as a meeting hall. Although all that survives today are its exterior walls, the roof was supported by immense columns.

Here I am in front of the walls of the kallanka and I am not a small person!

More views of the kallanka, isn’t it big?

Ana Silvia and I also did a little hiking and discovered a beautiful water fall on the east end of the site

The waterfall

Ana Silvia in front of the waterfall!

Stairway to heaven, haha!

Incallajta is truly an amazing site and I would recommend checking out the impressive ruins if you are ever in the Cochabamba area. The remoteness and scenery of the surrounding countryside are worth the trip and you get to see a part of Bolivia you would miss out on if you only stayed in bustling Cochabamaba.