Project Peru 2007 – 2011
Three times over the course of six years, I had the privilege to journey to the Amazon Forest of Peru with a groups of Vermont students and teachers of Woodstock Union High School to build a school and two clinics.
Below are videos of each of those trips.
Project Peru 2007 – My first trip to Peru with the students and teachers of Woodstock Union High School to build a school in San Juan Huashalado
Project Peru 2009 – Second Trip to Peru with the students and teachers of Woodstock Union High School. We returned to San Juan Huashalado to build a clinic. We also had rode down the amazon to neighboring villages. We went to the village of Cabo Pantajoa to administer medical aid, as well as installing a well in the village of Bombonaje. We also visited the floating village in Belen of Iquito where nearly everyone lives in immense poverty in overcrowding and substandard living conditions .
Project Peru 2011 – On my last trip to the Amazon, the students and teachers of Woodstock Union High School built a clinic in honer of one of their former students who had passed away and had visited the village in 2004. There was some drama to overcome on this project after a disagreement with the village council nearly caused us to return home without starting the construction. On this trip we also traveled to the neighboring village of San Pedro where we administered medical aid to a large turnout of villagers
Cupcakes Anyone
It’s exactly what it looks like. It was the first of its kind in NYC after debuting in Beverly Hill, CA. It has been around since 2014 on the Upper East Side. It can hold 760 cupcakes at a time in 20 different varieties and dispense them 24 hours a day.
Do know the five oldest bakeries still in Manhattan? In Little Italy there is Ferrara Bakery & Cafe. It was founded in 1892. Veniero’s Paticceria and Cafe was opened in 1894 in the East Village. Glaser’s Bake Shop started in 1902 in Yorkville. A year later, Parisi Bakery opened in Little Italy to give the older famous canolli place some competition, and over in Carroll Garden Caputo Bake Shop churned out desserts starting in 1904.
Manhattan – Points of Interests
Lower Manhattan
- Little Italy
- Chinatown – Mott Street
- SOHO
- The Oculus at the World Trade Center
- World Trade Center Observation Deck
- WTC memorial pools
- WTC memorial museum
- Exchange Place, Jersey City – From WTC, take PATH train one stop for amazing view of NYC Skyline.
- Brookfield Place, formally called the World Financial Center
- Shopping and Dining
- St Paul’s Chapel...The oldest US church in continuous use. It’s celebrating 250 Years and George Washington worshiped there.. https://www.trinitywallstreet.org/about/stpaulschapel
- South Street Seaport https://southstreetseaportmuseum.org/visit/
- Vietnam Veterans Memorial https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/vietnam-veterans-plaza/
- City Hall Park (Building secured tighter than the White House since 9/11)
- Municipal Building – exterior (one of the largest government building in the world)
- NY Supreme Court Building (exterior)
- Walk over the Brooklyn Bridge or at least half way.
- Federal Hall …It housed our first congress, supreme court and presidential office and Washington inaugural address was there. https://www.nps.gov/feha/index.htm
- Take a free ride on Staten Island Ferry for the view of New York Harbor, Statue of Liberty and Lower Manhattan – It’s free so avoid the scammers selling tickets. Not much to see on Staten Island near the ferry terminal unless you’ve rented a car, but you can see “Post Cards” the Staten Island WTC memorial near the ferry or take the free ride back.
- NYSE Building – exterior. (I don’t know if they offer tours)
- Wall Street Area – Charging Bull statue and the Fearless Girl
- Trinity Church and Cemetery (Hamilton is buried there) https://www.trinitywallstreet.org/about/trinitychurch
- Battery Park – walk around to see war memorials. Castle Clinton is also there and the location to buy Liberty/Ellis Island ferry tickets.
- National Museum of the American Indian (Smithsonian) http://nmai.si.edu/visit/newyork/
- Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island (don’t buy ferry tickets from Street Vendors who will greet you at the subway). You need a separate ticket to enter the statue. Do that in advance. Their website says, “pedestal and museum or going to the crown require special tickets and even more advance planning” but doesn’t say how.
Flatiron District/Madison Square Park
- Madison Squre Park https://madisonsquarepark.org/
- Met Life Tower located at 1 Madison Avenue
- General Worth Monument. The guy that Fort Worth Texas is named after is buried there. http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-general-worth-monument
- Flatiron Building
- View north up Fifth avenue to see Empire State Building
- Eataly – Italian Resturants and shops. Operated by Lidia Bastianich, and Mario Batali. Located on 23rd Street and Fifth Avenue https://www.eataly.com/us_en/stores/nyc-flatiron
- National Museum of Mathematics – http://momath.org/. Might be of interest for retired accountants 🙂 or maybe not. From their website:
MoMath has innovative exhibits that will engage folks from 105 to 5 years old (and sometimes younger), but with a special emphasis on activities for 4th through 8th graders.
Located at 11 East 26th Street, between Fifth Avenue and Madison Avenue.
- Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace https://www.nps.gov/thrb/index.htm Located at 28 E. 20th St
- Worlds best looking Home Depot (Exterior) in the Original Strauss Department Store Building. Located at 40 West 23rd Street
- Cemeteries of Congregation Shearith Israel – The Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue. http://www.sephardicstudies.org/csi11.html
- Shearith Israel was the first Jewish Synagogue in NYC, dating back to 1682. They have three cemeteries nestled between buildings. The plots can be viewed through the fence from the sidewalk. The third cemetery is in this area and located at 21st Street between 6th and 7th Avenues and was in use between 1829-1851.
- The other two are located at:
- 76 W. 11th, between 6th and 7th Avenue, in use 1805-1829 (Ten blocks away)
- 55 St. James Place, opposite Chatham Square, in use 1682-1828 (not in the area, but Chinatown)
Washington Square Park/Greenwich Village
- Washington Square Park
- http://washingtonsquareparkconservancy.org/visit-us/
- Washington’s Arch
- Hangman’s Elm – the oldest tree in NYC at 300 years old https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/the-hangmans-elm-of-washington-square-park/
- Jefferson Market Library. Looks like a castle and built in 1877. It was once a courthouse and woman’s prison. It is now a branch of the NY Public Library and located at 425 Avenue of the Americas https://www.nypl.org/locations/jefferson-market
- Walk around the streets of Greenwich Village from the Library.
- Christopher Street
- Stonewall National Monument https://www.nps.gov/ston/index.htm
- Walk to Hudson Street for larger selection of small restaurants
- Continue down Christopher to the Hudson River and relax in park
- Bleecker Street – some restaurants in the direction of Our Lady of Pompeii Church (click to see interior).
- The narrowest building in NYC is located at Number 75 1/2 on Bedford Street. It is 9 1/2 feet wide. It was once the home of Cary Grant as did John Barrymore and Margaret Mead http://thevillager.com/villager_54/narrowhousewide.html
- Many Small resturants along Hudson Street near 10th Street
- Christopher Street
Midtown
- Top of the Rock Observation Deck at 30 Rockefeller Center https://www.topoftherocknyc.com/
- St Patrick’s Cathedral
- Central Park
- Grand Central Station
- Chrysler Building (exterior)
- The Empire State Building (ESB) observation deck, which I think is an overpriced ride to the top and prefer Top of the Rock (Pay for ESB ticket in the building and not sidewalk vendors.)
- St Thomas Episcopal Church to see its 24m high reredos. (53rd and 5th Ave)
- The Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum https://www.intrepidmuseum.org/
- The Highline http://www.thehighline.org/ – The High Line is an elevated freight rail line transformed into a public park on Manhattan’s West Side. It is owned by the City of New York, and maintained and operated by Friends of the High Line
- Access to the High Line is possible via any of the access points listed below:
- Gansevoort Street and Washington Street (elevator access)
- 14th Street (elevator access)
- 16th Street (elevator access)
- 18th Street
- 20th Street
- 23rd Street (elevator access)
- 26th Street
- 28th Street
- 29th Street (elevator access)
- 30th Street
- 34th Street (ramp access) – open 7 a.m. to sunset
- Access to the High Line is possible via any of the access points listed below:
- Roosevelt Island
- Take the Roosevelt Island Tram at 59th street and 2nd Avenue. It only accepts Full Fare Metrocard for the fare (Unlimited Weekly Metrocard will not work )
- Printable copy of complete Bus & Tram Schedule. RIOC Red Bus is free on the island to get you to the following sites:
- FDR Four Freedom’s Park http://www.fdrfourfreedomspark.org
- Open 6 days a week 9am to 7PM, closed Tuesdays
- Roosevelt Island’s Smallpox Hospital ruins
- Roosevelt Island Lighthouse
- FDR Four Freedom’s Park http://www.fdrfourfreedomspark.org
- New York Public Library Main Branch
- Time Square
Second Avenue El
With all the talk about the new Second Avenue Subway, did you know that there was actually a Second Avenue elevated train line? It operated from 1882 until 1942 and it snaked between buildings over the streets of Manhattan from Harlem to City Hall and then to its southern terminus at South Ferry, where it connected with the Third and Ninth Avenue elevated train lines to bring passengers to the ferry terminals of Battery Park.
I photographed this tattered seal of the City of New York on one of the surviving ferry buildings.
This is one of the rare examples where the laurel wreath and date of the city’s founding are missing and the eagle’s head is facing toward the Native American instead of the Dutch sailor. At the time of the Second Avenue Elevated train, this building was called the Municipal Ferry Pier, and was used by ferries traveling to 39th Street in Brooklyn and the elevated train track allowed passengers to exit on its second floor. The ferries operated out of the building from 1909 to 1938. Today the building is called the Battery Maritime Building and used to ferry passengers and vehicles to Governors Island during the summer months when the Island is open.