A Happy 1999 to you all, wherever you are. Apologies in advance for any delays over the past few weeks, but I was overseas from December 16th to January 9th. This trip was fast moving as usual comprising 24 different flights over 31,000 miles or 50,000 kms. Eventually ending up in Peru and visiting 10 different USA states in the process. So, parts of the trip are already a mental blur. Thank goodness for cameras - took about 1,300 pictures, and will keep as usual the best 150 or so. First up the gruelling 20 hour flight to Chicago via L.A. Spent some time with fellow stamp magazine columnist Les Winick and his nephew Marty who both visited with me in Sydney during 1998. Great hosts, and being shown around Chicago by a "local" like Marty really makes a tremendous difference.

From Chicago a short flight to Indianapolis, Indiana, and hired a car. Always wanted to visit the Indy 500 "Brickyard" track, and got to do a circuit (in a bus!) around this famous race track which next year will host Formula #1 races as well as NASCAR and Indy 500. From Indy we drove through the backroads to Sydney, Ohio via quaint towns like Russia and Versailles. Tiny Sidney (population 18,000) is the home of the world's largest selling stamp & coin magazines, "Linn's Stamp News" and "Coin World" who weekly sell 130,000 thick magazines!

Scott Stamp Monthly and all their catalogues and albums are also produced only metres away. They share a huge indexed joint library. I am a regular Linn's columnist, and got a wonderful guided tour of the entire complex by Managing Editor Michael Schreiber, and had dinner with he and publisher Michael Laurence and their wives in nearby Troy. A very modern, efficient operation with terrific staffers. Magazines are printed and bound in house on giant Cottrell presses. Storage room alone for the giant paper rolls is the size of my house!

Weather up to dinner time that evening had been just superb. Dry, clear and warm. 10 days later Chicago had its second biggest snow dump in recorded history (21"), and O'Hare, the world's busiest airport was basically closed for three days, and the temperature reached 35º below freezing. Indy airport was closed first time in 20 years. Timing is everything! From Sidney we drove to nearby Dayton Ohio and a flight to Washington, D.C. where good client Gerry and his son met us and drove to Maryland for a lovely home cooked meal courtesy his gourmet chef wife. Gerry's stamp den was a huge basement with key pad security door, containing enough albums to fill a few decent sized auctions.

From Dulles Airport in Virginia, a day or so in ATLANTA, Georgia. Hadn't been there since before the 1996 Olympics, but it looked surprisingly unchanged. What Coca Cola does not own Ted Turner's "CNN" does! Ted even owns the huge 1996 Olympic Stadium, which is now very modestly named "Turner Field" - home of the Atlanta Braves ... one of the many sports teams he "owns". The massive mansions in heavily wooded acres of land in the suburb of Buckhead, 6 miles from city centre are QUITE something to see.

From Atlanta via Miami, to Lima PERU, and a connection to "Christmas In Cuzco", 10,860 feet up in the Andes. Previous time there got severe altitude sickness, so this time used "Diamox" , Coca Tea, and common sense, and one or all 3 worked! Visited Cuzco 15 years ago and there has been ZERO visible change, which is both good and bad. For the visitor, the traditional native dress worn by the older Indian people is a delight to see. NOT done for the tourists, they just prefer it. For women this means multi-coloured, hand-woven shawls and flounced out multi petticoats and skirts, "bowler" hats etc, all set off by their striking "Inca" facial features. Many speak "quechua" only. However the teenagers wear jeans, T Shirts and baseball caps, so visit this historic place SOON if you seek a real trip back in a time capsule. I've visited South America 5 times, and the Cuzco area truly is THE No #1 tourist "must" on that continent.

Cuzco is a very historic city - once capital of the vast Inca empire until cunningly conquered by Pizzaro and a handful of 179 Spanish Conquistadors in the 1530s. Inca stonework is still intact all over town. Even back streets have stunning 500 y.o. Inca walls. Mud brick Lima was flattened by earthquake in 1746 and only 20 buildings survived. The Inca stonework in Cuzco to this day will not allow even a credit card into the gaps. We are talking here superbly finished granite stones over 100 tons each in places, each with up to 12 angles. All superbly interlocked together WITHOUT any form of cement. Seeing truly IS believing. The stonework around Cuzco and nearby Ollantaytambo and Sacsayhuamán ("Sexy Woman"!) is one of the TRUE wonders of this world, and really justifies a visit on its own.

Took the 3 hour train ride via numerous "switch backs" down the Urabamba Valley from Cuzco to "The Lost City Of TheIncas"in Macchu Picchu, and spent Christmas Day there in the one tiny 33 room hotel permitted up in the mists named rather alarmingly "Hotel Las RUINAS". Being on that eerie sacred site for sunset and sunrise, totally devoid of the 1000s of daytime tourists is quite a memorable experience. Even took a few mile hike on Christmas morning up the famous Inca Trail to the magic "Gate Of The Sun" between two mountains and found wild Llamas blocking the path! What a sensational place. Then a few days in the Sacred Valley and the wonderful Indian Market at Pisac. Bought a superb downy soft Alpaca wool sweater for $US15. Would be $200 - $300 in Myer menswear Dept!

From Cuzco to Lima (population 9 million!) and met by client Alvaro for a day of touring around and was a special guest at his stamp club meeting. Held in a roomy downtown location they have a great library, TV set, lounges, fridge and sound system - very cosy! Leaving Lima at 11pm, 20 hours of tiring flying via 5 cities to Tucson Arizona. Next morning, four flights to/from San Diego to visit their wonderful Zoo. A model layout. Very, very heavily treed and most enclosures really leave the animals in a roomy "natural" environment. The glass walled Hippo pond is especially superb. Back to Tucson same day, and a drive to TOMBSTONE Arizona. A lovely small wild West town it really does have a Boot Hill Cemetery and an "OK Corral", stagecoaches etc. Spent NYE at "Big Nose Kate's Saloon", a ticket only deal attended mainly by locals all dressed like extras from a John Wayne movie - Stetson hats, snakeskin boots, spurs, holsters - and that was just the WOMEN! A lovely evening in a superb town. Their "Millenium" NYE will be a biggie! 100 tickets only, at $US100 a head.

Then the fascinating drive back to Tucson via literally 10,000s of the huge multi-armed Saguaro cactus lining the roadside; many being several times my height. A few more flights via Phoenix and SFO, ending up in Reno, Nevada. The airport has big bays of poker/slot machines. So does each K-Mart and Target and WalMart - I swear this is true! One day went skiing up near Squaw Valley and lasted 55 minutes. Next day we drove to historic Virginia City & Carson City, in "Bonanza" territory. You can even visit the PonderosaRanch! Drove around the beautiful Lake Tahoe. Popped into a real estate agent in the oddly named Incline Village. Lake frontages there ranged $US 2½ Million - $US 11 Million! These are on modest sized blocks. State land tax on the latter is $US330,000 pa. (A$550,000!) Back home via 15 hours of flying to the usual bulging mail SACKS, a few 100 faxes, and 130
E-mails.

Cheers...Glen Stephens

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