After delays and shifting flight schedules I arrived late last night in Toronto. Thanks Steve for staying up to let me in... The past three weeks have been inspirational enough that i spent most of the night writing. We awoke to an early morning breakfast followed by a day of hammering out the details on the new radiotarahumara site (work in progress) Tonight, more work followed by tomorrow's departure for Peterborough. I have been enjoying sifting through Gloria's great photographs and can hardly wait to see some of Alexia's.

Radiofreepeterborough enthusiasts will be delighted to hear that we are welcoming a sister station online. We will be helping to support a new station serving Tarahumara culture. It is as yet unnamed but the location has been set - the Coordinacion Estatal de la Tarahumara - in its office in downtown Chihuahua. Thanks are due to Steve McNabb (of course). I would also like to thank John Muir and John Lauder for their advice and expertise which has been so welcome over the past few weeks. Thanks also to Ian Osborn and Backlash for the gear. Today I will head to El Paso - tomorrow to Atlanta and Detroit. Mexico has been swell and the staff of Eloisa Robledo Guerrero have been sweet upon sweet.

i am in a very remote location blogging from a satellite connection. 50 feet to my left the canyon drops off to the valley 2800 feet below. i am listening to radiofreepeterborough. Steve has put radiofreenetwork.ca onliine now (thanks steve) so we can begin the process of communicatiing with our contacts here in Chihuahua. Yesterday I tried the Tarahumara corn spirit for the first time. Very lumpy and acrid but hey, it works. today we are off again to Creel for a look at the mission there. Looking forward to Tom's wedding this weekend....

yesterday i had the opportunity to record juan gardea - a tarahumara man who casually gave me three stories - in spanish and raramuri totalling one and a half hours. then there was the meeting this afternoon with my away team - the folks i will be heading into the sierra with to continue the communication exploration. the weather is fine, the people are sweet, and i think i have made a few folks eternal fans of that fine Peterborough band Hot Piss...

today i had my first series of serious meetings with the overwhelmingly friendly and hardworking staff at the office of the coordinacion estatal de la tarahumara. by the end of the day we had reached a fairly coherent strategy. we are exploring all our options in trying to send a wireless service in an inexpensive fashion over a wide and challenging terrain. much of the area in question has no road access, no telephone lines and no electricity. that will not stop us from pushing forward in our attempt to create a viable network for the tarahumara. I also received a label from a tarahumara elder - he called me RAYMAMEE - which apparently means "ready to marry"...

there is nothing quite like a rambling mass of people roaming the late night streets with the tequila flowing and some musicians and a strange troupe of young actors interupting from the alleys... it felt like peterborough last night in casas grandes. In the haze I even managed to meet antonio who took me back to his studio afterwards ... an operation not unlike backlash productions. today will visit fernando at Paquime. Fernando is starting a land based project in the sierra Tara Humara. Paquime is a set of ruins that once stood as the ancient capital of an area that extended from here into arizona and new mexico.

I'll be taking the red eye special to Juarez tonight then on to Nuevo Casas Grandes to begin recording. Albuquerque saw the cross pollination of radiofreepeterborough and three sided hole - a local community festival founded by Thomas Bluefeather. Future collaborations are inevitable. More to follow...

After months of preparation, I am headed to mexico - to the Copper Canyon where radiofreepeterborough will meet the Tarahumara - an indigenous people living in Chihuahua state.

I will get the opportunity to see if our internet radio model can inform the creation of an internet radio station in northern mexico. details to follow in the coming days...