We have been here for 5 years now and Inigo is our first (& only) visitor. He has been living and working in Ecuador now for 2 years without a proper break so this is a 6 week holiday where he first travelled to the UK and Kevin helped him to sort out a visa for China, He caught up with family and friends, then both of them flew to Shanghai. We were so excited that he was able to make the trip here and we are delighted to show him aorund this mega city.

But first he needed to complete some health checks and get some dental work done. He had a wisdom tooth that was growing horizontally which needed to be removed (& better not to get that kind of surgery done in Ecuador!)

Inigo also agreed to come into school and talk to some of our kids about the animals that he works with at Yana Cocha. We have an after school Zoology club where he spoke about how they train the animals at the centre and why. Our Preschoolers had been learning about different animals so he showed some videos of the ones he cares for. Third grade had just finished a social issues unit and were just about to begin animal research so he was able to talk to them about the exotic pet trafficking trade and how they help the animals that have been rescued. Finally second grade heard that he was around and requested a couple of talks about ecosystems.

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I must say that Inigo did very well. He was a bit nervous but he soon got into his stride and the kids LOVED him. It was hard at times to stop all their questions they were so keen. One particularly cool spin off to this visit is a potential partnership between Concordia and Yana Cocha with the High Schoolers helping to design tracking devices that would help the centre know what is happening to the animals that are released into the jungle as well as providing big data as part of the higher level mathmatics course.

Inigo has also had some Taiji lessons and I was very impressed with how quickly he picked up the movements and how well he can do the meditation. Shifu calls him my ‘Taiji Baby’. I have really enjoyed having him in my classes.

With all this going on we haven’t done as much sightseeing as we had expected but we have managed a few days in Puxi seeing some of the highlights. It was quite cold when he first arrived and I took him to Yu Yuan Gardens to see the zig zag bridge (ghosts cannot turn corners so you are safe from them on these bridges!)

I took a special day off school and we visited the Shanghai Museum with Shifu and Xiaoma

Then the Jing’an Temple.

The weather has turned warmer, the beautiful blossoms are out and spring has arrived. I am so glad that he is here to see this special time.

Kevin and I have always said that we wouldn’t go up the tall towers until we needed to take someone. I wanted to do the bottle opener (Shanghai Finance Centre) but the observation deck was closed when we got there. We had no choice but to go for the Shanghai Tower, the tallest of the 3. Initially I was a little unsure but they both persuaded me and I am very glad that they did.

Once upon I time I would have been extremely scared but Taiji has really helped my balance and cured my vertigo. I was absolutely fine going up and even went close to the windows and looked down which is something that I never dreamt I would do!!

Inigo has been enjoying Chinese food. Today we went to the Spacelab (basically a burger joint) but the food is delivered by robotic tracks to your table which is pretty cool to watch!

He has had dumplings and noodles and even spicy frog when we visited Rofoam in Hangzhou for the weekend. Unfortunately it rained on that trip so we stayed indoors and watched Dune2 (in English) but had a nice walk along the river the next morning.

Today we went to the iconic Pearl Tower

He even learned a bit of mahjong

The master of Mahjong