Its been a while since I said anything here. That does not mean nothing has happened....if anything it means so much has happened that I have found no good moment to write about it.
I read a book "The Snow Leopard".....it was about a naturalist trek through the Himalaya in search on the blue sheep (which really turned out to be more goat than sheep)...and about a man in search of himself.
The man said a bunch of stuff about Buddhism. I hadn't thought about any of that in a long time...I remember I used to make fun of Ross in Taiwan. He was so gay about it, with his weird kung-fu shit, long blond hair and diffident, buddist -isms...all the while being about as American as apple pie. (For the record I liked Ross...but the Buddhist shit was weird).
Well, I still think Buddhism is not very life-affirming in some aspects....and it is no mistake that Buddhism has never produced a major culture, nor a major scientific advancement...but no war has ever been fought in its name either and Buddhist are generally affable, well-adjusted people.
Actually...I'm don't wish to talk about Buddhism...since I don't really care....but since I've written it, I will not erase it since it was what I was thinking at the moment.
The segway I was making, which never happened, was that of living in the moment. That is something that I miss. At home, I feel like I am always dragging the baggage of my past into a carefully planned, ever receding future.....my past begrudging moves forward kicking and screaming, the future never arrives, or at least it does in its own way in its own time. I am only ever right here.
I will write more about that later....or at least I will likely put some of it here. I've already written about it in my journal....which got very personal. It was some of the most important stuff I've ever said to myself...something I've always known instinctively but have never been able to put my finger on in that specific way that allows you to put it in words.
I am one week from coming home and two days from the beginning of the Inca Trail trek to Machu Picchu. As always, I am ill prepared and ready for anything. It strikes me at this instant that I have been wearing the same clothes for a very long time. I need to wash them and buy some sunscreen. The air here is very thin and the sun hot in the middle of the day.
Yesterday I rode motorcycles into the Sacred Valley. We were gone all day....about 9am to 7pm. I love to ride motorcycles. It reminds me of renting scooters with Peter in Mallorca after we got everything stolen. Motorcycles are much faster though.
The temperate microclimate of the Sacred Valley is very jungle-like...green, yet somehow desert at the same time. Every inch of the surrounding mountains are covered with a green mist carpet of plants and low trees.
There are many people in Peru still sustenance farming...it reminds me of Nepal....not that the two cultures were ever in contact, but that sustenance farming will look similar throughout the world.
There are only so many things you can do, only so many ways to combine unprocessed goods that come straight out of the earth. Houses must be made of baked clay bricks. Fields must be plowed with wooden hoes pulled by pack animals. Harvesting always involves many dirty campesinos bent over all day in small fields far from everything next to unpaved roads.
I will talk more about that when I get around to writing about Amantani.
Posted by kelliottdykes at April 3, 2005 01:15 PM