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My darling and I
he's adorable when he wants to eat his grass So I left Villa Tunari and Parque Machia about a week ago... mas o menos. My last bit of time there was, of course, beautiful. Saying goodbye wasn't too hard, but I definitely miss it and want to return at some point. There's something about simply living (specifically spending my days out in the jungle with a puma) that makes everything quite wonderful. But ah, there's was, and are, many more things to look forward to... traveling more and Macama and home, family, seeing friends, summer, SCAD. Everything. The first thing my dad said when I saw him at Macama for parents weekend was, "you're a lucky girl, aren't you?" and how true it is... I really don't know what I did to deserve this. Er, I guess I didn't do anything. It's just the universe. I was in the jungle journaling and had one of those moments... the "life is beautiful" moments. They pretty much happen every day, but that particular day I was just thinking about how lucky I was, and family and friends and my life and the beautiful jungle around me and the universe, etc... happy tears and all. In the middle of all this, I
Talia, the howler monkey
She was my favorite monkey in the park, my second love look to my side, and just burst out laughing.. I am sitting next to a puma...hahaha... a puma! ah. It was fun.
I had a wonderful last few days with Simba and all the other animals and people. A funny story... one of my last Fridays at the park happened to be the birthday of one of the Bolivian girls, Elena, and another volunteer named Elizabeth. The entire week people had been asking if my birthday was coming up and I, confused, insisted it wasn't. Friday came and the Bolivians were having a party for Elena, and some of the more long term volunteers where there as well. After dinner they turned off the lights, brought out a big cake and started singing to Elena. The tradition is to crack eggs over the head of the birthday-ee and throw flour on them. It was lots of fun, until, they turned the lights back off, re-lit the candle, and started singing feliz cumpleaños to me! The entire time I was saying, "It's not my birthday! No es mi cumpleaños!" but they dragged me up, made me blow out the candle, and Louis, the Bolivian vet, threw eggs and flour all
Birthday Girls?
as you can see, flour and egg make excellent hair gel over me.... most of the other volunteers knew it wasn't my birthday, but just cheered it all on. Eventually I got it across that it wasn't my birthday, but much too late. I was on the floor laughing, and everyone got a huge kick out of it as well. Hahaa...
And sooo... lots of good experiences and memories in Villa Tunari, but traveling again feels good. It wasn't much, but making my way here alone was such a nice experience. I loved walking around Oruro by myself. The dirty, bustling cities of Latin America might be growing on me. Ahh, all of Latin America is growing on me. Traveling has been such an amazing experience, over the past two semesters I have had this growing connection to everything around me, so close to the earth and people and... everything. I feel like I am living so deeply, mixed all together with everything, in the very roots, in the guts, of the universe.
These kinds of feelings come pretty easily, though, when you're doing something like the Salar de Uyuni tour. Noone can escape from being amazed by the beauty of the world when seeing these sights every day.
The Salar
The salt flat was probably the most amazing sight on the tour.... never-ending white and sky The tour went really smoothly, and, as you can see, it was simply beautiful. I've never seen anything like it before... definitely not like the Salar, but even just being in the vast expanse of the deserts and mountains, was so very new. Mmmmm.... all so amazing.
Sam and I are now headed back to La Paz for a few days before I fly to Buenos Aires. He's been living there for these two months, and will be able to show me around. Hopefully I'll have some time to relax and work on school work as well.
Welp, I think that's all I've got for now. I hope you all back home, and wherever you may be, are getting the most out of these amazing lives of ours...
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Lianne MacInnes
Inti Wara Yassi
I'm so glad I found this website... I'm hoping to spend a few months at Inti Wara Yassi next year so really enjoyed reading about your experiences - Simba sounds adorable!