what´s up from peru

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well it´s been a long time since I wrote in this thing. I had a vacation with my parents, who came to visit, it was the first time I saw them in a year. They are doing well, and they´re leaving today . Right now they´re shopping while I make cds of the pics.

I don´t take my blog serious, but it´s funny because this is the only news a lot of people hear from me, so I feel I should apologize, because I keep in real bad touch. Also with e mail I´m bad at keeping in touch and with calling people. The only people who get to know what I´m up to are people along the way that I talk to. Other than that, I try to update this thing.

So, I had to rush thru columbia, (I still like to spell it like that) and make it down to lima to meet my parents.

It was a great journey, and it has taught me a lot. Meeting my parents, seeing them always teaches me a lot, because it puts new perspective on my childhood and how I grew up and our relationships , and I get more perspective on that all the time. It is crazy seeing my parents and realizing the contrasts between us. It definately wasn´t my usual week of relaxing, that´s for sure. My parents like to do a lot, so we tried to pack our days full. we all came down with some kind of sickness though, which slowed us down just a little bit. My mom lost a day in bed. I was knocked out a few nights while we were hiking machu pichu. Despite all this, we hiked machu pichu, and made it to the ruins! It was amazing, they were way more spectacular than I thought. The pictures didn´t really do them justice. We had a day walking around there, and I climbed both the mountains behind--this is suppossed to give you special powers, the incas used to say. That´s the story I made up in my mind, but it´s maybe true.

Last night I was so exhausted, I was just rambling on as I do sometimes when I get real tired. Finally I got a nice shower and got to sleep. Last nights sleep was so good. I really wasn´t a big fan of the hotel we were at, it was overpriced and the service wasn´t so good, and the food was pretty awful, so I moved down the street where it costs less than 5 bucks. I´ll be in cusco a few days relaxin, then I make my way to bolivia and paraguay, then I chill in brazil. I´m lookin forward to that, cause I´m getting tired of being a tourist and moving all around.

My parents and I also went to pisac and saw some ruins there. We did an epic hike up to them without water or food. It was so typical of my family. They love to push themselves to the limit. Our vacation left me exhausted, and I think them too. But, my life is just travelling, and they only had 10 days, so we had to see and do a lot, and we did well. The hike to machu pichu was spectacular, though some days I was barely surviving, walking along that trail. I felt so fatigued. The second night I had uncontrollable shivering when we stopped at 2pm. I went and lied in my sleeping bag after lunch. Man I felt so sick! But it was another family triumph, as usual. We all made it. As my bro says,

i waded thru shit up to my neck
and came out smelling like a rose.

I love that saying, thanks bro. That´s how it was...

it was neat seeing my parents. Last night I really scared my dad by telling him I was going to go to Africa one day. I´ve heard the most amazing things about africa from people who have been there. At first I didn´t want to go, but then, after hearing people´s stories, I have to go. My dad is worried I´ll die. I don´t think so, but I had this thought,

it´s better to die doing certain things, than live doing others.

That is to say, live your life so it´s worth living, and don´t worry so much about dying. One day we all die, but what matters is the life you live in the time between your birth and your death.

I am sure I have a different perspective on life than others, and pút a different value to it. It´s like this--I would want to live forever if I could, but only a certain life. Now suppose I had to be in school my whole life. I hated school! I wouldn´t want to live forever, but maybe travelling the world I would. I know it sounds stupid but it´s like that. I see what life can be, but it isn´t always. For me there´s always the balance--life can be the greatest thing, or can be such a burden. Read any books of wisdom and you shall know--ecclesiastes depicts well the suffering of life. But life can also be good. It´s both these at once, and depends on your circumstance and perspective.

Ben Franklin said, it´s not about living a long life, but a good life.

That´s simple but true. If your life sucked, for it to be long would only be a torture. But I believe that at some point all our lives suck. You have to make your life into the life you want it to be. I´m enjoying my life now because I´m on the path I want to be on. I don´t care about arriving anywhere, just walking the path. You´re always arriving everywhere you go, everywhere you are. One day I´ll arrive to rio di janero, and I must admit I look forward to that...but I wouldn´t skip the journey there for anything. At one point, I had the idea to fly there for carnival from panama. It was too much trouble, plus I had pneumonia, plus I would´ve missed all my adventures I´ve had in between. I´m glad I didn´t because I´m saving the best for last.
and getting there is half the fun.

I thought while hiking machu pichu, because I was so sick and just suffering,

this could be hell, but is sure isn´t heaven.

But that was too harsh, so I added--

but it could be the path to heaven.

You have to keep things positive like that. And so it was more or less. It was a challenge, and hard to enjoy because of my health. But it was amazing to see, to be there.

our tour guide to machu pichu was telling me that there are girls here in the discotechs that just go after tourist guys, because they want to find a better life or something, and it´s really easy to have relations with them. So apparently it is really dangerous here in cusco in the night, and I´m afraid to go out alone once my parents leave tonight. But I think this is one of the greatest dangers you may encounter in many latin american cities. My dad was talking about something with robbers, but that doesn´t happen so much. He was afraid they´d beat me up and take all my money. I´ve been travelling 8 months, and these are the irrational fears north americans have who just don´t know...

for those who don´t know, I´m just kidding around. I really like to joke around, it´s one of my favorite things. When we were hiking to machu pichu the last day, I had only slept a few hours. I was so loopy, I was thinking up the silliest things. Sometimes I get really goofy. I don´t know if anyone gets my humor fully, but it´s like jack handy´s deep thoughts. It´s just stuff that really out there and ridiculous.

Last night when I was babbling on, my parents got really worried, and my mom said that I can sure talk a lot of...shit. The funny thing is, she doesn´t know the half, and I actually consider myself a professional shit talker. I can just go on and on all day about nothing, and acually, that´s a strength of mine. It´s just Bull *ishin, all day long. But what can I say, that´s the main thing I learned in college, and in fact from all my education. I´m doing it now. ha ha ha...twain said, the truth is often in jest. Also the jest is often in truth. I said that.

Anyway, my philosophy is that talking shit can get you a lot of places, especially as most of the world is talking nothing but nonsense most of the time. How often does someone say something that really has meaning, something really insightful? Don´t say I didn´t warn you, but i´m going to make a career out of BSin.

But seriously though, to be perfectly honest, I do try to only say things I think worth saying and that mean something more than nothing.

and with that thought I leave you. It is funny how much you can say, yet have said so little. Or so little, and yet so much.

That´s how it is tho, and less is more, more is less. Many times, this is the truth.
Peace, gotta go meet my parents to enjoy our last day together!

Colin

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