I Had a Dream


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Published: April 7th 2009
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The year was 1985. Michael Jackson was King of Pop, Sylvester Stallone was Rambo and NASA came to stand for Need Another Seven Astronauts. Swimming four hours a day and playing with Lego left little time for anything else. The A-Team took up another hour of my precious time so what else could I possibly do? Well, this curious little boys mind was preoccupied by one thing...animals. Capturing lizards and attempts at sizzling ants with the aid of a magnifying glass aside (it doesn't work, they're too quick), I was enamoured with the documentaries on TV. The only time my parents could get me to be (relatively) quiet was when a National Geographic documentary came on.

Getting older but never really growing up (does anybody?) I came to discover the animal kingdom in person. The Pantanal, Brazil. Los Llanos, Venezuela. The images from the screen now in flesh and blood. My first macaw sighting in the wild; the first critters to find shelter underneath my skin; my first anaconda capture...it was all fascinating. But going in with a group of other tourists and a guide it just never felt 'real' enough.

The Emerald Forest (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089087/). Now that's the real deal! Forget the kidnapping and the gunfights, I mean living with the Amerindians in the middle of the jungle. That would be an experience! Unfortunately, with a job in hand and limited vacation time it looked like it would never happen for me...until I decided to make it happen.

A dream, twenty-four years and one short I quit! sentence later, I find myself in surprisingly touristy Rurrenabaque, Bolivia. Three hours upriver by boat from here, within the Madidi National Park and Natural Area of Integrated Management (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/National_parks_of_bolivia.PNG), lives a small community called Torewa (http://www.torewa.com/). My next month will be spent volunteering with them. Teaching English, helping build accommodation for future eco-tourists and clearing and marking trails through the forest. In return, I hope to learn their way of life and the skill-set needed for survival in the jungle. When my month is over, the plan was to do a solo boat trip from there down the Beni river, a tributary of the mighty Amazon in a vessel of my own construction. But I have just learned that matches, bottles and firearms are prohibited even within the Natural Area of Integrated Management where I will be stationed. I guess I'll have to leave my AK47 and hand grenades in town and make do with biodegradable soap.

I had a dream. It is time to live it. No matter how much I need to adapt it.

Be free. Stop reading this rubbish, get off the internet and live yours. Unless, of course, your dream is to read my blog. I can live with that 😉

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7th April 2009

cant stop reading it!
I am at home(so so)for the first time in the last thirty years,but dont be sorry,I shall be on the road in a month and I also love living at home,thing is cant be happy without an adventure,so I am getting the kick from yours.There are very few people who really like(love)what I consider travelling is all about and fewer who tell the tale well and you definitely do-so .......

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