i'm back in philadelphia. whew what a trip! feeling a lot better now too. check out our peru pictures.
stay tuned for future adventures.
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Wednesday, February 22, 2006
I Teach You Machu Picchu
machu picchu is indeed a very magical place. sitting atop a ridge surrounded by steepness, one can see imposing and beautiful mountains in every direction. it is the rainy season now, but we have been quite lucky and have only been soaked once. while at machu picchu the sky couldn´t make up its mind. we arrived at 6am with the sun rising and mist enveloping. soon after the sun began to clear the mist and the incredible vista there unfolded itself before our eyes and our smug buttocks planted comfortably on a rock. machu picchu, meaning "old mountain" in quechua, the native tongue of the Incas, is the most spectacular and famous of dozens of ruins in the Sacred Valley. they became ruins in the 1500´s as the Spaniards came and conquered with their guns and germs. the conquistadors destroyed the Inca towns, took their many tons of gold and silver, and often built churches on top of the old temples. machu picchu is, to my knowledge, the largest and most intact of all the different ruins. cusco, where we are now, was the Inca capital and therefore probably its largest city, but is now completely covered by a newer version of buildings and life. the bloodlines of the incas, the pride for their past, and the quechua language still appear quite strong, however.
the incas built things to last. they carved large stone blocks to form their walkways, fortress barriers, and house walls. basically for everything but rooves, which were of straw held up by wood. so now in the ruins, all the stones (which weren´t destroyed or moved by the spaniards) remain and all the rooves are gone. the incas would sometimes chip out their stones from quarries 5km or more from the desired destination, and they pulled the stones by placing rolling logs underneath, much like the Egyptians and Easter Islanders, among others. if you haven´t heard of easter island, you should check out the story of that dead civilization. so far the heaviest stone we´ve seen is 128 tons (280 thousand pounds!). that was at a ruins site called Sacsy Waman which we visited today. they pulled that stone and all the others for that site about two kilometers.
cusco is at 3,400 meters, about 11,000 feet in altitude. that´s high! it´s the elevation of the tops of the big ski mountains in colorado, for instance. you couldn´t tell by looking around, as the mountains near here are not so steep or high. its proximity to the equator (13 degrees south) counteracts the altitude such that there is only rarely snow here. higher up though, you can get all the snow you want all year. the andes climb to 21-22,000 feet in many places. here in cusco, in the distance you can see snow-covered mountains of towering cliffs.
in buenos aires i drank tap water. i just wasn´t thinking straight. but after drinking the tap water in Gaia Ecovillage the whole time there and never getting sick, i did it out of habit when i visited the capital. but still, i wasn´t thinking straight. a couple days later, just after arriving in peru, i started feeling quite ill. well it´s been a week now and i´m just starting to get over it. this bacteria is called e.coli, short for a much longer medical term i can´t remember. well we´ve all heard of e.coli right? remember the drinking water crisis in that town in Ontario a couple years ago? that was e.coli and some people died. let me tell you, e.coli is no fun. the bacteria hangs out in your stomach and intensines, multiplying and producing a toxin that attacks your intestinal lining. the tissue of the intestinal lining becomes inflamed and its ability to ingest nutrients is reduced. i guess i got a good dose of the bacteria, for i haven´t been able to eat anything for about six days now. i actually just ate for the first time this evening - a half of a bowl of cream of pumpkin soup. oh boy oh boy that soup tasted sooooo good. food is simply heaven when you´ve been away from it for a time. so i´ve been relying on tea, water, and gatorade this week. i had some mean stomach pains, especially a couple days ago, which i think is reinforcing the lesson for me. the moral of the story: for all you inexperienced, carefree souls out there, NEVER DRINK TAP WATER IF YOU´RE AT ALL DOUBTFUL OF ITS PURITY. this basically means all places in the world other than Canada, US, and some western European countries. for all its treachery and sickening ability, my ode to e.coli:
during the first part of my time in South America
my life was full of eco-truths.
during the last part
my life has been full of e.co-lies.
as my mom informed me the other day, e.coli is the number one cause of childhood death in the world. children get it by drinking dirty water (and in many places in the world there is of course no option for clean water) and then they diarrhea and vomit their insides out, until they die of dehydration.
for all the inconveniences e.coli caused us, i am very happy that i was still able to visit machu picchu and other ruins and take part in alot of our market strolling and dining experiences. for the dining, i mean drinking tea and watching the others eat, but it´s been quite comical at times. and on another bright side, during my sickness i came up with some new lyrics for songs, like:
we´re sgt. lepper´s phoney darts club stand
we hope that you enjoy your throw
we´re sgt. lepper´s phoney darts club stand
we started thirty years ago
sgt. lepper´s phoney, sgt. lepper´s phoney, sgt. lepper´s phoney darts club stand
this trip has truly been unforgettable. and quite lovely most of the time.
the incas built things to last. they carved large stone blocks to form their walkways, fortress barriers, and house walls. basically for everything but rooves, which were of straw held up by wood. so now in the ruins, all the stones (which weren´t destroyed or moved by the spaniards) remain and all the rooves are gone. the incas would sometimes chip out their stones from quarries 5km or more from the desired destination, and they pulled the stones by placing rolling logs underneath, much like the Egyptians and Easter Islanders, among others. if you haven´t heard of easter island, you should check out the story of that dead civilization. so far the heaviest stone we´ve seen is 128 tons (280 thousand pounds!). that was at a ruins site called Sacsy Waman which we visited today. they pulled that stone and all the others for that site about two kilometers.
cusco is at 3,400 meters, about 11,000 feet in altitude. that´s high! it´s the elevation of the tops of the big ski mountains in colorado, for instance. you couldn´t tell by looking around, as the mountains near here are not so steep or high. its proximity to the equator (13 degrees south) counteracts the altitude such that there is only rarely snow here. higher up though, you can get all the snow you want all year. the andes climb to 21-22,000 feet in many places. here in cusco, in the distance you can see snow-covered mountains of towering cliffs.
in buenos aires i drank tap water. i just wasn´t thinking straight. but after drinking the tap water in Gaia Ecovillage the whole time there and never getting sick, i did it out of habit when i visited the capital. but still, i wasn´t thinking straight. a couple days later, just after arriving in peru, i started feeling quite ill. well it´s been a week now and i´m just starting to get over it. this bacteria is called e.coli, short for a much longer medical term i can´t remember. well we´ve all heard of e.coli right? remember the drinking water crisis in that town in Ontario a couple years ago? that was e.coli and some people died. let me tell you, e.coli is no fun. the bacteria hangs out in your stomach and intensines, multiplying and producing a toxin that attacks your intestinal lining. the tissue of the intestinal lining becomes inflamed and its ability to ingest nutrients is reduced. i guess i got a good dose of the bacteria, for i haven´t been able to eat anything for about six days now. i actually just ate for the first time this evening - a half of a bowl of cream of pumpkin soup. oh boy oh boy that soup tasted sooooo good. food is simply heaven when you´ve been away from it for a time. so i´ve been relying on tea, water, and gatorade this week. i had some mean stomach pains, especially a couple days ago, which i think is reinforcing the lesson for me. the moral of the story: for all you inexperienced, carefree souls out there, NEVER DRINK TAP WATER IF YOU´RE AT ALL DOUBTFUL OF ITS PURITY. this basically means all places in the world other than Canada, US, and some western European countries. for all its treachery and sickening ability, my ode to e.coli:
during the first part of my time in South America
my life was full of eco-truths.
during the last part
my life has been full of e.co-lies.
as my mom informed me the other day, e.coli is the number one cause of childhood death in the world. children get it by drinking dirty water (and in many places in the world there is of course no option for clean water) and then they diarrhea and vomit their insides out, until they die of dehydration.
for all the inconveniences e.coli caused us, i am very happy that i was still able to visit machu picchu and other ruins and take part in alot of our market strolling and dining experiences. for the dining, i mean drinking tea and watching the others eat, but it´s been quite comical at times. and on another bright side, during my sickness i came up with some new lyrics for songs, like:
we´re sgt. lepper´s phoney darts club stand
we hope that you enjoy your throw
we´re sgt. lepper´s phoney darts club stand
we started thirty years ago
sgt. lepper´s phoney, sgt. lepper´s phoney, sgt. lepper´s phoney darts club stand
this trip has truly been unforgettable. and quite lovely most of the time.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
bye-a gaia
i left gaia on tuesday with very positive feelings of my experience and a mixed desire to stay longer. one part of me was glad to be going, back to a place where i can easily express myself in my mother tongue, and another part of me want to stay longer in this little community of very kind people, improving a little each day at expressing myself in spanish. anyhoo, my experience there now feels like a dream, except that from that dream i carry this new ability to speak a bit of another language. i have been in buenos aires the past two days. it is a complete turnaround! from small community to huge city; vegetarian food to meat based; speaking spanish with argentians to speaking english with travellers from all over the world; grass to concrete; cows in my surroundings to people in my surroundings; the list goes on and on.
doctor friends of my dad, named Alejandra and Jorge, kindly picked me up at the bus terminal on tuesday, showed me around some neighborhoods, and took me out to eat that evening. i am grateful to their hospitality, it was exactly what i need coming into a big unknown city alone. well that evening, after not having eaten meet (and almost no animal products period) for five weeks, i chowed down an egg salad, some sausage, and a big honkin´ steak. (enter applause from brother, and carnivore, josh). thus i experienced the more common form of argentine cuisine. in these days of gratefulness, i am also grateful to my stomach for gracefully receiving this carnivorous onslaught.
music has been my sanity equilibriumizer during my time at gaia. when my mind was all tired from listening to and speaking castellano, i would pick up the guitar and strum some bob dylan tunes. when i needed to relax a little during siesta or before bed, i would put on my headphones and doze to chopin nocturns. gaia also had an assortment of little drums and percussion instruments, and i had some great rhythm jams with jorge and edgardo after suppers. and every day in the kitchen monica, ariel and i sang all sorts of 70s songs she used to sing in her teen days. crosby, stills, nash; america; eagles. ahhh music, sweet, music.
have you ever smelled rotten cabbage? ooo, boy oh boy. people always say i´m crazy to smell unpleasant odors by choice. but you know though, i think i understand where dogs are coming from. sweet or unpleasant, wild or fresh or rotting, it is a rich experience, the world of olfaction.
off to peru! to meet up with sister jocelyn, mom, and max killorn, a family friend.
doctor friends of my dad, named Alejandra and Jorge, kindly picked me up at the bus terminal on tuesday, showed me around some neighborhoods, and took me out to eat that evening. i am grateful to their hospitality, it was exactly what i need coming into a big unknown city alone. well that evening, after not having eaten meet (and almost no animal products period) for five weeks, i chowed down an egg salad, some sausage, and a big honkin´ steak. (enter applause from brother, and carnivore, josh). thus i experienced the more common form of argentine cuisine. in these days of gratefulness, i am also grateful to my stomach for gracefully receiving this carnivorous onslaught.
music has been my sanity equilibriumizer during my time at gaia. when my mind was all tired from listening to and speaking castellano, i would pick up the guitar and strum some bob dylan tunes. when i needed to relax a little during siesta or before bed, i would put on my headphones and doze to chopin nocturns. gaia also had an assortment of little drums and percussion instruments, and i had some great rhythm jams with jorge and edgardo after suppers. and every day in the kitchen monica, ariel and i sang all sorts of 70s songs she used to sing in her teen days. crosby, stills, nash; america; eagles. ahhh music, sweet, music.
have you ever smelled rotten cabbage? ooo, boy oh boy. people always say i´m crazy to smell unpleasant odors by choice. but you know though, i think i understand where dogs are coming from. sweet or unpleasant, wild or fresh or rotting, it is a rich experience, the world of olfaction.
off to peru! to meet up with sister jocelyn, mom, and max killorn, a family friend.
Tuesday, February 07, 2006
realizations and globalization
thanks for the comments again, very funny as usual. i DID respond to this lastest batch with a comment of my own.
I didn´t even tell you yet how they call me here. jeremias, pronounced her-eh-me-ass. sometimes jeremy, pronounced cher-eh-me because they can´t pronounce "j" like english speakers. it´s nice to be called jeremias for a change, somehow it seems like a farmboy name to me.
After travelling in western Europe last fall, I figured that cars are uniquely small there compared to other places in the world. but nope, the cars are small here too. and they drive quite fast. are cars generally large only in the US and Canada?
i just finished reading The Poisonwood Bible, a story of a 60´s American family that moves to the congo on an evangelical mission. it is an incredibly-written, believable account of the family´s surprises and challenges in a little congo town and the aftermath of their project of conversion-gone-awry. highy recommended. one of the best books i´ve ever read, i simply couldn´t stop reading it in every free moment i had.
now that i´ve learned much more about how Gaia functions, let me tell you a little about its features. the houses´walls are built of COB, a simple material made of mud, straw, and sand, that hardens quite nicely when dry. the rooves are made of thatched straw (a foot or a foot and a half thick), and the installation process is apparently not easy. Gaia has some friends in neighboring Uruguay who are experienced in this art and come to install the roof of each new house. they will be coming next month to do up the third such roof. the garden here has dozens of plant species, including corn, zuccini, many types of lettuces, beets, quinoa (a very nutritious grain), tomatoes, pumpkin, squash, peaches, lemons, and conquots (not sure on the spelling, a strong tasting purple fruit). they buy most of their grains and some of their fruits and vegetables, although the garden is growing.
what does gaia do with its garbage, you ask? a very interesting story indeed. all food waste and soiled paper is composted on site. paper, cardboard, and wood is burned. metals are reused or thrown in with the plastics. now the plastics. . .are put in the walls of the houses. that´s right, in the walls. as the houses are being built i believe. they´ve come to the conclusion that it´s the most effective, least toxic way of dealing with the plastics. there is no recycling of plastics (or anything) nearby in the towns, by the way. so into the walls they go. in this way Gaia has neither started a dump, nor does it throw garbage on the road to be picked up and forgotten about. there´s a certain comfort i experience when i think of my floss and candy wrappers in the walls of Monica and George´s new house.
i hate mosquitos. their slow, stealthy ways at night; their light landing on the skin so as not to be felt until the bite; and of course the god-awful buzzing sound they always seem to bring right in my ear. their only purpose is to suck our blood in a very annoying fashion. i mean blood sucking is always going to be at least annoying, and perhaps worse, but still. two weeks ago, during the heat that followed a week of rain, they came out in full force. here there are two types of mosquitos: the kind regular to my past experiences, and then a larger, more painful-less annoying type. this second kind is about twice the size of the other, and when i smack them i can really feel the squish of a bug! one more reason to dislike them. i am just so happy there is no malaria here. that is really the final, ultimate key to their evil. my ode to mosquitos: you are tiny flying creatures weighing but a fraction of a gram, and yet you have managed to accomplish a feat few things on earth have been able to. you have earned my hate. (applause). fortunately their numbers have quickly died down during the last week.
on friday the annual two week permaculture course started here. twenty-nine people from nine countries gathered in this little community of a dozen people. permaculture is short for "permanent culture" and is basically the ideals of sustainability applied to a community of any size. it is about working with your local environment (rather than against it, or trying to conquer it) to maximize both its health and yours, using resources wisely and efficiently, with the overall purpose of living within the carrying capacity of your land. in applied terms, this means that the forest around Gaia isn´t slowly diminishing and being cut away, but that it´s growing as fast as firewood is being consumed. the garden´s soil quality is maintained or improving. all the COB used for making a house creates a big hole in the ground, which is then turned into a pond. those are some examples. i don´t yet know that much about permaculture, so feel free to tell me more or do your own research. anyway, back to the course. the total number of people here has swelled to 45, so i´ve been helping a lot in the kitchen. it´s been very enjoyable. i love eating good food, and i love preparing it to make sure it´s healthy and delicious. lots of new recipes here. . .a lot of you would probably find the food a bit bland here, with all the grains and no meat, but of course you can always add your own condiments and toppings. cooking for 45 is no easy feat; it´s three of us working hard for most of the day in there. now i can only imagine what cooking for 150 is like, which is the case at camp glenburn where i work in the summer, for example. anyway, last thursday i was in the kitchen preparing supper. it was the day before the start of the course and a couple participants had arrived. rodolfo, a middle-aged man from the Dominican Republic, wandered into the kitchen asking me if he could help. i said sure, why not, and he cut up some greens for the salad. and then i thought to myself: it feels like a normal, peaceful evening, but this is just an incredible situation. a twenty three year old from US/Canada, in broken spanish telling a man twice his age from the Dominican to cut some vegetables for a salad, in a little community in the middle of nowhere in Argentina.
I didn´t even tell you yet how they call me here. jeremias, pronounced her-eh-me-ass. sometimes jeremy, pronounced cher-eh-me because they can´t pronounce "j" like english speakers. it´s nice to be called jeremias for a change, somehow it seems like a farmboy name to me.
After travelling in western Europe last fall, I figured that cars are uniquely small there compared to other places in the world. but nope, the cars are small here too. and they drive quite fast. are cars generally large only in the US and Canada?
i just finished reading The Poisonwood Bible, a story of a 60´s American family that moves to the congo on an evangelical mission. it is an incredibly-written, believable account of the family´s surprises and challenges in a little congo town and the aftermath of their project of conversion-gone-awry. highy recommended. one of the best books i´ve ever read, i simply couldn´t stop reading it in every free moment i had.
now that i´ve learned much more about how Gaia functions, let me tell you a little about its features. the houses´walls are built of COB, a simple material made of mud, straw, and sand, that hardens quite nicely when dry. the rooves are made of thatched straw (a foot or a foot and a half thick), and the installation process is apparently not easy. Gaia has some friends in neighboring Uruguay who are experienced in this art and come to install the roof of each new house. they will be coming next month to do up the third such roof. the garden here has dozens of plant species, including corn, zuccini, many types of lettuces, beets, quinoa (a very nutritious grain), tomatoes, pumpkin, squash, peaches, lemons, and conquots (not sure on the spelling, a strong tasting purple fruit). they buy most of their grains and some of their fruits and vegetables, although the garden is growing.
what does gaia do with its garbage, you ask? a very interesting story indeed. all food waste and soiled paper is composted on site. paper, cardboard, and wood is burned. metals are reused or thrown in with the plastics. now the plastics. . .are put in the walls of the houses. that´s right, in the walls. as the houses are being built i believe. they´ve come to the conclusion that it´s the most effective, least toxic way of dealing with the plastics. there is no recycling of plastics (or anything) nearby in the towns, by the way. so into the walls they go. in this way Gaia has neither started a dump, nor does it throw garbage on the road to be picked up and forgotten about. there´s a certain comfort i experience when i think of my floss and candy wrappers in the walls of Monica and George´s new house.
i hate mosquitos. their slow, stealthy ways at night; their light landing on the skin so as not to be felt until the bite; and of course the god-awful buzzing sound they always seem to bring right in my ear. their only purpose is to suck our blood in a very annoying fashion. i mean blood sucking is always going to be at least annoying, and perhaps worse, but still. two weeks ago, during the heat that followed a week of rain, they came out in full force. here there are two types of mosquitos: the kind regular to my past experiences, and then a larger, more painful-less annoying type. this second kind is about twice the size of the other, and when i smack them i can really feel the squish of a bug! one more reason to dislike them. i am just so happy there is no malaria here. that is really the final, ultimate key to their evil. my ode to mosquitos: you are tiny flying creatures weighing but a fraction of a gram, and yet you have managed to accomplish a feat few things on earth have been able to. you have earned my hate. (applause). fortunately their numbers have quickly died down during the last week.
on friday the annual two week permaculture course started here. twenty-nine people from nine countries gathered in this little community of a dozen people. permaculture is short for "permanent culture" and is basically the ideals of sustainability applied to a community of any size. it is about working with your local environment (rather than against it, or trying to conquer it) to maximize both its health and yours, using resources wisely and efficiently, with the overall purpose of living within the carrying capacity of your land. in applied terms, this means that the forest around Gaia isn´t slowly diminishing and being cut away, but that it´s growing as fast as firewood is being consumed. the garden´s soil quality is maintained or improving. all the COB used for making a house creates a big hole in the ground, which is then turned into a pond. those are some examples. i don´t yet know that much about permaculture, so feel free to tell me more or do your own research. anyway, back to the course. the total number of people here has swelled to 45, so i´ve been helping a lot in the kitchen. it´s been very enjoyable. i love eating good food, and i love preparing it to make sure it´s healthy and delicious. lots of new recipes here. . .a lot of you would probably find the food a bit bland here, with all the grains and no meat, but of course you can always add your own condiments and toppings. cooking for 45 is no easy feat; it´s three of us working hard for most of the day in there. now i can only imagine what cooking for 150 is like, which is the case at camp glenburn where i work in the summer, for example. anyway, last thursday i was in the kitchen preparing supper. it was the day before the start of the course and a couple participants had arrived. rodolfo, a middle-aged man from the Dominican Republic, wandered into the kitchen asking me if he could help. i said sure, why not, and he cut up some greens for the salad. and then i thought to myself: it feels like a normal, peaceful evening, but this is just an incredible situation. a twenty three year old from US/Canada, in broken spanish telling a man twice his age from the Dominican to cut some vegetables for a salad, in a little community in the middle of nowhere in Argentina.
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