Four years ago today.... Dispatch from the Rainforest!

We have been immersed in all things Amazonia. Needless to say,
internet time has not been much of a focus. We do spend plenty of time
coming up with blog entries and titles. We are carrying around our
netbook and drafting some ideas (Brittany has all sorts of cool new
eco-touristic green business ideas sprouting from this trip).

If there was a title for yesterday´s blog it might read something like
án ¨easy day crossing three borders´´.  We have been slowly moving
between Peru, Brazil, and Colombia. It is as if no borders exist. Of
course, we know they do, but it is fun to pretend this is what it
could be like without borders.

Portugese is coming slowly. There are very marked differences between
the latino and Brazilian cultures.

We did go out into the bush. There our guide took an axe to a rotting
tree and pulled out maggots the size of your hand (he fried them and
served them to us). We also fished for and ate Piraña. Also, it rains
a lot. Trying to dry our stuff has been another part-time focus. Food
is delicious. New fruits and vegetables are everywhere.

Stay tuned. We head down river soon. There should be lots of time to
type in our hammocks on the river boat cruises....


And this is the same story told a different way.

This time told in a letter to our 8-year old nephew...

Dear J,

Just in case we don´t get back to internet before we leave on our
River Boat I wanted to send you a note telling you how cool (actually
hot and rainy) the Rainforest and the Amazon Rainforest and Rio Negro
and 'Amazonas' River are - REALLY COOL!

We have eaten Grubs bigger than your hand.
We fished and ate tiny piraña (not much bigger than big sardines.
We saw a pet marsupial in a native village which is a family pet
It was like part rat, part rabbit, part,
kangaroo, part pig! COOL!

We hiked a lot in the rain (cold) and were really soaked. Not very much fun.

And... there are crocodiles with very long noses, pink dolphins, and manatee.

So, the amazon is cool. Really cool. Where we are now there are three
countries meeting, Peru, Colombia, and Brazil. So if you can find a
point on the globe where these three countries meet you will see where
we are.


End blog note: This is where we were four years ago today. This was written almost one year prior to the birth of our son here in Argentina. Now, three years (posthaste) the newest arrival is set to begin her journey, again, from Cordoba, Argentina. Many of you will think it is wild, "how much they travel," that may seem true from your perspective. Looking back, remembering, this was really our last big travel abroad I begin to redefine travel in different ways I have experienced it - and ways which I have heard it defined by other long-term travelers. (Travel is a search for your destination; Travel is leaving where you are; Travel is sightseeing; Travel is interchanging cultural and social being with other communities; Travel is seeing the world; Travel is the search for someplace new.)  But this story... Dispatch from the Rainforest! reminds me of the newness of real travel. Reading it - and some others I am just uncovering and rereading from this journey including one on meeting a group of Louisiana Evangelical Baptist preachers recently gluttonously wealthy from privatizing Louisiana and Texas prisons - all this reflection reminds me  of one thing: to Eat the WORMS!

Good luck and god speed to each and every one of you!