Diary and Commentary
Page 28
I found some other gems while continuing to pour over all my photos. Some background probably is in order. (A more wordy explanation can be found here.)
My first journey out of my country was in 1980. I had just wrapped up a BA in History and was ready to see all those places had read about---temples, palaces, forums, cathedrals and their like. All was good and right and fun until I arrived in southern Spain. Northern Africa was so close that it seemed a shame not to visit. So I took a ferry to Tetouan, Morocco. Upon hitting the ground there my life changed. No, I did not see God---that would happen in 1989---but I knew that if ever again overseas that it would not be to the civilized world but to 'wild weird climes, out of space, out of time.' Morocco was more vibrant, more real, more alive than staid old Europe. From then on my journeys would take to me to places such as Egypt, Turkey and Paraguay.
A street scene in Chechouan, Morocco, 1980.
The Atlas Mountains seen from Chechouan, Morocco, 1980
I journeyed from Istanbul down the Turkish coast to see the ruins of Ephesus, once the greatest city in the Eastern Mediterranean outside of Alexandria. Paul went there, and it was to the Christian churches of Ephesus that he wrote his Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians.
Ephesus, Turkey, 1980
Seventeen years after my European excursion I was already an experienced Latin American backpacker. During one Summer while teaching in Argentina I journeyed to the Chachapoyan ruins of Kuelap. I backpacked from the jungle town of Chachapoyas to the ruins of Kuelap, about five days all told. I went via the village of Tingo, then crossed the Utcabamba River and walked on a trail that no longer exists---it was washed away the next year by a landslide. I am here about five hours below the ruins enjoying a fine American product. (Here are more Peru photos, and here is my 14-day solo backpacking adventure through the same region in 2003.)
Marlboro break, on the way to Kuelap, Peru, 1997
My first visit to the Andes was in 1987, in Ecuador. I had just finished walking the Darien Gap, and decided to climb some damn volcano outside of Baņos. I went on to hike the Inca Trail in Peru. I was not able to return to the Andes until 1994. Since then I have gone up and down almost its entire spine from Peru to Chile to Argentina and Tierra del Fuego. I need to return, now. The photo is above Laguna Azul outside of Bariloche, Argentina. (Here and here are more photos of the Andes of Argentina.)
Argentine Andes, 2001
OK, enough for now. If I keep looking at photos such as these I might just sell all that I have and embark upon another 'year of living dangerously.'
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