The internet seems to be a little bit up itself and not willing to attach itself to my computer without a fight. And I don't have a huge amount of fight to muster today.
I've had some very excellent times over the last how long. I remember so many times thinking 'THAT has to be blogged' and then not blogging. Like the fire with sweet Cecile. I say sweet. She was a total maestra, that one, though her fire-building needs some work. That's what we did – we had a fire. She bought vegetables and tin foil and we made a fire out by the pine trees. She made the fire and later, Anouk became responsible for putting the food on it, even though she wasn't eating.
After a hairy start, or more a 'not-lighty' one, the fire was actively good, the embers hot, the food cooked. Cockroaches love me, I've discovered. Whenever I turn my back, there's a little queue of them ready to jump onto me or rummage in my food bag (not a euphemism, Face). They were out in force that night. We laughed a lot too. I teased Cecile for her fire, but only because it made us laugh. She went on to build a raft out of old shit and sail alone up the Amazon for five days. She is an engineer, a ninja and a legend and I liked her very much. Please let piranhas be a myth (they're not – they're real and they have very sharp teeth). Please let them be in other waters, not those she floats by on.
After Cecile was lovely Basque Natalia, who was loved by moths. As we ate together the night after the fire, I was cockroached, she mothed. She had them mostly on her head, like little brooches on her short cut. And then came the biker boys, Nathans One and Two (one was called Paul, but they were both in the book as Nathans). They were generous, funny and full of talking. They came for massages two days running, bought me dinner on the first night, entertained me (not like that) and then left early to do Death Road before the mountain bikers got there.
The leaving is a theme. I meet so many lovely people here... and then they leave. I love the connection I have with them, but I'm yearning for community and longer term, deeper friendships. I have no doubt that they will come. I have moved to Doris's and Doris is a VERY good egg – clever, fascinating, ready as anybody ever, ever has been to laugh. She laughs such a lot! She's an artist, an art therapist and a homeopath. I like her very much too, and she is still here (hence the present tense to Cecile's past).
I also had a delicious time down at the river with Joy, who I actually know from another context and will see again, and with random Argentinian Adrian, with whom I'd shared a hostel room in La Paz. He sang some songs. I gave him his first ever massage. We chatted. And there he was, walking down the very long and very winding road to the river, so we scooped him up and he played his flute while we talked, mostly. We shared fruit and water and a little bit of talking.
The place was full of butterflies; bright yellow flitters dancing in and out of each other, Luna moths, as big as your fist and coloured a transcendent blue, not translucent, but shockingly, almost embarrassingly, gloriously blue. Adrian found bees, not quite a swarm, but a lot of them. The butterflies were hanging out in the bee cloud. The bees seemed interested, but not in a stingy way. They flowed around the folded-wingers balanced on rocks, sometimes touching, mostly not. Occasionally, a flash of colour as the wings opened up. Poetry walking on little insecty legs, waving its antennae.
So thank you for all of this. What's next is community, when I can get Paypal to stop being such a mountain of shittery and just let me resent my arsing password so I can pay for Workaway and find a community to go and live in for a while. Beautiful Aude is in one up in the North of Peru, but I'm holding off, partly because it's the rainy season and partly because I want to steer clear of Peru until January, get a better deal on the visa. Let's see. Let's see. Either way, I know that I am blessed. It's more and more apparent every day. So thanks, God, Love, Universe, Spirits, Earth and Sky – whatever you are to give me all of this, I give you thanks.
We all deserve it.
