Locisimo

I've come to a fantastic realization...I really like crazy people. Sounds kinda weird maybe, but a person who is missing a few marbles or has had the hamster slip off the wheel a little bit is often much more interesting to talk to, or simply watch, than a sane person. And, as R.M. Pirsig so wisely said, "When you look directly at an insane man all you see is a reflection of your own knowledge that he's insane, which is not to see him at all." So we must all look more closely!

I've just reached the Amazon Basin, or namely, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. I've spent most of the past two weeks in little villages situated in 'the elbow of the Andes'. In Samaipata I relaxed over Easter with some artisans, i.e., we sat in the plaza and drank cachaça, a potent Brazilian spirit made from sugar cane. There was a brilliantly crazy Austrian guy at my campground that was on almost every drug known to man…who needs TV when you watch him. I also, unfortunately, witnessed some of the sadder moments of the drug culture when one of the artisans, an Argentinean, who I had been hanging out with for a few days, had a night on the white powder and then sat up from 12 am to 12 pm licking the table clean. Needless to say, it was an utterly futile attempt. I guess the one word I thought of while watching him was ‘depravity’.

So, enough depravity I told my myself as I kicked on my shoes and shuttled down the road an hour to paradise, Ginger’s Paradise. Ginger’s is a 30 hectare farm in the mountainous jungle of the extreme eastern Andes. I reckon they are about 90% self-sufficient in what they grow and have absolutely amazing food. I’ve spent the past four days harvesting peanuts and yucca, tilling soil, constructing a water wheel, weeding a patch of hallucinogenic cactuses, and making delicious breads. Nobody there was really ‘crazy’ but there were a few on the way. The father of the family that owns the farm, Chris, is incredibly knowledgeable and also on the fringes of socially acceptable thinking. Chris, in conversation with a 62 year old Vietnam vet who showed up yesterday and claimed to have spoken to God last week when he took San Pedro (a cactus) was priceless. I might take a trip to the nut house for the afternoon just to converse with some more lunatics…its great.

So, now, back in the ‘sane’ world of a big city (read ‘boring’) I have decisions to make…which way to go. But, saying that, I think I already know…I’m gonna head into the jungle, to Trinidad. Hopefully the road isn’t washed out.

Ginger from Ginger's Paradise