passing by

*Due to be published in July 2016 but had some issues with google accounts/blogger. Here it goes anyways :) Ecstatic bewilderment from squirrel monkeys waiting to be prayed by an eagle announced the beginning of our journey into the depths of the Amazonian rainforest. It was a delight for the trained eye and we were lucky to have many with such training in our boat – a primatologist group, a mammalogist group and community guides accompanied us. I was there with a group of Masters students and undergrads from different universities visiting USFQ, where I currently work. It’s been over a year since I’ve written and undoubtedly, so many remarkable things have happened. Carbocycle won at Columbia ! I have began and been part of development projects in the Andean region  that gave us a UNEP award, larger sustainability projects at USFQ, writing for the Drawdown Fellowship and most importantly, an earthquake shook the coastal area and changed all my plans. A large portion of my...

How often I’ve closed my eyes wishing, imagining, willing for the stars to start dancing… It was a Milky Way layered night on the Pyrenees when it finally happened. Casparo was playing the guitar while some of the people in the group chatted, played or meditated. It took me by surprise when I saw that shooting star. I thought I had seen many before but I had been wrong. Perhaps this time I had the right wish to ask.  While some stars moved elliptically, Casparo began telling us the story of this land… Once upon a time there was a war between the anarchists and the fascists in Spain, they fought across the ridge from where we were staying. A family in this area took an anarchist in their home and hid him from the fascists. Their 6 year old daughter brought him food everyday. On an unfortunate day when the fascists came looking for the fugitive, while shooting him, they also shot the little girl. The anarchist didn't make it, the little girl survived; however, the wound left her...

The mud held me back and the rubber boots felt awkward but necessary. We were walking behind the city of Baños, a small town that I have visited since I was a child. Whole Saturday afternoons would be spent next to the jukebox-perhaps the reason why I can sing along to old cumbias and lambadas that my mother loves- while my little sister and I would splash each other with the water in the bathtub we kept in the garden and pretended was our pool. Baños from Illuchi-Los Sauces I had been to Baños so often that I had stopped questioning what activities were available; the trek to Illuchi-Los Sauces was the first eye-opener. My students were eager to show me each plant and its properties, reed and putzos, llantén and tree tomatoes. Initially, we strolled by San Francisco bridge, a beautiful viewpoint for the Pastaza river and the cliff that separates the town from its surroundings. As we were walking uphill, we encountered a little lodge named ´Las Granadillas´ after an endemic ...

The bells were singing at a non-descript, non-specific hour; it was 10:12. Why were the bells singing? Because they can, it is fairytale land- Or so you would think by the way the sun hits the orange façades, the small canal crossing town and the Rapunzel-tower-looking churches scattered around. The 18 th century houses with wooden columns would not stand an earthquake (none happen here) but they give a rounded architectural feeling to the city– an artist at the art festival in Ridehuset painted them as though in a bubble and called the piece ‘Nostalgia of Aarhus’ – oh so accurately. Some people say I may be in a honeymoon period with the city but I wouldn’t say that is the case. I have heard too many complaints, the same you hear of any small city that is not the main one in any country – not as many things to do as in X (insert capital city). But the distribution of Aarhus makes it seem as though around the corner there is a different space where you can be someone completely dif...

This piece has been mellowing for some time. It was a bright morning in New York. The spring air filled the streets with pollen and the fragrance of new blossoms. After a 5K run with Allison, we met with Jen, her boyfriend and another one of her friends to have some coffee at the Hungarian pastry shop, a place I had intended to visit for a while. The days prior to that, I had felt as though I was being relieved from a choking sensation of fear for what was coming. I had spent long hours staring at my computer hyperventilating for not being able to produce coherent lines for my thesis. I read this and it helped. After many years, I had gone back to take refuge in literature but it started with music. Jim Morrison’s American prayer became my hymn for a couple of weeks. I had been feeling hopeless. Yet, out of serendipitous events I was visiting some places that were becoming havens- may be as a result of what felt as my imminent departure from the life I had been building in New ...

Antes anduve por la vida, en medio  de un amor doloroso: antes retuve  una pequeña página de cuarzo clavándome los ojos en la vida.  Compré bondad, estuve en el mercado  de la codicia, respiré las aguas  más sordas de la envidia, la inhumana hostilidad de máscaras y seres.  Viví un mundo de ciénaga marina  en que la flor de pronto, la azucena  me devoraba en su temblor de espuma,  y donde puse el pie resbaló mi alma  hacia las dentaduras del abismo.  Así nació mi poesía, apenas  rescatada de ortigas, empuñada  sobre la soledad como un castigo,  o apartó en el jardín de la impudicia  su más secreta flor hasta enterrarla. Aislado así como el agua sombría  que vive en sus profundos corredores, corrí de mano en mano, al aislamiento  de cada ser, al odio cuotidiano,  Supe que así vivían, escondiendo  la mitad de los seres, como peces  del más extraño mar, y en las fangosas inmensidades encontr...

Han pasado demasiados infinitos desde la última vez que escribí aquí. Me llené de familia en Noviembre. El fortalecer los lazos familiares es la liberación de un respiro de alivio contenido en la garganta desde cuando no existía la memoria. También hubieron nuevas historias con nuevas fechas de caducidad, otras perennes, inmortales, nuevas dudas, nuevas certezas. Sé que he visto futuros menos inciertos pero ahora es cuando levanté las alas y con pico rapaz me puse a pescar. Ínfimamente la luna y el sol se encontraron en Enero, yo hice un viaje sideral. Esto no sin antes haber cruzado hemisferios por una fuerza mayor a mí y a toda razón para encontrarme con una de mis partes. Todo lo determinista por mi lado se acaba, lo más iluso que hace el humano es pensar que nada va a cambiar. Estuve en bosques mágicos donde los macrolobios dormían con la noche. Tomé el viaje a atlantis sola y me empapé de nueva poesía, mis ojos no miran igual. Noches estrelladas me acercaron a mi amigo viento p...