passing by

I woke up to the Tasman Sea below me. As soon as I landed I was asked for my yellow fever vaccine. I broke into a sweat knowing I hadn’t brought it with me, hadn’t even thought about it. They sent me into another line and looking through my phone I was lucky to find the picture of it from going to Tiputini. The officer told me they were very serious about the vaccines; they didn’t want yellow fever back in the continent. I only understood once I was finally out in the Australian sun taking the ferry to Manly and Q station, the quarantine island where hundreds lived and died to prevent epidemics from spreading in Australia til the 80s.  View of Sydney coming back from Manly Manly’s beach was beautiful yet I was mostly fascinated with the first cockatoo I saw by a street light. I stared at it for as long as I could in disbelief, taking endless terrible pictures; I had only seen cockatoos with wings cut and in cages. I also couldn’t believe more people weren’t as ama...

The first time I imagined Athens I was reading Sophie’s World. I was Sophie. I was transported to Athens during socratic times and I loved every bit of it. Gaardner was a genius to me at 15. Standing by Melina Mercouri’s statue I thought of all the times my mom said my sister was named after her for her work in the Greek parliament and the ministry of culture. From there, I looked up to the acropolis and felt again transported - The ancient hill, the city expanding, the birth and demise of western wisdom’s cradle. Athens seen from the Acropolis There was coffee, as always (a fantastic Burundi at Taylor-Made at that), and jazz and flea markets with old numismatic collections with my frolicking around to pick some. There was breathtaking scenery up by the funicular with timeworn advertisement for some alcoholic beverage. Of course there was Zorba dancing. There was souvlaki and seas. But most importantly, there were stars. Navigating in the middle of the ocean, at the meet...

It was Rome, with its dry flatness and ruvine around. Ten years ago, Jose, my best friend from high school, was waiting for me with a bacci mcflurry by Termini station; this time I was also meeting one of my best friends but from grad school, Shashwat. Rome, with its wide boulevard from Colisseum through Caesar’s forum, its plummeting structures, its Fontana, its pistaccio gelato, was charming, but it was only a pit stop.   From the Egyptian references to the carved marvel, I was captivated by the thought of Pompeii and its people burnt to its feet. Across the city, a mountain was in flames. In Ecuador, when I see this, I regularly call the fireguard. This time, impotent, I just turned to see the horizon. Pompeii was still burning, the mountains were still burning and Pink Floyd played live in the back. I couldn’t stop thinking about the conservation of our cultural heritage. How does humanity decide what is ‘worth’ preserving? Who makes this decision? Nowaday...

Desde los puntos de estrella en las cuevas nacen las estalactitas. En Jumandy reconstruía mis recuerdos de los cenotes en México, Jeita Grotto en Líbano y tenía la misma sensación de cruzar lo más íntimo de la tierra, recovecos de sus dobleces de mujer. Las cuevas son extensas y están semi-protegidas por un parque cuyos días de gloria pasaron hace mucho. Cascadas subterráneas para zambullirse y columnas de estalagmitas y estalactitas en fusión fueron la primera parada para el viaje de la tierra dando a luz. Después de cruzar Tena y Puyo, donde el maito se convierte en ayampaco y bajando la troncal amazónica, encontramos los laberintos del Chiguaza, una extensión enorme laberintos de todo tamaño. Fósiles marinos.  Arañas de seda dorada a las orillas del Pastaza Formaciones con agua que se esparcía como brisa marina al caer y demandaba una plegaria hacia lo hermoso de este lugar, casi intacto, con miles de fósiles de erizos y caracoles que caí...