Shade of My Ego

For some reason it’s really difficult to get a good cup of coffee down here. The Chileans insist on using this powered nonsense that gives a kick in all the wrong places at all the wrong times. But I’m not going to go there, at least for now. Anyway, I drafted this email from the shade of a tree, which I think will serve as my running metaphor for the following short paragraphs. Note: I am sun burnt.

The past two weeks I have been traveling northward, at first through the fjords of Chile (glacially created channels), on a small cargo ship that also takes passengers for the 4 day journey. The weather was generally cloudy and occasionally harsh which = much time staring out the window and thinking. As it turns out, I was surprised where my mind wandered ….

Occasionally, I found myself reflecting on past relationships, nostalgically creating girlfriends for a few whimsical seconds to chat about nothing in particular. A moment later they would disappear and leave me with the feeling that I just bent time or spent too much of it looking out port holes without blinking. Regardless, I was definitely indulging in the shade of my ego and stirring the powdered coffee a bit too aggressively. And so 4 days into the future…

Cj and I met 3 Peace Corp volunteers and traveled the island of Chiloe, where I would oppositely have little time to think, write, or indulge, due to the over abundance of activity and the shady advise of an expat who sent us to a small fishing village content in its own solitude and lack of accessibility. We rode this wave of momentum further northwards, together and smelly, in buses that drive the definition of frustration along with the passengers, to a town that turned me lobster red, to a tourist tour (not of my choice) that would overcharge me and herd me up the slopes of a volcano, to the umbrage of a tree, where I would realize that I’m in and out of the shade I write from….getting burnt when I’m out too long, and complaining about coffee when I haven’t had enough, missing the fact that i’m actually just drinking water.

Enjoy the following pics,

With love and an unpredictable mind that surprises me with long sentences and unusual visualizations,

Simon