Q & A

It's not home, but it will do . . .


. . . How or where do I begin?


Quito, Quilotoa, Quito--Ah! Altitude in the Andes . . .

Moving from Quito to Quilotoa and back to Quito again, the Altitude of the Andes has done more than Ahhh or Aggggh our bodies--it has shifted the earth within. If New York (elevation 33 ft.) felt distant upon my arrival in Quito (elevation 9,350 ft), it is even farther away from remembering now that I have lived a week in the remote village of Quilotoa (elevation 12,841 ft.). Climbing mountains has brought us health and sickness; it has answered many questions and has posed many new ones. The effects of traversing geological altitude is merely a symbol of the cordilleras and calderas in the mountain of my own affections and desires.

No one but I can explore the terrain within as intimately and deeply as I can and have. And for that, I am filled with gratitude and awe deeper than any ever before experienced. The gratefulness, respect, and wonder I have found for myself can be compared to that I have felt and feel now freshly remembering the awesome landscape and people of Quilotoa. The long 4 hour drive alone-- into folds of endless mountains, gorges, and hills-- is enough to generate spirituality within and without myself.

And then there was Domingo Cantinas --- an unpolished, cheeky, folky, self-depricating, witty songwriter who curses his lovers and his life in deadpan Spanish before crumpling his folder paper lyrics into a ball of trash and hurtling the coveted relics to his wild and cultish fans. I am now one of them. Woo me, sir on a Sunday in a bar: you have the elements of the wit that rips into my own spirit. Where to begin describing? I can´t. I will have to make another blog to put the phrases into the net of this blog, never wide enough to capture the panorama of my over-experienced week. Perhaps I have traveled into space and spent a lifetime in this week--aging only in my curiosity while all others have had nine lives since I left. Time is foreign here even though I own a watch for the first time in a decade...

I am so lucky to have this opportunity to SEEK (as one friend put it), and SOAK (as another put it) a fraction of the world´s diversity--nevermind Ecuador´s! This country, though small is so full of the range of resources and climates and experiences to follow in another blog. For now, I must soak and seek again.

Thanks for sipping. I´ll strive to put more flavor in the next blog.

Love and Openness and endless Questions,

Jennifer