A Modern Quest for an Ancient Remedy....
If you enjoy a fast-paced read, Five Weeks in the Amazon is the book for you. It's an honest story filled with peaks of humor and valleys of despair. Author Sean Michael Hayes has written a book that many wou...
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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 29
6:23am, the big tambo
I'm going into town because there are a few important emails I need to send. Being cut off from the internet gives me a little bit of stress. I feel responsible for the website I'm supposed to be running, and being disconnected makes me feel a bit negligent.
Nothing has gone wrong. In fact, compared to the recent past everything is much better: all our customers are happy, and more visitors keep visiting the site—almost 30,000 each day.
The real disruption is that it's the only tie keeping me from fully disconnecting. It could be worse, at least it's a responsibility I enjoy, and I'm good at it. Plus, they kind of need me right now. Even if I do have limited access to the internet for a few weeks, someone needs to be the point person. My boss is busy following his own hedonistic desires that don't always include being reliable.
The thing I'm looking forward to the most in town is having a really cold drink, a hedonistic pleasure of my own. If I wasn't still on the Ayahuasca diet, I would have an ice cold Coca-Cola in a glass bottle, or maybe even a cold beer. But that won't be what I get. To satiate my desire, I will get an ice cold acai and banana smoothie, with no sugar.
Last time I called Kelsey, she was lying in bed, just waking up. It was still morning for her, but closer to the afternoon for me. When we spoke, I felt very social and confident in myself, and at the end warm and full.
She spoke to me in a lovely way, and we shared many things with each other in our long conversation. We talked and talked, and most of the things seemed important at the time, but of course don't really matter. But that's how it goes when you're in a conversation with your best friend (or even better your girlfriend): everything seems important at the time. Of course it does.
I know it's a bit ridiculous to hike for 25 minutes through the jungle, wait for a bus to drive an hour to Iquitos, get a Motokar to the plaza, and then walk to the Karma Cafe, all the while hoping that the Wi-Fi will work once I get there. But being ridiculous is fine by me—and I wrote her a poem I want to send.
Kelsey dearest
As I see you,
A beautiful princess
Smart, yet funny too.
A girl filled with smiles
Chasing fun things to do,
These are the traits I like about you.
So Kelsey finest
Lay here next to me,
Your body's salvation
Your touch sets me free.
All these things
I've come to see clearly,
Add to the reason
I feel so dearly.
Always be you
Stand tall as you grow,
You're amazing as is
But this you must know.
Even better than all the text messages coming in is when I get to hear her soft, girly voice when she leaves me a voice message. I like to listen to them when I'm lying alone in my bed in the jungle.
Like me, she drinks and smokes. Her girly voice is sharp, and a little matured. For me it's all the sexier. She sings beautifully, yet, she's only been comfortable enough to have let it happen a few times around me. At 23 years old, she is still so young and fresh.
She was one of the first girls I met when I moved to California years ago. She was 18, and I was 23 and a total mess. Only now do I realize how much I care about her, and how much she cares for me. We fell out of touch when she was away at school, but there must be a reason we got back together now. That's why I wanted her to be my girlfriend. I miss her smile, I miss her logical and intelligent mind, and I miss her body next to mine.
