LAST DAY IN THE JUNGLE

Just waking up and walking outside everyday has been amazing. I could have spent all 7 days on the understory patio and been completely fascinated. Indeed, the two watercolors I did while here were done from there. I could spend another week just painting from the patio.

The small green parrots chortle in the morning sun, brisking about their big mud condo (like a bean bag built around a branch). Immense and tiny praying mantis jockey for position around the ktichen light. Doves coo and beat their wings against the ground in some mating ritual. Insects trumpet a poison harmonic at full blast. The hook billed hummingbirds are as numerous as the insects. I keep seeing new birds fly by. Stray dogs wonder through, more interested in handouts than a pat on the head.

The Plants exist in a whole different dimension here. The giant leaves make you feel small. They arc in all encompassing gestures: shading, swooping, pulling you in. Everything belongs here, whether it wants to or not. No austere nordic alienation can creep in as the humidity fills every pore of lonliness. People are more connected here. More familiar.

We saw a funeral procession go through the town of Guachaca. Lead by a phalanx of small honking motorcycles with two to three people on each one….Then the walkers, and in the middle of them the casket being carried on the shoulders of men, and then more honking motorcyles. Probably 500 people; not formally dressed. Just in attendance. Evidence of a connected community.

Being here has been, dare I say….“healing”. In this glamping situation there is no escaping the outdoors, the literal vibration it gives off. The saturation of greens and color. Having to speak more Spanish to get along, and I am not very good, but I am a good mime, and I can draw, and they are patient. We figure it out. The culture, the heat, the nature, the language; it puts you in an altered state. An immersive state.

I suppose that is what I seek: Immersion. Hard to do in a week, but lots of quiet time helps, and just looking. Looking at how miraculous everything is. I don’t just do this when I travel, but all the time, I mean, when I have time, to be still or on a walk. Ask my family : I am always lagging behind looking at something, A view, a fungus, the mixture of moss and dew, an extraordinary tree, a phenomenon of light, lizard, beetle, ant hive, stone, nurselog, building, alley, clerk at a counter, junk pile,

I don’t much go for gurus, but I heard one with a big social media presence say something that I agree with. Paraphrasing: “Do not focus on the purpose of your life, because there is none. Rather focus on the miraculous exhurberance of your existance.” Spot-On, Guru with a good P.R. dept., spot-on.

If you are into communing in the Jungle in Colombia, and getting moto-taxi rides into town, then I highly recommend the place that we stayed. It is SALVIA y MADRE near Guachaca. You can find them on AirBnB., and on Instagram. The host Paula, is fantastic.