Thursday, February 18, 2010

START ME UP


I am ready for another comeback.  I am the Brett Favre of bloggers.  I keep trying to walk away, but my love of the game keeps bringing me back.  

I have spent 2009 backpacking across South America, six countries in all.  I have climbed a 19,000 foot volcano in Ecuador, traversed the largest advancing glacier in the world in southern Argentina, piloted a mountain bike down the World’s Most Dangerous Road in Bolivia, ridden a horse through Colombia’s magnificent coffee region, deep in the heart of the guerilla-controlled cloud forest, and trekked through Peru’s breathtaking Cordillera Blanca, a land of unfathomably high peaks and unforgiving altitude.  The beauty of these majestic places was matched only by the beauty of the people I met along the way; I was introduced to a simpler life, where wealth was counted in chickens and goats, and community solidarity was essential in maintaining one’s quality of life.  As my Spanish improved, and my culture shock gradually wore off, I was able to learn a tremendous lesson from the native, rural populations of South America – a lesson in compassion, cooperation and empathy.

I am refreshed, revitalized, and ready to rile some people up.

I hope to entertain you.  I hope to enlighten you.  But mostly I just hope to add my voice to the thousands of online voices that are challenging the mainstream media's decades-long vice-like grip on the flow of information in this country.

What am I rebelling against?  WHADDYA GOT???

No comments: