the colors of earth

a day of rain makes sitting in an internet cafe updating thoughts and experiences the only logical thing to do. thinking of everything that has these two eyes have seen and that these two feet have walked across. the feelings i have now will fade with time somehow. how can i hold onto these feelings. can i jar them up somehow and release the scents, the views, the feel, the smells, peoples faces, the moments anytime i want. can i keep them for when i need them most will i ever be able to recall the silence on a crowded subway in medellin, the taste of exotic fruits in bogota, the look of a cowboy as he corrales his cattle in argentina, the smell of fresh grapes in mendoza, the jolting yet rejuvenating feeling of swiming in glacial relic lakes, the music of chilean folklore. how can i bring myself back to these moments.

i spent a couple days in mendoza, argentina drinking gallons of great wine and eating kilo after kilo of succulent steak. i thought i arrived with enough time to hike up to base camp of Mt. Aconcagua. The tallest mountain in the western hemisphere at almost 23,000 ft. I knew i wasnt prepared to make the summit, which has been a dream of mine since childhood, but at least making it to base camp would be a thrill. Unfortunately, the climbing season ended days before i arrived. I fortunately met jose, a 48yr old chilean who has been living in sydney for 15 years who just made the sumit a week before. listening to his story and the struggle of climbing in an oxygen depleted atmosphere that is inhospitable for any creature or plant alike, against -30 below temperatures means that i will have to come back to argentina to stand ontop of this earthly creation at some point in my life.

regardless of weather or not i was able to make it to base camp, i had to at least see the mammoth mountain with my own eyes. There was a short 2 day hike, where, if the weather was just right, you could see the summit behind its more modest peaks. by the time i made it to the camp (not base camp, just a camp along the hike) it was beginning to get dark and the ridge was no longer visible. so of course im going to wake up before sunrise and watch the sun reveal the snow covered peak. slowly, and carefully, as if it was a slow dance with the land, the suns rays slowly began to reveal peak after peak, casting long shadows on the wayward side of each mountain, watching the shadows move across the range till the sun was actually visible making each shadow disappear, untill finally the top of aconcagua towered over every other feature.

imagine seeing multiple colors expose on a cliffside of a mountain. colors that you only thought could have otherwise only been seen in a rainbow. these colors were brilliantly displayed in the barren hillsides of hamuhuaca in northern argentina. cerro de siete colores, the mountain of seven colors, is exactly that. except i think i counted more then 7. rolling hillsides and gentle sloping mountains of different minerals being exposed at different times show how even mountains can have life of color to it.

May life be too thrilling to want to read this, or may it perk up a particularly dreary day with a little bit of distraction from the far reaches of the Southern Hemisphere.