Not sure where to start but it’s been an incredibly busy week. We’ve been working our way through the south of Peru stopping off at Paracas, Nazca, Arequpia, Chivay and finally Puno.
Perspective is a powerful thing and every day mine is shaped and adjusted. People here are incredibly content, whereas improvement and progression are western values that go almost unquestioned. Despite the general hippy/anarchist consensus, I don’t think either is better than the other. Everybody is wired differently, nobody reacts and thinks the same way.
One anecdote from the last 10 days is from the couple of days I spent with a traditional family based on the edge of Lake Titicaca. We helped out with everything from making the breakfast to pick axing our way through a particularly stony field in preparation for planting potatoes. They live a fairly hard life compared to most standards but I don’t think they could have been any more satisfied in what they had. They were a family of 6 and it was about a 30 minute walk from the local village. They had their priorities straight and they lived a rich life because of it. I don’t think this should condemn the whole of our western culture but placing our aspirations and hope in our postmodern values is premature.
Tomorrow we leave for Cusco for the Inca trail!
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