Skip to main content

"Welcome to my home..."

That's how one guide, originally from one of the outlying indigenous communities, greeted us for our jungle hike.
(Picture me with sunhat, long trousers, my "birthday" boots PLUS shin guards to protect from snake attacks stressing as to what lay ahead!)

Born and brought up in the rainforest, Lorrono our guide spoke of learning the "rhythmn" and "life" of the jungle rather than human beings trying to "dominate"  and "overcome" it. "That way lies danger and death!" he warned.
As he spoke with us on our expedition I sensed that there was great humility and respect for a force greater than himself, plus a sense that he recognised that his life was totally dependant upon this awesome power beyond....
He was not to simply sit back, do nothing and let this power "be" but, over time, to learn the ways to live well, to be fruitful according to this power beyond...
This, he confessed had taken much time, patience, pain and suffering - as well as the help and advice of others as he sought to discover the abiding power at the core of his "home" on earth...

Isn't that also our calling,too, as Christians; to discover the power beyond (God?) within whom we live and move and have our being and to live in God and enable God to live in us - wherever on earth we may call "home"....?

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Insufficient words....

... that's what I felt like when, having moved on to the (equally beautiful and 'touristy') town of El Calafate, I ventured to see one of its main 'draws' - the Perito Moreno Glacier.... Some fifty photographs (from the water facing it and from the organised viewpoints above it)  cannot capture its magnitude, all shades of white and blue shimmering in the sunshine... It is as large as the whole surface area of Buenos Aires and is "in equilibrium" (ie the amount of ice breaking off at its end - and I witnessed that several times - is equal to the amount of snow replenishing it day by day.) It travels some 2 meters every day and, as often happens, has "cut off" one side of the vast Lago Argentina lake so that the water level one side is some 3 meters higher than the other. In time the natural forces will find a way to redress this inbalance and the sheer force of water will eventually cause the glacier to "rupture" - with great force a...

CORDOBA - clever, cultured and cold....!

Travelling from the lush tropical rainforest of Iguazu to Argentina's second city, Cordoba, came as something of a shock! Firstly, there were all the usual trappings of a city - traffic, buildings, people, hustle and bustle. (The very comfortable but "simple" hotel was also a bit of a come down! Indeed, intermittent wifi has made sending blogs a challenge but, here we are...!) Although a travel cliche, Cordoba really is a fascinating mix of old and new... 17th century ecclesiastical buildings stand next to the latest shopping centres. CLEVER: Indeed, this city boasts a long established academic foundation: Manzana Jesuitica, Argentina's first university (so it claims!). The next door academic establishment, Colegio Nacional de Montserrat, with its baroque exterior walls, may be as old - it all depends on whether you consider the date building began or charters were established! Visiting the university's oldest library and being shown a 17th century bible...

Snakes, beavers and penguins...

Ushuaia boasts some vast areas of unspoilt national park and, having taken the ( very touristy!) "Fin del Mundo / End of the World" railway into the park, I began to explore the small section of the 630 square kilometre park open to the public.... Scenic hikes along the bays and rivers enables one to glimpse something of the prolific birdlife - condors, cormorants, gulls, terns, kelp geese, grebes and oystercatchers... ( I remembered our dear bird-watcher and past Church Warden, Dilwyn, as I peered out on the range of feathered creatures. He would have loved the display!) Our guide spoke of the fact that Tierra del Fuego, being an island, has no snakes - there weren't any in this part of Argentina and they were never introduced! Tramping through the course mix of shrubs and fallen logs, I can't say that I was disappointed to discover that I couldn't be bitten by any poisonous reptiles.....! The guide later spoke of some of the earlier settlers ( remember this...