A back alley in Cusco (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know whether I\u2019ll ever be back to the Peruvian Amazon.\u00a0 Perhaps not. \u00a0Probably<\/em> not. \u00a0It\u2019s odd to think such a thing, but it\u2019s true.\u00a0 When you\u2019re twenty, the future is limitless.\u00a0 You have all the time in the world.\u00a0 Endless possibilities.\u00a0 When you\u2019re in the vicinity of a hundred<\/em> and twenty, though, as I am, you realize that the future is bounded.\u00a0 You likely won\u2019t<\/em> be president.\u00a0 You probably won\u2019t<\/em> play professional football. \u00a0The Nobel Prize in Physics is probably out of reach. \u00a0There are more things to do than you\u2019ll ever be able<\/em> to do.\u00a0 Some things you\u2019ll never do again<\/em>.\u00a0 Some places you\u2019ll never see<\/em> again.\u00a0 And, for me, the Peruvian Amazon is very possibly one of those places.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is one of the reasons that I can\u2019t understand why some people claim that they have no desire for immortality.\u00a0 There are so many sights to see, so many things to experience, so many things to learn, and there\u2019s so little time.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I find that melancholy.\u00a0 But if I didn\u2019t believe in everlasting life, I would find it almost unendurably sad<\/em>.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It also strikes me, sometimes, that there are people<\/em> whom I\u2019ll never see again.\u00a0 Our guide in the Peruvian rainforest, for example \u2013 Percy \u2013 was a very important part of our lives for several days.\u00a0 We came to like and appreciate him.\u00a0 We learned a fair amount about him.\u00a0 When we said goodbye to him at the airport in Iquitos, he said that he hoped to see us again.\u00a0 But the odds of that are very low.\u00a0 He will go on with his life and we\u2019ll all go on with ours, quite separately.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Friends to whom I was very close in high school and in college are now off on their own, as I am. \u00a0They seemed essential to my life, but now we\u2019re living completely apart.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Intuitively, however, I\u2019ve always strongly suspected that these endings won\u2019t (in the, umm, end<\/em>) be so final as they seem to be from the perspective of mortality.\u00a0 And memories won\u2019t fade, and faded memories will be restored.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
New things keep coming our way, though, even as the past recedes.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
You may well have deduced by now that we\u2019ve arrived in Cusco, high in the Andes.\u00a0 At well over 11,000 feet.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Formerly the imperial capital of the Incas, it\u2019s a dramatic contrast to the Amazon rainforest.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been here once before, but it\u2019s been a very long time since then.\u00a0 The air is thin and brisk, and the city, in its central area, at least, is remarkably picturesque.\u00a0 Some traces of Inca stone construction remain, but the overall feeling is colorfully Spanish colonial.\u00a0 Our hotel, the Ramada Costa del Sol, is extremely charming.\u00a0 And it has good WiFi!<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Written in Lima, Peru, but posted from Cusco<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 I don\u2019t know whether I\u2019ll ever be back to the Peruvian Amazon.\u00a0 Perhaps not. \u00a0Probably not. \u00a0It\u2019s odd to think such a thing, but it\u2019s true.\u00a0 When you\u2019re twenty, the future is limitless.\u00a0 You have all the time in the world.\u00a0 Endless possibilities.\u00a0 When you\u2019re in the vicinity of a hundred and twenty, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-75171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"Cusco](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2019\/06\/800px-Calle_del_medio.jpg\")
<\/a>