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"Backdate"-2
Oct. 27th, 2003 08:52 pmWell, let's continue: day 3.
The first part of it was actually pretty boring - i tried to get to a certain turn-off from a dirt road of regional significance to a dirt road of no significance at all. The smaller road was serviced by one pickup a day (at 3:00 AM!), so when i arrived (about 18:30) i had no other choice but to hike. So the story is about night roads.
When you walk on a jungle road at night, especially when it rains, the headlight gives you enough visibility ahead of you, behind - if you look back (which might not be a good idea - hell knows what's following you), but no way it would penetrate the walls of tropical vegetation on both sides. For somewhat reason the undergrowth doesn't even reflect the light - it devours it (that's quite logical, by the way - the plant on the bottom of a rainforest should be hungrier for light than Nigerian children for their rotten rats, or what is it they get for breakfast). So it's you and the road. Nothing above, nothing around, and below - well, probably another river flowing through yet another tunnel, but who cares? What does reflect every single photon, however, is the eyes of insects (and spiders become beautiful rings made of blue dots), birds and - hopefully - small animals, plus drops of water on the leaves, on the ground and on yourself. Not Milky Way, maybe, but does call for a romantic metaphor.
The romantic metaphor (that is, walking it, not inventing it) took me 2 hours. Then i got to Rokja village, stayed there with a Mayan family, and the next morning...
(to be continued)
The first part of it was actually pretty boring - i tried to get to a certain turn-off from a dirt road of regional significance to a dirt road of no significance at all. The smaller road was serviced by one pickup a day (at 3:00 AM!), so when i arrived (about 18:30) i had no other choice but to hike. So the story is about night roads.
When you walk on a jungle road at night, especially when it rains, the headlight gives you enough visibility ahead of you, behind - if you look back (which might not be a good idea - hell knows what's following you), but no way it would penetrate the walls of tropical vegetation on both sides. For somewhat reason the undergrowth doesn't even reflect the light - it devours it (that's quite logical, by the way - the plant on the bottom of a rainforest should be hungrier for light than Nigerian children for their rotten rats, or what is it they get for breakfast). So it's you and the road. Nothing above, nothing around, and below - well, probably another river flowing through yet another tunnel, but who cares? What does reflect every single photon, however, is the eyes of insects (and spiders become beautiful rings made of blue dots), birds and - hopefully - small animals, plus drops of water on the leaves, on the ground and on yourself. Not Milky Way, maybe, but does call for a romantic metaphor.
The romantic metaphor (that is, walking it, not inventing it) took me 2 hours. Then i got to Rokja village, stayed there with a Mayan family, and the next morning...
(to be continued)
