Aconcagua and other dreams

No word from Monte yet. 

I’m not worried though: more excited than anything.  I mean, he’s climbing the highest mountain in the Americas: 6,962 m high.  It was on his ‘bucket list’.  What is not to get excited about!

His list has changed.. matured really, since the days when #1 was ‘catching’ a freight train from Calgary to Vancouver: illegal and dangerous.  Tick that one off.. not his best idea.

While his top ten are a little different, a little wilder than mine, I still have my wish-list of things to see and do before I go. Most people do: even though some don’t actually write their's down.

Lists are in a constant state of flux, as we grow and change: so do our dreams.

The last thing I talked to my cousin about before he passed away from a terminal illness, was how he would come see me one day and drive his Harley around the perimeter of Oz.  We both knew it probably wouldn’t happen, but  to be alive… is to dream.    

Or remember. 

Dad is pretty realistic about what he can do these days, but he still has a list. And I love the stories he tells about what he has already achieved: like The Fine Art of Dunderpooching, and his adventures of mineral exploration in south America: including trying to get to the top of Aconcagua, in the state of Mendoza, Argentina. 

He cheated a bit and took an airplane: didn’t make it very far either.. something about lack of oxygen and a piston engine.  Bugger. 

But he knew the mountain that Monte is attempting to conquer: and he understands the drive to get a close and personal look.   

A visit to Santiago, Chili, just 50 kilometers away from the base, was on my list too.  I don’t remember the mountains so much on that trip.. I was more intrigued with the markets and the buildings. 

But I remember seeing the Andes on a work/holiday to Peru years ago: they are different from the Rockies: older, more majestic, if that’s even possible.  When they made their appearance, suddenly throwing off their misty cloud veils and revealing themselves through the little window of the train I was on to Machu Pichu.. it.. what did Debbie used to say.. Blew My Hair Back!  I had thought the foothills were the mountains and when I realized that the enormous shadows behind were actually solid earth.. the place where the Nazca Plate overlapped the South American one.. it took my breath away.. literally.  


I had never dreamed of mountains like those. 

There are a lot of places and sights I haven’t dreamed about yet.  My own list grows faster than I can check things off: the more I see and do, the more I want to see and do.. the more I want to know about this world of ours. 

Right now it is 2011 I'm am trying to get a grip on.  I guess I will need a job someplace, and have that interview coming up for the UAE that would start in September.    So what do I do in the meantime? 

It’s not like there is a shortage of things to do here.. or anywhere really.  I was home just one day and was asked to do some volunteering for the ambulance service.  Child services has already had me spend the night shift at the hospital with a 3 month old baby who needed some extra TLC. And I could probably get on substitute teaching.. it pays well.. but .. I am pretty sure you earn every cent... and I am not so sure that is on anyone's 'list'. 

I was thinking more along the lines of spending some time in an Ashram in India.. that has always been somthing I wanted to do: ever since John Lennon and the boys hung out there. 

I would like to spend a bit of this coming year in Bulgaria, look around some of the nearby countries or just explore Bulgaria a bit more.  Then there is that train ride with Jackie and Anna.. they have said I could join them.. that is definitely on my list, although I didn’t know you could even travel from Moscow to Beijing by train before they started planning the thing: the Trans Siberian I think it is called.. sounds cold, but amazing.

There is a Chinese agency that has a position on Hainain Island that looks interesting. Vas’s dream is to spend a few more years there, but it pays nothing and I could do that when I turn 60 and the door closes on a lot of other work.  

I want to take more photographs, paint more pictures.  I want to visit the kids again, in Alberta, and spend some more time in B.C… the coast.. the Kootenay’s.


I want to learn to play tennis. 

No, there is no shortage of what to do with your life. Lots of hikes and markets: beaches and mountains.  There are books to read, music to play: or at least listen to.  Our time here could never be long enough to do everything, be everything: to get our 10,000 hours into all the things we want to try our hand in.  The trick is to do a good job of what you do have time to accomplish. 

I am going to take a day at a time and it will be Christmas in Darwin this year.  It’s a great little city and I have to enjoy it while I have the opportunity.  I will takes photos, check out the birds and whatever's at the beach.  I will drink beer in a few of the trendy little bars downtown.  I will enjoy Christmas in the summer sun (or wet?) of Australia. 

But first I would like to hear from Monte.  He better not make us wait until the New Year…  although he probably will.  After peaking on Christmas Eve he will have to make the slow trip down and then back into Chili to fly home. 

I wonder if he’ll eat watermelon in the park in Santiago, like his mom and dad did: a number of revised lists ago.


Really... ain't life grand?!