Incommunicado

Apologies for the lack of updates of late, but there are no modems in paradise.

Right now I am on vacation on the beach for a week before heading back to a final week at Bilsa, and there really just wouldn´t be sufficient time for me to put down what I want to say about Bilsa while I am here. I will do my best to provide a retrospective when I have more regular internet access in Quito and on Galapagos. But then if you still want to know more about the Bilsa reserve, you will have to wait for the book to come out (no, seriously).

What I can say now, though, is that if I long for Bilsa this much after a few days on a beach holiday with friends and not a care in the world, I really wonder how I will cope when I have to really leave for a long time.

In Bilsa I find myself looking after the vegetable patch after a morning working in the forest, or sat on the steps of the medicinal plant garden, writing and dozing and watching the birds flock over the trees, and I suddenly sadden at the realisation that this is the life I wanted, and that I will be gone before even the radishes are harvested.