This morning, we woke up at 5am, had a quick breakfast of eggs and coffee and started hiking. We witnessed a beautiful sunset and the landscape was much more green and scenic than yesterday. At around 10am, we stopped in another camp and went swimming for about 30 mins and had lunch.
We then continued on toward the Lost City. On the way, we stopped for a fruit snack break and passed by an indigenous village and some indigenous homes. Santiago brought a coloring book for an indigenous kid and the siblings really warmed up to us and were friendly. I was surprised to see how mature and self-sufficient the indigenous kids were and couldn’t help but think: Are modern-day Americans really more advanced and evolved than the indigenous people? By a lot of measure, I would argue not. Our religion isn’t more sophisticated than theirs and they arguably reach greater spiritual heights. They are more self-sufficient, more mature throughout their lives, they are more healthy, they live longer, they take better care of the environment, etc.
Interesting things today
-Running into indigenous kids and special occasion village and realizing that they’re more advanced than us in some ways (longer lifespans, babies and young adults mature at younger age, strong sense of community, etc.
-learning about 4 indigenous tribes with over 150,000 total population in Sierra Nevada
-swimming in the river where we had our lunch break. Sitting on the boulders in the river with Santiago and Gabriela
-seeing Santiago’s elaborate drawings at the tienda
-Santiago bringing a coloring book for the indigenous kids and them interacting with us
