El Guamo → Natagaima → Villavieja → Neiva

[amw]

I woke up in El Guamo on Good Friday to the sound of nothing and wrote a journal entry. By the time i got on my bike, the town was a bit more busy, albeit in an obviously holiday mode. I continued heading south toward the Tatacoa desert, with a plan to stop at Natagaima if i was tired, or another village or hotel along the way if i still had energy

Comments

[daphnep]

I *love* traveling alone…the sense of infinite possibility, unfettered by anything but my own desires. But there are people I don’t mind traveling with. My partner for one: he’s great at traveling. And another friend, in particular. I love that our relationship includes late night conversation in a whole range of cities all over the place. The biggest advantage to sometimes traveling with people is that they help hold my memories: they’ll remember different details than I do, and there’s something so pleasurable about the conversations we have for years afterwards, the shared references that could only be accumulated in unusual places. Like the other day I joked that a local road with potholes was “almost as bumpy as the east end of Anguilla” and my husband laughed, because once we found we didn’t have the right vehicle and had to turn around. Or my friend, who was my taste-tester for pork in Spain (where everything has pork in it) will sometimes remind me of that, and I am reminded each time of that affection and support that we shared: she defended my vegetarianism in a foreign country. I like those things too-really small details of other people stitched into my stories, because of travel.

But you do you really well, too.

[amw]

I think that memories point is worth something... Sometimes when i have Skype chats with R, she'll remind me of something we did or something i said years ago that i've completely forgotten. It can be quite pleasant to rediscover something i forgot about. On the other hand, you could say that if i forgot it then it obviously wasn't all that memorable of an experience in the first place. I do find that a lot of friends groups often go back rehashing "the good old days" which can be fun the first time but after a while it feels like nothing new ever happens, so what's the point?

I wonder, do memories matter? I think when i was younger i used to want to hold on to them a lot more than i do now. And that's fortunate, because the older i get, the more things do disappear into the mist. I used to be terrified of dementia, of losing my memory of who i was and the people around me, but now i'm not so sure it would matter. Like, as long as on the inside i am still happy to discover new things, what does it matter what i forgot? What mostly scares me now is losing the capacity to look after myself, period. That's when i would rather die.

[daphnep]

I wonder, do memories matter?

I have been thinking about this since you posed it. My short answer, after the fun of trying on the opposite stance for a while, is “oh, yes!”…and I suspect that your truest answer is also yes, otherwise you would have a hard time documenting your travels as you do. Even if you never reread your stories, the very act of typing them helps confirm them to your brain. I also think that we here on lj are, in a way, your virtual traveling companions, and I really value that you share your experiences and build your community this way. Memories can be shared communally, and your readers help hold yours for you even when no-one else has joined you on your journey.

[amw]

This is a concise but provocative answer. I have been thinking about it too. And the answer is... yes, i think i do write my experiences here publicly as a way of creating memories. I don't go back and read my old entries explicitly, but i do occasionally look something up in ljArchive to see when it happened, and it's often interesting to read what i was thinking at the time. And it's always nice when a long-time friend comments on something happening in my life now, comparing it to something they read from before. So... i think you are right. Memories do count for something, and sharing an experience (whether in-person at the time, or through writing later on) is a good way of reinforcing them.