boosters, bucket lists, politics and mysterious cities of gold

[amw]

Well, folks, i am boosted. After waiting about three weeks for a formal vaccination card from the Panamanian ministry of health to arrive at my hotel, i gave up and decided to try my luck at a walk-in. I walked in. I got vaxxed. That was easy. It was nice having the feeling like i am doing my bit for global health by coming in to get vaxxed even

Comments

[carriea31]

I really like the way you have explained your feelings on the situation with Russia. This is exactly how I feel and you've articulated it so well. I know and believe these types of situations are important but I don't know enough to know what is the correct opinion for me to have, so I am happy to leave it to others. In addition, my mind can only handle so much heavy, tragic, horrible kinds of things before I go into overload and feel dreadful inside, so I do consciously limit my intake of stuff like that. I have felt guilty about that previously, but I've tried to stop, because there ARE others who can study and work to help in ways without feeling so upset by it. And that balance is good...we each have our own purpose.

[amw]

Yeah, i mean from my limited understanding Putin is just playing political games, either trying to intimidate the west into doing what he wants on NATO, or trying to distract his domestic audience for some reason... But also i don't really know enough to be confident in that opinion, and i'm not really interested enough to have a discussion about it with people who are very opinionated. Obviously i am on the side of "no war, please" because bloodshed is worse than no bloodshed, but further than that it's just not something on my radar very much. I'm happy to step back. I think it'd behoove more people to do the same, sometimes you hear people going off really ignorantly on stuff they actually know nothing about, and it's just a waste of everyone's time and energy. You don't need to have a strong opinion on everything, you know?

[motodraconis]

Since I live in a country that borders Russia, the situation in Ukraine screams a bit more loudly on my radar, but I've been too grossed out by it to articulate my concerns on LJ.

I'm also ex-architectural so for me, seeing the Mayan jungle temples of Tikal (with howler monkeys roaring) was amazing, much better than the Aztec temples in Mexico, though they were pretty excellent! I'm too obsessed with the architecture to notice the tourists, who I suspect would drown out the experience for you, and Guatemalan food was pretty bland. THE PYRAMID WAS AWESOME!!!

[amw]

That is a funny looking pyramid. Although you're right that the first thing i noticed was all the people around it. People do tend to annoy me when i'm trying to enjoy something cool. Then again, when you are up close, you can usually find corners of less people, and those are nice. I'm happy i went to the ruins at Delphi, for example, even though it was mostly packed. That said... i did go by myself, i didn't need to have a guide to take me from my accommodation to the site. That would've annoyed me a lot more, i think.

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[terminal_ennui]

My sister loved living in Peru, for what it’s worth, and did so on the cheap for a number of years. (I love Mexico, would love to be able to live there again, doubt it’ll ever be safe enough for me to feel comfortable again.)

Everywhere the Spaniards went had a city of gold RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER. We have a local legend in Tucson of the CHURCH the Spaniards built in the Santa Catalina mountains, which is next to a gold mine sealed with an iron door. Neither have been discovered.

[amw]

I love legends of lost cities. Even if they're not really there, or if they quietly got looted a hundred years ago, there's something sort of exciting about it, like if you go off-piste you might just stumble on who knows what.

One of my former work colleagues has been hanging out in Mexico over the past few months. I asked her how it's going for her because a lot of people i know (including Mexican Americans) are terrified to visit. She says she's mostly stayed at Airbnbs in nicer parts of town and taken big buses between towns, avoiding the rural areas. I guess that's pretty much the best way to do it now, live like a middle class Mexican person. Not sure if it's all that cheap, though, or if it'd even be much fun.

Darién Gap

[kanzeon_2040]

I'm told by somebody who works with the US Department of Homeland Security and Department of Agriculture that the US opposes building an easy way through the Darién Gap because it would allow for foot-and-mouth disease to travel north into Central and North America. This may sound like a trivial concern to the rest of us, but it is something the UDSA takes very seriously.

Re: Darién Gap

[amw]

This is an interesting theory, but also i am not sure it'd be enough on its own to completely block development. Like, if some country or some company or organization had enough money to clear all the jungle and put a highway through there, surely they'd have enough to put a proper border crossing and testing/quarantine station too? I remember in Namibia there was an internal border in the country to block cattle diseases from migrating south, and that seemed to work okay. (Of course, in Namibia it's also a racial issue, and many black farmers whose healthy cattle are banned have been trying to change things.)