On the balcony - Day Two

I am so grateful for each and every avocado I eat on this trip.

This morning I sat on my parents balcony feeling relaxed and lucky - reading archival New Yorker articles that I never had time to read in the hustle and bustle of Montreal's winter.
Last night was the first night of rest I've had without nightmares or anxiety ridden dreams. The constant hum of the ocean and long distance construction sites matters but not as much as the fresh air and what the eyes are not use to seeing. I know cars and feeling stuck in a concrete maze but I don't recognize large amounts of space. Endless depths of water making you feel small. Making you feel like there's no need to dominate anything but to just sit there and enjoy it.

I started to get these little mosquito-like rashes on my body. This started to happen in my last three visits. The doctor I saw on my last trip told me it was the ocean water and that it's common for foreigners to get such rashes. When they see it on my body, family members usually say "Oh you probably got that in Bolivia" if I had just came from there or "Good thing you're not in Bolivia or it would be even worse" if I was going to Bolivia after Chile. Most of the times I just laugh to myself realizing how pointless it is to respond to something with so much error and ignorance.

I feel the same way about La Paz, Bolivia as people often do about New York city. Every time I go in there it just kicks my ass but I heal and return for some more. But all you can do while you're healing is think about how amazing that ass-kicking was. Ignorance can cause people to say horrible and ridiculous things but it can also make you love and enjoy something purely based on the fact that you know so little about it.