My Pura Vida

Memories of Southern Ecuador

This past week I read John Robbins book Healthy at 100, which explores peoples in various cultures around the world that have histories of longevity.  One of the regions included the peoples the Sacred Valley of Vilcabamba Ecuador in Southern Ecuador.  It was obvious from the reading that the author has not visited the area.  I was there in the fall of 2004 and fell in love with it.  I am anxious to return there. 

The flight from Quito includes a view of several volcanos, including Cotopoxi.

The entrance to Loja reminds one of a different period in time. 

In fact, its history goes back to `1571.

It was the time of Spanish conquest.

The history is also depicted in the murals.

The images are seen throughout the town.

The colors in the murals are extended to the houses in downtown Loja. 

The market was full of freshly picked produce.  Each vendor has their own stand.

The brightly colored room I stayed in @ the Madre Tierra hotel in Vilcabamba.  Massages at the hotel were $25 hr.  At that price you could have one every day!!!

This incredible view in Vilcabamba is one of the reasons why I would live there. 

Sandstone hills south of Vilcabamba. 

The Loja airport closed the day I was supposed to fly back to Quito, so I had to take a 4 hour cab ride to Cuenta to catch a flight there.  The road was covered by landslides.  But these beautiful trees in bloom were a pretty sight. 

Removing my Name from Mailing Lists

In early November I posted about Catalog Choice, a new service where you can "decline" from companies mailing lists.  I received a huge pile of catalogs over the holiday season, collected all their names and finally had some time to go on the site and opt out. It was a whopping 52 different catalogs.  The thought of saving all of those trees is a big motivating factor for me. 

After reading a little of the Catalog Choice blog, I discovered that they have people working to contact the companies and convince them to remove the names of the people who have opted out on their list.  On Jan 18, one of their Merchant Account Managers described how he got the cold shoulder.  The Catalog Choice community is presently 402,011 persons strong, who have already opted out of 5,138,022 catalogs.  Keep the pressure on!!!

I am also putting the postcards in the mail that I got from signing up with 41pounds.  These are requests to remove my name for the major direct mailing houses including Abacus Direct, Mike's Market Share, Info USA/Donnelley Marketing, Readers Digest Associations, Publishers Clearinghouse, and Haines Criss-Cross Directory.  A couple of additional tips from 41pounds were:

• Do not fill out a change of address form with the post office when you move.
• Do not use supermarket club cards which are used to track spending habits.
• Avoid sending in product warrenty cards - they are designed to collect private information.  If you do fill out the card write "Do not sell, share or rent my information" on the card.
• When you donate money to non-profits request that they do not sell, share or rent your information to others.

We will see how things progress over the year.  I am hopefully optimistic that these steps will help. 

Human Transformation to Address Planetary Crisis

One of the greatest needs of humanity today is the coming into oneness, or the nurturement of a sense that the individual is intimately connected to the planet Earth and universe as a whole.  The Egyptian alchemical symbol of the Ouroboros (shown here), the snake that bites its own tail, means “All is One.”  Alchemy as a means to produce human transformation of consciousness is about the process of an individual coming into “oneness” through the integration of the psyche, soul and spirit.  This process is called individuation.  It is the ultimate goal. 

The human collective is currently biting its own tail by not changing the paradigm of economic growth and excessive consumption of the Earth’s resources.  According to the Global Footprint Network and WWF 2006 Living Planet Report, in 1961 humans were using about half the planet's biocapacity. We began exceeding the Earth’s life sustaining capacity in the late 1980’s.  In 2003 over 1.25 times the biocapacity was being used.  Moderate projections suggest that by 2050 demand for the Earth’s resources will be twice as much as the planet can supply.  However, after overshooting capacity for 50-70 years, the natural capital needed to meet these needs may be depleted.  Two of the most extreme environmental ramifications of this human behavior are the sixth mass extinction event currently taking place on the planet and the increasing temperatures from global climate change.  Scientists have determined that this is the first time in the Earth’s history that either of these events were caused by humans.  Clearly radical human transformation is required to alter the current path of destruction.  Will you begin your alchemical transformation and become a part of the solution?