All work and no play
On the one hand, I enjoy teasing Molly about the fact that we can’t just go someplace “on vacation.” We went to Bali because she had a job in Jarkarta and an idea for a book about rice. We went to Bolivia because she had a job in La Paz and an idea for a book about potatoes. We went to Peru to find out more about potatoes. We went to Belize because we had been invited by a friend of Molly’s, a botanist who had been doing research in the forest in Belize for the last 15 years and who thought there was the possibility of a book.
On the other hand, these diversions make for interesting vacations. In Bali, we went charging around rice paddies asking farmers questions about what kind of rice they were growing and why. In Bolivia we saw both Tiwanaku, an ancient city near Lake Titicaca, and the remains nearby of the raised beds that the locals used to grow potatoes (very efficiently) a thousand years ago. (The farmer that we talked to us said that no one uses raised beds any more because you can’t get a tractor into them.)
In Peru, we talked to potato farmers and visited pest management stations in places that ordinary tourists would never go, and we hung out at the Potato Institute and listened to lectures about the difficulties of creating disease resistant potatoes. This may not sound like fun, but given that I consider laying on the beach and similar activities a close approximation of torture, lectures about potatoes can be pretty cool. At least, Molly and I enjoyed them, but I also might point out that it is now five years later and there’s still no book.
(Doing tourist stuff.)
In Belize, we did tourist stuff – we visited ruins and climbed to the top of temples, we snorkeled along the barrier reef, we saw monkeys, iguanas, parrots, and bats, we rode buses, and we bought Guatemalan cloth. But we also got to clamber around in the woods with a bunch of crazy botanists who were determined to re-measure the diameters of some trees that they had measured and tagged 10 years ago, we got to visit the homes of some Maya farmers, we got an idea of some issues that archeologists and others who study the Maya are arguing about and of the level of passion (high) that they bring to the arguments. And we got a personal tour of one of the lost Maya cities guided by the woman (an American) who has been responsible for preserving and uncovering it. It makes for an interesting vacation.
On the other hand, these diversions make for interesting vacations. In Bali, we went charging around rice paddies asking farmers questions about what kind of rice they were growing and why. In Bolivia we saw both Tiwanaku, an ancient city near Lake Titicaca, and the remains nearby of the raised beds that the locals used to grow potatoes (very efficiently) a thousand years ago. (The farmer that we talked to us said that no one uses raised beds any more because you can’t get a tractor into them.)
In Peru, we talked to potato farmers and visited pest management stations in places that ordinary tourists would never go, and we hung out at the Potato Institute and listened to lectures about the difficulties of creating disease resistant potatoes. This may not sound like fun, but given that I consider laying on the beach and similar activities a close approximation of torture, lectures about potatoes can be pretty cool. At least, Molly and I enjoyed them, but I also might point out that it is now five years later and there’s still no book.
(Doing tourist stuff.)
posted by Jim at 12:02 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home