August 31, 2016 - 15:54
The image I selected as my avatar is of a butterfly that reminds me of the journey I took across the Peruvian Inca trails last summer. The word butterflies translates to "mariposas" in spanish, and the insects themselves which are prevalent in the amazonian cloud forest region are both gorgeous and diverse. The hike was a four day trek up and down the Andes mountains at altitudes of more than thirteen thousand feet above sea level. The trail runs along steep cliff edges and has thousands of stairs built by the Incan people centuries ago. I traveled with my mother, her wife, my brother, my sisters, and my step aunts. There, I was introduce by Eric, our guide, to the beauty and abundance of the earth goddess, Pachamama, and treated as a partaker rather than a tourist. The picture reminds me of the serenity that comes along with an arduous journey and of the melancholy nostalgia that was ushered in by fantastic cotton candy clouds as the sunset and millions of stars became visible. The butterflies acted as sirens that lured hikers closer and closer to the cliff's edge because as you looked up at them the trail would curve and you would be standing mere feet from a hundred feet drop. The trip was both enlightening and reflective because it truly showed my the grandeur of the world and the infinity of possibilities. I chose the image because it is a good reminder of the world's indescribable beauties.