Last Saturday, after a long time, years, I returned to a very special and very accessible place for those of us who live in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela.
It is enough to get to the foot of the mountain, even the public transport leaves us quite close to one of the many trails to take refuge in our beautiful mountain, El Avila, officially called Waraira Repano.
Some factors had prevented me from returning, mainly the health factor. Many times you can look at someone so complete on the outside and be unable to imagine if they are carrying any chronic pain or discomfort on their back. Someday we will fall, that's inevitable, so I think it's worth living and being thankful for what still works well in us.
This time, I decided to go the shortest way I know to not force my body so much and to check little by little how far we can go, my body and me.
Only about 20 to 25 minutes of climbing to get to Quintero Creek, a pretty cheap price for the reward you get since you start breathing fresher air, natural breeze and various sounds, like water cleaning the rocks and simply flowing to its infinite destination.
This climb is quite gentle, much of the path is almost flat and some fragments are visibly delimited. In some areas there are agglomerations of rocks in their most genuine form but nothing that is really difficult to traverse, at least from my point of view.
Many parents take their children to enjoy this tour and the goal of most of them is to swim in the creek.
At times, I reproached myself for why it had taken me so long to reconnect with this beautiful landscape, then I remembered... Ah sure, I have not been feeling very well, but if I'm still going to have a discomfort at home and also have to see a not very nice landscape and hear a lot of annoying noise, then I'd better move to a more pleasant, peaceful and best of all, natural environment.
So, I arrived at the creek, there were too many people for my taste, however, it gave me satisfaction to know that more and more people want this type of connection, even so I looked for a place a little apart to be with me and with the space that was caressing me.
There was a big rock as if waiting for me.
I did not hesitate to rest on it and lay my body down, I needed it, very much, it was as if nature could feel and understand me.
I closed my eyes for a few minutes, trying simply to be part of that scene in the most passive way possible, just being, being who I am, a fragile human being but at the same time full of strength. I tried not to think too much, but sometimes things inside my head get tangled.
I undressed my feet and took them to wash, the water was quite cold and comforting. At that moment it was easier to appease a little mental chatter, now it was the sensation of the water on my feet that was the protagonist.... Hush, hush... Just feel this moment, I told myself.
When I say silence, I mean my mind, nature has its own sounds and that's what I wanted to hear, as long as it wasn't threatening of course.
Suddenly, a seductive friend approached me and brought me a serenade, without guitar and «a cappella», puffing out his cheeks gracefully....
Okay buddy, thanks for the serenade. It certainly has nothing to do with listening to the sound of motorcycles coming and going and much less with the annoying songs played by the neighbors at high volume. It's great to be here.
I lay on the rock for a while, just looking up. At that moment I was already quite relaxed and I felt like a magnet trying to take with me a bit of all that energy emanating from the place.
Being still, just contemplating nature and enjoying its sounds, without anyone's voice, is something that I could do for hours.
When I turned to look towards the small waterfall, most of the people were gone, I took the moment to take some pictures. Next time I will go prepared to receive the force of the water over my body and take a full bath under the waterfall, this time it was good to at least clean my steps and wash my face.
Photos of my property.
