Welcome

Greetings,

This is the first post of the blog we intend to keep (as much as possible) during our journey out of our current home at Holden Village to South America and back. Matt and i have lived here at Holden for almost 18 months. We have grown to love so many in this place, and so many that are now gone. It has been a place of great gifts. We also know that it is time to go, so in less than a week we will climb into the big yellow bus that brought us up that costly road and allow it to take us back down.

Everything has a beginning and an ending, and that is how it should be. At Holden, everything is just compressed. People come and go so much more quickly than in most places, so the sense of transition is always in the air.

Earlier this snowy evening, our friend Rachel showed us a whole lot of photos she'd taken on her own, earlier trip down to Bolivia. We are in for a real experience ... so many amazing places, so many different landscapes and ecosystems in one country. The overall feeling is one of excited expectation, mixed with a little bit of fear as well -- Bolivia is undergoing some turbulent times, which have brought with them the possibility that the country might split apart. And there is also the matter of the extreme poverty of the place. This is -- at least in part -- why we are choosing to go there. Rachel told us stories of wild landscapes, crazy mountain-to-jungle treks, puzzling encounters with locals, warm welcomes and frightening political protests. It is into this swirling environment that we have chosen to step.

And if you feel like it, you can read all about it here.

-MP

** By the way, we will be implementing a sort of short-hand signing mechanism. If it's me (Matt Perry) posting, I'll initial my posts "MP". Liechty can do whatever he decides (ML?) ... see you on down the road, after our week of goodbyes here in our mountain home.

**Nice Holden photo credit: Daniel Sullivan. Sorry Daniel, for stealing your photos all the time.