From the dust…

I think that if your looking, you can learn lessons from anything. Including a rocky desert.
I like to sit down with Walter every-now-and-then and explain what has been going on at work. Considering the nature of the work, we often end up talking about guinea pigs, cows, and other random farm animals. Several times, this has led to a discussion about the land that he has. If we talk about cows, he comments how he has some land he could put cows on. If we talk about goats, he has land for that. If we talk about guinea pigs, you guessed it, he has land for that too. He also talked about all the different crops he was planning on planting and the hard work he had to get the canals working to water the land. He always gets excited about it and asked me when I was going to go out there with him (its about an hour and half north of Trujillo).
I finally got to go. Here is what I saw.


Desert and rocks.

More desert and rocks. The canals here where actually built and used by the Incan civilization. Those same canals are still be used today.

That’s more desert and a whole pile of rocks. There are rocks everywhere. These piles were made by the Incans as well in preparation for farming. Call is “Large scale house cleaning.”

Yup. More rocks and desert.

This is the base of operations. The house there has a dirt floor and … yup. rocks.

Life Lesson Learned

During the visit, he made the joke several times that (roughly translated) the only thing that doesn’t grow here is whatever you don’t put in the ground.
I thought to myself “Self – I’m in a rock covered desert. There is nothing here. The canals where built 1500 years ago. I don’t know that you could pay me to own this place. The only thing I see growing is rocks!”
Then I got to thinking, this field is surrounded by sugar cane fields. Large lush green fields. At one time, those fields looked just like his.
Here is the part I started thinking “cup half full” and I learned something. If the guy next to Walter had turned a desert into a green sugar cane field, then why shouldn’t this be a field of endless possibilities of cows, goats, guinea pigs, corn, sugar, or whatever else you can dream up. Like he said, the only thing that doesn’t grow is what you don’t put in the ground.
The grass isnt always greener on the other side, it just take some work on your side and there is no reason why life can be just as good on either side of the bridge.

Enjoy the rest of the pictures from the day.
Dale out.