Storm

It is raining in the Bolivian town of San Ignacio de Velasco, and 'it looks like it's raining all over the world'. But this whas really an electric storm, with lightning and thunder, and not much to do so I decided to spend some time alone in the Jesuit church built here in the middle of the tropical forest, listening to the water and all the other sounds. Now, that was a religious experience.

Beign a known atheist and sometimes a pagan, my religious experience is only linked to my reverence for the inner forces of this planet, and I kind of like humankind. Where others see god, I only see fantastic buildings made by humans, and an incredible storm that shows nature unbound.

Alone there, it was impressive to see how the lightning reflected inside the empty church. But it would have been enough with the sound of water falling. A few people eventually came in to pray. All of them were Chiquitano indians. One very old man was praying in Chiquitano, a legacy from the time of the Jesuit missions nearly 300 years ago.

Then the wind started blowing inside the church, while it was possible to hear a very long, almost endless thunder, somewhere, out there over the jungle. And being there alone, the mind empty. Poetic.

But now I am writing this in the Internet Point, and the rain keeps falling. And I start to wonder if this means that tomorrow there will be no way out of this town connected by dirt roads only. Well, then I will just havce to stay here one more day.

(Luis Cordova en San Ignacio de Velasco, al comienzo de la noche)