It had been a particularly bad year for me. I hadn’t worked the entire year (thank you Enron, Dick and George), my mother had passed away, and Plaintiff #2 took the kids and left. All this during an election year when the so-called Patriot Act was being touted as an effective measure to make me feel safer (no one of Middle Eastern descent had been detained, offended or otherwise insulted but my abilities to travel freely and do as I please with my own hard earned money have been seriously curbed), and the body count of young Americans was on the rise in a war that fewer and fewer of the American people wanted anything to do with.

I am more fortunate than most in that my work (Heavy Industrial Contractor) allows me to live anywhere in the world. All I need is occasional access to a telephone (I refuse to chain myself to a cellular phone) and the Internet.

The move was quick, simple and almost painless. I shed myself of an accumulation of almost 50 years of “stuff”, whittling my life down to 3 trunks and 2 suitcases, 1 trunk consisted entirely of all my engineering books, the second consisted of my CD collection and a thirty year old bottle of Single Malt Scotch Whisky, which I intend to put to good use at my daughter’s wedding (in 10 or 15 years) and the third contained all my Carharts (winter clothing) which I hoped never to have to use again. One never knows in my business, work is when and where you find it.

The rest of my “stuff” I left to Plaintiff #2 to dispose of as she pleased. The money to be applied to some lawyer’s monthly Beamer payment.

The Woods

The Amazon Rain Forest covers parts of 9 or 10 different countries. Geographically, it is one vast tropical rain forest.

Politically, for reasons known only to politicians (is it coincidental that most politicos have a law degree?), it has been divided into 2 different regions. One is known as Amazonas, which includes only the Amazon River Basin itself, from its headwaters to its mouth at the Atlantic. The other, which covers the rest, is known as the Selva, Spanish for forest, woods or jungle.

Walled (or open) communities of American/European retirees, tourists, ex-pats, adventurers, wannabees, and missionaries are not for me. Why leave the States only to live in some small microcosm there of The only English I want to hear is on a job somewhere, and not necessarily even there. I prefer my anonymity, such as it is, and being the only gringo in my little barrio, it is after all, rather hard won. I knew where I was going, had been there before and actually lived to tell about it. It was an easy decision for me. Having said all that, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that I’d like to maintain that anonymity along with my chosen lifestyle so I’m not going to say where in all the vast Selva I’ve chosen to call home. Let’s just say it’s one of a number of small communities along some river, which finds its way to Mother Amazon. We’ve advanced somewhat into the 21st Century, in that we have Internet Cafes (convenient in finding work), but not so much that there’s a television and computer in every room of the house. Families still gather in the cool of the evening to talk to each other. Sunday dinners are still common as well. There’s a serious lack of McDonalds, Burger Kings, KFC’s etc. etc. ad nauseum.

The Lifestyle

Political Correctness is non-existent here. Fred Reed, arguably the best editorial columnist extant, would love it here. The people are quite child-like, (as opposed to childish) and as a result a matriarchal society has evolved here.

There is an almost complete lack of machismo. The wars of terror have been stamped out and/or are far away. Women enjoy being women and treated as such. Give a lady a flower and she’ll actually smile and blush.