Been in Copacabana for the past few days (the less well known Bolivian one and not the crazy Brazilian one... Spanish-speaking South America is the rule... remember...).
Anyway, this place is by Lake Titicaca, a huge big lake in the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes and its the staging post for trips to the Lake´s two main islands, Isla del Sol and Isla de la Luna...
I´m just back from two nights on Isla del Sol and it was absolutely fantastic... it´s obvious where the island gets its name from, because there´s one thing that you can´t miss when you´re there, you have the sun beating down on you from the moment its rises to the moment it sets... got sunburned on my ears... which is a bit of a first!
On the first night I hiked (something else that can´t be avoided on this island) to a less-visited town on the east coast, where I met a french couple and we had a lovely meal of fresh trout followed by great craic around a campfire... I travelled around the rest of the island with them for the next day and half (Yvan and Valerie... click here for their blog - pour les francophones) and we had a couple more trout and perch meals and generally enjoyed ourselves around campfires with beer and music (the former being a permanent travelling companion, the latter a rare treat). You can find pictures of the island here.
Anyway, I´m back on the mainland now and am having another intellectual epiphany that I thought I would share with you without being a ponsy fucker... I´ve been reading a book of JP Sartre´s plays, "No Exit" being the main one (I´ve read the French version, "Huis Clos", before, but I´m understanding the English version a little bit better). It´s an illustration of Sartre´s concept of existentialism... Without being to arty-farty about the whole thing, let me explain this briefly:
Sartre reckons that the human essence (i.e. your essence or what it means to be you) is defined by the human existence (i.e. your life or the sum of its parts)... This means that essence follows existence, and that what it means to be you is defined by your life and what you do in it, and not that essence precedes existence, or that your essence has been designed by some higher being before your creation.
This gives each of us the ability to define ourselves and says that we must take full responsibility for our own persona's and not shove it off on some divinity that created us "for better or for worse"... Furthermore, Sartre says that it is solely the appearance (Conor´s interpretation: our actions) that create our essence from our existence and not anything hidden behind these appearances (i.e. our feelings???)
Anyway, I am l finding myself drawn to this point of view and would very much appreciate if we could start a moral debate on the issue. You can find more info about Sartre´s existentialism here and it would be great if you could use the comments function on this post (its not very difficult, its the one that says Comments on the bottom left of this post, then go to the bottom of the page to post yourself...).
Your thoughts are required here, so if you have the ability to think, then please express yourself... I´m new to this whole philosophy thing, so don´t be afraid to tell me that I´m talking through my h%$* (ahem, have had some complaints regarding language!!!)...
It´s about time this blog got interactive...
Going to Cuzco in Peru next, where hopefully I´ll see these Macchu Picchu ruins... I´m over the 30 day visa in Bolivia though, and am now officially an illegal immigrant, so if I don´t update again, it means that I´ve been sent to jail for ten years trying to cross the border (or else that I´ve had my hands cut off and I can´t type anymore - "What a disaster that would be", I hear you say)...
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