It’s easy to lose sight of the bigger picture in the smog of every day busyness. Constant emails and things to do can point you in a direction you simply assume is progress.

Project shipped — on to the next one. Always working towards more, better, faster. Busy, busy Baxton.

In some senses, I think connectedness makes us a surrogate for the goals of the network. We lose our individuality. I have always been a wanderer, and even I have been subsumed.

Tonight, I’m flying down to Peru to meet up with Leah and do some good old fashioned trekking. She’s been in-country since last week, working up a storm. I hear Belen Hospital may even soon have a website on WordPress.com. We’ll meet in Lima and take a bus to Huaraz.

Huaraz is known as one of the best launch points in South America for outdoor adventure. It sits at 10,000 feet in a valley nestled between two of the tallest mountain ranges in the world. We’ll spend a day or so getting our gear together and adjusting to the altitude. Once we’re ready, a three or four day trek on the Santa Cruz trail awaits.

For reading material, I have William Hertling’s AI Apocalypse (sequel to the epic Avogadro Corp.), Vikram Chandra’s Sacred Games, and Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese. To occupy the hours of walking and dinners made over a camp stove, I have the best traveling companion in the world.

The unexamined life may not be worth living, but I find it harder and harder every day to put aside time to examine it. Fortunately, there are still many adventures to be had. In those adventures I can find the opportunity to wander.

¡Hasta luego! See you all on the 29th.