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| Our rocket man. (Also very best song to accompany this blog.) |
If the Wehlen family had a motto, it might be: "Travel often with large groups to see this beautiful earth" (Iter saepe cum magnis coetibus hanc pulchram videre terram hanc pulchram...) or maybe just simply: sic itur ad astra: "thus you shall go to the stars."
Indeed, there is nothing like a big group trip: you bond in a way you don't at a dinner party or a night at the opera; and when you add in daily feelings of awe towards sky and space and sand, followed by a hot tub and an open bar; you have a pretty good week.
The photos probably tell the story best...so I will not write much. But in short, we had a collection of the smartest, loveliest people for almost a week "and"...as it says in the bible: "it was good". Thomas and I started an award while we were in Africa years ago for the best vacation-er. The person that joins everything, never complains even if bitten to death by mosquitos, the one who finds the gin and pours it for you first, the one who laughs in the face of danger and cold and heat, the one who makes you laugh on the earliest, coldest cruelest Wehlen morning excursions. On this person we bestow the sacred "Sundowner Award" for service to the noble cause of goofing off. This year the award went to F's brilliant friend from Exeter Peter T, who climbed mountains and introduced himself to strangers and never threw up in the hot tub...Mister perfect. Andrew, Thomas, Frederick and I debated the winner in our room the night before. We knew it probably had to be Peter, but Andrew made some strong arguments for one John B from Bielefeld, Germany. He maintained that we have never had a guest described as "unresponsive" and felt this level of joie de vivre deserved commendation. "Unresponsive" was the word Luis used with me after he went to check on John. I suggested to Luis that he needed to explore this further, and bring me a full report before I called his lovely mother (my friend) and explain we had, in essence, killed her son. Luis came back with the good news that John was alive, and "would be at dinner shortly". Andrew argued that the minuscule length of time between "perhaps dead" to dinner in a pressed shirt was impressive. I couldn't argue, ..also this was the same kid who had been seen sniffling and Thomas told him to go to the pharmacy and take a Covid test. The test was negative, which of course means nothing, but he raced back on his bicycle being chased by stray dogs and drugged out men in ponchos, to make the bus that morning. Keep in mind another kid spoke perfect Spanish, acted as our translator, and had a 33 resting heart rate; and he didn't win....so you see how stiff the competition was this year.
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| "Great time; Great Llamas; Great stars"- Quote by Will, K. Ca. USA |
Thomas was quite nearly ecstatic with the level of conversation one could casually drop in on. These were actual examples: What is language exactly? Why can you see the stars better with your peripheral vision? What constitutes a descendent of Ghengis Kahn? What is art if an AI can make it? Should AI have rights? Why do college pre-med classes use inflated brains instead of the wrinkly ones....? or perhaps, in the lull before cocktails, why not dive into a chat about the Cyclone Zyklon, the pesticide that was used to gas the Jews!? The choices were endless.
Our diversity was particularly splendid: we had Schneider siblings who have literally grown up in a five star hotel and claim friends from around the globe; and we had a kid from Exeter who had barely ever left his home state. But in the great margarita blender that is my kind of party, it all came together- better than the sum of its parts. If these kids are in charge of the world someday, we will be ok.
I thought the main draw would be the night sky, but the day was filled with sights so strange and amazing, that it was effectively a tie. The night routine with the astronomy guide (not an astronomer, but well informed nonetheless) meant we would go up to a platform near the hotel and lie down on cushioned sun loungers under blankets. Then they turned off the lights, and what appeared to be a children's drawing of a night sky would materialize: endless little white blinking dots smiling down on us. It was sublime; silent and beautiful beyond description. No one wanted very much to jump up when the time came to look through the telescope, but when we did, we saw stars living together in pairs like large, lovely lesbians, (our sun is of course a single gal) and Saturn and huge comets, and dot after beautiful white dot. F was up (he tells me now) almost every night until 3 am because he couldn't tear himself away.
Some of the highlights were lunch barbecues by the pool; walking as a group after dinner into the national park and simply looking up as one, at the heavens above; Amy teaching me finally the trick to hanging out in a cold plunge for many minutes; taking an outdoor shower while looking at the Milky Way; and the simple pleasure of seeing people you like very much at dinner, and knowing you will see them again the next day.
We only had one mishap on the day we woke up really early to see the geysers (the locals pronounced it geezers which we loved). We had a high altitude breakfast cooked for us and then started back to the blessed hotel and hot tub. I was sort of frazzled that day due to a very long bumpy ride out to the geezers. Then we hear an ominous sound and are told one of the vans was broken and a new one needed to be called in (we were at least an hour away from the hotel) Luckily for us, the one that broke was for the kids..so we handed out sun hats and drinks and left them by the side of the road.
So we somehow got 23 people there and 23 people home; and we were sad when it was over. Thomas and I longed for humidity however so we settled in to a big fat seat on a South American airline (they are fabulous now) and fled to Miami. Lexi wrote and asked me if I felt invigorated after 11 days there. HA! I think I speak for all of us when I say we were absolutely exhausted...and dried up like prunes. Drinking wine and taking hot tubs at this altitude and humidity is not for the faint of heart. But that is how seductive the stars are: like all great loves, they will make you do crazy things.
Onward Travelers! Where to next? xx
