Travel Tips

I believe in angels.

No, I am not a religious person at all, no.
But I do believe in angels.

Not the ones that are supposed to hover in the skies.
Not the children with wings that play flutes and harps as displayed in churches.
And not the Nicolas Cages and Jack Landons in those films.

But I do believe in angels.
Angels, that show up right in front of you when you are desperate,
Who appear from out of nowhere
when you think there is no way out,
of somewhere in the middle of nowhere.
When you are stuck in the mud.
When you are lost in the jungle.
When the next waterfall is too high to climb.
When the darkness becomes your worst enemy.

Many of them are in South America, it seems.
Though maybe that was where I needed them most.
Many of them carry a machete.
Many of them own next to nothing.
None of them expected anything in return.

I never thought they existed.
But now
I believe in angels.

So much that one day
I expected one to come
When darkness was about to fall
And the road was still far away
But how far I did not know.
And my friend was afraid
That I had became mad.
Until behind the next bend
Of the trail there appeared
An angel.
With machete.
And he asked if we had a light.
So we became scared
That this time the road
Would be too far away.
But he took out a cigarette
And told us to hurry up
Because in ten minutes
It would be completely dark
To walk very fast
Because the road was ten minutes away.
And ten minutes later
We hit the road
And it was dark.
We got the last bus
And made it once more.

And I do not even know the name
Of this angel
Who took away my fear.

Like all the others before.

Who pulled me out of the mud
And washed my feet in the puddle
When my rubber boots had long gone,
Stuck in the mud.
Cut me sticks to help me walk.
And carried my luggage on their mule,
Far away in front of me.
Leaving me nothing than what I carried.
And waited for me hours later
At the place I wanted to reach.
With all my things.
Who refused money for their help
Although they were poor
Who had all the chances
But could be trusted.

Who found me when one waterfall
After I had climbed half a dozen
Was really too hard to pass
And I slid down the others
To go back the same way I came
To make it back fast
Afraid of the dark.
Who just appeared out of nothing
To show us the way
Me and my friend
Around one more cascade
Back to the camp.

Thanks to all
These friendly people
Who somehow always appeared
Out of nowhere
In the middle of nowhere.
When I needed them most.
Who do not know
how much
They helped me.

These angels.