I miss Enrico

I'm ok with being on my own, but it's a bit weird to be out of phone contact. Enrico owns no cell phone and even if he did he wouldn't have coverage where he is, and even if he did he'd find it sacreligious to use a cell phone while backcountry.

This brings home the fact that I've left Enrico in this state several times in recent years, not least when I was in Argentina and Chile with Megan, and Enrico had absolutely no idea where I even was half the time. I could have been detained by Chilean border guards (which at one point seemed like a distinct possibility), or eaten by rare Andean bears, or fallen into the Tigre River, or washed away by a Lujan flood (another theoretical possibility), and he wouldn't even have known where to find me. And I was completely oblivious.

Then there was the time I hung out in Italy for another two weeks after he came home. At least my cell phone worked in Italy, and I called home and sent back periodic random cell phone photos. But I don't think I really appreciated the how lonely it might be.

It's raining here, sheets and sheets of rain. I hope it's drier on the east side of the mountains, because I wouldn't want to be stuck in this rain in a tent for three days (though I have been stuck in a tent through worse). We're all thinking about you, Enrico! And in your honor, here are some random cell phone photos from Italy, from two years ago.

The view from First Terrace:
Lizard at the villa:


Flora from the villa:

Art lying around in the streets of Rome:

Waking up at the Fiumicino Hilton, ready to fly home: