Appreciating the Nature 자연의 진가를 알기
Day 164: 21 June 2016, Foz do Iguaçu
Continuing a bit from yesterday’s story, when I saw my brother’s detailed travel plan, the least exciting part was the Iguazú Falls. I was never a big fan of nature — my friends make fun of my phobia with weird trees. Besides, my skepticism towards whatever touristy things to do in a country or a city made me skeptical. When too many people talk about one thing, I tend to think that it must be overhyped.
So my expectation even when I hopped on a bus to the falls today was very low. I was already a bit confounded by the lack of infrastructure in the city that we are staying in, because for some reason I thought most part of Brazil — and definitely a popular destination like Foz do Iguaçu — would have paved roads and new, fancy skyscrapers. Instead, my ignorance faced a dirt road with puddles from a week of unusual rain in the area. Waiting a good 20 minutes to catch a local bus to arrive at the park entrance, I wished I stayed in Buenos Aires.
It took less than an hour for my attitude to turn around. Upon getting off the bus in the national park, a magnificent view unraveled before my eyes. I don’t think my words can describe this sublime scenery, so I need a bit of assistance.
Voilà!
Still, my camera didn’t even capture a tenth of the actual scenery. There were many more waterfalls as I walked down the path. I stood in one viewpoint with my mouth open, completely dumbfounded by the sight. As I kept lingering in one spot stunned by the nature, my brother rushed me to move on.
I couldn’t take my eyes off the view. When I closed my eyes, it was to hear the harmony of hundreds of waterfalls in the vicinity. Then, I’d open my eyes and survey through the water falling off the cliffs. Golden sunlight illuminated the trees behind the clumps of mist. I have never seen so many rainbows with such intense colors.
Hopping around the precarious bridge that brought me as close as possible to one of the falls, I was happy like a kid in an amusement park. The grand nature put a big smile on my face, and I ran out of “Wow”s to yell at the sight before my eyes. I was in full euphoria, just because of the grand nature.
Less than a year ago, I would have never imagined feeling euphoric by looking at a natural scenery. Such sentiment only came gradually but surely.
I began to appreciate nature while being out in the wild. Over the past year in Australia, I camped in extreme conditions, slept underneath the stars, and made campfires with broken branches and logs; I did hours of bushwalks encountering too many spider webs, climbed up unnamed hills and swam in a questionable pool surrounded by steep gorges. My initial fear towards nature and unwillingness to interact with it slowly decreased. It’s not completely gone, but it’s faltered greatly. Now, I happily choose to go out in the nature.
The new relationship with the nature helped me value it for the sake of it. Before, I never appreciated it like that. Instead, I valued nature for its utilitarian purposes; sunrises and sunsets were aesthetically pleasing and rendered nice photos (for Instagram); cool breeze on a hot summer day was favorable for it dried the beads of sweat; I brushed my teeth with the tap closed, not because I valued water per se, but because I was thinking about an African kid who has to walk for hours to source water. Even when I cared about preserving natural resources, I didn’t think about the nature’s intrinsic quality. The nature’s usefulness justified its existence.
If you haven’t followed a sea turtle at arm’s length: jumped into a pool that may have some deadly creatures in: lied on a sand dune with stars too many to count and shooting stars dropping every few minutes: seen the moon rise: or been drenched with mists of massive waterfalls, it’d be hard to understand the intrinsic value of the nature. I didn’t even consider it being the end itself. Only after interacting with it, I realized so. While I wish I knew this earlier, I’m glad I do now. But I wish more kids from cities don’t take a tap that provides water for granted. I hope they realize its essential value, not just because it’s useful for us but because it is what it is.
Thanks for reading. I’m a student, creative, photographer and writer currently traveling in Latin America. I stopped posting on Instagram, but you can still see my old photos.
164일: 2016년 6월 21일, 포즈 두 이과수
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