Well, the walking part is finished. I’m going home Thursday. It feels funny to write that–doing the walk was such a big part of my identity for years. But I am so done with being a gypsy and setting up camp every other night. It sometimes feels like I haven’t done much here in Chile. But I did five workshops on how to make solar ovens, four on how to do wall gardening, made a zen garden at Conspirando, Did Joana Macy’s work with three different groups. I gave talks to about 4 classes, and 8 other groups. I met with five groups about doing a conference here in the next year, and did some drumming with different groups. I got rid of the car. I got all my stuff consolidated, and plan to leave two boxes here for a conference later. So that’s not bad for 6 weeks.

I was going to give away my harp, but I couldn’t. I made it, and when I had the nearly fatal car accident at the Honduras border, and saw the truck go back down the hill without a driver, it was the only thing I knew I would be sorry about missing. So it’s coming home with me instead clothes.

I’m a little worried about reentry, so I hope you will all call in the next week or so 415 3599297.

Thanks to the four hundred of you who have walked with me, thanks a million to the board of directors, and thanks to the hundreds who have given me meals and lodging and found schools and groups for me to talk to. To the 350 classrooms I have talked to, find your own unique way to help us all live more lightly on this earth, and help all the web of life survive and thrive. Thanks for being part of this walk. I am indebted to you all.

Rolene
PS Keep posted on the four Conferences of Appropriate Technology Walk With Earth wants to do this year.

It has been so nice to be in one place long enough to actually make connections and do things! This week I put on two workshops to make solar ovens, another to do wall gardening, talked to the Ecumenical Council of Santiago, talked to a couple of high school classes, and arranged a seminar for college students in January. Monday and Tuesday Gretchen, Leah, Carla, Josefina and I took out a tree, bamboo and cane in the garden of Conspirando, and ecofeminist center. We made a Zen garden with a dry creekbed in time for the open house yesterday. The open house was incredible with lots of young people including several involved in ecovillages and organic farming.

The week before I found the house my great grandfather built, and a man who knew him. It has been a kind of homecoming. A couple of times people have asked me for directions on the street. It is the first time I have not felt like such an (more…)

El Mercurio Santiago 4 de Diciembre 2009
Crusade for Earth:
The odyssey of Rolene: 20 months walk from Mexico to Santiago

A week ago Rolene Walker arrived in Chile, here ended her “pilgrimage” of nearly two years. During that time she lost 12 kilos, she developed asthma from pollution to road and survived a car accident. And all to save nature.

Gabriela Bade
It was 10 years ago that Rolene Walker, a sociologist from California, began to devise a plan for when she began her retirement: traveling across Latin America from Mexico to Chile. “At first I did not like the idea at all, it was too much work,” she says, over coffee here in Santiago, with the goal accomplished and 20 months of walking behind her.
The idea was not just sightseeing, but to raise awareness about excessive consumption. “I realized we will not survive unless we have a spiritual change.” So before leaving with the help of the Quaker church, in which she participates, she created the foundation Walk With Earth, made the www.caminataporlatierra.org blog (where you can review her journey), got a support truck and 8 March last year in San Diego, started her journey.
That first day, Rolene walked several miles in the company of children. The enthusiasm was enormous. It was not always so. There were many sections that she did it alone, at roadside, temperatures of 105 degrees and feeling too close to the passing trucks.
She quickly lost 12 kilos and befriended unconditional (more…)

Checklist for going solar
By Dana Hull Mercury News
dhull@mercurynews.com
Posted: 11/30/2009 12:01:00 AM PST
Updated: 12/01/2009 02:11:35 AM PST

With the sun setting before 5 p.m., solar power may be the last thing on your mind these days.

But declining panel prices, a federal tax credit and a state rebate all make now a good time to at least investigate whether solar power might make sense for your home — and your budget.

“If you’re thinking that you’d like to go solar within the next few years, right now is the time to do it,” said Lynn Jurich, president and co-founder of SunRun, a San Francisco-based startup that provides solar financing for consumers who can’t afford the upfront costs of buying their own solar systems. “Panels are on sale right now. There’s a sweet spot where the state rebates are still relatively high, but the costs have come down.”

And winter is a good season to research solar options, experts say. It’s generally a slower time for the industry, which means companies may be willing to give you a better deal. If you’re thinking about going solar, here’s a checklist of things to think about:

# Take a good, hard (more…)

Yesterday I walked to Plaza de Armas, the main plaza in Santiago, Chile. It was such a homecoming in so many ways. It is sad to think the walking part of the trip is over. But I talked to the dean of students at UTEM (the Technical University) and she set me up to talk with students and with a high school that is focused on the environment. I’m staying with an amazing woman, Judy Ress, who is a theologian, journalist, ecofeminist, and started an environmental center called Conspirando. She has arranged for me to talk with several major environmentalists here.

After the Plaza de Armas, I walked to La Moneda, which is the presidential palace, and there was a statue of Salvador Allende. It brought tears to my eyes to remember the horror we all felt when they started the coup against a democratically elected president and the pictures on TV of the shooting. His last words were that he had faith in Chile and its destiny.

Santiago is a beautiful, well planned city with a great metro and dedicated bus lanes that make traffic move well. The downtown area has several blocks of pedestrian streets and lots of parks. I walked through the “forestal” which is a park with trees from (more…)

I´m in southern Peru, and after a harrowing ride on a coastal road with mudslides and rocks the size of refrigerators falling, I am glad to be a little inland in Tacna. I wasn´t able to talk to any schools in Lima, but this week in Arequipa and Tacna, I have talked to four university classes and about nine high school groups, along with 5 radio shows, 1 newspaper, three churches and an environmental group. It´s feast or famine.

The environmental group wants to stop work on their municipal water supply to divert it to a new mining venture. They are composed of 20 community groups and are (more…)

The last time I was as terrifed as I was today was when I had cellulitis after my breast lumpectomy for cancer. The day started out benignly. At 5, my alarm went off to wake Colombians Tulio Roberto and Elsi to catch the 6 am bus to Lima. We were camping at the Maison Suisse and they had asked the reception to call a taxi for 5:30 which never came. So I took them to the bus station.

With a little trepidation I started out alone on the Panamerican south towards Chile. It was just me and the overnight buses from Arequipa on the road. It was overcast, and although they say it never rains in Nazca, it sure felt like rain. The sun broke through and warmed me for the first time in days. The sun in Lima never really shines enough to warm you up. It hardly casts a shadow when it does break through the low lying clouds.

So I felt a little less worried about starting out alone. After all, a Toyota dealer’s computer said my motor was fine, and the brakes were working well too. What was there to worry about?

It started to rain about 6:30 am, just a fine drizzle, but after about an hour, I had to put on the wipers. The southern coast of Peru is so much more interesting than the northern coast. It has dramatic cliffs, and the highest dune in the world at 8100 feet is just outside Nazca. Then it got really foggy and I could hardly see 30 feet ahead. There was a ghost truck in front of me, and it turned out to be real. So I kept close to it, assuming it couldn’t stop as fast as I could, and at least I could tell when we needed to turn or go downhill.

I got gas in Tico and went to the bathroom, and started out determined to see if I could get to Arequipa today. If not, then Camana. I figure about 35 mph, since you have to slow down for towns along the highway. There were so few towns, that by 11am I was more than half way. I decided to go for it.

Within 10 miles, I was stopped with four big rigs on a widened part of the highway about 60 feet above the sea on a cliff that went up another 60 feet topped with sand. The big rigs weren’t going forward, so neither was I. I had passed a bunch of rocks on the road, and several mud slides, but they weren’t too serious. What we were looking at was a dune over rocks that was 3000 feet high. A waterfall of mud and small rocks came down two different sides. Every 10 seconds basketball size rocks fell onto the highway or bounced down to the sea. In between would be slides of rocks the size of a refrigerator that bounced down the hill, off the highway and into the ocean below. None of us had ever seen such a sight.

There were eight of us, me and 7 truck drivers. One said it would be Monday before the highway patrol would get here with a tractor. I was parked three feet from a 60 foot drop off into the ocean. I gave them all plastic bags to put over their heads and shoulders to keep off the damp. Angel, Miguel, Wilbur and Wilbur were discussing how to move froward. Angel said to take a picture of them, which I did. I said I would put it on my website and they would become famous.

Their primary worry was what they were going to have for lunch. So I offered crackers and said I would cook, but it would be vegetarian—spaghetti with sauce, potatoes and onions, Maruchin soup with noodles. I’m sure it wasn’t coincidental, but they got organized and decided to move the rocks out of the way and move forward. We could see the northbound traffic stopped ½ mile around the curve. They had to keep an eye out for the rocks falling, and all of them ran when a group of about 6 refrigerator size rocks came bouncing down. Wilbur in his EM truck set out to cross. We waited to see if he made it, because where we were parked, there were no fallen rocks on our side of the road. Below the mudfalls he waited an agonizing 5 minutes while his assistant removed rocks and then moved forward.

Another driver and his wife moved in front of me with their sedan. It had been hit by a rock already, and they weren’t going forward. I decided that it scared me more to be a sitting duck and have the whole mountain come down on me than to keep moving forward. I figured if the big rigs could get through, I could. So when Wilbur and the Repsol Gas tanker moved, I went with them. Fortunately, Miguel in a service truck stayed behind me.

The worst was the mud slides, because if I lost control of the car and skidded, it would be to my death on the rocks by the sea. But I stayed within the big rigs tracks, and did not look down. I only skided once (Miguel slid twice).

I was shaking almost uncontrollably as I moved the first place we stopped for Wilbur to move some rocks. Jose who had come from the south told me the south was worse and to turn around and go back to Tico. But he hadn’t seen the road to the north, and Miguel had and couldn’t get through north either. So I stayed with my pack. We had to wait in a safe place (without rocks on the road) every time we got to a mudslide to make sure the truck in front got through before we started out, because if they got stuck, we were all doomed. I don’t think I have ever prayed so fervently.

We had to stop about eight times. One time a German and a paneled truck tried to get in front of me. The truck got slammed by a rock—serves him right. I’m not stupid, I was waiting in places where there were no rocks. When we got through safely, Miguel stayed behind me for several miles to make sure I was okay. He honked as he passed. I passed Wilbur and then he passed me and we honked. I tried to stay close to him in case I had trouble. He sure moved fast. I finally got to Camana about 4, and got the last room in the hotel. It was way too expensive, but I needed a good bed and a hot shower. I’m not camping tonight.

Back on the road. Martin and Emily are honeymooning in Belize, and the wedding was beautiful. Emily’s mom and family did all the cooking and it was in their backyard which is in the desert. I got to see my great friends Marlee and Ed from Virginia, all my siblings and nieces and nephews (except one). I got to play my harp, including a song I composed for them. But most important, Martin and Emily enjoyed themselves and were very gracious to everyone.

I can’t believe I thought it was a good idea to fly back to Lima two days later. What a scramble! When I got to Peru in July, the public schools were on vacation, and now that I am back, the teachers are on strike, so (more…)

Brand built his case for rethinking environmental goals and
methods on two major changes going on in the world. The one that
most people still don’t take into consideration is that power is
shifting to the developing world, where 5 out of 6 people live, where
the bulk of humanity is getting out of poverty by moving to cities and
creating their own jobs and communities (slums, for now).
He noted that history has always been driven by the world’s
largest cities, and these years they are places like Mumbai, Lagos,
Dhaka, São Paulo, Karachi, and Mexico City, which are growing 3
times faster and 9 times bigger than cities in the currently developed
world ever did. The people in those cities are unstoppably (more…)

The difference between the Pacific coast of Ecuador and Peru is like night and day. El Nino keeps Ecuadors coast hot and humid, with mangrove jungles and lots of floar and fauna. About five miles north of the borderThe humboldt current is cold and the Peruvian coast is all desert for 1500 miles. Further south, the northern coast of Chile has never had any measurable rainfall. The Andes are a very new mountain range, and are pretty dry, too. Most of the ancient cultures along this coast depended on rivers and sophisticated irrigation systems that are still in use today.
There were amazing ancient cultures along the coast of Peru and part of Ecuador. There are ruins near Barranca called Caral, where there were 20 cities in (more…)