Dozing polar bear, Indianapolis Zoo

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

Hello, Sancho fans

I see that Raising Sancho has aired again in the U.S. and, it appears, Spain.  I can always tell when that happens, because the visits on the statcounter explode.  This blog has been mostly idle for a year or so, since I began writing on another site.  I do monitor the site, though, because almost every day brings at least a handful of visitors interested in Sancho.

Raising Sancho had a pretty big impact on my life, in sort of a mystical, serendipitous way.  I saw the show several months before some very big changes happened in my life, and in an odd way, my experience with it prepared me and cushioned me for those.  And, of course, traveling to London to meet and hang out with Carolina Vargas, who is one of the most nature-connected people I've ever known was 1) one of the more surprising things I've done in my life and 2) just generally awesome.

And beyond that, watching and writing about the show made me friends all over the world -- Chicago, Belgium, England, you name it.

So.  Even though I went through two boxes of tissues in the week after I first saw the show two-and-a-half years ago, Sancho still reverberates in my life today.  I feel so strongly that Carolina and Sancho's story offers not just a deeply admirable example of human interaction with wildlife, but powerful lessons about life, risk, loss, and letting go.

I've asked one of the many friends I made through Raising Sancho to write a guest post about the trip to the Pantanal that he took after seeing the show.  He has agreed, and I'll put the post up as soon as it's finished.

Feel free to comment as much as you like.  Carolina does check in from time to time, but it may not be soon.