Train whistle blowing.

The conversation for this week has been if free will exists or is it merely an illusion.  Are our futures determined by our past events?  Free will can only exist if there are no influences and there can be no influence when you have had life experiences.  Your unconscious mind makes decisions up to seven seconds prior to your conscious mind being aware of the choices.  This is the crux of Talluah’s essay due in 17 days and we have analysed it from every angle to the point where we decided (or did we?) to go out for a bike ride and take in some scenery.

Stumbling block number one was that I haven’t pumped my tyres up for some time and with Depp on the back in his little seat, my tyres were flatter than a personality theorist’s vote for free will.  Ahhh, it even permeates into the blog.  We detoured to the service station where motorbikes can only fuel up if they have a helmet.  The law doesn’t state that the rider has to be wearing the helmet, so long as they can show a helmet they can buy petrol.  Once the tyres were inflated we pedalled off until Truce’s chain derailed.  Some quick roadside repairs had us on our way, for 50 metres when Indiana’s shoelace became caught up in her pedal.  We had travelled a total of 150 metres and had our MacBethian troubles in threes.  Onwards cyclists, but not too fast – that would make you racists.

We know not the name of the park we found, but we do know that it formed part of the old train line that ran past 9 de Julio.  There are some old rail bridges that can be crossed by those who feel brave enough to tread the boards of the ferrocarril.  Part of the track has been consumed by a bamboo forest.  We trudged through the bamboo realising that we don’t need to be vigilant for snakes as there are none here.  It’s possible the mosquitoes killed them all. 

There is a hill in the park, as all good parks should have.  Here we could race, observe and contemplate the ghosts of the passengers who must have travelled along the old tracks.

Almost ironically, on Good Friday, we came across a giant metal sculpture of Jesus on the cross with cement statues leading from one end of the park to the other, telling the story of Jesus’ last hours.

The day finished with purchasing 1 kg of ice cream to go with our pancakes for dinner.  After all, we did have a healthy lunch and go for a bike ride…