Live An Adventure Podcast

I love to read. And when I travel I love to read even more. Before a trip I get excited about the books I will take with me. But sometimes a book winks at me from a hostel shelf, or in a used bookstore. While traveling in the Patagonia in 2006 I stumbled upon a book titled “The Book of Disquiet” by a Portuguese author named Fernando Pessoa.  These are some of his thoughts: Literature -which is art married to thought, and realization untainted by reality- seems to me the end towards which all human effort would have to strive, if it were truly human and not just a welling up of our animal self. To express something is to conserve its virtue and take away its terror. Fields are greener in their description than in their actual greenness. Flowers, if described with phrases that define them in the air of the imagination, will have colors with a durability not found in cellular life. What moves life. What is said endures. There´s nothing in life that´s less real for having been ...

Roots and Wings In June of 2004, after going to college in Arkansas for 4 years and teaching in Honduras, Costa Rica and the Carolinas for 7 years, I decided to take a sabbatical in Guatemala. I wanted to get back to my roots. I spent most of that year in Antigua Guatemala and Lake Atitlan. Two of the most beautiful places I know. I was home. My family. My food. My people. My land. I felt "Chapin" again. Chapin is the nickname given to Guatemalans.  As the end of my sabbatical got closer I began thinking of looking for a job. The thought of returning to the US came to my mind, but Mario Benedetti came to my mind. He is a poet and novelist from Uruguay. He said once: The South also exists...! That thought made me to seriously consider going to South America instead of North America. After a few days looking at the pros and cons I decided to go South. I found a job online. I contacted the school in Cochabamba, Bolivia and after a few emails and a phone interview they...

Egypt November 2007 i left my apartment at 6 am on thursday and returned saturday at 7 pm... 3 days and 2 nights exploring the sinai peninsula with steve, michelle, daryl and denise... the 9 hour bus ride from cairo to dahab was bearable only because i am reading a great book "Party of One: The Loner's Manifesto"... we arrived right after sunset, had dinner and chilled… next morning  i got up early to see the sun rising behind Saudi Arabia mountains and cover the red sea with its light and warmth... later steve and i went 4-wheeling to an oasis with views of the turquoise ocean and quaint dahab in the background... around 2 pm my friend steve and i took a taxi to st. catherine's monastery... it is tucked in the middle of the sinai peninsula, rocky mountains, desert, and solitude surrounds this place of prayer... we climbed mount sinai at 3 am and so did a few hundred other tourists, travelers, pilgrims, bedouins, and camels... here is a bit of history abou...

1. “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” – Henry Miller 2. “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine 3. “There are no foreign lands. It is the traveler only who is foreign.” – Robert Louis Stevenson 4. “The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.” – Samuel Johnson 5. “All the pathos and irony of leaving one’s youth behind is thus implicit in every joyous moment of travel: one knows that the first joy can never be recovered, and the wise traveler learns not to repeat successes but tries new places all the time.” – Paul Fussell 6. “Our battered suitcases were piled on the sidewalk again; we had longer ways to go. But no matter, the road is life.” – Jack Kerouac 7. “He who does not travel does not know the value of men.” – Moorish proverb 8. “People travel to faraway places to watch...

If for an instant God were to forget that I am rag doll and gifted me  with a piece of life, possibly I wouldn't say all that I think, but  rather I would think of all that I say. I would value things, not for their worth but for what they mean. I would sleep less, dream more, understanding that for each minute we  close our eyes we lose sixty seconds of light. I would walk when  others hold back. I would wake when others sleep. I would listen when  others talk, and how I would enjoy a good chocolate ice cream! If God were to give me a bit more life, I would dress simply, throw  myself on the earth to face the sun, baring not only my body but also  my soul. My God, if I had a heart, I would write my hate on ice, and  wait for the sunrise. Over the stars I would paint with a Van Gogh  dream a Benedetti poem, and a Serrat song would be the serenade I'd  offer to the moon. With my tears I would water roses, to feel the pain  ...

Have you ever faced a situation in which life seemed to get really complicated? Something happened that made you throw all your plans overboard? In June 2007 I explored Tikal, the  majestic ruins in the middle of the jungle in the north of Guatemala. "Survivor: The Maya Empire" was filmed there in 2005. This was my 5 th visit to Tikal and I loved it as if it had been the first. Just when I was walking back to the parking lot to get the bus back to Flores, it started to rain. I took my cheap but handy plastic poncho out of my bag, put it on and began walking towards the exit of the park, a 10 minute walk. In the evening I decided to call the bus company to confirm my ticket to the Mexican border the next day. I was so excited about spending a few days in Cancun! I looked for my bus ticket and I realized that not only I did not have my tickets, but I did not have my passport, phone numbers, and bank information. NO! I felt like I had been punched really hard in the pit of ...

Live juicy.   Stamp out conformity.  Stay in bed all  day.   Dream of gypsy wagons.  Find snails making  love. Develop an astounding appetite for books. Drink sunsets. Draw out your feelings.  Amaze yourself. Be ridiculous. Stop worrying now. If not now, then when? Make yes your favorite word. Marry yourself. Dry your clothes in the sun. Eat mangos naked. Keep toys in the bathtub. Spin yourself dizzy. Hang upside down. Watch children play. Celebrate an old person. Send a love letter to your self.   Be advanced. Try endearing. Invent new ways to love. Transform negatives. Delight someone. Wear pajamas to a drive in movie. Allow yourself to feel rich without money . Be who you truly are. Believe in everything. You are always on your way to a miracle. The...