Live An Adventure Podcast

Dec. 2006: Traveling from Salta to Ushuaia, Argentina I love to travel for many reasons. One of them is that I am more aware of my surroundings when I travel. Being in a new place opens my eyes to moments I may miss in daily life. 5 days ago I took a bus from Cochabamba to Santa Cruz in Bolivia. Yesterday I took a train from Santa Cruz to Salta in the north of Argentina. Today in Salta... 1. I saw an old lady giving a cup of coffee and a piece of cake to a beggar with crutches sitting on a sidewalk. 2. I observed a blue collar workers protesting and shouting at the anti-riot police protecting city hall. 3. Earlier I watched children feeding pigeons in a plaza. 4. I listened to a blind old man playing tango with his accordion while I wrote postcards to my mom and grandparents. A few tears fell as I wrote, tears of happiness and gratitude for all the blessings in my life. All day I wandered. Sometimes with map in hand. I found museums, sights to see, but I also walked ai...

The world’s happiest people aren’t in Qatar, the richest country by most measures. They aren’t in Japan, the nation with the highest life expectancy. Canada, with its chart-topping percentage of college graduates, doesn’t make the top 10. A poll released last year of nearly 150,000 people around the world says seven of the world’s 10 countries with the most upbeat attitudes are in Latin America. Many of the seven do poorly in traditional measures of well-being, like Guatemala, a country torn by decades of civil war followed by waves of gang-driven criminality that give it one of the highest homicide rates in the world. Guatemala sits just above Iraq on the United Nations’ Human Development Index, a composite of life expectancy, education and per capita income. But it ranks seventh in positive emotions. “In Guatemala, it’s a culture of friendly people who are always smiling,” said Luz Castillo, a 30-year-old surfing instructor. “Despite all the problems that we’re facing, we’re surroun...

I believe in happiness !! This is a list I found online with great tips on how to be happy. I made some changes. I hope they inspire and encourage you to be happier !! 1. Appreciate Life Be thankful that you woke up alive each morning. Develop a childlike sense of wonder towards life. Focus on the beauty of every living thing. Make the most of each day. Don’t take anything for granted. Don’t sweat the small stuff. 2. Choose Friends Wisely Surround yourself with happy, positive people who share your values and goals. Friends that have the same ethics as you will encourage you to achieve your dreams. They help you to feel good about yourself. They are there to lend a helping hand when needed. 3. Be Considerate Accept others for who they are as well as where they are in life. Respect them for who they are. Touch them with a kind and generous spirit. Help when you are able, without trying to change the other person. Try to brighten the day of everyone you come into cont...

Mary, a teenage girl growing up in Rome-occupied Nazareth, is betrothed to Joseph, a modest but kind carpenter. An angel tells her she will bear a child from God and after negotiating the anger and confusion of her family and Joseph at how this could be, she then finds that she, Joseph and the boy growing inside her must make the 100-mile journey to Bethlehem, as a result of a census ordered by Caesar. Meanwhile, Herod is troubled by prophesies regarding a king who will rise up against him and three astronomers from Persia are stirred by an aligning of stars and planets, promising the arrival of something, or someone, very special. Although the movie "The Nativity Story" received a far from rousing reception on its original release, it cannot be denied that it has an important place in any Christmas Video Vault. After all, this is where it all started, this is why we celebrate this time of the year. But is the film itself any good? In a word, ...

Despite incessant praise, Italy continues to surprise and delight. If you get it right, travelling in the bel paese (beautiful country) is one of those rare experiences in life that cannot be overrated. Bella Vita In few places do art and life intermingle so effortlessly. This may be the land of Dante, Michelangelo, da Vinci and Botticelli but it’s also the home of Salvatore Ferragamo, Giorgio Armani and Gualtiero Marchesi. Food, fashion, art and architecture – you’ll quickly learn that the root of Italian pathology is an unswerving dedication to living life well. A surprising number of Italians care deeply about the floral aftertastes of sheep cheese, the correct way to cut marble and the nuances of a Vivaldi concerto. Lurking behind the disinvoltura – the appearance of effortlessness – is a passionate attention to life’s fine print. So slow down, start taking note of life’s details and enjoy your own bella vita. Read more at htt...

Poem 5  by Pablo Neruda For you to hear me, My words Thin out sometimes. Like the seagulls draw lines on the beach. A necklace, a drunken bell For your hands smooth like grapes. And I look at my words from a distance They are yours more than mine. They go climbing over my old pain like ivies. They thus climb by the humid walls. You are the guilty one of this bloody play. They are fleeing my empty den. You pervade everything, everything. Before, they inhabited the solitude that you now enter, They are accustomed more to my sadness than you. Now I want them say what I want to tell you So that you hear them what I want you to hear from me. The wind of anguish still sometimes drag them. Hurricanes of dreams still at times tumble them. Listen to other voices in my painful voice. Crying of old mouths, blood of old pleas. Love me, companion. Do not abandon me. Follow me. Follow me, companion, in...

Ode to summer Summer, red violin,  clear cloud,  the hum  of a summer or cicadas  announce your arrival.  The heavens  arch  to a smoothness,  lucent  as an eye,  and below your gaze,  summer, you are  an infinite sky-fish,  shameless messenger  of praise,  lazy,  sleepy-eyed one,  little bee belly,  mischievous  sun,  terrible paternal sun,  sweaty as a toiling ox,  and the scorchiing sun  in one's head  is like a  sudden blow,  sun of thirst  crossing the sand,  summer,  desert sea.  The sulfur  miner  drips  yellow sweat,  the aviator  maps,  ray by ray,  the celestial sun,  darkened  sweat  slips  down a forehead  into the eyes;  at Lota,  the miner  scrubs  ...