last travel update from uruguay
Saludo a todos,
Today I travelled 90 km north from Colonia to Carmelo and from here I will catch a boat across the Rio del Plata and enter Argentina in the port town of Tigre.
I had spent three weeks in the peaceful village of Colonia. I did not do very much there. my usual routine, Walking around, buying groceries and making my meals, swimming in the river. I met a few cool travelers and had some nice walks and talks. Friends who seem so important in the moment and then Poof they are gone. Usually gone forever. The travelers lament.
My last 5 nights there in Colonia I made dinner with an Irish bicycle traveller named Sean. He blogs on a very neat bicycle travel websight (they have a website for everything now a days) it is called www.crazyguyonabike.com
The bus ride here to Carmelo was uneventful. nice flat scenery through typical Uruguay farmlands. I am in a little hotel here called Hotel Oriental. The only good thing I can say about it is it is cheap. I mean it is the cheapest place I have stayed in Uruguay. it is dark and not very clean. The staff is not what you would call ....friendly.
I was thinking at first to be here for 5 nights. After checking in I decided to only stay tonight and tomorrow. The town is quite small and I believe I have already seen it all. I bought a ticket to cross the river to Argentina on Wednesday. It is a much cheaper crossing point here than Montevideo or Colonia. And an unexpeceted bonus is that when I get to Tigre Argentina the company that operates the ferry provides a free minibus to Buenos Aires. I will be going to B.A. Wednesday night, it looks like.
Ahh to be free. To be "on the road" forever. To never have to stay, to never have to go...I never really know how long I will stay in a place. I think being "on the road" does not necessarily mean one must go someplace everyday.
Being "On the road" and being free is not necessarily travelling. It is however in a certain sence being unsettled, being un attached. I suppose I borrow the expression "On the Road" from a travel book written by Jack Kerouak about 50 years ago.
To me being "on the Road" is a feeling of freedom. I know many persons who are living rather sedentary lives but they are travellers none the less.The thing is to have a feeling that one can just pick up and go whenever one feels like it.
Before I began my journeys, I had a buddy who had done a lot of travelling. He advised me that the first rule of a traveller is "If you are not having fun...leave" Well, I suppose that the second rule is "If you are having fun, stay!" I never really know how I will like a place. Shahh I never even really know if I liked it until after I have left!
I know a lot of travellers who arent travelling. I know a lot of hippies with short hair. I know a lot of bikers who drive cars. I know a lot of warriors who are at peace. Just because you aren`t fighting, doesnt mean you arent a warrior. Its about heart. Being on the road is about heart. A path with heart.
AS I travel, as I wander, as I roam I meet alot of backpackers. Backpackers are travellers who stay in cheap budget hostels and guest houses. They are travellers in the most mundane sense of the word, that is, they are on a trip, on a journey.Usually on a relatively long journey by United States of American standards, a long journey would be more than a month.So they stay in these kind of places they call backpacker places.
They are not all travellers. My hobo pal Andy might call them sight-seers or vacationers, or turists. They have clear and obvious attachments usually in the form of commitments in a place called "back home". They know where they are going "back to" and they know more or less when they are going back. Travellers are not going back. Doesn`t mean they are leaving, doesn`t mean they are still living out of a suitcase or a backpack it just means they arent going back!
When I meet backpackers in hostels or on a train or bus or wherever, Once we exchange quick stories of what we are doing, the number one question is always this "How do you finance this" or "How can you afford to travel for so long," or, you know... something like that.
Of course this is precisely the wrong question. The question immediately reveals to me that they may be a backpacker but they are not a traveller.
It isn`t about money. It is about heart. It is about attitude. It is about freedom. Freedom is more a state of mind than a financial statement. Anyone who thinks you can find freedom through finance, has not been in a bank lately!!
There is a lot more to freedom than having enough money to travel and being allowed to vote once every 4 years! Sure this is part of it. If you are born in Myanmar (Burma) and you have no way of earning money and no way of getting a passport, sure you can`t travel. Financial and political freedom is a part of it, but this is the most mundane (I dont mean mundane in a negative way) level of freedom.
The real freedoms are (in my opinion) Freedom from Authority, Freedom from the known, and freedom from Time. So then, really freedom is all about internal freedoms not about external freedom. Certainly not about money.
"So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?" Ayn Rand
Money is not about freedom, it is about slavery! Having money never made anyone free, but it has ensnared millions of people all through history. To be a traveller you have to be free of the "fear of not having money"!
I will write the next update from Argentina.
Peace, love, and freedom to all who read these words.
Rambling Robert
"The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the Prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this."Albert Einstein
"Hitler and Mussolini were only the primary spokesmen for the attitude of domination and craving for power that are in the heart of almost everyone. Until the source is cleared, there will always be confusion and hate, wars and class antagonisms."Jiddu Krishnamurti
"Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do on a rainy afternoon." Susan Ertz
Today I travelled 90 km north from Colonia to Carmelo and from here I will catch a boat across the Rio del Plata and enter Argentina in the port town of Tigre.
I had spent three weeks in the peaceful village of Colonia. I did not do very much there. my usual routine, Walking around, buying groceries and making my meals, swimming in the river. I met a few cool travelers and had some nice walks and talks. Friends who seem so important in the moment and then Poof they are gone. Usually gone forever. The travelers lament.
My last 5 nights there in Colonia I made dinner with an Irish bicycle traveller named Sean. He blogs on a very neat bicycle travel websight (they have a website for everything now a days) it is called www.crazyguyonabike.com
The bus ride here to Carmelo was uneventful. nice flat scenery through typical Uruguay farmlands. I am in a little hotel here called Hotel Oriental. The only good thing I can say about it is it is cheap. I mean it is the cheapest place I have stayed in Uruguay. it is dark and not very clean. The staff is not what you would call ....friendly.
I was thinking at first to be here for 5 nights. After checking in I decided to only stay tonight and tomorrow. The town is quite small and I believe I have already seen it all. I bought a ticket to cross the river to Argentina on Wednesday. It is a much cheaper crossing point here than Montevideo or Colonia. And an unexpeceted bonus is that when I get to Tigre Argentina the company that operates the ferry provides a free minibus to Buenos Aires. I will be going to B.A. Wednesday night, it looks like.
Ahh to be free. To be "on the road" forever. To never have to stay, to never have to go...I never really know how long I will stay in a place. I think being "on the road" does not necessarily mean one must go someplace everyday.
Being "On the road" and being free is not necessarily travelling. It is however in a certain sence being unsettled, being un attached. I suppose I borrow the expression "On the Road" from a travel book written by Jack Kerouak about 50 years ago.
To me being "on the Road" is a feeling of freedom. I know many persons who are living rather sedentary lives but they are travellers none the less.The thing is to have a feeling that one can just pick up and go whenever one feels like it.
Before I began my journeys, I had a buddy who had done a lot of travelling. He advised me that the first rule of a traveller is "If you are not having fun...leave" Well, I suppose that the second rule is "If you are having fun, stay!" I never really know how I will like a place. Shahh I never even really know if I liked it until after I have left!
I know a lot of travellers who arent travelling. I know a lot of hippies with short hair. I know a lot of bikers who drive cars. I know a lot of warriors who are at peace. Just because you aren`t fighting, doesnt mean you arent a warrior. Its about heart. Being on the road is about heart. A path with heart.
AS I travel, as I wander, as I roam I meet alot of backpackers. Backpackers are travellers who stay in cheap budget hostels and guest houses. They are travellers in the most mundane sense of the word, that is, they are on a trip, on a journey.Usually on a relatively long journey by United States of American standards, a long journey would be more than a month.So they stay in these kind of places they call backpacker places.
They are not all travellers. My hobo pal Andy might call them sight-seers or vacationers, or turists. They have clear and obvious attachments usually in the form of commitments in a place called "back home". They know where they are going "back to" and they know more or less when they are going back. Travellers are not going back. Doesn`t mean they are leaving, doesn`t mean they are still living out of a suitcase or a backpack it just means they arent going back!
When I meet backpackers in hostels or on a train or bus or wherever, Once we exchange quick stories of what we are doing, the number one question is always this "How do you finance this" or "How can you afford to travel for so long," or, you know... something like that.
Of course this is precisely the wrong question. The question immediately reveals to me that they may be a backpacker but they are not a traveller.
It isn`t about money. It is about heart. It is about attitude. It is about freedom. Freedom is more a state of mind than a financial statement. Anyone who thinks you can find freedom through finance, has not been in a bank lately!!
There is a lot more to freedom than having enough money to travel and being allowed to vote once every 4 years! Sure this is part of it. If you are born in Myanmar (Burma) and you have no way of earning money and no way of getting a passport, sure you can`t travel. Financial and political freedom is a part of it, but this is the most mundane (I dont mean mundane in a negative way) level of freedom.
The real freedoms are (in my opinion) Freedom from Authority, Freedom from the known, and freedom from Time. So then, really freedom is all about internal freedoms not about external freedom. Certainly not about money.
"So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?" Ayn Rand
Money is not about freedom, it is about slavery! Having money never made anyone free, but it has ensnared millions of people all through history. To be a traveller you have to be free of the "fear of not having money"!
I will write the next update from Argentina.
Peace, love, and freedom to all who read these words.
Rambling Robert
"The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the Prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this."Albert Einstein
"Hitler and Mussolini were only the primary spokesmen for the attitude of domination and craving for power that are in the heart of almost everyone. Until the source is cleared, there will always be confusion and hate, wars and class antagonisms."Jiddu Krishnamurti
"Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do on a rainy afternoon." Susan Ertz
posted by Rambling Robert | 11:46 AM
2 Comments:
I loved reading this post. You are a very eloquent man.
Hey Robert, like your choice of quotes and observations about those you cross paths with on the road. I've been back "home" in the Philippines for less than 2 weeks and feeling the itch to get back on the road and keep moving. heading for the sub-continent and across central Asia to the Med in Feb. Happy Travels, Bill aka AsiaBill also following Andy's blog.
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