Rambling Robert's Travels

Last travel update from Florida USA

2012-01-14T05:41:00.001-08:00

hello everyone!
It has been a very long time now since the last update. I sometimes question if anyone cares about my travels or my search for enlightenment or if I am just writing these letters for my own satisfaction. As I looked deeply into this question, I realized, I was always writing these letters for my own satisfaction! I suppose one could say I have been sharing my travel diary with everyone. Sharing is good so here we go:
First I feel like I want to vent a little anger. I arrived here in Florida on 6 October 2011 to assist my father to care for my mother who was gravelly ill with the lung cancer.
She smoked cigarettes for 60 years and was convinced there was no scientific proof that cigarettes caused cancer, she was also convinced that marijuana leads to heroin addiction. She passed from the material world to the spiritual on December 12. I am still here hanging out with my father. We have always been good friends and it is a pleasure to be with him.
We just got back from a road trip here in America. We drove his car to North Carolina ( about 1,100 kilometers or 800 miles) and spent 6 days visiting some of my dearest friends from my childhood. We were warmly received and we had a great time.
Driving in America is very scary. One must constantly be on the lookout for the "bankruptcy" police. The government (local and federal) , here are more or less bankrupt. Out of money and deeply in debt. Unable to pay their bills or even their own salaries.
Part of the plan to fix this madness is to pay cops $100,000 per year and post speed limits everywhere that are below the speed one would reasonably expect anyone to operate their car at. The result is that IF you drive at the posted limit, everyone passes you and you greatly anger the other drivers.
One spends as much time looking in your rear view mirror as you do driving because the police are always giving people fines for driving too fast! This way the cops justify their salaries and the bankrupt government finances itself!
The whole deal here with the hospice and the medicines and the pains my mother went through, as a result of her being tricked by the government (we have the best health care system in the world, what you really have to worry about is the Taliban, thats what will kill you!) and the cigarette companies (tobacco farmers are subsidized by the government , cigarette companies who claim their product is not addictive and MAY NOT cause illness as there has not been enough research to draw conclusions) , and most especially as a result of her own foolishness and weakness (inability to put down the monkey), was very depressing.
I found it all but impossible to be quiet, to meditate, to feel good or happy. I felt weak, fearful,depressed, anxious and impotent. Watching and waiting for your mother to die is not a pleasant experience! Nothing I could do but try to comfort my poor old mom.
Too bad nobody from hollywood has ever had the idea of a reality show. I almost wished that there were cameras here to illustrate to the fools who smoke what they are buying from the tobacco merchants...Now to move on...
This coming Monday, 16 January, I have a ticket to go to Ecuador. I have a new albeit temporary travelling mate: My dear old Father (he'll be 86 in April) is going with me!
We will go together to Vilcabamba. He will stay for a couple of weeks and then he will return here to Babylon without me. I am very glad that he will come with me. He has an opinion about the rest of the world, (the world outside USA) based on the "news and facts" presented to him by the American mass media.
Me? Well, I just do not know. I will try to go through the paperwork necessary to obtain a resident visa. I loathe speaking to lawyers or having anything to do with any governments. Yet, to accomplish my aim, I must employ an attorney and beg the government to let me stay. This is anathema to me.
I will try however to get it all done and then I am going to live with the lovely and talented Estelita. She loves me and I love her. Sadly, I am who I am, and everytime in the past, I have tried to live with a woman I loved it has ended in disaster. Still they tell me that past performance is no guarantee of future returns...So i will try.
As for staying in one place...well, I love Vilcabamba more than any other place I have stayed. I have stayed in many wonderful places and would seriously consider living in about a dozen of them but Estelita is the "tie breaker". I miss her a lot and want to be with her and so, and so, and so it goes.
I look at my back pack, my life in a canvas sack, and the thought of strapping it on my back and getting on the road again makes me so joyous I feel like I will burst, like a pupppy running in circles and sneezing with joy!
Will I stay "forever" In Vilcabamba? Will I be able and content to stop my travels? There are still so many places I want to go to that I have not yet been and many places in my heart, I hold so dear and wish to return to, I can only truthfully say I do not know the answer.
I know that I do not need to travel to continue my search for enlightenment. I have read enough. I have been to enough classes. I have met enough wise men and women who have taught me enough. I can stay in one place and do the essential self observation, and come to soul consciousness anywhere I am. I know for sure that I am.
I am that I am. I will begin again and continue to write these updates. I think they will start to take on more of a theme based on my inner journey than the external movements of my carcass. Below as usual are a few quotes from people I admire and whom have in their way, have helped me to find my "self"
Peace and love, Blessings and Light,
Robert
"Human beings are the only thing in nature that needs correction" Rabbi Michael Laitman

"When one is alone, totally alone, neither belonging to any family, though one may have a family, nor belonging to any nation, to any culture, to any particular commitment, there is the sense of being an outsider, outsider to every form of thought, action, family, nation. And it is only the one who is completely alone who is innocent. It is this innocency that frees the mind from sorrow." - J. Krishnamurti

" Humanity is the earth’s nerve-endings through which planetary vibrations are received for transmission." Gurdjieff

travel update from Babylon

2011-11-07T13:56:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone,

I want to thank those of you who have written to express concern over not hearing from me for such a long time. When I wrote last i was in Chitwan National Park in Nepal. It is said that Nepal gets its name from "Never Ending Peace And Love". I can see how the rumor got started. I really really enjoyed my stay in this fine country. Oh by the way the day after the last update, I did go out on elephant safari and I did see the rare and endagered one horn rhinocerous. The legendary unicorn of Asia.

That evening, I got word from my father that my mother was gravely ill and He wanted me to return to Florida (Babylon) USA and help him take care of her. She was a cigarette smoker for 60 years. She is suffering from fourth stage agressive lung cancer and her prognosis is very bleak indeed.

I will remain here in Florida as a care giver for as long as I am needed or until I totally freak out! I do not love it here. But I feel that this is the right thing to do and really from a moral point of view I feel like there is simply no other option. To put one's self in an uncomfortable place, or position, or especially into the company of unpleasant people for the sake of another or some other moral cause, is what Mr. Gurdjieff used to call "intentional suffering and conscious labor", the keys to enlightenment!

I have never before been in any kind of "hospice" situation, so this is all new for me. I would sure love to hear from anyone out there who has gone through this kind of thing with a mother father or some other loved one. I feel this is a time of spiritual growth for me and I am making the best of it. I am trying to ease my mothers passing into the next "World". Just trying to make her comfortable, cook her favorite foods, hold her hand and bake her brownies...

There will be few updatges until I begin travelling again. You can all check the blog

www.robertstravels.blogspot.com

and I will probably be making some occasional posts. Here then are a few quotes to say so long with.

Peace and love,

Robert

" We are sheep kept to provide wool for our masters who feed us and keep us as slaves of illusion. But we have a chance of escape and our masters are anxious to help us, but we like being sheep. It is comfortable." Gurdjieff

"I do not believe making money in order to consume goods is mankind's sole purpose on this planet. If you're wondering what I believe our purpose on this planet is, I'll give you a hint. It has to do with creating and sharing." Bill Hicks

"The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land." Gilbert K. Chesterton

travel update from Nepal

2011-09-25T01:34:00.001-07:00

Namaste!
I am going t write two updates within a few days of each other because I have not written in a while and there is a lot to cover. This first update will be the traveling adventure part and the next one will be the view from the spirit trail.
So there I was in Kunming china. I became buddies with Dror an Israeli former officer in army intelligence, and we were room mating and discovered we had the same airplane to go to Kathmandu together. We would share a taxi.
Everything went smooth until we got to Kathmandu. Drors credit card would not work at the airport. We finally disentangled money issues and met with the management of Jet Airways so I could be sure that I would not need a visa to change planes in India on my way to Sri Lanka.
So I finally arrived in Kathmandu and found my guest house. got into my room, nice room very big but they had no small rooms left so even though I booked a single I got a triple! Got settled in and then went for a walk about.
The tourist neighborhood, the back packer ghetto is called Thamel. My hotel was just outside this area but easy and close to walk into. Quiet at night yet close to all the "action". I went out exploring and found just what I was looking for. TOTAL CHAOS! the sheer madness of "exotic Asia" Finally, I was beyond the reach of globalization! Finally I am out of New Jersey!
So within an hour I had eaten an amazing " Veg Tali" lunch and obtained something local and fantastic to put into my pipe and went back to my room with a new box of Nga Champa incense, and a potato to sit on the couch with me!!
I passed a most pleasant week in Kathmandu. Stayed the whole time in Mountain Peace guest house and had No complaints at all. As good of a $3.50 USD room as anyone could ask for! As for Kathmandu, well all I can say is it is crowded, dirty, chaotic, confusing, mad, non sensible, as cheap as dirt, and the food is pretty good. Who could ask for anything more?
After a week, I took an early bus to Pokhara. famous for its beautiful lake and incomparable views of the mighty Annapurna range of the Himalaya mountains! I stayed there for a week to, quietly walking around the lake, doing some strolling in the old village and reading Tao De Ching, meditating and smoking the Kathmandu hash during lulls in my otherwise exhausting schedule!
After seeing photos of the views in Pokhara I was really excited to go. But unfortunately for me, the sky was almost always clouded and overcast while I was there. Nepal is experiencing a late monsoon season this year and it is still a lot of rain. So I did get to see some nice snow capped Himalayan peaks but not what I as expecting. One f the rare occasions of my travels where I have been somewhat disappointed. Perhaps it is an omen. What can the travel gods be trying to tell me?
Next on my tour of Nepal, was a real moving experience for me. I went to Lumbini. Birthplace of Gautama Siddhartha, the world honored one, the Buddha. On the full moon of May about 2552 years ago Maya Devi was on her way home when she realized the baby was coming. So she bathed in a pond and gave birth to Price Siddhartha. There is a big shrine and temple at the pond. Monasteries from a dozen Buddhist countries are all located there. There is a world peace pagoda. It was a very special spiritual place.
I stayed for 3 days and then came here, to Sauraha a village at the entrance to Chitwan National park. There are a lot of elephants in this village. There is elephant poop on all the roads. Every time you go walking around you see boys riding elephants. Chitwan is also famous for the rare one horn Rhinoceros. The Unicorn of Asia. Tomorrow I will go n aon an elephant safari trip to see the one horn Rino. I will write again soon.
Peace and Love,
Robert
"In life never do as others do…Either do nothing—just go to school—or do something nobody else does." Gurdjieff

"Ram Tzu believes In the law Of cause and effect. He just doesn’t know Which is which" Ram Tzu

"Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity." Voltaire

"This is universal. You sit and observe your breath. You can't say this is Hindu breath or Christian breath or Muslim breath." Charles Johnson

Last update from China

2011-09-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

September 2, 2011 Ni Hao Everyone,
I am beginning this letter from Chengdu a city in Sezuan province of China. Tonite I will take an overnight train to Kunming, where I will finish this letter before I leave China and go to Kathmandu Nepal on September 6.
Since my last update I left Ping yao after 5 days there. The time spent there was uneventful but It was there that my interest in the writings the Tao de Ching were renewed. I read a nice book there called the Tao of Pooh and the Te of Piglet, which seeks to explain "The Way" of Lao Tzu in terms of Winnie the Pooh characters. Here in Chengdu I traded up my copy of Norman Mailers classic war story "the Naked and the Dead" for the penguin classic edition of The Tao De Ching and I have been reading it ever since.
Its funny how on the surface I think of my time in Ping Yao as having little significance but on the other hand it may be that one is quietly, gently guided through life to find what one needs as one needs it. In Ping Yao the Dao came alive for me! I met a Chinese hotel manager there who is a taoist, and we read a chapter of the Tao de Ching together every day.
From Ping Yao, I traveled by over night train to Xi An and couch surfed with a Scots man called Ali and his chinese girlfriend called Joy. Ali has a degree in Philosophy from somewhere in Britain and studies Kung Fu and teaches English in Xi An. He and I had a lot of totally cool talks about the nature of reality and the philosophy of Kung fu and Tai Chi.
We went to some great restaurants near his apartment and generally hung around drinking tea and talking and going for walks in the evening. During the days i hung around the Buddha gardens near the Wild Goose Pagoda and just relaxed my mind.
China, like everywhere else I have been, is a lot different than I expected! There is plenty of religious freedom here. There is a booming economy and there seems to be none of the usual signs of urban decay, like public drunkenness and drug abuse, there are almost no beggars and I have no fear of violence, there are certainly enough police but most of them carry no weapons. Buddhist and taoist monks walk freely in the streets un molested by the government.
That being said, this is certainly NOT a democracy, and there is a great deal of political repression. The great wall has been replaced by the great firewall. I can not read my blog, or post anything on it here in China. Google searches and wikipedia topics are censored. On an everyday kind of walking around life, it is just like anywhere else I have been but beneath the surface...it can be quite repressive, though most chinese will (just like everywhere else in the world) never have a run in with the police or the government.The days of "the Great Leap Forward" and the "Cultural Revolution" are over.For most practicl purposes this is a capitalist country with an oligarchy running the government.
I think that most people dont give a hoot about politics or really even political freedoms. Most of us do not want to run for office or change the government. I think it is fari to say that in my own country most of us do not feel our government cares about what they want, or does what they want, or spends their taxes on what they want them to spend them on.
So I think that in this respect China is no different from most western countries. they have an admitted one party system, while my country has a one party system which it claims is a two party system. both countries put lots of people in prison and even execute people they feel have lost their right to live...Barbarians both. I feel both are more oligarchy than democracy and I base this on the fact that 95% of the people who get elected are actually getting re-elected!
These things are of little importance to me. All I get from my government is a valid passport so i can come and go as I please. Of course I want more but I wont likely get it. What is really important in life, A person must get for himself.
The reason we are here is to raise our consciousness and I do not think your government can help or hinder you in this. Their power, their authority is all just illusion. Their rules are just that! Rules, not laws. Man makes rules God makes laws. It is easy to tell which is which, you can break the rules but not the laws! So before leaving Cheng du, I managed to trade my copy of Norman Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead" for Lao Tzu's The Dao De Ching.
I am now in Hunnan provence, in Kun Ming after a very pleasant overnight train from Cheng Du. I fly to Nepal in 3 days where i will write another update.Until then I urge all of you to continue breathing and being where you are!
Peace and Love to you all,
Robert
" Sincerity is the key to self-knowledge and to be sincere with oneself brings great suffering." Gurdjieff

"Concepts can at best only serve to negate one another, as one thorn is used to remove another, and then be thrown away. Only in deep silence do we leave concepts behind. Words and language deal only with concepts, and cannot approach Reality."Ramesh Balsekar

"You are Timelessness in which no death can enter, for where there is no time there is no death. That Timelessness is Now, and that is Being. Being is always shining. I AM is the Light of Being. This Diamond cannot hide and can never be hidden." Sri H. W. L. Poonja

Tavel update from Beijing

2011-09-13T06:25:00.001-07:00

August 18, 2011 Nei hao
I am in China. I was in Beijing for 7 nights and it was a very nice experience. At first Beijing is very difficult for the independent traveler who does not speak chinese. I arrived by train to Er Lian from Mongolia. My last memory of Mongolia is getting taken by the ticket office at the international train sales window. I bought a combination train/bus ticket. The train part went smoothly enough. I was told when I bought my ticket that a person would be waiting at the train station with a sign with the name of the bus company on it and I would be taken to the bus and taken to Beijing to arrive at 7or 7:30 am. Well what a line of bullshit!
There was no one there to meet me! I showed my bus ticket to some taxi drivers and they said they knew where the bus was and they would take me. Now remember I speak no chinese and the taxistas speak no english. This is all done in charades, grunts and gestures.
I felt i was being cheated again but was at a loss as to what else to do so I went with the most persistent driver and he took me to the bus station and a little shop where a woman immediately got out her calculator and started screaming " Change money! Change money! " This turned out to be her only english!! I showed her my ticket and she took out a stack of identical tickets so i knew I was in the right place and paid my taxdriver.
She in turn walked over to the bus station and bought me a ticket on the next (the only!) bus to Beijing which was at 4:30 pm so I had to wait 5 hours and paid about 3 times what i would have paid if I had done all this on my own. Just shows that even an old road dog like me can get ripped off!! Ah hahh well what is traveling for if not to learn? huh?
So the real shit was that I would now have to arrive in Beijing at 4am not 7:30 and as any experienced traveller knows that really sucks! It is never good to arrive in a strange city where you do not speak the language and do not know where you are going in the middle of the night.
I had a reservation at a hostel and had instructions from the bus station to the hostel by public bus but the public bus and metro do not begin service until 5:30 and check-in time at my hostel was 12 noon. So I finally took a taxi 5 kilometers to the hotel and paid more than the price of the bed for the ride.
I have had a fine and interesting first week in China. Beijing is a fantastic city. An excellent example of all man can create by using his mind. Lots of noise, traffic, pollution, art, beautiful old architecture, FABULOUS indescribable foods, beautiful new architecture, all the latest fashions and McDonalds! It just may be possible that the air quality here is even worse than Los Angeles. I aint sure. The sky is always grey. It is amazingly dirty air i am breathing!
I did the tourist stuff, went to the great wall and the forbidden city. What a bunch of hoooey. Crowds and touts and tour operators with their silly little flags and... well if any of you want to know more about it you can look it up on google!! As for the great wall...Well here I go kids...
The wall is just another example of the minds unwillingness to accept impermanence. In mankinds history, we create false ideas like countries and religions and artificial groupings of humans like tribes and clans and races, and try to maintain these artificial notions through propaganda if possible and through force if not.
The wall did not work. It never works. Millions of chinese peasants were conscripted to do the work. More than a million ( I am told ) died of starvation exposure and exhaustion and OF COURSE it did not work. Just like all the walled cities that fell under seige in all the wars in history did not work. Just like the Maginot line did not work. Just like Stalin's iron curtain did not work, or the Berlin wall or the DMZ between north and south Viet Nam. None of them worked none will ever work. Stalin could not keep out McDonalds, Coca Cola and Christian D'Orr.The Chinese could not keep out the barbarians.
I come from a country (USA) where millions of retards think we should construct a 2000 kilometer wall on our border with Mexico at a cost of trillions of dollars and then to patrol it at a cost of trillions more. This is a bankrupt country mind you, that can not possibly pay for this any way other than to borrow the money and increase the national deficit!! When it will not, can not possibly work!!
After all the pain and money the emperors spent on the wall, Ghengis Khan came to it and looked up and saw it and called out to the guards and gave them bribe of a basket of gold coins and they opened the doors to the gate and... he...just...waltzed...in!
The mind wants to make permanent that which was never real (an empire, a country) to begin with. The mind wants security when there is no sescurity. All things must pass. All times are local. At the end of the game, the king and the pawn go into the same box.
So now I am here and here it is now and I am in Yao Ping. It is an ancient walled city in central China. Things here are as they were 300 years ago. It is like being in a different century. Some times it is hard to say just what time it really is, what century we are all living in. All times truly are local!! If things go as planned (hahhh!!) I will be here for 4 more nights and then go to Xi'An. I am in the process now of getting a train ticket. Travel in China is almost as difficult as Russia. It is very frustrating because I have been to so many countries where things are so much easier.
Xi'An is famous for Noodles. it is said to be the place whrerr noodles were invented. I am stoked to go and try some of the best noodles in the world. Chinese food here in China is fantastic, delicious, awesome, radical, and ten times better than the chinese food one gets in Chinese restaurants in other places in the world.
I am reading and discussing Chinese spiritual teachings with the locals when I get the chance. I am learning a lot about the Tao (the way) as taught by Lao-tse and Chuang-tse. I am having fun in a chinese kind of way. i am happy to be alive, I am happy to be here and I am happy it is still now.
Peace and love to all of you,
Rambling Robert

"A well frog cannot imagine the ocean, nor can a summer insect conceive of ice. How then cn a scholar understand the Tao? He is restricted by his own learning."Chuang-tse

"Fine weapons are instruments of evil. All Creatures hate them. Therefore followers of the way do not use them..To rejoice over victory by violence is to rejoice over slaughter. He who rejoices over slaughter cannot unite within the empire ... the wise ruler sees military triumph as a funeral. " Lao Tse (from Tao Te Ching)

"If you compare the city to the forest, you begin to wonder why it is that man considers himself superior to the animals" Benjamin Hoff

travel update: leaving Mongolia

2011-08-06T19:39:00.001-07:00

Hello Everyone,
Well i am just about ready to get back on a train. This time i will be going from ulaan Baatar to Erhan China. I will only be in Erhan long enough to catch a bus to Beijing. I have been staying here In Ulaan Baatar for the last 5 days and once again i have retured to stay at mongolian steppes guest house. When I got back here, the two French artists (Mario and Mathieu) and the American Marathon runner( Herb from Minnesota) were also back at the Hostel! All had been out tramping around the countryside and we are all back now. So we have been kind of hanging around together having a few beers at anight and sharing a dormitory and even cooking a few dinners together.
I split from Ulaan Baatar for a week and went to Harkhoran. This is the ancient capital of mongolia. It is where Ghengis Khan made his capital and remaind the capital for a long time like 40 or 50 years, until his son moved the capital to present day Beijing. Kharkorum is also the home of mongolias first and oldest Budhist monastery.
Today it is a rather ugly little city of 10,000 people in a rather beautiful location. It is far from anywhere and not so easy to get to. There is one bus per day to U.B. and no bus to anywhere else! if you want to go somewhere else, you can take a horse or hitch hike. I spent a day exploring the budhist ruins with Alex, a traveler from Roumania whom i met on the bus going there and the rest of the time I spent by myself. The first day there it rained like crazy. After this, ther river overflowed ant my Ger ( a big round tent, like a Yurt ) camp was flooded. There was no electricity for a day and it was rather drizzling and miserable.
The owners of the camp, performed quite a civil engineering miracle by putting a dam between the camp and the overflowing river, and then using an gasoline powered pump to drain the camp of the flood waters. The waters had gotten up to my Ger and I had repacked my backpack and was all ready to move to higher ground somewhere when Suvd and her family stemmed the tide of the flooding river and I was able to remain there. I was the only guest for the next 4 nights and it was very tranquil. I spent my time reading and meditating and taking long walks out on the (still soggy) steppe.
Suvd's (the Ger Camp owner) brother is a Shaman of the old Mongolian religion, which is similar to BON religion from Tibet. He was there in town to do some ceremonies and to bring luck to the "faithful" . I tried to arrange a meeting or at least to be allowed to sit in on a ceremony but alas, it was not to be... I was a little disappointed but I respect the fact that they do not want their religious beliefs to be a spectacle or a tourist attraction. A source of "amussement" for foreigners.
So I returned to Ulaan Baatar, and it is from here that I am writing this. Tomorrow, August 8, I will take a night train to China. I have a ticket to take an over night bus from the border to the capital and I should arrive in Beijing on the morning of August 10. I am going to stay at Hostel Leo where I will meet Mario and Mathieu, two French artists that I know from here in Mongolia. I expect to be in Beijing at least a week, so I will write the next update from there.
Peace and love to all of you,
Robert

"There is an 'I', a potential soul. If we can say with the same simplicity 'I have a body' as we say 'I have a car' we can begin to realize that this body is a transforming machine which 'I' have. 'I' have a machine to use, does not mean 'I' am a machine. 'I' have a body, a mechanical organism whose function it is to transform substances and energies."
A.R. Orage
" We attract forces according to our being." Gurdjieff
"I believe that our Heavenly Father invented man because he was disappointed in the monkey." Mark Twain

travel update from outer mongolia

2011-07-26T01:44:00.000-07:00

Hello from Ulaan Baatar,
I am in Ulaan Baatar the capitol of Mongolia. Mongolia is a country of less than 3 million people, mostly nomadic herdsmen. Modern day Mongolia was called outer Mongolia when i was a child. It was deeply under the sway of the Soviet Union, but it did maintain its independence, at least on paper. Though in fact, Stalin and his boys were calling the shots, so to speak. Today it is a parliamentary democracy and the people seem pretty happy. they are part of the global community and tourism is beginning to reach them, although it is NOT an easy country for the independent traveler. Inner Mongolia is part of the Democratic Peoples Republic of China. I will pass through Inner Mongolia on my way to Beijing, soon. I expect to be in Beijing on August 10.
After a few days in Irkutsk Russian Siberaia, I went with Tom to visit Lake Baikal. It is 1,600 meters deep. So that makes Lake Baikal the deepest lake in the world. It is said to contain 20% of all the un-frozen fresh water in the world, More water than the Great lakes of USA and Canada (Erie, Huron, Michigan, Superior, and Ontario ) combined! I find that hard to believe but you can look it up! It is truyly a beautiful sight to see. A vast in-land sea that stretches for as far as the eye can see. Very cold and crystal clear waters. The following day we got back on the trans siberian rail road and left Russia and 36 hours later, entered Mongolia.
I have been here in Mongolia since 18 July. I arrived in the capital city and the following day took off for Terelj National Park. I stayed there for a couple of nights in an "eco camp" owned and run by Bert, who is a Dutch expat and crazy as a loon!! On the other hand, he is a hobby cheese maker and he makes most excellent Gouda cheeses. I watched and learned a lot from him. All the milk he uses come from his own free ranging grass eating cows. Happy cows make happy cheese! Most of the deal is in control of the temperature, and the process of separating the curds from the whey. After this it is all about aging. In the end I bought a quarter kilo of some excellent home made cheese from him and I enjoyed the last of it in a grilled cheese sandwich this afternoon, accompanied by a couple of eggs over easy.
I am not exactly sure what an eco camp is, even after staying in one. I was going to ask Bert but he is so crazy that it seemed not a good idea to risk further agitating the man. He needs an anger management course...I can not for the life of me decide why he should be so angry. he lives in one of the most beautiful and tranquil places I have ever seen on this lovely green planet of ours. Beautiful green valleys of grass called steppes for as far as the eye can see. lovely gentle hills surround his lush beautiful valley. herds of free ranging livestock Yaks, cows, horses, sheep, goats go slowly grazing by,...
The Mongolian cowboys go galloping along and their dogs kind of keep the animals in a group. the cowboys sing as they ride! Serious!! You can hear them singing to themselves out loud as they go by on their ponies.
The lodging is rather primitive in a fun way. I stayed in what is called in Mongolian a "Ger". In Khazakistan, it is called a "yurt". It is a circular shaped tent. It is semi permanent structure. you can take one down or put one up in an hour if you are experienced. There is a wood stove in the middle and there is a little chimney so it is warm at night. Our Ger had 5 beds in it. there are bigger ones and also smaller ones.
Near our camp is a lovely little river with crystal clear rather cold water. I took a very brief dip but did not swim. My two travelling companions Mathew from Denmark and Florian from Germany did , but they did not stay in the water for very long. Next day I took a long walk around the steppe and gathered mushrooms with Nellie, which Bert inspected to be sure we would not poison ourselves and after his approval we sauteed them in olive oil and served them on toast. Very nice indeed. We cooked in the Ger of Nellie a german woman who was there at the same time as us and she had brought a camp stove and some frying pans. We all had dinners together while we were there and left together as well.
During my long walks and solitary sitting time out there on the Mongolian steppes I found myself contemplating the Sourse of my "self". My "being" or my "essence" as it were. Many of you have heard me speak of the line of being and the line of doing. I often say I am a human being not a human doing. Many of you also have heard me speak of the inevitable law of karma, of cause and effect, action and reaction. The problem is like the chicken and the egg, where does one begin and the other end? What comes first? is not every action merely a reaction?
Well I believe I have come to a new understanding. A man's being is the cause, and his doing is the effect. That is why one works on ones being. because all your doing is a result of your being. If one can perfect or at least improve ones being, his doing, that is to say, his actions, will also change in corresponding fashion.
It has been said that in order for a man to "do" first he must truly "be". I have pondered this riddle for decades. Mr. Gurdjieff was said to have told his pupils that a man, such as he is, can "do" Nothing. for Man in his present state things just happen, that doing is illusion. Last week on the steppes of outer Mongolia this idea truly made sense to me for the first time. I have been working on my being for a long time now. Working on my ewssense by observiong my "self" ...Observing my breath, my fantasies and daydreams, my body at rest. Not doing, just observing. It is the observing that brings about a change.
In quantum mechanics it is said that the observation of the experiment changes the experiment. That there is no line of separation between observer and observed. To observe the experiment is to change the experiment, so I reckon that to observe ones self is to change ones self.
Below are some quotes to think about until my next update. I hope this letter finds all of you well and peaceful.
Peace and love to you all,
Robert

"The man who carries a cat by the tail learns something that can be learned in no other way." Mark Twain

"Man [has] always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much-the wheel, New York, wars and so on-while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man-for precisely the same reason." Douglas Adams

"The greatest barrier to consciousness is the belief that one is already conscious." PD Ouspensky

travel update from Siberia Russia

2011-07-14T05:34:00.001-07:00

Previet Everyone,
Moscow was a good city. It is not so different from St. Petersburg. The population is of course much larger. Both cities have a lot of foreign visitors. Foreigners do not stand out very much there. It is easy to find helpful people who speak english, especially among the younger folks I am meeting. Even the police were helpful if you are a foreigner looking for directions or asking questions.
Globalization has come to Russia. Everywhere one looks it is all the same as other countries. McDonalds, Subway Sandwich, Starbucks. Tuborg, Heineken, Budweiser, Johnny Walker, and Jack Daniels. People dressed in the same fashions as in the west, reebock shoes, Dolce and Gabbano, Christian D'or. Young people with tatoos, American and British rock and roll music in the air. Bob Marley playing on the stereo in my hostel...BMW, Toyota, Chevrolet, Mercedes Benz cars...I am a little disappointed. I was hoping to drink tea prepared in a samovar. No deal. Plastic electric tea kettles have taken over the world!
Well, I suppose this is what some would call "progress". I am not so sure about that. It seems to be a lack of character and an overdose of uniformity. In Thailand they have an expression...they say "Same, same but different". I am not saying that it is completely characterless. People still eat Blini, Pierogi, and lots of different kinds of caviar. Lovely breads and interesting cheeses. If you all are planning to travel to see how the different cultures differ one from another, I suggest you not waste too much time. The forces of mass marketing is bringing the east to the west, the north to the south and turning everything inside out! Just my opinion but, based on my first hand observations...
Trying to buy our train tickets in St.Petersburg or Moscow at the train stations was a horror show! Long lines and ticket counter sales people who did not speak anything but Russian and were not in the mood to try to help at all. People who were behind in the line volunteered to help by translating, (so friendly, so helpful, so sweet) but most of the trains are crowded or sold out. We had to take a bus to Moscow and from there trying to buy tickets for trans siberian rail road trains was all but impossible. Finally in desperation we bought them on the internet from RealRussia.com and paid the extra commisions. Ahhh, What the wahh hay! it was worth the price for the added convenience and security of knowing we would be able to get on the train! The first leg of my great trans siberian rail road journey is done. 56 hours from Moscow to Tomsk.
The train was modern and very comfortable. We had cheapest tickets, in third class. People were super friendly! We were the only not Russian people in our car! There were a couple of teenagers who were travelling with grown-ups who translated for us. We played checkers with them and Rummy and 17 matches. They invited us to play chess but we both do not play. Pity it looks like fun...
Everyone brings their own food. There is not much to do so everyone is eating all the time! Like a big camping trip. The train has a big samovar so there is boiling water any time ( I finally got to use a samovar! ) you want to make tea or coffee or cup of instant noodles or instant mashed potatoes or soup in an envelope. They also had a microwave oven you can use.
Most of the people bring bread and make sandwiches of hard cooked egg or salami or cheeses smoked or canned fish. Lots of fresh fruit like cucumbers, apples, bananas, cherries and strawberries. Lots of pastries and sweets. Everyone was offering us stuff to taste or to eat. There is not much to do so everyone is eating all the time. It is like a big camping trip! I loved it, so much fun.
There are many stops and you can get out on the platforms and stretch your legs and of course all kinds of stuff are available to buy. After 56 hours, however, I was about ready to get off and stay in a town for a couple of days and take a shower. Which is what we did.
So we stopped in Tomsk a city of 500,000 people built along the Tom River in South Central Siberia. Tom and I are the first Americans to stay at the Eighth Floor Hostel. It is a nice hostel and the staff is friendly. It is rather new and everything is very clean. It is a converted apartment. The city population is about 50% university students they say. There are many XVIII century old wood buildings, actually more like giant log cabins. Very beautiful and interesting. It is obviouse they do not get many foreign travellers here! After 3 days and 2 nights we got back on the train to go to Irkutsk.
Once again we had the third class cheap tickets but this was an older train and it was not as nice as the earlier train. lucky for Tom and me we only had to stay on for 36 hours. It was very hot and uncomfortable. The people were great very friendly and there were two French men on the train with us so we were not the only foreigners.
I am writing from Irkutsk. Irkutsk is famous for lake Baikal. It is said to be the deepest lake in the world. 1.6 km deep at the deepest point. Irkutsk is not exactly on the lake but rather about 60km from the lake. We will go tomorrow to the lake and to Taltsy.
Taltsy is a big outdoor museum, actually a rebuilt replica of a siberian village from the eighteenth century.It is about half way between here and the lake so we will go there first and then continue on to the lake. We will stay for the day and return to Irkutsk.
Here in Irkutsk we are staying in a 101 year old home made of logs. It is way cool and the owner Igor, is a gem of a man. He is a director and producer of theater plays. he has done a great deal of the work on the home himself. Restoring here and refinishing there. The place is totally unique. i am loving it!!
Well thats all for now. Next update from Mongolia!
peace and love to all of you
Robert

"Mona Lisa must have had the highway blues; you can tell by the way she smiles."Bob Dylan
"Your life feels different on you, once you greet death and understand your heart's position. You wear your life like a garment from the mission bundle sale ever after -- lightly because you realize you never paid nothing for it, cherishing because you know you won't ever come by such a bargain again." Louise Erdrich

“There do exist enquiring minds, which long for the truth of the heart, seek it, strive to solve the problems set by life, try to penetrate to the essence of things and phenomena and to penetrate into themselves. If a man reasons and thinks soundly, no matter which path he follows in solving these problems, he must inevitably arrive back at himself, and begin with the solution of the problem of what he is himself and what his place is in the world around him.” G.I.Gurdjieff

travel update from Moscow

2011-07-04T09:01:00.001-07:00

Provyet,
Well now I am here. Here I am now. Uuhhh, wow wait let me start over. I am in Moscow.
The capital of Russia. I arrived here on the morning of 4 July. Independence Day in USA. To what Ronald Reagan once called the black heart of the dark empire. He of course was stuck in time. I am a A Eulipian...a time traveller. A journey agent...I know everything is in a constant state of change. I know that "This too shall pass" There is no need to annihilate one another if one is patient...
"I hung around St. Petersburg until I saw it was a time for a change" Mick Jagger "Sympathy for the Devil"
I was in St Petersburg for 4 days haunted by that line from an old Rolling Stones song. St P. is a beautiful and vibrant city full of friendly and helpful people. I am walking in history. Staring in open eyed wonder at the Hermitage, the old summer palace of the Czars since the time of Peter the Great until the Bolshevik Revolution. Wow those folks were awfully good at spending other peoples money. The architecture and art and just sheer beauty of the old imperial city are in a word, breathtaking. Truly one of the worlds most magnificent cities.
My first day in St P. however was another one of those travel days in... HELL!! Murphy was watching and guiding me from on high. Anything that could go wrong did go wrong. It started out fine, our bus from Helsinki was on time and going through customs was a breeze. A nice girl on the bus offered to walk us right to the front door of the hostel we reserved as she was walking that way herself. So it was easy to find. Then the fun began.
We arrive and it is too early to check in. We must wait until 1pm. The receiving agent at the desk speaks no English or Spanish only Russian. The place looks like a real dump! She will not let us look around. She does not want us to leave our stuff there so we can go out and walk around.Okay, so we pantomime and get directions to the bank machine so I can get some Russian money. Tom stays behind with our stuff. I get the money count it up and go have a walk about.
When I return I am going to sort my cash and notice that somewhere along the way, I lost a 500 ruble note and a pair of 100ruble notes. I can not believe it. I withdrew 7000 (about 250 or 270 dollars) and somehow, lost 700 (about 25 or 30 dollars). I counted it all at the bank machine, so I know the bank did not short me. I lost it. I do not know where or how...I feel like such a fool. I realize that I am not breathing with awareness so I watch my breath and immediately feel better, even if I do not feel richer! It is only money why let it molest me?
Now Christina the owner of the hostel comes and tells us she is over booked and has no room for us. I am breathing with awareness. I smile at her. She says "I can take you to another hostel close by". "Let me call" she says. I am breathing like a Buddha and things are improving. She says she can get us in, and she can walk us over there in a few minutes. I ask if I can use the toilet and she says " It is for guest only, do you really need to go?"...I smile with my out breath. It is better than telling her she is a 3 holed ass!
After I get back from the toilet, I feel better and ask her if she can register us with the police. All tourists who stay in Russia more than 7 days must register with the police. She says yes it will cost 3600rubles. I will think about it I say. She says well...I can do it for 2800. Okay I say let me think about it some more. She goes down to 2100 for us both. The girl who walked us there from the bus had told us it should cost about 300 each.
We get to the new hostel. It is cleaner, brighter , friendlier, and just all in all much better. We get into our dormitory and I need a nap. I have been traveling all night and did not sleep well on the bus. I am asleep when our new administrator wakes me and says I must change rooms because Christina is back and she has more guests whom she over booked and...I am angry. I am not breathing with awareness, I am pissed off. I am tired. i am an important person. I demand respect and to be treated kindly I am an ego machine and I want to scream, I breath in calm and give her a smile on the out breath and move my shit. What else could I do? She is grateful for my understanding. I am glad. I am really tired but I am happy.
Christina wants us to commit to letting her register us. I breathe calmly. I tell her go ahead, I will pay her tomorrow when we go to the ATM. I am clever. I know it costs her nothing to register me and after she has done the work she will accept the normal fee. If not, we can register in Moscow. I smile knowing this, while I breathe out. I am a New Jersey Buddha. Two days later after more of her belly aching we pay her 300 each.
Moscow. Red Square. The Kremlin. St. Basil's cathedral. It is like a dream. I am walking in history. It is 4th of July 2011. I am in front of Lenin's tomb. Standing on the exact spot that 20 minute man ICBMs used to be pointed. Ground ZERO of the nuclear nightmare. Only that was then and this is now. That too has passed. It is peace. We are friends. I am at peace. I watch as the thing I call "me" breathes in calmly and breathes out smilingly and i am loving life, right here right now in Moscow!
Tom asks the desk clerk of our Moscow hostel, The Comrade Hostel, how much it costs to register a guest with the police? She says 900 each. Tom smiles and breathes with calmness.
Peace and love to all of you
Robert
"What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?" Mohandas K. Gandhi
"Travel teaches toleration."Benjamin Disraeli
"The test of an adventure is that when you're in the middle of it, you say to yourself, "Oh, now I've got myself into an awful mess I wish I were sitting quietly at home." And the sign that something's wrong with you is when you sit quietly at home wishing you were out having lots of adventure."Thornton

travel update finland

2011-06-30T22:58:00.001-07:00

Greetings from St Petersburg Russia,
I arrived in St Petersburg (SP) from Helsinki on 29 June at 7am. After a marvellous week in Finland, visiting with my good time friend and travelling mate, Samuel. After Sam met me at the Ferry station from Estonia, we went and got Tom at the Airport. Sam took us to an apartment of his friend Harry, who was going to allow us to stay there and use the flat for the duration of our visit in Helsinki. The flat was nice modern rather large one room studio, with a kitchenette. Harry had been in some kind of accident and his face was badly bruised. He was going to stay with his sister and therefore we had the place to ourselves.
For the first two days Samuel took us all around Helsinki and one of the islands in the harbor called Suomenlinna. This island had been a fortress island to protect the city against marauding Vikings, and invading Germans, Danes, and Swedes. There are lots of old fortifications and it is generally a beautiful green island with lots of birds and flowers. The weather was warm and the sky was blue and we had a great time there.
In Helsinki, we looked at all the old historic buildings and statues. Now, I enjoy this kind of thing. and truly, Europe is the best place to look at such stuff, but I get a little tired of it. We bought some beer and hung out at a lovely park where lots of people stroll down the center lane and sun bath. There was a jazz saxophone player who was very good and he was blowing that horn for free and we sat in the grass and listened to the sounds of the city with jazz in the air.
After two fine days in beautiful Helsinki, Tom and I went with Samuel and 4 of his friends, Sami, Katia, Ryah, and bruised face Harry, to the summer cottage of Katia, who is a work mate of Sami and Ryah. The cottage turns out to be more like a stunning compound of several cottages and a smokey sauna on Finlands third largest lake. We stayed there for 4 days, to celebrate the Summer festival called Jaunas Which means White Nights. The principle form that this celebration takes is drinking alcohol and eating way too much food!
The lake had stunning views. We got to experience the midnight sun, that is to say, The sun never really sets. Finland is on the same lattitude as Alaska USA. It is the farthest north I have ever been on planet Earth. The lake is only about 200 kilometers from the artctic circle. For 3 months per year it never actually gets what one would call dark. We had a great albeit drunken 4 days there.
The Finnish Smokey Sauna, is a Small well insulated room with a fire box and on top of the fire box a big pile of volcanic stones. They fill the box with wood and close the doors and open a small vent and the place gets very hot inside. The fire is smokey as can be, and after 2or 3 hours they open the doors and vent out the smoke and we get in and sweat. the aromas of wood smoke and the heat are fabulous together. I felt like a giant smoked salmon! While you are in there, you beat yourself with bunches of leafy birch branches. these branches and especially the leaves have a kind of oil in them and it feels and smells wonderful.
Ah yes and it is so and so it goes. Finally we drove back to Helsinki for more of the same Jazz in the park, but a different band. Actually I heard 3 very good jazz performances for free in the parks of Helsinki. It is a great place for people watching, ice cream eating and beer drinking. Samuel showed us all the best stuff, and translated everything we were interested in. Finally, our time there was done and now I am in Holy Mother Russia.
I will go to Moscow in 2 more days, and for now, i am just enjoying St.Petersburg, though Russia is already proving to be as difficult as the rumors from other travelers have told us. Enough for now.
Peace and love to all of you
Robert
"What would our world be like if we ceased to worry about "right" and "wrong," or "good" and "evil," and simply acted so as to maximize well-being, our own and that of others? Would we lose anything important?" Sam Harris
"Only the gentle are ever really strong." James Dean
"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better."Albert Einstein

travel update from estonia

2011-06-22T02:56:00.001-07:00

greetings everyone,
I am in Helsinki, Finland. I arrived here yesterday from Tallinn Estonia. I was in Estonia for 9 days, 5 days in Parnu.
From there I took a two hour bus to Tallinn the capital city and couch surfed with Peeter, for 4 nights and then yesterday I took a two hour ride on the Tallink Ferry "Superstar" a big and comfortable ship, over the Baltic Sea to Helsinki the capital and largest city here in Finland.
I first arrived in Estonia, from Riga Latvia by bus and got off in Parnu. Estonia is a small country of about 1,400.000 persons, and Parnu is a small city or really more like a big town. I stayed 5 nights in Hostel Louna on Louna street, which was about the cheapest place I could find. Still a dorm bed was 13 euro which comes out to about 19 or 20 USD.
the hostel is beautiful example of 1920s art neauvea architecture and cleaner than your mothers house. Just absolutely spotless. Great showers, small but adequate kitchen free internet, everything a cheap ass backpacker could want except there was no book exchange. I have been lugging around a copy of Ernest Hemingway Islands in the Stream until yesterday where I traded ilt with Peeter in Tallinn for an english copy of Kurt Vonnegutts Cats Cradel.
Parnu is full of lovely well manicured green parks with lawns and lots of big old shady trees and benches to sit on. Across the street from the hostel is a skate park, where the local teen agers all do crazy sick shit on bicycles and skateboards and in line skates and razor boards. AHH YIKES, none of them wear elbow or knee pads. There are a bunch of jump ramps and these kids know how to do the most radical moves turns and tricks. I wish my little buddy Mateo Carvajol was here...LIKE TOTALLY RADICAL DOOOOD
Parnu also has a beautiful white sand beach on the baltic sea, well I guess technically the water here is the gulf or bay of finland. Same body of water, it just changes its name from place to place or time to time. The water here is warmer than in Latvia or Lithuania and I was able to get in and swim a few minutes before turning blue, but damn near froze my arse off when I got out and into the wind.
It is hard to explain the attraction I felt toward Parnu. I stayed for 5 nights. I suppose I had seen the whole place after only 2 nights but it was just so peaceful and tranquil, clean and orderly I just felt like I didnt want to move on. Not a whole lot to DO in the classical sense of the word but a very pleasant place to BE. Mainly my activities were walking around the old town part of the city, and walking around on the beach and walking and sitting in the many beautiful green parks. People watching and Meditative Breathing.
It is summer here now, or will be in a week. This is the land of the midnight sun and it is light out until midnight and gets light again at about 3 or 4 am. The weather was mild and about 25 or 30 in the day and drops down to 20 or 18 at night for the first 3 days, so for you Americans that would be between 78 and 86 in the day and 65 to 70 at night. So I paid to stay for 2 more nights and of course the weather changed the moment I signed the receipt. Not bad but quite cooler and the beach walks became rather less fun.
So I arrived in Tallinn on 17 June. I couch surfed with Peeter, an artist who uses photography as his art form. Actually his job is photo editor of Estonia's largest daily newspaper, but his paintings hanging in his home are first rate and of course he takes great photos.
Peter was a great couch surfing host. He made me killer breakfasts in the morning and I cooked for the two of us in the evenings. I highly recommend Tallinn to any of you who happen to be in that part of the world. there is a good "old town" and it is a nice clean safe modern city.
The out of control, totally coolest thing about my time there was, last saturday, when we went out with some of his friends who own a 7 meter sail boat and we all went sailing in the Baltic sea! They keep the boat about 60 km from Tallinn in a little harbor and you have to drive through a beautiful forest national park to get there. We saw some wild fox while we were en route, which was very exciting for me, but no big deal to the Estonians who see them all the time. I kept thinking of my old partner Phil and my Buddy Lorenzo who I used to go sailing with back in California...
The boat trip was great. We sailed about an hour and arrived at an abandoned Soviet Submarine base. Here the soviet navy used to de-magnetize the hulls of the submarines. What an eerie feeling it is to be in a place that, (in all likelihood) used to be targeted by my countries nuclear missiles! Anyway it was a great place to have a couple of beers a few sips of Cutty Sark Scotch Whisky and a little pic-nic snack!!

I love the experience of being an explorer. Of going to new countries, seeing new places and faces. The real joy however is the freedom the road offers. What I love best about my life, my travels is the sense of freedom that I feel. The sheer joy of being able to come and go as I please, to stay for as long as I like or to leave on the next bus, or train, or boat to anywhere I choose.
Being a stranger in a strange land, one is totally free from having to perform according to any one elses expectations. Free from all sorts of role playing. I can be whom ever I want to be and no one knows any difference. I can be BUDDHA BOB or I can be CHEF BOB or whatever I feel like being, whenever I feel like being it. I am not clocked in. I do not have any regularly scheduled time to do anything. In short I can just be my self, be who I am all the time. I am free to not have to please anyone else.
The essence of freedom is time. The only real freedom is free time. Time to do or not do whatever you want. I have read that the difference between being rich and being wealthy is that a rich person has lots of money and needs to work and a wealthy person though he may not have much money, does not need to work. That would make me wealthy.
Krishnamurti talked a lot about freedom. Saying that after one has enough money to travel ie to come and go as you please and after one is granted the right to vote ie to live free of tyranny, the 3 ultimate freedoms are Freedom from all authority both external and internal, freedom from the known and ultimately freedom from TIME.
All these last three freedoms have to do with freedom from illusion. If we look deeply, we see that there is no real authority, that nothing is ever really known, and there is no time, ie no past or future. Its all just a big illusion! Freedom from time is the ultimate and greatest of all forms of freedom. .
To be free of time one must first of all be free of the ILLUSION of time. That is the illusion of past and future. Not by reading Einsteins theory of relativity or David Bohms theories of non physical universes both of whom point out that time is an illusion, but to realize this in the depths of your soul. NOT just to understand it but to feel it and live it as well.
At that point one becomes free of time, the ultimate cage, the ultimate walls that make up ones psychological boundaries. There is only the NOW. So being free of time really means that you are free of the psychological NEED for the illusion of time. Free of the NEED for any illusion. The illusion that you need the past to form your identity and the future to bring you fulfillment and contentment.
You are who you are NOW not who you were then. Or who you plan to be in the future. There is no point in being attached to the past. As far as contentment or fulfillment is concerned the disease of tomorrow is the greatest impediment for fulfillment. Never postpone your happiness today because you think by waiting you will be even happier tomorrow. Or worse by suffering today you will achieve happiness in some fantasy "future"
A person can not strive for this freedom from time, because striving in itself implies the need for time. A person can not work on it for the same reason, ie work takes time. One needs only to realize that it is now and you are here, and to just be in the present moment. Not only this present moment but the next and the next and so on. Not a state of doing but a state of being. You do not DO free, you BE free.
Well, I am done writing for today. My friend and traveling mate Samuel, met me at the ferry terminal yesterday and later we picked up my traveling mate Tom, from the Airport and in a few days me and Tom will be off to St. Petersburg Russia and the great trans Siberian railroad trip will officially begin. Yeee Haahhhhh!!! I am NOW going to go out and explore Helsinki. I will write again soon. Below there are a few quotes to think about.
Peace and love,
Rambling Robert

" Meditation is the discovery that the point of life is always arrived at in the immediate moment." Alan Watts

"Breathing in, I calm body and mind. Breathing out, I smile. Dwelling in the present moment I know this is the only moment." Thich Nhat Hanh

"Happy the man, and happy he alone, He who can call today his own: He who, secure within, can say, Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have lived today."John Dryden

travel update from Estonia

2011-06-12T21:59:00.000-07:00

Greetings!
I arrived in Riga the capitol city of Latvia, on 6 June. I stayed with a couch surfing host family of Ieva and her daughter Alma. They live in an apartment on the outskirts of the city.
It is easy enough to get to by city trollejbus, and I found it okay, well, I found it! I made the mistake of taking the number 11 TRAM instead of the number 11 TROLLEY and wound up at the city zoo, which is nowhere near where I needed to be. So...I got back on the same Tram and started back for the center of the city.

I asked a young guy on the tram what i did wrong. He looked at the directions I had written and said " oh, you need to go to the trollejbus stop and take the trolley, this is the tram. I am going that way and I will take you there." Once again I just have to say, The world is full of good helpful friendly people and the world loves a single traveller.

I often meet people who are afraid to travel to foreign lands where they do not speak or read the local language. They ask me, "how do you get around? Arent you afraid? isnt it difficult?" They say " I could not do that." Traveling is easy. Traveling is an adventure. Just because you do not know where you are it doesnt mean you are lost.

During the years of the soviet occupation of Latvia, all the people learned to speak Russian and almost no one learned english. But now, since the end of Stalin-ism, the young people are all learning english in school. So, all one has to do is find someone who looks younger than 30 and they likely will speak english. This is what i did.

Beside me, there were 2 women couchsurfers already at Ieva and Almas flat when I arrived. They are Italian but are living in Belgium. They had agreed to make dinner and we had a lovely Pasta with Zuccini and basil that they prepared. Ieva brought some fresh mint and some limes and wanted to try to make mojitas.
And so off we went to the supermarket and I bought a bottle of jamaican rum and we managed to finish the whole bottle and made some very fine 4 star mojitas! We all had a great dinner and good times were ejoyed by all.
A word or two about Soviet style architecture. Aye Chingaso! Not only is it notorious (and rightfully so) for being UGLY, the really bad news is that it isn't really what one would call functional either. Too much vodka seems to have gone into the planning. The toilet is on one end of the flat and the bath tub on the other. The kitchen hasn't any work space.things like this. Still, the good vibes and cheerfulness of my hosts more than make up for any Soviet incompetence...
The following day I set off to explore Riga. It turns out to be a lovely city indeed. Not extraordinary by European standards, but by the standards of the rest of the world it is quite marvellous. Lots of old wooden buildings here. This is what makes it different from other old European citys, and the Eastern Orthodox style church spires.
I got out to see 2 very good jazz shows during my 6 nights there. First I saw a local guy called Artis Gaga, a saxophonist who has a weekly Wednesday night gig at a place called Dad's Cafe. He plays very well with a strongly emotional style and his band was hotter than the 4th of July. At the end, a truly truly extraordinary 10 year old girl came out and jammed with them. She played the smallest saxophone I have ever seen. She was featured soloist on SUMMERTIME and BAGS GROOVE . Fantastic to see such a young person playing out, and no shit she was really good...
Saturday night was my last night in the city. We went out to the old town and saw a jazz band from Berlin calle the OLD FISH. They play dixieland. Instead of a string base they have a Sousaphone player. A sousaphone is like a tuba but made of a light weight material for marching band use. Also a clarinet, banjo, trumpet and pianist who also played accordian. They too were fantastic. I love my life, I really do, and I have a new favorite drink.

Black Balsam is the local spirit here. It is an herbal infusion liqueur 45 percent alcohol. Sometimes it is also used in traditional medicine. It is considered to be a good cold remedy and is used to treat digestive problems. It has been made in Riga since the mid 18th century. It is said that Catherine the Great became ill when she was in Latvia, and was cured by drinking Riga Black Balsam. Ieva likes to mix it with orange juice and so that is how I drank it. A little like fernet branca but not as sweet. I liked it, no little.
Other latvian highlights were a couple of drive around the country excursions and a picnic in the forest. It is a heavily wooded country and beautiful. It is not so heavily visited by tourists because there is not so much to do. But if you like to see beautiful nature and relax among friendly people, look at old wooden architecture, swim in the baltic sea and listen to Jazz, well, Latvia is just alright with me...
I am writing this letter from Estonia. I arrived yesterday into the city of Parnu. It is a very beautiful small city with a beach on the Baltic which is where I expect to spend most of my day today. I will leave you with a few quotes and send my next update from Finland.
PEACE AND LOVE to all who read these words.
robert

"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest." Confucius

"So little of what could happen does happen." Salvador Dali

"The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he may not, he is not a free man any more than a dog." GK Chesterton

travel update from Klaipeda Lithuania

2011-06-05T06:23:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,
The train from Vilnius to Klaipeda is smooth and fast. it takes about 5 hours and costs about $20 US. The scenery is nice and the seats are comfortable. I enjoyed the ride. I arrived in Klaipeda in the middle of the day.
I needed to get from the train station to the bus stop, but did not know how to get there. There is a share taxi stand so I asked the driver, he said get in and I will take you. So I went with him. It is only about a 500 meter trip and when I got out and tried to pay him, he refused and said "Welcome to Klaipeda".
This is how Lithuania has been to me. I have met nothing but friendly helpful people. I am goint to be leaving this lovely country tomorrow to go to Latvia, and I know I will miss it. hell, I miss it already and I havent even left!
Klaipeda is a beautiful small city. it is the third largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and Kaunas. It is the oldest city of Lithuania, having been founded in 1245. It is on the Baltic sea.
I am staying in Melnrage which is a lovely small beach town. The sand is white, clean and soft. The skies have been blue and almost completely cloudless the last 5 days. I go to the beach every morning for a 45 minute sitting meditation (I do not have a watch, so I am guessing). Then I go to the little grocery store and buy some stuff for the day and go home.
Home has been at the house of Romaldas. he is a 60 year old man, who is a couch surfing host. I found him on the couch surfing website and he generously offered to let me stay at his house. It is about 100 meters from the beach. He is one of the coolest characters I have met in all my travels.
Romaldas is the kind of guy one always hopes to meet when travelling. He is funny, easy going and kind and generous. He has GREAT stories about his life. He was a sort of jack of all trades who is now retired. He was injured in his spinal cord during a construction work job a few years ago, and has lost the use of his legs.
He has great stories of being a cowboy and taking cattle from Lithuania to Russia, Georgia, and Kajakistan. Drinking Vodka with border guards in the middle of the night. Wild women and soviet occupation of his beautiful country. Some black market money trading, and just the sort of free spirit happy go lucky stories I love to hear. He tells them all with a wonderful sparkle in his icy blue eyes and is not sad or bitter by any of his experiences. Just a lot of good times and of course a few bad as well.
He is a good cook. He likes to makes simple foods, does not like me to cook for him, and he does not eat many vegetables with potatoes, green onions, and cucumber pickles being the notable exceptions. He makes great tea, and has lots of friends who pop in and out all the time. They have a cigarette and a cup of tea and talk and laugh and go. Some are fishermen and they leave him fish which were caught only a few hours ago. We eat like kings!!
Romaldas calls himself an athiest but he is one of the most spiritual guys I know. He understands the golden rule of jesus and he is what my jewish friends might call a real mensh.
I was going to leave on Thursday, but then Romaldas informed me that the annual Klaipeda Jazz festival began on the following night and invited me to stay on through the weekend. What? A jazz festival?? How much do tickets cost? Free?? What??? Whoooaaaa I love this country!! You can check it out at http://www.jazz.lt/festival/
I just got back from a nice long bicycle ride through the forest. Here there is an asphalt bike trail through the forest. I love the smell of the pine needles and the shadows and sun as I pass beneath the trees. He has a good bike which he obviously no longer uses but he likes to be able to loan it to guests, and I like to take a little ride now and again.
I just did some laundry and my clothes are hanging out in the mid day sun to dry so I though, well this would be a good time to write a little travel update.Breathing In I am calmly writing to all of you, breathing out I am smiling on the world...
So, this is how it goes, travelling the world, visiting the worlds people, and seeing the sights, hearing the sounds of jazz music on this great cosmic thing we call planet earth.Third stone from the sun. Just a voodoo chile breathing and being one with the ohm.
Again i suggest (urge?) all of you retire early.Relax in a big sort of way, and take a little trip, just a little trip like I have and see what you think...Life is for living. Living in the Now and the here, wherever you are whatever you are "doing" I wish you all well.
I hope my clothes are dry. I have to pack for the bus to Riga (Latvia) tomorrow. I already have my ticket and I am leaving here at 7am to catch an 8:35am bus.The Next update will be from Latvia (or maybe Estonia). Until then I leave you with a couple of nice quotes to think about.
Peace and love to all of you
Rambling Robert

"We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are." Talmud

"The Holy Prophet Mohammed came into this world and taught us: 'That man is a Muslim who never hurts anyone by word or deed, but who works for the benefit and happiness of God's creatures. Belief in God is to love one's fellow men.' Abdul Ghaffar Khan

"Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are."- Jose Ortega y Gasset

Travel update from Lithuania

2011-05-29T23:29:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone,
So here I am and I am here. Just Breathing in calmness and breathing out happiness. I left USA on 20 May and arrived mid day 21 May in London. I took a nice comfortable train from Gatwick airport to Harrow Wealdstone which is an outlying neighborhood of London and stayed 2 nights at Buddhamaya Suburbananda's Harrow Ashram. Nice place to meditate. Myself and Louis and a woman named Blan were the only ones there. Also there is a resident "Zen Master" who has taken the life form of a beautiful multicolored cat named Seamless. I sat by the koi pond and listened to the sound of the water circulating in the pond and the wind in the garden, ate vegetarian food and spoke to Louis about the meaning of enlightenment. All in all a very satisfying couple of days. A great way to get my head out of "life in America" and back to life on the path of the heart...
On 23 May I arrived in Kaunas Lithuania. This is the country where my grandparents on my fathers side and my great grandparents on my mothers side came from before they emigrated to the USA. My ancestral homeland as it were. Lithuania is the 65th country I have been to.
Kaunas is a lovely city. Clean safe and lots of cool stuff to do and see. It is the second largest city in Lithuania.I stayed at a hostel called "R hostel" which was immaculately clean. The staff all spoke English (it seems almost everyone in Lithuania under 30 years old speaks English) so it was really easy to get along there. They were among the friendliest and most professional Hostel staffs i have experienced in almost 8 years of travel. I would gladly stay in that Hostel again! I only wish the kitchen were a little bigger, but restaurant food there is quite cheap and there are of course many fruit and veg stands around the city as well as a lot of supermarkets so one can self cater easily enough. the small kitchen is not a problem if I am only staying a few nights. I stayed there for 4 nights total and i ate at a restaurant one time. The other meals were cheese and beautiful brown bread from the bake shops, and ready made salads from the supermarkets and Trader Joe's organic crunchy peanut butter sandwiches. i always stock up on TJ's peanut butter while in USA.
The MK Ciurlionis museum was a big highlight. This man is not so well known in the west. He was a composer of classical music and a painter in the early twentieth century. The majority of the pictures were beautiful soft pastels on paper and something called tempur on cardboard. Most impressive indeed. He was in the habit of composing music to go along with his art work so it was a multi-media experience.
After 4 days I took a nice modern fast train to Vilnius, the capitol and largest city of Lithuania. In Vilnius I had arranged to couch surf with Vaiva D, a 45 year old office manager who lives in a very nice and spacious apartment a few kilometers outside the center of the city.
She was an excelent host. She introduced me to a lot of her friends. Our first night together we went to a night club and saw a very good band. Actually more like a rhythm and blues "orchestra" There were over 20 musicians and 9 female singers! They started the night with an old Temptations song, "Papa was a Rolling Stone" and I was immediatly taken in by them!
They played all great old R&B songs and a Stevie Wonder medley starting with "For the city" and ending with "Superstition". Of course I got right up and tried to dance and use the cool steps my Estelita has taught me, but it was so crowded I hardly had any room to shake my booty!
There is lots of efficient cheap transportation to get around but, we did not need it as she had a car, so going around was very easy indeed... Next day we hit all the turist hot spots, saw the castels, government buildings and cathedrals, and walked around old town.
Ultimately we went to KGB museum of Genocide which was, as one would expect, a rather grim museum. The exhibits there cover the 52 years of Nazi and Soviet occupation period and the resulting resistance. I do not feel like going into details in this letter. I reckon most of you know pretty much of the history of this sad time.
What a peculiar species we human beings are. The price we pay to be and remain unconsious, and asleep is enormous, yet "we" refuse to take the necessary steps to change. We refuse to give up the false belief that through violence we can eventually end violence.
So through the "ego made Self" we, as a race, to this day, continue to produce pointless suffering unknown among any other species on our lovely green planet. We create reality. Our "attachment" to violence and the means to ensure our mutual destruction, prevents us seeing through the illusion of "heros" and "victory".
We Humans are so proud of our military might. Our "advanced technologies" our bombs, guns and ships, tanks and fighting jets. Our SeAL team commandos and our suicide martyrs. So it is and so it goes. Half a league, Half a league, Half a league, onward into the valley of death we march on and on until the dragon of war eventually devours its own head...
Sunday was a rain soaked day, but during a break in the off and on showers, we zipped off to visit Traika castel, about 25 km outside the city of Vilnius, in a lovely village of the same name. This is the lake district. The 16th century castel is built on a small island in a beautifully picturesque lake. It cost $USD 6.00 to enter and there was a very informative self guided tour in 7 or 8 languages. I recommend this place to any of you considering a visit to Lithuania.
Tomorrow, the journey continues!! I will take a train to Klaipeda, a beach town on the Baltic sea. I will write again soon. Below are some iteresting quotes to consider until then.
Peace and love to all who read this,
Robert
"We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls." Anais Nin "He who wants little always has enough." Zimmerman
"All I want is to stand in a field and to smell green, to taste air, to feel the earth want me, Without all this concrete hating me." Phillip Pulfrey

travel update Leaving USA

2011-05-22T03:59:00.001-07:00

Hello Everyone,
At the time of the last update, I was still in the thick of getting my visas sorted out for the great Trans Siberian adventure to unfold this summer. All is now well and complete. I now have both visas in my passport and I am ready to go. I had to lay down a lot of dollars for visas, from China and especially from Russia. These are reciprocal fees, imposed on American citizens in retaliation for USA demanding fees from the citizens of Russia and China in order to apply for travel visa to come to USA.
Wow, one thing that I have observed throughout my life is that all humans seem to have in common , is how all of us hate to wait in line. It seems to me that any time or place I have ever had to deal with a government employee of any kind I had first to wait in line. Embassies and consulates are no exception. I had to go to each consulate and wait in a long line to drop off my passport and applications for visa and then return some days later to wait in another long line to retrieve my passport and visa.
Both countries have a consulate in New York, and both consulates refuse to accept visa applications by mail or commercial courier. They must be hand delivered by the applicant or a travel agency. Agencies charge about $100 to go and wait in line for you. I saved $200 by going in my self.
All in all, besides transportation, I had to pay $140 to the Chinese and about $320 to Russia. I needed to expedite my application for Russia due to time constraints so paid $250 instead of $140. I also was required to purchase travel insurance ($40) and purchase a "letter of invitation" for $30. All this for a 30 day single entry tourist visa. All I can say is I am glad it is over and I am once again able to enjoy the illusion of freedom to travel.
New York City, remains, for me, the worlds greatest city. I am not entirely what you might call a city person. I enjoy city life up to a point. I can only stay in the big crowded, mind made jungle of concrete for a few weeks at a time before the Reality of the human world becomes too much for me and I begin to yearn for fresher air and honest actuality. Think about it.
"Actuality" is what is happening in nature, in the Universe, at this moment in time. "Reality" is "Actuality" plus our ideas feelings thoughts and opinions about it. Reality is "Self" Created. The Ego (Greek word for self) creates reality. Nature creates Actuality. There are lies in Reality. Everyone knows that people lie, that we ourselves have lied and been lied to. It is part of reality. In Actuality, there is only truth.
In the reality that I have created for my self, New York is the worlds greatest city. I love this city. My parents were born there. I have been coming to New York ever since i was a baby. So now when I come, I mainly visit friends who live there, while being together with them in the now, we still reminisce about the past or share dreams of the future. Cool to see how we have changed from our pasts to our nows and where we all hope to get to.
I got to see a few very dear friends from my child hood days. Charlie, Morty and Neil have been my friends for over 40 years. For me to see them and for them to see me is a real treat. I feel like I get a more clear "image" of myself when reflected off the mirror of an old friend. I see my self and my friends from a long time, point of view.
Being in New York is like being in any other city but on some sort of mind enhancing or experience enhancing drug! The food tastes better, the music sounds better, the air is more electric, the colors are some how brighter. The people are more expressive. Most of the folks I run into here in USA are all dressed in blue, grey or black. Drab colors and "follow the leader" styles. In New York it seems many (not all) of them are out of uniform. They wear all sorts of clothes, not just the standard jeans and tee shirt uniform, in all shades of colors.
The food experience in New York is the greatest in the world as far as I have experienced. It is a vegetarian wonderland. Truly the easiest place in USA to be a vegetarian and still enjoy a "gourmet" life style. Another thing that strikes me about this city is how well the people mix. People of every size, shape, color, nationality, race and creed all live and play together. This is my impression. This is why I am always grateful to have the chance to go to New York and visit there.
My last few days in USA were spent with my brothers and their wives and kids in New Jersey which is my place of birth. In fact, my elder brother still lives in the home where we lived as children! For my niece and nephews I was uncle Robert, which is one of my favorite life roles. For me kids are like big cities, I really enjoy them...up to a point! On the one hand, I thank Buddha that I am childless! On the other hand, I really enjoy spending some time with children and especially my brothers, or my friends kids.
I was a "show and tell" item in 3 classrooms for them. I went to the school class of Harry, Margaret and Mark to talk to thier 9 and/or 10 year old classmates about my life as a traveler. They asked many good questions and I really had fun talking to them and seeing my brothers kids be proud of me.
As i finish this travel update, I feel again, the little tightness of the belly I always feel when I have packed my backpack and am ready to go! Always a mixture of aprehension and excitement. I always get an amazing sense of aliveness when at last my time comes and I hoist up my pack and strap it on and head for the door marked "To forever: this way please!"
I am looking at about two months in North East Europe followed by about 3 or 4 months in Asia, before heading back to Ecuador. Life is a journey we all must travel, each in his own way, his own time, his own reality. For me, here now, breathing in calm and breathing out smiles...the road leads on forever and the journey never stops...

Let the journey unfolds anew! I leave you all for now, with a couple of quotes to ponder.
Peace and Love,
Robert

"Life is NOT a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming -- ’WOW, what a ride!!! " Anonymous
"Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living."Miriam Beard
"To dwell in the here and now does not mean you never think about the past or responsibly plan for the future it is simply not to allow yourself to get lost in regrets about the past or worries about the future." Thich Nhat Hahn

travel update from New Jersey USA

2011-05-07T06:30:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

Well folks, I am here and it is now. I am breathing in calm and breathing out smiles. Tehre are some places in this lovely planet where it is easier to breathe in calm and breathe out smiles. New Jersey is not one of them. This is not what one would call a calm mellow little place. It is quiete densely populated. Like one little city (suburb) running directly into the next. One big large urban sprawl.

If on the other hand you have grown up here and you know where to look, and if you have a car, there are many wonderfully wooded parks and recreation areas where one can take long relaxing walks or hikes and be far from the madness. Well, it is just my luck that one of my brothers (the younger) is very enthusiastic walker and knows many lovely nature trails where we can hike, some quite close to his home and others a short distance from here by car. I am most grateful that he likes to go to these places and he likes to take me along!

I come here to be with my family and to visit some old friends. I do not like to be here except for that. The chief characteristic about this place, one notices immediately, is TRAFFIC. The highways are always full of many many cars speeding along and manuevering in and around one another to try to gain a little advantage, to try to "get ahead".

Without a car, It is very difficult to get around here. USA is designed as a car country. "Without wheels you are nobody". Over the last several decades, the US Department of Transportation has been influenced greatly by big car companies and big oil companies and there is practically no affordable alternative to the car culture. In certain ancient African cultures a young man proved himself by going out naked into the wilderness with only a spear and hunting down a lion. Here the right of passage has to do with obtaining a driving license.

It takes about 20 or 30 minutes to get to Manhattan ,New York City, by bus. It costs $7.50 each way. The bus station is along the freeway literally miles from anywhere. There is no bus to the bus station. One must drive ones car to get the bus. Or get ones brother or sister-in-law to drive one. As I write this update, my passport and the relevant paperwork are at the Chinese consulate in Manhattan. I must return there on Monday morning ot fetch back my passport with its visa and then go to the Russian consulate and leave my passport there to get my visa from Russia.

The Firts two weeks I arrived in America I was staying in Boynton Beach. Which is located in South East Florida. This part of America is quite unique. It is inhabited by a vast minority of senior citizens. For about 30 or 40 years wealthy Americans from the Northeast have been purchasing "retirement homes" in Florida. They come there because they like the weather. Other than the weather it is a mirror image of New Jersey which is a mirror image of Los Angeles. Vitually impossible to get around without a car. Many 6 or 8 lane roads filled with cars. Here a huge percentage of the drivers are over 70 and many are in their 80s or 90s. These folks should not be driving at all! They are really scarey! But there is no other way to get anywhere.

People reading this from other countries will think I am esagerating but alas it is as I have described it.

I will be heading off to Europe in 2 weeks. If all goes according to plan I will have my Russian and Chinese visas and soon will be taking the trans siberian rail road from St.Petersburg to Mongolia. I will sppend the whole summer in Asia and hope to be back in Ecuador in December. I believe a new phase of my life is about to begin. But I never really know. I do not like to assume anything because nothing ever turns out like I think it will. But have no fear, I will keep you all posted! Here are a couple of quotes to ponder until the next update!

Peace and love,

Robert

"Never forget that life can only be nobly inspired and rightly lived if you take it bravely and gallantly, as a splendid adventure in which you are setting out nto an unknown country, to meet many a joy, to find many a comrade, to win and lose many a battle."Annie Besant

"It is preoccupation with possessions,more than anything else,that prevents us from living freely and nobly."Bertrand Russell

"My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions, but in the fewness of my wants."

J. Brotherton

last travel update from Paraguay

2011-04-12T06:29:00.001-07:00

Saludos a Todos,
So I am ready to go. This is my last letter from Paraguay. I am leaving tomorrow, quite early. I have a flight in the morning at 7:05. So therefore, I must be at the airport at 5:00 in the morning. Oh lovely. I must take a taxi because the buses are unreliable so early. Interesting that the taxi will cost about 100,000 Guarani for a journey of 30 minutes. The bus from Villarica to Asuncion, a journey of 200 km that lasts 4 hours costs 20,000 guarani. The taxi to the airport is 5 times more expensive and 1/5 the distance!
Taxi travel is the most expensive mode of travel to get from "Point A" to "Point B" anywhere on the Planet. I usually avoid using taxi as if I were avoiding military service, but sometimes...well you've got to do what you've got to do. I don't mean join the army, I mean take a cab!!
The last update I sent was written in the beautiful Granja de Roble. The organic farm and guest ranch I stayed in near Concepcion. I stayed there for 17 days. It was a little above my normal budget but worth the price. I spent just under $23.00 per day with beer, rum, a poquito ganja, mosquito repellant, side trips etc. all included. I had a private cabin and the price included full board which was rather necessary since It was an isolated location and it would have been a terrible drag to have to buy food and go to and from the market. The food was prepared fresh daily and it was truly excellent. Like a rustic gourmet holiday. While I was there I discovered a lovely little beverage called CAIPIRINHA.
A CAIPIRINHA is the national cocktail of Brazil (who knew?!?) It is prepared like this:
you get a cold beer mug out of the refrigerator. Cut 1+1/2 or 2 limes into chunks and put them into the mug with two good spoons of sugar. With a mortar, you crush the lime sugar mixture up real well then add crushed ice to fill the glass up. Then you put in as much rum as you can fit. Stir well and drink that baby down! By Golly she tastes like lemonade! Potent and delicious. I am a big fan of this concoction. If you want to add a bunch of mint leaves you can but then it is called a mojito.
My time was spent at the Granja (farm) de Roble (oak tree) in a very relaxing way. Most days I did absolutely nothing! Well, if you consider meditating in the morning before a 6 km walk. Reading and floating around a lake in an inner tube in the afternoon, and drinking Caipirinhas and listening to and telling stories at night doing nothing one could say I did nothing!
Finally my time came to split that scene and Peter drove me to the "port" in beautiful downtown Concepcion where I boarded the River boat "Luz de Maria" for an 11 hour float down the Rio Paraguay. The boat ride was very easy going. No waves, no problems. mostly the boat hauls cargo and only a few passengers. Along the way the boat stops at many estancias (large ranchs) and drops off or picks up cargo and sometimes a few passengers.
I felt a little like Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer as I drifted gently past acres of floating water hyacinth plants with beautiful purple flowers. We left at 8:30a.m. and finally arrived in Antequera (the last stop) at 7:30 p.m. From there I took a bus to San Pedro 20 minutes away and stayed overnight in the mellow hospedaje Victorino. Cheap Quiet and clean, what more can you ask for?
The following morning I took an early bus to Coronel Oveido bus terminal where 5 minutes later I took another bus to Villarica. I stayed there for 3 days and 3 nights at the equally mellow hospedaje (guest house) La Guairana, owned by Alicia Gonzalez, a retired chef and proud mother of 3 children who are grown and gone. She turned the old family home into this guest house and has been running it for about 7 years.
We had some great and funny talks about the chefly life and being retired. About how being a chef gave us both fallen arches and flat feet. She was very helpful in giving me directions on how to get to nice places in town and where to go and what to see.
I visited a number of very nice parks in the town, walked around a lot and kind of re-adjusted my self to the pace of being back in "civilization" after the two and a half weeks at la Granja.
So like I was saying, 3 days later, I got on another bus and returned to a warm welcome at the home of Emilio and Lili in Asuncion, which was 5 days ago and it is from here that I am writing this update.
Asuncion is not famous for turism or for being particularly safe or mellow but for me staying with my friends, it has been a really nice time. The downside of Asuncion at this time is the rampant outbreak of Dengue Fever. All the hospitals are full to over flowing and quite a few folks have lost their lives. I am always wearing long pants and using "OFF" mosquito repellent and burning the anti-insect coils. I seem to be alright but if I am infected I will not know for 5 or 6 days, but I think I am okay...besides, what the wahh-hay! I am too old to die young !!
Wow! It is so odd to know that this time tomorrow I will be "home again" in USA. I have been in Latin America now since September 29, 2009. In a few hours I will be back in the land of my birth. No more bus riding. No more river boats. No more speaking Spanish. No more being a strange foreigner. Although I feel something like a stranger there when I go back. I have been traveling now for 7 1/2 years. I still think of USA as home, but thats not the way I feel. It is odd to have this disconnect between the way I feel and the way I think. The truth is what it is. I have become a stranger in my own country. Que raro!)
I have been re-reading a lot of stuff by Thich Nhat Hanh.I feel and believe that he is truly one of the greatest living buddhas. I have never met this wonderful man, yet I think of him as one of my personal teachers. He writes stuff like"In modern society most of us don't want to be in touch with ourselves; we want to be in touch with other things like religion, sports, politics, a book - we want to forget ourselves. Anytime we have leisure, we want to invite something else to enter us, opening ourselves to the television and telling the television to come and colonize us." I am not so sure anymore If I sound like Thich or if Thich sounds like me. When I read stuff like this, I am ingratiated because I feel less alone. I feel like there are other people who feel the way I do. I am not (maybe) as weird as I sometimes think I am.
Many of you have heard my rantings about TV and the horrible impact I perceive that it has on us. I use the word TV but really I mean the whole modern Entertainment media. Media does not represent or illustrate the world. Media creates the world. If we alllow enough exposure to the media we become part of the world it creates.
All these movies about war. About heroes (people who kill and cripple thousands of their "enemys"), about achieving success in the eyes of your peers. About achieving some kind of success. All a distraction. We internalize the distraction and we become trapped in some one else's dream. We dream of anything to take our attention off our own inner world. Our being. We dream of becoming a hero. A hero is something we do. We dream of becoming a success. A success is something we do. A Ph.d. is something you do. What about what we are? Why do we not dream of being like we are? I used to dream of being like what I have become. I used to dream of being like I am now. An un-employed homeless traveller.
Why is General George S. Patton, Napoleon, Stalin, Julius Ceaser, Netanyahu, and all the other "Great" war makers of history more famous than Thich Nhat Hahn? Why do we idolize and look up to those types of power mad, murdering ego maniacs? When will it all stop? We feed our selves lies and hate and fear and grow up to be lying hateful cowards. Sleeping with a pistol on the night stand. Alarm systems and doors with 3 locks. We never come to love and trust our own selves, and so we hate and fear each other. Why are we surrounded by enemies instead of friends? Why do we feel this way?
Why is that? Why do we have all the money we need to buy guided missile and not enough to pay for health care and education? Why is that? Why do we borrow billions of dollars to buy nuclear submarines and helicoptor gun ships and cancel and close down womens health clinics? Why is that? Why do we have money to bomb Gadafi but no money to send kids to after school day care centers? Why is that? Today i read that the USA has spent 608 million dollars bombing Libya, not including the F-15 Fighter jet shot down or crashed. Why wasn't that money spent on something positive?
I believe in a fear of the unknown. I believe we each harbor a great unknown within our own hearts minds and bodies. To look within, to meditate, to just be quiet in a quiet place is how we come to know your own self. We then transform the inner real self the into a known entity. We stop questioning whether we have a soul and realize we are a soul. To know your own self is to love your self. To love your self is to love the world. We are afraid to know our self because we think we will not like what we find. I think it is like a boy with a crush on some girl in school who is afraid to ask her for a date for fear of rejection.
I think that we, each of us, have a false-ego self that we think is really us. We believe that we are this fake entity, this fantasy self. Made up primarily of Stuff that is not truly us. Stuff that the media spews out and we internalize. We look to be something that we are not. We look to be like the characters in the movies, on the TV, on the concert stage, on the football field. We look to the world outside to define our selves instead of looking within to find our self.
We are never successful in our search for self, in our search for life's true meaning because we look without instead of within. To become our own self we seek to obtain stuff. The better our stuff, the better we are. Wine collections. Art. Job titles. Pilot licenses. Guitars. Cars, trucks, bicycles, motorcycles, lovers, vacations, lower golf handicaps, new bowling balls, laker tickets, swimming pools, muscles-from-the-gym, every kind of ego extension every kind of ego attachment we can find, anything we can "get" or "achieve" to be something, anything except what we truly are. Is it only me? Am I the only one? Shhahh I think not.I read Thich Nhat Hahn, Gurdjieff and Tolle and I know I am not alone.
I know what I am talking about because I lived the life of the compulsive ego. I saw where I was at and I threw my TV out the window ( well figuratively! ) . I gave up my golf game. I drank my wine. I quit living from Laker game to Laker game. I have found the real me and I feel pretty darned good about it.
I will be in USA for 5 weeks then I fly to Europe for a month and then I will hopefully go through Russia on the trans siberian rail road. If the Putin Federation will issue me a visa. I will be travelling as I am. I will be travelling as myself. I will be happy and content to have nothing but two changes of clothes, a cheap ticket, a seat with a view, and me. if you want to come, let me know.
Peace and love to all of you
Roberto Mochilero aka Rambling Robert

"Humans are amphibians - half spirit and half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time."C. S. Lewis
"If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace."John Lennon
"Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky. Conscious breathing is my anchor." Thich Nhat Hanh

travel update from el granja de roble paraguay

2011-03-30T14:34:00.000-07:00

Saludos a todos,
Paraguay is not a cheap country for travelers. It is a cheap country to live in I think but not to travel in. Food is not any cheaper than in Argentina or Uruguay (also not particularly cheap countries). Nor is ground transportation. The big problem however is lodging. It is almost impossible to find a cheap place to stay. As far as I can tell there are only 2 hostels in the whole country, and both of them cost more than anyplace I stayed in Uruguay or Argentina. Okay, there is a place in Asuncion called Residencia de Silva which is essentially a hostel and it is only about $11.00 or !2.00 USD (50,000guarani). So there are maybe 3. The black cat Hostel in Asuncion charges $16.00USD for a dorm bed!!! About double the prices for Ecuador or Peru or most central American countries. More than anything I have seen on the net for Lithuania Latvia and Estonia. South America should not cost more than Europe!!
Normally Restaurant dining costs about triple (usually) what it would cost to eat at home. there is some okay street food here. empanadas are about 50cents each 3 would be a good meal, Whole roasted chicken with some manioc is 6 USD enough for 3 or 4 meals I would guess. I ate a meal of Arroz con Pollo sold by some old women in a park in Asuncion that cost about 2.50 USD. The problem is there is nothing healthy or vegetarian to buy cheap in the street. You could make sandwiches or salads in your hotel room to save money. I did that in Encarnacion. just eat raw fruit for a meal or two per day is another option cheap, healthy and delicious.
For me my time here has been very inexpensive thanks to the warm and gracious hospitality of Emilio and Lili who have refused to take any money for letting me stay at their house. If not for this, I would not be able to stay within my budget.
I do not understand countries that do not have any infrastructure for budget travel. Even as an American where we do not have any either, I fail to understand it. It seems like a good money making industry that would benefit the host country in many ways. I believe that to open a hostel would be a good money making proposition, yet there arent any. you can lease a big old house and put 3 bunk beds in each bedroom and charge 30 or 35,000guarani (7 or 8 USDollars) per bed.While a cheap hotel room here are about 50 or 60,000 per night (12 or 14 USD), but they offer no kitchen access.
My first two weeks in Paraguay were very quiet for me internally. I just was being here. it is sort of what i have been striving for for many years but the change is so subtle, that it is hard to tell if it is really happening or not.
Now I am here. I am in a little farm called Ganja el Roble. It is owned by Peter and his wife Andresa. he is German she is Paraguayan. they have 3 children age 11(nestor) 9 Hanibal and 6 (ameli). There is also a way cool german guy who is working here called Chris. Chris was a social worker in Germany for about 15 years. Then he got tired of it and started a taxi minibus busintess. It specialized in takeing old sick people to and fromthe doctors office. Then the German gov-vomit decided that it costs too much to subsidize transportation for old sick people to go to the doctor (bush Gingrich and Palin must be smiling now as they read this) so they stopped. Told the old fogies to hitch hike or walk or just die. They needed the money for the war on terrorism in Afganistan...So anyway Chris decided to come to Paraguay. He has been here for a year. he works about half the day and gets room and board and 300,000Guarani a month.($60.00USD) it is enough.
As i write this letter I have been here at this peaceful organic farm for about 10 days. i am loving it except there are a lot of mosquitos. Peter is an avid acquarium guy and he has 6 large ponds where he raises food fish to sell. he also keeps milk cows, chickens and hogs. the chickens lay eggs but being totally free range, they can never find them!! His wife Andresa is an excellent cook and she has been getting sauce making lessons from me in return for bread making lessons from her. A coupleo of backpackers come through from time to time but mostly there is almost no turism here is Paraguay. It is real quiet and tranquil and i am really enjoying myself.
there is no TV here and the internet connection is very bad. I am hoping to mail this as soon as I finish but last few days that was impossible. A small price to pay for being out here in such a tranquil environment, I have been reading some Gore Vidal books and some Eckhardt Tolle books. They both have a much more optimistic outlook on the future than i do. although Gore Vidal is a little...Well, he has good points and is well researched but his diagnosis is that America is a very sick child. It is a little depressing. I can not recommend either of these two authors enough. they are both brilliant.
I was surfing the web in Posadas Argentina, looking for a picture of Maitreya. The buddha of the future. He is sometimes thought of as a boddhisatva. In statues and art he is always depicted as seated on a strait backed chair, not with his feet crossed as Gotama Sidhartha (the guy most people refer to as Buddha) is normally depicted.
A lot of people also confuse buddha with budhai, the smiling fat guy with the little cloth sack and prayer beads. Budai is a chinese diety. In Japan he is called Hotei,which means cloth bag he is the god of contentment and happiness, guardian of children, and patron of bartenders. He is not buddha. but Some Buddhist traditions consider him a Buddha or a boddhisatva, sometimes he is thought of or rather confused with the future buddha, Mairtreya.
The primary story that concerns Budai in Zen budhism (Zen started in Japan and means concentration) goes like this: Budai is said to go around traveling and giving candy to poor kids for free , but asking a penny from Zen monks or lay practitioners he meets. One day a monk goes up to him and asks, "What is the meaning of Zen?" Budai drops his bag. So then he asks "How does one realize Zen?" . Budai then took up his bag and continued on his way. This little story is sometimes used as a teaching riddle or koan. I feel that Budhism has a certain afinity with backpackers. Do you know what I mean?
Well, I found some references to Pacceka Buddhas as well. I have a special afinity with Pacceka Buddha. Pacceka Budha is an enlightened being (According to Ajahn Cha ) who has achieved enlightenment without benefit of a teacher. The independent path. Somebody who meditates on his/her own and does his own thing and finds the truth that lies behind the universal illusion of the material world. I think if I am going to get enlightened in this lifetime, this might be the path for me.
Gurdjieff called his way the way of the clever man or the way of the sly man. Stating that the sly man "steals his enlightenment". The way of the outlaw, may be to steal your enlightenment, I think of my way as the way of the outlaw. I have an outlaw spirit. i have never been very good at taking orders (or unfortunately) even advice and have always had disdain for virtually all authority figures.
A Pacceka (Pah-check-ah) Buddha can not teach. He may know but he may not tell. He has no disciples or followers. he is NOT a bodhisatvah who wants to help others, but he is a seeker of truth interested first and foremost in his own liberation, his own awakening . I think of the announcement on the airplanes. "In the unlikely event of cabin decompression put on your won oxygen mask BEFORE you assist your neighbor." Gurdjieff used to say "the best thing you can do for your fellow man is to work on yourself"
A monk without a monastery. A king without a throne. I love my independence so much. I do not enjoy being dependent upon or being depended upon by others. Perhaps I am on the path of the Pacceka Buddha.
So anyway, here are a couple of quotes you may want to think about until the next update.
Peace and love to all of you,
Roberto Mochilero
"While I can not prove this, I think not having a TV, or at least not watching it, is a big factor when it comes to choosing unconventional paths. Naturally, there’s this popular idea that TV feeds the masses with certain values, but I believe this is exaggerated. Most programming offers fairly reticent opinions and is quite free of content. The great beauty of TV is therefore not so much that it acts as a form of active propaganda steering people towards certain goals, but that it keeps people from having goals in the first place." Jacob Lund Fisker
"If fighting is inconsistent with an ideal society, then fighting will not bring the ideal society. A spiritual result is produced by spiritual means and a material result by material means. If war is evil, as almost everyone admits, then it can not be the right way to produce a good result." Howard Brinton

travel update from Asuncion Paraguay

2011-03-13T08:04:00.001-07:00

Hello Everyone,
Paraguay is one of the places that few travelers ever go. On the one hand, it is cool to go off the beaten track or the gringo trail. On the other hand there is often a rather good reason travelers and tourists go to certain places. I mean who goes to USA and spends a week exploring Newark N.J.? But as for me, well it just seemed like the thing to do at the time!
After all this travelling and rambling one accumulates acquaintences. I am staying here in Asuncion Py. with Dr Emilio and Professor Lili at their home. They have graciously invited me to stay here for the couple of weeks I am going to be in Asuncion. They are marvellous folks. i am so glad to know them. We have excellent chats each evening on topics as far reaching as the holy trinity, to why all governments fail ( Paraguayanos know all about failed government) to how to avoid dengue fever.
Lili taught me how to make the Paraguay classic dish called chipa guazu. i tried it in the huge Mercado cuatro downtown the other day and really loved it and wanted to learn to make it. We made it together.She was the chef I was the clean up committee. It is a vegetarian dream on a plate. As all truly great recipes it is so easy a 6 year old could make it yet complex in taste and texture enough for any one to ruin it!! ( write back if you want a recipe.)
Dengue fever is endemic here. This means that there is enough of it in the survivors blood that it does not need to be brought in from new sources. it just is here. Sometimes it seems to be more contagious than others and now there is an outbreak. It is on the news at night how people are dying in hospital. Aye Zukes!! Freaking me out man! This is why I always say "I like cockroaches more than mosquitos". Cockroaches eat bedbugs and leave people alone. All they do is help clean up the mess we make. Plus they are like China. That is, they are very numerous and soon when humans die of their own greed and mess, they will take over the world. First the chinese and then the cucarachas. Just my opinion.
I bought an e-tick this morning on kayak.com I will fly from newark to london including all tax, fees and luggage for under 300 USD. first leg of this summers travel on siberian railroad. the plan is to fly to london. get on a cheap ryan air flight to the baltics. have a week in each of lithuania latvia estonia and then cheap ferry boat to finland for a week. See my traveling friend Samuel and then train from helsinki to st petersburg. from st pete to moscow. trans siberian from moscow to mongolia. mongolia to china. china to nepal. nepal to god knows where!!! Wanna come?
I sure get upset when the dollar takes a down tick. When international monetary markets whack off big chunks of my savings by devaluing the dollar. Easy to forget that the observer is the observed. The government is devaluing the dollar. they have no value for the dollar. they think it is worthless. That is why they spend billions of them as if it were nothing. because it is nothing to them. Do you devalue the dollar? Is it nothing to you?
do you treat your hard earned dollars (euros, pesos, pounds, whatever...) as if they were worthless? $500.00 watches? $75.00 shirts? $90.00 hotel rooms? $20.00 pizzas? $500 Bar B Que Machine? New car every 3 years?
Do not complain when the government acts like you do. Americans complain the government is not fiscally responsible. We say they borrow tons of money and spend it without a care. What Do you do? do you borrow and spend? Do you have credit card debt? do you think of your consumer goods as investments? A bond is a debt. The walls of the prison are made of bonds. Living in debt is living in bondage. I have no debt. i am free of debt, I live in freedom.
The word mortgage comes from the french language. It means death lock. I aint making this up. If you want to be free all you have to do is say no. Don't spend money on stuff you dont need. Life is for living not for working and collecting stuff.
The American government spends more money on guns than any other government. The american people spend more money on guns than any other people. Are you safer? do you feel safe having that big army? the closet full of guns? Is it nice to know your government has enough money to buy and mnaintain 5,000 nuclear war heads but insufficient funds to give you free health care? makes me feel all warm and comfy inside.
I am in a place with all the internet access I want for free and so I have been reading on the net about the terrible destruction in Japan. Many of you who recieve this will remember i predicted that japan was gathering terrible karma for continuing to hunt whales. I said their greed would anger Mother Ocean. Well look here now...Still my heart aches for those poor people but also for the poor whales they kill for to satisfy their greed.
Below is a link to the next place i will be staying. It sure seems like a cool place to me. I am enjoying my time at home of Emilio and Lili. They are so kind to me. Lili and I cook together almost every evening. She is more or less a vegetarian and so am I. More or less! Emilio is just enjoying the nice things coming out of the kitchen!
I will close out here and leave you all with a couple of quotes from people i admire.
Love and Peace to all of you,
Roberto Mochilero
http://www.paraguay.ch
http://picasaweb.google.com/roblepy
Tel. (595) - 0985898446
"A democracy which makes or even effectively prepares for modern, scientific war must necessarily cease to be democratic. No country can be really well prepared for modern war unless it is governed by a tyrant, at the head of a highly trained and perfectly obedient bureaucracy." -Aldous Huxley -

"It's no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society."
Jiddu Krishnamurti

"If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the law."
Winston Churchill

travel update from Asuncion Paraguay

2011-03-07T04:51:00.001-08:00

¡Hola Amigos!
So, back in 2005, when I was in Argentina the first time, lots of people told me how nice Cordoba was. So I went and stayed a couple of days and honestly, I just did not get it. It was not bad but did not really love the city. So this time I went back and I still do not get it. It is just not my city, I guess. I stayed 3 uneventful days and left, wondering why I stayed 3 days and why everyone loves this place so much.
I took an overnight bus to Resistencia, the city of statues. I could not find a cheap place to stay. So I got a room at hotel Alfil and it cost 80 pesos, $20.00 USD with no breakfast, no internet, no kitchen, no pool, there is air conditioning but it costs 10 pesos extra. Previously the most money I had payed to stay in Argentina was 41 pesos. I walked all around the town and decided it was not worth the cost of the room to remain here ( though I must say the room was very nice ) and decided to leave the next day and go to Posadas. There are truly a lot of statues but they were not interesting enough for me to justify the expense of staying.
I got a dorm bed at hostel "Vuela el Pez". They are friendly and they have a good kitchen to use and a nice, small swimming pool and free internet. The place over looks the Parana river and has an excellent view. On the other side of the river is Encarnacion Paraguay. I am planning to enter Paraguay, from here taking the international bus service over the bridge on Wednesday, which happens to be my birthday.
Posadas has a certain charm and (who would guess??) a number of excellent statues scattered around the town. There was one that was really rather remarkable. A very large work ( obra grande ) of a man drinking hierba mate (yayrba mah-tay). The piece is made entirely of old propane gas canisters cut up and welded together. Very beautiful. I thought I would only be in Posadas overnight but I was quite relaxed and I still had a few Argentina pesos left so I decided to stay a little longer.
So my third day in Posadas I have been lounging around in my swimming costume alternately getting hot in the sun and diving into the pool to cool off. I am seated on a comfortable arm chair and drinking hierba mate. When I first tried this stuff, I sure did not like it. I remembered my experience in Malaysia with Drurian Fruit and how my cool Australian traveling buddy, Colin, promised if I tried it a few times I would get the point and begin to really enjoy it. He was right!
Colin is an organic gardener from Australia who had cancer, and still had it after surgery and the prognosis was bad and he cured himself by fasting on certain herbal teas.
We hired a guide together and trekked in the Sumatra jungle looking for Raflesia flowers.
I can not help but to reflect on what a sweet life I have had. What a sweet life I have still. I am so lucky to have been so blessed. I have a loving supportive family and great friends. There is wonderful and patient woman who loves me and is waiting for me in Vilcabamba.I have been lucky enough to have traveled all over this lovely planet meeting cool and fascinating people, eating drurian fruit and drinking hierba mate.
Okay. So now it is a week later. I am in Asunsion. I crossed into Paraguy and stayed in Encarnacion for 2 nights. Decent hotel but I was molested and attacked by the dreaded chinches de cama (bed bugs). I went to trinidad for a day trip to see Jesuit Ruins. this is the area around which the film "The Mission" starring Robert De Niro was made. the film was about the missions here. Good movie as I recall. it must be about 20 years old now.
The ruins were interesting. Not the best of ruins but interesting none the less.
I left Encarnacion on 5 March and took a bus to Asuncion, which is where I am writing from. I am a guest of Dr.Emilio (a pediatrician) and his wife Lili (a professor of English, who also speaks french latin and spanish). I met them at their daughters wedding in Capilla del Monte. We liked each other and they invited me to visit and "make myself at home" at their house in Asuncion. So it is and it is so. We have been having good times and I expect to be here a couple of weeks. Yesterday, Emilio and I went to the birthday party of his uncle who is now 85.
Great Party! A MOUNTAIN of really tasty foods!! Cold beers, really happy people. Lots of kids and dogs running around playing. I have tried 4 of the beers here now. I like Shnieder the best so far. There is another one called Baviera which I have not yet tried, but I have lots of time. This is the hottest country in south America, so the people drink more beer than any other intoxicant. Paraguay is S. America second largest grower of marijuana but so far I havent tasted any of that here. It is very plentiful in Uruguay and Argentina and here too, I am sure, but Emilio and Lili do not indulge.
I tried the famous sopa Paraguayana at the party which is like a cornbread, baked in a wood oven. Fantastic! There were many tasty salads and of course manioc (yuca) which is served here with every meal and is extremely popular. Not my favorite. It tastes like candle wax. Estelita in Vilcabamba has a lot of really good recipes for it but other than her kitchen I do not like it too much. I am also really enjoying the Chipa too. They are little breads sometimes made with manioc or corn or peanuts. they sell them in the streets everywhere. Cheap and delicious. The salads were all good but my favorite was one of beet root and potatoes. Later there was a good home made cake.
I ate too much. It was a great party and I am grateful to have been abel to go. Most of the time, travelers do not get to experience the true life of the people that live in the country where they are visiting. So This was a real treat.
I must be very careful here. There is quite a lot of Dengue fever. this is transmitted by mosquitos. I bought a jar of "OFF" repelent and I am applying it to my person daily. the really dangerous times for dengue is between 6am and 11am. It is a deadly disease that kills many people, children and adults. High fevers and terribly painful. the only treatment is bed rest, alcohol baths and paracetemal. Aspirin makes it worse. there is no vacine. Dr. Emilio has had it twice! This is amazing as the mortality rate for the second infection is very high. He is truly lucky to be alive. I am being careful and wearing long pants all morning. Well that is all for now. Next update in a couple of weeks when i leave asuncion.
Peace and love to all of you,
Robert
"When we see the shadow on our images, are we seeing the time 11 minutes ago on Mars? Or are we seeing the time on Mars as observed from Earth now? It's like time travel problems in science fiction. When is now; when was then?" Bill Nye

"I don't think the human mind can comprehend the past and the future. They are both just illusions that can manipulate you into thinking there's some kind of change."Bob Dylan

"Every body's talking about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it."Noam Chomsky

travel update from Cordoba

2011-02-25T11:33:00.001-08:00

Saludos a todos,
So I am here and it is now, but where? but when? well I am in Cordoba a large city in Argentina which is a large country. I arrived here two days ago from Capilla del Monte a new addition to my list of totally cool places in the world. But here and now i am in Cordoba.
Tomorrow night I will take an overnight bus to Resistencia Argentina. It is 12 hours away. It is on the border ( well very close) with Paraguay, but the nearest border crossing is at Posadas which is about 300km ( 5 hours) away. Here I can cross into Paraguay by boat or bus into the city of Encarnacion. Close to some interesting old christian jesuit ruins.
I will stay a night or two in Resistencia which is famous for its hundreds of Public Statues. There are more than 500 statues in parks, plazs and generally just distributed here and there. Or so I have been lead to believe. I will go and see for myself. Then take a bus to Posada and stay a night or not and head into Paraguay.
So my last letter was from Capilla del Monte. I moved into the house with Miguel who is an artist artisano and now a partner in a little neighborhood bar. His home is totally unique and he built it himself. It was constructed in 3 parts. He lives in a little tower with a rounded roof. the part I ws in also has a little tower but Iwas ina larger room with a fireplace.
The place is what we would call a flop house or a crash pad. It is dusty. I would guess the floor has not been mopped in years.It is what Americans in the real estate business would call "fabulous potential". You pay what you think is fair and put the money in an envelope. I was a little uncomfortable with that so we talked and agreed on 200 pesos a week ( $50 USD) I loved the place and stayed 18 days.
Staying there are also Joseph (an american) and Tanya (his wife who is argentine and paraguayan). Well actually Joseph and Tanya got married on one of the last nights I was there.It was a lovely wedding in a catholic way. later a good party with excellent band and excellent vegetarian raw food banquet. Most excellent. At the wedding I ran into a canadien guy named Devon.
It turns out that Devon is an acquaintance of mine from 5 years ago when I was travelling in Guatemala the second time, and he was living in a tree house outside of antigua. At Welcome to the earth lodge. Wow what a small world...
http://robertstravels.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_archive.html
So there were delays in Capilla in my getting to visit with Mescalito. These were finally resolved and I hd some electric cactus juice with Luis and Miguel. We began the journey (trip) at about sunset. Very pleasant night. I felt a lot of mental confusion and inability to concentrate. Lots of wandering mind. Not very halucinogenic (maybe I needed to drink more). Not how I remember my peyote experiences but memories are faulty and cactusi are different besides that was there and then and this is...
So my time came to an end there in Capilla del monte. I felt like, for the first 2 weeks that I was staying at the casa of miguel, well, i felt almost like I was on retreat. I spent almost all my time in the garden or walking around the dry riverbed by myself. It is a very big dry riverbed and I walked in one direction for 2 hours and was no where near the end...Very beautiful ravine betrween two mountains. lots of birds. and if you sit quietly and meditate after about half an hour, when you open your eyes, you get to see a lot of smaller animals, lizards and bugs who were afraid and hiding. There were quite a few days that I hardly spoke a word.
Miguel has just opened the bar and his partner took off for a month to Spain and so he was like only there to sleep. He would get home after I had gone to bed, and wake up, have a mate and go to work.
I seem to have come to a point in my life, I feel very tranquil most of the time.I wonder if I am getting to be like these old guys, who retire and just sit around looking out the window...I mean sometimes I just sit around looking out the window or looking at the river or the lake or the mountain or whatever, I just sit there in this no mind state. When I catch myself day dreaming or talking in the head, I put attention on it and it stops. What stops? "IT" stops.
Now thngs havent always been this way. "IT" never used to stop so easily. For decades it has been somehow damned near impossible for me to quiet my mind, to be quiet in my head. There are always these compulsive thoughts,or old songs, or daydreams, or fantasies, or rehearsing to say something to someone, or worries over and over worrying something in my mind like a dog with a thorn in his paw.
Well here I am, like a desperado waiting for a bus. it is 4:30pm in cordoba and I have a bus to Resistencia at 9. I am just waiting. I am just waiting quietly and contentedly.Peace and love to all who read this
Robert
"The energy of the world remains constant. The entropy of the world strives to a maximum," Clausius
"Let your love be disgraceful, crazy and wild. If you are too holy,
God will escape you." - Rumi
“War is an instrument entirely inefficient toward redressing wrong;
and multiplies,instead of indemnifying losses.” - Thomas Jefferson

travel update from Capilla del monte argentina

2011-02-08T08:04:00.000-08:00

Saludos a todos,
I am here now. I was in Villa General Belgrano, for a week after I left Rosario. I was there then. It is a tourist trap town in the beautiful Sierras de Cordoba. A group of low mountains in the State of Cordoba near the city of Cordoba. I expect to spend the rest of my time in Argentina in this area. I may have a few days of a week in a city called Resistancia on my way to Paraguay, but if not I will remain in this delightful region.
It is beautiful and well maintained forests and streams and lakes. Not heavily populated but this time of the year is temporada alta (high season) and the tourists/vacationers are here in force from Buenos Aires and Cordoba and Rosario, anxious to escape the hot citys for a week or two of calm cool tranquility. I liked my hostel/campground just fine in Villa Gral Belgrano. It is calle El Rincon Albergue and I would stay there again if I returned, which is unlikely as the town itself is a tourist ripoff. Every thing way overpriced. A giant outdoor gift shop and souvenir emporium. Yyeeeechhh!
I am here now. In Capilla del Monte in the Sierras de Córdoba It is a center of new age thinking and culture. My guide book calls it a center of "Mystic tourism" lots of buddha statues, prayer beads, dream catchers and incense for sale. The most famous place here in Capille del Monte is Cerro Uritorco . Cerro Uritorco is a small mountain. the name cerro actually means hill. It is famous because it is said to be magic and there have been countless Ovni (UFO) sitings there. It is said to be a portal to another dimensional world. It is said to give off "buenos ondas" (good waves)
It is a hill of extreme intelligence. Not all hills are equal. Some are just smarter than others just like humans, and this here is a smart hill. It was sacred to the indigenous people for centuries (they have, of course, all been killed off) , and now the local new age hipsters are here doing various indian ceremonies, temescals, and eating san pedro cactus. I have met quite a few of the local hep cats and now, after having been here for a week, I am moving into the home of a local cool artist/ musician named Miguel.
The home is made of mortar and stones. The roofs are not flat, but rounded. The house hasn`t got an easy to define shape, it is rather unique. The best part, is it has a very nice garden. The garden has a clear view of the magic mountain. It will be an excellent place to sit quietly and let the energy waves float off the mountain and onto me. The worst part is it has no refrigerator. No icy cold drinks. No buying more than a couple of days of food at a time.
I met a local San Pedro "expert" named Luis, and he and some of his pals invited me along to a place 10km from town called Paredones (big walls). This is one of the rare times in my travels where I truly wished I had a camera. This was one of the most beautiful walking paths ever! There are high steep multi colored walls of stone surrounding a lovely cool mountain stream which forms many natural bathing pools. Lush all around with healthy live green vegetation. Just one word to describe it...delightful.
Luis has invited me to return there with him and stay the night in a secluded cabin where he will introduce me to his friend Mescalito. Mescalito lives in the san pedro cactus of South America and he lives in the peyote cactus of North America. I may have something to learn from "father peyote" I am considering his offer. I am probably going to try it. What do you folks out there think?
Peace and love,
rambling robert

"Of all the animals, man is the only one that lies." Mark Twain
"In the Orthodox spiritual tradition, the ultimate moral question we ask is the following: Is what we are doing, is what I am doing, beautiful or not?" Carolyn Gifford
"The dream is the small hidden door in the deepest and most intimate sanctum of the soul, which opens to that primeval cosmic night that was soul long before there was conscious ego and will be soul far beyond what a conscious ego could ever reach." Carl Jung

last travel update from Rosario

2011-01-18T08:29:00.000-08:00

Greetings from Rosario,
Rosario Argentina is a city of perhaps one million people. It is a good clean city and I feel very safe here. It feels like North America or Europe. I know there are poverty and crime here but it is well hidden and segregated away from the "normal people" of the city. You would have to go looking for it too find it or have incredibly bad luck to stumble into it. I have been here 2 weeks and I havent found the "bad part of town" yet.
A few streets from my hostel is a very fine micro-brew pub. I went over there for the happy hour deal. You get two pints of brew for the price of one. I tried the Cream Stout and the Imperial Stout. They were both very good.
I am tempted to go back and have a menu degustation, in which you get 6 small servings of the brews of your choice. Hardly anything sensuous is as good the second time. Its just this needy "I want more its never enough" feeling that Makes me want to go back. I have "been there and done that" and had a good time. Why go back? Maybe I will keep the good memory and leave it at that!
I have been drinking a little more here in Rosario than usual. I respect this powerful drug. I dance with the devil but wont let him take me home and have his way with me! Still it is fun to dance some times!
I have also been sampling the national cocktail of Argentina which is Fernet Branca and Coca Cola. About 3 parts coke to one part fernet. Fernet is a black bitter aperatif or digestivo from Milan Italy. It is meant as an aparatif to be taken before meals. It is 45% alcohol, so just a little stronger than whisky.
Here it is a very popular anytime or place drink! Remarkable that although Fernet is Italian, the Argentines out pace the Italians in Fernet sales 7 to 1. In Italy Campari is more popular. The cocktail is served well iced and it tastes like bitter coca cola and gets you drunk! What more can you ask for?
Argentina makes fabulous empanadas. These are like little calzones. Little half circle shaped pizza dough envelopes with various fillings. Chopped Chicken or Beef and Ham and Cheese are most common. There are also plenty of vegetarian versions.
There are many shops called Rotiseria. These shops all have empanadas and tortas. The tortas are like large quiche, or a big round empanada. A bottom and side of pastry and then a savory filling and some are covered with pastry and some not.
Tortas are Mostly meat fillings or chicken with cheeses, but really countless varietys are around. Including Tuna which seems popular but i have not tryed one. My favorite is green stuff and egg. Sometimes the green stuff is spinach, sometimes kale, sometimes acelga, but it is always excellent. The egg is hard cooked egg sliced and added to the filling before it is baked. Never had a bad one. They are sold whole or in Portions.
I have found a couple of art museums. The museum of "Belle Artes", is at the far end of Oroño street and the museum of contemporary art is at the other end. Oroño is the cool street that has a little peatonal in the center of ñthe street dividing the traffic, there is a pathway down the center and in the evening people stroll with joggers and skaters and dog walkers.Both museums cost 4 pesos (one USdollar) to enter and both are air conditioned. It is about 35 degrees here in the daytime (95 American)
I liked the pictures and exhibits better at the fine arts museum. Lots of oil on canvas, some modern stuff and a nice mixture of baroque colonial portraits and landscapes as well as some impressionist stuff and a mix of Argentine and international artists. It is only two stories and not a very big collection but well worth the entrance fee.
The contemporaty museum on the other hand is a really cool place! It is on the parana river and it is an old Grain silo. Really 4 silos connected to one another, and a lift to off load and in load the grain. Now each silo is painted a bright color. Red Orange, blue and yellow. There. I am done. that is the best part of the museum. all the exhibits sucked.
There is also a very nice monument and park in town on the Parana river at the end of Cordoba street. It is a huge and beautiful monument. Interesting sculpture and well worth visiting. It is of course a monument to the fallen soldiers of Argentina and to war.
I think this is Weird, because the army here has taken over the country (conquered Argentina) 9 times and they have killed (murdered) well in excess of 100,000 of Argentinas citizens in the 20th century.
The last military dictators were finally expelled about 10 years ago after wrecking the greatest economy in South America and the "disappearance" of 30,000 citizens and the stealling and selling of thousands of babies. They killed (disappeared) the "dissident or subversive communist" parents of these babies and then the babies disappeard. After the fall of the junta, after amnesty was declared for the murdering kidnappers, Records were uncovered that the children were sold to rich parents in North America and Europe who wanted, but were incapable of conceiving, white babies... The records are of course incomplete and the parents names not revealed.
I have been thinking about Ignorance fear.and conscious labor and intentional suffering.
Ignorance is the most expensive thing you have. There is nothing you will pay a higher price for, over the course of your life than ignorance. There is nothing that costs so much and provides so little in return than ignorance.
Ignorance provides us with false hope, and a false sense of security. We need/want hope and security because of fear. Fear and ignorance are compatible. you can not have one without the other.
The first fear is Fear of being alone. When the baby leaves the womb he first experiences fear. He is alone in a cold world. Psychiatrists talk about "seperation anxiety". when the baby is seperated from the mother. They say It is the most primal fear. He is only comforted by being placed with his mother. He may be distracted, by giving him a shiny red toy or a bottle of milk, but his fear is not abated, it is only forgotten temporaraily. Here is where we learn to forget.
Ignorance, causes the baby to believe that he can be re-connected with his mother, that he can be safe and warm again. When ignorance is overcome, we understand that no matter what we do in our lives, the fact is you were born alone, you wake up each morning alone, and you are going to die alone.
If this bothers you it is because you are a big baby! Grow up and deal with the facts of life that Momma cant protect you. Daddy cant protect you. Big Brother cant protect you If you let others protect and provide for you you will never overcome your fear.You only become more needy more dependent more afraid. Being dependent (the baby is dependent on the mother) is what prolongs fear.
For adults, conformity is the chief thing we use to combat this seperation anxiety. Because we do not want to be alone, we do not want to "stand out from the crowd". No one wants to be the zebra who is standing 20 meters from the herd. We think of being in a group as being safe. Like a herd of zebras. The safest zebra, the zebra least likely to be lion lunch is the one in the middle of the herd, the least outstanding member of the group.
We want to be part of a group,we want to belong to a group, we want to be a member of a group, a club, the cheerleading squad, the marine corps., the church choir, a family, a race, a tribe, a country, a religion.We want to belong.
We want to be in the group of people who have a uiversity degree, that have a swiss watch, a german car, nike athletic shoes, a the new this or that, dread locks, a tatoo. What we do not want is to be alone. to be an outsider. that is seperation anxiety all over again.
But to be a member of a group we have to follow rules. we have to conform. Men do not wear pink shirts. We do not wear polka dot pants. We must fit in. this means we have to give up our freedom. We pay for our membership with our freedom. To belong is to be owned. To belong to the group is to be owned by the group. A slave?
What is a slave? To be a slave means to belong to or a person or a group. We have to do that which is expected of us. We must perform. We must be "up to par". Our safety, and comfort depends upon it.
What a great life experience to travel alone. It is a little scary. To be free one must confront ones fears. To be free one must first of all be free from fear. It is fear which makes us want to cling to authority. fear of being cast out into the wilderness. Fear of being shunned. Inprisoned. Fear of being alone.
A long time ago, I was told one of the cosmic secrets. I will share it with you, dear readers. Now normally when you share a secret it is no longer a secret! Once the secret is diluted and people understand it or know about it, it is not a secret anymore To share a cosmic secret is not to dilute it because it takes great depth of wisdom to understand the magic and to be able to use it.
The secret I learned back in the year 1977 was that "transformation (personal evolution) only takes place through intentional suffering and conscious labor".
What does this mean? Shhhahh well, go figure! I sure dont know It is one thing to know the secret and another to understand it. To know a secret is like to own a secret. Big differnce between owning a pair of ice skates and knowing how to skate!
Only through conscious labor and intentional suffering can we overcome our fears and only the fearless are free.
Peace and love,
Rambling Robert
"There's only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." P.J. O'Rourke
"What's money? A man is a success if he gets up in the morning and goes to bed at night and in between does what he wants to do." Bob Dylan
"I had crossed the line. I was free; but there was no one to welcome me to the land of freedom. I was a stranger in a strange land." Harriet Tubman

travel update from Rosario

2011-01-09T11:46:00.001-08:00

saludos a todos,
Well first of all a couple of last thoughts on one of my favorite cities in "the new world" The last time I was in Buenos Aires, I wrote in travel update that I thought everyone should visit this city at least once in their lives. I still feel that way. it is truly one of the worlds greatest citys and I think the greatest city south of the USA in the western hemisphere.
So many things to see and do there. Tango, Boca Juniors, Museums, Music. I got to see a little Jazz Trio twice in the time I was there called "Billy Bob & his Acid Peronistas" they are a switched on trio of electric Bass, Guitar and a fine fine drummer who had a tiny kit of one snare, two top hat cymbals and a little two drum bongo set. He only used brushes . Pablo the guitarist was the leader. He could really pluck. The bass player was also right there!! and he sang a little as well. I can not shake their version of "Honey Pie", an old beatles classic.
On my second to last day, a nice Israeli woman traveler called Maya (this is also the name of the mother of Gutama Sidhartha, the Buddha) turned me on to a Buenos Aires classic...UGI´s. The best pizza I have had since Venezia. Hot from the oven, funky and cheap, only mozzarella pizza available no add ons, no toppings, but Better than Ella Fitzgerald!! It is right on Avenida Corientes across from the Obelisk, which is one of the turist sites everyone goes to see in B.A.
I left Buenos Aires on a train from Retiro Station. Arrived 6 hours later in Rosario. I am staying at a little hostel called Posada Juan Ignazio on Tucuman Street, a quiet neighborhood about a 10 or 15 minute walk from anything you would want to do. There is a nice little patio area with a swimming pool and it has agua bien fria ( cold water!) which is great because it is really hot here, and after a walk-about, to get back and jump into a cute little swimming pool for a refreshing dip, well what can I say?
Oh no! its always something..there have been about 25 Israelites all age 22 or 23 and fresh out of the IDF whom I am sharing the place with, Just me and them thats all.! Now anyone of you who has ever been in a similar situation is already got a great big grin on your faces, and for those who have not, well lets just say that a bunch of soldiers on leave from the war for a little hard core R&R would be a mild description.
They are NEVER quiet. You never do not notice them. Always doing stuff that is rude and in the loudest possible way. They have wrecked a few chairs, the bathroom door, and just can not grasp the idea of not putting paper in the toilet. they just cant get this idea. Loud music, jumping down the staircase (not walking) , sreaming when they jump in the pool, Shouting to one another from two rooms away, just talking to each other this way from two rooms away as if there were no one else here.. Slamming doors, turning on lights, singing in hebrew at the top of the voice at 3 in the morning, They swagger, chest stuck out, prancing around in their underpants in the common areas they never do anything quietly, turning the volume of TV to full limit...Just not cool ever. wow Aye! Get the picture?
Being a soldier, a policeman, a prison guard, outlaw biker club member, mafioso or anyone who is required to carry a sword or a gun, turns you into a certain type of person. To take this job willingly, To take orders and shoot people or bomb their home or bulldoze the home is truly to take the ego far too seriously and miss the mark completely.
To take the illusion to the point where one will use this kind of violence to enforce arbitrary rules, self defense concepts and/or ideas is just not holy. Former soldiers need a long time to get back to normal, if they ever were normal to begin with.
Truly if you live by the sword you die by it. you catch a disease of the soul. And if all the citizens are forced to participate the whole society gets the sicknesss. They become haters, and they proclaim that hate and war are inevitable and thus make reality in their image and we have a world that you can look at every night on the 6 oclock news.
There they are. there are the soldiers,cops, and outlaws that are on the news.On the news teaching everyone that Killing people=being heroes...justifying violence. All you have to do to end war is to take the word "hero" out of the vocabulary. I always say everything on TV is bullshit except professional wrestling!
I think anyone who does this wrong livelyhood for a while knows in their soul that it aint holy and they will morph into a certain type of person (Swaggering/hater) unless they make a serious effort not to.
It is at this point that one must fight against the momentum to be unconsious. Being a soldier is the most mechanical, the least conscious job there is. Buddha was born into the warrior class. He was not born a brahmin.
To make the necessary struggle, the Jihad effort, to "awaken" after being in such a caste, like a hypnotised, sleep walking, killing soldier zombie, this friction is truly how to create the energy needed to become enlightened. The friction obtained by this inner struggle between good and evil, is the energy the buddha used to become liberated.
I got a lot of feedback on my last update. About 98% positive. I have a new style to the updates. I write a little travel stuff first and then I deal with my inner feelings and my spiritual growth. I feel good about sharing this stuff. I will try to be a little less political but ...well, hah, you all know how I am!! I will try to remember this quote from an old hero of my youth...
"For me, the lame part of the Sixties was the political part, the social part. The real part was the spiritual part."Jerry Garcia
So I am typing this in Rosario, one of the three largest cities in Argentina. There are a little less than a million people here. I am thinking about the spiritual part. It is a nice clean relaxed city. I got here on January 3 and think I will stay a couple of weeks.
I got my orthodedic inserts for my shoes yesterday and hopefully my feet will be okay now. I have been having a lot of pain due to this flat feet thing that is happeneing to me. These inserts were custom made to the imprints from my feet so they should be just what i need. At least that is the theory, I will see.
Thats all for now. Peace and loe to all of you,
Roberto Mochilero el vagabondo
"You never need an argument against the use of violence, you need an argument for it." Noam Chomsky
"Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free."Jim Morrison
"Those who have not found their true wealth, which is the radiant joy of Being and the deep, unshakable peace that comes with it, are beggars, even if they have great material wealth." Eckhart Tolle

travel update new year in Buenos aires

2011-01-02T11:10:00.000-08:00

Prospero Año nuevo,
New Year in Buenos Aires. I went with a large group of other travellers to the harbor called Puerto Maduro. There was a massive midnight fireworks display. lots of champagne was drunk. It all seems so strange to me. I do not know why we celebrate. I do not know why we buy christmas presents for people who do not need anything. I am an outsider looking in. I am a confused person.
Well here we are and we are here. 2011. Time is an interesting thing huh? Everyone experiences time differently. Different cultures count the years differently. 2011 is the Christian year that we are in. It has to do with how many new years eves have passed since Jesus of Nasareth came and did his thing and left. Left us alone to fend for ourselves. To take his advice or not, to love our enemies as we love ourselves or to try to destroy them as we try to destroy ourselfs.
He was given a fair trial and found guilty and sentenced to be brutally murdered by the official government in power. Today, anyone who takes up arms against any official government in power is considered a terrorist. Sometimes of course you need not take up arms just speak out and you are a terrorist or a terrorist sympathiser or supporter. He was what the Romans and the Jewish leaders considered a terrorist. A troublemaker. He did not bow to authority if he felt that the authorities were wrong. He felt that killing was wrong, especially in self defence, and refused to defend his self. He regretted that he had only one life to give for humanity. He was powerless to make men change.
I know an old story about some monks playing bridge. "One monk says oh god is so great there is nothing god can not do!" Two of the others exclaim their agreement while the third silently re-shuffles his cards. The first monk asks him "well, brother what is it that god can not do?" The silent monk looks up and says "god can not trump the ace of spades".
God can not force men to obey his commandments.God can not force men to forgive one another or be good andlove each other, to be kind to one another. Men do not respect god. They do what they want to one another and to this beautiful planet the lord has given to us. They disregard the ten suggestions of Moses. Pity.
There is a cosmic law about output and input. It is the law of Karma. It basically states that what you give (output) is what you get (input). If you behave peacefully you are treated peacefully. This is why a hells angel gets in more fights than a Benedictine Monk. Why Switzerland gets in so few wars and USA gets in so many.
Mr Gurdjieff used to say that if you spend money on something you will use it. He never let anyone have access to his teaching without paying. Not because he needed the money or wanted to get rich but because he wanted people who received the teaching to value it and use it.
Can a nation, can a people prepare for war and live in peace? If a man spends $25.00 per week on boxing lessons, is he going to avoid fighting? If a country spends half its budget on their military, will they avoid going to war?
The countries who spend the most on "defense" are always the ones who get into wars. The countries who spend on health care and education, on protecting the environment, on caring for the elderly, these are the countries who live in peace.
The man who spends his money on a pistol or a shotgun for "home defense" is likely to be the man who shoots his neighbor. Surely the man who spends his money on guitars isn´t going to shoot anyone in the middle of the night!
To some of us this seems so obvious but to most of us it is not. Most people feel the best defense is a good offense. To achieve peace, one must prepare for war. The path to peace is through superior armaments. When we try to reason with these folks they threaten us.
Why? Because they have spent so much money on weapons they are just itching to use them. The Israelis are so much more willing to go to the battle field than to the negotiating table. The Americans NEVER turn the other cheek. Of course they always say they are only acting in self defense, and they truly believe it to be so! They do not recognize the law of input and output.
Of course, every war, every fist fight in history has been because someone felt threatened and was only trying to protect himself and his loved ones, his family and his country. These kind of people seem to be saying "If you hit me I will hit you back harder". So then, does it end conflict? Are they living in Peace? Does the guy who spends all his money on those boxing lessons punch more people in his life than the guy who spends money on ball room dancing lessons? What do you think?
So the old chicken and the egg thing...Do we spend money on weapons and martial arts lessons because we value them or do we value them because we spent the money? The point is we value them. We value violence when we prepare for it. To devalue violence we must be preparing for peace. Only when we are prepared for peace will we devalue violence.
The more aircraft carriers a country has the more sea battles it gets into, and the more it fights sea battles (ie sinks boats and drowns sailors from other countries) the more that country is feared and hated.
Now on the other hand, If a country builds lots of hospital ships and has great floating medical facilities to send to the aid of tsunami victims and earth quake victims and volcano victims, or ipoverished Somali fishermen, the more a country will be loved and respected.
So...Where do you live? What kind of country do you live in? What are the aristocrats
in your country doing with the taxes you give them? Are they spending the money on your health care? On your childrens education and well being? Are they making love on their neighbors or war? Are they building bridges over rivers? Solar powered rail roads? Housing for the homeless? Food for the hungry?
Or is it more and newer guns for the police or computers and books for students? Body armor and submachine guns for the SWAT teams or canes and wheel chairs for the elderly? Guided missiles for their navies, or guide dogs for the blind? Are they building prisons or schools? Buying ambulences or tanks? What do they spend the money on where you live?
Ahh and you, yes you...did you spend your money for christmas gifts for the homeless? Did you spend as much money donating to the Darfur war orphans as on your new Iphone? Did you take the kids to give Santa at the strip mall their list of toys they want or to the hospital to give brownies to the other children who are sick? Did you donate a day per month to the free day care center for single moms? Vounteer to drive for meals on wheels? Volunteer to be a coach for the childrens basketball league? Don`t you just hate it when I preach. I apologize if I am preaching again. I wish I could express myself differently What am I trying to say...is...
I am saying that we create the world. The world is how me made it, and will be how we make it. 2010 was last year. That was then, this is now. I am not trying to judge or point fingers or criticize. The past is the past.
Where will we live this year. What can we all do to create the world this year? How will we practice non violence this year? How will we help our brothers and sisters this year? What can we do to help, not only our neighbors and our friends, but also our enemies, the strangers, and the immigrants and refugies among us. To love your enemies means to not have any enemies.When we love strangers we have only friends.
Peace and love and a happy New Year to all of you
Rambling Robert
"It is when we are trapped in incessant streams of compulsive thinking that the universe really disintegrates for us, and we lose the ability to sense the interconnectedness of all that exists." Eckhart Tolle

"The world is a country which nobody ever yet knew by description; one must travel through it one's self to be acquainted with it."Lord Chesterfield

"The intelligent man is capable of overcoming problems and difficulties the wise man would have avoided in the first place" Rabbi Yusef Becher

travel update from Buenos Aires

2010-12-23T12:28:00.000-08:00

Hola mis Amigos,
Now here I am and I am here now. This here and now thing is called Buenos Aires. I arrived here on a Wednesday after 6 or 7 weeks in Uruguay. The launcha (ferry boat) was very pleasant indeed. I crossed the Rio Del Plata from Carmelo Uruguay on the Cacciola Ferry and landed in Tigre Argentina.
This part of the river is quite beautiful and the passage was scenic and the waters very tranquil . The boat is a clean fast air conditioned modern Catamaran. This part of the river is about 150 miles inland from the Atlantic.
Upon arrival in Argentina I was given a wonderful and unexpected early "Christmas gift". I did NOT HAVE TO PAY US$131.00 to enter Argentina! I got a 90 day visa stamp for free which is fine with me as it is all I need right now. Right here and right now.
The new policy in Argentina is for Estado Unidenses (USA citizen) to pay this fee because the Government in Washington DC imposes sever tarrifs,taxes, and fees on Argentina citizens who want to visit USA.
Aparently they (Argentina government) are, at this time, only making you (USA citizens) pay if you arrive by airplane in the international airport. The good news is you get the visa and it is valid for 10 years so you can come and go as often as you wish without having to pay each time.
Buenos Aires is a very good climate for December. Right now, right here, it is about 30 to 35 degrees or (86-93 American). Well... maybe it is a little too hot. But in my opinion that is always better than being too cold. I am in a good hostel called Portal del Sur and will stay here until after New Year.
Then I need to go to the Paraguay embassy and buy a visa for Paraguay which will be my next new country. Right now this is what I want to do here.
I have to wait because, they do not like to give the visa "too far in advance". This is what they told me at the Paraguay Embassy in Montevideo. They did not say how far is too far. So I am waiting here until I am ready to leave Buenos Aires. I will take a train to rosario upon obtaining my Paraguay visa. It is a city on the Parana river. I know a good place to stay there and I have never been there before and it is in the general direction of Paraguay.
Humans learn from mimicking or copying others. you know the old cliche "monkey see monkey do"? Well, we are monkeys! Sure we learn the obvious stuff that way like how to hold a fork or tie our shoe, but also more complicated stuff like language skills mathematics and creativity!
Creativity? Well, yes. Thats why all classical music sounds the same. Why all heavy metal music sounds the same. Why so many movies have car chases. Sure if you look or listen closely the car chase or the music is different. but the difference is subtle. We basically copy one another.
Imitation and/or role playing, is how we learn to act how we learn to behave, how we know what to do.
What about desire? (I am glad you asked!)I believe that we learn desire by mimic as well. I don`t think a fellow desires something because that fellow finds it valuable (beautiful) but because others find it valuable (beautiful). We desire what others desire BECAUSE they desire it.
The ten commandments of Moses (Musa) addresses this form of mental slavery, the last of the ten says:
"thou shalt not desire thy neighbour's wife, neither shalt thou covet thy neighbour's house, his field, or his manservant, or his maidservant, his ox, or his ass, or any thing that is thy neighbour's"
I am pretty free from desires caused by coveting, caused by the wanting of things that other people value/have. I do not want a bigger swimming pool than my neighbor, a newer BMW, or an I-phone.
So we dont desire something because we find it valuable but because OTHER people find it to be valuable/desirable(this is just my opinion here). I believe that this is also a desire to "fit in" to be like everyone else. This is why everyone dresses the same. Why in the last 15 years it has become mainstream to get a tattoo. Most people are in a state of panic if they are not like everyone else. Most of us really, more than anything else, want to be another brick in the wall.
This is why girls ignore nice guys who are compatible with them and go after the captain of the football team. Not because anyone actually likes him, but because we think others value him! We value what is desired by others. We learn what is desireable by watching what others desire.
Things are not intrinsically desireable, or valuable, or beautiful, they are so because others feel they are so. After all what is the intrinsic value in a lump of gold? A rolex watch? A painting by Picasso? What makes Pamela Anderson more beautiful than an anonomous girl in bikini on the beach?
Lately I have been thinking about what I really want. What I really value. Truthfully most of the time I am in the "new Nirvana" the magic kingdom in my head called "Enough".
I bought a new pair of under pants (ropa interior)today. I am the proud owner of two pairs of underpants. I had bought the last ones about two years ago in Tobago. The new pair I bought today was to replace one of the old which had torn. It was only because it was torn that I suddenly had a value for a new pair.
Most of the time, I dont want anything at all. I would say that 90% of the things I purchase are food or beverage items I will be eating within one or two days of purchase. 90% of the things I want I obtain within a few hours of the realization that I want it. 90% of my desires are not things at all but rather places that I want to go to.
This next May or June, I want to travel across Siberia and frankly, I have no idea where i got an idea like that from! But I know that it is my idea and not yours. I know that I am doing what I want. I know that I am dancing to the tune in my own head.
Merry New Year and Happy Christmas to all of you,
Rambling Robert
"If you think you are so enlightened, go and spend a week with your parents" Ram Das
"All things are vibrating energy fields in ceasless motion. What we perceive as physical matter (your body) is energy vibrating at a particular range of frequencies." Eckhart Tolle
"A consistent thinker is a thoughtless person, because he conforms to a pattern; he repeats phrases and thinks in a groove."Jiddu Krishnamurti

last travel update from uruguay

2010-12-13T11:46:00.000-08:00

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

travel update from far away

2010-12-01T16:02:00.000-08:00

Saludos a todos,
Well I thought I would write an update for all the "foodies" who always write and ask about the food and wine situation in whatever country I am in, but I decided to write about something else first.
Yes, so here is something else from somewhere else!
As a young person we had certain expressions like "out of this world!" or "far out" or "too much" which all kind of meant that something was very very good. Kind of equivalent to "Radical!" or "Awsome" in todays " Gringo lingo".
Ahh to be far away. To be so far away that you can`t see or hear whatever it was that you left behind. To be really far away. So far away that "they" will never find me here...like hiding but so far away that they can`t see you. Far out enough so you dont really have to hide at all. Like to just disappear.
To be so far out there that you no longer understand what "they" are talking about at all...how far is that? Can you walk? Can you run? Remember the blues song "you know I might take a bus, or I might take a train but if I gotta walk or crawl on my god-damn hands and knees I`m gonna get there just the same. I`m going to Kansas City. Kansas city here I come..."
How far out is far out anyway? Is that a distance one can measure in Kilometers or do we measure it in "nuerons", in brain cells? I have to be careful here, as i am hoping to save a few nuerons for New Years Eve. I want to have a couple of brain cells left to pickle in Mendoza Malbec on the last day of the year. Is it a state of the union or a state of the mind?
So how far out does the kid need to get before he stops feeling the gravity of their mind machine pulling on the strings of his heart? of his mind? Of his carcass? of his temporal body? The mind parasites. The old thought patterns that seem(ed) so unimpeachable that one never stops to ask if they should be challenged. or is it just fear that stopped me from challenging the inner authority, the voice in the head, that just will not stop. the inner judge that always knows better than the true self? The real me? Can you see the real me...me...me...?
How far before you no longer can hear it whispering "its okay, its alright, dont worry everything is fine. Just play by the rules. and you will be free. You will be okay. See the sign? it says work will make you free.Get a grip on yourself and go back to work... Stop asking yourself this stuff. Stop thinking about this nonsense before you go stark raving mad!"
Is Uruguay far enough? Is Fiji far enough? Morroco? Do you have to go all the way to Katmandu or Timbuktu? Can you get there in the quiet of your room with the incense burning and your legs crossed beneath you thinking nothing but "Ohhhm...Ohmmm...Aum mani Padme Humg" or do you have to buy a ticket to Tierra del Fuego? Get on board the "train to the end of the earth". To the end of the earth? Is that far enough? To Ushuia? To Nanu lei lei? Is it a place you have to get to or is it a time or is it...What?
Of course you can never get away from the burning question
" Why go anyway?" You know "you can check out any time you like but you can never really leave", You know you have to come back sooner or later anyway. They will never let you just go...there are always strings attached, chains attached, old responsibility, traditions, attachments, loyalties...and If you leave then you have to start all over again.
I got a letter from a foodie friend. She tells me my old compadre Chef Wilhelm died in his sleep. We were the same age. We went to the same "ecole de cuisine". It made me weep. weeping at the shared computer in the hostel is decidedly not cool. Not far out. no. not far out at all.
Shall I write about the cheese here in Uruguay? The wine? The beer? The empanadas? "What is a chivito"? "How are the pizzas?" "Can you drink the water"? What about the Parillas? Are they truly the best Meat Grillers in the world? What is yerba mate? Dulce de leche? The meaning of life? What is the meaning of life?
Chef Bill and I were the best. We were friends but rivals. but friends first. We were the best. Then, I quit. I admit it. I just up and quit. Just up and left. I got fed up. I had had enough. I wanted something more real than a review from some one who has never even been a chef. Some one who couldn`t thicken a bechemel with a roux if his life depended on it.
I wanted something more than another restaurant. Is there Something more important than clam chowder in a sour dough bread bowl? an old Chambertain? and old Lafitte? and old D`yquem?
Will there be a rainbow after this storm? I just dont know. i just dont know anymore. We were friends and rivals but friends first. that boy..that man...well he was a hell of a cook and a damn good man.
I am glad I quit! God damn right i quit. I ran away! God damn right...God damn right. and I`m glad! I just hope all my old mates get out before we all die in our sleep. God damn right.
Enough of this. the cheese is excellent here.
Peace and love to all of you.
rambling robert
"All men die, but not all men truly live!" William Wallace

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." Thomas Edison

"The sadness of Life is this - the emptiness that we try to fill with every conceivable trick of the mind. But that emptiness remains. Its sadness is the vain effort to possess. From this attempt comes domination and the assertion of the me, with its empty words and rich memories of things that are gone and never will come back."J.Krishnamurti

travel update from Colonia del Sacramento Uy

2010-11-25T06:41:00.000-08:00

Saludos a Todos,
I am in a town on the rio del plata (silver River) in Uruguay called Colonia del Sacramento. I just got back from the beach. Here there are white sand beaches on the Rio del Plata. It is marvelously sunny and hot So I took my sarong and put on my swimming pants and went down to the river for a sunbath and a nice cool refreshing dip.
I am staying in a little hostel called El Español. It is a nice hostel. The people are friendly and the place is cheap. Well, okay, cheap by Uruguayan standards. The asking price for the cheap dormitorio is $12. They gave me a 10% discount for offering to stay a week.
Still this is double what I was paying in Guatemala or Ecuador. I dont recall staying anywhere in latin America where a dormitory bed cost over US$10, at least not in low season.
I have booked into a hostel in Buenos Aires which is supposed to be very very nice and it costs also $12, but this is for the busiest time of the year December 20 to January 3. Ah well, What can I say?
It is not so much that prices have gone up (which they have) but that the dollar has gone down. Nothing I can do about that. So I just accept it and say "Oh well".
I left La Paloma yesterday. La Paloma is a lovely little beach town on the Atlantic. I was there for 8 days. It is low season and so I had the beach more or less to myself most of the time.
Beautiful golden sands, but very cold water I said " I dont care!" and charged in anyway. I got in as far as my waist and said "I dont care" and ran back out! Sometimes I just don`t know what I am thinking. Still I had a very nice time there.
I stayed at a cool hostel called Alteena 5000. It was located in a large wooded City Park. The owners had two dogs and older male big black rastafarian looking dog named Oso (bear) and a younger female boxer called Celeste. Oso`s chief past time is to lay around sleeping. He is a real professional sleeper. Rarely do you meet a creature who is a better sleeper than Oso.
Celeste had great energy and went walking with me every afternoon. Well I went walking, she went running! She chased everything that moved! birds, hares, squirrels, you name it. She caught nothing ! My kind of dog !Lots of non violent fun ! She would get way out of sight and I would blow one of my loud whistles and she would come running back from wherever she was, all panting, out of breath, tongue hanging out and a big doggy smile on her face.
La Paloma is famous for its light house. I dont get it. I mean sure its a nice light house one could even call it a fine light house but uhh its just a light house. Still all the other travelers are all posing in front of it and taking fotos. I dont know, I just dont know...
My self and Vincent, a traveler from Switzerland, took a 9 km walk along the beach to the next little beach town called La Pedrera. The first 6 km were a good walk. good well packed firm sand. Then the sand got more and more loose and the walking more and more difficult. After about the first 5km, Vincent and I both thought, well, we will go there look around and walk back.Yeah right, after about 8km we were both thinking "hmmm I reckon we will take the bus back!" So by the time we got there, we were like "Gracias a dios" (thank God) and had a couple of beers and took the bus home!!
My plan has been all along to go to Argentina after here but now I aint so sure...I have been there before andf I really like the country... The problem is this...
My government, the USA is very harsh to any Latino people who want to come to USA. They charge VERY HIGH FEES to apply for a visa and then even higher fees if they grant you a visa for example a person from Uruguay must pay $US450 for a turist visam. Now many of the South and Central American countries are reciprocating because they feel this is unfair.
Of course the Democrats and Republicans who run the country are not concerned with this. they are only concerned with the issues that affect wealthy Americans like themselves. To someone who is a wealthy American the fees are not a big deal where as for me it is very tough, a big expense. here is the quote from the Argentine embassy in Washington DC.

When entering Argentine Territory, the American nationals must pay a "reciprocity fee" of U$D 131.- or its equivalent in Argentinean pesos.The payment of this reciprocity fee is NOT a visa, since Argentina does not require visa to American nationals when travelling for tourism or business purposes. The Argentine Government set this entry free on equal amounts Argentine citizenz must pay when requesting a Visa to travel to the U.S.

I feel that it is a pity that the USA citizen is no longer welcome to travel freely between countries as we once were. Most americans are unaware of this. But travelers like myself are feeling it big time. Most US citizens think the world loves us and our government and this was the case for many many years but this is changing. Laws like the one passed in Arizona are considered an outrage here.
We can not just go on mistreating our friends and neighbors and expect them to do nothing in return. South America is quickly becoming unaccessable to Budget American travelers as a result of our own governments policies. If you are an American and you wish some day to travel the world like I have been doing, the sooner you go the better. The doors to the world are beginning to close on Americans.
I believe that this is the end goal of our government. They would prefer that Americans not travel. They realize that when we leave we see the freedoms and liberties other citizens enjoy in other countries which we no longer enjoy at home and they dont want the word to get out. It is truly a pity. It used to be a good thing to have an American passport but as our government generates more and more animosity around the world this is rapidly changing.
Well that is all for now. Next update from somewhere else.
Peace and love to all of you
robert

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." Mark Twain

"We all agree that your theory is crazy, but is it crazy enough?" Niels Bohr

"Freedom is not something that anybody can be given; freedom is something people take and people are as free as they want to be." James Baldwin

travel update from Punta del Diablo

2010-11-10T16:54:00.001-08:00

Saludos a todos,
Well, I am writing you all from Punta del Diablo. This is a small beach town about 50km from the Brazil border town of Chuy. There are no paved roads here. Not long ago this was a quiet little fishing village with a fabulous beach of golden sands and gentle waves on the South Atlantic. Now it is being discovered and is changing very quickly. right now there are only a few travelers, mostly foreign backpacker types However I am told that in high season, thousands of Uruguayans, Argentinos, and Brazileans also fill the place up.
I just can't imagine what this place will look like in high season next month. But now, many of the hotels are closed. About half the businesses are closed. I am staying in a little hostel called el diablo tranquilo. I am about 200 meters from the beach and it is quite windy today.
I am drinking a cup of tea and thinking about Uruguay. Things are good here. The people are very calm and friendly. It has only about 4 million people, yet they advanced farther than any other team in the world cup from the Western hemisphere.
Uruguay has the highest per capita income of any country in South America. It has all the appearances and feel of a wealthy country. Most of the countrys wealth comes from Agriculture, and especially animal husbandry. Huge beef and dairy industry here. One thing about you notice right away about Uruguay is,It appears very clean. Not a lot of trash strewn everywhere like some places I know. No heavy industry to speak of either.
Most of the faces one sees here are of white European features. Quite different from the indigenous and mestizo faces of colombia, ecuador, peru, or bolivia. There are a lot of ethnic Italian and German people here as well as Spanish. Almost all Catholic. There is a big Mennonite colony here as well. The beer and food here clearly reflect this ethnic mix. There are several varietys of good local beers. Pilsen seems the most popular local brand, but Patriarch(I like this one) and Schneider are also widely available. My favorite so far is a dark black porter from Patriarch.
I bought a liter of Pilsen Stout for this evening. Beer costs about 45 or 50 pesos a liter (half an American six pack for 2 or 2.50 USD). its about twenty pesos to the dollar.
This is not a cheap country. The world is rapidly going into gringo inflation! I am a gringo, an estadounidense, the dollar is being devalued by the monetary policy of printing new money and huge deficit borrowing by the government of federal reserve buying treasury notes. I am an american and so it is increasingly becoming more expensive for me to travel while it is increasingly getting cheaper for people with Euros (for example).
Still there are some bargains and most of the world is still much cheaper than USA or places where the people use Euros (for example). On my last night in Montevideo, I went to the Symphony and saw a wonderful performance with the highlights being Chaikovsky fantasia suite and Ravels Bolero. I had an excellent seat and it cost 80 pesos (4 USD).
Cheapest restaurant meals are about 100pesos (a little more than double the price of Ecuador cheap lunch meal) more realistically 120 to 150. Big mac meal is 120p ($6.00US). so, i cook all my meals (almost) in the hostel community kitchen.
The bus ride from Montevideo cost about 17 dollars for a 5 hour ride. it would have been half that in Ecuador...The road is paved and smooth and there is very little traffic and no sign of police. The police are very low key here. marijuana is totally ignored by them. People smoke joints a few meters away from the policemen in the plaza during the middle of the day...
Hotel accomodation is about double the cost of Ecuador about 60 or 70% higher than Peru or Colombia. That being written, i still expect to be here 5 or seven weeks,or maybe 5 or 4 weeks more.
The beach is just excellent here. The problem is the weather has not been cooperating with my plans. my first day here the weather was perfect beach weather hot and sunny and the next day too. Ah but now for the last two days it has been raining and grey one day and clear but cold and windy today. I expect perfect weather every day from now on for the rest of my life.
I am thinking I will spend Christmas and New Years in Buenos Aires. What are you doing? You should jet down here and join me! How bad can New Years in Buenos Aires be??
Well I am gone for now Peace and love to all of you.
Rambling Robert
"You desire to know the art of living, my friend? It is contained in one phrase: make use of suffering." Henri-Frederic Amiel

"We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine." H.L. Mencken

"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity." Albert Einstein

Halloween from Uruguay

2010-10-31T10:12:00.000-07:00

Saludos a todos,
Okay kids, todays trivia question is: Which is the only south american country to host a major battle in World war two? Thats right!!! The battle of the rio del Plata, where the Nazi cruiser Graf Spee was sunk occured right here where I am wraaiting from in Montevideo Uruguay. My room actually has a view of the Rio del Plata.
I have now completed 7 years and one month of travelling the world. Retired, unemployed and homeless, a salik (sufi seeker of truth) a vagabundo (wanderer), an old hippy, a squirrel trying to find his nut in the world. Whooaahahh I am diggin the scene and the scenery.
I have been here for about 5 days. I stayed two nights at Palermo art hostel, but they were full for halloween weekend so I changed and now I am at the green hostel in the old city which I kind of like better anyway. The accent here is so different from Ecuador that I sometimes think the people are speaking Portugese. They all understand me and I have not had an english conversation in 5 days. I am getting used to their way of speaking.
I dont have much to say as yet about Uruguay except that i like it here. It is a little cold for my taste (20 in the day 13 at night (68 to 55 american degrees) and windy). It is a little expensive by comparison to northern South america my hostel bed costs 11 USD and a liter of beer costs about 2 USD. But hey, I like it! This is aparently the wealthiest country per capita in South America. It is clean safe and well run. If you like meat, it is like gioing to heaven. all kinds of steak restaurants. If you like pasta it is like going to Italy. Great pasta! great Gnucci, ravioli and also really excellent cheeses. Of course the people here all drink Hierba Mate (uuugghhh I hate that shit) but coffee and tea is also universally available. The coffee I am used to from Ecuador is much much better than here, but Hey I like it here!!
I want to share an experience that occured in Vilcabamba. and then the first draft of the first chapter of the book I will probably never write anyway...so get yourselves a cup of coffee and relax this might be a long letter!
Me and Estelita were staying at Mick and Cynthia´s house in VC while they were on holiday in England. one night a lechusa (owl) flew into the house by way of the balcony. The little guy got immediately confused and disoriented as he had lived his whole life in the Garden of Eden and suddenly found himself transferred magically into the 3D Hell that is the artifical fake and phoney world which Ser humanos (human beings) have created.
He was on the floor in a corner beneath a standing floor lamp and apartently terrified. Well, who wouldnt be if they were minding their own business flying around in the garden of eden looking for mice to eat and then they suddenly landed in the plastic hell realm of the human world! Now just to preface, Mick and Cynthia have a very nice home! beautiful byu human standards. lots of expensive art work on the walls, cool open verandas, nice balcony, beautifully restored wood beams and window panes, hand carved doors, lovely painted stucco walls etc. but to a free bird...Just hell on earth!!!
Well, I finally hit on the solution. I tossed a cowboy hat that was hanging on a peg over the little fellow and dragged the hat over to the balcony and lifting it up, he flew off into the freedom of the real world at night. I got a great revelation about the garden (forest) of eden and the world (everything made by man).
I realized that we were all in the garden of eden and then we ate of the tree of ignorance and cast ourselves out into the 3d hell that we built for ourselves. Rather than trusting to Allah for all our needs we created Satan and quickly went to work for him building paving and asphalting, every aspect of the natural world. within our sight and reach.
wow freaky vision huh??well maybe not so freaky. below is the first draft of the first chapter of the book I mentioned before.
In the beginning, all the creatures of the earth lived harmoniously in the garden of eden. The garden was not like what we think of today as a garden. Today we think of a garden as a small placeof natural beauty carved out of The world.A garden was a natural place. Not manicured or planned out by the mind of men. It was as Allah had made it. Allah is the forces that create the universe and maintain harmony in the universe. Satan are the forces which destroy and cause dissonance in the universe.Allah´s creatures are the angels while man´s creatures are the devils.
All Allah´s creatures lived together in the garden with man. They lived harmoniouly with one another. not always "peacefully" but always harmoniously. The creatures had a natural intelligence which they were endowed with by their creator. The young and strong sometimes ate the old and weak, in order to maintain the balance, the harmony of creation in the garden.
Man was a part of this harmonious balance. He lived just in the same manner as all the other children of god. He was not superior,nor was he inferior. He simply was.And all that "was" was good. For Allah creates no "bad"
Then one day man became ignorant. Man ate of the fruit of the tree of ignorance. This is when man first became ignorant.
In his ignorance, Man decided that some creatures were good and some were bad. Some were beloved by their creator and others were hated.Some inferior and some superior. This is ignorance.
Then one day, men decided they would create the world.
Man in his ignorance, decided that, rather than maintain the garden, in accordance with the "will of allah", It would be "better" to create the world.
In ignorance, man decided that, his role, his purpose, was as creator,rather than as maintainer. Man in his ignorance, decided that, Allah had created him with a purpose different than the purpose for which Allah had created every other thing in the Garden. Man decided there was good and bad, better and worse, there was the beloved and the hated. Soon, man, in his ignorance, decided that Allah had created man in the image of Allah and that Allah loved man above all his other creations. Man decided in his ignorance that Allah loved man most, that man was good and that man was better than the other crations, the other creatures, the other children of Allah.
Thus, man gave bith to division and division gave birth to Satan and Satan gave birth to hate. Man created Satan out of his own ignorance. Before man was ignorance, there was no Satan, no hate, there was only Allah and love Satan is the image of ignorance.
Soon Man in his ignorace, decided that Allah hated certain of his creatures, certain of his children. Ignorance, is the cause of all hate.Ignorance is the idea that Allah loves one creature and not another. Allah loves all his crations equally, All his creations knew this. Man knew this too, until he became ignorant.
and so Man in his ignorance decided that there was better and worse. Man decided that he would create the world. Man left the garden (the forest) and began to destroy the garden to use the dead bodies of trees to build with. to rearrange the stones to build the world. Now that the world was created man could not leave the world. Man saw that the garden was good of good and of love and the world was evil and hatred, division and ignorance.But man becausse of his ignorance could not leave the world. Because his ignorance had given birth to fear. Man blamed the other animals for his ignorance, for his fear.And in his hate and in his fear he cursed Allah.
Man was forced to live in the world of man created things and could never return to the garden of things creatted by Allah because now, man , in his ignorance had begun to hate the garden of Allah. Man Began to hate and to persecute the creations of Allah. The animals, the trees,even the waters and the air. Man in his ignorance began to hate and persecute all the angels of Allah, all the creations of allah, man now completely under the influence of Satan, of ignorance, even divided the stones into the good and the bad, the valuable and the worthless.
Satan created suffering and now even god suffered.
Well thats all folks. Please write back and tell me what you think of this madness if you feel like it.
Peace and love to all who read these words.
Rambling Roberto
"The impossible is possible when people align with you. When you do things with people, not against them, the amazing resources of the Higher Self within are mobilised." Gita Bellin

"Absence and death are the same - only that in death there is no suffering." Theodore Roosevelt

"Democratic societies are unfit for the publication of such thunderous revelations as I am in the habit of making." Salvador Dali

last update from vilcabamba??

2010-10-05T13:53:00.001-07:00

Saludos a todos,
I am still in Vilcabamba Ecuador. This will be my last update from here. I own a ticket to Montevideo for 27 October and will next update you all from Uruguay. I havent been writing much because, I havent been travelling much.
I have been very ¨kick back¨ these last few months. Mostly I have been concentrating on my spiritual growth regimen. I have been meditating about 5 times a week at the vilcabamba meditation center and also meditating at home. I have nice talks with Charlie, a spiritually evolved bartender, Bernie a spiritually evolved construction worker and many other characters who have passed over my trail. A new acquaintence loaned me a copy of ¨Tertium Organum¨ and I became reacquainted with the fourth dimension and the higher and lower cosmoses. I reread Marshal Mcluhans ¨Understanding Media¨ and got a whole new take on creative communication in the sense that the way we communicates creates reality, and now I am reading Eckhart Tolle ¨New Earth¨and gathering new data on my constant nemises, that is, my own ego!!
To be in such a tranquilo place and to read about military coupe and police take over government on the radio is such a re affirmation that what we believe is real is what is real. I mean people are rioting in Guayaquil, because they think the president is dead, and here in Vilcabamba we dont even know that the police are on strike! Meanwhile my friend, a german expat named Hans, who teaches archery through zen has some burrows (donkeys) and the female just birthed a baby boy burrow. I just saw him yesterday when he was 3 days old. so cute!! Such a sweet sense of reality.
So I am gonna make this a very short update and Just want to say thanks to those of you who have written lately. Shayne and Greg in Kiwi land and Chef Greg in Babylon, Hobo Andy and brother Eric, I am alive and doing fine. Still planning to go to Lithuania in May then Latvia estonia and Finland.Then cross siberia this next summer en route to mongolia and nepal. I will update all of you again from Uruguay,
Peace and Love
Robert
"To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life." Robert Louis Stevenson
"As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light of meaning in the darkness of mere being." Carl Jung
"At the age of six I wanted to be a cook. At seven I wanted to be Napoleon. And my ambition has been growing steadily ever since." Salvador Dali

travel update vilcabamba again

2010-08-18T07:40:00.000-07:00

Saludos a todos,
Wow, I m writing this part of the update from the worlds shittiest keybord locted at an internet cafe a couple of meters from one of my favorite cheap'o hotels, the Aruba in Piura Peru. I am here in Piura to get an extension on my turist visa for Ecuador at the ecuador consulate in Piura. Wow. these goverments and their rules, regulations, laws and their unlimited power over people like me who want absolutely nothing to do with them!! two weeks go, a 90 day extension cost 60 USD now they charged me 230 USD this morning. What bullshit!! 4 passport photos, a photo copy of my passport, credit card (ahh yes that is what they really want) on going round trip ticket from Piura to out of ecuador( they dont care where just out of ecuador!). You have to sit in the consulate and get exacerbated for a while, and then they send you off in another taxi to go to the bank ( not a close by bank but one that is 4 km away) deposit the $$$ because they dont trust their own consulate staff to handle any cash then taxi back show the receipt and wait 30 minutes for the head honcho to sign it in 3 places (10 minuites per signature).
Ahhhh! So finished and done with that...Estelita and I had two weeks of quality tranquil "vacation time". For me it was kind of like my normal life as I am after all kind of on vacation all the time anyway. For Estelita it was really relaxing and a great time to just un wind and for the both of us to have a little quality time together. We went to Piura and visited with some trafvellers we know from Ecuador and had a real nice time going to the places where the locals hang out and we had excellent home made ceviche with rice and yuca and toasted maiz. REal good fun.
We also went to the giant market there and got some dried chinese mushrooms and some dried chili peppers and a kilo of the Occidental worlds absolutely best olives, the lovely "aeitunas del Peru". As good as any I have tasted anywhere. And so cheap theyñ are almost free! 6 soles a kilo in the big market so less than a dollar a pound.
I really enjoy the food in Peru. one of my other favorites is the papa relleno this simple but delightful article is a handful of mashed pottatoes with a half of a hard boiled egg or some cooked ground meat with onions. and then it is formed into a shape like an american football and fried. Simple yet wonderful. ¨They serve it with mayonaisse and hot sauce.
After Piura we went to Chiclayo and hung around for a day and decided we would come back. Then we went to Trujillo and the little beach side town of Huanchaco, where we checked into the Boqueron hospedaje and stayed for 7 nights one block from the beach. The owners are a French guy named Hugo and his Peruana wife Mariaogena. They were very nice indeed, and it happened to be Hugos birthday to boot. He is about 60. Well of course we were part of the party! We had cabrito in two different gravys. For this grand event 4 goats gave their existence in order to become dinner.Both were delicious but I still whispered Ohm-mani-padme-humg to the first forkful...Also served with the inevitable steamed yucca and potatoes. We had tiny little sandwiches and empanadas and veggies with dip Before and chocolate cake after. There was sangria with lots of fresh diced tropical fruits floating in it and there were big pitchers of icy "Pisco sours" which is Pisco brandy egg white and lime juice and sugar and ice in a blender, and 12 cases (750 ml bottels)of Trujillo Beer lovely and refreshing! Oh and a DJ and a huge stack of speakers! we ate, drank partied and danced till the wee hours (well actually 9 pm What do you want from a bunch of old Punters!?!!? ) It was really fun.
We went to the pyramids and Ruins of Chan Chan gathered shells on the beach and just chilled out. There is a good little market in town and our room included a shared kitchen. We paid 10 soles each so that is 7 dollars for the two of us for our room...Mostly of course we went to the market and cooked in our kitchen. We are both good cooks and it is (for me) more fun to shop the market and cook than it is to eat in a restaurant. I love the markets.
so and So..Vacation time is over back in Vilcabamba two days and then off to Cuenca for a ten day silent meditation in an old Catholic monastery about 30 km from Cuenca. Vipassana Meditation taught by NS Goenke. Too intense really and also too personal to describe what your mind goes through in 10 days of 11 hours of sitting meditation each day.WAke up bell at 4am. meditate from 4:30 till Breakfast at 6:30 then meditate from 7:30 till 11 and then lunch (the LAST MEAL OF THE DAY). after a 1 hour break we meditate till 5 and then a 1 hour tea break. then meditate till 7:30 then a lecture and then 30 minute meditation and lights out at 10pm.
Much harder than wat suan Mok in Thailand. different techniques and more intense. No Yoga. No walking meditation. No darma talks throughout the day. Just sit meditate and be silent. Conscious labor and intentional suffering. I am a better perwson for it. Truly.
so I leave off here with some quotea and as always
Peace and happiness to all of you,
robert
"I believe that the moment is near when, by a procedure of active paranoic thought, it will be possible to systematize confusion and contribute to the total discrediting of the world of reality." Salvadore Dali
"In existing criminology there are concepts: a criminal man, a criminal profession, a criminal society, a criminal sect, and a criminal tribe, but there is no concept of a criminal state, or a criminal government, or criminal legislation. Consequently, the biggest crimes actually escape being called crimes" PD Ouspensky
What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?" Jean-Jacques Rousseau

travelupdate from Ecuador

2010-07-05T08:24:00.000-07:00

Saludos a todos,
Well, you know how i normally end these updates with a quote? O.K. this time I will start with one!
"the only journeys i regret are the ones I did not take" Tony Davis. Well in my opinion there have never been more truthful words spoken or written!!
Tony is a guy I met two years ago in Quito. An american who has been on the road for about 40 years. We travelled toggether for about 3 weeks in north ecuador and south Colombia. I met him here in Vilcabamba on May 8, he told me he was here because I recommended the place, although I dont remember if I did or not, I probably did!!
To his quote i will add one by me, myself, Rambling Robert live and in person..."The older you get the harder it is to travel", dont put off your travels until you are older thinking it will be easier "someday" it doesnt get easier, my friends. If you think it will be hard now, well, I suggest you start immediately, because in 5 years you will really think it is impossible!
I try very hard to avoid watchng the news ( well any TV really) but lately I am unable to not hear stories from the world of men. (I am a pixie, and therefore some of the things I observe human beings doing puzzels and alarms me) So I hear you ser humanos (human beings) seem to have some kind of sticky gooey mess in the gulf of mexico going on. Don´t Happy, be worry! I am sure it will be okay. The guvvamint will fix it. The thing that is most amazing to me is that our hopes are resting with two organizations to remedy this environmental disaster 1) British Petroleum or Big Oil Companies who have a combined worst environmental record in human history and 2) the guvvamint of the USA which is the number one industrial polluter on the planet. In fact if you take the emisssions of the next 4 top polluters and add them up The USA is still contributing more green house gasses and other toxic waste products than the other 4 combined!! These are the two organizations we are expecting to solve this crisis...Hee Hee Hee I mean you just have to laugh!!
So what is really going on in the gulf of Mexico?? Well I sure dont know! but...the one thing you can be absolutely sure of is that what ever BP says about the environment and their concern for Nature is a lie and that the guvvamint of the USA never says anything that is true. The main message really seems to be as follows (as incredible as it may be.)
Whatever you all do, dont panic and start using less energy. Dont conserve! turn up your air conditioner!! I am sure it will be okay as long as we dont interfere with the BP. They care about you and love you. They will have all this cleaned up in a jiffy if the liberals just leave them alone. you can trust the Environmental Protection Agency to protect your environment as long as you dont go and try to conserve energy. ("They should call it the corportation protection agency"-Arnold Schwartzenegger)
From here in Pixie land the answer is simple. WE the humanity, must stop using powers that are not naturally ours. We must stop using electricity. Power tools, air conditioners Jet Airliners. These are all the things that put us mentally, in a false time scale, a false sense of our relative time. Human beings are not meant to be able to fly across the Atlantic in 6 hours. Screws up nature. We are not meant to change the temperature of our bedroom to something cooler or warmer than nature dictates for the moment. Screws up nature. We are not meant to raise enormous cities in a decade when without powere tools it would take a century. screws up nature. So I am become an advocate of the ¨Cockroach Cure¨
I have learned to stop worrying about this silly shit. I dont mind (personally) if Iran does get a bunch of Hydrogen bombs...Why not?? We have them, Israel has them, Pakistan, North Korea Unite Kingdom... they dont seem any more irresponsible to me than any of these other countries. Israel is worried because they say that Iran doesnt want Israel to exist...Well Iran is worried because they say Israel doesnt want Palestine to exist! Why not bomb one another to smithereens and get it over with?! This way the world will be rid of the two biggest trouble makers!!
Why not let the oil spill? Why try to stop it? Personally, I am kind of cheering for the cockroaches (and the Lakers of course). No seriously, listen to this... When we kill ourselves off, either through nuclear proliferation or oil energy uncontrolled greed, when we are all dead, the cockroaches will take over and run the earth, well, i think within 50 years the earth is gonna be in MUCH MUCH better condition with cockroach rulers than with humans.
The humans if left in control will totally destroy this planet in 50 years. There will be greasy oil slicks everywhere. there will be every dirt road primitive illiterate backwater country in the known world armed to their loincloths with nuclear missiles!!! But if los cucarachas are running the show, the world will be clean and green once again. The sky scrapers will crumble, the highways will be overgrown, the towns will be jungles again. The planet will be a safe clean healthy place for pixies...
Its just that I am part of the earth, and if this is so,(and I think it is so) than what is good for the earth is good for me. I think human domination of the planet is the worst thing that has ever happened to our lovely green planet. I swear I am gonna vote for the first republican I see!! Or the first democrat, whoever has the most corporate backing is the candidate I will endorse!
I am accepted to attend a 10 day silent vipassana meditation retreat in Cuenca Ecuador on 3 August. I have been doing a lot of Gurdjieff exercises lately and also going to 5 or 6 one hour meditation classes per week, here at Vilcabamba Meditation Center with Bernie Uhe as my teacher. I am loving my life. I am sort of combining my buddhist meditation practice with my Gurdjieff/Ouspensky 4th way practice.

"ON October 29, 1949, at the American Hospital in Paris died a Caucasian Greek named Georgy Ivanovitch Gurdjieff. A few nights later at Cooper Union, New York, a medal was presented to the revolutionary architect Frank Lloyd Wright. After his part in the ceremony was over, Wright asked the chairman's permission to make an announcement. "The greatest man in the world," he said, "has recently died. His name was Gurdjieff." Few, if any, in Wright's audience had ever heard the name before, which is quite understandable; Gurdjieff avoided reporters and managed most of the time to keep out of the media of publicity." http://www.gurdjieff.org/munson1.htm

I am getting older but I am also getting better. I am seeing things in a new light and I am beginning to feel almost every day the changes taking place in myself that I have worked so hard to bring about for so long. All I can say is if you are practicing a system of enlightenment or awakening or evolution... and the progress is slow, dont be discouraged. Dont give up. If you want to practice but are too busy right now, cure yourself any way you can of the disease of tomorrow and begin immediately. There is a race going on and the cockroaches are gaining on us every minute...time is running out! If you want to travel the world do so befor it is too late, soon we will all be gone and the oportunitys one squanders will never be offered again.
So I am going ot go to Loja tomorrow to try to find some inserts for my shoes. It is about one hour from here by bus. Vilcabamba is such a small village that they dont actually have a propser shoe store. I have been having very bad pains in the bottom of my feet which I believe are the result of my arches not being supported and that my feet are becoming flat as I get older. I sure hope this remedies the problem.
My buddy Mike who lives here told me this old Native American Indian teaching story. The shaman tells the young warrior "there are two wolves who live in a mans heart, a good wolf and an evil wolf and the two are always fighting for the warriors soul" "Which wolf will win?" asks the warrior, and the shaman replies "The one who you feed will win." As it was so it will be.
Well thats all for now. Peace and love to all who read this.
RAmbling Roberto

"The number of laws is constantly growing in all countries and, owing to this, what is called crime is very often not a crime at all, for it contains no element of violence or harm." PD Ouspensky
"Anger will never disappear so long as thoughts of resentment are cherished in the mind. Anger will disappear just as soon as thoughts of resentment are forgotten." Siddhartha Buddha
"I never did give them hell. I just told the truth, and they thought it was hell." Harry Truman

travel update from Vilcabamba

2010-06-06T08:06:00.000-07:00

¡Saludos a todos!
Well, here i am and there you are...What? yes thats right I am back in Vilcabamba Ecuador... Again. This is the third time I have been here. first back in 2005 and then again in 2008 and now, well, here I am again.
This is the famous Valle Sagrado (sacred Valley) The name of this town means Place of the Vilca. Vilca or Huilco is the name of the trees that flourish here. They have been used by the indigenous indian shamans for thousands of years. the seeds produce visions, of the spirit world, (due to the content of a drug called DMT) and as the name would indicate, they are everywhere here.
The place has a year round springtime climate of a near perfect 23 degrees (75 american) almost everyday and it drops down to 18 or 20 at night (62 or 68 american). I am at about 3 degrees south latitude very close to the equator and the town is ab atoub 1500 meters above sea level (4000american feet).There are a few more paved streets here than the last time I was here but still about half the town and almost all the outskirts are just leveled off earth. I am living in an apartment near the river on a dirt road, cohabitating with the lovely and talented Estelita. I am attending 3 meditation classes a week at Vilcabamba Meditation Center, and I am half way through PD Ouspenskys great master work on self realization "The Fourth Way".
Every morning I take a 5k exercise walk. Usually by myself but somethimes a friend will join me. If i am alone, I try to remember my breath as I walk. I am having great success at self remembering and my breathing exercises are really going great. I am getting to where I have always wanted to be. I feel it and I am loving it.
I have been here twice before, and I have renewed many old acquaintences. I am friends with a lot of the expats here as well as a lot of the locals. There is a large expat community here mostly of Gerans, Swiss, canadian, British, Italians, Mexicans and Americans. There is a very acute presence of a certain type of expat. Mostly old radical types and lots of spiritual seekers of all different types. Lots of alternative healers and shamans. There is a new Buddhist center that also does North American Indian Sweat lodges. This place caled VCM (Vilcabamba Meditation Center) is where I take my meditation classes.
So thats about all I have to report...I am living a slow life here an greatly enjoyng myself. Long walks, quiet meditation beside the river, lots of interesting flowers and psychedelic plants. Horses and Burros an mule compose about 20% of the
traffic.
Peace and love to all of you,
Roambling Robert
"True patriotism hates injustice in its own land more than anywhere else."Clarence Darrow
"A loving heart is the truest wisdom."Charles Dickens
"To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life." Robert Louis Stevenson

travel update from medellin Colombia

2010-05-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

Hola Amigos,
Well I am in Medellin Colombia. After I wrote my last update, I left El Salvadore and went to Nicaragua. I took an overnight Tica bus from San Salvador (an ugly crowded dangerous city) to Managua (an ugly crowded dangerous city), and then immediately got to the micro bus station at Uca and went directly to Leone. I like Leone. I had been there before in 2006, and stayed at the same hostel a place called Big Foot. good clean cheap well located. I hung around for 4 days and then went off to a littl and rather un known place called Playa Zorros (beach of the foxes). This is just the southern part of Jiquilillos, which is not in the Lonely Planet or FootPrint central America guide books, and so, it is not very visited by gringo turists which is just fine with me.
I saw a little poster in Big Foot hostel about a place called Rancho Tranquilo owned by a gringa named Tina, a cajun girl who lived for 20 years in San Francisco and now was running this surfer hostel right on the beach, and serving only vegetarian food, so I figured ah well, I may as well go there and check out this place.
I wound up staying there for 2 weeks. Very tranquilo. the first night I was there there were 3 canadian women surfers and the Scotsman who went with me from Leon. The next 4 nights I was there only me and the Scot were there. It is a good little place and Tina the owner is friendly and easy going but alas, drink all the time. She starts drinking beer every day at between 10am and 12pm and continues into the wee hours. And so it is and it is so. The place is just the way one would expect a place run by an old hippy who is drunk all the time to be run. I am not saying I didnt like it (I mean, I stayed for 13 nights) but I dont think I would go back either...
The beach is just lovely. Each day I took a 1 hour walk to an estuary about 4 or 5 km from the hostel. I seldon saw more than one or 2 people as I walkde along the ocean by my self. There were fabulous sea shells to find and the water was warm and easy to swim in if you dont go too far out. If you do, you can get caught in a rather strong undertow and wind up in Japan.
There are a few ex-pat americans who are now living there. Almost all of them gardeners or in the gardening business ( a guy who built green houses) from humboldt county california. There are a few canadiens as well. they all have "interesting" past lives. I will say no more on this subject. Other than that there are just local Nicaraguans who are mostly fisher folk not accustomed to being visited by foreigners and so they are very friendly and kind.
so I did my usual routine of walking meditations and sitting meditations, whatching the sunsets, reading and chatting with other travellers and a few locals. I read Tom Robbins classic novel "Another Roadside Attraction". I have now read all his books. I highly recommend any and all of his books to any and all of you who are looking for something amusing yet heavy. Easy to read with lots of good funny lines and a certain twinge of sadness as he reflects on the human condition. Great stuff.
So now I am here in Colombia. I love this country. Last night I went to a football match, and saw Nacional defeat Perria 3-2. Went with a Canadien, a Spañard (Basque actually) and a German. We were the International section!! Good fun. In a couple of days i will go to Popayan and then on to Ecuador and should be in Vilcabamba within 10 days.
I hope this letter finds all of you happy and healthy. I will close as usual with some quotes from some interesting people and will write again soon.
Peace and love to all
Robert
"In a controversy the instant we feel anger we have already ceased striving for the truth, and have begun striving for ourselves." buddha
"The nationalist not only does not disapprove of atrocities committed by his own side, but he has a remarkable capacity for not even hearing about them." George Orwell
"The history of liberty is a history of limitation of government power, not the increase of it." Woodrow Wilson

last word on el salvador

2010-04-07T09:57:00.001-07:00

Hola mis amigos,
Well As I write this letter I am in Playa San Diego, a little know beach town near La Lbertad, a better know beach town in El Salvador, a little known country betwen Guatemala and Honduras, which ae two more well known central american countries, Harummpphhhhh.
Well I am hiding here to avoid the madness of Semana Santa (holy week) which is the 7 days before and including easter sunday, in all latino countries. I am staying in a hostel called el Roble ( the Oak) this is now my new favorite hostel in the known universe!! You can find it on Hostelz.com or Hostelworld.com. The hostel and even this town are not in Lonely planet or footprint guide. Which means that most of the backpckers will never find it. and of course the other tourists wont either.
I am staying about 400 meters from the ocean Pacifico which has a nice long quiet white sand beach here and the surf is strong but good none the less for swimming. The hostel has a swimming pool too.
The cheap beds cost 8 dollars and Darren and Seka the owners are too cool to raise the prices during semana santa. I have booked in for 12 nights so I wont have to deal with rip off prices or drunk crowds of university students. They have a volley ball net over the pool which mkes for great water volley ball games! They have a ping pong table, tennis court, restaurant, full bar, 25 billion thousand million gigs of great tunes, kitchen for guests, hammocks book exchange (although I am still reading "Beelzebubs tales to his Grandson" now for the third time this year, and on page 700 and something...only 500 more pages to go before I start the summanabitch over again. JG Bennet said he read it 29 times. I might stay here even longer than I originally thought...
There were some nice guests here before but now all that is left is 7 christian missionaries (amerikans working in an orphanage in Honduras) who are here for semana santa holiday. they are okay but we don't talk too much. I think they don't like the title of my book. Yet another benefit of reading Gurdjieff!! Its like mosquito cream for "born agains"! It keeps the baptists away! Tonight a bunch of new guesta arrive too. and I guess it will be quite full until after easter. I have plenty of time on my visa so i have no plans to leave as
yet...
Ahh well it is now 9 days later and I am in San Salvador the capital city of El Salvador. I am just hanging out here for a day till I get a bus to managua in Nicaragua. I will stay in Managua for an hour at the most and then take a bus to Leon and stay at Bigfoot Hostel, where I stayed the last time in January of 2006.
Well I must say that El Salvador was more fun than I expected. I really enjoyed this country. the hostel el Roble is one of the very best I have ever stayed in. great value for the money and really great attitude of the owners and the guests make a terrific hide away for any weary budget traveller. I just cant say enough good stuff about this one!
Next update from Nicaragua
Peace and love,
Robert
¨It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer.¨¨Albert Einstein
¨We will look upon the earth and her sister planets as being with us, not for us. One does not rape a sister.¨Mary Daly
¨A man is truly ethical only when he obeys the compulsion to help all life which he is able to assist, and shrinks from injuring anything that lives.¨
Albert Schweitzer

travel update from Juayua el Salvadore

2010-03-20T13:58:00.001-07:00

Saludos Amigos,
Wow. I mean wow. I have been travelling a way from any computers now for about 2 weeks. Ileft San Marcos la Laguna in Guatemala and went to the Pacific coast of Guatemala to a town called Monterico. I am travelling with "los Africanos" Cornealius and the Merry Prankster.We are now in El Salvadore a very small country in Central America. that makes it 62 countrys that I have visited. This was the only country in Central America that I had not yet been to. We are LOVING it here! This place had a bad reputation for travel and it is tiny and out of the way so I never bothered to come before. I cant speak for how it was, but it is just lovely now. I have so far only been inthe western part, So I dont know yet how the rest is but I will write and tell you all as I continue to explore.
So We left San Marcos and travelled most of the day by mini van to Antigua and then bus to Escuintla and then another bus to Tasisco and then anothe little bus to Avellana and then a motor launch through an estuary to Monterico. unbelieveably beautiful birds here and the rare and totally far out 4 ey fishes. These little fish have 4 eyes. No kidding. they have two eyes that stay above the water to look out for birds that want to eat them and two below to find other fishes to eat. They are really cool looking.
Monterico is a nice little town. we had a very enjoyable 5 days there. The beach is of black sand variety with lots of titanium in the sand. It is the blackest of the black sand beaches I have been to. Very nice and 5 star fantastic sunsets every night. the only negative about the place is that the surf break is only 3 or 5 meters from the shore and it has a strong undertow. this makes it virtually impossible to swim. Muy peligroso (VERY dangerous) which really is dis-heartening because the weather is very hot and the water is a perfect warm temperature to swim in, but alas, you've got to have a death wish to do any more than get wet here! still we enjoyed our selves and took lots of long tranquil walks on the shore and did a tour of the mangrove forest and saw lots of birds and fishes and had a great time.
We left and went across the border to El Salvadore and went to Barro de Santiago just about 40 kilometers from Monterico as the birds fly but about 4 hours as the buses and pick-up truck taxi flys! Still a nice enough journey and no problems at customs. El Salvadore uses American dollars as the official currencey so I traded the last of my quetzales for US dollars and we arrived in the sweltering mid day heat in Barro de santiago.
The town itself is rather ugly and lots of trash everywhere. The People are friendly and we stayed at Capricho guest house. we stayed in a 5 bed dormitory and we were the only guests in it so we had the room to ourselves for $10.00 each. as compared to a private 3 bed-room which would have cost $57.00. The thing is that it is 3 kilometers down the beach from the town and so it is rather isolated. Fine with us!! The staff was great and very friendly. The restaurant was quite expensive and the food was not very good. $4.00 for an iced coffee and intstant mashed potatoes and frozen veggetables. they had a barbque and we bought our own food and cooked on the grill and maria boilde water for us so we made ouir own coffee and tea. We bought a liter of water from her the first day for $1.50 but after that we bought our water in town for a dollar per gallon. like .25 cents a liter instead of 1.50...All in all though I guess I would go back if I was ever there again...
Buses are cheap and frequent here in El Salvador and we bussed our way along the ruta de los flores (the route of flowers) to Laguna Verde. there we rented a nice house with a spectacular view for 10 dollars each per night. Amazing views and a well equipped kitchen and a little weber bar b que so we did our own cooking. We took most excellent hikes in the forests and through the coffee plantations on both days and on the third day left early and now we are here in Juayua.
They have a food fair here every Saturday and Sunday and so we decided why not go and check it out. We are eating very well here and tomorrow we will take a long hike to see 7 waterfalls including a 50 meter high one and they all have nice pools so we can swim in the spray at each fall. (this is what we are told. we will know better after we go ourselves). El Salvadore is the least visited country in Central America. it is the most de-forested and the most densly populated. So far, the parts I have been in are absolutely beautiful and the forests are lovely. I know this will change when I go farther south, but I must say that thus far this country is much nicer than I actually expected it to be. I am eating a lot of Pupusas which are little corn cakes stuffed with all kinds of delicious things. Ayote y quesilla is my favorite. Ayote is a squash not unlike a pumpkin and quesilla is a cheese like mozerella but more bland. they cost 25 cents each and two is plenty! they come with a Salvadoran saurkraut and tomato sauce that is fresh tomatoes, cooked and pureed with garlic. I also like the black bean and quesilla ones too. Great avocados here as well and other lovely delicasies and excellent ice creams too.
oh yes, did i not mention the girls here are very pretty? hah!! too bad I am an old guy!! any way I already have a ticket to go back to South America I fly into Medellin Colombia on 29 April and from there will head south to Ecuador and will stay with the beautiful and fabulous Estelita in Vilcabamba. My life is like a box of chocolates...and she is my chocolate covered sweet cherry!
I will update you all again in a week or 2 or 3. Until then I hope this letter finds all of you happy and healthy.
peace and love,
Rambling Robert
"Giving money and power to government is like giving whisky and car keys to a teen age boy" PJ O'Rourke
"If there is one principle more deeply rooted in the mind of every American, it is that we should have nothing to do with conquest."Thomas Jefferson
"Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely." Buddha

travel update from guatemala

2010-02-12T08:58:00.001-08:00

Hola Amigos,
Well, I am in Guatemala. I arrived in San Marcos on Lake Atitlan, 31 january. i am really enjoying this "peculiar little place". So let me back up a bit, I was having an ordinary day in Oaxaca when...
Time to go time to hit the road. i took an over night OCC bus from Oaxaca to the border town of Tapachula. We left on time at 7 at night. My bus was half hour ahead of schedule. we were supposed to be there at 7 morning, but arrived at half six. Whoa great luck i get to take the 7am Tica bus to Guatemala city and have them drop me in Xela, which is on the way. well, kind of, sort of,
Okay, so I get on the bus. they dont sell tickets to Xela so i have to pay the driver directly. okay I pay 200 MP, I know this is a lot but I dont care. It is so much easier than going to the border in a collectivo going through aduanas and then finding a chicken bus or a collectivo to where i can get to a chicken bus. i just dont need to save the 5 dollars. Tica buses are way nice. I always like them and so it was a no brain decision, except, they didn´t drop me off in Xela. They dropped me off in... well in ... nowhere! Just a fork in the road, and a sign that said Quetzaltenango (Xela) 90km the other way.
So I read the names on the buses which is a little tricky at first and then figured out which bus I needed to flag. this only took me about 2 minutes and then I was on the next chicken bus to Xela. From there I took another bus (maybe the most crowded bus i have been on ever in the last 6 and a half years! Aye Caramba!) to ...well...a different nowhere, this time I got on a collectivo (like a little mini-bus) then on another collectivo then standing in the back of a pick up truck standing and hanging on going down the inside of the now extinct volcano and the beautiful and sacred lake se llama "lago atitlan". Then a took tuk-tuk and here I am in San Marcos at 2 in the afternoon after leaving Oaxaca at 7 at night. Normally there is a direct bus from Xela to here but not on Sundays. Well at least i had an adventure travel day!!
so all this took place on 31 january. I met up with the South Africans Neal and merryl, and we resumed our friendship which we started in Peru and Vilcabamba and Colombia, and we hung out and humado mucho verde sin semilla heacho local. ow they have a visa issue and so they must travel for a while. they have gone to Costa Rica for a month and i am renting the house they stay in while they are away. so I will be here at least until 5 march, when they are expected to return.
I attended a ceremony marking the new year for the maya people. Most of the people here on the lake who are not gringos are maya.These are descendent of the once mighty mayan empire. they have a well constructed and well preserved mysticism and religion and calendar which most of them still adhere to. Okay but this ceremony was all done by gringos and it didn´t seem very authentic to me. In fact it is hard for me not to be negative about the whole thing. so I wont go into it anymore.
Maya means children or people of the corn. Maize is the staple food of their diet, and it is taken in the form of tortillas everyday. The tortillas here are smaller but fatter than in Mexico. In Mexico these would be called gorditos or chalupas.
So, life around the lake...This place is certainly beautiful. the writer Aldous Huxley called Lake Atitlan the most beautiful lake in the world. it is really nice. the water is rather warm not as cold as one may expect from a lake at this altitude. it is fine swimming temperature and it is quite clear and refreshing. Here in ¨San Marcos I am staying in the enlightened gringo area. There are all these healers working here. dozens of yoga classes, psychic healers. Aural healers, classes in all kinds of hippy dippy arts crafts and therapies. Need your tarot read? how about your palm? tea leaves? aura? dreams interpreted? ¿Que Quieres? ¡Lo tenemos!
It is an area of foot paths. There are no cars. There are tuk-tuks to take you to where you can get a collectivo to a bus or you can cross the lake to San Pedro or Panajachel, and from there you are "back in the real world". I am drinking lots of the local organic coffee, costs about $2.50 yanqui dollars the pound. and chowing down on the locally grown produce, all from small farms here. Great avocados, chayotes, onions, papaya, and pineapple to only name a couple of the local goodies.
I have found a nice spot under a tree right on the shore of the lake to sit and do my meditation thing each day. Mostly I just hang out and dont do much. I am BEING in San marcos. I am the sacred lake.
so I will leave you with some quotes and thn I will continue on my day.
I hope this letter finds all of you happy and healthy
roberto
"The man who goes out alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready." Henry David Thoreau

"For much of my life there was no place where the things I wanted to investigate were of interest to anyone." Benoit Mandelbrot

"I always distrust people who know so much about what God wants them to do to their fellows." Susan B. Anthony

another update from oaxaca

2010-01-15T10:46:00.001-08:00

Saludos a todos,
So how does a rambling man like me pass two months in Oaxaca? I am glad you asked. my normal day is quite simple.
I like to get up early do my daily toilet ritual and then sit quietly for about 30 minutes. I have a little relicario (shrine) in my room. I have the little wooden statue of buddha gifted to me by Angela in Vienna back in 2006, and I arrange a group of stones around him. i gathered the stones from around here, and I kind of do this everywhere i go where i stay more than a week, these last few years...Behind the buddha I have a little clay bowl which I have filled with soft earth and use as an incense burner and light a jah stick for the boddhisatva of compassion to summon her to my room before I sit. Now I am ready to face the day.
I go out to the kitchen area that the 7 renters here share and make coffee and toast with homemade bread. I have lately been making bread with Carsten, my Danish travelling buddy who is also staying here. He has been to more countries than I have. It is good to be able to talk to an old roadie, because we can relate our experiences well together. He showed me a nice easy method for making a yeast bread that is about 35%whole wheat flour and 65% white. the only other ingredients i use are water yeast salt and a little sugar. I have been lately adding some sesame seeds and/or coriander seeds for taste and crunch. I make 2 oaaves using about a kilo of flour. it lasts me about a 5 days or a week after I share out one loaf with the other folks who are staying here.
Carsten and I sit in the garden and take coffee and peanut butter and mermalada toast sandwiches for breakfast. sometimes I make egg and cheese and veggie omelets or eat left overs from the night before. Other travellers who stay here join up with us and we chat a while. There is a great herb garden here and I trim the basil plants daily. I clip off the flowering buds with a scissor and dry them in the sun. i cook with the fresh leaves.
there is a cement hand laundry sink in the back and I wash my socks and other clothes almost daily. I have so few things that I have to do it often, because otherwise everything is dirty! It only takes a few minutes and then I hang them in the sun to dry. All of it is always dry by 4. It has only once rained here so far in the 6 weeks I have been here. I dont think it has ever snowed here in history. it is usually in the 20s each day (60-80american). I go to the market and return and that is the morning.
My afternoon routine is not so different from my morning routine. I often take a long walk or bicylce ride either by myself or with Carsi. I usually meditate in the afternoon and take tea at about 4pm and read or take a siesta. Then I prepare some food and hang out with the other travellers and talk about how we all feel about the world.
Most of us are rather removed from the everyday realities of the what one might call the real world (Babylon). We dont care much about the economy or the newest hollwood movie or What Tom Cruz told Larry King about global warming.The newest diet book by Rachel Ray. The newest spring fashions to hit the malls. The latest advancements in Harley Davidson technology or Whether Al queida is going to land on the moon. Rush Limbaughs sentiments on the Haiti situation! All such silliness.
I think of the stuff I used to feel was so important. hell, I have not recieved a ltter or checked a mailbox in over 6 years now! Get an education. Get a good "meaningful" job. Well truth is, the only reason most any of us go to university is so we can earn more money than we need. More than than our neighbors. So we can buy christmas presents for people who dont need anything except a giant dumpster to throw away all their extra stuff in. $20 dollar bottles of wine, trademark name blue jeans...Oh really? and yet all that stuff once seemed like the most important thing in the world to me. I needed that stuff because I was so special. I was so important. I was so good at my job. My opinion mattered. Give me a break!!
I am staying in a 100square meter (300square foot) room. It has two light bulbs hanging from the cieling. It has a cement floor. two of my windows are covered up in plywood. to close the door, I have a bent nail that I put in an aluminum hasp. I have no heater. No air conditioner. No carpet. No pictures on the wall. No stereo. A toilet without a seat. Yet the truth is, I live in a state of luxury undreamed of by more than half the worlds population! I can make popcorn anytime I want! no worries mate! I am so stress free. I am so free of worry. I am absolutely free to go anywhere I wish anytime I want to get up and leave. I am blessed by the gods.
Andd so I will be going on an aovernight bus to guatemala on 30 January. i should arrive in Tapachula (10km from the border) at about 9am. I hope to get to Lake Ätitlan about 3 or 4 in the afternoon on 31 january. the lake is a very special place. sacred to ancient indigenous pseoples and also to the new agers of the modern world! i was there in 2004 and i am looking forward to my return.
So That is that... the rest is silence except of course for a couple of quotes from some rather wise folks...
Peace and love to all of you.
robert

"Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves."Henry David Thoreau

"Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it." Baltasar Gracian

"If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?" TS Eliot

christmas in Oaxaca

2009-12-24T10:50:00.000-08:00

Saludos a todos!
I am in the lovely city of Oaxaca Mexico. I have been here since first of December and will be staying until January 30. i am renting a room from a family here whom I rented from before (in 2006). It costs 2000 pesos a month ($150.00 American) and it includes a private bathroom with hot water(solar heater) and use of the kitchen with stove and oven and free purified water which is necessary here in the Mexican United States(Estatos Unidos Mexicanos). Here Oaxaca is a state as well as a city. Like New York.
I am having a slow time. Reading a lot, meditating in my room I have set up my normal little shrine (relicario) with my little wood statue of Buddha and an assorment of stones from the garden and a clay bowl filled with sand for my jah sticks. It is very comfortable here. I am content for the most part. i miss my friends and family and of course Estelita. but I am happy and content on my own. It is a normal way of life for me. After I leave here at the end of January I will head on down to Guatemala and stay a while at Lago Atitlan and meet up with some travellers I know there, Neal and Merry from South Africa and Grant from Australia (british colombia)from there to El Salvador and from there to South America and Vilcabamba.
Not a big update this time just a little holiday hello to you all. So i will go now and let you go back to your merry making. I am alive and doing fine and still on the road following the path less travelled...
Peace and Love to you all in this year and the next
robert

"Ordinary riches can be stolen from a man. Real riches cannot. In the treasure-house of your soul, there are infinitely precious things that may not be taken from you." - Oscar Wilde
"I wish that I was where I am." - Gertrude Stein

"The world is full of willing people, some willing to work, the others willing to let them." - Robert Frost

travel update from Oaxaca

2009-12-04T09:11:00.000-08:00

Saludos a todos,
So, when i left San Miguel de Allende, i went to Mexico city (here it is called "DF"which means "distrito federale"). this was my second time to visit this city. I was here about 9 years ago for a few days with a traveling buddy of mine the old cowboy Sahnnon. At that time I was a working restaurant owner and stayed in a $100.00 dollar a night hotel in la zona rosa and didn't do much except the kind of decadence that defined that time of my life. I will spare you the details.
This time of course things are different. I stayed in a very good hostel called Hostel Amigo which cost me about 9 dollars a night and included free buffet breakfast and buffet dinner. both meals were said to be vegetarian but it pays to ask(good thing I speak Spanish). I for one didn't know that "turkey ham" and "tuna fish" were vegetables...That being said, the food was plentiful and delicious. I especially enjoyed a creation called calabeza relleño (zucchini or courgette stuffed with cheese and fried in a fluffy egg batter. it is a variation of the classic chili relleño but with squash instead of chili) served in a mild and watery tomato sauce which was perfect for this dish!
Last time I was here for some reason (probably drunken stoned obliviousness)we never did get to see any of Diego Riveras wonderful fresco's This time that was my primary aim for the visit. I managed to see quite a few of them. Most impressive were the huge murals in the Palacio Gobierno. It is free to enter and look at the murals.
This is the building where the government does all its business. It is surrounded by guards and soldiers, and they make you go through some xray machines to enter. One must present a picture I.D. and fortunately for me, my bien amigo RB sent me my new California Drivers license to my old buddy Tom in Mazatlan and I was "ready Freddy" when they asked me for something to hold while I strolled the gallery!!
Just across the zocalo (plaza) from the palacio govierno, is the supreme court where there are also some absolutely stunning murals by more Mexican artists. same procedures, are required to enter.
I also went to the Rudolfo Lopez market and saw all the fresco's there. This was particularly interesting. They were all done in the 1930s and depict workers struggles against evils of capitalism and fascism. These murals have a more international quality to them and some of the artists were from USA and Japan. Fabulously fun market to hang around in. Unfortunately the hostel had no kitchen so I couldn't buy and cook food., but the two meals they provided were so filling I didn't need to.
There was some Mexican political holiday coming up and at night in the main zocalo there was a free laser light show. DUDE!!! This was the most awesome light show I have ever seen!! it looked like the government palace was melting!! Too great to only see once, I went back again a second time and was equally impressed.
The other high light was the Museo Antropologio in Chapultepec (grasshopper) park. My good buddy and travelling mate Jan from A-Dam who I met in Nicaragua and Mexico in 2006, recommended me that I go and so i went. Wow, this is the best museum of its kind I have been to (well, not better than the Cairo museum of history but just as good) in my 6 plus years of travel! I recommend it most sincerely to anyone who is traveling to Mexico and likes museums. I had only one negative experience the whole 5 days in Mexico city.
I was in a big park like a central park called the aAlmeda (poplar grove). I had to pee in the worst way. so I found a tree that I thought would be a good place to hide out. But alas, two policia on bicycles saw me and told me I was in big trouble.
They could take me to the comisario (police station) where I could pay a fine of 1,100 pesos (about $100.00) or stay in jail for 36 hours. This being Mexico, of course, there is always an alternative...
Its a good thing I speak spanish. we settled on 300pesos ($23.00) I bribed them on the spot and they let me go. I am just too old, small, and cute, to stay overnight in jail and I didn't want to waste a day at the comisario where I would have had to pay more anyway so...still it ruined my otherwise lovely day.
So upon leaving Mexico City, I went to Cuernavaca. It is only 60km from the DF but it is like another world. The DF is so crowded and the air is very dirty. It gets rather chilly at this time of year at night too and Cuernavaca is not any of those things! i am staying in a cool hostel about a kilometer walk down hill from the centro and the zocalo. It has a swimming pool and a language school. It is called Experienca and the weekly rate is cheap, about 8 dollars a night. They have a well equipped kitchen and they are real friendly. Cuernavaca is a good little city and I like it here. I will stay until end of November and then go to Oaxaca for December.
And so it is and it is so, I am in Oaxaca, I arrived early morning of 30/11. I am staying in a vecindario called colonia reforma not far from the beisbol stadio, but there is no beisbol at this time of the year. bummer. I am hanging around with my Danish travelling buddy, Carsten and I have met a few new friends here as well. I will be here all of December and at least part of if not all of January.
I hope this letter finds all of you happy and well. Here, then are a few parting thoughts till my next travel update.
Peace and Love,
Rambling Robert
"If you think you can, you are right. If you think you cant, you are right" Henry Ford
"So and so and so this must be it, one should not sit long where one should not sit" Mullah Nasser Eddin
"According to Buddhism for a man to be perfect there are two qualities that he should develop equally: compassion on one side, and wisdom on the other. Here compassion represents love, charity, kindness, tolerance and such noble qualities on the emotional side, or qualities of the heart, while wisdom would stand for the intellectual side or the qualities of the mind. If one develops only the emotional neglecting the intellectual, one may become a good-hearted fool; while to develop only the intellectual side neglecting the emotional may turn one into a hardheaded intellect without feeling for others. Therefore, to be perfect one has to develop both equally. That is the aim of the Buddhist way of life: in it wisdom and compassion are inseparably linked together." Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught

travelupdate from Mexico city

2009-11-17T10:38:00.000-08:00

Saludos,
I have just left San Miguel de Allende (SMA) and went to pass a week or so in Mexico city before going to Oaxaca for December. I came here (SMA) because it was recommeded to me by a fine travelling mate of mine Mark, who is an artist who lives in California near where i used to live. We met in Colombia a few years ago and have kept in touch ever since. I arrived In SMA about 4pm from Guadalajara.My first impressions were excellent.
This is a truly beautiful small city in Mexico´s old colonial heartland. There are nothing but beautiful old homes and churches and nice parks and lovely cobblestone and riverstone streets. This place is famous for its architecture and ambience. It is also famous for its artist community.
Not un-like Ubud on the island of Bali except...This is now a colony of the United States of Babylon! Starbucks on the corner of the main plaza. Expensive gringo restaurants everywhere! Everyone (it seems) in the streets you pass is an american in American clothes speaking english and they are (it seems) almost all Liberal Democrats!! Bill and Hill would feel right at home! Truly nausseating in this respect!
It is fascinating to me, that, here in Mexico and San Miguel Allende too, all the Mexicans are so friendly to the Gringos. Well of course they are just naturally friendly anyway, as anyone who has been to Mexico for more than two weeks in Cancun can tell you, but when one thinks of how the Americans act toward and talk about and treat their neighbors to the south, as compared to the way the Mexicans treat the Gringos it just makes you feel ashamed.
The LACK of racist zenophobic attitude here is so refreshing.They dont talk about building a wall to keep out the gringos who are coming here in droves because it is too expensive to retire in USA. Because health care is the most expensive in the entire world. The contrast is very interesting and one cant help but notice just how racist the Gringos are. Of course not all Americans are racist zenophobes, but...well it is what it is I suppose.
Took a 2km walk up a hill and arived at the Charco del Ingenio which loosely translates as "Talent Pool" This is a little pond created by damming a river. Here we have the Jardin Botanico (Botanical Gardens) of SMA. It is 65 hectares (70acres) of cactus and other local plants. There are numerous hiking trails and of course a bird sanctuary all around the lake. Me and Steve, whom I met in Guadalajara and traveled with to SMA hiked around for a coouple or three hours. It was very nice. Beautiful warm sunny day and a lot of good natural stuff to look at. Steve had some binoculars so we could see some nice birds.
As one walks up the hill through the town, there are many big new houses built here to home the Gringo Retirees who are beginning to flood this town. all with high walls and security fences. All these enormous homes in which two old gringos will live while paying some servants 10 dollars a day to keep them from ever having to clean their own mess again... ¡¡Que Feo!!
These homes all have real nice views The Mexicans dont really like to live too far up because of the walk from town, but the gringos dont walk. The bring their SUVs (stupid ugly vehicle) with them. Actually at first it seems to make me angry and then sad and then just amused.It is rather amusing after all dont you think?
Here is the scenario...35 years ago they bought a tract house in Wheeling Illinois for $55,000 American. They sold it 5 years ago for 600,000. Now this retired hardware store clerk pretends to be rich while living like a colonial lord. Of course, at home he wouldnt have enough money to take a two week vacation in Atlantic City but here He is a big shot and a patron of the arts. Just amusing thats all. Nothing actually wrong with it I guess, just amusing...thats all...
So now here I am in Mexico city. They say this is the most populated city in the world. like 25 or 30 million people. no one knows exactly. How could they?
There are 4 main bus terminals. North South East and West. This way the busses never have to go through the city and add to the traffic jams. No matter which terminal you arrive at, there is a metro station just outside so you can just exit and then enter the metro (subway) and for 2 pesos (15cents) you can go anywhere in the city. The whole system is color coded. Each stop has a name and a little icon, so even if you cant read you can easily use the system. It is cheaper, faster and safer than taking a taxi. I took tahe orange line and changed at the pink line and got off at Isabela la catolica station the icon is a little caravel (a sail boat like the one columbus was on). walked 4 blocks and arrived at hostel amigo.
For eleven dollars I have a nice clean comfortable bunk bed in a dormitory. Free internet and free vegetarian buffet breakfast and vegetarian dinner buffet. voted best hostel in Mexico 3 years in a row from Hostelworld.com. I can see why.
My first night ñhere, I went to the big Zocalo or main plaza. They have a free lazer light show at 9 to celebrate some holiday ( i dont know what). WEll It was the ñmost amazing light show I have EVER seen!! absolutely fantastic. I went there with an Italian traveler I met
( a chef from Genoa!) and it was the coolest light show he had ever seen too!! Like taking LSD.
This morning I went to the grand palace of the government and to the supreme court building. I saw the amazing ( i hate that word) frescos of Diego rivera and of Orozco and of some other younger artists. Totally excellent. All for free. I cant l begin to say how much I have enjoyed my first 18 hours here!
There are people waiting for the internet so I have to go now
Peace and love to all who read these words
Rambling Robert
"Lasting peace will come only from a profound understanding of violence." Leland R. Beaumont

Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man. William Shakespeare

travel update from guadalajara

2009-11-09T14:37:00.001-08:00

Saludos,
I am in the wonderful city of Guadalajara Mexico. This is the second largest city in Mexico with about 5 or 6 million people. It is a very beautiful city. There are lovely plazas and lots of old colonial style architecture. The weather has been perfect here the last week, about 28 degrees in the day and it cools off to about 20 at night (between 60 and 80 degrees American) It has been one cloudless blue sky after another and I havent been bitten by a mosquito or a jejene or a fly in a week (hooorayyy!) my arms and elbows and knees have all stopped itching from all the bites I received in San Blas and I am feeling great!
I have been staying at Hostel Guadalajara Centro which is a good hostel (albergue) only a couple of minutes walk from the main plaza and where all the free concerts happen at night. There has been a cultural festival going on here and I have been going to a free concert EVERY night since I have been here! Last night was the Jalisco Symphonia Orchestra and they played very well in the plaz fro about 90 minutes. Finished up with "Stranger in Paradise" for which they brought out a 30 member choral group! Que Buena! and all for free.
On other nights I have been listening to Mariachi music and there have been two (at least) free BAllet folklorico shows too. The first was the best! There were all these little childresn I would guess between 8 and 14 years old and they were all dressed up in elaborate indian costumes and elaborate mexican costumes and they danced and played conch horns and it was just a fabulous time!
Every sunday here, they close down the main avenue and let bicyclists, roller skeaters and skateboarders and the like take it over and just cruise up and down the boulevard! The hostel has FREE bicycles for the guest to use so I went out cruising with the people of guadalajara. Perfect weather. all along the route were set up various things to see and do and buy. A natural foods plaza where there were tofu sandwiches and whole wheat cookies and organic treats and wheat grass drinks. Giant chess peices on a giant plastic board for people to play along with giant checkers and giant back gammon. The hare krishnas were out there chanting gods names and being generally ecstatic. I fell in with a nice group of travelers here and have had lots of good company to go to stuff whenever I want compañaros.
Oh yes, I may have forgotten to mention...just down the road from here is a little town called Tequila. Guess what they make there? I paid out the necessary pesos and took a drinking tour with the guide who works in the hostel. It cost 480 pesos ($35.00) but it was worth it (vale la peña). We tried a lot of tequila. The best wasa from Tres Mujeres. We saw how they harvest the agave and how they process it and the whole deal. we got to taste the juice at various stages and tried all the cheapest and all the most expensive tequilas each tequilaria had to offer. We was twisted!!
Tequla is alos the name of a volcano which is right there and aparently they named the town after the volcano and the liquor after the town. Real fire water!
Today I took a local bus to Tlaquepaque and went strolling along the peatonal (walking mall) and looked at nice aresan stuff. This is the home of Rodolfo Padrillo, a famous artist and sculptor. He has a factory outlet on the mall and he has donated a few statues to the town so you can go and look and check them out. You can pick up a bronze of his for 200,000 pesos (about $15,000) if you wish...I decided to pass as a 200kilo statue would be a real buden to a backpacker.
My second or third day here an american named Steve checked in. He is my age and we were at the same chef school (CI A) at the same time. We do not know one another as he graduated in 1980 and I in 1981 but we have been cooking in the hostel kitchen together. He is a nice guy and we have been out bicycling around the town together going to market together and smoking cocktails together too.
I have always loved Mexico and never have had a bad time here. My feelings remain the same. I can not understand why anyone in the USA would have anything bad to say about their neighber to the south, but ...They do. It is of course nothing but racisim and elitism. I will never understand anyone who could judge a man by the color of his skin or his accent or his bank account but there are lots of us who do. Pity that. Just today I received a racist e-mail from an old friend allegedly written by Bill Cosby. Disgusting! I doubt Bill wrote it but the fact that anyone would forward such zeenophobic racist trash is so disapointing. The weird thing is the guy who sent it would never consider himself to be racist or ethnocentric.
I am thinking of going to San Miguel De Allende next and then to Mexico city and then to Oaxaca but we all know how quickly and suddenly my plans changs so...Meanwhile, this kid is just in love with Guadalajara. I recommend any one who enjoys to be in a big city to come here some day and visit.
Well that is all for now. I leave you all with a few quotes to consicer until my next update.
Peace and happiness to all of you
Roberto
"There will be peace on earth when there is peace among the world religions." Hans Küng.

"The pursuit of truth does not permit violence being inflicted on one's opponent." Mahatma Gandhi.

"For every dollar that the developed countries spend on international assistance, they invest $10 in military budgets." d'Escoto, senior advisor to the president of Nicaragua, 2008-SEP.

travelupdate from San Blas

2009-11-02T08:35:00.001-08:00

Hello from San Blas,
So, The last time you heard from me I was in Creel in The heart of mexico's copper canyon. I got back from Batopilas and the hung around Creet a couple more nights and then went back on the train from Creel to El Fuerte. This is the most beautiful part of the train trip. If you did not have time to do the whole route I would say to do this part. El fuerte to Creel.
Beautiful alpine lakes and wonderful cliffs of different colors. Tree covered islands in the lakes waterfalls cascading down the slopes of the canyon walls. Indian women at every stop in beautiful colored costumes selling the usual baskets fruits and trinkets. But their grace their style and pride affect you as you look into their eyes.
We stopped once for about 20 minutes for a look out view and there were a dozen street food vendors all shouting at once! Good food though. I had a couple of chili rellenos wrapped in flour tortillas and some blue corn tortilla tacos with mashed potatos that were topped with cabbage. Very good indeed!
So myself and roberto and Diana from Tulum all arived after dark and took a cab to Guerrero Hotel. negociated a good price with Don Edino, and I stayed three nights while they split to catch the over night ferry from los Mochis for la Paz the next day. what a great time I had in El Fuerte!
The owner Endino was very friendly and took me to his lake cabin and we got it all fixed up for the following day to go fishing and boating and swimming at the lake. We ( me him and his two friends) went out there and they caught a bunch of fish and we all drank a bunch of beer, a bunch of beer. and went swimming a little and saw a beautiful sunset and drank a bunch of beer and one of them gets his guitar out of his truck and they all started singing. these old mexican "I am in love and my heart is broken" songs. All drunk and singin the blues under a night of thousand stars and the clarity of the milky ways cosmic clouds. No on vomited.
I love my life. Next morning I am off about 10 am and I change buses in Los mochis and arrive in Mazatlan at about 5pm. I am having trouble witht he phone system and can't get hold of my friend who lives here, so i taxi to the Mexico Hotel, and get a room with a private bath for 100 pesos( $7 USD). Only two or three blocks from the Malecon. It is old and run down and tired but good enough for me. I call and get in touch with my buddy and he picks me up and we go driving around and drinking scotch. We wind up at a street food stall that sells giant baked potatoes with like sour cream and cheese and stuff like. Really good! So then he comes back for me the next day and i stay at his house for a week.
Just hanging around walking on the beach. Mazatlan is deserted no turists anywhere all empty hotels and bars and restaurants.Ocean view rooms right on the malecon on the beach, from 200 pesos ( $15 USD).
I am waiting for my drivers license to arrive from California. It got sent via regular mail and now I am not sure how long this might take.
Meanwhile, I am here. I have wanted to come to san blas for 20 years since i first heard of this sleepy little fishing village. it is "famous" for bird watching and infamous for bugs.
Mosquitos are said to be bad here but the jenjebes are the worst. little tiny sand flys. i hope they are not so bad. i will let you know soon.
Now it is 2 weeks later and i am going to mazatlan tomorrow.I have had a very nice stay here in San Blas.Nothing much to do around here except walk on the beach or surf or swim,in the ocean.There is a nice beach with some waves. I go there every morning for a long walk and thenI just hang around my room at La Quinta California. I chat with other guests or the owner.
I have been studying my spanish and reading rodney collins Theory of celestial influence. which i have completed! Wow. a real hard book to finish so i feel good that I have done it. I am reading Beelzebubs tales to his grandson again for the 3rd time now. It is going well and I am understanding much more each time I read it.
So I really enjoyed my time in San blas. it is very peaceful little town and the beach is nice for long walks. Of course there is the issue of bugs. Aye Caramba there are a lot of bugs there. Not as bad as i had heard, but still there are a lot of bugs there! The worst are the no-see-ums, or jejenes is the mexican name. These little devils sting you and they itch for days!
So i am in back in mazatlan, I just received my new driver license from California in the mail (Thanks RB!!) and tomorrow morning i will go to Guadalajara for 5 days or a week and then down to the pacific coast and head south to Oaxaca.
I am loving mexico and I am going to stay in Oaxaca for at least 5 weeks for all of December and the first week of january.
So here are a couple of thoughts to ponder until my next update.
Peace and Happiness to all of you
Rambling Roberto

"If the present Congress errs in too much talking, how can it be otherwise in a body to which the people send one hundred and fifty lawyers, whose trade it is to question everything, yield nothing, and talk by the hour?" Thomas Jefferson
"Human identity is no longer defined by what one does,but by what one owns." Jimmy Carter
"You got to love what you hate." Hank Levine

travel update from copper canyon mexico

2009-10-07T15:34:00.000-07:00

Hola,
Well my last update had a little rant going through it. Lo Siento si estaba malcreado (I'm sorry for those who were offended). So the day after my last update my old travelling mate Shannon with whom I have been to Japan, Costa Rica, Mexico and Hong Kong with, and I hop into his pick-up truck with a picnic of back yard plums and apples from farmers market and Splitsky the scenesky for Washington. The colombia River Gorge to be more precise, Of course (as always) via the scenic route! Along tahe way we pick up a hitchhiker named Grant from Australia who is a world traveler too but on a motorcycle. he ran out of gas in the middle of nowhere and we took him to get gas and then back to his bike. good for my travel karma I reckon...
The river goes through some fabulous scenery.We criss crossed back and forth between Oregon and Washington many times, big bridges little bridges draw bridges...
Breathtaking panoramic views.. America's Pacific North West is a big rain forest but not tropical. We passed parallel 45 which made us just half way between the north pole and the equator.Giant, I mean giant trees. Redwoods, Douglas fir, Ash, aspen, birch ponderosa pines and many more which I did not know the names for. Such birds to see too. We saw osprey and many redtail hawks a couple of golden eagles and many many more.
This is a great and swift river that goes all the way to the pacific ocean. It is deep enough for ocean going freights and barges to travel 600km inland! We stayed on the pacific in a small town in Oregon. We had a real nice room right on the ocean and when I woke up i got to go out side and take a lovely walk on the beach. It was cold and grey and started to drizzle a little so I cut it short. One problem here is that the weather is very uhhh "British" mostly grey and cool. Actually quite cool! I have been hanging out in the tropics mostly for the last 5 or 6 years and I am quite sensitive to the cold.
so what else? (Y que mas?)
We got a little tourist action going and stopped at the Evergreen Aviation Museum and saw many old and interesting planes and helicopters. Some peaceful and some military.
The high light of this was the "Spruce Goose" this is the largest plane ever built. It was only flown once. for less than an hour! I dont know why...It was the dream child of the famous American Industrialist Howard Hughes. It was magnificent. The wing span is more than 100meters long! the cockpit is 50 feet above ground! It had eight enormous wing mounted engines. there was a world war 2 B17 bomber parked right next to it and it was like a porsche next to a bus! It is good to travel with others sometimes. I never would have gone if my pal Shannon hadn't wanted to see the Spruce Goose. I am glad I went.
Our road trip took us through Tillamook county and so, we had to go to the great Tillamook cheese factrory. The deal is that all these dairy farmers in the area have formed an association and they are all share holders in this giant facility that makes about half a million pounds of cheese per day!! About 220,000 kilos per day. Virtually all Cheddar! they also make a little jack and colby and colby jack. Wow! What a place! Of course we tasted a large variety of cheeses and bought a few tasty treats to take with us too! Fun sometimes to hang out with tourists! The airplanes were Shannons idea but it was my idea to see the cheese. Shannan was happy in the end too!
And so it went, cruising in Shannons big new Chevy truck. We listened to cable music from the 1960s and we both sang along.Shannon is doing well and his business is thriving and so we lived it up on his expense account. Not my usually cheap as dirt road trip. We stayed in real nice hotels and ate in real nice restaurants. No avocado tomato sandwiches in the front seat, Oh no! nice restaurants all the way. We stopped a couple of times to sample some of Oregons wines at winerys we passed.
Yamhill Winery was the best. Nice pinot noirs and a lovely sweet reisling as well as some nice chardonnays too. But as far as wine is concerned, I hate to be un-patriotic about this but, the best wine of the trip was a flawless malbec from mendoza Argentina. Whoa baby! What a lovely wine!! I have been to Mendoza. So I am a little partial but this is a great wine region. The Oregon wines are also quite fine. No doubt about it. (Sin Duda)
Finally we ended up at the Rogue regency hotel in Medxford Oregon. this is a special thing for me. I began my travels on October 1 2003 and on that fateful day took my car to Oregon to see Shannon and 5 days later we slept in the very same hotel the night before we left for Japan. Now we checked in on September29,, the night before I fly to Chihuahua. 5 years and 360 days later. I got all sentimental. Then I took a hot tub and had a beer and felt better. I will finish this update in a few days when i am in mexico.
Okay it is 8 days later and I am in Creel in the copper canyon of Mexico.I spent 3 nights in the city of Chihuahua which was very pleasant but uneventful. I found a good cheap room in the San Juan hotel above a noisy popular bar and went down and watched futbol with the locals and had a couple of drinks. I went to the home of Pancho Villa and that was very interesting. They have the old car he was murdered in and it is all full of bullet holes.It made me think of Bonny and Clyde...
The scenery along the way from Chihuahua to Creel was also very nice but not really like totally amazing...The best parts of the canyon lie ahead. I get back on the train tomorrow and go to the colonial city of El Fuerte. The best views of the canyon should occur in this part of the journey. The train ride is supposed to be fantastic I will let you all know soon!
I am staying in Margaritas guest house in Creel near the train station. 7 dollars a night for a dorm room with hot (too bloody hot) water and free breakfast and dinner. Great deal! Nice people and I am meeting lots of cool travelers. I am sharing the dormitory with ...Yes you guessed it... Grant from Australila arrived on his motor cycle last night. A long way from Idaho. He is headed to lake atitlan in Guatemala which is where CorNEALius and the MERRY prankster are (Crystal people I know from South America) and where I am going too!!! Wow! what a small but gigantic world it is for a guy on the road. On October 1 I began my seventh year of travel. Wow who would have guessed?
So I returned yesterday to Creel from Batopilas. Batopilas is a remote village of mostly Terahumara indians in the bottom of the Copper canyon. This is ground zero of the drug war. it is all shut down. only a couple of hotels open. No Tourists. when we got there we realized we should get out of here. Just indians soldiers and DEA agents in black Baseball caps enblazoned with AGENT. Lots of M-16s. Obviously after one walk through there is no industry (legal) to support this population. We (Mona from Canada, Roberto an italian chef who has a reataurant in Tulum and his charming wife Dianeta) ask around a bit and everyone here is a marijuana grower.
This is what the war is about between the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels. control of the marijuana plantations. We wanted to walk through the forest to the old mission (8 kilometers of not so well marked trails) but we also wanted to live long enough to send this update and decided to return to Creel the next morning.
The journey to Batopilas was fantastic. stunning views! Beautiful rock formations. lots of wild goats or sheep ( I dont know how to tell them apart) on little rocks in most precarious places. One of those rare moments where i wish I had a camera...I visited some cave dwelling indians also and saw a beautiful waterfall near Creel and also a place called "valle de los hongos" wth huge rocks shaped like mushrooms. Way cool. reminded me of Kapadochia in Turkey...
Next update in a week or so from the pacific coast of Mexico .
Peace and love to all of you
So here are some interesting ideas to ponder till we meet again...
Peace and Love to you all,
Rambling Robert
"If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law." Henry David Thoreau

"I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country." Thomas Jefferson

"The war changed everything in my life and I was one of thousands forced to leave during the ethnic cleansing in my city. But they did not manage to change me. I have NOT learned to hate my neighbors and I never will."
Lana Obradovic, from Bosnia Herzegovina during the religious genocide during the 1990s

travel update from Klamath falls Oregon

2009-09-26T08:09:00.001-07:00

Greetings to all,

Well, I have not been communicating as often as I suppose I should. (I am always cautious of using the phrase " I should"...but here i am throwing caution to the wind and typing like a chipmunk on acid. I am almost gone. I will be leaving the "good 'Ol US of A" in a couple of days and flying into the mexican war zone. I will be arriving at the south most extreme of the killing feilds. I arrive in ciudad chihuahua on 30 Octubre.Most of the mischeif is happening a couple hundred miles north of there in Juarez. One CIA backed "Drug Cartel" is ffighting a DEA backed "Drug Cartel". People up north are watching the slaughter of almost 20,000 mexicans on TV while eating two fer one "dominoes delivers" and sucking down 3 liter cokes.

I will be flying over the mayhem. It is too weird to travel overland in northern Chihuahua these days as the christians are really having a very civilized little war. Killing everything that moves. cutting off each others heads and other body parts. They are fighting over money. They are killing over money. If you ask them they will tell you they are 95% catholic there and 4% other types of Christians. You can look it up. The church of gold and coca. You see, because of artificially created circumstances ie Americas war on drugs and her drug laws which forbid the drugs her people crave, Cocaine costs 3 dollars per gram on one side of the river and sells for 80 dollars on the other side. The profits are so great that the Christians are slaughtering each other over who gets to bribe the DEA agents and make a fortune. It is the same thing as when slavery was illegal in Europe and the Christians (mostly catholics) could go to Africa and buy the people there for 2 dollars a head and sell them to the other christians for 50. The misery market. only now we use the coca and the heroina and create slaves, who can do nothing but sell their bodies for the sweet dreams they crave. So, beside the drug sellers, smugglers, growers and processors, who makes the money?? Here is the rub folks. find the correct answer to this question and the whole ball of yarn unwinds. If you know, don't tell!!!

I will leave Chihuahua muy pronto and take the fabulous (so I have heard) Chihuahua al Pacifico train through the legendary Barranca del cobre (copper canyon) one of the worlds great natural wonders. I will update you all on this later after i have experienced it first hand.

When I arrived in USA in July, I had already visited 46 of the 50 states here. I got back here to Klamath falls yesterday after going to Idaho (number47) and spending a night in Boise. The trip was by truck to go and pick up a 300pound (140kilos) vibrator that will be used to separate algae from lake water. Boise is nice.

This is a very interesting part of the country. The people of this area are said to be the most "conservative" or "right wing" in the whole of USA. They are beef ranchers and hunters and fisherman. They live off the land in an industrial way. They listen to "talk radio" all day. They believe we should use nuclear wapons in great abundance on all our enemys. They believe Israel must live so Jesus will return. They think if Jesus comes back and its Moslems there in Palestine, we are all gonna be in the shit.

They support the Israelites in all circumstance and think we should too. They believe gay people should not be tolerated, nor people who are not "born again unto jesus Christ". They think doctors who perform abortions should be executed and pilots who bomb villages should be elected to senate.They voted for Bush because they liked Dick Chaney. We didnt stay long.

Tomorrow we (my buddy Shanan and I) are going off on another road trip to go to Colombia River gorge in Washington state (state number 48 for me!) I hear this is one of Americas other great natural wonders. I am ready to go. Today I will soak in hot tub and make soup for my friends. I am having a great time in south oregon. I always like it here.

The drive to Idaho was fantastic. High desert scenery. We saw beavers chipmunks antelope, deer, owl, red tail hawk, and falcons. It is onion harvest time. There are huge fields thousands of acres of onions being picked. Dozens of trucks filled to the top of loose onions rambling down the line. Onions flying off at every turn and full stop.

Me and shannon began to stop and just grab up onions to take home. wonderful sweet wala wala onions and some lovely fat purple onions too. Then we saw an old mennonite guy selling onions on the side of the road. Mennonites are Christians who do not believe in homocide. They do not believe there are any loop holes to the comandment "thou shalt not kill". They believe in god and do not believe in lawyers so this is why they dont believe in exceptions to the commandments. They believe that the rich DO NOT GO TO HEAVEN So Shannon set in a supply for winter: 50pounds of wala walas ($10) and 25 pounds of purple Bermudas ($7.00 ) and he gave us a cantelope mellon as a gift also!! What a cool old guy. dressed in blue denim overalls with the bib in front, white straw cowboy hat, beard but no mustache must have been 90 years old. Great big smile and a friendly "God bless you" (via con dios) when we left.

I love America and think it is the most beautiful country in the world. There are of course other places that are perhaps just as lovely, but nothing i have seen is more beautiful. Sure there are problems, Every country has problems. They are all caused by the corrupt leaders of church, schools, and Govamint. The people are like angels angels with dirty faces maybe but angels none the less. Same as the palestinians and and the communists just angels with dirt on their faces...Greed and "money psycholsis" is the true problems.

People believe they dont have enough when they have plenty. They have insecurity about future so they try to horde all the wealth and treasure they can. They take all they can, regarless of their immediate need and then fight and kill to keep their excess out of the hands of those who are needy NOW. The money psycholsis. Every day I Thank all the gods because I have become free of this dreadful illness...Dont worry though the drug companies are working on a cure and when it is ready they plan to sell it for a hundred dollars a pill, take three a day!

Thats all for now folks. I will write again soon. Here are a couple of things to think about while i am gone.

Peace and love

Rambling Robert

"It is in our lives and not our words that our religion must be read."Thomas Jefferson

"Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive”.— Howard Thurman

"Can't we all just get along?," Rodney King.

travel update from petaluma

2009-09-02T09:57:00.001-07:00

Greetings to all of you.
I am in Petaluma California.I am staying with some friends and have only just arrived after two weeks in Colorado. I love the mountains in America during the summer. I really enjoyed what I saw in the apalachian mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina and Then to go right to Colorado and the rockies was just a great treat. The thing about the rockies that I find so wonerful is all the flowers. Shah the whole world seems covered in flowers. Also it seems there is a cool running stream with rapids or a waterfall virtually everywhere you look. This is partly because this is where the trails are and partly because there are a lot of waterfalls and beautiful streams, brooks and creeks everywhere.I also got to see some elk, which are like a huge deer and have great antlers and a mane like a buffalo or a lion!
Denver is a big city and I stayed about 20 minutes out side there with friends John and Suz. I have known them a couple of lifetimes and Suz is my yoga teacher. She has a lot of wisdom and is a great teacher. For Suz it isnt just about the poses, it is the yogi mind that is the key. It is the breath. It is about smiles. Her philosophy is simple "Eat good things, Be Kind, Tell the Truth" John is a songwriter and works in a bar. He is an excellent finger picker and writes real well.
They have a whole managerie of 3 dogs (two crazy one old) heck the sanest one is called Dufus so ya know...And 3 cats of colorful mind...And a now former 20 year old chinchilla named sidney who passed from this organic plane while I was there and now he rests in peace beneath the backyard.
I saw a good exibit on asian art and "American Western" at the Denver Art Museum and went to an event called "first friday" there. This event happens on the first friday of every month.
There is a small area where all the art galleries are crowded into. Maybe 4 streets long and two streets wide in the Down town of Denver filled with all these galleries and nightclubs and bars and restaurants. So once a month its a big open house and all the galleries give away little snack foods and you can buy wine and walk around and look at art. Lots of bands set up in parking lots and play for free and lots of people mill about and have fun. Saw some good art, heard some good music and had some not so great mexican food, which is a bummer in a city full of good mexican restaurants.
I also got to spend a lot of time catching up with Suzies grand children, who range in ages and interest from a 23 year old bass player in a rock and roll band to 7 and 10 year old girls who just steal my heart.We babysit by taking them to the neighborhood pool and swimming and picnicing. Great fun!
So here I am and I am here.I love Sonoma county. I lived here from 1977 to 1979, on the russian river between forestville and guerneville mostly. I am in Petaluma visiting at the home of my old buddy Morty who was my room-mate back in the days when I lived here. Back in 1974 we were in NJ and he was leaving to go and hitch hike to California he gave me a book called "In Search of the Miraculous" which changed my life forever.
He has a nice place here and stays with his wife and kids, but most of his kids are away at school most of the time now so its really just him and wife/mother Deb and thier daughter the Moon who is 10. They have a little guest house in the back and that is where i am staying. I am gaining a few kilos.
Not far from here in Freestone is Americas best bakery, the Wildflour Organic Bakery, which I usually call the Birkenstock Bakery. I go there everytime I am here. Fabulous breads. Fabulous scones, cinamon rolls, biscotti, everything these bearded birkenstocked hippies make is ab-fab!! We also took a cruise out to Marin County (what the wah hay it was a beautiful day and we were joy riding around stoned in the Mercedes with the roof down). It was time to visit the Roughe et Noir Cheese Factory. We got the gran rebaja (big discount) 6 cheeses for $20.00. All types of brie. like sundried tomato or pesto or garlic or blue cheese or regular or triple creme.Shahhh we took them all.Sat by the lake with our warm bread and cheese and so it is and so it goes...
Went to the Bodega bay wine and jazz and art and seafood festival. California has a lot of weekend festivals in the summer. So I got to hear some jazz and be festife with my life friend Hank. Hank is a guitarist extraordinaire and an old Gurdjieff-nick from the 60s and he has been something of an isnspiration to many of his friends including myself. He lives with heart. He is not doing so well physically these days but we had a great time. I am going over to his house tonight after I finish this update.
I had a moment of truth, a satori experience on the airplane coming from Denver to San Francisco. I usually hate to meditate on an airplane, but I was in the mood and I slipped right into this groove and the next thing I know I am breathng mindfully and seeing the truth in a kind of still life animated movie about how everything is determined by these vast mechanical laws of attraction magnetism and gravity Radiating out of or off of or by extraterrestrial beings (ie planets moons stars comets) radieant forces and also by terrestrial forces and we are being influenced and guided by thousands of rays of attractive energy from all different directions at once some as mundane as the TV and memories of how grandmother taught us to behave, others as complex as situational human dynamics can make them.This is how everything we "decide" to do is really decided. A continuing series of causes and thier results from all these out side infuences and not by ourselfs from within at all, unless we have developed a true "will".
I am taking a train to Paso Robles on the 9th of September I will b e in San Luis O bispo for 9 or ten days. If anyone wants to see me email me or call me at RB &Tawnyas
Well here are a few quotes to think about while we are apart...
Peace and Love,
Robert
"Human beings are more alike than unalike, and what is true anywhere is true everywhere, yet I encourage travel to as many destinations as possible for the sake of education as well as pleasure". Maya Angelou

"Illusions, mistaken for truth are the pavement under our feet. They are what we call civilization"...Barbara Kingsolver

"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."... Thomas Edison

"One should never forbid what one lacks the power to prevent."... Napoleon Bonaparte

travel update from Swananoah

2009-07-31T07:00:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,
Well some unexpected changes in plan have brought me back to USA. I am in North Carolina until August 1 and then i will fly to Colorado. After Colorado i am not sure yet, but headed south to Mexico as my next country. I may visit Oregon and California before going south of the border.
So i expected to be in France until the end of August and then to remain in Europe visiting traveling buddies until the end of October. but now my plans have been altered due to the visa restrictions imposed on non E.U. members under the Scavenging accord...I am only allowed to stay in Europe for 90 days and so my visa expired on July 8. i split on the 7 of July and arrived in New Jersey on the 8 of July.
I was disappointed to leave the Moulin de Chaves so soon. I had been there eleven or 12 weeks, but had planned to stay for 17 or 18 weeks. It is impossible for an ordinary person to extend his tourist visa unless there is some extenuating family matters or health issues. I wasn't going to get kicked out, but i would be in quite some trouble at the airport when i tried to leave with a visa over stay of 3 months!
So I decided to go to New Jersey and visit family and friends and then head to Mexico and central America on my way back to Ecuador and Vilcabamba. I expect to be there again in less than a year. The road is long and i don't like to move too fast. Now I have learned that Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua have an agreement similar to Schengen called CA4 and i can only stay for 90 days in all four of these countries, but i think i can leave and come right back if i want to. In Europe I would have to get out and stay out for 90 days before being allowed to re-enter. SHSHHAAA what's an unemployed, homeless, drifting, bum to do these days??!!?
So here I am. Asheville North Carolina just in time for the Swannanoah Music Gathering. Lots of Appalachian music to hear around here, for the next week or two. "Old timey" is sort of a predecessor to blue grass, and when i first hit town it was old timey week. This style is very interesting, lots of great flat picking and finger picking. Everyone plays string instruments. Many of the instruments are not so common these days but i like to listen to the different sounds. There are also a lot of "under-utilized" instruments like banjos, dobros dulcimers and bazoukis And of course loads of guitars fiddles and bass.
There are workshops all day and then a concert at night and then everyone jams in music circles which anyone can just sit in and join. this goes from about 10 or eleven (depends when the concert ends) until 4 or 5 (depends when the workshops start) in the morning.
Some enterprising people have a truck with three kinds of draft beer, and another group has a food tent with pizzas, burgers and hot dogs (including veggie burgers) and fresh made pommes frites (or liberty fries as you Americans out there now call them).
I Arrived in North Carolina after 7 days in New Jersey and 3 nights in New York City. I was visiting friends and family and catching up on my roots. New York is still the worlds greatest city. I visited with two of my friends who live in Manhattan and had a fabulous time. Doing the "getting caught up" thing and then mostly walking around and just being a free man in New York in the summer of 009. Had to eat some quality bagels and some knish (like a little baseball shaped pie with potato filling). For me coming home to USA is mostly about coming home to people I love. So it was like this. My stories here, get personal.
In New Jersey, I got to stay at the home of my younger brother and his family. He has 3 great boys and a wonderful wife who has a great sense of humor and is always seeing the lighter side of things. She keeps everyone
smiling. She is always very nice and welcoming to me and IrITs a great feeling for me to know how welcome i am. I also got to visit with my older brother and his wife and two kids. His kids are much bigger than when I saw them last. They are very clever. I really love them a lot and this living on the road makes me stop and think sometimes about what i left behind...
I got to see my old buddy Charlie too and have a little whiskey and a smoke and get caught up with him too. He has some mighty fine old scotch in the basement of his house and I am always a catalyst for the ceremonial dusting of the bottle. And let me just say, we dusted a few!! hard to count with all this swirling smoke but I left there feeling no pain.
I am really sorry to have had to leave Europe so soon. I was planning to visit a lot of you who are receiving this update and now of course i will not be coming to Spain, Germany, Holland, Denmark or Marseilles.
I go to Colorado on Saturday and after that i am not exactly sure. i am on my way to mexico, but i may remain in USA for the rest of the summer, visiting and enjoying the weather.
So here are a couple of quotes until the next update from Colorado...
Peace and love,
Rambling Robert
"You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room." Theodor Seuss Geisel

"If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen." Henry David Thoreau

Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful." Buddha

travel updat from moulin de chaves in cubjac france

2009-06-02T08:58:00.001-07:00

Greetings from Moulin de chaves,
I am In a small budhist retreat center, in a small village called Cubjac in the Dordogne region of southwest France. the nearest city you are likely to find on a map is Perigeux (pronounced perry-goo). I am about 17km or 11 USA miles from perigeux. Perigeux is famous for some food stuff. Foi Gras, Truffles, walnuts and walnut oil. cubjac is not really famous for anything. When I say a small village well, there is no traffic light, no stop sign, no movie theater. There is one boulanger (bakery) one pharmacy, one small cash and carry (like a seven eleven) a tabaco shop/newstand/cafe, a bar, a butcher shop specializing in horse meat, beef and poultry, and a church. Oh and now a pizzeria has opened, with seating for 12. I havent been in it yet,but I hear good things...
I spend my time, meditating, walking in the oak forests that abound here, swimming in the river that runs through le moulin, and reading. I cook in the retreats kitchen about 30 hours per week and I have to go to a couple of meetings per week too. I like all of it except I dont really like the meetings too much. I am not a meeting person. Everyone likes the food I make.
I meditate more than usual here, I mean for me of course. I sit twice per day with the group in group meditation sessions that last about 45 minutes each session. I sit by myself everyday for another 30 minutes. it is a meditation center after all, and that is what I have come here for. I am working on cooking consciously, so I chant "Namo Amitaba Amituofo" most of the time I am in the kitchen. After a while, it sort of takes me to a strange inner place. I recommend that all of you try it and then write back and let me know what you think. I am wondering if it is "just me" or if there really is something to it...
I take the "family dog" a handsome young fellow (golden labradore about 3 years old), named Bilbo, for walks in the forest. There are easily marked and cleared trails. We pass lots of flowers and almost never see anyone out there. Lots of birds and of course all kinds of trees and bushes. The bad part about walking with a dog is that you dont see too many animals. He scares them all off. The good part is...well, gosh, he is just so darned enthusiastic!! He absolutely loves being out there and he is almost overwhelmed with doggie joy! it is contagious and so he makes a great walking companion. He bounds off into the underbrush and disappears over and over again and comes when I whistle for him. I love to walk a dog.
Outside my window yesterday I saw an absolutely beautiful wood pecker. I dont know the name of this type of wood pecking bird, but wow! He had great face markings and a bealutiful profile. under his wing was a blue feather with back checks on it. just beautiful. There is also a grey herron who hangs out on the weir in the river. He stands and holds perfectly still. (He must be meditating) He is on a steep slope in the weir and it is fast running water and it must be slippery, but none of these facts phase him in the least. It must be great to be a bird...
It is fun when I am in the kitchen. I always loved cooking and I still do. today, I made a 4 layer polenta cake. Polenta on the bottom, with a little fresh grated parmesan cheese, topped with cooked zuchini aond onions in a little tomato sauce, Then another layer of polenta topped off with a pesto bechemel sauce with emmenthaler cheese and baked. kind of a vegetarian polenta lasagna. Also buttered turnips with their greens (from our garden) and mushrooms with tarragon. And some steamed mixed veggies (brocoli, cauliflour, fennel, celery and green beans with dill and lemon). I also served a magnificent green salad, with all kinds of "weeds" foraged by John our gardener from the grounds and 4 fresh lettuces from our gardens, garnished with beetroots, tomatoes, shredded purple cabbage and carrots, croutons,and some pumpkin sunflower and sesame seeds I roasted with soy sauce, with an olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette. Fresh bagettes and home made
hummus and butter from Britagne. JThe foraged stuff from the grounds make the salad just magnificent. i am blown away by the tastes and textures. Unavailable anywhere at any price.
It is a little weird still to be working with other people in the kitchen with me. They are all amatuers. i am not accustomed to this and they are not accustomed to working with a "real chef" I live by a lot of hard and fast kitchen rules and they dont (as they say)even have a clue!!
I am lightening up a little and they are tightening up a little so it is working out well. I am learning a little and teaching a lot about food, cooking and kitchen management. I learned how to make seitan (fake meat from gluten) it is very good and i really like it.
I am a little amazed that i like it but the truth is I do!! I used to make faces when vegetarians ate fake meat. I thought,"Well, if you are avegetarian, you should eat vegetables and not feel sorry that you arent eating meat" But this stuff tastes good ( a little bland like bread), and has a very nice texture. I guess I am not too old to learn something new after all!
That is all for now. I will write again soon
Peace and love to all of you,
robert
Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.
Buddha
"What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?" Jean-Jacques Rousseau
"We are just an advanced breed of monkeys on a minor planet of a very average star. But we can understand the Universe. That makes us something very special." Stephen Hawking

travel update from Cubjac France

2009-05-10T08:04:00.000-07:00

Bon Jour,
> Well, here I am and I am here. I have arrived at Moulin
> de chaves, the buddhist meditation center that I have been
> telling all of you I would be coming to. I arrived on
> 4/23/09. At first the weather was the shit. It just rained
> and was cold and cloudy for about 6 days. but other than
> that it was really nice. Now the weather has cleared and it
> is fabulous to be here. Let me catch you all up.
> So after a totally great time in italy,(Venice,
> Padova, and Verona) I took a train to Nice, a rather large
> city on the French Riviera. Whooaa it was nice there!
> Actually it is called Nice Ville. You had better know that
> because there is another stop on the train before that and
> it to is called "something"Nice.
> So for you people who only speak english this place is
> pronounced Neice, like your brothers daughter. If you only
> speak Spanish it would be Nis. Nice is famous for a
> beautiful beach and where lots of wealthy Europeans go to
> sunbaathe and vacation. The food is "to die for"!!
> Well you know, its France, isn't it?
>
> They make lovely olives here called Nicoise and of
> course the famous Nicoise salad which has tuna fish,
> potatoes and other stuff. At first I stayed in a little
> hotel called Bacarat near the train station it was okay and
> priced fairly. Then I moved into a place called Hostel
> Smith, which wasnt quite as nice, but a lot cheapere and it
> was right in the middle of the old city and near the bus
> station, although I was in a 16 bed dormitory, other than
> that it was very good.
> I had 5 days of wandering around and walking along the
> cornice and looking at the very big and fabulously expensive
> yachts in the marina and going each day to the outdoor
> market to buy food to cook at my hostel.
> i was loving it! Just walking along the mediteranean
> sea on the corniche. Watching the young people doing cool
> things with their "in line" roller skates and
> skate boards. Jumping over things, doing a slolem thing,
> dancing together on skates. Fun to watch. the sea was quite
> inviting to look at but I tried it out and Aye Caramba it
> was too cold for this kid to swim in!! Actually there were
> VERY few swimmers at all. But I got wet once again in the
> mediteranean and that was nice. It has been a very long time
> since I got to do that! I think 2004 or 2005.
> I took a day and went to Monaco also and saw Monte
> Carlo. Very weird vibes there. I know some peopoe really
> love this hide away for the rich but I thought it really
> sucked. Just big yachts with absent owners at work in
> another country and the crews hanging around and getting
> paid. Very formidable gambling culture and big casinos.
> The main reason this place exists is for people to
> hide their money from the tax collector and act like they
> are importaant because they have lots of money. Yecchhh. One
> day was more than enuough for me.
> So after 5 days I took a train to Perigueux which is
> the nearest train station to here. Actuall, I took 3 trains
> because i had to switch in Paris and again in Limoges.
> Travel in france is nice and comfortable but incredibly
> expensive. 135euros from Nice to Periguex.50euro for a taxi
> the last 20km. That is more than the price of flying from
> Trinidad to USA. my Ryanair flight from Dublin to Venice
> cost 69euro (20 euro without tax). So, this may be the most
> expensive of the 61 countries I have been in as far as
> getting around goes! A dubious distinction!!
> So here I am and I am here www.moulindechaves.org
> I am meditating a lot and cooking for the people here. We
> are having a tai chi qui gong workshop for the next 5 days.
> i can take free classes if I want. We shall see...
> The kitchen is nice and i get to work with lots of
> nice ingredients. I will gradually get lots of freedom of
> expression, but for now I am getting to know how they have
> always been doing things in the past. I dont know if I will
> like working with a lot of kitchen "amatuers". I
> need to be less professional or they need to tighten up if
> this is to be haromonious for me...
> I have a schedule in my life for the first time in 5
> and a half years. it is weird. i meditate with a big group.
> When the "bell of mindfulness" goes off we all go
> to the meditation hall and sit together. I am used to doing
> this alone but this is good. I like it.
> We have a river running through the property with a
> little waterfall where I take my afternoon tea. big gardens
> with lots of flowers and edible things. Fabulous salads of
> wild leafy things that John the gardner brings me every day.
> this man is just a saint. He is a really fabulous "old
> soul" He may be a pixie or an elf. I am not sure. he
> seems too cool to be human, but I guess anything is
> possible...
> Also there is A friendly dog named Bilbo who loves to
> go with me for walks in the nearby forest. He is a good
> fellow who likes to play catch the ball, but isnt so sure
> about the giving the ball back part!
>
> So time to go now. here are a couple of thoughts to hold
> onto until next time
> Peace and love to all of you
> Robert
> If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps
> it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to
> the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
> Henry David Thoreau
>
> "Only those who will risk going too far can possibly
> find out how far one can go." TS Eliot
> It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand
> battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from
> you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell. Buddha

travel update from Nice, France

2009-04-19T01:13:00.000-07:00

Greetings,

Breathing in, I am in France, breathing out I am smiling! Since my last update I have left Trinidad and had 8 days in Florida with my Earth Parents and also one of my brothers was able to come and see me too. These were relaxing and un-eventful days. I love them a lot and miss them all the time and really enjoy the times I have to be with them.

From Florida I flew in a jet plane to Dublin Irish Republic for one day. Walked around a lot and drank a little Guinness and saw ManU defeat Sunderland on the telly. I love Dublin but aye zukes it is an expensive city!! 6 euros (US dollars) for a pint of stout!

From Dublin a cheap Ryanair flight my ticket cost less than 4 pints of stout in a pub in temple bar district). The pilot landed me in Venezia (Venice) Italy. wow! Italy is the 60th country I have visited.

If you have not been to Venice, well what can I say? this city is so beautiful there arent really words to describe it. There is just nowhere on earth like Venice. I was there for easter sunday. What madness!

Millions of turists. Better to arrive on a quieter time. but I am on a bit of a schedule now because I have an important appointment in France for the summer and must arrive on 25/04/009. Plus to stay in Dublin two more days would be TERRIBLY EXPENSIVE! so I went to the most beautiful city in the world on a turist day. I had a lovely time there just the same. I had three days of wandering around aimlessly and remembering my breath while chanting Amitaba to my self. Always a good thing!

Next I went to Padova and stayed in a flat with a friend who lives there with two huge striped cats named Catanya and Bazooka...Padova is where Galileo built and used the first telescope and discovered that America was not the center of the universe.I visited the historical tower where he worked and checked it out.

It is still standing although it was damaged by aeriel bombardment by American and British planes during World War 2. (thats what you get for blasphemy) Maybe they thought Hitler was hiding there? Well, anyway it was not badly damaged and is nicely restored .

I also took the opportunity to visit the tomb of Saint Anthony. It is a very beautiful cathedral where he is resting. I have been to a lot of these religious tombs over these last years of my travels. the tomb of Rumi (founder of Sufism) The virgin mary (mother of Jesus) The tomb of the Holy sepulcher where Jesus was before he re-incarnated (I aint so sure he isnt still there but they wont let you look inside!) the tomb of Moses. The tomb of the B'Aab who founded the Ba Hai faith. I like to see these "holy"sites. I think they are special.

Lorredana took me out for the best ice cream (gelato) I have ever had. I had a combination cone of pistachio and chocolate. superb. the pistachio is especially wonderful and real. It tastes like nuts and I just cant describe how good it was. All natural. Nothing but gods own food. manna from heaven.

From Padova I went to Verona and stayed with another friend. Verona is where Romeo and Juliet had their brief romance. I visited Juliets home. Whoa! talk about a turist trap! still I love William Shakespear and it was cool to go even if it was over run with gelato munching shool kids on Easter break! Padova is another fantastically beautiful old city. A big ancient coliseum fountains gardens and a few castels and, well... just a beautiful place. I also had a lovely time here.

I stayed with a man called Paolo who is involved with the Gurdjieff work. Something I too, have been involved with over the years. We talked a lot about the work and trying to remember our selves and our breath. He introduced me to some other Gurdjieff enthusiasts and we talked late into the night. Drank some nice valpolicello wines. I think Mr.G would have approved!

Wine? Food? Aye Caramba! Italy is a little like heaven on this account! Wow. These people sure know how to eat and drink. They have the moderation thing down to an art or maybe it is a science. they may eat and drink better than the rest of the world but they dont over do it. Very few fat people here. Fabulous cheeses. Delightful veggies. I was lucky to be able to cook in my friends homes and try some of the great products from the daily out door markets. It is artichoke season! My favorite thistle. I made a salad one night of artichoke bottoms (10 clean fresh bottoms for 2 euro) and brocoli, radiccio capers olive oil and balsamic vinager. I also cooked some lovely pasta dishes and my Italian friends said i did okay (for a yankee gringo!!!).

So I am writaing now from South of France on the coast of the Mediteranean sea in the wonderful city of Nice.I arrived last night and will stay for 4 more nights, before going to Perigueux for the summer. My nest update will be written from there. As always here are a few quotes to hold you over until then.

Peace and love to all of you,

robert

"You can get help from teachers, but you are going to have to learn a lot by yourself, sitting alone in a room." Theodor Seuss Geisel
"If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?" TS Eliot
"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense." Buddha

travelupdate from Bucoo Bay Tobago

2009-03-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Bucoo Bay, Tobago.

I arrived on Tobago about two weeks ago. I arrived on the ferry from Trinidad on march 8. I stayed here in bucoo bay for a week and then took off to Charlottesville for a week and now i am back in Buccoo Bay staying at Fish Tobago Guest House. Very excellent new place and as far as i can figure, the cheapest room on the whole island! I am paying 90tt which is $15 american. Hot shower, free internet, Good kitchen, clean and new, quiet and safe. Totally everything a middle age bodhisatva needs. the only problem is the TV which is a tough addiction to break. With it just being here, i want to look at it. televison, terrorvision is a better name. Non stop fear and loathing. Aye Zukes! Why is it so atractive??!

Tobago is the smaller of the two islands which make up the republic of Trinidad and Tobago. It is less populated and less crowded (although neither one of the islands is what one would call crowded!). There are about 1.1 million people in this country total. Trinidad is the more lively and more visited island and has a much more active night life. Here is a quiet little place with lots of Rastafarians walking around and sitting in the shade like the sadus in India. This place is famous for fishing and scuba and snorkling, and hiding from the rest of the world. WOW! its a good place to hide!

I have been listening to the steel pan music every chance i get. the sounds of the steel drums are fascinating to me and the musicianship of the players is also great thing to watch. The most popular music format here is called Soca. it is a switched on island hip hop thing with strong reggae roots. Quite fun in the beginning but it can get boring and repetitious rather fast.

The nature is beautiful here. I have been sitting on my patio, i had a couple of cups of coffee one cup of tea and a morning smoke and sat watching early morning birds and butterflies. The owner has a little puppy called "smiley gold eye" and he alternates between attacking his tail, and trying to jump up and "kiss" a butterfly. roosters crowing and bugs buzzing. Blue skies green trees. At least 3 variety of dove hang around in my garden in the mornings. There are also some humming birds and some beautiful small yellow birds with a nice black and white strip over thier eyes, blue ones black ones green ones yellow ones so many birds in the garden.

by about 9 am there is too much stuff ging on and now I get my day going since the morning peace and stillnes is alas over for this day.

Today I will take a walk and try to remember my breath while i walk, read my Amy Tan book, swim in the caribean sea, make pasta for dinner, buy peanut butter. what else? What else? What else? Ah well...

That is enough. Enough is the new nirvana.This is enough= this is nirvana. Enough for me=nirvana for me.Yeah thats enough for one day!

So that is how i have been passing my time. I read a lot here.Doestoevsky. Bo Yin Ra. Saint Benedict...there is a benedictine monastery in Trinidad. I met a guy who wants to be a monk there. he has spent some time with the brothers. he gave me some literature. Very Interesting. I stayed at his familys guest house. We watched a DVD called: the Passion of Christ. A deeply disturbing film. Afterwards i told him i didnt want to look at any violent videos so after this we only looked at comedy (Chris Rock) and a Denzel Washington venture called The Great Debators. Very pleasant. like cold green tea with honey.

they sell pies in the streets some times. they usually cost about 1 USDollar and i like the potato ones. Here on Tobago it is harder to find any street food. In Scarboro I found a guy selling doubles and once in Charlottesville a guy was selling doubles out of his car. I love these. they are two small crepe/bread discs, topped with curried garbanzo beans (chana) and a couple of spicy sauces on top. way messy to eat but superb. they usually cost about 50 or 60 cents american. some lovely pastries here too, i really like the currant roll.

I stayed in Charlottesville in a little guest house called green corners. Right on the sea. Only two guest rooms. Run by a rasta woman called patsy Christmas. She is a candy maker during the day time. she makes her candies downstairs from the guestrooms. Wow what a wonderful smell all day!! I tried her coconut candy, her sesame balls, her current sweet cake, and her peanut pralines. She also makes candied mango slices and papaya.

My room cost 100tt per night and I had a great room with windows that opened onto the caribean sea and she had a wonderful kitchen for me to use as well. l love to fall asleep at night to the sound of the waves crashing onto the sea shore. so relaxing... just enough...

So i walked to Pirates Bay, which is a fabulously beautiful and slightly secluded beach just a kilometer walk over a hill from charlottesvill. Wonderful for swimming and quietly lying around in the sun or if you prefer in the shade. so the third or 4th time i went there There is always this rastaman selling soft drinks there and we chat a little. he waves to me and just then in a flash his friends 3 dogs go off on me and attack!! He and his friends all rush over and subdue the beasts but, I got my leg bit up a little. Freaky thing. I havent had any experiences like this since I was a child. the dog is a home dog and well taken care of and vaccinated so I just washed the wounds with white rum (nobody brings betadine to the beach anymore!!) And swam in the sea. later that night i put on my triple action medicated goo. Now i am fine. Except for a sore throat, high fever and occasional convulsions...(only kidding).

Well thats all folks! i am going off to fulfil my daily destiny. I hope this letter finds you all happy and in fine health! So now here are a couple of thoughts from people like ourselves...

Peace and love to all who read this

Rambling Robert

"Flowers always make people better, happier, and more helpful; they are sunshine, food and medicine for the soul." Luther Burbank

"I have learned silence from the talkative, tolerance from the intolerant and kindness from the unkind." Kahlil Gibran

"Rings and jewels are not gifts but apologies for gifts. The only true gift is a portion of yourself." Ralph Waldo Emerson

greetings from Trinidad Tobago

2009-02-24T10:47:00.000-08:00

Greetings from T.T.
I am staying just on the outskirts of Port of Spain the capital of Trinidad
Tobago. this country is fantastic!! I have NEVER been anywhere where the people
are more friendly than here! The food is fine also and the weather too, well
just about perfect! Let me back up a little and tell about my adventures in
Venezuela.
I now have a new country to refer to as my least favorite place I have ever
been. Venezuela SUCKS. let me be more clear: Venezuela Sucks!! Sucks !!! SUCKS!!!!

What a shit hole.
It is the Zimbabwe of South America. (Venezimbabway)Hugo Chavez is a former Colonel in the army. he is a corrupt retard who has turned a once prosperous wonderful nation into a black hole of corruption. Highest crime rate in South America. 31%annual
inflation. Shortages of everything from no natural gas to cook with to no rice in the stores to US 12.00 dollars for a kilo of tomatoes frequent blackouts, water outages,...People are rude, unfriendly and just plain mean. Impolite greedy trying always to rip you off. Cops ask to take your passport and demand a bribe to give it back. If you dont have it they ask a bribe or they will take you to jail for not having your passport with you! Like the opposite of the rest of South America. I will never go back to Venezuela until they revolt and get
rid of Chavez.
I arrive from colombia and take a shared taxi to Maracaibo. I was with 5 other travelers all Colombian but only I went through customs I got stamped out of Colombia and into Venezueala all nice and legal like. we almost get in a car crash when we get to Maracaibo. the owner of one of the cars involved is screaming at my driver and finally takes out a pistol and fires two bullets into the taxi. I am in this country for less than 3 hours and I have been shot at!! Fortunately noone is shot. the whole time I spent in Venezueala it never really got any better!...

Actually the only people who were nice to me were foriegners who owned hotels where i stayed. No one was ever nice except when i gave them money and most of the people I paid were shitty too! I had a week at a nice hostel called El Gallo in Coro. a couple of nights at Chichiriviche at Morenos place a few nights in Choroni/Puerto Colombia. this was the nicest town i saw there. Then I went to Guiria and after getting jacked around for 20 hours finally was able to buy a ticket for a boat to Trinidad Tobago...
so I took a ferry boat to go from Guiria Venez-HELL-a to Chaguamaras
Trinidad on last wednesday Feb 16. then we went to the ferry and waited 2 hours on a line to board. Worth it all to get out of this horror show of a country!! The boat ride was nice but the seas were a little rough.
I arrive with Samuel a guy from Finland I have beeen traveling with for
the whole time in Venezuela and we hook up with an american who was robbed at
gun point of all his cash and ATM cards in Venezuela and a Scotsman and another
american and we all get together and rent part of a house for 12USD each.
It is carnival time and I absolutely love Trinidad after 5 days. the carnaval is like mardi gras but of course completely different. Scantily clad women dancing all over the place. People throwing paint on one another. lots of music. drinking in the streets. Beautiful costumes, you know, like uhhh Carnival in the Caribean!!!

I will stay here in Trinidad until March 8. Then i have booked into a hostel in Buccoo point Tobago (the other island that makes up this country) for $US15.00 per night in a dormitory. Hang around there for a while and then I must be back in Trinidad for a flight out of Port of Spain on April 1.

I have not been in an english speaking country for 10 months. so it is kind of cool to be here for this as well. but they speak with such a strong Pigeon creole accent that i found it easier to communicate in South America in spanish than i am finding it here. Perhaps in a few more days it will all clear up for me...
i will write more in a couple of weeks. Here are a few quotes for you all to think about until then.
Peace and Love,
robert
"Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages."Thomas A Edison

"Let's not quibble! I'm the foe of moderation, the champion of excess. If I may lift a line from a die-hard whose identity is lost in the shuffle, "I'd rather be strongly wrong than weakly right." tallulah bankhead

"Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one
can go." TS Eliot

travel update from Taganga

2009-01-29T10:59:00.000-08:00

Tolu Colombia is a small beach town on the pacific coast about 2 or 3 hours south of Cartagena. It is quite popular with Colombians who come here to relax swim in the sea and drink. it is popular with families. There are a lot of Colombians with their children and grandparents as well.Lots of trash on th beach. a shaved ice here costs 1500 pesos and in Mompos it costs 400. I have been here for 2 days and that is enough. I will take an early morning bus tomorrow and go to Santa Marta and from there take a collective to Toganga. I expect to remain there until I leave from Colombia and go to Venezuela.
Well, some last thoughts on Mompos. Iguanas It has been a long time since I saw so many sunning themselves on the logs of fallen trees. sometimes they are invisible and then, all of a sudden they move and you see them right where you have been looking for the last 10 minutes. howler monkeys wake me in the morning they are small rust colored animals with long tails. they aren't very large, about the size of an American football(well, some of the older males are a little larger) but they have very loud voices and they sound like a pre-historic dinosaur. Very strange indeed. mariposas (butterflies) there are so many butterfly's here. The locals believe that if a butterfly lands in your home you will have a visitor. the people in Mompos love to eat turtles. I am reminded of when I was a young chef in New Orleans, and we made so many thousands of liters of Turtle soup. Every night these great big frogs come out and eat the mosquitoes.I have become a great aficionado of anything that eats mosquitoes! I have never seen so many dragon flys before. They appear like a cloud and hover they are a strange golden color and smaller than the ones I know from America.Buffalo loll about in the mud and do their lazy buffalo thing. They remind me of lake Maninjou in Indonesia. They make an excellent buffalo milk cheese here called queso de caba.There are old old trees along the banks of the Magdalena river. The lonely Planet guide book says the place is like Mississippi, with Spanish moss on the trees and the river rolling by peacefully. What a bunch of lies. I am told the writer of the Colombia section doesn't even speak Spanish and the owner of the hostel I stayed at says he has never even been to Colombia! Still the old trees on the banks of the river and the cool brown water with its floating debris makes for a very lovely picture show. a quiet lazy movie in living color. Millions of herons black ones Grey ones and white ones the local word for them is gaspa. mornings of arepas con queso asado.these are wonderful cakes of corn like a new Orleans grit cake, but cooked over a charcoal fire and with little cubes of fresh cheese folded into the dough. The iceman. The iceman hangs out in plaza Del Carmen every afternoon he sells "Raspado" which is shaved ice with sweet tamarind syrup. I have become addicted...I stayed for two lovely weeks at the casa amarillo. The staff Richard, Alba, Carmen and Minnie. Were great. really friendly helpful laid back and always a big smile on their faces. I already miss the place...
It is 29/1/2009 and I have been in Taganga for 2 nights. i am at La Casa de felipe. I have a brother named Philip (Felipe) that is why I chose to stay here. like it was calling to me. I really like the place and I think I will remain here until I split the Colombia scene and go to Venezuela. Probably February 5 or 6.
It is about 36 degrees here (that would be about 95 fuckenheit) .I go to the beautiful blue caribean sea every morning and take a walk on the beach and then a swim in the cool clear water. Then I spread out my sarang and chill out (I should say warm out) in the sun till I cant take it anymore and then I wade into the sea and dive under the water and cool off. I swim around for a while and then I repeat this process two or three times between 9am and 12pm and then I head back up the hill. The sun is too much for this white boy in the middle of the day. I retreat to a shaded hammock and read a book for a few hours and then cook dinner. I reckon its as cold as a well diggers ass in London, Copenhagen, New Jersey and Oregon. Not to mention Calgary, Cincinnati or Stockholm. Ah well, no one is making you stay!! Hee hee hee!!
I bought some plane tickets on the internet a couple of days ago. i hate flying. I will be in Florida on April 1. I will be in Dublin Ireland on April 11 and Venice Italy on April 12. from there I`ll take a couple of weeks to arrive in Cubjac in Perigaux France for the summer. I hope it is an early truffle season so I can eat some of them black beauties I love so well.
If any of you wants to meet me, let me know. I would love some companions for my two weeks in North Italy...
Well here are a couple of quotes to think about until the next update.
Peace and love to all of you.Robert
"I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want." Muhammad Ali
"The people are their own liberators." Nelson Mandela
"As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live." J W Goethe

travel update from Mompos Colombia

2009-01-16T11:30:00.000-08:00

Greetings from Mompox Colombia. Mompos? Mompox? Macondo? I just dont know. There are two current spellings for this place but many fans of Gabriel Garcia Marquez say that this is the ¨fictitious¨ setting (macondo) for his literary classic "100 years of solitude". No doubt about it being the setting for his book "Chronical of A death Foretold". As he himself has said this is so. GGM spent a lot of his life here and wrote many stories here. He is one of my favorite writers and this little sleepy world heritage site is rapidly becoming one of my favorite places.
This little city of 30 thousand sits on the bank of the Magdelena River in the center/north of Colombia. about mid-way between Cartegena and Bucaramanga.(I wonder if this clears up the location for any of you!!) There is really nothing to do if you arent a fan of swinging in hammocks in 38 C weather (that would be 100F for any of you from an undeveloped, backward country).
Any way it is NOT on the gringo trail. Hah! Not even close. This place is not easy to get to. It is not cheap to get too either and It has a bad reputation for malaria. Well i can see why they say it isnt easy to get to. It had been a little easier when the "temporary" (it was 25 years old!) bridge on the Cartegena side was still up but it was "lost in the flood" about 3 months ago. It wouldnt have made a difference to me because I came here from the bucaramanga side. When i leave if I go to Cartegena, It will add a little while and some additional costs (it is already not a cheap place to get to) and two ferry rides and two bus changes to the journey.
To get here, I had to take an overnight bus from Bucaramanga (overnight busses are said to be safe here in Colombia at this time) and then at El Banco (an ugly little town down river from here) from there I had to switch to a motorbike, and travel 3 hours over a mostly bumpy dirt road through a vast cienaga (swamp). I would guess that about 25% of the journey was over asphalt. I felt like I needed a kidney transplant when i finally got off that bike!! Way too bloody hot (35C) to wear a helmet on a sunny day!
But now I am here and as I write this I have been here 4 days. Staying at a new albergue (hostel) called Casa Amarillo. Very nice place with orthopedic matresses (hip-hip hooorayyy), friendly owners a nice hammock and a well equipped kitchen. I am happy.
Before I came here I stayed a night in Bucaramanga (not my favorite place but good enough to shower up and sleep and rest before I had to change busses)...and before there I was at hostel Renacer in a perfectly lovely old colonial town called Villa de leyva.
Villa de leyva is about 1 hour by bus from Tunja which is 3 hours by bus from Bogota the capital of Colombia where I spent Christmas and new Year at the very nice quite cheap hostel ¨Sue right next door to Platypus hostel in the Candelaria.
In Villa de Leyva, They are said to have the biggest Plaza in South America (it is really big but not very attractive), and lots of old dinosaur fossils and great hiking. I wonder if there are any NEW dinosaur fossils...all the ones I have seen are so old...
Behind Hostal Renacer (owned by Colombian Highland adventure tours) is a nice, half hour, up hill hiking trail to a lovely waterfall. I climbed to the falls 3 days in a row.
Oh shit the internet cafe is gonna close. I will finish this later
Okay so now it is later. Yeah Villa de leyva was a cool little old colonial town. The place I stayed was about a 20 minute walk uphill from the town center, just past a little military base. There are little millitary bases everywhere here in colombia. Every town has one. They are still in a civil war, but it is very low level now. Really not very much fighting going on at all. Still the millitary presence is constant. One sees soldiers EVERY day. They are friendly mostly 19 year old draftees. I had a nice chat with two of the troops at the base. They hang out for 8 hours behind their machine gun whñich is behind their sand bags which are painted a very nice blue color. Really friendly kids who normally never meet any foriegners.
I had a shared room with Mike from Canada who actually showed me where the waterfalls were. We cooked together for a few nights. He works as a chinese translater for a canadian mining company that has some contracts with China. Very interesting job with lots of travel. he does not like china. Says it is very polluted and they treat the tibetans like second class citizens.
I also shared with Mauricio who is a colombian man from Medellin on a holiday and checking out his own country. It is good to share a room. You ñmeet cool people and have interesting conversations. You get to practice your spanish. One night I was sitting up in my bed and talking to Mauricio in the bed next to mine when he pointed out that on the wall right behind my head where I was leaning against on my pillow, there was a scorpion. Yes it is nice to share a room. I scooped the little fellow up on a book cover and escorted him out! Thanks Mauricio!!
So I have surprised the folks at Casa Amarillo by announcing my ñintentions to stay for 2 weeks. It seems that few stay more than a day or 3. there isnt much to ñdo beside sit by the river, swing in the hammock, go to market, and watch Manchester United defeat Chelsea 3 to Nil! That was a great match. I really like have come to be a supporter of the Red Devils...but as i have said before a thousand times, i am not a human Doing I am a human being and evern at that I am actually a being human. I dont get bored. I have already read 3 books here Mary Wards amazing book "snake pit" William burroughs "Junkey" Michale Moores "election guide 2008" and I am half way through "City of God"by Paulo Lins. A fine little place to catch up on my reading!
I caught a glimpse of the news the other day on the cabel telly waiting for the footy to start. I was shocked and dismayed. I thought it was a world war two movie about the Nazis doing genocide in the warsaw ghetto to the Jews but it was the israelites doing genocide to the Phillistines in the Gaza ghetto! I reckon the idea is to push them into the sea... The israelites had just destroyed the UN headquarters they did homocide to at least 12 of the 700 hundred civilian people hiding there from the violence. mostly women little kids and old folks.The Israelite spokesman said that the israelites were trying not to kill any civilians (they had killed 600 in 13 days) and the Hamas were intentionally targeting civilians (they had killed 12 in 5 years)i remembbered a thing from a jewish woman that goes like this... "In the Orthodox spiritual tradition, the ultimate moral question we ask is the following: Is what we are doing, is what I am doing, beautiful or not?" Carolyn Gifford
When will we ever learn? I get so bummed out whenever i read the news, hear the news and see the news. Barack Al obama wants to double the number of American troops in Afganistan... I feel like here in Mompos, I am like a person escaping from some crazy vivid, night mare. Like someone who has awoken from a sick violent dream and everyone else is in some other place still sleeping and dreaming of killing one another.i just dont get it at all man NOT AT ALL... .
I hope this letter finds you all happy healthy and not being bombed for your own protection. Not being imprisoned to protect your liberty, and not being forced to fignt to peserve your freedoms.Here are a couple more quotes from some great thinkers of the past.
Peace and Love to all of you
Robert

"A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving." Lao Ziu
"The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness."John Muir
"Less than fifteen per cent of the people do any original thinking on any subject. The greatest torture in the world for most people is to think." Luther Burbank

first update of 2009

2009-01-02T11:43:00.001-08:00

January 1,2009 The first day of the new year.
It is Early morning In Bogota. It is a holiday, a day of rest for Bogota. I am up early I am a Madrugo (a person who rises early, a person of the Dawn). I like to walk around in a big city while it is still asleep. To hear its quiet.
There are only words because there is silence. Without silence, there are no words. Without space there are no planets. The universe is mostly space with a few "heavenly bodies" scattered around, here and there. The world is mostly silence with a few words scattered around here and there.
I have been to quite a few museums lately, the Colombians are (as a group) extraordinary painters. When I see a painting, I see the paint, the colors, the images and shapes, but there is none of this without the canvas. The canvas is the silent witness and the paint is the noise. It is easy to hear the words of the paint, one must listen deeply to hear the whispering of the canvas below.
There are street people on the sidewalks of Bogota. Just like any city anywhere in this, the world that men have created. i want to say "Happy new year ( Felice año nuevo)" to them. but...what kind of a year will 2009 be for these men and women, these children of an apparently lesser god. We (all to often) fail to see the role these men and women play in the Leyla. God´s great game. We don't understand that everything, every person, every weed, every bug plays a role. Plays a part in the grand Leyla.
We think "oh, if someone does something that I appreciate I will love him. I will pay him. he will be taken care of he will be protected and preserved". Of course this is the way of men. But what of the contributions we don't appreciate, we don't recognize? The contributions of the weeds? of the mosquitoes? of the "down and out"? Do we not love them?
I remember an old gospel song. it goes like this:
"Jesus loves the little children
All the little children of the world
Be they yellow black or white
they are precious in his sight
Surely Jesus loves the children of the world"
Collateral damage. GW Bush´s lasting contribution to the English language. Does Jesus not love the children who fall into the category of collateral damage? Do they not count?Are they children of a lesser god? Children of somebody Else's god? How many gods are there anyway? Are the weeds children of a lesser god than the Redwood trees? Sure there is always collateral damage in any massacre...There is always collateral damage sleeping on the sidewalks of our cities.
But why? Is there an answer in the words of men? I think not. I think the answer is in the silence of the lord. So i will be silent. i will speak of this no more (for now)
I have been a traveler (unemployed and homeless) for the past 6 New Year Eves
31/12/2003 I was in La Jolla California USA
31/12/2004 I was in Seville Spain
31/12/2005 I was on Ometepe Island Nicaragua
31/12/2006 I was in Aurangabad India
31/12/2007 I was on Don Det Island DPR Laos
31/12/2008 I am in Bogota Colombia
The more I travel the more I realize that I am never going anywhere. Like a man sitting in an automobile, the car is moving but I am sitting perfectly still. My body, my earthly body travels all over the earth. my soul my spiritual body is sitting perfectly still inside my earthly body, my corpse is moving but I am as I am. Always right here, always right now.
Colombia is not a good country to be a vegetarian! There are loads of Pizza restaurants but they do not sell pizzas that have no meat. There are loads of cheap fix price lunches but these too, all feature meat. I went to a pizza place and asked for a pizza slice without meat and he suggested the Hawaiian pizza which has pineapple peppers and ham. I said "well uhhh ham is meat isn't it?" and he said with a big smile "Yes! but it has less meat than the others!" Aah yes its good to be stupid, no doubt about it. I need to watch more terror-vision. I am not using the right shampoo...
I just finished a book by James Gleick called "Chaos". It is about physics and specifically about turbulence and non linear systems. Very interesting stuff. It is amazing to me how much of the universe is understood by humans. The problem is that most of us are not in the sub set of humanity that is aware on a personal individual level of any of the knowledge that has been accumulated by the human race as a group. Most people I am afraid, simply don't read or spend any time whatsoever in contemplation of the human condition or the condition of the planet, instead we want someone else to change. We want our leaders to change but we don't want to change. We are convinced the problem is the other guy and not us.
Gurdjieff told Ouspensky the best thing we can do for our fellow man is to work on our self. I think this is true. We can only change the world by changing our self's. I have come to believe that the only change any of us can affect is to change ourselves. Most of us are so selfish and so pleasure oriented that we don´t care how much suffering our behavior or our desires generate as long as we have some temporary satisfaction. We don't care what the consequence of shrimp fishing in the oceans are as long as we get our Shrimp Scampi dinners. We want the Brazilians to stop slash cutting the rain forests but they only do it so they can graze beef cattle.We say we care about the health of the worlds forests but we wipe our asses with paper. Not really the kind of personal behavior one would expect of someone who cares for the environment, eh?
I have enjoyed my stay here in Bogota Colombia. I have really enjoyed the art museums and the beauty of the city. The city has a strange and harsh beauty. I cant really quite understand the attraction but I am attracted and like to be in cities.
Tomorrow, i will go to a small village called Villa Leyva and hang out in a much more natural environment with mountains and waterfalls where a man can be a human being and not a cog in a giant machine. I need to meditate and take some long walks in clean fresh air and listen to the music of the bugs and the wind and the free flowing water...
So Now I will close this update with a few quotes from some people who have spent some time in contemplation of the human condition. I hope this update finds all of you in good health and high spirits.
Peace and Love to all who read these words,
Rambling Robert

"Neither a lofty degree of intelligence nor imagination nor both together go to the making of genius. Love, love, love, that is the soul of genius." W.A. Mozart

"Talk of imminent threat to our national security through the application of external force is pure nonsense. Indeed it is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear." Douglas MacArthur

"What a cruel thing is war: to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world." Robert E. Lee

travel update from Colombia

2008-12-24T12:50:00.000-08:00

Saludos a cada uno,
Cali, is Colombia`s third largest city with about 1.7 millions of people. It is about at 1000 meters above sea level in the heart of the Cauca valley, where most of Colombia`s coffee is grown. I am staying at the Iguana hostel, which is the same place i stayed last time I was here in October 2005 (see www.robertstravels.blogspot.com and click on =October 2005 in the archives on the left hand side of the page). The Iguana has moved around the corner from its previous location but a lot of the staff are still here and it is still a great place to stay. Let me fill you all in on the last couple of weeks...
I left Quito and headed north along the panamerican highway, which runs from British Colombia to tierra del fuego. I went to Ibarra, a pleasant city in the north of Ecuador with Tony, an American non-conformist who has been traveling (and sort of drifting) around the world for the last 2o or 30 years. He is about 10 years older than I am and a damned good traveling mate who doesn't make much noise and never complains about anything. He only speaks about 10 words of Spanish, so I do the translating. I gifted him my "Barron`s 501 Spanish verbs" book and he is going to try to learn Spanish...He is also a vegetarian so we have been sharing food expenses and cooking together when we can and going to veggie restaurants when we cant.
We stayed 2 nights at the classic Hostal Ecuador in Ibarra where Patricia the manager speaks near perfect English because she lived in a place called "Patterson City New Jersey" which is on the banks of the mighty Passaic river.... Well by coincidence, I was born in Patterson and so we had a nice long talk about "the old country".
Ibarra is a pleasant town/city and we had fun strolling around. I seem to have injured my cadera (hip). when I was in Quito and the pain just wont go away. I don't know what I did to it. I didn't fall or anything, it just has been sore and aches after i have been walking for a while and especially when I walk cuesta ariba (up hill). In truth I have just been taking some western medicine (acetaminophen, aspirin, voltaren,codeine ) and not resting it which is what it probably really needs.
After 2 nights we went to the frontera (border) crossing between Tulcan Ecuador. and Ipiales Co. on 10/12, the day my visa was to expire and crossed into Colombia. Well the Ecuador side is a 4 star cluster fuck !! There were at least 50 people waiting on line and there were 5 ventanillas (little windows) but only one border guard handling everyone. Incoming, Outgoing and refugees!! The line stretched outside and snaked around with everyone becoming annoyed and people trying to cut in. After nearly 2 hours of waiting, Tony and I were processed and stamped out in less than 5 minutes. On the Colombian side, it took us 5 minutes of waiting and 5 minutes of processing. We each got 60 day visas so I will be here probably till mid February.
We bargained with a taxista and got a ride to Ipialles for 4000 pesos (he wanted 7000). And stayed at the Belmont Hotel whose only redeeming quality is that it was cheap. It got a good write up in the Footprint guide and the lonely planet, but to me Belmont means Never again. dirty, noisy, ugly bathrooms blah blah blah. Just around the corner are 3 whore houses in a row with old fat hookers leering at you on the street as you walk by. well... What do you expect for 10,000 pesos per night?(they wanted 11,000. This is a country where one must negotiate everything).
One night was all it took. After about 14 hours in Ipialles we took a bus to the lovely and enchanting city of Popayan. And stayed in the dormitory at the Casa Familiar Turistica
We stayed there for 4 nights. I love Popayan. it is a beautiful old colonial city not unlike Sucre in Bolivia. All the centro district is a world heritage site. All the buildings are whitewashed and have orange terra cota tile roofs. The old gas lamps are all electric now, but the feeling remains the same. The hotel is just 300 meters from an outdoor marked which is really good. full of all kinds of fresh stuff and some great street-food-stalls. We had bar-b-qued arepas (little corn meal cakes) stuffed with queso fresco (fresh cow mild milk cheese) which cost 500pesos (40 cents American) each day and batter fried potato slices and empanadas with pipian ( a kind of potato, they mash and mix with peanut butter and put in a folded over circle of corn dough and fry) Very Knish like food. I love them madly. They also make them as tamales but these are steamed and taste even better!!
So After four lovely and interesting days in Popayan, I took the bus to Armenia and from there to Salento in the Zona Cafeterria, which is the Valle Cualca where all the Colombian coffee comes from. Salento is a tiny town of some 3500 inhabitants. There is a very nice backpackers hostel here called the Plantation House. I have been here now for 3 and a half days and I leave tomorrow for Bogota, the capital city of Colombia where I have reserved a bunk from 22/12/08 to 3/1/09 at the Platypus hostel. My time here in Salento is very uneventful. I am reading a book by Durrell and hanging out in the hammock (which is fortunately under a tin roof cover) as it is the rainy season here in the Colombian highlands and it has been raining intermittently all the while I am here. There is a famous mirador (view point) here that is 250 steps up hill and there is a fabulous view of the valley below and the river which is quite swollen and beautiful. All along the steps there are the stations of the cross which is a catholic thing about following the death march of Jesus. Rather gruesome those Catholics. why don't any of the churches have stained glass of healing the lepers or feeding fishes and loaves? it is always gruesome torture scenes, St Sebastian with all those arrows sticking out of him, St Peter crucified upside down, Jesus being scourged, and the like. I don't get it. So anyway, I have been enjoying some excellent coffee and reading and chilling out as usual.
So now It is Christmas eve. December 24. I have been in Bogota for 2 nights and I have moved from the Platypus to the Hostel Sue. I like it better and it is cheaper. Bogota is pretty manic, with shoppers everywhere looking for last minute gifts.I don't really like being a traveler during the busy Holiday season. Everything gets all crowded up and more expensive than other times of the year. I will stay here another 10 days until the holidays are over, then i think I will head over to a sleepy little village called Mompos and hide out from the world for a while longer.
I have been accepted to be a volunteer kitchen manager at a Buddhist retreat center called Moulin de Chaves ( www.moulindechaves.org ) and will be in south France this summer for 4 or 5 months. Ahh yeah its tough I know but some one has to do it. I sure can understand why all you at home are still working but I just like my own way and so I will continue to follow the sun. Dancing to the beat of my own drummer. Maybe we can all meet and meditate in South France this summer hhmmmm??
Well until the next update probably in early January I wish you all well. Merry Christmas to you Christians and happy new year to all. Here as usual are a few quotes from some people a little more wise than the average television addict!!
Peace and Love to all who read this,
Rambling Robert

"I do not write for those who have never asked themselves this question:´at what point does real lief begin´"- Lawrence Durrell
"That which you would not want done to you, do not do unto another: This is the whole Torah. The rest is commentary — now go study." Rabbi Hillel (responding to the challenge of teaching the whole of the bible while standing on one foot)
"It is better to travel well than to arrive." Buddha

travel update from Quito ecuador

2008-12-05T16:45:00.000-08:00

Saludos a todos (Greetings to all)
The Grand Hotel is on the corner of Rocafuerte and Porton in Quito (the capitol city of ) Ecuador. I arived here on 1/12/08 the first day of my third month of my sixth year of travelling the world as a back-packer. this is the third time I have stayed at this hotel. I pay $6.50 USD per night for a private room with shared bath and kitchen privileges in the heart of the old city of Quito.
This week is very special time here in Quito. It is the 200 year anniversary of the Liberation of Quito.The forces of Bolivar and Sucre defeated the Spanish colonial Empire and now the people are celebrating 200 years of "freedom" with free concerts and fireworks every night. We dance in the streets and shout... ¡VIVA QUITO!Whhhooooooooeeeeeeiiii!!! I love my life, I really do. but wait, let me back track a little...
On 11/24/08 The lovely and talented estelita had a fine and wonderful departido party for me and all my great friends from Vilcabamba came and said their heart felt "fair-thee-wells" to me. We had a lovely feast with much wine beer and reefers and lots of guacomole, quesadillas, veggies and dips and other great treats and all finished off with two gigantic 7 layer postres made with love by Estelita. The following morning my amigo Bosco drove me to the bus station in Loja where I boarded a north bound bus to Cuenca.
I hit the highway and upon rival I stayed at Perla Cuenca for 4 nights and enjoyed the heck out of cuenca. The whole darned city is a big Unesco world heritage site and it is a very beautiful old colonial town blessed by good fortune to never have been struck by any earthquakes. Truly one of the "new worlds" most lovely and enchanting citys. Lots of beautuiful plazas and parks and old cathedrals and cobblestone streets. A very "european" style city indeed. A great market called diez de Octobrewith many many great choices of fresh fruits veggies and interesting cooked and raw grains. Upstairs in the market are dozens of comedores (little food stalls with ready made meals), like a restaurant.... Clean safe and freindly. I really liked this town.
I spit on Saturday and went to Latacunga and got there just in time because the next day (sunday) was the 52nd annual celebration of Mama Negro. I think its a Catholic thing but I just dont know. There was an 8 hour long parade of marching bands and beatuiful costumes and lots of drunken revelry. Reminded me of Mardi Gras in New Orleans but much more gentle and laid back. Still, all the fun a kid could want for free. I forgot my sunbloc and I cooked my face and left town with a sun burned smile and some wonderful memories.
I ate a fantastic sandwich there. maybe the best sandwich of my life!!! Higos en dulce (fresh figs cooked in panella which is a natural raw sugar) on a bread roll with queso fresco (fresh not aged cows milk cheese usually not more than a couple of days old. very mild tastes like milk)... they also sell these fantastic "tortillas" in the outdoor market which are made of a "masa" of corn meal and onions and spice and stuffed with the same queso fresco and fried in not too much oil. they are kind of small and cost 15cents each or 8 for a dollar. I also had a chocho ceviche (vegetarian) which cuencaña indian woman come around and make for you out of big straw baskets full of all the great ingredients we love about ceviche without the dead fish and with chocho instead.
Monday morning came early and I hit the road again and arrived in Quito, just in time for the 200 year celebration of the liberation...I fell in almost immediately with Mike and Tony, two way-cool gringos who have both been travellers for longer than I have. Not too often I run into anyone who can claim that anymore!! They later introduced me to Justin another American who has been travelling on and off for about 9 years even though he is only 29 and he is a TEFL certified english teacher. He has taught in China and Thailand, and also here in Ecuador. He wants to write a screen play about a homicidal buddhist so he and I have been talking about this a lot.
So tonight at 7pm a band of 12 saxophones, 7 trumpets one trombone, one clarinet and three percussionists , All members of the national police in full uniform with pistols, handcuffs, pepper spray and big smiles played nice concert with a big band jazz style of music with a latin accent for an hour for free on the corner (rincon rocafuerte y porton) where my hotel is, for free. the neighbors all brought out plastic chairs and served us hot mulled jugo de naranjilla spiked with aguardiente and the dancing in the streets continues...There will be fireworks tonight above the huge statue of the angel of quito(virgen Maria) and I will be my self, happy as a clam in an ocean (not in the chowder) Alive and well and almost 53 years old. a free man in quito unfettered and alive. They are going to close this internet cafe now so I will finish this tomorrow.
Now through the miracle of cyberspace it is tomorrow. Today, me and Justin, Tony and Mike went to the cental mercado and bought a bunch of stuff for me to cook for supper. We all had chocho ceviche for brekkie and then Tony and I went off on a tour of Quito´s drug stores (farmacias) in search of the rare and beautiful 30mg codein 500mg acetominophen combo tablets which I "highly" recommend to any travellers like me who walk 8 or 10 km everyday and also have shitty knees ankles and hips (carderas tobillos y rodillas) from being a chef/cook for 29 years. They cost 14cents each here because the govamint subsidizes medicines here so the poor people can have access to them. (What??!! those socialist pinko commies!! Who do they think they are! I hope Bubbuh dubba-yuh sends an aircraft carrier battle group to put an end to this, ASAP!!) uhh sorry about that. Any ways I am stocking up. Hee Hee Hee...
Later Tony and me and Mike climbed the big hill and checked out the huge statue of the virgen Mary who overlooks Quito. It is a great view and an interesting piece of art. There was a strong hail storm while we were on the top and so we ducked into a gift shop and waited and then walked back down. Excellent. We were advized not to climb on foot because the vecindario (neighborhood) the acera (sidewalk) goes through is rather dodgy. But we are three men, not well dressd without cameras or jewelry and Mike is a big boy at about 2 meters tall and 110 kilos (240 pounds 6 feet 5 inch) and so we made up some peanut butter and red banana sandwiches (bocadillos) and just went.
We had no problems at all... well Mike got kind of out of breath but that doesnt count.. Everyone we encountered was friendly and sweet. The barrio (see vecindario)is a place where mostly poor people live. I think there is a certain prejudice and people think that all poor people are potential criminals. I do not subscribe to this kind of thinking and have NEVER found this to be true. On the contrary I think poor people are poor because they are more honest than the rich!
So tonight I cooked for the 4 of us again the third night in a row. we had a lovely dinner of BRV´s (brown rice and veggies) and it cost us 60 cents each! Tomorrow is saturday and the city museum has free admission so you know where I will be.
I will split out of here on Monday and heard up to Ybarra for a couple of nights and then cross the frontera (border) and enter Colombia I think on 10/12/08. Next update from Colombia.
Here then are a couple of quotes to keep you until that time.
from Rambling Robert,Peace and love to all of you,
"Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule. " Buddha
"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." Albert Einstein
"I love the life I live and I live the life I love."Mose Allison

Last Travel update from Vilcabamba

2008-11-20T07:01:00.000-08:00

Saludos a Todos,
Well this is my last update from Vilcabamba Loja Ecuador. I will be leaving this pueblo pequeño, on 25/11/08. I will miss this little slice of heaven, this sacred valley and all the rare and wonderful characters it has attracted and maintains through its magical aura. I recall a few years ago, when I left from Buenos Aires how i wrote to all of you that I felt everyone should visit B.A.at least once in their life...This is definitely how I feel about this place as well.
I feel good. I am still on the road after 61 months and I see no end in sight. I feel like I am being reborn as a Buddha every moment. I have actually begun to remember to breathe without trying. I find that If I listen to my breath, the noise in my head stops. The noise of my mind (radio-head) is like traffic: it never starts, it never stops, and it doesn't go anywhere. Its just there. but I tell you all this truth...It is only there, when "I am" not. When "I am" present "I am" peace. And I am peace! We all are peace if we just stop, and let it be. This is of course a lot more tricky than it sounds but worth the effort, I promise!
"There is no WAY to peace...Peace is the way" Thich Nhat Hahn
Many of you who knew me When I was a resident of USA will recall that I was an impatient person. I have "worked"on this (patience), the Buddha´s third paramita Quite a lot since I was in Malacca Malaysia. I hung around there with a group of Mahayana Buddhists and this was the advice they gave me.
Patience is the "enabling" force that allows all the other cosmic laws to manifest. If one is patient all things will come. One must realize that only the ego is impatient the true inner self is never in any hurry. Well...except when you are late for your bus!!
I protected my impatience. I loved it as a part of my "self". Same as my anger, my indignation, my honor. My My My all ego bullshit. I have found the first step is to recognize that there is a difference between the true inner self and the ego. Now I give my true self the opportunity to "drive the bus" and take us (all my fragments) to The Nirvana of Enough.
I am seeing the world as if with new eyes. The eyes within. Not looking at what i may cling to and/or grasp, but only at what "is". I am happy to leave things as they are now and comfortable with the fact that they will change (are changing) all by themselves. I love this Zen haiku:
Sitting quietly
Doing nothing, spring comes
Grass grows by itself
I was right about the American election. I predicted that a democrat or a republican would win and I was Right! Amazing! don't you think?? I hope that America will change for the better, but the truth is I am skeptical. It is also true that my true inner self doesn't really care, but my ego self is still hoping for change. I don't care because I know that the only thing that is inevitable in the world of duality of the physically manifested universe is change and so it is and so it will be.
Once I began to accept the duality rather than wish and hope for tranquility (unity). I found a very nice peaceful place, a warm glowing refuge within my self. I understand that in the law of transformation of energies there are always 3 forces and they must always change and "conquer" one another and thus become one another. I just sit back and let it all be. My "jihad" is internal. I am working on conquering my false self and trying to allow my true self to be. And thus to become one.
I ate some (only a couple of bites) fried pig meat the other day and I have had dolor de vientre (belly ache) now for 2 days. These are the lessons one learns. How many times must one be taught the same lessons? Wow it tasted sooooo goood!!! But its like beating up your "enemy" it feels good but you only hurt your self.
I went to a really nice party last night. There was a lovely band of 4 men who played Andean music. Acoustic guitars, instruments that look like a mandolin that i don't know the names of, and a few types of flutes hand carved from wood . They also had a variety of tamburs ( drums) and many of the revelers took up small drums and we all danced beneath the moon and the stars and drummed and everyone had a great time!
I had some whiskey and this helps me to feel less inhibited about the way i dance. I dance from my inner self, that is to say, I just move harmoniously with the music. i don't "know" any steps. i just like "groovin and movin". So my ego of course tries to stop me from dancing, because the ego is ALWAYS in conflict with the inner self. The mechanism my ego uses is a certain sense of embarrassment. A certain mild paranoia. Its as if I feel that others are watching me and judging me.
Then there was a big cake that was really good and we all had cake. There were a lot of little kids from the vecindario (neighborhood) and i love to watch that look of delight that blossoms on their face when they get a really big piece of cake. There was a little dance contest for the kids and a little boy won a premio (prize) of a little plastic man on a motorcycle. he was so happy!! The other kids were happy with their big pieces of cake and I was happy and so all the world was at peace and joy in my little slice of heaven...
I met two people ( cor-Neil-ius and Merry Prankster, a married couple) from The Republic of South Africa in June when I was in Mancora Peru. I met them again here in Vilcabamba about 4 months ago. I told them about a really nice house to rent with two bedrooms, a kitchen a bathroom with hot shower and a lovely garden of cesped (grass lawn) and fruit trees, coffee trees and flowers. It rents for US $120.00 per month.(Ecuador uses US dollars as the official currency). So we have been next door neighbors for the last 4 months. We frequently get together and share dinners.
I live just on the other side of a valla (hedge) from them. Neil has a real taste for cake and he is like a little kid (he is my age) when he sees a great big cake! he is delighted at the sight like a child. his inner child is very happy. These two people and I have become close friends. I am looking forward to seeing them elsewhere in my travels here in Latin America. I am hoping to see them again when I go to Africa and hope they and I will be able to travel around on their home continent in future. I have learned a lot from these two. I look at stones and the earth in a different way. I see that just as flowers are the blossoms of the plants, so to are crystals the flowers of the earth. I have been reading a lot about the vibrations and frequencies of crystals on the internet. Very interesting stuff.
Plants consume the earth in the form of crystal salts they leaach out of the soil through their roots. We too consume the earth in the form of vitamins (vital minerals) when we consume the plants. We are the earth. We are made of the same stuff the plants are made of. If we don't love ourselves we don't love the earth.
I have been enjoying the new lettuce season here. The markets are filled with scrumptily delicious sweet fresh lettuces!! Like VietNam! I have been eating a lot of salads. I have finally found some hot ahi (chili peppers) in the market as they too are in season here now. Also there are all kinds of beautiful fresh beans. The only one i know the english name for is fava beans. here called haba. And fresh shelled peas, all you could ask for! I have been cooking about 90% of my meals at my home. I have been exercising by walking and doing push-ups and yoga stretching exercises. I am feeling nice and healthy and have again lost some weight.
I will begin traveling North towards Trinidad-Tobago in 5 days. My updates will be more frequent once I get back on the road. I hope as always that these words find all of you peaceful and happy.
Here are a few quotes to think about until next time.
Peace and love,
Rambling Roberto
"If you want to be like the buddha you´ve got to do like the buddha" Me Myself Rambling robert
"Be careful what you pretend to be...you ARE what you pretend to be" Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
"Its nice to be important, but its more important to be nice" Lois Eckstein
"Cultivate peace first in the garden of your heart by removing the weeds of selfishness and jealousy, greed and anger, pride and ego. Then all will benefit from your peace and harmony." Amitabha (bodhisatva of the pure land)

Travel update 5 years after

2008-10-08T10:29:00.000-07:00

Saludos,
I began this, the second half of my life, on 1 October 2003 when I became unemployed and homeless. I began rambling around the world and trying to find out, for my self, what it was that made life real.
Well I thought "oh, I will take 3 months off and then get a new job somewhere like Las Vegas or maybe on a Cruise Ship as a chef"...After 3 months, I bought a one year round-the-world ticket with Star Alliance and my travels really began in earnest! I thought, "well this will get the "travel bug" out of my system..." So...
Well about 6 months into my round the world trip, about June of 004, I definately knew i wasnt going to stop after this year was up. I switched around all my finances to earn higher dividends and sold all the remaining "stuff" I had in storage, and I have been like the energized bunny...I keep goin´ and goin´and goin´....
I am in Ecuador. just kickin back reading books by Bo Yin Ra, meditating, climbing the hills, chatting with the ex-pats, making friends among the locals. The plan is to go to colombia next and then venezuela and then Trinidad/Tobago ( I really like the steel drum music they are famous for...)
Renting a cheap room in a rooming house has its advantages and disadvantages. I love to have a kitchen i can use. I love to go out in the mornings to the little tiendas and buy enough food for the day and return every day visiting the same three tiendas and gradually becoming a " regular" that the workers/owners recognize and greet and show me the nicest zuchinni (calabaza italiano), fabulous purple camotes (sweet potato) crazy sweet little mangos, which potatoes to use for "papas fritas" and which for "al vapor". Fresh peeled peas (guisantes) that I cook up with quinua. I make 4 liter batches of "refresco" with lemon grass (hierba luiza) and ginger (gingibre) and panela (raw cane sugar). Shaaahhh the boy lives like a king!!
Pero por el otra lado(but on the other hand) I sit down at my escritoria the other night para una toca chica de mi pipa, but then, when I get up and sit on my extra bed which I use as a sofa I notice about 6 inches to my left, there is an 18inch (about a third of a meter) long snake sitting on top of my folded up pants...Aye Zukes!!
I confronted the little chico with my escoba (broom) and he seemed quite docile. I dont know a poison snake from a hipopotamus and so i tried to call on my neighbor Bosco thinking "if he doesnt know he can at least light an incense and consult the I Ching"... But he wasnt home so i shouted over jardin valla (the garden fence) and got Neil the South African crystal reader dude to come and help me evict the culebra (snake).
We HAAAHHH I mean HE got the snake with two sticks and put him in an empty basurero (waste paper basket) and we (there I go again) tossed him over the other fence into the medow where Bella Vaca (the Vecino´s cow) grazes.
I consulted Orland the zoologist who owns Rumi Wilco eco lodge and also the internet and we both have concluded that it was a small constrictor like a boa or python who was there looking for mice or lagartias (lizards) and was no threat to my person.
Last night I had more nocturnal visitors. I was out side with my light on and the door open in my room. When i went to bed and shut the light I discovered there were a bunch of fire flies in my room who had aparently been attracted by the light. Now while I was trying to sleep they kept blinking on and off their bright green little buttocks glowing in the dark...
So I went home from the internet testerday and discovered on of the neighbors gallinas
a big white hen, was in my kitchen!! She had aparently wandered in looking for stuff to peckat, and the wind must have blown the door shut. She must have freaked out a little and got nervous. There was chicken shit on the floor counters and kitchen table. I love this country. Really I do.
They say bad luck comes in threes and if this is so, I gues bad luck with animals in the house is over for now. I suppose I should consult the I Ching to be sure but who has time what with the international financial market meltdown the presidential debates and ...and...Well this morning out in front of my place there is the most lovely purple pink flower you have ever seen. It was all covered in beads of dew and just glistening in the early morning rays of our luminous "giver of life", the sun. I sat down next to it in the wet grass and just stared at it for about 20 minutes. Bosco came out and I showed it to him.
He changed the subject to astral projection. He read me a passage of Lobsang Rampa´s book "You Forever" a buddhist classic that dicusses, among other things out of body experiences. I know looking at dew covered flowers and getting my trousers all wet first thing in the morning is not an out of body experience...but It sure is a miracle, dont you think?
Here then are a couple of quotes to think of until I see you all again.
Peace and Love,
Rambling Robert
"In politics stupidity is not a handicap." Napoleon Bonaparte"
"In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then beleive them to be true." Buddha
"You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself." -Galileo.

travel update...still in Vilcabamba

2008-09-18T14:24:00.001-07:00

So it is and so it is. Asi Es y Es Asi. Aye Caramba my spanish is getting better! Huh? Well i am sure enjoying my little "hide out" in Ecuador. I love having a kitchen and cooking my own meals. I also have been inviting people over and making little dinner parties. I have been passing my time lately with a woman named Estellita (like Stella in English). She is from Colombia, but has been living in Ecuador since 16 years now. She has a house here with an EXCELLENT kitchen so We have had a couple of little dinner parties there as well. My garden (well it isnt really my garden but the garden where i live) has lots of banana trees. A few days ago a big bunch of bananas fell to the ground and according to the cosmic law of "finders keepers losers weepers" (A law Co-Relating to, but secondary to the most sacred law of seven-foldness ) They were acquired by my self. So I have been cooking and eating a lot of bananas this week. I like them with black beans. I soak the beans over night and then i cook the beans for about 30 or 40 minutes and add the diced bananas and a lot of whole garlic cloves and a good sized pimiento rojo and a cebolla azul tambien cortado en cubitos and cook this for another 30 minutes. Then i add a bunch of cumin powder, salt, black pepper and minced up fresh culantro. ¡Aye! que sabroso,que rico. Me gusta servir con arroz integral. Tomorrow I have to go to la Imigre and find out if I can extend my visa by going to their office in the near by city of Loja. I believe this will not be possible and if this is the case, I must go and cross the border and return with a new 90 day tourist visa if i wish to remain legally here in Ecuador. More on this later. So I spend most of my time just hanging around in my garden, reading and doing a lot of meditation. I have been re-reading some of the writings by and about G.I.Gurdjieff and also just completed The Seven Pillars of Wisdom. Great book. It really makes me miss Jordan. A lot of the story takes place in Jordan. Especially his descriptions of the magical and enchanting Wadi Rum. I was there about 2 years ago and it was truly magical and very meditative. Definately a place to become acquainted with the pillars of wisdom. If any of you are ever in this part of Asia, you should check it out. I have also been taking some nice nature strolls and stomping around in the river. The sacred river. Everything here is sacred it seems. The prominant indian group here is the Sagurno. Easy to recognize by their clothing and their hair style. This valley has been sacred to them and also to many other of the indigineous peoples of South America for over 5000 years. Of course it is still subject to the laws of change and it is changing! There are about 10000 people here in Vilcabamba and maybe 10% of them are foreigners. Lots of organic farmers, old hippies, young hippies and neo colonialists who come here to act like they are rich. The financial markets have hurt me deeply. I will be okay for a while, but I dont really have much of any predictable income anymore. I have no faith in my goverment to do any thing positive to resolve the current crisis, and so i have divested all my portfolios and i am just hanging out waiting for some indication of a positive change, but fear not all of you who are living vicariously through me, I will still be travelling continuously for the forseeable future. (forseeable future?? isnt that an oxymoron?George bush is an omni moron which is different but similar...) Ahh but I digress again, I dont want any of my American friends to think I am not a true patriot, and it is currently terribly un patriotic to criticize the king. So what the heck have I been doing here in the sacred valley of vilcabamba? well mostly taking long and short strolls through the forests and hanging out by the stream and in my garden. I have been meditating a lot and doing my "snorkel walk" meditation more and more. I think it is all working well but there is a lot of illusion on the spiritual path as well in the land of samsara and one never reallly knows what progress one is making. I do know that I am calm and alert and experiencing a lot of joyful moments of mindfulness. What else is there anyway? I returned a few days ago from Piura Peru, where I went for two nights and one day so i could receive a new tourist visa for ecuador since the goverment in Loja will not grant extensions at this time. So one is foreced to cross the frontera and return. its okay. I love the olives in Peru and brought back a half kilo so I am enjoying salads with olives on them again. What a fascinating life, eh? I have applied to volunteer at a meditation center in France so If they accept me, I will be back in Europe next spring and summer. Many of you who receive this letter are living in Europe and hopefully we can all re-union if i get to go to France. My more immediate plans are to stay here in Ecuador till late November mid december and then head north through Colombia to Venezuela and then to the island nation of Trinidad in the Carribean around january or February... but alas who really knows??JAnd so now, I close with a couple of quotes. I wish all of you peace and joy."There are only two mistakes one can make along the road to truth; not going all the way, and not starting." Buddha"A loving heart is the truest wisdom." Charles Dickens "How I wish that somewhere there existed an island for those who are wise and of goodwill! In such a place even I would be an ardent patriot." Albert Einstein

travel update from vilcabamba

2008-08-21T09:19:00.000-07:00

so here I am. and so there you are. and here we are. Vilcabamba is a little place in Ecuador. It is near Loja which is the third largest city in this lovely little country. I am not too far from the border of Peru. i have been here since June 30 and dont have any imediate plans to leave. I am in a good spot here and I like it.
I have been renting a part of a house. I got my own room and it is large with a writing desk (un escritorio) and a queen bed and a single bed and a wash stand and a private bathroom with a toilet and hot water shower! (well...the shower...welluuhh it is quite an experience...)I have a beautiful front garded with a hammock and a table and a few chairs. There is a lawn of grass with some nice fruit trees on it. Tangerines(mandarinas) and oranges. Off to the left there is a bunch of banana trees and also an avocado tree and a couple of papaya trees mixed in with them. There are 3large bushes of heirba luiza (lemon grass) and a little parsley and mint. There is a nice kitchen which i share with the other peoplw of the house which is a young man and his 8 year old daughter in one room and a cool couple of crystal readers from South Africa whom i had met in Mancora peru some months ago.I am paying $90.00 American per month. Including gas and electric.
It is a 15 minute uphill walk from the center of Vilcabamba (where I am sitting at this moment in an internet cafe). this town has lots of character and lots of characters! A large but quiet group of european and north american ex-pats live here. lots of spiritual types. This has been a sacred valley to the indigenous peoples of the area for at least 5000 years! There are at least 7 psychotropic plants that thrive in the area. The river is also considered sacred and its waters are said to have curative qualities. Every full moon there is a sweat lodge organized on the river.
You go into this tent and they bring in 9 super heated rocks and chant and pray and you sweat like crazy. They also pour water over the rocks and sprinkle medicine plants on the stones so there is a wonderful aroma. This is said to cleanse you and make you healthy. they bring in 9 more stones 4 times for a total of 36 stones and the whole thing lasts about 3 hours. Whoooaaa it is hot. you sweat out a couple of liters of water and toxins. Then of course everyone jumps into the river to seal your pores.
I remember from my last visit to ecuador, that this is a country of great bakeries. Ah it is still true. it is really nice and very rare to have such a wonderful selection of fresh baked whole grain breads. I like to visit a woman called Susana la panadera. on Tuesdays thursdays and Saturdays she bakes wonderful whole weat bread with flax seeds and cinamon rolls (pan canaela) which are superb for your false ego self but probably not too healthy over-all. Still I love them and indulge once in a while. Due to the fact that I have a kitchen, I cook almost all my own meals.
I have just been introduced to an american woman called Sue who makes tempe in her home and today I bought a 350gram piece for 2 dollars. I will cook it up tonight. I havent had tempe since i was in Sumatra. I also have been experiencing and experimenting with lots of the local cheeses. Sagurno is the name of an indian tribe here that markets many cheeses. My favorite is a semi soft called Andino. It melts really well and has a lovely but light flavor and scent.
It is like spring time here all year round. We are close to the equator and at about 1800 meters elevation (6000 feet). Mornings are beautiful ñand cobalt blue cloudless skieis. it tends to cloud up every afternoon making for lovely sunsets and It rains in mid day once or twice a week.
I wake to the sounds of cows chickens roosters donkeys and horses. i never hear trafic noises where I live. I go to bed( voy a cuesto) by 10pm, almost every night except when I play poker. I even found a source for the legendary "Flor de Caña" rum from Nicaragua. Fortunately it is 70 km (50 miles) away at the nearest supermarket. So i am not staggering around like a hnopeless drunk. Althoughh i did buy and finish off a bottle of the 5 year old black label.
I am beginning to think that when I write the story of my life maybe it wont be so terrible if i were to write " Oh, and I lived in Vilcabamba for 6 months back in 2008"...so then a couple of quotes and I am gone.
Peace and love to all who read these words
Robert
"The best cure for the body is a quiet mind."...Napoleon Bonaparte

"A dog is not considered a good dog because he is a good barker. A man is not considered a good man because he is a good talker."...Buddha

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth."... Marcus Aurelius

Travel update from Vilcabamba

2008-07-11T11:31:00.000-07:00

Hello, my fellow three brained earthlings,
It has been a month since my last travel update. Usually I write a little more often than this. Well at least in the past this has been the case. The longer I travel the slower I go. The slower I go the less I have to say. So as far as just reporting the places i have been and the things I have done, I havent really been to too many places or done too many things! After all I am a "human being" not a "human doing"... and for that matter I am not even that but rather i am "being human". And at this moment I am being human in Vilcabamba Ecuador. http://www.vilcabamba.org/
Vilcabamba is a quiet little town not too far from Loja Ecuador. Just about 150km north of Peru. This place has been a spiritual center for many many centuries. This valley is sacred to the indigenous peoples here. It was sacred to the inca and also to other indian tribes before and after the inca came and went. Many medicinal and psycotropic plants are to be found here. San Pedro cactus is the most famous http://www.mescaline.org/sanpedro/index.html
But there are also tobacco, coffee, and of course huilco. Huilco or vilcas or cebil seeds have been used and cultivated for their psychedelic properties for over 5000years!
The valley itself is also famous for its drinking water. The water is said to be the primary reason that the people here live longer than anywhere else in the world. The place is sometimes called the valley of longevity. There are many vitameins and minerals in the water and they contribute to the health of the people here.
The town is full of expats from all over the world. That is from all the wealthy countries of the world and there are a lott of Americans here. I have met a few old lmerry pranksters here and Tim Learys old press agent lives here as well. A rather cool place. I was staying the last 10 days at a great hotel called Izkayluma (sp?)until yesterday but now I found something else.
I am renting a room from a Kiwi Cowboy a vegetarian named Gavin who takes tourists out on horse rides through the national parks. he has been here for 25 years. A rather strange guy but I like him. He gave me a book of poetry he wrote and is also in the process of publishing a book. I am renting a room with my own bathroom and use of his kitchen for $90.00 per month. I reckon I will stay here for another month.
I have fallen in with a bunchof Gringo expats and fleeced the sheep last wednseday night at a game of "Texas hold`em". 10 cent game but I won 17 dollars. not bad when your rent is 90 bucks a month! These guys are not experienced Poker players. Me? I have been playing since I was 5 years old. Like taking candy form a baby...I believe I will play with them every Wednesday while I stay here. It beats working!! Lots of people have been watching this game on TV and they think they are poler players. Of course everything on TV is bullshit (except for professional wrestling) and therefore of course no one can learn anything from the idiot box except how to be a better (more stupid?) idiot!
I have a membership at Craigs book exchange. It is an old establisdhment here in town, that was founded by an old merry prankster years ago. Now run by an old hippy sculptor/potter from Las Vegas named Lee who is rapidly becoming one of my favorite people. i am reading TE Lawrence´s book (Lawrence of Arabia) called "the 7pillars of wisdom".
I am loving my life as usual. There is a blues Reggae band at La Jardin Escondido which is a little mexican restaurant with a garden in it tomorrow night. if any of you want to find me, thats where i will be.
so that is all for now. i will just be here, just being here for a while. If any of you wants to retire from the "world" this would be one of the first places I suggest you look into...
So here now (as usual) are a few quotes from some illustrious 3 brained beings from the past...

"The extent of your consciousness is limited only by your ability to love and to embrace with your love the space around you, and all it contains." Napoleon Bonaparte

"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense."Buddha

"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." Marcus Aurelius

travel update from Tarapoto

2008-06-09T06:54:00.000-07:00

Greetings from Tarapoto. Tarapoto is a city in the amazon basin of Peru. I have been here for 3 nights now. I will probably stay until Friday or Saturday the 11th or 12th of June.
I left Pucallpa and took a lancha to Iquitos. a lancha is a boat that is rather large for river travel. It mainly Carry's cargo but also takes some passengers. the journey was supposed to take 3 days. we were to leave on Monday and arrive early Thursday on a lancha called Tuky.(we left on time but we arrived mid day on Saturday, a day and a half late). I was in second class hammock deck which is middle of the cost scale. first class are the camarotes which are little jail cell like rooms with 2 bunks. these guys get better food and are able to lock up their stuff. Second class hammock (where I was) is on a Deck that is much less crowded than 3rd class hammock. you have to bring your own hammock and there is no privacy or anywhere to stow your gear. there were myself an Englishman named Jason a young Dutch couple and a young Belgian couple. Also there were some people who came and went but didn't do the whole journey. An English man who was with us the first 18 hours and a few Peruanos. In 3rd class hammock, it was all Peruanos and so crowded they were like sardines. One must always be very careful on the river boats because they have a bad reputation for you getting your stuff ripped off. We all agreed that one of us would always stay below with our stuff while the rest of us would go up on the observation deck so all our stuff was always safe.
The crew were really friendly and nice to us. There was a 12 year old Colombian boy called junior who has been adopted by the crew and has been on the boat for 6 years. he is an orphan. he has a good life on the boat and he is very friendly. he had us help him to practice his English and his reading and writing and arithmetic. He has never been to school. There was a very flamboyant gay guy who was in charge of the food. He was very annoying and not friendly at all. the food...well it was just like Momma used to make...when she worked at the PRISON FARM!!!! I mean it really REALLY sucked. Fortunately the boat stopped frequently at little villages along the way to load and un load cargo and lots of women and kids would come on board selling everything from fruits to fish and candys and cakes and breads and all other kinds of stuff. We all brought our own drinking water as there was no fresh water available on board except for river water.
the cruise was on a whole, very tranquil and relaxing. i borrowed a good book called "conversations with god" and read it. very interesting. I recommend it if you believe in god but not in the bible. it explains a lot of the contradictions in a way that makes sense. very enlightened approach.
saw LOTS of fresh water dolphins. pink ones and grey ones. some nice bird life and not much else in the way of nature watching.i like river cruises anyway but the dolphins made the trip worth while for me. the boat was quiet and not full of toxic diesel fumes like the boat i took down the Danube river to the black sea. very enjoyable if you aren't in a hurry, and I never am. That being said, I was glad to finally arrive in Iquitos.
Iquitos is a city of about half a million people. it is on the shore of the amazon river.it is the largest city not accessible by road in the world. the only way in or out is to fly or to take a boat. The only reason to fly is if you are in a hurry or just on a vacation. No real traveller would take this option. If you were not sure if you are a traveler or a tourist, well now you know.
I had a lovely stay in Iquitos. stayed in a cool place called Hobo Hideout. Jimmy was the owner and his wife Sandra. Jimmy is a very, oh how shall I say, "Unique" person. Like staying in Ernest Hemingway's hostel!!! I liked him and his place and recommend it to any traveller who wants to go to Iquitos.
Iquitos is very friendly not a tourist trap not a place where they always hassle you to buy stuff. very laid back very pretty. great fun at night. A great cornice they call the boulevard along the river with lots of free street entertainers. Dancers, jugglers, clowns on stilts, singing good street food and snack stuff too. Many opportunity's to go out into the jungle and collect mosquito bites and lifetime experiences. I saw lots of cool animals. lots of butterflies, birds, a jaguar, tapirs, sloths many kinds of monkeys and other stuff. after 9 days i took another boat to Yurimaguas.
This only had two classes hammock or cammarote, no option as all the carmarotes were booked, so I took a very crowded spot in the Hammock space about 200 people and me and a french guy were the only two gringos. I didn't think the food could be worse, but I was wrong. ahhh what the hey, it was only 3 days!! Mainly I ate rice spaghetti and fruits that I bought in Iqitos or along the way. More dolphins and an all around good cruise. i got friendly with the captain and he left me lock up my backpack in his camarote and so I got a lot of freedom to move around without having to guard my stuff. After 3 days i arrived in Yurimaguas.
I got an immediate bad vibe from a moto tuk tuk who wouldn't take me to the hotel i asked for and took me somewhere else instead. I made him take me to the plaza de armas and he wanted to charge me for two rides instead of one. I told him to fuck off in my best Spanish. The receptionist at Leos Place, where I stayed was a bitch from Hell who wouldn't look at me or speak except for si, no and no se. Hell with that. I left after one night and now I am in tarapoto.
This is a good city. I will stay until friday 13 june and I will go to the free clinic and get a yellow fever vaccine so I can go to Brazil. When I was in south America the last time, in 2005, Americans were allowed to enter every country here for free. Now many of the countries have imposed strict sanctions and expensive visa fees on us because of the Bush/Chaney policies. It now costs an American 130 dollars to enter Brazil. They also want to fingerprint me. i need a yellow fever vaccine (this is not new) so...just another non benefit of being from USA.
USA used to be the most loved and respected country in the world. Not anymore my friends, not anymore by a long shot! We have a terrible reputation as a war monger. We are credited with supplying all kinds of brutal regimes with all kinds of weapons of mass destruction. And our "war on terrorism" is seen by almost everyone I meet who isn't American as a thinly veiled excuse for imperialism and neo-colonialism. It sucks to travel during an election year. I had this same problem in 2004. Everyone wants to dump their negative opinions on America and American government and American people on you. Our government these last 8 years is the worst thing that has happened to the world and our reputation since Nixon and Viet Nam war. me? I vote with my feet. I tell them, hey i left!
Here are a couple of quotes to think about until my next update. Peace and love to all of you

"As the same fire assumes different shapes When it consumes objects differing in shape, So does the one Self take the shape Of every creature in whom he is present."
Marcus Aurelius
"The past is a ghost, the future a dream, and all we ever have is now." Bill Cosby