Tag: Adventure

caring for my soul, finding my freedom

“You have the need and the right to spend part of your life caring for your soul. It is not easy. You have to resist the demands of the work-oriented, often defensive, element in your psyche that measures life only in terms of output — how much you produce — not in terms of the quality of your life experiences.” — Jean Shinoda Bolen

Three weeks ago, my friend Ashwini and I were riding in a jeep through the Colombian countryside near Guatapé. As we took photos and marveled at the lush, green, thriving mountains and the adventure we were on, I tuned in and out of a conversation between the Irish guy and Canadian girl — two fellow travelers, not in our group — with whom we were sharing the jeep.

As the jeep lurched and hobbled down the dirt road, pulling us back and forth with it, the guy and girl began talking about St. Patrick’s Day. As they did, I became lost in a momentary conversation with myself.

“What month is it?” I considered the question in silence for moment before looking at Ashwini.

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thoughts on returning to Buenos Aires: hindsight is a funny thing

I returned to Buenos Aires last night after spending the month of March in Medellín, Colombia with Unsettled.

It was a fast, intense and incredible month, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

I quickly fell in love with Medellín — what’s not to love about a city tucked in the beautiful Colombian Andes — but within a few days, I found my love, admiration and respect for the people I was in community with taking over. So after a month, you can only imagine how deep that love is. How hard it was, and still is, to realize I won’t be seeing them on a daily basis anymore.

I’ve never been around a group of people that was so ready to dive in, especially upon first meeting one another. This group was so willing to embark on this adventure together. We were willing to embrace the unknown together; willing to be open, honest and vulnerable with one another; willing to trust one another.

Within a matter of days, 21 strangers became friends, and within a month, those 21 friends became family.

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sleeping outside, waking up in nature

I’ve said it before. I’ll say it again. There’s just something to waking up out in nature that nourishes my soul. That tickles my toes.

I’ve woken up in a sleeping bag in a tent on South Manitou Island in Lake Michigan; tucked somewhere behind the Tetons in Grand Teton National Park; in camping spots in Big Sur, on Mt. Tam and overlooking the Pacific near Jenner, California – sometimes with LBK, my lovable deaf cat; among thousands of other campers in Yellowstone and Yosemite; in a cave in the Sierra de la Ventana in Argentina; and – perhaps my favorite – in a sleeping bag and nothing more in between two towering walls of rock alongside the Colorado River in the mighty, beautiful, breathtaking Grand Canyon.

This morning I find myself snuggled beneath three fleece blankets in a hammock on the second-floor porch of a cabaña in the Andes Mountains near Jardín, Colombia. From where I rest my head, I can see the top of a mountain. A few clouds are creeping over it, hanging out. No one is in a hurry here. Not even the clouds.

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living nomadically, embracing the unknown

“There is freedom waiting for you,
On the breezes of the sky,
And you ask ‘What if I fall?’
Oh but my darling,
What if you fly?” — Erin Hanson

It’s 4 a.m., and I’m sitting at Puerta 14 at AEP in Buenos Aires. I got about an hour of sleep last night, and I’ve got a long day ahead of me — four flights. Buenos Aires to Mendoza to Lima to Bogota to Medellín. I get into Medellín, Colombia around 7:30 ET tonight and then have roughly an hour drive down into Medellín.

It’s early, but I’m using this time to reflect — to think about where I am, what I’m doing and how I’m feeling. There’s a lot to this moment. This moment of leaving Buenos Aires for a month and embarking on an entirely new adventure in Medellín. For so many reasons, I am a mix of so many emotions. Excitement, uncertainty, adventure, fear, sorrow, patience, etc. etc.

I’m feeling every emotion under the sun, and most of them spring from this lingering sense of “not knowing.” Not knowing what the next month holds. Not knowing what the months that follow it hold. Between going to Medellín, returning to Buenos Aires and whatever comes next, there’s a lot I don’t know at the moment. For me, that’s simultaneously exciting and slightly terrifying.

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camping in La Cueva de los Guanacos in the Sierra de la Ventana

Last weekend, my roommate Ida and I traveled from Buenos Aires to Tornquist to camp in La Cueva de los Guanacos, which lies in the shadow of Cerro Tres Picos in the Sierra de la Ventana. This was a relatively spur-of-the-moment trip, and it’s safe to say I couldn’t have done it without Ida as most of the information online regarding this particular camping spot and what it takes to get to the cave is in Spanish — and my Spanish, especially for camping in remote Argentinian locations, is still progressing.

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