We Could Have Found This Back Home

So, why, why do we need to be traveling the globe, if we can find this at home? What's the point of leaving everything you know to discover what was already there? Maybe we sometimes need that space, that distance away from all that safety to see things clearly? Maybe we sometimes need to be far, before we can see what is so close? And so, as I joyfully (and hurriedly) interview Chris from Chile; I discovered one of the most precious gifts of the road.(It's revealed at the very very end of this post...)

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The Mundane/Amazing- Hamburgers for Your Belated Birthday

"I am so happy, I cannot be contained in the world;
But like a spirit, I am hidden from the eyes of the world.
If the foot of the trees were not tied to earth, they would be pursuing me;
For I have blossomed so much, I am the envy of the gardens."

-Rumi (it's always time for Rumi....)

Going through the hundreds of video files in which we recorded our everyday mundane/amazing. And it was, and so it is back home, in your home, too, I bet. Those little things like celebrating someone's birthday by making a festive meal... Those little moments when you danced, or someone hugged you, or that song on the radio brought you back to just that one magical mundane moment, just then.

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La Lucha de la Tigra, Costa Rica- June 20

You never fall in love for the first time, again. This was our first taste of Latin America: strong, sweet, and now, bittersweet. La Lucha de la Tigra, Costa Rica. (I can't say it without a sigh).

A loving glimpse back at a simplier life, one that was ours not that long ago; and yet, it feels like a lifetime ago. The following is a touching entry from my personal journal on Monday, June 20th, 2011. Then, we were living life as volunteers, life as locals, life in a rural school, life on the ranch. Ahh. Teary-eyed as I read it.

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Wednesday Wanderers- Roger the Panamanian Taxi Driver

Meet Roger. He's a 60 year old taxi driver who's madly in love with his country. He likes to talk economics and politics and reveals the secret to a good life-rum. Roger is one example of the goldmine of amazing people we are meeting along the way, people who are really teaching us (and our children) that the world is fully of remarkable people; and when you open your heart, when you turn to people with genuine curiosity, they will tell your their story.

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Wednesday Wanderers- International House Sitting With Cat

Cat Vann (in pink) with Dahnya and Dell

As we travel the world we meet all sorts of awesome people. Some travel the scale the globe; some stay near their nest. Some travel alone; some with kids. Some sprint on vacation; some meander slowly as a way of life. But, every single one of them is a fascinating person with a great story to tell.These fine folks have honored us all by sharing their messages with us. You're gonna love our new series Wednesday Wanderers.  

Wednesday Wanderers highlights the unforgettable saga of mankind towards his own truth: locals, fellow travelers; people who have found creative ways to many money and sustain their world travels; people with strong opinions about the way things should be; people just getting by, living their life one day at a time; and people who are changing our international world one small footstep at a time.

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How To Make Money As You Travel The World- Part One- Ryan at Half Throttle

We were lucky enough today to bump into Ryan at Half-Throttle.com.Why were we lucky? A few reasons:

a- he's a nice guy and jumped on the trampoline with my kids
b- he's a nice guy and ate my food even though he's a picky eater
c- he showed us how to finally use adobe premiere so that we can start making decent videos with cool effects
d- he is another great role model for those who wish to travel the world and make money.

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Bad Ideas and Precious Moments

As a nomadic family, it is hard to describe what our lives were like living on the ranch in La Lucha de la Tigra for 6 weeks. Sort of like your first summer camp experience, ranch life was one of our first steps in Latin America and our first time to volunteer on our trip. We were wrapped in total love and friendship; and fell in love. (One of the reasons we've pulled back from volunteering as a family in Panama. For it really hurt to fall in love, and then say goodbye).   In this entry, we've summarized a few cool days; glimpses, if you will, into the honored lives we were blessed to taste.

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Peaceful Days

Part of peaceful days for a nomadic family is not being nomadic. When we settle down in a place for  while, we reap the rewards of routine and inner calmness. We've found the quiet spot in Alto Boquete, Panama in the little cabana the size of our living room back home. It is here that we have the time to look at clouds, dance around in rain ponchos, invest in our family's health, and cut coconuts reflectively. Just normal, every day great family material- be it in our own backyard, or half way across the world.

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David Days

We find that all sorts of amazing experiences and gifts are magnetized to us on this little trip of ours. One of them is called David Barron. We met David in La Fortuna on our way from our ranch home in La Lucha de la Tigra in Costa Rica to Boquete, Panama. We hung out for a couple of days and thought he was just adorable.A couple of weeks later, we've settled down in my father's cozy cabana in Alto Boquete, Panama and David joins us for five days of magic. This entry highlights some of the magic and fun David brought into our lives while he was with us.

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Our New Nomadic Family

As a nomadic family, we are touched by the kindness of strangers-turned-friends along the way. While living on the ranch in Costa Rica, so many community families adopted us as if we were their own. These simple, good-hearted souls opened their homes to us; and filled us with laughter, good food, love.. This entry reflects some of the kind angels who wrapped our family in their wings, and became our new extended nomadic family.

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La Lucha School

Volunteering in the rural school of La Lucha de la Tigra, Costa Rica changed our lives. We were welcomed and loved whole-heartedly by an entire community. We spent whole days in the school, after schools at friends' houses, and many weekends with overnight company, mostly Ever. Our kids marched into classrooms in which neither the teacher nor the students could speak a word they could understand. As an ad hoc English teacher on the road throughout Latin America, the rewards of teaching has  ALWAYS been watching my kids gain friends from it.

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Free Rainforest Exhibition

en route with my son's new best friend Ever

We know many who have paid $100 a person for a day in the rainforest. WE DID IT FOR FREE!!! So cool, and just one example of what is available to you when you are a nomadic family:  travel slowly, live with the locals, and get to experience EVERY TOURIST ATTRACTION IMAGINABLE for free! We've had so far over a dozen such experiences. This exhibition was led by our neighbor Oscar who took us for a four-hour exhibition through rain forest, fields, and valleys. We went with my son's new best friend Ever. I still can't seem to write about  Ever too much.

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Best Friends, Cowboy Gatherings, & Pineapples

"Oracio es me mejor amigo"(orazi is my best friend) Ever (the boy's name) says, as he hugs my boy.Somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good. My motherly heart is overflowth. The rest of our day pales in comparison, it's just details compared to that. But, it's still worth sharing cuz it was amazing. We spent our day 100% with the locals of La Lucha celebrating a country fair!!!!

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Stay or Go

When you are a nomadic family scaling the globe, you have total freedom to decide each and every next step. Very cool, and, at the same time, very over-whelming. These two videos reflect our confusion and how we're trying to wade our way out of it.

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What I've Learned This Week- June, La Lucha de La Tigre, Costa Rica

As a nomadic family living on a remote ranch in Costa Rica, we discovered new and marvelous things. In this entry, I want to share 11 surprising and wondrous insights from our lives here.

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Sonia and Don Jose Ramon

Living on a secluded ranch, off a dirt road in La Lucha de la Tigra Costa Rica was our first nomadic family Latin American immersion. We dedicate this entry to all the magic and love that Don Jose Ramon and Sonia brought to our lives in those weeks.

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Joy in the Simple Things

I know I'm the mom, but Ithink they are just amazing. My kids refuse to be bored. Life as a nomadic family has allowed them to become even more inventive, creative, imaginative, and full of light. Watch this collection of videos from our slow-paced life on the ranch; and their magic, as they wait at a bus stop,create marvelous worlds out of boredom, and learn to enjoy hanging out with their parents, and themselves.

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Life and Death on the Ranch

Our days on the ranch in the La Lucha De La Tigra, Costa Rica were like no other. We learned to work the land, to know its animals; to pick, dig, lasso, milk, fish, fix, create, ride, explore and observe. Things that only happened because we lived there, with the locals, very quietly in an unrushed and open sort of way for 42 marvelous days.Such gifts for a nomadic family!

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Volunteering and Sharing Cultures

In La Lucha de la Tigra, Costa Rica and its neighboring town Florencia; we were blessed to share our lives with others. We got to teach English and a Clean Your Soul class to the adults, English in the local school, and share precious moments with the senior citizens. We gave a few gifts and got so many, many more. This collection of video and pictures reflects a few moments from that magic.

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Glimpses of a Rancher's Life

Life on the ranch in La Lucha de la Tigra, Costa Rica and in neighboring Florencia allowed us to experience so much we had never touched or tasted before. From hitchhiking on the back of an open truck, to rainforest exhibitions by a kindly neighbor, to working on the farm to fishing to volunteering, to getting really bored... Here's a smattersborge(?) of some of that precious, crazy, new life.

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