A Year to Remember!

Jordan, June, 2015

Thailand, June 2015

Laos, July 2015

Indonesia, August 2015

Palau, September 2015

Singapore, September 2015

India, October 2015

Bhutan, October 2015

Myanmar, November 2015

Cambodia, December 2015

Vietnam, January 2016

Australia, January 2016

New Zealand, February 2016

Samoa, March 2016

Chile, March 2016

Mexico, April 2016

USA, May 2016

Soul Food

As I've mentioned before:

Meeting up with people you know, people you've know for more than a few years, is food for the soul.

Nadia

Interlude with Contrasts

I expect cultural differences (e.g. language and religion) when I travel.  It's amazing to me, however, how different places can look, even if they have fairly similar geographies (e.g. mountainous and dry).

Typical colorful street in downtown Oaxaca, Mexico, where we've been for the past 10 days, and where I've left Rob, Maya, and Mira for six days.  Oaxaca is at 5,500 feet and is arid much of the year.

Typical monotone-colored Amman, Jordan, where I am for the next three days for a sudden and very short work trip (women's rights and peace - how could I say no?!).  Amman is at 2,500 feet and is arid much of the year.

Nadia

Common Themes

Traveling the world, seeing different cultures, common themes of humanity emerge.

Religion:
In every single country and every single culture we have seen on our Big Trip, people believe in something for spiritual enlightenment or salvation and relief from earthly suffering.  They invest significant resources for places and spaces for enlightenment and/or worship and/or the afterlife.

The inside of the 700 year old Tlacolula Church

Violence:
In every single country and every single culture we have seen on our Big Trip, people have a history of oppressing each other and/or forcing their personal views or opinions or cultures on people with different views or opinions or cultures.  In some countries and cultures, the violence was hundreds of years ago.  In other countries and cultures, it was tens of years ago.

A reproduction of a Mexico government torture room from the 1970s

Art:
In every single country and every single culture we have seen on our Big Trip, people use art as a vehicle for expressing their world views, bearing witness to history, and/or protesting oppression and violence.

1970s art highlighting institutionalized violence in Mexico

Food:
In every single country and every single culture we have seen on our Big Trip, people savor the flavors and fill their bodies with more than just calories.

Chocolates, chili, and crickets - typical and delicious ingredients for Oaxacan food

Love:
In every single country and every single culture we have seen on our Big Trip, people have hope.  They love each other.  They fill their lives with color and joy.

Our house for two weeks in colorful Oaxaca City

Nadia

Beer

"While wine holds the mystery and magic of weather and geography, beer, too, has something to offer.  Beer is instant community, a reason to congregate.  Whether it's Martin Luther in his backyard sipping home brew and philosophizing the origins of a new religion with Philipp Melanchthon or a North Side Chicago watering hole where union workers are planning a strike action around mugs of cheap German-style lager, beer has served to loosen tongues, free minds, incite revolutions and fuel a billion amorous encounters since the dawn of history."  Bruno Tannenbaum, "100 Years of Windy City Beer," Chicago Sun Times

Beer is also an excellent conduit for catching up, reminiscing, and creating new memories.

Nadia

Catching up with Kathy, the "Baja Buddy" with whom I camped a gazillion times in Baja, Mexico's deserted beaches, mountain lakes, canyons, and hot springs

The Beach

The sand may brush off, the salt may wash clean, the tans may fade, the smiles that you smiled that day, will appear every time you think about it, and the memories are permanent.

If you stay long enough the sun will begin to melt, and as it melts you calm yourself, it makes you calm and quiet, it cools you, sends chills down your spine. The sun is factor of all emotions, the moon is the factor, of all life.

Mira

Home...

Greetings from Baja, Mexico!  I feel at home - in heaven, back at one of my favorite places on earth, in the desert, on the Pacific, facing west and able to look for the green flash every sunset.

We will be in Baja for three weeks:  one week in a beautiful house on the beach of the west coast of Baja in the artsy town of Todos Santos, chilling out and having a "rest stop"; and two weeks in a villa in the city of La Paz on the bay side of Baja, where we will be kayaking and scuba diving.

I'm excited about these two stops because they're in Baja, but also because the stops are at least a week long and because they're homes, with kitchens and stereos and space for each of us to have a little space and solitude - all things we like and have been missing.

Like the homes we stayed in while in Bali and Phnom Penh, we are staying in this house (as well as one in Oaxaca City and one in Mexico City, both a little later during our two month stay in Mexico) through swaps for the little holiday flat we have in the Yucatan.  It's a great way to save money - leverage your home for one in another location.  We arranged a couple of our house swaps through friends of friends, but arranged the others through a website (www.homeexchange.com).  It's a great way to travel economically!

Nadia