Nate Bunger In Peru

As the plane landed in Lima Peru, I felt butterflies in my stomach.

The moment I’d been dreaming of had just arrived.

The dream wasn’t about Peru persay, but more about the fact that I was now embarking on an around the world trip that just happened to be starting here…

It was starting here because I decided to get off the plane here instead of catching my connecting flight to Buenos Aires Argentina.

I wanted spontaneity and this decision ensured I would get it.

That was a year ago as of this writing. And after a whirlwind trip around South America, full of experiences and adventures that I’m unable to explain without sounding like a lier, I’m currently living in Medellin Colombia, working online and enjoying life in a way I never thought existed. The best part is it’s only the beginning. (Big surprises coming

But the process of getting here was a completely different story. A story of letting go of my old life, my old self and embracing the dream I knew would bring me happiness.

It was a process of releasing my attachments to objects and things. Nice cars, nice furniture, a condo on the lake in one of the best areas of Phoenix.

I had no desire for these things anymore.

My desire for living life to the fullest now far exceeded any object money could buy. And I was willing to let go of everything for this opportunity.

After all, it was always this lifestyle that I was working towards. Six and seven days a week trying to make a million bucks so I could one day travel the world freely.

It was never the million bucks I wanted. It was the lifestyle that I thought only a large bank account could afford.

But I realized I could have the life I always wanted for far less then it cost to survive in the states.

And so the process of simplification began. Here’s how I did it:

Releasing Attachment To Things

The first step is realizing that things don’t necessarily bring you happiness.

Yes, they can add to the enjoyment to life and I am still a fan of nice things. But I’ve released my attachment to them. I can have them or not and still feel good inside my body.

I came to understand that lasting happiness actually comes from the constant and dynamic flow of new experiences.

The thoughts of living in the same place, working the same job, with the same routine, was always replaced with daydreams of sitting in the jungle drinking rum from a coconut and fishing for piranhas.

I’ve now experienced both and I can promise you that the ladder makes life much more interesting.

Even though the reality was I spent most of the time slapping mosquitos off my ass and now have a foot fungus that won’t seem to go away, I was loving every minute compared to the alternative.. Especially when you consider you can live this way for less than a car payment in the states.

You will also begin to see things differently and come to understand yourself and your place in this world with a completely new perspective. This new understanding will bring you a sense of well being that can only be experienced through this process.

Realizing Inner Peace Comes From Simplicity

When you begin to let go of the clutter in your life, I’m talking everything, you will feel a lightness like never before. Probably close to the bliss you felt as a child when you didn’t have a care in the world.

We came into this world happy, bubbling with energy and excited to experiment with our surroundings. We observed simple things with amazement. We didn’t care what other people thought or how we acted. We just enjoyed being alive.

This is the goal of simplicity.

To let go of things and experience the joy that comes from the flow of life. To get caught up and sucked into the river of energy, the life force, that is trying to pull us along to our true purpose.

Simplicity allows this energy to be felt.

De-cluttering and Letting Go Creates Space For New Things To Come

The Universe abhors a vacuum, and when you create space in your life, the Universe will rush in to fill it with whatever your strongest intention is.

Trusting this law is the quickest way to ensure positive change in your life. You have to make room so that something else can fill it.

I have practiced this throughout my life and have seen amazing results. From opening new bank accounts that begin to fill money, to ending bad relationships in preparation for better ones.

The secret is creating space while simultaneously having a clear idea of what you want that new space to be filled with.

It will come…

Trusting That Life Will Provide And Keep You Alive

Life will never give you more than you can handle.

Knowing this allows you to take risks where others stop. The fact is nearly all fears never come to pass. And when you let go completely and trust that life will provide, something will always come up right when you need it.

You will not die of starvation and when you let go completely you will never be without friends.

This is perhaps the biggest obstacle of for most people to accept. But trusting this law will turn life into a mysterious adventure. People will appear and things will occur that just seem too serendipitous to be accidents….All. The. Time.

Embracing The New Dream

One of my favorite quotes is by Voltaire that goes: “Man is free the moment he chooses to be.”

I love it because it’s soaks in truth.

Your dream life is a decision away. You just need to make a decision to overcome the thoughts in your mind, the invisible ceilings which you’ve created through years mental programming.

It will be scary, I am not going to lie. But at the same time you will be experiencing a sense of excitement that you’ve never had before. This excitement will persist day after day. It will not go away as you continue to submerge down the fascinating, magical and sometimes treacherous rabbit hole of life.

This is our purpose. To get swept away in the dream, to experience love and connection to simply be as we are.

Fish don’t try to swim, they just swim, flowers don’t try to bloom they just bloom. And it’s our nature to experience our dreams in reality with effortless ease.

Nate Bunger working in a grass hut in the Panama Jungle

The salty sea breeze blows gently off the Pacific ocean as I sit in a grass hut seconds from the beach in Venao, Panama. (A 7 hour bus ride to the border of Costa Rica.)

The smell of the lush jungle behind me and fresh brewed coffee from the little bar waft in the air.

I take a deep breathe and take in the amazing feeling of life.

The cost for this paradise experience of which I am becoming so accustomed?

$11 per night….

Amazing really, because it’s less than renting a bedroom in the States. ($11 x 30 days = $333 a month) Something most people don’t seem to understand. But it’s neither here nor there. A few people will get it.

But as I sat here this morning brainstorming an idea to write about today, I thought about the situation I am experiencing at this very moment and how it’s exactly what I wanted to communicate.

What it means to be true to yourself?

There are two parts to this answer.

And the answers to this question are really the secrets to becoming the person you want to become and achieving the life you desire.

In essence, being true to yourself means being true to your future self.

But how do we go about being true to our future selves?

We do this by being true to the work routine that we’ve designed for bringing our goals into reality and by being true to the ideals and philosophies we believe about life.

Let’s look at both ares in more depth…

Being true to our work routine.

Being true to your work routine means making decisions, sometimes hard ones, to commit to a work task you set for yourself even when more appealing options are available. Which they often are.

For example, right now my friend is surfing in the ocean. He wanted me to join him, but since today (Wednesday) is one of my blog post days, I have a commitment  to myself to write a blog post before I do anything else.

Even if this post takes me 4 hours to write, which they often do, I will not move on to another task, fun or otherwise, until I complete this task.

I have goals for the future state of my blog and online business and three posts a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday) is a critical part of reaching my goals. They are unshakable and by staying on track with them two things will happen.

1. My self esteem and confidence rises which makes me a happier person and more motivated to continue towards my goals.
2. By committing to certain repetitive actions I am guaranteed to reach my goals at some point.

So by being true to our work routine we honor our future selves (because we will achieve our goals) and our present selves (because we are building more self esteem and confidence)

Being true to our ideals and our personal philosophy

Being true to our ideals and philosophies means living in accordance with what you believe to be true about life.

For example, I have a strong belief that traveling grows me as a human being and makes me a stronger and more intelligent person.

So I am being true to my own philosophy by being here in this moment, working from my laptop in the jungle of Panama.

By the way, here is the monkey that keeps looking at me from a tree outside my grass hut as I write this…

Monkey that keeps staring at me

Anyhow, by creating and understanding our ideals and living them now (not waiting until one day) we give ourselves a sense that we are living on purpose. Because of this we become more powerful people.

Our relationships also become stronger and more fulfilling because we are coming from a place of centeredness.

When we understand our ideals and become aligned with them we also automatically create boundaries in our lives.

When we have boundaries in our lives, and we don’t let others cross them, (kindly) we actually become more attractive to other people. (And maybe a pain in the ass to some, but were not out to please everyone.)

In essence, having ideals and philosophies and being true to them, makes you a more interesting  and powerful person.

So although being true to yourself really means being true to your future self, it does not happen in the future, it happens right now.

And by being true to your future self right now, you have actually become your future self in this moment.

I arrived into Iguazu, a town located on the border of Argentina and Brazil, after spending nearly two months traveling and living in different parts of Argentina.

Anyhow, after hearing for the past few months how amazing Brazil was, I was eager to begin making my way into the mysterious and lively country.

I heard from everyone that it was like another world, something that turned out to be an understatement.

So after several short lived, but passionate romances in Buenos Aires, I took a flight from BA to the border of Brazil and Argentina in a town called Iguazu.

Iguazu is a very famous attraction in South America because of an incredible series of waterfalls, surrounded by lush and wild jungles.

The experience was amazing and like nothing I had ever seen.

I spent the entire day hiking through the jungles. All around me in the trees were monkeys, snakes moving across the path in front of me, and secret hidden water falls located in deep remote areas where no one else was in site.

It was like something out of a dream.

The day started out sunny and then at one point it started raining so hard that the water rose up over my ankles in a matter of about 30 minutes.

After hiking for several hours I decided to splurge and take a boat to the bottom of the falls to get right up close.

It was an experience I will never forget.

Shortly after my time in Iguazu, I took an overnight bus to the city of Sao Paolo where my amazing experiences of Brazil began to unfold.

I will be posting a video soon of my experience in the Amazons….

Hope you like the video above of my experience in Iguazu.

(Here is a post of some of my other experiences in Argentina:)

Click Here Amazing Patagonia

My Experience In Patagonia

One of the highlights of my travels in South America was by far the time I spent in Patagonia.

Patagonia is an area in the South of the continent shared between Argentina and Chile… It’s one the last untouched frontiers in the world, and is home to the third largest glacier in the world, preceded by Antarctica and Iceland.

After a few months living in Santiago Chile enjoying the routines of city life, I was due for a bit of time in the wilderness to collect my thoughts for moving forward with many things in my life.

I started my time in Patagonia in a town called Ushuaia which is known as the End of the World, as it the the last civilized city at the end of South America. It is the launching point for expeditions to Antarctica (about 600 miles to the Antarctic Continent)

I spent nearly a month traveling by foot and by bus from the tip of South America in Ushia into El Calafate.

I hiked Torres Del Paines in Chile, and then spent some time hiking around the Glaciers outside of El Calafate in Argentina before making my way back to Buenos Aires city life.

My time there was amazing. Something about the nature always brings out the best in me and seems to center me in my core.

I reveled in the solitary of hiking alone most of the time and spent days in the pristine mountains enjoying my own company, my own mind.

I captured lots of video of my experience and put it together in the video above. Hope you enjoy! Love to hear your comments.

There are many ways to make money online, and of all of these, blogging seems to be one of the most popular and most discussed. One would think that if so many people are making money with their blogs, we would be meeting them in person. Unfortunately, it isn’t as easy to make money from a blog as you might think. In fact, it’s one of the most challenging online business models. Here’s what you need to know before launching headfirst into it.

Darren Rowse, is one of the most profitable bloggers online.

Blogging Is Very Competitive. You’ve Gotta Bring Your A Game If You Really Want To Make Money.

More and more people start blogging every year. Of these, only a small percentage will eventually rise to fame. With so much competition for the top spots in Google, you need to keep delivering fresh content on schedule, and it cannot fail to impress. That means finding new and unexplored ideas, being the first to report a breaking news story, and offering a level of writing that is unsurpassed by your peers in the same niche.

You’re also probably going to need some help. Constantly creating fresh content with your own ideas can get very exhausting. Most people can only be creative for a few hours out of the day, and it’s nice when you aren’t the only one responsible for the ideas. Thankfully, you can hire bloggers on sites like Elance. When you’re just starting out, you can hire them for a post a week, and as your blog gathers steam, you can increase yours and their output together.

You Need To Find A Niche You Can Monetize

Let’s take a minute to discuss the stories of two completely different bloggers. One of them is based out of Australia, and he blogs about photography. Another is based out of the USA, and he runs the blog fakesteve.com, a blog that is written as an entertaining parody of Apple founder Steve Jobs. Which of these two bloggers makes more money?

If you guessed the photographer, you guessed correctly. I’m talking about the legendary Darren Rowse who is singlehandedly pulling down $300,000 a year with his highly popular digital photography school blog. Why is he making so much more than the almost equally popular Fake Steve Jobs?

He has something to sell. Each of Darren’s articles convinces you to purchase some new camera equipment, and Darren takes a percentage of that sale. Fake Steve Jobs’s blog, on the other hand, is just for fun. The people who show up on Fake Steve’s site are there to have a laugh for a few minutes and move on. Granted, a few of them might buy some Fake Steve memorabilia, but that’s about it.

When creating your idea for a blog, start thinking along the lines of what you can sell with it. Perhaps you’re really into guitar, and you have some lessons you want to share with the world. Find out how you can weave products into your articles so you can make a percentage of the sales that happen when people are redirected to online stores from your site. This business model is often called affiliate marketing.

Just remember this. Traffic is only worth money when you can convince people to buy something.

It Might Not Be In Your Best Interest To Make Money From A Blog, And That’s Okay.

Many bloggers run other online businesses and use their blogs as a marketing tool. Instead of using your blog as a standalone product, you can use it to sell your own products or services. Some of my freelance writer friends direct their potential clients to their blogs, and it usually convinces them to take the next step and hire my friends for the project. When you keep your blog updated with fresh content about the industry you work in, it makes you stand out from the crowd.

Here’s another thing to think about. Your blog becomes a place that you can direct people to once you gain more publicity. As you grow in your online business or online career, more people get redirected to your website. If you are on online merchant, that means more sales. If you run a freelance business on Elance, that means more clients. Either way, setting up a blog is a win-win.

Sadly, blogging really isn’t the best way to escape the 9 to 5. That’s because it takes a lot more effort to set up when compared to other business models. You can setup most online businesses in a few months, but a blog requires at least a year before it becomes profitable (and you’re still taking a gamble on that). It’s important to dream, but in this case, it’s more important to be realistic. I want to see you pursuing your dreams faster than one year’s time, which is why I’m a little skeptical of all the people who say you can instantly make money from a blog.

Besides, other online businesses can be just as fun and rewarding.

Written by dorotix, on July 1st 2009…

Move to paradise and save thousands...

Are you tired of busy cities, crowded streets, high rents and almost non-affordable mortgage? Well…there are places in the world where you can live well for less. The cheapest places to live are also the most beautiful and exotic destinations. So why not make your dreams come true, pack your bags and move to one of those paradise locations, if not for a lifetime, then at least for a year or two?

There are two simple rules to follow while searching for low cost destinations. Firstly: if you find a place cheap enough to travel to, then most probably you will also find it cheap to live in. Secondly: wherever you are, the further from the big cities and large agglomerations, the cheaper it gets.

Of course ‘cheap’ is a very relative concept, and what is cheap for you may not be cheap for people living some place else in the world.

But if ‘cheap’ means spending just a few dollars/euro/pounds a day, then these locations in Asia and Central America may interest you…

THAILAND

This could be your home. By rene ehrhardt

Have you ever been to Thailand? Do you remember that feeling of paying $1 (€0.70) for a glass of beer? Did you ask yourself then what it would feel like to pay that much for a drink back home? Or the other way round… what would it feel like to enjoy such prices on a daily basis? If your answers are yes, yes, yes …then why not consider moving to the Land of Smiles for a while?

Life is short and, really, no one forces you to spend your days sitting in the office with a computer as your best friend. Think about sandy beaches, constant sunshine and excellent food and realize that you can have it all for less than $500 (€350) a month.

Of course this amount will not pay a beach apartment but you can easily find cheap accommodation in places as beautiful as Chang Mai, up north, where you will pay around $30 (€21) a month for a small flat. Nearer the coast, a room in the apartments runs at roughly $90 (€63) upwards.

Chang Mai by Dj Badly

Cooking at home will cost you nothing as fruits, vegetables and meat at the local markets fall into the budget category. If you are too lazy to cook then try excellent Thai food from street-side food stalls. You can get spicy chicken with rice or noodles for around $1 (€0.70). Spending around $200 (€142) for food a month, you still have around $200 (€142) spare to enjoy local trips, restaurants, parties and some small shopping.

CAMBODIA

Angkor Wat. By Jon 2

Thinking about Cambodian history, the bloody regime of Pol Pot and poverty, no one would dare to call the country a paradise, but in terms of living cost Cambodia rivals Thailand. It does not have as great beaches as its Thai neighbor but, well, it is not all about beaches, right?  You can easily live for less than $500 (€350) in the country’s capital, Phnom Penh.

As there are more and more foreigners living in the town, the accommodation prices are getting higher – it would be hard to find something below $200 (€142) a month, but you can always reduce this cost by sharing a flat with a friend or some long-term travelers.

With $300 (€213) left, you can easily get by in the country. The food prices are similar or lower than in Thailand. Eating in local restaurants will cost you around $2 (€1.40) a meal and $1 (€0.70) a beer but if you really aim to trim your budget, you can try food from street stalls- simple but delicious. Traveling by tuk tuk will cost you several bucks/euro a day.

Getting around by tuk tuk. By tajai

Living in Phnom Penh, the town of no McDonald’s and Starbucks, may be a life changing experience for you. Be aware that Cambodians are extremely poor but modest people, so treat them with respect.  Getting to know a few natives may help you to understand the complex history and tough life in the country. You can always teach English or get involved with some non-governmental organizations to help change the reality around you.

For visa details read an article at www.shelteroffshore.com

You will find similar costs of living in nearby countries such as Vietnam and Laos .

PHILIPPINES

Such beach on a daily basis? Why not…By Eric Uano

Another exotic destination where life will cost you not more than $500 (€350) a month is the Philippines. Following the rule of getting away from big cities, Manila is not an option, as a rent prices start at $360 (€255) a month.  But if you head for Cebu, one of the most developed provinces in the Philippines, with sandy beaches, golf courses and great shopping, you can get an apartment for $150 (€106) a month. In other bustling towns, such as Damaguete City, you can easily rent a room for around $40 (€28) per month.

Food is also cheap. $200 (€142) a month will be absolutely enough to provide you with all necessities including alcohol and tobacco – a big glass of beer and pack of cigarettes cost $0.55 (€0.39) and $0.80 (€0.57) respectively.

Ricefields in the Philippines. By Sekitar

Moreover, the Philippines offer a special resident retiree visa that you can get as early as at the age of 35, but you need to deposit $50K in a bank there. At the age of 50 and above you have to deposit $10K and prove a monthly pension of $800 single ($1K couple).

Malaysia , has a similar retiree offer called My Second Home program.

COSTA RICA

Surfing in Costa Rica might be an option…By Saaron83

Just a few dollars/euro would be enough to survive in Costa Rica. And surviving in Costa Rica may be just a pleasure. The land has 12 different climatic zones and abundant wildlife, but in general, the weather is hot tropical and the natives (called Ticos) are very spirited and friendly people.

Prices in San José are low – the cost of goods and services is among the lowest of all cities throughout the world. You can easily live on $500-$600 (€350-€425) a month if you share a house or flat with a partner or a friend.

Obviously the further away from San José, the lower the cost of housing.  Around 75 km (50 miles) from the town you can rent a small or medium house for $250 (€177) a month.

In the restaurants you can have an excellent meal with desert for about $4.00 – $5.00 (€2.8-€3.5). And if you buy food at local markets and from the street vendors, you pay less- a bunch of bananas will cost you $0.50 (€0.30) or less. Cigarettes are only about $1.20 (€0.90) per pack. In general, the prices in supermarkets are 30% higher than on the local markets and street stalls.

Street stall in Costa Rica. By Angela Rutherford

While in Costa Rica you can learn or develop your surfing skills as the coast has great breaks and excellent surf conditions. And if you’re not too lazy, you can learn or practice your Spanish. Lessons will cost you much less than back home or in Spain.

To find out more check the blog by Tim, who has lived in the country for several years.  It seems that he knows a lot about living in Costa Rica.

If you seriously think about moving to Costa Rica, you should also read ‘Living Abroad in Costa Rica’ by Erin Van Rheenen, who herself moved to live there and wrote from experience. The book explores the country’s history and culture, describes the nation and, of course, suggests a reconnaissance trip to Costa Rica before you decide to move.

BELIZE

Belize sunset by Gold44

Your dream of a personal heaven for a bargain price may also come true in Belize, which is considered one of the most beautiful countries in Central America. It has it all: great beaches, subtropical climate, and diverse wildlife. The official language in the country is English – that makes things simpler, doesn’t it?

The country is also a paradise for scuba diving and snorkeling lovers .The Belize Barrier Reef offers 127 offshore Cayes (islands) where you will find the best preserved marine ecosystems in the world.

The costs of living are similar to those in Costa Rica. For a large house in Cayo district, a one-hour drive west from Belize City, you may pay $300 (€210) a month and if you share with two other friends, it is only $100 (€70)!!!

Groceries are cheap when bought locally. Imported stuff is in general 50% more expensive so if you want to trim your budget, you should shop at local markets and buy from street vendors.

If you’re 45 or more you may consider retiring to Belize. The Retired Person’s Incentive Program may allow you to live a tax free lifestyle, which should definitely help you save up a few bucks.

Storm approaching the coast in Belize. By Grant Heller

Before you pack your bags, be aware that the country has dry and wet seasons so the weather is not always as perfect as you wish. The wet season starts in May and ends in October – it rains all the time and the hurricanes may occur, so if you want to spend just a few months in the country, go between November and April.

P.S. At the time of writing, the exchange rate was $1 – €0.71.

This is the first of my Freedom Files interviews.. I met Alain Denis while traveling in Florianopolis, Brazil.

One night, Alain and I were chatting over  a few Caipirinhas (a popular Brazilian cocktail) and I became intrigued by the fact that Alain had been traveling for more than three years, consecutively, without ever going back to his homeland. (Canada)

Immediately I knew I wanted to capture this guys story and make it the intro to my new Freedom Files series.. It was very inspiring to meet him and see how excited he still was after three solid years on the road. Be sure to check out his video above and also his photography in the interview below.

Enter Alain and Nate…

Nate: So what is it your doing exactly?

Alain: Riding a suzuki DR 350 enduro motorbike from Canada to South America. Living on the road doing what I love doing, photography and traveling.
From Jasper Alberta to the end of south america – Ushuaia –

Nate: Wow, so you left on a motorcycle from Alberta and road all the way to Ushuaia Argentina…For those who don’t know Ushuaia is at the extreme Southern tip of South America…It’s commonly known as the end of the world. It’s the main launching point for traveling to Antarctica.

Aside from your photography, what do you do to occupy your time while your on the road?

Alain: Well on a motorbike, riding from point A to point B can take some time. So I enjoy the scenery. Some roads can be an adventure on its own.. like route 40 in Patagonia or Bolivia… need to focus and can tired you out!

Nate: How long have you been doing this?

Alain: I left Jasper Alberta sept 27th 2007. I’ve been traveling ever since full time.

Nate: So about three years and counting…That’s amazing! What were some the most memorable times you had during your travels. Where were you? What happened?

Alain: Everyday is an adventure really. So days more. Like in Bolivia when I rode across the Salar to Uyuni. I spent the night on Pescado Island. Normally your not allowed to camp there. But it was pretty cool to be out there alone. For the next  3 days I rode to Chile on very remote roads. One day I saw only one jeep from far away! I had to calculate my gas, food and water. Not a place to break down! The nice thing of a motorbike trip is you don’t have to ride the normal tourist route…

Nate: What were you doing before you left on your trip?

Alain: I ’ve been working as a freelance photographer for the past 10 years. It’s always been a good side income. Before leaving for the trip, I lived in a touristic town – Jasper Alberta. I was driving a taxi, making some pretty good money. Between taxi and photography, I saved funds to get on the road, then continued with only photography income.

Nate: That’s cool, so you basically make money with photography while you travel the world?

Alain: Yes, I live off of my photography income. I sell images to magazines, books, newspapers, agencies. Where ever I can. I also write stories. It’s pretty amazing!

Nate: I agree, that’s got to be the ultimate dream job. How do you market your self and your photography online?

Alain: The marketing is the hard part. Since I don’t really sit in an office but on a motorbike. I don’t spend very much time working on marketing. I have some clients I been working with for a while now. So they help me keep going. My website and blog gets a good amount of views so sometimes it helps with contacts. Like any jobs… harder you work, the more you will make.

Nate: How much money do you really think it takes to live comfortably while traveling around the world?

Alain: From my travel experiences, if you spend an average of $1000 a month. You could live at 12 000 a year pretty good. Also depends on the country you travel in, what you do, if you go out for drinks and dinners, it could easy double. I usually stay away from that so i can enjoy more time on the road then in a bar.  In countries like Peru – Bolivia. I would spend approx 400$ a month! including my gas! I sometimes meet other travelers on motos that spend double what I do. They stay in fancy hostels and eat out all the time. – My average spending is normally between $600 and $800 a month – including gas.

Nate: What initially inspired you to take the leap?

Alain: I always loved traveling, I can’t sit still in one place too long. So traveling gets me going. I get inspired from seeing cultures, landscapes.Countries are fascinating, the more your see, the more you want to see. Traveling is an addiction – a healthy one. The idea of  having a mode of transportation like a motorbike gives you freedom, alive with the environment, the smells, the sounds, the peace and craziness. A great way to be part of the culture.

Nate: I agree, what has your favorite place been so far?

Alain: hmm… thats a hard question! Everywhere!!! but many special places like Thailand, India, Mexico, Brazil, Argentina…. so many. For culture… India… for Paradise living… Thailand.

Nate: What do friends say about your life back home?

Alain: Everyone is pretty psyked, I get lots of great positive feedbacks. Most can’t believe it’s been almost 3 years and still going. Still surviving “living the dream!”It’s a whole different ball game….

Nate: It is a different ballgame that’s for sure. I find many people really don’t understand how incredible life becomes, and the changes in yourself you experience when you make a decision to explore other cultures. What do you think has changed most about you since you left three years ago?

Alain: You learn lots from other people you meet. Learn about new places to visit, new friends, incredible scenery. From traveling I learn to be more patient and appreciate life or things I have. Living on a motorbike, you carry nothing, so you appreciate the little you have. After so long on the road now, living a more simple lifestyle is what I learn.

Nate: What are your plans for the future?

Alain: Find the perfect spot to buy land, build an eco friendly hostel style house. Near surf and climbing. The two best lifestyle combo to keep the body strong and healthy.

Nate: I love it, that’s a perfect dream.

Alain: Could be if it works out

Nate: Any tips for combining work and travel?

Alain: Keep doing what you love doing, be positive and believe that you can do it! Anything can be done if you go for it.

Nate: Good stuff, it’s so much easier than people think. It’s all about a decision and a desire for change. Would you trade it for anything?

Alain: I would NEVER trade anything for the travel experiences I had. I have everything I want right here… Freedom and wheels! – with an engine…

(Credit: h.koppdelaney)

“From all your herds, a cup or two of milk,
From all your granaries, a loaf of bread,
In all your palace, only half a bed:
Can man use more? And do you own the rest?”
– Ancient Sanskrit poem

Total post read time: 5 minutes. This is a post taken from The Blog of Tim Ferris, Author of the 4 Hour Work Week. It’s an amazing article on how to switch one’s thinking to what it really means to live well. recommended for anyone who believes you need to have a lot of money to experience a life of non-stop world exporation. I hope you enjoy…I know I did…

Article starts here:

Living well is quite different from “doing well.”

In the quest to get ahead — destination often unknown — it’s easy to have life pass you by while you’re focused on other things. This post is intended as a reminder and a manifesto: keep it simple.

This is written by Rolf Potts, author of my perennial favorite and heavily highlighted Vagabonding. In the below piece, I’ve bolded some particular parts that have had an impact on my life.

In March of 1989, the Exxon Valdez struck a reef off the coast of Alaska, resulting in the largest oil spill in U.S. history. Initially viewed as an ecological disaster, this catastrophe did wonders to raise environmental awareness among average Americans. As television images of oil-choked sea otters and dying shore birds were beamed across the country, pop-environmentalism grew into a national craze.

Instead of conserving more and consuming less, however, many Americans sought to save the earth by purchasing “environmental” products. Energy-efficient home appliances flew off the shelves, health food sales boomed, and reusable canvas shopping bags became vogue in strip malls from Jacksonville to Jackson Hole. Credit card companies began to earmark a small percentage of profits for conservation groups, thus encouraging consumers to “help the environment” by striking off on idealistic shopping binges.

Such shopping sprees and health food purchases did absolutely nothing to improve the state of the planet, of course — but most people managed to feel a little better about the situation without having to make any serious lifestyle changes.

This notion — that material investment is somehow more important to life than personal investment — is exactly what leads so many of us to believe we could never afford to go vagabonding. The more our life options get paraded around as consumer options, the more we forget that there’s a difference between the two. Thus, having convinced ourselves that buying things is the only way to play an active role in the world, we fatalistically conclude that we’ll never be rich enough to purchase a long-term travel experience.

Fortunately, the world need not be a consumer product. As with environmental integrity, long-term travel isn’t something you buy into: it’s something you give to yourself.

Indeed, the freedom to go vagabonding has never been determined by income level, but through simplicity — the conscious decision of how to use what income you have.

And, contrary to popular stereotypes, seeking simplicity doesn’t require that you become a monk, a subsistence forager, or a wild-eyed revolutionary. Nor does it mean that you must unconditionally avoid the role of consumer. Rather, simplicity merely requires a bit of personal sacrifice: an adjustment of your habits and routines within consumer society itself.

“Our crude civilization engenders a multitude of wants… Our forefathers forged chains of duty and habit, which bind us notwithstanding our boasted freedom, and we ourselves in desperation, add link to link, groaning and making medicinal laws for relief.”
– John Muir, Kindred and Related Spirits

At times, the biggest challenge in embracing simplicity will be the vague feeling of isolation that comes with it, since private sacrifice doesn’t garner much attention in the frenetic world of mass culture.

Jack Kerouac’s legacy as a cultural icon is a good example of this. Arguably the most famous American vagabonder of the 20th century, Kerouac vividly captured the epiphanies of hand-to-mouth travel in books like On the Road and Lonesome Traveler. In Dharma Bums, he wrote about the joy of living with people who blissfully ignore “the general demand that they consume production and therefore have to work for the privilege of consuming, all that crap they didn’t really want…general junk you always see a week later in the garbage anyway, all of [it] impersonal in a system of work, produce, consume.”

Despite his observance of material simplicity, however, Kerouac found that his personal life – the life that had afforded him the freedom to travel – was soon overshadowed by a more fashionable (and marketable) public vision of his travel lifestyle. Convertible cars, jazz records, marijuana (and, later, Gap khakis), ultimately came to represent the mystical “It” that he and Neal Cassidy sought in On the Road. As his Beat cohort William S. Burroughs was to point out years after his death, part of Kerouac’s mystique became inseparable from the idea that he “opened a million coffee bars and sold a million pairs of Levi’s to both sexes.”

In some ways, of course, coffee bars, convertibles and marijuana are all part of what made travel appealing to Kerouac’s readers. That’s how marketing (intentional and otherwise) works. But these aren’t the things that made travel possible for Kerouac. What made travel possible was that he knew how neither self nor wealth can be measured in terms of what you consume or own. Even the downtrodden souls on the fringes of society, he observed, had something the rich didn’t: Time.

This notion – the notion that “riches” don’t necessarily make you wealthy – is as old as society itself. The ancient Hindu Upanishads refer disdainfully to “that chain of possessions wherewith men bind themselves, and beneath which they sink”; ancient Hebrew scriptures declare that “whoever loves money never has money enough.” Jesus noted that it’s pointless for a man to “gain the whole world, yet lose his very self”, and the Buddha whimsically pointed out that seeking happiness in one’s material desires is as absurd as “suffering because a banana tree will not bear mangoes.”

Despite several millennia of such warnings, however, there is still an overwhelming social compulsion – an insanity of consensus, if you will – to get rich from life rather than live richly, to “do well” in the world instead of living well. And, in spite of the fact that America is famous for its unhappy rich people, most of us remain convinced that just a little more money will set life right. In this way, the messianic metaphor of modern life becomes the lottery – that outside chance that the right odds will come together to liberate us from financial worries once and for all.

“Henceforth I ask not good-fortune, I myself am good-fortune,
Henceforth I whimper no more, postpone no more, need nothing…”
– Walt Whitman, “Song of the Open Road”

Fortunately, we were all born with winning tickets – and cashing them in is a simple matter of altering our cadence as we walk through the world. Vagabonding sage Ed Buryn knew as much: “By switching to a new game, which in this case involves vagabonding, time becomes the only possession and everyone is equally rich in it by biological inheritance. Money, of course, is still needed to survive, but time is what you need to live. So, save what little money you possess to meet basic survival requirements, but spend your time lavishly in order to create the life values that make the fire worth the candle. Dig?”

Dug. And the bonus to all of this is that – as you of sow your future with rich fields of time – you are also planting the seeds of personal growth that will gradually bloom as you travel into the world.

* * *

In a way, simplifying your life for vagabonding is easier than it sounds. This is because travel by its very nature demands simplicity. If you don’t believe this, just go home and try stuffing everything you own into a backpack. This will never work, because no matter how meagerly you live at home, you can’t match the scaled-down minimalism that travel requires. You can, however, set the process of reduction and simplification into motion while you’re still at home. This is useful on several levels: Not only does it help you to save up travel money, but it helps you realize how independent you are of your possessions and your routines. In this way, it prepares you mentally for the realities of the road, and makes travel a dynamic extension of the life-alterations you began at home.

“Travel can be a kind of monasticism on the move: On the road, we often live more simply, with no more possessions than we can carry, and surrendering ourselves to chance. This is what Camus meant when he said that “what gives value to travel is fear” — disruption, in other words, (or emancipation) from circumstance, and all the habits behind which we hide.
– Pico Iyer, “Why We Travel”

As with, say, giving up coffee, simplifying your life will require a somewhat difficult consumer withdrawal period. Fortunately, your impending travel experience will give you a very tangible and rewarding long-term goal that helps ease the discomfort. Over time, as you reap the sublime rewards of simplicity, you’ll begin to wonder how you ever put up with such a cluttered life in the first place.

On a basic level, there are three general methods to simplifying your life: stopping expansion, reining in your routine, and reducing clutter. The easiest part of this process is stopping expansion. This means that – in anticipation of vagabonding – you don’t add any new possessions to your life, regardless of how tempting they might seem. Naturally, this applies to things like cars and home entertainment systems, but this also applies to travel accessories. Indeed, one of the biggest mistakes people make in anticipation of vagabonding is to indulge in a vicarious travel buzz by investing in water filters, sleeping bags, and travel-boutique wardrobes. In reality, vagabonding runs smoothest on a bare minimum of gear – and even multi-year trips require little initial investment beyond sturdy footwear and a dependable travel bag or backpack.

While you’re curbing the material expansion of your life, you should also take pains to rein in the unnecessary expenses of your weekly routine. Simply put, this means living more humbly (even if you aren’t humble) and investing the difference into your travel fund. Instead of eating at restaurants, for instance, cook at home and pack a lunch to work or school. Instead of partying at nightclubs and going out to movies or pubs, entertain at home with friends or family. Wherever you see the chance to eliminate an expensive habit, take it. The money you save as a result will pay handsomely in travel time. In this way, I ate lot of baloney sandwiches (and missed out on a lot of grunge-era Seattle nightlife) while saving up for a vagabonding stint after college — but the ensuing eight months of freedom on the roads of North America more than made up for it.

“Very many people spend money in ways quite different from those that their natural tastes would enjoin, merely because the respect of their neighbors depends upon their possession of a good car and their ability to give good dinners. As a matter of fact, any man who can obviously afford a car but genuinely prefers travels or a good library will in the end be much more respected than if he behaved exactly like everyone else.”
– Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness

Perhaps the most challenging step in keeping things simple is to reduce clutter – to downsize what you already own. As Thoreau observed, downsizing can be the most vital step in winning the freedom to change your life: “I have in my mind that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all,” he wrote in Walden, “who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden or sliver fetters.”

How you reduce your “dross” in anticipation of travel will depend on your situation. If you’re young, odds are you haven’t accumulated enough to hold you down (which, incidentally, is a big reason why so many vagabonders tend to be young). If you’re not-so-young, you can re-create the carefree conditions of youth by jettisoning the things that aren’t necessary to your basic well-being. For much of what you own, garage sales and on-line auctions can do wonders to unclutter your life (and score you an extra bit of cash to boot). Homeowners can win their travel freedom by renting out their houses; those who rent accommodation can sell, store, or lend out the things that might bind them to one place.

An additional consideration in life-simplification is debt. As Laurel Lee wryly observed in Godspeed, “cities are full of those who have been caught in monthly payments for avocado green furniture sets.” Thus, if at all possible, don’t let avocado green furniture sets (or any other seemingly innocuous indulgence) dictate the course of your life by forcing you into ongoing cycles of production and consumption. If you’re already in debt, work your way out of it – and stay out. If you have a mortgage or other long-term debt, devise a situation (such as property rental) that allows you to be independent of its obligations for long periods of time. Being free from debt’s burdens simply gives you more vagabonding options.

And, for that matter, more life options.

* * *

“It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after your own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self Reliance”

As you simplify your life and look forward to spending your new wealth of time, you’re likely to get a curious reaction from your friends and family. On one level, they will express enthusiasm for your impending adventures. But on another level, they might take your growing freedom as a subtle criticism of their own way of life. Because your fresh worldview might appear to call their own values into question (or, at least, force them to consider those values in a new light), they will tend to write you off as irresponsible and self-indulgent. Let them. As I’ve said before, vagabonding is not an ideology, a balm for societal ills, nor a token of social status. Vagabonding is, was, and always will be a private undertaking – and its goal is not to improve your life in relation to your neighbors, but in relation to yourself. Thus, if your neighbors consider your travels foolish, don’t waste your time trying to convince them otherwise. Instead, the only sensible reply is to quietly enrich your life with the myriad opportunities that vagabonding provides.

Interestingly, some of the harshest responses I’ve received in reaction to my vagabonding life have come while traveling. Once, at Armageddon (the site in Israel; not the battle at the end of the world), I met an American aeronautical engineer who was so tickled he had negotiated 5 days of free time into a Tel Aviv consulting trip that he spoke of little else as we walked through the ruined city. When I eventually mentioned that I’d been traveling around Asia for the past 18 months, he looked at me like I’d slapped him. “You must be filthy rich,” he said acidly. “Or maybe,” he added, giving me the once-over, “your mommy and daddy are.”

I tried to explain how two years of teaching English in Korea had funded my freedom, but the engineer would have none of it. Somehow, he couldn’t accept that two years of any kind of honest work could have funded 18 months (and counting) of travel. He didn’t even bother sticking around for the real kicker: In those 18 months of travel, my day-to-day costs were significantly cheaper than day-to-day life would have cost me back in the United States.

The secret to my extraordinary thrift was neither secret nor extraordinary: I had tapped into that vast well of free time simply by forgoing a few comforts as I traveled. Instead of luxury hotels, I slept in clean, basic hostels and guesthouses. Instead of flying from place to place, I took local buses, trains, and share-taxis. Instead of dining at fancy restaurants, I ate food from street-vendors and local cafeterias. Occasionally, I traveled on foot, slept out under the stars, and dined for free at the stubborn insistence of local hosts.

In what ultimately amounted to over two years of travel in Asia, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, my lodging averaged out to just under $5 a night, my meals cost well under $1 a plate, and my total expenses rarely exceeded $1000 a month.

“When I was very young a big financier once asked me what I would like to do, and I said, ‘To travel.’ ‘Ah,’ he said, ‘it is very expensive; one must have a lot of money to do that.’ He was wrong. For there are two kinds of travelers; the Comfortable Voyager, round whom a cloud of voracious expenses hums all the time, and the man who shifts for himself and enjoys the little discomforts as a change from life’s routine.”
– Ralph Bagnold, Libyan Sands

Granted, I have simple tastes – and I didn’t linger long in expensive places – but there was nothing exceptional in the way I traveled. In fact, entire multi-national backpacker circuits (not to mention budget guidebook publishing empires) have been created by the simple abundance of such travel bargains in the developing world. For what it costs to fill your gas-tank back home, for example you can take a train from one end of China to the other. For the cost of a home-delivered pepperoni pizza, you can eat great meals for a week in Brazil. And, for a month’s rent in any major American city, you can spend a year in a beach hut in Indonesia. Moreover, even the industrialized parts of the world host enough hostel networks, bulk transportation discounts, and camping opportunities make long-term travel affordable.

Ultimately, you may well discover that vagabonding on the cheap becomes your favorite way to travel, even if given more expensive options. Indeed, not only does simplicity save you money and buy you time, it makes you more adventuresome, forces you into sincere contact with locals, and allows you the independence to follow your passions and curiosities down exciting new roads.

In this way, simplicity – both at home and on the road – affords you the time to seek renewed meaning in an oft-neglected commodity that can’t be bought at any price: life itself.

“It had the taste of an apple peeled with a steel knife.”

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963), in the movie “Time Must Have a Stop” (1944)

Wine tasting in Mendoza was quite the experience. I arrived in Mendoza after a few life changing months in Santiago Chile. It was my first time setting foot in Argentina and to me the perfect place to begin ones journey through this amazing country. Especially in March during the last month of summer. It really doesn’t get better.

After a few nights of dancing Tango, I heard amongst other things, that one of the things I had to experience was a self guided bike tour through the Mendoza wine country. And being an avid drinker of wine, this quickly became top of my list. So I scheduled with my hostel to be picked up the next day.

I arrived to the bike shop alone but was immediately joined by a group of guys from England who were traveling together. It was the birthday of one of the guys, so the energy for a great day was already in the air. Nothing like the anticipation for getting wasted by 10 in the morning.

We geared up our bikes, ($12 for the entire day) and were given a quick ten minute briefing and a basic map of where to go, and then set out into the fresh clean air of the vineyards. Sun shining on the vibrant plants and nothing but blue skies. It felt like a dream.

There was also an unspoken pact between us that this wasn’t going to be simply day of sipping small samples of wine, but rather a rampage of the vineyards with the soul purpose of getting smackered as quickly as possible.

Within the first ten minutes we arrived at a small family owned vineyard. We were greeted by a wagging dog and his owner who came eagerly off of his porch to guide us to his small, but elegantly decorated tasting room. More like an old garage but it couldn’t have been more perfect. A place where we could have probably stayed for dinner if we wanted. Typical Argentine style.

Although in general the wine is fairly inexpensive, we realized it was going to even more effective to achieve our goal to split the cost of bottles instead of paying for small portions all day. So we started with two bottles and our day had officially begun.

Over the course of the day we visited nearly every vineyard within about a 15 kilometer area. In addition to the wine, most vineyards host a variety of other freshly, hand made products such as olives, chocolates, cheeses, different types of fruit liqueurs and even the controversial Absinthe, an extremely potent concoction, historically referred to as “Devils Urine” or “The Green Fairy”

It is an anise-flavoured spirit derived from herbs, including the flowers and leaves of the herb Artemisia. Which is commonly referred to as “grande wormwood”.

Absinthe usually has a natural green color but can also be colorless. It also is known to have hallucinogenic properties as it contains trace amounts of the chemical Thujone. Hard to tell however after three hours of downing bottles wine.

Although it is sometimes called a liqueur, absinthe isn’t bottled with sugar and is therefore classified as a spirit. Absinthe is normally diluted with water when consumed, but not in this case. They mixed it with slightly caramelized sugar and slid it across the bar. It had an almost minty taste that stung for several minutes after taking it down. Probably not something I would consume on a regular basis.

We also stopped at a local home based beer brewery located more or less in the middle of a grass field. Sitting on the makeshift couches, in the middle of a cleared out spot in the dirt, surrounded by good people, I couldn’t help to think how simple life really needs to be.

By five in the afternoon, we were nothing short of belligerent and ended the day at more classy winery with a plate of cheese, olives and baguette bread overlooking the still vibrant grapevines, which now seemed to have tracers coming off them. (Hmm, maybe the Absinthe was having an effect. )

Be sure to check out he video on this experience located at www.natebunger.com

It was an amazing day and one that I won’t soon be forgotten. I highly recommend the wine tasting tour for anyone traveling to Mendoza Argentina.

A trip to Buenos Aires wouldn’t be complete without visit to the La Recoleta Cemetery.

La Recoleta cemetery is located in the exclusive Recoleta neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

The layout of the cemetery was designed by the French engineer Próspero Catelin, and was remodeled in 1881, while Torcuato de Alvear was mayor of the city, by the Italian architect Juan Antonio Buschiazzo.

Walking through row upon row of tombs, I couldn’t help but to think about my own inevitable demise someday. Despite the finely constructed graves, most built for entire families past and future, it made me think just how short life really is and how unimportant all the seemingly seriousness is in the end.

Strangely, I felt a sense of relief that I made the decision to embark on my round the world journey in my attempt to live life to it’s fullest.

The Cemetery includes graves of some of the most influential and important Argentinians, including several presidents, scientists, and wealthy characters. Internationally, Eva Perón is the best-known person buried in this cemetery.

The entrance to the cemetery is through neo-classical gates with tall Greek columns. The cemetery contains many elaborate marble mausoleums, decorated with statues, in a wide variety of architectural styles. The entire cemetery is laid out in sections like city blocks, with wide tree-lined main walkways branching into sidewalks filled with mausoleums.

While many of the mausoleums are in fine shape and well-maintained, others have fallen into disrepair. Several can be found with broken glass and littered with rubbish.

Each mausoleum bears the family name etched into the facade; brass or bronze plaques are added to the front for particular family members. La Recoleta is one of those cemeteries where the tradition of engraving a death date but no birth date has been maintained.

The cemetery was featured in the educational film Destinos as the final resting spot of a wife of the main character.

Information About The Video:

The above video was edited by a good friend Margrethe Dyblie.

On a side note, Margrethe has spent the last few months experimenting with her own life on the road working from her laptop. Last month, she officially pulled in over $12,000 utilizing her skills as a consultant, strictly over the Internet while simultaneously traveling throughout parts of Argentina and Brazil.

I will be doing an interview with Margrethe very soon on how she did what she did and her plans for the future. Stay tuned for more.