Deserts

“Well, Ranger Abbey,” says Merle, “how do you like it out here in the middle of nowhere?” -Desert Solitaire I look out at a blue sky pressing itself down upon a red earth like a double sized woman’s buttocks being plopped down upon a standard sized chair. And like the poor chair, their is no [...]

Isabelle Eberhardt: The Personification of Romance “Africa ingests and assimilates everything that is hostile to it. Perhaps it is the Predestined Land from which the light that will regenerate the world will one day emerge!”–Isabelle Eberhardt“One very graceful impression is that of sunset over the port and the terraces of the upper town, and the [...]

Through Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, MaliRabat, MoroccoSeptember 10, 2007http://canciondelvagabundo.googlepages.com/Below is a map of my intended route of travel through deserts, mountains, and whatever Africa is like in Senegal and southern Mauritania. I read that the overland route from Western Sahara to Mauritania is possible, but I cannot find a coastal road on this map. My hope [...]

Through New York City, AgainJFK Airport, New York, USASeptember 5, 2007http://canciondelvagabundo.googlepages.comGoing to the Sahara. I have been wanting to go there for a long time. Mauritania, my thoughts fill with romance. But I know deserts; and I know that they are dusty, hot, and stifling; yet beautiful, open, and free. I am enthusiastic. But I [...]

“But curiosity and adventure taunted me. Had I become a soft tourist . . .? Was my vagabond stamina, ridiculed by my friends in America before departure, really as feeble as they prophesied it would be?”-Richard Halliburton, The Royal Road to RomanceNorth Africa I pondered the idea of returning yet again to East Asia with [...]

Upstate New YorkJuly 24, 2007“He who does not travel does not know the value of men.”-Moorish proverb“Our nature lies in movement; complete calm is death.”-Pascal“To live in one land, is captivitie, to runne all countries, a wild roguery.”-Donne’ third ‘ElegieThe “Cancion del Vagabundo” website is now up. It can be visited at: http://canciondelvagabundo.googlepages.com/ I do [...]

Hangzhou, China5.29.2007“Plan had I none, as yet, for continuing my journey. . .But plans are quickly made in the vagabond world.” -Harry Franck, A Vagabond Journey Around the WorldThough I fell in love with Mongolia I felt that it was time to leave. Feelings strike out of nowhere and I have to listen to them. [...]

Zamyn Uud, the Mongolian frontier town on the Chinese border. There is only three things in this town: a border, a train station, and the road that goes to the border. It was an interesting little place save for the constant sand that blows all through the region. To walk through these streets were to [...]

SAN PEDRO DE ATACAMA, Chile- I arrived in San Pedro de Atacama on September 10th. A very touristy place which I came away with mixed feelings about. On one hand it was an incredibly beautiful place, on the other hand the influx from outsiders has severely altered and/ or interrupted the local people’s way of life. Seriously, [...]