Some Thoughts on the Travel Nomad Lifestyle (and why I don't live that lifestyle myself)

I published an article about the travel nomad lifestyle at http://www.latinandcaribbeantravel.com/articles.html . In it I mention that today's technology makes it easier for people to pull up roots and set themselves in other parts of the world with their laptop and Wi-fi connection. I also mention the many benefits of this lifestyle, among them being the ability to sightsee much more than on a standard vacation as well as really connect with other cultures. It's also great to be able to provide a favorable impression of one's country just by being present in another and acting courteously toward one's hosts.

I personally don't live the nomadic lifestyle myself, but my particular reason is because I like to come back to a home base or place to process all my experiences and share them once I'm on familiar ground. I still feel, though, that I have a lot in common with travel nomads and like sharing information with them. In my case, I may have done at least some of what they have done, but stretched it out in little bits over a long period of time. One such experience was seeing a mime on the streets of Bogotá, Colombia during a trip to a food festival there.

Here are links to more sites that discuss or refer to the travel nomad lifestyle:

The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss is one book that discusses in detail the freedom to work from anywhere in the world and choose one's own schedule. Tim's blog on this subject is called The 4-Hour Workweek Blog.

Move Builder, a company that specializes in relocation, also has a webpage listing travel blogs that describe the lives of several travel nomads.

Jasmine Wanders was created by Jasmine Stephenson (also highlighted on the Move Builder website) to chronicle her travels to several countries. She also has created two additional sites, one for St. Maarten and another for South America.

Reflections on traditional music versus modern music

Learning about traditional music goes a long way in helping me understand a place that I have visited, as well as have a greater appreciation for the cultural diversity that exists in the world. For the most part, what seems to identify a region and separate it from its neighbors is a particular style of music. Usually, the older the style is, the more it represents its region because the earlier difficulties of transportation from one place to another tended to foster the development of a particular style of traditional music distinct from the surrounding regions. Styles that have come into vogue later on tend to be more pan-regional and often don't provide this sort of insight, with a few notable exceptions, such as the brand of salsa that has developed in Cali, Colombia.

When I began to listen to traditional music, there were a lot of styles that I didn't enjoy listening to because they were made by societies that didn't have the benefit of technology to make refined instruments, plus the melodies were often repetitious and sounded strange to my Western ears. Over time, however, I began to appreciate the context in which these styles were created and didn't allow my earlier prejudices to prevent me from embracing those styles as the authentic expression of the people.

As these traditional styles have evolved, there have been tendencies for the people to make certain adjustments based on the possibilities that technology offers. Dancers often like recorded music because the beats are more predictable and easier to dance to than a live group that may not play to a rhythm conducive to dancing. I had a direct experience with this situation as an organizer of a cultural event in Philadelphia in which a group of tango dancers struggled to adjust to the shifting rhythms of the local Argentinian music group and found a recording much easier to follow. The compromise was using the musicians for some songs and the recordings for others. Also, modern musicians often prefer electronic instruments to acoustic instruments because they are sometimes easier to transport, plug into sound systems directly instead of having to be amplified by a microphone, and appeal more to contemporary audiences. For example, musicians may add the electric bass in situations where the tradition didn't have a bass or had a rudimentary bass, as is the case with many Colombian "vallenato" groups (a type of music from the Caribbean coast) like the one shown above. At least one writer has decried this modification as only serving to drown out the percussion, but the more traditional vallenato groups with only three instruments - the accordion, scraper and drum - still exist alongside their larger, electrified counterparts. The venue dictates which type of group will take precedence.

Despite this evolution, pop music is seen as a competitor to traditional and regional music, and with the huge marketing resources that pop music has at its disposal, the playing field is very uneven. There are differences of opinion among those promoters of regional music as to how to deal with this situation. The late folklorist Alan Lomax gave this assessment: "We now have cultural machines so powerful that one singer can reach everybody in the world, and make all the other singers feel inferior because they're not like him. Once that gets started, he gets backed by so much cash and so much power that he becomes a monstrous invader from outer space, crushing the life out of all the other human possibilities. My life has been devoted to opposing that tendency." I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Lomax that the incredible variety of human expression that is represented in folklore should not be extinguished by a  money machine. Where I see divergence is how those representatives of their local cultures choose to deal with the situation.

I have heard some local musicians complain about how they are passed over in representing their region in festivals in favor of singers who represent a style foreign to their particular area. While I certainly sympathize with them and realize that they often need an advocate to increase their influence, the end result often is the fading of the traditional style as their most storied proponents pass away. Another approach is similar to the saying "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" but is more like "If you can't beat 'em, meet 'em halfway." Realizing the enormous reach and influence of popular music, some promoters of the traditional style try to incorporate certain elements of pop music into their repertoire, or perform in both traditional groups and fusion groups, so that they do not sell out to pop. For example, in a conversation with a traditional Colombian Pacific Coast music group at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 2009, one of the musicians mentioned that he was looking for a fusion of his local music with popular music that could serve as a "hook" to get their young people more interested in the local traditions. I couldn't answer his question at that time, but a few weeks later I traveled to Bogota, Colombia and found the answer: a group that developed a fusion of that same style with rap. It sounded great and represented the best that both the Pacific Coast music and rap had to offer. I personally prefer the acoustic sound of the traditional music, but felt that the fusion group had done a very good job of respecting the roots music and may have provided a bridge so that people could appreciate the tradition better. The debate is not likely to go away, but I am hesitant to disagree with anyone who has faced a decline in popularity of their regional style and would like a wider audience to appreciate it so that the style does not disappear completely. Ultimately, the standard bearers of the tradition should be the ones to decide.

Check out the article on Latin music on my website for more information.

Return to Pink Sands Beach, Harbour Island, Bahamas (2010)

Returning to Harbour Island in the Bahamas, especially for a day trip, created an immediate tension for me because I felt that there were two faces to the island competing for my attention. The first is Dunmore Town, where the twin-hulled ferry "Bo Hengy" docks and provides the entrance to its quaint setting and remarkable storehouse of history. However, when you drive your rental cart to the top of the hill overlooking the town and walk the sandy descent on the other side, the second face of Harbour Island opens up, like a well-kept secret hideaway: the spectacular Pink Sands Beach, which defies all superlatives and dares you to pull yourself away when it's time to leave. The subtleties of how the pinkish sand mixes with the bright, clear blue water in different hues, are mesmerizing, so it was hard to decide if I should spend my time just relaxing in the water or getting out my camera and taking photo after photo to capture all the images that were captivating my senses. My conclusion is that I had to do both in equal proportion, so that I could be caught up in the moment and still have these images to take back home and stare at on my computer whenever I wanted to transport myself back to that enchanted place.

Back in Providencia, Colombia (2010)

Ten years after making an overnight trip to Providencia, a remote island in the Caribbean belonging to Colombia, in 2000, I had the opportunity to return and stay for three days. Providencia, according to what I heard during my stay, only attracts 11,000 tourists a year (compare the Dominican Republic at about 4 million), but those who go there never forget the place because of its isolation, the beauty of its landscape and the warmth of its people. My impression is that it is sought out by a small group of travelers representing a cross-section of the whole world, based on the tourists I met during my brief stay who were from Colombia, the United States, the Netherlands, England, Argentina, Malaysia, and Switzerland. On my first trip I had also met a tourist from France.

The photo of Providencia, with the well-known Split Hill or Loma Partida in the background, was taken from the smaller island of Santa Catalina, which is connected to Providencia by a small floating bridge for pedestrians. Speaking of Santa Catalina, biologist Germán Márquez Calle notes in the booklet A Guide to the Environment of Old Providence and Santa Catalina (a gift from Javier Archbold Hawkins, one of my gracious hosts on this trip) that there is a striking resemblance between Providencia and the map of the fictional island from Robert Louis Stevenson's famous novel "Treasure Island," in that the map of the island in Stevenson's novel includes a small island with roughly the same proportions to the larger island as Santa Catalina has to Providencia. Though the association between the real island and the fictional one has not been proven conclusively, to my knowledge, it's still fun to speculate. What we do know about Providencia is that pirates did inhabit the island at certain times in its history, most notably Henry Morgan, who used Providencia as a base to invade Panama and other Spanish possessions. Looking at certain parts of the island, you definitely can imagine a pirate movie being filmed there. 

Waiting for those elusive white birds in Villeta, Colombia

Last year our extended family spent a weekend in Villeta, a town not far from Colombia' s capital city of Bogotá, a favorite resort spot along with Melgar and Girardot because of its warmer climate. During the weekend, I became fascinated with the flora and fauna of the area, and it seemed that there was a surprise at every turn: a flower here, an interesting insect there, a tree with unusual seeds or another plant growing on one of its branches, and birds of all sizes and shapes.

Colombia is supposed to have more species of birds than any other country in the world. In the lower elevations where the climate is warmer, the way that the birds seem to fly in carefree fashion gives the impression that they are in their own version of paradise, where it never gets cold and there appears to be more than enough for them to eat. (Of course, drought can be a problem at times.)

There were birds that were easy to observe, such as these swallows who had made a nest in the house we were staying in. Other birds were content to find food or water near the swimming pool. Another bird allowed itself to be photographed in dramatic fashion against the mountain backdrop.

Sunset in particular is a great time to observe birds. There are plenty of them flying around, either by themselves or in flocks, and one need do no more than to sit out on the patio and watch. During our weekend, my sister-in-law called my attention to one type of bird that I had seen on many occasions but never thought about consciously. She said that every evening, a flock of large white birds would fly across the sky in full view, with the mountains in the background, but you would see them only once each evening. Once, while I was looking at pictures stored on my digital camera, she said, "Look! There they are!" and of course, by the time I looked up to see, they were already gone. This last picture represents my attempt to capture the sky at sunset, in the direction they were flying. One day maybe, when I'm ready, I'll be able to capture their flight in a picture or a video clip!

Guasca, Colombia and its beautiful church

The Colombian town of Guasca is a hidden gem. It's situated a little higher than the towns that surround it on the northern outskirts of Bogotá. It's not on the main road and you have to drive out of the way to get there, fortunately only about 2 kilometers. If you leave Bogotá by the mountain road that goes toward La Calera and continue on as if you were going to Guatavita, you can turn off where the sign indicates Guasca. When we went, we didn't stay long, just enough to take in the pretty views that were the result of this city being on a small hill above the others. Also noteworthy was the church that occupied a prominent place in the plaza, especially as the whole plaza was sloped uphill and the church sat at the top. I just loved the interior of this church, which looked very well maintained.

New feature on my website with Google Maps

On my Latin and Caribbean travel site I added a map using Google Maps to show the places I've visited. The map can be zoomed in and out to get more or less detail. When you get to the site, you can click on the markers to see the place names and in some cases I've added some descriptions under the locations. Over time I'll add more specific information and link it to my blog entries.