Europeans will often mock Americans for their limited knowledge of the world outside the US, taking simpletons thinking Paris is the capital of “Europe” as the prime example. Well, I’m afraid I’ve been humbled by my time in Argentina, meeting people who know a great deal more than me about the continent and the ins and outs of it.
There are a lot of little things, misconceptions and prejudice that us europeans hold about South America. To point out a few things I’ve learned from people who are either from around here or have been around the continent:
Colombia - mostly safe these days Most westerners will believe that Colombia is a drugrunners paradise, where you will be abducted by militias if you step outside the security controls at Bogota airport. Not so, both Colombians and people who have traveled there have told me otherwise.
Yes, there are still dodgy areas, steer clear of the jungles and rural areas. But if you stay in places like Bogota, Medellin or any of the major cities along the Caribbean coast, you’ll be safe. Apparently Medellin and Cartagena in particular are worth seeing. Also, the fact that living is cheap, and Colombians are some of the most beautiful people on the planet won’t detract from your stay.
Peru and Cusco All things from both travelers and Peruvians alike point to the fact that the capital of Peru, Lima, is a dirty shithole where you’ll easily get robbed by locals and taxi drivers alike.
Cusco, the launchpad for the Inca-trail and Machu Picchu is a different matter though: this is supposedly party-central in Peru, and well worth staying in for at least a couple of weeks. I had no idea about this until I heard about it. The other observation is that the best time to visit the area is during their winter (northern hemisphere summer), the summer is wet and easily gets washed out. Also, bring your sunscreen, the area has the strongest UV exposure in the world.
Buenos Aires - corrupt, dangerous, but oh so lovely Finally, the city where I have spent most of my time in, and that I can speak from experience about (everything else is hearsay). I’ve been told that Buenos Aires is more dangerous than Bogota these days, street crime is rife and I’ve met a good portion of tourists who have been robbed.
Living in southeast London, I’m not sure it’s any worse than my own neighbourhood, but I think caution and common sense are two good companions to bring: avoid dark side streets, walk confidently, don’t stop for people hassling you, and avoid looking like a lost tourist even if you are.
The politics of Argentina in general are corrupt from what I hear. Buenos Aires itself is much like a subtropical Paris in decline - it is unavoidable to see the marks of subsequent economical crises in the city and the resulting decline, but the “Porteno’s” (locals) are proud and seem to be in denial about the state of affairs.
Despite all its downsides, it is a city that is easy to fall in love with, it has soul and is easily my favourite city in the world right now. The food is the best I’ve had, the people are beautiful and friendly and the city literally never sleeps, except for siesta between 5-8pm.
One of the reasons I chose to go to Argentina for a month (or two?) was to improve my Spanish. I had been studying a little on my own prior to leaving, courtesy of the Michel Thomas audio courses.
So what is the reality of learning on your own? Well, the Michel Thomas courses are excellent - I’ve learned more Spanish, and built an understanding of the structure of the language in a way that 4 years of studies in high school/college never taught me. I have nothing but good things to say about the courses. But.. there is a caveat with learning this way, or any other way: you’ll never learn in the same way as if you immerse yourself in a language, country and culture. In real life, you don’t only get asked questions with words you already know that can be answered with words you already know. Nor do you get the benefit of thinking for five seconds before responding (or at least I don’t give myself that luxury). The only way to really learn is to throw yourself in at the deep end.
Real people don’t speak like special needs school teachers For me, I’m really struggling with the “Porteno” (Buenos Aires dialect of Spanish) - the pace of speech is something that I found really hard. But I’m getting there: whereas during the first few days in Argentina I struggled with ordering a burger at McDonalds, after 1.5 weeks, I’m starting to be able to hold a basic conversation with taxi drivers (a taxi driver asked me the other day if I was from Spain). I’d call that great progress. At the moment, my biggest problem is my limited vocabulary, I’ve got most of the structure of language down (at least present- and future tense), so given the right words, I can make myself understood though I might not get the grammar perfectly right. My biggest problem remains the local dialect in Buenos Aires: whereas I understood about 75% of what people in Iguazu (northern Argentina) said, I understand maybe 25-30% of what people in Buenos Aires say, it’s that bad of a difference in terms of dialect and pacing of speech.
Learning with “Spanglish” The quite often limited English knowledge of the locals is actually a big help for me learning: a lot of the time, I have ended up speaking to locals in bars and other venues in what can best be described as “Spanglish” - both parties mix English and Spanish to make themselves understood, giving me context around words I do not know and vice versa for the other person. Language mixing might be inelegant, but it is very, very effective in picking up parts of a new language quickly.
To give the full picture, my Spanish is still very basic, and very flawed, but I’ve learned a lot in a couple of weeks, perhaps most important of all a certain level of confidence in basic situations, though I’ll admit it’s mostly situations where I can prepare myself a little and reasonably predict most possible responses, or in more courteous social situations that don’t go too deeply into things other than standard superficial pleasantries. But it is now clear to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that the best way to learn is to have a basic grasp of the language structure, then just throw yourself in at the deep end. I’m sure by this time next month my Spanish will be much better, and if I spent about 6 months here, I’m sure I’d be pretty close to fluency.
“Papa was a rolling stone, where ever he laid his hat was home”
A moment ago I was struck by a moment of home sickness and I thought to myself: “In less than 24 hours, I’ll be back home”. As I’m writing this, I am in a hotel room in Hotel Esturion, Puerto Iguazu, northern Argentina. In 24 hours time I’ll be back in Buenos Aires (this will likely be posted after that time). Funny that, I have no ties, legal, family or otherwise to Buenos Aires. It just happens to be my “home” until some time when I decide to leave before my tourist visa expires.
What I have learned over the last few years, and a concept that has been cemented in my mind from this trip is that “home” is not a place to me, it is a state of mind. My wants are quite simple: give me a place with a bed, toilette, shower, fridge and cooking facilities, an internet connection and good work area and I’m set. Oh, and I don’t want to be on the constant look out for a maid who might pop in at any given time, hence my discomfort with hotels. I like having my door locked and knowing with relative certainty that no one else but me can get in. But as far as required “home comforts”, that’s about all I need.
Another thing about the state of mind of “home” to me is to not be rushed: I doubt I could feel “at home” in a place I was only staying in for a couple of days or a few weeks. But if I know I have a month or more, I’ll make it my home. Furthermore, “home” is where you want to be, not where you have to be. Some years back, I was living in places I did not want to be, I was semi nomadic, and never really felt home. I’ve come to realize that this had more to do with the fact that I had to be there out of necessity rather than choice. I was in places I did not want to be in, hence I never felt truly at home. My problem was never the lack of permanence, it was the forced nature of the location.
For the time being, I’m considering Buenos Aires to be my home more so than my over-mortgaged flat in London. Yes, I might have most of my worldly possessions in the latter, but they are of less value to me right now than the experiences I have had in my temporarily adopted “home” of Buenos Aires. Come March, I’m sure my London flat will be “home” once again until my next adventure, after all, it’s just a state of mind.
I’ve been in Buenos Aires, Argentina for a little over a week now. I came from London via Madrid last Friday, and I’m staying in a beautiful split-level apartment in the Palermo part of town.
I found the apartment via BYT Argentina, who specialize in short term rentals in Buenos Aires, and they where most helpful in arranging everything from airport transport to meeting me at the apartment. I would strongly recommend them to anyone who is staying in Buenos Aires for longer (though I would advise to pay the deposit via PayPal which I did, as BYT’s credit card payment page is not SSL-secured, hence wide open to security issues).
In general, I have all the amenities I would have at home in London and more, including high speed internet (though sometimes a bit patchy). It’s pretty much like being home away from home. I’d rather be in the Argentinian summer right now than UK winter.
This is my first adventure in trying a location independent lifestyle for a longer period of time, and a temporary one as my business isn’t entirely location independent yet. I was a bit skeptical at first whether I was cut out for it, being a person who likes his home comforts and familiar surroundings.
I was wrong: I could do this. With Skype, MSN and Facebook, friends are always readily available to talk, and meeting new people in a strange city, especially if you like me break the norm of what others look like (blonde and blue eyes in latin America) couldn’t be easier. I’ve found people friendly and eager to talk at every turn, and it doesn’t exactly hurt that most locals are quite easy on the eye..
Another thing I’ve realized is that location independence is a lot cheaper than you’d think: prices in Argentina for example are ridiculously low compared to western europe. I could probably live like a king around here for around $2000-3000 a month, whereas in London you’d struggle to reach the same living standards for less than $5000-6000 a month.
The upshot of all this is: Yes, I could live this lifestyle. Now all I need is to start building more income streams to support it.
Those who have known me for long will know that I went through a phase of heavy political awareness a few years back - I was (and still am to some extent) what most people would probably call a wild-eyed libertarian with some leanings in the past that even bordered on anarcho-capitalistic thoughts and principles.
At the core of my moral beliefs are the principles of man as Sovereign over himself and the principle of non-aggression. For those unfamiliar with these principles or political philosophy, the logical implications of them are free markets, free trade, free speech, open borders, small government and no crimes that do not explicitly have a victim (a robbery has victims, someone smoking some “herbs” that may or may not be unhealthy to them does not have a victim in sight).
Though my beliefs are still largely the same, and rest on a logically consistent, principled foundation, my way of achieving my own ends has changed. As I’ve matured, I realized that the wheels of the political system move too slowly for me to see any worthwhile change in my lifetime, so I’ve mostly stopped caring about it.
This is where Lifestyle Design comes in - to me it is a means of finding freedom in an unfree world. I’m quite far away from my goals for the time being: I have a mortgage that locks me into a specific locale and it’s laws and taxes, I have a business that is still about 90% location dependent, I am still quite heavily at the mercy of local economic conditions.
But, by redesigning my life, slowly but surely to cut out waste and dependence: I can work towards making my business more location independent, I can work towards relinquishing the things that bind me to one place. Once I have achieved these goals, I might find that I actually want to stay, but at least at that point I will have a choice that is truly a choice: I can move if I don’t like the taxes and the business environment of a specific country. I can move if I don’t like the limitations on free speech, or the intrusions in privacy. I will not be beholden to any given country, government, person or client.
I’m quite a comfortable person, I like my home comforts and I’m not sure I would be cut out to be a permanent nomadic traveler for more than a few years. Maybe certain limitations can be acceptable given other things in life. But by redesigning our lives to at least in theory have freedom to be anywhere, we have a real choice.
Freedom becomes an option we can chose if we so want through how we have designed our lives, rather than being a distant goal that may only be achieved fractionally after a lifetime of fighting the windmills of the electoral process.
Even if a billion people believe in something, it can still be ridiculous. Religion, in particular organized religion is the biggest scam in the history of mankind: it deprives man of his rationality and critical thinking and puts him under the control of corrupt “religious leaders” who more often than not have their own self-interest at heart.
Quite often the church/sect he is a member of will also deprive a man of his wealth by requiring rich “donations”, funds which are ultimately used by religious leaders for their own purposes, or in some cases to build very ungodly monuments for their supposed religion (do you really think Jesus Christ, if he existed would have wanted monuments like this built in his name, rather than have the money used to help the needy?).
Perhaps worst of all, most organized religions encourage people to live a life poor of experience and.. life, deferring the one life people get to an imaginary afterlife.
Now, someone who is religious might accuse me of being intolerant of their beliefs: not so, people can believe in the tooth-fairy or flying spaghetti monster for all I care. But there is a difference between me tolerating religious beliefs and respecting them: you cannot possibly ask me to respect beliefs which are so plainly ridiculous and can easily be proven to be works of fiction. Would a Christian or Muslim “respect” someone who believed in and worshipped Santa Claus? Don’t think so. Why should I be held to a different standard just because more people may share a delusion?
Jesus - man or myth? Let’s take the myth of Jesus Christ as the son of God for instance: first coming of the Messiah, an original work? Hardly. Persian religion had Mithra 800 years prior, Egyptian religion had Horus some 600 years before that before that. What did Jesus, Mithra and Horus all have in common?
Born to a virgin mother, and the son of a God
Born around Christmas time (Horus on the 25th of December)
Baptized in a river by a baptizer later executed
Tempted while walking alone in the desert
Healed the sick, blind and cast out demons
Walked on water
Had 12 disciples
Where crucified..
..to 3 days later be found by women who claimed he had been resurrected
Seems to me good stories are viral - they come in slight variations and stick. But that is what they are: stories, fairy tales. Jesus the man may or may not have existed, but the backstory of divinity and miracles is clearly historical plagiarism of the highest order.
Why we don’t need the fairy tales Is religion all bad? Well, mostly yes, but actually if you take some of the teachings of Jesus and remove all the miracles, God-stuff and other fairy tale material, there is some wisdom in there. It seems to me that human morality has no need for ancient mysticism and fairy tales: the faculties we are born with, combined with reason are quite sufficient to work out right from wrong, good from evil.
Religion is the simple answer to complex questions that have no easy answers. It is the act of deferring the one life you have to an imaginary afterlife. Religion makes you miss out on all the simple miracles and beauty that are plain to see right in front of your eyes in this life.
So do I think I have all the answers? Hardly. But blind faith is no valid replacement for an inquisitive mind, critical thinking, rationality and applied logic.
In a world full of adversity and setbacks, it is easy for people to become embittered, angry, cynical or even depressed. Or you could use adversity to find inner strength and growth.
I recently suffered a setback that could have beaten me down to my knees. But instead I chose to find opportunity and strength from the situation. The results? I have bounced back with a sense of new-found strength, and the aspects of me that took a beating are reborn, re-opened to opportunities I had not been open to in a long time.
Anger, bitterness, sadness, cynicism, sense of loss are all negative feelings that will poison your mind if you let them. If you think about it, what do they achieve for you? Do they change the past? Do they get you what you might once have wanted? If you are angry or bitter at someone, does it poison your mind or theirs? As you read this text and as you contemplate these questions, I think you will find that these feelings that poison your mind and your mood are of no use to you, and if they are of no use to you, you can just let them fade away and disappear.
If you just chose to lay down your burdens and put them in the past, you will find that everything will start to feel a little better. And as you start to feel better, a sense of happiness and ease will slowly return. Now, isn’t the minds ability to heal, learn and grow stronger through directed thought amazing?
I’m following the lead of fellow bloggers Illuminated Mind and The Art of Non-Conformity in taking a look in the rear-view mirror at 2009, what I’m happy with and what I’m less than happy with, while at the same time taking a look forward at 2010 and what I hope to make of it.
2009: What I’m happy with
Got my fitness back on track: after struggling with undiagnoses asthma since 2008 and gaining some unwanted flab in the process, I managed to get my asthma under control and get back into great physical shape. I’ll continue to build on that.
I have picked up more than a few useful new skills professionally and business-wise. And I enjoyed doing it.
I have gotten greater clarity about what is important to me in life, what I value and what I want.
I have become better at living in the now and enjoying the moment.
After a long time of not feeling a lot for any woman beyond basic lust and human compassion, I found out late in the year that I’m still capable of falling head-over-heels (it didn’t work out and probably wasn’t worth working out, but I digress..).
My social circle has grown, and mostly with quality people.
2009: What I’m less than happy with
New business ventures didn’t succeed as I wanted (“minimum wage profitability”).
Lack of business focus: I’ve been a “Jack-of-all-trades, Master of None”, I need to find a tighter personal niche and passion to leverage.
I didn’t enjoy “now” as much as I should in the first half of the year.
A 30% hit on revenues in my business. Still turned over enough, but drops are never welcome. Most of it was recession based price pressures rather than business failure, so I’m hoping it will eventually pick up again.
The biological effects of the earlier mentioned infatuation made me lose focus and discipline both in my business and in my personal life for a while. As nice as it is, I should be able to keep clarity enough to combine them whenever it happens again.
2010: Intentions and goals
Start working towards peak fitness and the limits of my physical capabilities by finishing a Marathon and an Ironman 70.3 Triathlon (Edinburgh and Miami are booked).
Continue improving my understanding of myself, others and human nature. Physical, intellectual and emotional fitness and strength are an indivisible trinity for a man striving to be the best he can be, and I want to be no less.
Be even more mentally agile, adaptable and aware to other people.
Find the time to take at least one month off every year (Argentina in January) to recharge, reboot and reinvent myself.
Increase “passive” income streams excluding public market investments to at least $10000/year.
Live more in the “now” and learn to entirely let go of worries outside of my control.
Find a niche that I’m both skilled enough and passionate about to specialize in, so that I can reuse systems I create and find energy to follow through and stick with it.
Become better at marketing.
Though there was an element of stagnation and fear to parts of 2009 that held me back, I would say that I am entering 2010 a better man: I have let go of some old fears that have been crippling my progress, I have control over my mind and body without being repressed or fearful, knowing I can take most things in my stride. I have experienced both joy and pain in 2009, but on balance more joy than pain, and the latter was a necessary evil in what can be best be described as a cleansing and washing away of old shortcomings and hang-ups.
I know my strengths and weaknesses, I know what I can leverage and what I must improve. That’s a pretty good starting point for the future.
I always find a new year rejuvenating, and 2010 is no different: I’m looking towards it with enthusiasm, especially knowing that it will have a very exciting start.
Regarding my announced self-challenge earlier this week, I’m not putting my money where my mouth is, I have booked and paid my place for the following events:
It means if I can stay free of injuries and don’t have any unforeseen problems, I will do my 2011 challenge in 2010. I’m hoping this means I’ll be able to push forward my challenge of completing a full Ironman to 2011 instead of doing it in 2012.
Though my usually calm exterior hides it well, at heart I’m a restless soul, looking for the next big idea, the next big adventure and challenge to take on. If I don’t have a “Big Thing” in my life to work towards, I easily get bored and somewhat aimless.
For the last couple of months I’ve been thinking about what I could take on, and my mind inevitably drifted off towards physical challenges: Should I do an Iron Man Triathlon? Maybe try to climb a high mountain?
Then the penny dropped: I will do it all.
So this is the challenge that I am setting out for myself to achieve by the end of 2014:
Run a marathon in 2010: 42.2 kilometres (26 miles and 385 yards)
Do half an Ironman (“Ironman 70.3”) in 2011: 1.2-mile (1.9 km) swim, 56-mile (90 km) bike ride, and 13.1-mile (21.1 km) run
Do a full Ironman triathlon in 2012: 2.4 miles (3.86 km) swim, a 112 miles (180.25 km) bike and a marathon (26 miles 385 yards, 42.195 km) run
Do the “Seven Summits”-challenge and climb each of the highest peaks on each of the planets continents by the end of 2014:
Mount Everest, Asia (8848m)
Vinson Massif, Antarctica (4892m)
Kilimanjaro, Africa (5892m)
Mount Kosciuszko, Australia (2228m)
Elbrus, Europe (5642m)
Mount McKinley, North America (6194m)
Aconcagua, South America (6962m)
When it comes to the “Seven Summits”, only 140 people have ever done it, so I would be become part of a select crowd.
In terms of raising money, I want to do it at least in part for charity: I’m not sure yet, but I think I want to do it for Asthma research and awareness. I was myself diagnosed with Asthma late last year, so one of the motivations is to both show that the disease does not have to limit what you are physically capable of, I reckon if I manage to raise enough awareness my challenge could become an inspiration to young kids suffering from Asthma.
Also, Asthma kills around 1400 people a year in the UK alone, and around 5 million people in the country suffer from it, and very little progress has been made in the last 20 years, so I would love if I could help to do even ever so little about it.
As for raising money: I’m hoping to fund this partially out of pocket (everything except the more challenging mountains I can probably manage out of pocket), but to complete the challenge I will need outside help financially (a try at climbing Everest can cost around $60000 from what I’ve heard). Any raised money will be used towards costs directly attributable to the challenge (flights, accommodation, equipment, climbing guides etc, and possibly minimal living expenses if I have to take extended time away from working), I’m not doing it for money, though I won’t be able to do it financially on my own, so in particular scaling Everest and Vinson Massif are dependent on raising money from other people.
On a personal note: yes, I’ll admit, I’m not only doing it for charity, personal glory is also involved. It is an audacious challenge, adventure and a memory for life. Whatever I do afterwards, I’ll know that I have done something extraordinary in life, and have something to tell potential grandchildren in my old age.
When it comes to the timetable and events: I might add further challenges as I go along, but there is method to the madness, I figure the escalation of the challenges means I can slowly condition my body to be able to actually complete every challenge (with the Marathon being the easiest one, already done one before in 2004). If I can, there is a possibility I’ll escalate the timetable and try to finish earlier.
Any feedback, suggestions or offers of advice and help would be greatly appreciated.
