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Category: Creative Process

A Livable Country Where I Wonder How People Live: Discovering Uruguay

A Livable Country Where I Wonder How People Live: Discovering Uruguay

Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, is the kind of human city that cities should be. Orderly, safe, pleasant, the city’s streets and its beachside promenade — along what is called the Rambla, which stretches for many miles — are full of joggers, bikers, dog walkers, and others just out enjoying life and themselves. I almost gave Montevideo a miss, but am glad I did not. Montevideo always figured big for me as a kid, since it was off Montevideo, in…

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Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes: Rediscovery, 50 Years On

Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes: Rediscovery, 50 Years On

Coming into Costa Rica this time, I thought how different my arrival into the country was from the first time, 50 years, almost to the day, later. This time I was flying in a Copa Airlines 737 from Panama City to San Jose. A half century ago, I was nearing the end of my four-month exploration through Mexico and Central America. Three days earlier, I was leaving Guatemala heading south, four countries yet to go, with $22 left in my…

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Lessons Relearned: Rediscovery Continues

Lessons Relearned: Rediscovery Continues

Sometimes it’s good to relearn things about yourself, important things but things perhaps forgotten with time and routine. My seven days in Panama, even beginning before leaving Colombia, have been largely a relearning experience for me. The main thing I’ve relearned is how focused, persistent, and resilient I can be in reaching an objective. In this case, it was the focus, persistence, and resilience in finding destinations in a country that suffers from a serious allergy to signs. On several…

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Wherever You Go, There You Are: My Voyage of Rediscovery Continues

Wherever You Go, There You Are: My Voyage of Rediscovery Continues

If you haven’t already, read the first installment in this ongoing journal. It will bring you up to speed on what this is about. It has been a full week today (Saturday) since I left home on what I’m calling my voyage of rediscovery, and six full days that I’ve been in Colombia, the first country on my planned 10-country Odyssey. The first few days I was in Cartagena, and now I’m in Santa Marta, easterly along the country’s Caribbean…

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My Voyage of Rediscovery Has Begun

My Voyage of Rediscovery Has Begun

I am writing this post from Cartagena, Colombia, where I am now nearing the end of my second full day, third day overall, of my voyage of rediscovery. This is the first stop on a trip that will take me to 10 countries, passing through another seven along the way. Phileas Fogg, in the Jules Verne novel, went around the world in 80 days. I anticipate doing it in 76, though I don’t have any big wager waiting for me…

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