Travel

Awaken from a Dream in the Caribbean

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Back in Bogota once again and not long left now, roughly six weeks, until I head to New York City for a completely different Adventure. I am absolutely exhausted from my trip to the Caribbean but i’ve got another story to tell and I am happy. Once again I am amazed at this planets’ ability to continue to teach me about it, its people, and myself.

In my last update I mentioned my excitement about my trip to Providencia Island, it did not disappoint and it may of clawed its way into my top 5 favourite places I have visited. The island has a rich history of English colonisation, piracy and in more recent history the emergence of a Rastafarian culture.

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Why I Don’t believe in Religion

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from https://i0.wp.com/i.imgur.com/jjewm.png I don’t believe in religion I really don’t, not any that anyone has made up anyway, and it’s liberating! I am not a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, a Hindu or even an Agnostic or an Atheist. I am a human being at the same time as “[i] am the universe experiencing itself”.

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Living the Story of My Life in the Caribbean

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It is good to be moving again, to be traveling and experiencing another part of this beautiful Earth. My adventure has taken me to San Andrés, a small Colombian island in the Caribbean not far from the coast of Nicaragua.

An absolutely beautiful island surrounded by the Caribbean Ocean, San Andrés is a mix of seven different shades of blue like something out of a fairy tale. I have spent my days exploring the smaller islands, snorkelling in the surrounding reefs and taking in the sun on the crystal clear beaches.

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A Finite Number of Heart Beats

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Let’s talk about hedonic adaptation. Hedonic adaptation is the phenomenon of a loss of novelty in an experience. Wake up on a beach 100 times and it will become routine. Something is lost. Some of the brilliance, the awe, why we fell in love with that beach to begin with, is somehow not there anymore.

What a tragedy that by loving something, by suffocating it with our need to experience it we numb ourselves to it. We can do this to places, to songs, to people, to relationships, anything! After all everything worthwhile is finite.

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It’s You! and it Always Has Been!

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wow! if you have a spare 5 minutes get your mind blown by Alan Watts as he explains the magic of existence and how to overcome your fundamental fears. seriously beautiful insight into the existential problem of death.

Return to Medellin

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In an effort to escape Bogota’s cold, rainy weather I decided to yet again return to Medellin for the long weekend. After living in Bogota for the past few months it really felt like a regular holiday. I threw a few changes of clothes, my toothbrush, phone charger and my thoughts journal in a bag, I closed my front door, jumped in a cab and headed off for a regular sunny holiday.

The sun is shining, the temperature is already perfect. I step off the plane and just stand there taking in the fresh air and sun’s rays. I am glad to be back.

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A documentation of lsd

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This is an account through the eyes of the other of an LSD experience Lauren and I had some time before i left on my adventure. For me having lived it is incredibly profound but i think it still has value for anyone who cares to read it. In particular the childlike sense of wonder and imagination that appears to be squeezed out of us as we grow old is apparent in this account and proof it never leaves you. It just needs more excuses to come out.

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It came on slowly, when we stepped out of the great rocky cave on the top of the hill,

Cave Rock

smelling the bark and dry soil and gumtrees around us. the heat came on gently, not in frustrated waves of sweat, but like a gradual incline welcoming us.

each step down the hill became larger and more filled with laughter.
have we turned gold? my partner looks gold but then he looks at his veins and becomes green, iron oxidized limestone.

you turn the colour you’re feeling and i turned everything earthy that was around me gold and brown and green and ochre.

smell and see everything, every detail, every stick and ant and footprint, that was unnoticed on the ascent. this is the feeling i like, right now, has it even worked?

i thought it wouldn’t, haha has it? of course! no i didn’t think so i…

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In Love with a Shooting Star

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shooting star

A shooting star burns through the night sky

Replacing darkness with light

In the moment your paths cross

So Beautiful and wondrous brings tears to the eyes,

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Decision is the Difference

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Life is good now, I am happy, settled, ready to experience what Bogota has to teach me in the time that I am present. It is a meditative experience adapting and integrating into a new culture, situation and perspective. Life right now is so full of that mystery we all crave, the mystery that gives life awe and wonder, and beauty. It is so refreshing living in the unknown, unsure of my destination but ready to take it on.
This video was recommended to me by a friend who assured me it was a beautiful example of human connection and communication. Tony Robbins is able to take an unresponsive crowd and convince them to listen and be inspired, by the end the entire crowd is on the edge of their seats. It also gives a profound message about decision and connectedness, something that resonated strongly with me after experiencing life the way I have these past months.

 “I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on my way” – Carl Sagan

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The Pale Blue Dot

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=923jxZY2NPI

I absolutely love Carl Sagan he was an incredible man, with an incredible heart who truly believed in peace. This is a video set to a passage from the book by Carl Sagan “Pale Blue Dot”. It is a message about peace about how in the scheme of things all of our problems are trivial and all that is left is for us to love one another and take care “of the only home we have ever known”. I have to admit i might of shed a tear watching this.

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Moments of Life

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To be a human being.

The animals that we are.

To chase and strive and be your best.

journey into the unknown.

 

Look upon the world we live.

The universe, the ones we love.

Stare into infinity.

Evoking awe and wonder.

 

Flow and twist and change.

Charging ever onwards.

Like a river, each time you fall.

Your current will grow stronger.

 

Everything worthwhile takes time.

Every possibility is improbable.

Only dreamer’s dreams come true.

So dream, appreciate life and its moments.

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Ecuador in a Heartbeat

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1800373_10153841346665154_790549201_nIt is 12am and I am sitting in Bogotá international airport. My flight for Ecuador, Quito leaves in five hours. A flight that normally would take an hour and half but will take me fifteen hours via Panama City. A flight that was booked exactly twenty four hours ago, after a decision made twenty five hours ago and after a conversation had twenty five hours and fifteen minutes ago. I have only just moved in to my apartment in Bogotá two days ago, my Spanish lessons start tomorrow, I was settling in nicely making many new friends getting to know my house mates and now I am gone for ten days. So what the hell am I doing? The truth, I have no freaking idea I guess I’ll have ten days to figure it out… 

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Experience shared

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Making new friends and missing the ones not with me, I have been having the time of my life sharing this human experience with others. One friend in particular made me so happy and proud for the people I have met and shared a connection in this world. Today is the launch of my friends new blog “Adventuring Home” (check it out here) a blog she has spent months preparing and a lifetime gathering her positive outlook on spirituality, life and well-being. I cannot wait to join the rest of the world in sharing in her message.

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The 9-5 Paradigm and Revolution in Bogotá

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Almost completely settled in Bogotá and with my share apartment sorted out, I finally have a new home for the next five months, a base from which to explore Colombia. Bogotá is a very politically active city and there seems to be revolution in the air, with images of hammers and sickles, Che Guevaras, anarchists symbols, various other political slogans and “la paz de los pueblos” (peace for the people) graffitied on every second wall. Tent cities stand as a permanent protest outside the presidential palace and coffee shops are full of revolutionaries plotting and talking of change.

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Adventuring into the alone

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I have just returned to Bogota after a weekend in Medellín to celebrate Australia Day. I don’t necessarily believe in glorification of imaginary lines but I do appreciate the borderless sharing of experience that occurs when people agree to celebrate together; a big party is not too bad either. This would also be the last time I would see my friends I have been traveling with for so long. The beauty of Medellín and the fiestas that followed were a fitting end to our adventures together.

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Ciudad Perdida and the journey to happiness in the Colombian jungles.

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Since my last post I have been constantly moving, my life has been a flurry of dodgy bus rides, apartment searching, study organising and off-course Jungle trekking. I am finally in Bogota, and though exhausted in body my soul feels refreshed. My latest adventure started one morning in Cartagena when a group of us decided to drop everything and go straight to the Colombian Jungle in search of the illusive Ciudad Perdida (The Lost City).

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Sailing the Caribbean from Panama to Colombia

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I have been debating over writing this post down because to do so, I would have to admit to myself that I was not dreaming. That the last few days actually happened and that now I can only revisit them in memory. That familiar bittersweet feeling of experiencing something truly great, that is both inspiring and life changing, ahh the boat…

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From Mexico to Antigua to Panama goodbye Central America, for now.

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I am sore, I am tired, and I am beaten. The last few days have been rough traveling from Palenque, Mexico to now arriving in Panama City. The first leg of the journey was a 6am bus trip to the Guatemalan border, a short boat trip, and another long bus until we eventually arrived in Flores, Guatemala 10 hours later.

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Mushroom guide through Mayan ruins

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Teotihuacan

A lot has happened and a lot has been learnt since my last post. It is a new year for one Feliz años Nuevo! And one that I’ll certainly never forget although my normal attitude of ‘leaving things to the last minute and they will work’ at this busy time of the year failed me. With hopes of going all over the country dashed by booked out hostels and buses I spent the New Year in Mexico City but was still able to see the absolutely stunning pyramids in Teotihuacan.

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Life as a paradox

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Everything has been happening so fast from meeting incredible people to discovering Mexico city the most alive city I have had the pleasure of seeing. I have been so greedy for new experience in this city of organised chaos I haven’t had time to properly update my blog for fear of missing something.

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A Citizen of the World

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Now only days before I disembark on an adventure that is certain to be the greatest time of my life so far. I feel as if I have been stuck in a limbo between wanting to squeeze every ounce of experience and fun out of each remaining second I have in this beautiful country; whilst also feeling like I could explode from the emotional cocktail of excitement, fear and sadness I feel towards my next journey. It is as if I am finally experiencing life at the right speed, each day is distinct and never too short or long.

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Normality does not exist

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This is something i wrote a little while ago, but i think it’s particularly relevant this week when the Australian high court has decided to overturn an equality of marriage law passed only a few months ago in the Australian capital.

“Accordingly, the ACT Act cannot operate concurrently with the Federal Act.”

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/high-court-strikes-down-act-gay-marriage-law/story-fn59niix-1226781474406

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Solace in Martial Arts

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Exactly two week remain until my adventure begins when i’ll have my bags packed my white belt folded away and will be ready to take on an adventure of a life time. I have been finalising a lot of things for my trip,  trying to take in as much as i can in my last few days of training. Unfortunately I have been plagued by injury  with a sprained ankle and a missing toe nail after one of my Muay Thai sessions last week. Sorry if the image below makes you a bit uneasy.

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Choose to be Happy

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perspective is reality so why not choose happiness
we literally create our existence
we are the masters of our own destiny
happiness is a choice

we do not have to believe what we are told
if you see the world differently
you are labeled insane
but there is no right and wrong
there is no normal there is nothing but your experience

we are here to expereince to take in
this glorious wonderous universe
we are a combination of vibrating frequencies aware of itself
on an organic spaceship rocketing through one small corner of a spec of the universe
at least so far as we understand

you cannot say someones view of life or existence is wrong
but you can say i am happy
i am happy and you can be too
why not choose happiness, why not choose peace, why not choose love

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”  –  William Shakespeare

Understanding comes before humility

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Just under four weeks before I leave Australia and trying to get as much packed into them as I can, catching up with friends, saying goodbye to friends and visiting some of my favourite places in Australia. The nerves are starting to build as I work my way through the list of things I need to see and get done before I leave. But I am still excited as ever.

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Welcome to Blogging

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I am about to embark on a major adventure across oceans and continents i’m nervous, excited and i think i am ready. I’ll be travelling back to South America the continent i fell in love with earlier this year and this time I have the time and commitment to truly experience both it and the rest of the Americas. I’ll be starting in Mexico on Christmas day (I know that’s central) and sailing to Colombia where ill spend the first six months of the year living and studying in Bogota. After that the world, or perhaps in the more immediate future the Americas are my oyster.

I hope to share with anyone who cares to follow stories, philosophy and perhaps even a bit of poetry, as well as martial arts around the world. I’ve got many ideas and no real plan so it will be interesting to see how this all pans out. Anyway my names Peter and i hope you enjoy i’ll just finish with something i wrote earlier this year whilst traveling a revelation and a reminder to always be happy. This is my Journey!Image

We are all addicted to happiness of some kind. I’m Addicted to the pure kind, the one pure happiness that is infectious to all it touches. The denunciation of selfishness and the realisation that life is good.

happy travels, happy life, happy journey.