It’s hard to believe my month in Argentina has come and gone. Seems like just yesterday I wrote a post thinking through my options, and now I’m writing a post-mortem for the trip.
My month in Salta (with a few days in Buenos Aires) was an intense learning experience filled with many challenges. This is not to say I didn’t enjoy the trip: I met incredible people, ate delicious meals, and experienced unique cultural events on a near-daily basis. But this first trip of Traveling Savage will be remembered as the journey that tested my solo travel resolve, mental toughness, and ingenuity, and the one that set the bar and measuring stick by which future trips will be devised and judged.
I’ve distilled a few overarching observations from the month abroad below. Read more...
It was a cold day in March. The feeble late-winter sun had sent crusts of snow retreating to the edges of things. I remember staring out my office window at a fly on the ledge. Gusting drafts buffeted the poor bugger as it struggled to hang on, its ephemeral wings flickered by a force that couldn’t touch me behind the industrial glass. It moved periodically in what seemed like an affirmation that it still held the spark of life.
I paused, sipped some green tea, and turned back to my monitors as a warm, dull ache suffused my organs. I wanted to laugh, but the shockingly obvious allegory had me closer to tears. Read more...
Friday is my last day at work. Beyond the obvious oncoming lifestyle changes there’s a feeling of renovation. There’s an internal change, too. One that reminds me of an old fixer-upper or a set of antique furniture painted and re-painted through the generations. You pull on your work jeans and boots, cast tarps about, and load in the tools. Then the anticipation – the apprehension – at what you’ll find beneath the old wallpaper and layers of paint.
What will I find? To what structure will life adhere without the typical work days and morning alarms and commutes. Rather than being anxious about this, I am elated at what feels like a move toward a more natural state for me. Read more...
“…when I think deeply about the nature of hope, I see something tragic. Since we cling to our hope in the future, we do not focus our energies and capabilities on the present moment… Hope becomes a kind of obstacle. If you can refrain from hoping, you can bring yourself entirely into the present moment…” Read more...
Yes, there was good travel writing in September. Too much, in fact. Staying on top of the torrent of new posts in my RSS reader is like trying to catch Niagara Falls in a cup. This month I’d like to present three stories from authors who consistently publish engaging and thought-provoking articles. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did! Read more...
A hunter, oft-stubbled and bleary-eyed, driven by an insatiable hunger for exploration and experience - and perhaps a chance to thin the herd of caffeinated and alcoholic beverages. From the highlands and islands to Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the Borders, I explore Scotland with a pen in hand and a fire in the belly (which could be partly from the whisky). 
