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Life Nomadic: Traveling without Planning
Ahh, and we're back. After a semi-hiatus of a few months, Todd and I are back to the full nomad lifestyle. I say semi-hiatus because within those four months we both spent a good amount of our time traveling around the US, Mexico, and Canada. And even when I was in Austin, where my family and most friends are, I lived in a 21' RV on the side of the road.Once a nomad, always a nomad?
Our trip this year is going to be very different from last year, but our first stop is the same as last year's first stop: Panama.
I'm not sure why exactly we chose Panama last year, but this year we chose it because we'd fallen in love with the country. The people are universally friendly and warm, as is the weather, the food is dirt cheap and amazing, and there's no shortage of adventure to be found.
Not to mention that Todd and I are both nearing fluency in Spanish and Panamanian Spanish is actually known for being very clear.
One hallmark of our trips is that we usually don't plan much. We often go to a city with no place to stay and no plans, assuming we'll figure it out once we get there. That's probably where our mantra, "everything always works out" comes in.
When our flight landed in Panama, it was two in the morning. We have a few friends in Panama from last year, but imposing on them to sleep on their couches at 3am seemed a bit cruel. Getting a hotel was an option, too, but it doesn't make much sense to pay for a hotel you're going to be in for just eight hours, even at Panama's bargain rates.
And so we chose the third, less obvious option. In our backpacks we cram in luxury-lite cots, giving us the ability to sleep in perfect comfort just about anywhere.
(side note: if you have the foresight, check www.sleepinginairports.net before deciding to sleep in an airport. They have a good database, though most of the complaints people register are negated with a luxury-lite.)
We headed upstairs to the waiting lounge, where a dozen or so fellow travelers were awkwardly sleeping on the hard tile floor or slumped over in chairs. I hate to admit it, but I felt pretty smug knowing we were about to rest in perfect comfort in an otherwise inhospitable environment.
And we did. A security guard gently woke us up at 7am, we packed up our cots, and headed in to one of our favorite cities in the world with no plans or accommodations to speak of.
Filed under: Panama, Life Nomadic, Central America
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Grant Martin Feb 12th 2009 10:26PM
Is that Arcade Fire?
Kevin Littleton Feb 13th 2009 11:18AM
@Grant - Yep, it's Wake Up by the Arcade Fire!
Beth Partin Feb 13th 2009 12:24PM
Thanks for the great links about the airports and the cots. I'll definitely be buying one of those cots.
David Feb 13th 2009 7:34PM
So, how often do you wind up using these cots? To me, they seem like they would be nice once in a while but not worth carrying around all the time. Obviously you guys feel differently, so I'm curious to hear how else they can be useful.
Tynan Feb 13th 2009 8:22PM
We don't use them frequently, but when we do use them they come in VERY handy. For example, when we ran with the bulls in Pamplona, our only option was to sleep in the park. Without them we would have been miserable.
I certainly wouldn't blame someone for not carrying the cot, though. If for some reason I wanted to pare down further it would be at the top of the list. I think our 28L bags are a perfect size, so my goal is to pack as much utility as possible into that space.
Thanks for reading!
Tynan
Reid Feb 13th 2009 9:25PM
This isn't directly applicable to your post, but considering your raw diet I was curious what you would think of this:
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/cookinghumans.html
On the plus side extreme calorie deprivation definitely extends lifespan!
Tynan Feb 13th 2009 9:44PM
Hey Reid,
Thanks for the interesting article. We actually don't eat raw. I tried it for 45 days and wasn't convinced that the benefits, if any, were worth the extreme amount of work necessary to sustain it.
We do eat a very healthy diet, though. We eat no meat or dairy products, no processed flours, no sugars (excluding natural sugars like those in most fruits), and no bad oils.
As the article said, we have evolved to eat cooked food. However, we have not evolved to eat processed flours and sugars, and there is overwhelming evidence that eating animal products is strongly correlated with many terminal "rich nation" diseases.
I may at some point write an article on our diet, why we follow it, and how we manage to do that while we travel. I'm not sure it would be interesting to enough people to justify, though.
Also, we aren't crazy about it. We occasionally find ourselves in a situation where the only option for food is meat or processed food and we eat it without complaint. That happens around once a month.
Tynan
Reid Feb 14th 2009 3:54AM
Ah my bad, I guess I read about your raw food trial on your blog, and assumed you were still on it.
I definitely agree that processed flours and sugars are bad, though I am unconvinced that complete avoidance of animal products is best. For example milk provides a large spectrum of important balanced nutrition (though I am a little leery of the prolonged hormone exposure).
I am impressed that you manage to follow this diet as well as you do while on Life Nomadic. When I traveled a bit around Europe this last summer I would eat anything I could get my hands on!
I really enjoy reading your posts (both here and on your blog). Thanks for writing!
Reid
Philip Lilly Feb 14th 2009 1:40AM
I noticed your clothes seemed different. Did you decide to get new clothes for this time around? I am curious what kind you went with this time, if there was any change. Did you change much for this trip as far as gear?
arebelspy Feb 15th 2009 8:12PM
26 seconds is too long of an intro for all your videos if we're following you all year.
6-8 seconds would be ideal, with the longer one on bigger introduction posts and such.
Pink-rose81 Feb 19th 2009 5:07AM
This is so intersting blog!
Would you link to this site?
I'm looking forward to sharing the pleasures with you!
http://travel-reservation-happy.blogspot.com/
Brenda Feb 27th 2009 1:08AM
so are the cots better than thermarests? loved the video!