Travel in Books - Costa Rica, Peru, Chile and Argentina (Patagonia)

(Para versão em Português mudar o idioma na caixa no canto superior direito de EN para PT se estiveres num PC. No telemóvel clica no símbolo com as 3 barras horizontais no canto superior direito e depois muda de EN para PT na caixa no topo da página)

Books

• 📖O Vento dos Outros (ENG "The Wind of Others") - Raquel Ochoa | 🌍 Travel with a backpack along Costa Rica, Peru, Chile and Argentina (Patagónia) in 2004/2005

O Vento dos Outros

by Raquel Ochoa

First of all, my dear readers that do not speak portuguese, unfortunately I could not find this book in english, so I am afraid that you can only get on board of this journey if you can read portuguese. But, as everything in life, think about it as an opportunity and learn a new language or ask a portuguese reader to read it for you ;)

The book "O Vento dos Outros" teached me several lessons, the first was to give a second chance. I finished reading another book from the same author and I was not fully on board with that one, however I went to a flea market on the day after finishing the book and saw "O Vento dos Outros" and the following quote in the back cover:

"We have the freedom to go. We have the freedom not to go. I choose to go. And I never regretted it"

It immediatly catched my attention since this is something that I always say about travelling: "I only regret the times I did not went", and so I thought to myself..."why not?"...and decided to embark in another book journey with Raquel Ochoa. Glad that I did.

The book is about a 6 months long journey that Raquel made in several countries in South America and Costa Rica in Central America. It show us a bit of what is South America: "Latin America is a land of social inequalities where the boiling point was reached many years ago. And it continues there. It is a global reserve of many important things (...). South America was and still is exploited by all those who purchase it. Some of the rulers of these countries effectively fulfill the role of dispensers of wealth, in exchange for an incalculable greed."

However, South america and the book is way more than the disparity, it is a learning journey and tell us about the magic that certain people and places create in us. It teaches to embrace nature and all the unknown it brings to us, since we are part of nature and not two separate entities. Raquel descriptions are delicious and make us embark in her own metamorphosis.

It made me think about how each person changes with each travel they make. Made me also think of how lonely these transformation can be, how rich and full of new people these experiences can be, even more how solitude can hit us along the way and sometimes be confortable and others be daunting.

Raquel tell us along the book, her journey in the different countries, the people she mets along the way, the magic moments but also the bad moments. She guide us in the decisions she took in a 6 months travel with a backpack. A search for the unknown that was herself.

I was so inspired, and Raquel is a storyteller, so it is hard to select only a few quotes from the book without telling the full stories. So I would like to share instead some moments to think (from which I translate some parts from portuguese to english):

About death: "There were about 20 people behind the coffin, which was held up by arms. A band was playing with tambourines, saxophones, accordion, and trombone. No one seemed sad except for three people who were crying. (…) In Mexico, for example, it’s common for people to get drunk at wakes with the deceased's favorite drink. Bottles of the drink are placed in the coffin so that the person can enter the other world with everything they liked, in the most cheerful state of mind they had in life."

Raquel states that: "It’s difficult for us, Western Europeans, to accept that there can be so much noise at a funeral, people laughing loudly. It’s hard for us to recognize that grief can be expressed in many ways, and that a final farewell performed with joy may, from a certain point of view, be just as logical as one wrapped in sorrow."

It’s believing that the person only goes in fullness if they don’t hear the tears left behind. How hard it is for us to accept the differences in moments of sorrow? Do we even think there are others ways to face these moments?

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About Goodbyes: telling a story about a stray dog that stayed with her in a part of the journey, made Raquel think about how "travel is losing people". The story is long and I don't want to spoil you - but I felt this sentence in my heart. I prefer to say that travel is an opportunity to met people, but the goodbyes are hard. Those moments in that context hardly will be replicated and so the memories and, something very portuguese, stays within us "saudade". "Saudade" is a feeling of missing something or someone that was special for us. As Exupéry said in "The Little Prince" - "Those who pass by us, do not go alone, and do not leave us alone; they leave a bit of themselves, and take a little of us.”

How many people and moments are lost in "Saudade" within us? How many can we hold? Should we cry or celebrate the opportunity to give the memories opportunity to be built without sorrow?

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About courage: "The enchanted land is suddenly discovered (…) announcing that there is a mountain within you, until now unreachable, which has opened its doors to selected visitors. The sky will have only the mists that you decide, as the only criterion for escaping the monotony of the sun always shining."

Do you have the courage to go? "Be ready. Only a very steep descent can propel you to the greatest of ascents."

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With these questions in my mind and this book, isn't travel a way of learning, growing and actually allowing us to be empathetic with others? Isn't travel an opportunity to try for a bit someone else shoe's and recognize that the world is not just black and white? Isn't travel a way to truly know ourselves?

A book that left me with questions...and that feed the scientist in me. Questions makes us move forward (and sometimes backward), certainty make us go static.

If you have other book suggestions with stories that tell the History of Costa Rica, Peru, Chile or Patagonia (Argentina) but specially the people from the Andes let me know and remember leave your can and explore the world!

By yours: Uncanned Sardine