Bem vindo/Bienvenido/Welcolme/Wilkomen
Sao Paulo, 07/03/2006
Solteiro/Single: US$ 180,00

These were the words and figures I first encountered when entering the fancy and cold lobby of that  soulless 5-star hotel. The backpacker’s luck was with me as I had wished and mentally projected this situation (who never dreamed of having an airline sending you to a 5-star hotel and giving you cash compensation for a missed connection?).

The flight from Santiago to Sao Paulo was delayed in 3 hours and the captain’s efforts to recover the lost time did not help much. I stepped in Brazil at 9.15 pm, five minutes after my connection’s departure to Fortaleza, a city located in the Brazilian Northeast. As soon as I got my luggage I could hear an airpot agent announcing that my flight had departed, the next would not leave until the following day. Change of plans, new destination: the closest 5-star hotel to the airport. Dinner, breakfast, a 10-minute call and cab rides were all included. It would be all free and I couldn’t help but laugh to myself. I switched from a long night on the hard benches of  Fortaleza airport (late night arrival, thus a few hours at the airport’s benches would save a night at the hostel) to the comfort of a huge hotel suite.
In my suite, I took advantage of my 10-minute call and shared my enthusiasm with my family. Shared dormitories had been part of my existence in the past 35 days. I had met people from all over the world and my travel journal was full of e-mails and cool messages, however my body was tired and my ears weren’t yet used to the annoying and sometimes non-stop noises of a hostel’s dorm. I strongly wished for some privacy in order to organize my thoughts and future plans, but with a tight budget, private rooms were just a distant dream. I was offered more than I had deeply wished for and foreseen while still in Chile.

The warm water, both from the shower and the tub, washed my exhausted body. I could not help but bath twice. My batteries were recharged with a banquet of more than 30 dishes, followed by a deep sleep in a queen size mattress. At breakfast, not only did I notice all sorts of refreshments offered, but I also observed the tense minds wandering around. Certainly they were not backpackers with missed flight connections. In the same way that I was happy to arrive there, I was relieved to leave behind that heavy and commercial atmosphere. I missed my open-minded fellows, with all their stories and travel tips. I took off to the Northeast, running away from the facilities of the largest Brazilian city in search of genuine relaxation.

Stepping in Fortaleza and easily recognizing in people’s face that I was no longer in a cosmopolitan city, I headed straight to a promised chilled atmosphere. I could now focus on searching for a more complex experience. Personally, I was looking for complexity of emotions, learning and growth as well as simplicity in a different way of seeing life. I found Jericoacoara.

With an indigenous name from the Tupi-Guarani language meaning “hole of the turtles”, in a reference to the fact that it is a beach where sea turtles come to make holes to lay their eggs, Jericoacoara is a piece of land lost in the Northeastern Brazilian coast. It seemed to me as a piece of heaven on earth, exactly as I was told by the same folks that in days before would not let me sleep well.

After bumping in a truck through sand dunes, I experienced what words alone are not enough to describe. I took off my sandals and felt the softness of the sand that filled the village’s roads. There were just three, and I was astonished with that different concept of “road”. All of them led to the infinity of a sea that with all its mysteries reflected the detachment of material goods and simplicity of those people’s lives. Less than 150 people belonged there, all of whom were proudly self-nominated Jeri’s natives. As a penniless backpacker, camping was the best choice.

In my tent, I felt my back touching the sand. The comfort I had experienced had vanished, however my mind was in complete harmony. Jeri delighted me with various natural attractions that instead of loading my mind with more information, washed away worthless thoughts. Coconut trees, lagoons, large sand stripes, warm water and curious rock formations were part of the scene.  The “holed stone”, a nature-made masterpiece placed within a short stroll from the village through the cliffs and the “sunset dune”, was a perfect spot for reflection. Deep in thought, one could wonder away while watching the waves dancing around and the magic sun setting into the sea. Due to its geographic location, Jeri is one of the few places in Brazil where this spectacle can be seen.

I planned four days there but ended up staying a week. My last night brought to light an interesting question. From the clear rooftop of my cheap tent I could see the infinite stars that punctured the enigmatic sky over my head, directing me to a basic  question that for me, at that point, was easy to answer. What would I prefer, five or infinite stars?

Although my body appreciated the comfort, my mind wasn’t satisfied with only five stars. The glow that came from them was not enough to heat up my soul. I wanted more than that and I found it. Far away from the usual definition of stars that are usually part of our travel experiences, I shivered under a constellation that showed me how traveling can expand our thesaurus dictionary. I had found new meanings to old words while traveling through the Brazilian pluralism. I jumped from paved to sandy roads, from the cold to the warm, from the sophisticated and expensive to the modest, genuine and fair. Finally I moved from five to infinite stars.

[Click on the photos to enlarge them]

Today I am…

…watching the birds and ducks pass by without any hurry…

or perhaps, joining a movement!

Today I am… getting inspired to try a different style…

…paying attention to little details around me…

…listening to some wise advice…

…trying to look further to see what no one else sees.

Today I am appreciating a piece of art…

…looking at things from a different perspective…

…changing some habits to protect my home…

…surprising my taste buds…

…celebrating even if not all conditions are favorable…

…recognizing all the heroes around me and telling them they are important in my life…

…sharing my happiness with the world!

Today I am immortalizing a special moment…

…challenging some conventional beliefs…

…expressing myself through my art…

…being a little provocative…

…taking a criticism seriously… or not!

…getting away from unhealthy behaviors…

…asking myself some tough questions…

Today I am enjoying every little moment of happiness with delight…

…expressing my points of view with respect…

…nurturing my mind, body and soul…

…and speaking up!

Today I am cherishing the child within…

…and taking some time to appreciate all the beauty around!

……….

Now, what do you LOVE?

p.s. Most of the street art pictures you have seen in this post were taken while walking through London’s East End with the guidance of Gary, from the Alternative London Tour. If you appreciate this type of art and is interested in hearing about the history and culture of this special place, I strongly recommend you to take this tour! How much does it cost? You decide!

For more information, click here:  http://www.alternativeldn.co.uk/index.php

We at Travel to Lead couldn’t agree more .

“Nächster halt, Freiburg. Prochain arrêt, Fribourg. Next stop, Fribourg.” The voice coming from the speaker echoes in the train. The final destination will be reached after another hour and a half of traveling: Zurich, the “big Swiss city”. With a bit less than 400 thousand inhabitants, the city build around the lake that holds the same name offers entertainment for a lazy summer Sunday. On the way, the landscape, naturally beautiful, sometimes reveals human dedication: crops carefully preserved, vineyards perfectly manicured, green pastures turning into food for the famous Swiss cows – with the characteristic spotted coat pattern, they are strong enough to continuously carry a huge bell that hangs from their neck.

I have always preferred the train to the plane: comfortable, stress-free, possibility to “travel” (in the wide sense of the word) listening to good music while admiring the horizon. I cannot help but agree with Alain de Botton when he describes his experience while traveling by train in his book The art of travel:

“Of all modes of transport, the train is perhaps the best aid to thought: the views have none of the potential monotony of those on a ship or plane, they move fast enough for us not to get exasperated but slowly enough to allow us to identify objects. (…) Every time the mind goes blank, having hit on a difficult idea, the flow of my consciousness is assisted by the possibility of looking out of the window, locking on to an object and following it for a few seconds, until a new coil of thought is ready to form and can unravel without pressure. At the end of hours of train-dreaming, we may feel we have been returned to ourselves – that is, brought back into contact with emotions and ideas of importance to us.”

The landscape changes at every second: beautiful scenery is quickly left behind at the same time that new trees, rivers, villages and mountains appear in front of the eyes. And it is like that in our lives, too: the kid becomes an adult; the couple has the first child, in certain occasions, a change of address, city or job is unavoidable. The cycle frequently repeats itself at each generation. This observation makes me think of 3 interesting concepts: detachment, recycling, and perspective.

A few weeks ago, we changed address. Now, we inhabit less than 32m² in a small village next to the city we have lived for 2 years. It was not the first, nor is it going to be the last time: in a few months, everything that belongs to us will have to fit in 2 suitcases of 23kg each, as we will soon embark towards a new life in another country. But the whole process of “physical” act of moving rendered some significative learning. How? Let me explain: the new apartment is much smaller, and, because it is only a temporary shelter, we had to restrain the number of material things transferred from one place to the other. Priority: clothes, shoes, non-perishable foods remaining in the cupboard. Still, it was a good reason to “clean” the wardrobe: we applied the old and wise rule that, if it was not used in the last 6 months, it should be donated. And so it happened: innumerous bags of 35 liters were taken to the Swiss Salvation Army. Ah, such a relief!

Next question: what to do with books, decorative objects and souvenirs, kitchen utensils? The apartment should be completely empty for the next tenant. Solution: again, donation. But this time, due to difficulties with the delivery deadlines, and the lack of a car that would allow the quick and efficient transport to appropriate charity institutions, the only feasible option was to leave everything at the sidewalk in front of the building. Portuguese books, used broom, old cutlery anyone? Surprisingly, after a few hours, many objects vanished. As we went down to throw some litter away, we run into a Portuguese woman choosing the books from Brazilian authors she could take. “This is very good, we recommend it!”, we said, pointing to “Dois Irmãos”, from Milton Hatoum. Returning to the apartment, we saw a Chinese couple happily collecting a decorative tile containing the drawing of a fisherman, souvenir we brought from home (Florianópolis, Brazil). We climbed the stairs with a split feeling: a slight sense of loss that was rapidly replaced by the comprehension that all that was reusable. The first impression required a huge ability to simply detach: “let it go”. And this is how it should be, not only with objects, but also with several other situations in life. Nevertheless, what followed was the rewarding feeling of recycling. Everything we donated will be reused by someone else: the decorative objects will adorn other walls, the cooking pan will come across other flavors while being manipulated by someone else’s hands, the blanket will snuggle another person.

Finally, the last point: the change in perspective. The location of the new apartment requires displacement by bus, while previously only the metro was used. What is the closest supermarket? And the post office, where is it? What are the new rules for litter collection? It is time to REdiscover. The new urban landscape revealed through the bus window. The new distance to the main attraction of the weekend, lake Leman. The new laundry schedule. The “new” sunset observed from the new balcony. The RECYCLED energy to appreciate so many novelties through a revealing and positive optic. And a new cycle is initiated.

So wrote the German philosopher Count Hermann Keyserling, who believed that travel was the best way to discover who you are.

“…nothing so liberalizes a man and expands the kindly instincts that nature put in him as travel and contact with many kinds of people.”

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

Already back in the 19th century, Mark Twain, an American writer and humorist, communicated and inspired the world with his thinking on the power of traveling.

“Through travel I first became aware of the outside world; it was through travel that I found my own introspective way into becoming a part of it.”

A Pulitzer prize winner (1973), Eudora Welty, was an American writer of short stories and novels about the American South.

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” Saint Augustine

“Travel is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all the familiar comfort of home and friends. You are constantly off balance. Nothing is yours except the essential things – air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky – all things tending toward the eternal or what we imagine of it.” Cesare Pavese

“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.”

So says adventure writer Mark Jenkins, an adventurer who has journeyed around the world, crossing wild country, probing the hinterlands, getting arrested over a dozen times. According to himself, he has made a life out of doing things the hard way.

Going a bit towards management literature, the relationship between self-awareness, self-management & leadership is well known. The one article which stands out in this regard is Peter Drucker’s “Managing Oneself”. Peter says:

“History’s great achievers – a Napoleon, a da Vinci, a Mozart – have always managed themselves. That, in large measure, is what makes them great achievers. But they are rare exceptions, so un-usual both in their talents and their accomplishments as to be considered outside the boundaries of ordinary human existence. Now, most of us, even those of us with modest endowments, will have to learn to manage ourselves. We will have to learn to develop ourselves. We will have to place our-selves where we can make the greatest contribution. And we will have to stay mentally alert and engaged during a 50-year working life, which means knowing how and when to change the work we do.”

Although he does not imply any traveling in this specific article, here we do take the initiative to connect the dots between getting out of your comfort zone and understanding who you are & what are your strengths and values. Enjoy the read!

Another very interesting thinking on designing your life strategy and on how to you measure your life comes from Harvard Professor Clayton M. Christensen. Professor Christensen suggests:

“Donʼt worry about the level of individual prominence you have achieved; worry about the individuals you have helped become better people. This is my final recommendation: Think about the metric by which your life will be judged, and make a resolution to live every day so that in the end, your life will be judged a success.”

Read his full article here.

Since we want to keep this discussion alive, let us better define the relationship between travel and leadership through your own experience and sayings. Share your tale with us & let us know of your thoughts. Below or through  editor@traveltolead.org.

While taking some time to “digest” all of the many happenings from the last few days, I admire an inspiring scene: parents teaching their children to build and fly colorful kites in front of a very green field and a sky popped by big fat clouds that, despite halting the sun light, compose a stunning landscape. Lake Leman and the French Alps in the background complete the beautiful scenery. In the last few days, I felt enthusiasm and happiness flourish within myself. In the last few days, while trying to deal with the almost impossible task to fit all professional and personal commitments into 24 hours per day, I realized that the accomplishment of big dreams really starts with small steps: little by little we fix, translate and improve the T2L website.

It came to me that everything is possible, provided that you believe and strive to make it happen. I have also realized that, if I had not ventured on my first backpacking trip through Europe in 2004 with very few Euros in my pocket, a huge curiosity to discover what was lying on the other side of the ocean, and shining eyes every time I came across something different, I would not be here. Several years later, if I had not left the beautiful island where I lived for 12 years, with its astonishing beaches, friendly people, delicious seafood, fearful and hopeful mom and dad, worried and encouraging sisters, surprised and generous friends, to study and live in Canada, I would not be here. If I had not cried so many times thinking about those I had left behind (the best definition of the word saudade in Portuguese), struggled like never before to get my first scholarship, and worked as a waitress during cold winter nights and sunny weekends to increase a bit the budget, I would never be here.

My first trip totally alone happened in January 2007. I was already living in Canada, gathered the few left over pennies at the end of the month, bought a bus ticket from the company Greyhound, and faced the never-ending 2099km from Winnipeg to Toronto. I could never imagine that, sometime later, I would be living in the wonderful “T-dot”. The whole learning process was incredible. My feet hurt, as they could not follow the euphoria of having that whole place for myself. “Yours to discover”, so it said the plaque of the cars from the Ontario province.

The sense of freedom was exhilarating. I had to decide where to stay, what to eat, which attractions to visit, at what time I would go to sleep or wake up, what to photograph. It could be a complete coincidence, but I found a passage in a book (The real meaning of life – David Seaman) that translated exactly what I was feeling in that moment: “[...] realizing that you can run away right now and never be found again. Feeling truly free. [...] Always having a general idea of where you are, but at the same time, being kind of lost. Lost in a sea of people you don’t know. – Adam E. Heller”. I felt so many times simply minuscule among the modern and giant buildings of the Financial District; in front of the wonderful – and at that time of the year, partially frozen – lake Ontario; among the crowd of faces that many times silently announced their origin at Dundas Square. I found it funny when someone came to offer me to take my picture in front of the CN Tower, realizing that my effort to set the right angle was completely useless. I came back with a strong desire to continue to discover more of the world. And, little by little, the dream came true. Today, after having visited more than 25 countries, I am absolutely sure that everything was more than worth it.

I feel truly happy and accomplished for being part of the T2L team. We are willing to work hard to provide the framework, tissue paper, strips of cloth and line for young potential students not only build their own kites, but also learn how to fly.

The Hotel I stayed in was inside an apartment building on Boulevard Haussmann, the rooms were situated on the fourth to sixth floors. After entering the main door, one must take an elevator to reach the reception on the fourth floor. I always found it strange that a hotel would be situated on the upper half of a building and that there was no signage on the main floor. The atmosphere of the hotel was apparent only after stepping out of the elevator on the fourth floor. The reception area was rather small compared to North American standards, but very well decorated and occupied with stylish furniture; every corner of space is put to efficient use.

Most of the customers who stayed in this hotel were international visitors. I know this mostly from overhearing their conversations with each other, which are rarely in French. As much as I would like to be friendly, I often refrain from speaking to my fellow visitors due to my poor French; at the same time, I sense a similar hesitancy on their end. Thus, during my daily elevator rides inside this apartment hotel building, most new encounters often begin with a casual and friendly greeting and end with exchanged smiles in silence. Not a bad way to begin the day in a foreign country, I must say.

One morning, the elevator took unusually long to arrive and an unusual amount of people were leaving the hotel at the same time.  First, a mother showed up with a rather luxurious baby carriage, inside sat a pouty looking toddler fiddling with a pair of bright pink plastic sunglasses. Then came a middle-aged couple, modestly dressed.  I was getting a little anxious as I watched a small crowd form in front of the elevator within the span of a few minutes. The elevator is tiny, can all these people fit at the same time, I thought to myself. Normally I wouldn’t mind because I could always wait for the next round, but that day I was running late and was hoping to get out fast.

Finally the elevator door opened, a few people got off, and the small crowd started to pack itself inside the amount of space equivalent to a large office desk. A few seconds later, we were all inside, pressed against the walls. “BUZZZZ”, a piercing alarm sounded as soon as the elevator started moving. “Great! Now we’re all gonna be stuck in here”, I mumbled to myself as I involuntarily shifted my shoulders. “Hahahaha”, an uncontrollable laughter came from the pouty toddler as he turned his face to me with curiosity and delight. Then I realized that the sound came from my shoulder accidently hitting the “alarm” button. What a relief! I chuckled at the toddler and shrugged about my folly at the same time. I had the urge to hit the alarm button again just to hear the high pitched laugh of the kid again. His mother was rather embarrassed at first and tried to tell him to be quite. But every time he turned over to look at me, he would burst into a hysteric laughter, as if I was the funniest person alive who just did the funniest thing on earth! The older couple smiled at each other, then at the rest of us. Before we knew it, everyone was smiling and laughing.

The elevator ride was soon over, and we were all glad to move out into open space again. The mother with the carriage was the first to exit as the elevator door open on the opposite end. The toddler kept looking back at me and laughing as he was wheeled outside the building. His mother looked at me with a satisfied smile and said, “Have a nice day”. I hope that incident just brightened up everyone’s day, because it sure did mine, I thought to myself as I ran toward the Metro station.

The world is indeed a melting pot and WE love it!