Tag Archives: central america

Castaway on a Hostile Shore

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Ryan Murdock


I’m still drifting through Central American memories, looking at my life 10 short years ago…

The present has rippled and the past intervened. It’s leaking through the walls of this cold northern room, and all those feelings are coming back with it.

This is from Chapter 4 of Vagabond Dreams. It’s about traveling alone, and that first time you set out on the road.

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Pushing Through My Safe Ideas

Posted on November 17, 2010 by Ryan Murdock

My recent visit to Panama City has left me drifting 10 years in the past…

I’d like to share with you a reading of something I wrote at that time.  It was my first real trip. I was alone and disoriented, in a place where I didn’t speak the language. I didn’t really know why I was there or what I should do. I only knew I had to go. 

Those of you who have followed such impulses know how deeply that first trip will change you. After traveling the length of Central America, nothing ever looked the same again. I could never go back to the life I’d left behind. 

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Drifting Down to a New Sunrise

Posted on November 4, 2010 by Ryan Murdock

On the flight back, somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico, the feeling changed. I crossed some sort of invisible divide where I re-entered the life of the States: the life of work, obligation, responsibility and long hours. I dropped back into that weight as though it had never been lifted. It almost felt natural. But it’s not.

I realized at that moment that Central America is a separate dimension. An alternate reality that one steps into, just as one steps into Macondo.

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My Memory Walks The City

Posted on October 22, 2010 by Ryan Murdock

As a writer and a constant reader of books, I’ve begun to feel increasingly disconnected from other people. I think it comes from spending too much time alone in a room. There’s a glass barrier between myself and the rest of the world. I’m seeing it all at one remove, through the TV screen of my eyes, from several feet back in my head. Maybe it’s a consequence of traveling alone, when the glances of strangers don’t rest on you for very long.

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You Can’t Go Back Again

Posted on October 14, 2010 by Ryan Murdock

Panama City, 10 years later. 

The plaza in the colonial district still looks the same. The tidal flats are still muddy, and they still smell of the sea. Punta Paitilla still juts out across the bay, a glimmering jewel of finance, luxury, and life lived on another plane. The big ships are still there, floating at random anchorages, waiting to transit the Canal. A couple of them even look familiar. But so much has changed.

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Beneath the Sun and Stars

Posted on July 1, 2010 by Ryan Murdock

I’m just back from a short job in Glynco, GA, followed by a few days of filming in Florida. It was a steamy week of early morning / late afternoon shoots and midday business meetings on the beach. We were scorched by the sands, gouged by the shells, plagued by mosquitos and swarmed by biting ants. And that was just the first day…

But I’ve returned to my desk and I’m ready to entertain you.

We’ll get back to travel stories soon. I’ve also got some cool new books to tell you about, both classics and new stuff, and some great music to shove in your ipod for the road.

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Vagabond Dreams Outtakes #15 – Journey’s End

Posted on May 3, 2010 by Ryan Murdock

Vagabond Dreams Outtakes are “deleted scenes” from my book. Think of them as a “Special Features” disc for a DVD yet to be invented. This incident took place in Belize…

 

Belize City was a bit like Bluefields on the Mosquito Coast of Nicaragua: a seedy place with an aura of decay. But it didn’t feel like Central America. The musical lilt of Caribbean English had already displaced the Spanish I’d grown used to, and that Latin timelessness was missing, as were the Spanish colonial buildings and the social hunting ground of the plazas. Belize had a different sort of timelessness: a lazy island grace of rusting corrugated roofs and gap-toothed smiles.

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Contaminated Alibis

Posted on March 25, 2010 by Ryan Murdock

Vagabond Dreams Outtakes are “deleted scenes” from my book. Think of them as a “Special Features” disc for a DVD yet to be invented. This incident took place in Bluefields, Nicaragua, on the Mosquito Coast, exactly 10 years ago…

 

I walked to the Enitel building to place a call before dinner. I hadn’t sent a message home in weeks. I expected end-of-world explorer’s reports, yellowed clippings of my obituary: Last seen on a jungle boat to the Mosquito Coast.

The line crackled and fizzed. My father’s voice was an echo far away, like talking to someone at the wrong end of binoculars.

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Vagabond Dreams Outtakes #14 – And I Was Just a Stranger There

Posted on March 5, 2010 by Ryan Murdock

Vagabond Dreams Outtakes are “deleted scenes” from my book. Think of them as a “Special Features” disc for a DVD yet to be invented. This incident took place in Panama’s Darien Gap…

 

Banana trees and low bushy plants lined the dirt path that led beyond the village’s last tambo. Jungle pathways were never entirely clear, no matter how recently someone had used them. The forest reclaimed everything with a creeping growth that was almost visible. Keeping those vital roadways open meant that each person who passed must absent-mindedly cut back the encroaching growth. The constant ringing of these slashing blows became the music of our march.

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A Jungle Shift in the Trajectory

Posted on February 26, 2010 by Ryan Murdock

embera1.jpgDuring my time with them, I learned that the Embera of Panama’s Darien Gap lived in harmony with their surroundings. They didn’t try to be “close to Nature” – the idea would never have occurred to them. They were Nature, an inextricable segment of that community of life. It’s misguided to revere them for this, or to demonize them. They’re simply being what they are; acting in accordance with their essence. But we can and should learn from them.

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