Tag Archives: vagabond dreams

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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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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Vagabond Dreams Outtakes 13 – Waiting Tasted Blue

Posted on January 22, 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 the Petén region of Guatemala…

 

I stumbled out of bed at four thirty to prepare for the last long distance bus ride of the journey: the hard packed jungle track through the eastern Petén to the Caribbean Sea and Belize City. It was a sobering thought to realize that in another couple weeks it would all come to an end.

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A North Korean Field Trip

Posted on October 7, 2009 by Ryan Murdock

This is the fourth in a multi-part blog on North Korea. You can find the others here

 

One day I took an overnight trip from the capital of Pyongyang. A field trip of sorts. It was the only time we were permitted to sleep someplace other than our hotel, locked down on an island in the city.

We drove on a smooth, wide multilane “tourist highway” that begins in Pyongyang and ends at Mt. Myohyang, a couple hours to the north.

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Vagabond Dreams Outtakes 12 – They Only Want Your Loot

Posted on August 13, 2009 by Ryan Murdock

[I'm on the road in the United States at the moment--my apologies for the infrequent blog entries. Will be back to normal after 7 days]

 


petenfever.jpgVagabond 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 the Peten region of Guatemala…

The light through the window lay across my chest in a square pattern, broken by the lazy sweep of a ceiling fan. It was a picture straight out of Joseph Conrad; a movie version of a malarial sickroom. I appreciated the exotic image and knew it would make a great story, but it wasn’t so cool with no one there to see it.

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Vagabond Dreams Outtakes 12 – Tearing The Veils From History

Posted on July 23, 2009 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 the Peten region of Guatemala…

　

　

Overgrown jungle pathways linked the main ruins of Tikal, transforming predictable sightseeing into something approaching exploration. I walked quietly and breathed deeply of the damp jungle air. Birds called from the canopy and troops of spider monkeys chattered in the distance. Smells of humid earth and decaying vegetation filled my nose. The intense heat of the flatlands wrapped me in a clammy blanket that I wanted to kick off.

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Something Eating Up My Days

Posted on July 22, 2009 by Ryan Murdock

Things have been busy in Murdland, and blogs have been scarce… This will be an update rather than the usual traveler’s tale. Not a lame excuse for neglecting you, not a mea culpa, just a simple update with some links that you may enjoy checking out.

So where the fork have I been these past two weeks?

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