From Wade | El Salvador | Vagabond Journey Newsletter
Wade Shepard
Vagabond Journey Newsletter | El Salvador | May 11, 2010
Introduction/ Travel Update
We sped out of Guatemala with a promise of work, and a commitment to return in early March. The Finca Tatin in the eastern jungles promised us free room and free board (good food) to tend to the traveler zoo. Chaya and I agreed. Petra is too little to agree just yet, so we agreed for her. At the end of May, we should be going back to Guatemala for work. The strategy as of now is to stay the summer living in the jungle for free (stall time until I figure out how to subsist off Vagabondjourney.com), and then move on to a new part of the world in autumn.
Morocco? Algeria? China? The Philipeans? Japan? South Korea? Australia? Albania? Latvia?
Our options span the globe. We are looking for work — somewhere — we're vagabonds, this is the definition of our profession:
A vagabond travels for work.
Sort of like a hobo, or a migrant worker.
I can remember once when I was a little boy telling my mom that when I grew up I was going to be a migrant worker. I grew up out in the countryside, my neighbors were seasonal — migrant workers from Mexico.
Like all good, sedentary, wholesome mothers everywhere, my poor mother was horrified.
I don’t ask her what she thinks of the living that I have come to make for myself as a man. I fear the look she gave me when I first told her that I was going to grow up to be a migrant worker.
At any rate, my little vagabond family is in El Salvador now. Our rent is coming up again in a couple of days, we think we will pay for another half a month. Half a month’s rent here is 40 bucks. Not bad.
The living in El Salvador has been good. We are living within our projected budget, though are still coming out spending over what we are making. Trying to make a living off of a website is tough business.
Read the daily developments on the travelogue
http://www.vagabondjourney.com/travelogue
Vagabond Journey Update
Most of my time in El Salvador has been dedicated towards the further development ofwww.Vagabondjourney.com. We added two new sections:
1. ASK Travel Correspondents- I have assembled a team of people with certain expertise/ skills/ or extensive experience in certain areas of travel to field questions from readers about their topic of knowledge. So we now have Motorcycle Bob answering questions about motorcycle travel, Bicycle Luke giving advice on long distance bike touring, Dave from thelongestwayhome.com assisting readers with their curiosities about overland travel, and Jesse the translator giving answers about El Salvador.
We aim to really develop this section of the website, as I feel it would be great to bring together a collection of “experts” in the same place to share their knowledge collectively. We are still looking for a teaching English abroad correspondent, a business travel contact, a work around the world expert, someone who has volunteered internationally extensively, someone who knows the WOOFing system well, and as many country or regional representatives as we can coerce into participating.
The goal is to make Vagabond Journey seem like a one stop shop for travel help, a mall of interactive travel information so to speak — a place where travelers can ask specific questions about a certain aspect of travel and receive a good answer.
If you would like to participate, email me at vagabondsong at gmail, and tell me what you can do.
If you have a question, ask here- http://www.vagabondjourney.com/ask-travel-questions
2. Multi User Platform for Blogs- Vagabondjourney.com now has the capacity to host an almost infinite amount of travel blogs. We are now making free travel blogs available to just about any person who may want one. So if you are going on a trips soon, are traveling now, or would just like to write about something related to travel (the world “travel” is used in the broadest sense), then go towww.vagabondjourney.com/blogs and sign up right now.
Economics
Money has been the key word this month in the Vagabond Journey camp. The more people talk about money the less of it they seem to have. Wealth is funny like that — once you have it there ain’t shit to talk about. But the Vagabond Journey family is getting perilously close to warning level as far as funds are concerned. To curb this panik, we started up a fund drive on the Travelogue to raise money to help out with site related expenses.
Reader contributions have been clutch for me in the past, and now we are offering subscription plans for regular readers. I figure that if we were to receive $1 a week from each regular reader that we could make up enough money to develop Vagabond Journey and keep traveling way into the future. So we decided to make donating this amount easy. Donations can now be made on a regular monthly basis for amounts of $5 (suggested) or $10 (very much encouraged). Just click on the appropriate button below if you would like to donate or subscribe to Vagabondjourney.com.
Any amount is truly appreciated.
Vagabond Journey in the News
Wade and Chaya from Vagabond Journey.com have been getting in other media sources with regularity lately. The following links go to pages where you can read recent interviews that were done with us.
Interview with Wade on The Longest Way Home- Wade interviewed as a part of The Longest Way Home’s Great Modern Travelers series.
Interview with Wade on Hobotraveler.com- Video interview with Wade about to obtain the resources to travel perpetually.
And Baby Makes Three Interview- About traveling the world with a family. Interview by Travelblogs.com.
How to travel for as long as you want interview- Travelblogs.com asks Wade how he acquires the money to travel.
8 Years on the Road Interview- About perpetually traveling the world. Interview by Travelblogs.com.
Students in Europe Interview with Wade part 1- The first part of an interview that Students in Europe conducted with Wade about traveling in Europe and life as a traveling father.
Students in Europe Interview with Wade part 2- How to find work in Europe when traveling or studying abroad.
Extended world travel interview with Wade- About the benefits of traveling.
CBS News Phoenix TV interview with Wade- CBS news asks Wade how to eat roadkill to save money. Wade demonstrates.
CBS News Phoenix online story with Wade- Online piece with Wade explaining how eating roadkill can save money.
What is happening on Vagabond Journey
New Travel Photos
- Buddha Statues in Taiwan
- Hundreds of Buddhas
- Flowers, Plants, Trees in Taiwan
- Buddhist Prayer Flags and Thangkas
- Sex Toys in Taiwan
- Buddhist Temple in Taiwan
- Taiwan Money Burning Festival
- Mountain Temple Taiwan
- Taiwan Buddhist Architecture
- Bamboo House
- Hot Pot Soup in Taiwan
- Mushroom Rocks in Taiwan
- Mushroom Rocks Tourist Attraction Taiwan
- Pacific Ocean Taiwan
- Taiwan Calla Lillies
- Ancient Buddha Caves in Laos
- Kuang Si Waterfall in Laos
- Water Buffalos Swimming
- Deforestation in Laos
- Tourist Attractions in Laos
- Girls Bathing in Laos
- Buddhist Monks and a Lonely Planet Guidebook
- Girls Dancing in Laos
- Dancing Girls in Laos
- Elephants in Laos
- Tigers in Laos
- Boats in Laos
- Buddhist Temples in Laos
- Buddha Caves in Laos
- Buddha Cave and Me Kong River in Laos
- Big Buddha Caves in Laos
- Girls in Laos
- Elephants and Lilly Ponds in Laos
- Buddhist Temples in Laos
- Mekong River in Laos
- Net Fishing in El Salvador
- Passover in El Salvador
- Rattlesnake Camp Vietnamese Stove El Salvador
- Guerrilla Camp in El Salvador
- Bombs El Salvador Civil War
- El Salvador Oral History Project
- Children in El Salvador
- Volunteers in El Salvador
- Theater Group in El Salvador
Conclusion
So it is looking like Guatemala from here — a little hotel work, free food — then a big jump to another region of the world. I am feeling the desert, I am dreaming of Algeria or Mauritania. Though Central Asia is always calling — Kyrgystan and Uzbekeaorjakldfjakstan take a big swing at my curiosity. The best part is that there are teaching jobs in Central Asia, there are teaching jobs in the Gulf States, too. My friend Rich in Oman told me that he brought in $30,000 in savings last year from teaching English in Oman.
So the next move from Central America should be a real shot of happenstance, chance, and, in point, whatever comes up first. As always. If an employer in Kazakstan agrees to take us on first, then we go to Kazakstan; if a school in China calls my wife, then we go to China; if North Africa invites us to teach, then we go to North Africa; or if Latvia opens its arms, then my traveling family will go to Latvia.
We will go just about anywhere. We just need to make money, take formal jobs until Vagabondjourney.com can support itself and us as well.
Thank you for your support over the years.
Walk Slow,
Wade
Owner/ Editor, Vagabond Journey Travel
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