The Mountains Are Calling

This morning, I sat down to research where I would be heading next and decided to put on Netflix simultaneously. I have been looking at countries with easy visas, where foreigners can buy property, and a relatively easy immigration process after the tourist/residency visa expires.

This has become the most important for me.

Most have safety at the top of their list, but if you learn the language and do not mess with the three big no-nos, you will be completely fine, trust me. Don’t be dumb; it’s easy; avoid drugs, prostitutes, and city centers after dark. I think this advice holds true in any city in the world right now.

The other day, my sister told me she does not go downtown Boston after 5 p.m. I looked at her and said I give the same advice to tourists in Medellin. She laughed.

The same things happen here; they no longer fear me living in South America after off and on for four years, though, and most likely will all eventually immigrate with me.

Back to my research, I put on Netflix, and of course, I am in documentaries, and I found one on the Magical Andes. Seriously?

It is not helping my decision. When I think that maybe the Colombian long-term visa is too damn complicated, it draws me back in, talking about living off the land, the bee farmers in Boyacá, and the harsh climate of the Los Nevados.

Instantly, I fell in love, as this area is where I was looking to live the last time I was there. The people and the diversity, and now I find out they have a huge incentive to raise bees.

This episode was on Colombia and Venezuela. A man drives to the middle of the mountains and teaches the local villagers how to make their own tools. He brings everything he needs and has a ¨school on wheels¨ to educate others about his trade. He does not expect money for this; he does it to educate.

I am often asked why I want to live in countries with less. They do things with no ulterior motive except to help the communities living in these areas survive and thrive. So many communities have been displaced due to harsh weather and lack of necessary supplies.

Living in the middle of the mountains with little money to buy supplies is not an easy life, but they do it and have been for centuries. This survival skill is one we lack in the Western world.

One that I crave to be a part of, at least a fly on the wall. Do something to benefit others without having a ¨but, or because¨. Real humanity is in its raw form, as I believe people are more good than evil.

Yet, do whatever it takes to survive.

Being back in the US always makes me a bit crazy. The availability of everything at my fingertips, the fact that I have to do nothing and everything works, it’s too easy.

I think humans need to struggle; we need hardships. Not a struggle if my TV isn’t working.

I am sure I annoy my niece; every time her iPad dies, she asks for her mom’s phone.

I ask What would you do if it didn’t work or you didn’t have it anymore? She goes Sara, that’s crazy. Yet, is it?

We have seen this week that anything can happen; the world is unstable on all fronts. These people in the Nevados are more likely to survive as they have nothing to lose than most of us sitting in our comfortable lives, and we know how to do nothing.

We have become a society that expects someone else to know the answer instead of figuring it out. I believe by design to make us dependent on ¨the man¨.

Who is the man anyway? Probably our government that doesn’t even know what they are doing and only cares about the elite, 1%. Which the majority of us are not.

Maybe this is my obsession with learning to live with less and figure it out; if I did not have this curiosity, where would I be now? Depressed, unhappy, and probably medicated like almost our entire society.

Today, I will order my sister some woodchips so we can start prepping her garden for spring. Did you know https://my.getchipdrop.com/ will deliver free woodchips and logs?

Well, now you know they are the best way to plant; it’s the no-till system. It hydrates your soil and composts, making the ground beneath perfect for growing. I have started to study soil, as that is the most essential part of a garden.

Anyway, back to more of the Magical Andes, and it is Magical, which is why I have an obsession with getting back as soon as possible. Those mountains have magic in them and will call you back over and over until you decide to stay.

XOXO

S