Tweet Make your choice, adventurous stranger: strike the bell and bide the danger or wonder, till it drives you mad, what would have happened if you had” –the quote is from C.S. Lewis, author of “The Chronicles of Narnia”.
Archive | Blog
An interview with Robin Sparks by the staff at OneWorld Retreats in Ubud, Bali. As Sparks prepares to return to Bali after 4 months away, she talks about her upcoming breath work and writing retreat.
A Home At The End of The World
Tweet I picked the movie for its title, but it was the story that wedged its way into my heart. A HOME AT THE END OF THE WORLD is about how loved ones enter and exit our lives not always on schedule. It re-examines the definition of family, of friends, and lovers. And finally, it […]
Go South Old Man
Tweet August 22, 2005 Why have I moved from checking the pulse of Asia to revisiting South America? And why Brazil? Brazil is categorized in investing circles as a developing country. Which means it’s a poor country with lousy infrastructure and unfathomable corruption OR it is a country overflowing with natural resources and on its […]
Gypsy Soul
Tweet I have a soul connection with other expats I meet in the world, an unspoken understanding that I don’t have with non-traveling Americans. When I meet another world traveler, it’s as if I have come home, found my tribe. It is not uncommon for me to run into someone in one country that I […]
Back From Being Back In Brazil
Tweet September 24, 2005 Back in San Francisco Well y’all, I’m back from Brazil. I guess you’ve noticed I didn’t post anything while I was gone, much to my self-flogging chagrin. I’m resisting the urge to lay out reams of excuses here, so let’s just say that the world is not yet San Francisco. My […]
Desperately Seeking Solutions
Tweet Auguest 26, 2005 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil I took my Apple to the new highly touted Mac Spa in San Francisco. When I picked it up the night before leaving for Brazil, my Mac G4 had received a new brain called Tiger. I added lots of new and improved memory, and a mic so […]
Reality Bites
Tweet Posted: August 28, 2005 Ilha Grande, Brazil I’m pecking this out during a quick pitstop on an island called Ilha Grande just off the coast of Brazil, located halfway between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. My son, his girlfriend, and I have been sailing for two days among the 300 plus islands of […]
Robin in Rio
Tweet August 30, 2005 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil I was out till late last night with Ryan and Jessica. We attended a huge street party in Lapa. THIS is what I didn’t get to do when I was in Rio alone last year. There was olundum drumming and bossa nova and people crowded in the […]
Oi. The Only Macs are at MacDonald’s
Tweet September 6, 2005 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Oi! (Brazilian Portuguese for hello). I have a computer bloated with stories and photos meant to be passed on from me in South America to you in North America. But there is a language problem. My Mac speaks a different language than Brazilian PC’s. I spent hours […]
New Digs
Tweet September 2, 2005 Rio de Janiero, Brazil I´ve just moved into a castle. No joke! I moved out of a non-descript hotel room in Copacabana, to my own little Rapunzel room high up on a hill in a castle complete with everything but a moat. You can see the Valentin Castle from most of […]
FIRST SIGHTING – FORTALEZA
Tweet September 9, 2005Fortaleza, Brazil – Maybe I’m just tired from arriving in Fortaleza at 2 AM last night only to be told my hotel was full. Or maybe it’s the constant wind. It could be the random sprouting of multi-story buildings blocking the view of what I’ve heard is a beautiful blue-green ocean. But […]
FEAR And LOATHING In FORTALEZA, Part 1
Tweet September 9, 2005 Fortaleza, Brazil A man in the hotel lobby introduced himself as Steven. He was a stocky American with a Brooklyn accent, mid 60’s, wearing a wife beater shirt, baggy shorts that ended below chubby knees, and teva sandals. He had a voice that bespoke thousands, maybe millions of cigarettes. Steven had […]
Hair SCARE
Tweet September 18, 2005 Fortaleza, Brazil I did my traditional foreign country beauty shop visit today. It’s the best way to get the pulse of a place and a cheap hair cut. I’d asked Francesca to take me to the best salon in Fortaleza, but here we were pulling up to a small shop called […]
Brazilian Mating Game
Tweet Sept. 16, 2005 On a plane out of Rio de Janeiro, headed to Fortaleza, Brazil A few hours after saying goodbye to my son before he boarded a bus in Rio, I was on a GOL plane headed to Northeastern Brazil. A debonnaire Brazilian man I’d met and spoken to briefly in the airport, […]
GOING ONCE, GOING TWICE
Tweet My mom and dad are selling their mountain home to move back to the Bay Area – close to health care and their children. Real estate is a strange animal – it’s value has little to do with the actual property, and everything to do with current trends and times. The house my parents […]
Girls Just Wanna Have Fun
Tweet June 3-10, 2006 The Coast of Turkey by Yacht! Calling all moms, daughters, grandmothers, and granddaughters – new and old girlfriends… Take the journey of your life with the ones you love the most… Led by travel writer, Robin Sparks, our group of 8-10 will cruise the coast of Turkey aboard a classic 82-ft. […]
Hello, Goodbye, Whatever
Tweet Photo of friends and me (on the left) in San Francisco. I HAVE A TICKET to fly to Bali in 8 days. I will not be on that plane. I’m on a journey that has led to peace in my family, new beginnings with the kind of people that drew me to San Francisco […]
Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi to Turn 60 Under House Arrest
Tweet “Candles for Burma” Campaign Lets Supporters Send Birthday Greetings to World’s Only Imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Winner. Copyright 2005 Ethical Traveler (San Francisco, CA) Ethical Traveler and the Burmese American Democratic Alliance (BADA) have launched a new campaign to highlight the plight of democracy advocates in Burma. The two groups are asking supporters to […]
WHERE AM I and WHAT AM I DOING NOW?
Tweet I’ve been asked about where I am and what I’m doing so many times in the past few weeks, that I decided it was time for another blog.
Fear & Loathing in Fortaleza, Part 2
Tweet This article was inadvertently omitted when we changed website templates a few years ago. It belongs in the archived 2005 blog folder and should come after Fear & Loathing in Forgaleza Part 1. Until I sort out how to put it in its proper place, enjoy. “A desert wind moans sadly. From somewhere within […]
ALL IN THE FAMILY
Tweet Let’s make it a requirement for North American highschool students to study abroad for one year. Education is more than the acquisition of skills – it is exposure to different ways of being and the development of a worldview – a type of learning not possible through reading alone. The world is moving away […]
Ishmael
Tweet Five years ago I ended up in San Francisco just 40 miles from where I’d been born. The City By the Bay was to be the nest from which I would take exploratory flights in search of a nifty nest abroad. Oh, but how I dug my talons in, trying with all my might […]
Quote I love
Tweet Life is short and we have not too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark way with us. Oh, be swift to love! Make haste to be kind. Henry Frederic Amiel – 1885 (thanks to Rose for this, and welcome back from Bali!)
IF YOU WANT A LIFE CHANGE…
Tweet The next door neighbor in my new Noe Valley (SF neighborhood) digs, tapes a different quote in his window every morning. Here is today’s and my favorite:
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!
Tweet What a year! The past three months especially have been auspicious. I’ll fill you in in my next journal. Until then I wish you love and serenity wherever you may be. Happy holidays and huge blessings on you all. — RobinSalvador, Brazil
THE STATE WE ARE IN
Tweet My rear view mirror filled with pick-up trucks and SUV’s and then they were all around me. The sides of the freeway sprouted signs. MACY’s, WALMART, HOME DEPOT, TARGET, and IN AND OUT BURGERS. Bumper stickers on rear windshields said Vote Bush/Cheney. I pulled into an Albertson’s parking lot and saw a real cowboy. […]
MY DINNER WITH ANDRE
Tweet Movies come and go, mostly unseen when you are on the road. You don’t feel like you’ve missed anything until you begin to hear and read references to films which have changed the collective consciousness of those who stay at home. At some point, it’s like not having read a book in a long […]
BRAZIL COMES TO BERKELEY
Tweet When the curtain rose on the Bale Folclorico da Bahia at the Zellerbach Auditorium in Berkeley last night, the sparse crowd applauded politely. Sandra and I were amazed that so few people had shown up. Two intermission-less hours later, the oh so cool Berkeleyites were out of their seats dancing in the aisles. You […]
GATED COMMUNITIES AND HOMELESS DINNERS
Tweet An old friend from my Tahoe days, visits me in San Francisco. We haven’t spoken in over four months, pre-Brazil. “Natasha” has a new condo in the East Bay with a private lake, a tennis court, AND she adds proudly, “It’s in a gated community”. Perplexed, I ask, “What are you afraid of?” “Are […]
STUFF SHOCK
Tweet Left Coast Writers Meeting. Larkspur, California. Four days after my return to the US. Fellow writer: “Wow Robin, just back from Brazil! How does it feel?” “I don’t know. I’m still processing it.” I wasn’t back. Not all of me. There’s not a lot of sympathy wasted on jet lag. It’s a problem everyone […]
