An ecological family living in Berlin

In January 2010, Nicola Zolin, Benjamin Lesage and I, Raphael Fellmer, departed from The Hague (Netherlands) and set off on our ‘Journey of Humanity’ without any money, hitchhiking over sea and land, from Europe to Mexico.

To go on this path that had not yet been trodden turned out to be a true adventure from the very first moment. It was only made possible thanks to the thousands of people that, wherever we ca¬¬me to meet them, gave us their trust, their food, and their love. In Mexico, Nieves Palmer, a girl from Mallorca that had joined us in Guyana, became pregnant, and after having travelled 32,000 kilometres over land and water with over 500 vehicles in fifteen months, we went back to Berlin.

These fifteen months changed our lives completely. Already while crossing the Atlantic a second time, we felt that we didn’t want to, or even weren’t able to participate any longer in the excess-consumption society we live in. No more consumption, no more looking away from the billions of people that suffer from hunger every day. We decided to maintain our money strike in order to raise awareness of (bring attention to) the injustice, the suffering and the destruction of the environment, and at the same time to find possible solutions that enable a life more in peace and harmony with people, animals and nature.

The basement of our good friends’ house in Kleinmachnow, not far outside the gates of the capital, became our new home, and our family life started when Nieves gave birth to our dear daughter Alma Lucia, a gift from heaven.

Looking for Suelo

It's been two years since we discovered the website of Daniel suelo, this mysterious man who lives without using money for 11 years. It is one of the reasons we decided to undertake this journey to the "other side", we wanted to discover his lair and understand his history. During these 11 years, he lived in a cave, near Moab, in the state of Utah, beautiful land of red rocks and canyons.

We abandon Los Angeles without much regret after enjoying once again the capital of waste. A beautiful winter morning in California, a full belly, we're getting to the East.We expect extreme difficulty to escape from this megalopolis ... and yet, to our surprise, nothing is easier. The rides comes almost without asking and we find ourselves quickly in the desert of Mojave. Little traffic but we are lucky. Two young soldiers from the Air Force stop. It is Saturday, day off, they roam without precise directions and decide to give us a boost. On an incredible straight road, we are entering in a deep existential discussion, Jared and Josh are touching, twenties, they feel like enslaved, caught in an impasse from which they see no escape. Our meeting inspired them and they are happy to extend this time taking us to Las Vegas, 200 miles away form there!

“Observe the reality as it is, not as you want it to be”

The desert extends until the horizon. A straight road crossing through it. There are a few houses on the side of the road, two or three delis. The morning light penetrates my closed eye lids. It’s day ten and we can now talk. Tomorrow the meditation course will be over. The three of us: Mike, Yazmin and I feel renewed after spending three days isolated from the world. It’s as if everything had changed... although maybe is just our perception what changed. I feel I have recovered the ability to see, as if I would never again need glasses. I see everything more clearly. The three of us feel shaken. Tomorrow Mikey will fly back to England. Yazmin and I decide to stay two more weeks in the center to serve. The course is free and sustains itself only with donations, so we volunteer our time and energy to pay back.

What is Vipassana? I can’t explain it. It can only be understood by experience. Each person must do their own investigation and discovery of this adventure. I can only say one thing: If you feel confused or lost, if you’re looking for a way to find yourself, Vipassana is an ideal way to walk away from distractions and learn about yourself. It is a journey inside of your own self.

Here a little teaser about traveling without money in Mexico made by Marissa. She is traveling with us now in the U.S. and plan on making a documentary about traveling without money! 

Enjoy and lot of love for all!

Entering the U.S...

A long queue, hundreds of people waiting, patiently. We pass them, Mike, Yazmin and me (Benjamin) with our 3 backpacks. they don't have any expressions on their face, they have been there for hours and yet, no anger, no frustration. They are used to it. All these people have a visa that grant them the entrance to the United States for one or two days only. It is different for us, the line is smaller for a longer permit. The border officer who receive us is really nice, he tells us his entire life while stamping our passport. He insists on the fact he has not always been a border officer, he has traveled and speaks four languages. We tell our story but the cost is the same for everyone. 6 dollars, Yazmin has some "safety money" and pay for me. There is no other legal way. The officer adds that "in this country, you have to pay to breathe".

through the desert...

The desert expands off into the horizon and the sun is a heavy presence. In the distance an enormous train cargo train eases along the landscape. There has been next to no traffic… only two cars have passed in the last hour. We´re just two lonesome, pale, bearded foreigners lost in the desert. These are the moments when doubt creeps in. Someone will pick us up, someone always picks you up, but cold hungry nights in the middle of nowhere are starting to wear thin especially now the girls have left us. I gesticulate frantically as the pick-up truck speeds passed us and Benji starts berating the driver for leaving two young men to toast in the desert. Which he must have heard, because he stops in the distance and reverses all the way back up to us. This moment, of excitement and elation after a long desperate wait, is a characteristic of this part of the trip and one of its highlights. We spent a lot of long, hot, dry afternoons to get to the most northern part of mexico but we lived to tell the tale.

On the road again...

My name is Mikey and I have just spent a month travelling with Benji. I met him and Raphael at the COP 16 in Cancún in November 2010 and kept in touch with Benji, sharing Ecodepa and Klimaxforum adventures throughout the year. I decided to give up using money for a month and join Benji on a trip hitch hiking through the notorious northern deserts of Mexico to a 10 day meditation retreat in total silence. What follows is a description of that trip.

We were in a town called Mixquic for the symbolic celebration of the “Day of the Dead”. Benji and I sat with our friend Xavier in silence, high upon the wall of the cemetery, contemplating the ocean of candles below us. Once a year millions of Mexicans light candles around the tombs of loved ones and spend an evening together with their family. It´s an incredible display and represents an admirable acceptance and celebration of death which is in stark contrast to the fear and solemnity it is treated with in Europe.

However, on the other side of that very same wall was the embodiment of the aggressive consumerism characteristic of life in Mexico; the street is swamped with street vendors and one particularly obnoxious man is yelling into a microphone about how cheap and wonderful his rugs are. That´s right, rugs. Thousands of tourists come to Mixquic for this day and the whole centre of the town is geared to sell them heaps of junk food, junk souvenirs and just plain junk (…rugs?). Personally I feel pretty ashamed to have contributed to this desecration of such a wonderful and spiritual event by attracting all this tacky shite, and I tell myself if I am in Mexico for this celebration some other year, I will slink of to a remote village somewhere and appreciate it with more respect.

For us it was also marked the end of a chapter; for me the end of my life in Mexico, the start of something new, and the return to the road. After a year here I had taken the decision to go back to Europe, to my family, to old friends and new adventures. We were to leave the day after. We didn´t know exactly where to, or when we would arrive, but we were leaving. I knew the next month was going to be one of the biggest of my life; hitch hiking with absolutely no money through an area internationally renound for its violence, and then spending 10 days meditating in total silence. The reports of drug related violence were daily in the region – executions, decapitations, dismemberments, massacres… but in our year in the country we had seen not even a trace of this. Absolutely nothing. We wanted to talk to the people who were living it.

Thanks Message to everyone who made this journey possible!

Dear Brothers, Sisters who share this wonderful earth with us,

We are the one who have been traveling for more than one year hitchhiking from the Netherlands to Mexico passing through Europe, Morocco, the Atlantic Ocean and going up from Brazil to Mexico city! We called it the journey of humanity because it was only possible thanks to your help and your support. We want to thank you all for your faith, trust, smiles, nice word, rides, love and everything you gave us! Without you we would still be in Europe.

Some people say traveling open the mind. Surely, put yourself on the road like a globetrotter open the doors of the mind. But not only this, traveling is also about opening the heart. A journey is like to kick in the door of destiny, open yourself to the world and go with the flow. To travel is to leave your heart take control of yourself and let it beat in harmony with all the hearts of the world.

Mexico - here we come!

It was the 25th of November 2010, just some days left until the beginning of the COP16, the Climate Change Conference in Cancun, when we walked over the bridge into Mexico!!! Thousands of people helped us wherever we came, more than 330 vehicles gave us a ride and it took us almost a year to cover the 24 000km from The Hague, Netherlands, crossing Europe, Africa, the Atlantic Ocean and finally a big part of Latin America to get here. Thanks to the people our dream came true and “The Journey of Humanity” became reality, shifted our mind, opened our hearts and showed us how good and precious humans are by nature.

Almost there! Guatemala and Belize!

It is always when things come harder that one can find the best alternative to it. We tried everything to cross from Honduras directly to Belize thinking we would have to pay at the border with Guatemala. We got there in no times, hitchhiking is so easy in Honduras…and actually in all central america. At the border, we meet this once and friendly customs officer. He listen to our story interested and simply accept to give us an exemption for the tourist tax. If all customs officers were like him, traveling without money would much easier! Quickly we find another ride and we get to the closest town, Puerto Barrios. This town is quiet…the atmosphere is strangely different from Honduras…It feels like the place is more alive. We ask a restaurant the permission to use their kitchen to cook some food people had offered us and we have an excellent lunch. Then we head towards the harbor and try to find a way to cross. We need to come back in the morning to talk to the owner of " el Chato". We go to the fire station…our routine…and we obtain a great room with four beds…luxury before a very important day. When we get to Belize we know for sure that we will be on time for the climate change summit!

Honduras...

The journey comes close to an end. We are about to cross to Honduras, from there, it is less than a 1000 kilometers until the Cancun…Nothing compare to where we come from. 24000 kilometers hitchhiking…the road is our home, uncertainty our routine…hard to imagine how it will be to have the same roof every night, food on a plate whenever we want… In a couple of weeks the Climate change conference will take place…we don't want to run but we will hurry to ensure we arrive on time, ready to talk about us and forward the revolution!

Magic Nicaragua

Nicaragua welcomes us perfectly...hitchhiking is easy...even easier than in Costa Rica due to the fact that we are allowed again to go on back of the pick up, Nicaragua is not so strict, poorer and also more human...And the sun is shining! It seems that we are finally leaving the rain season behind...in no time we get to "Rivas", the harbor where ferries go everyday to Ometepe, a fascinating island with two volcanoes rising in the middle of the sweet water of the biggest lake in Nicaragua. One of these volcanoes is asleep and the other one smokes gently...We ask two restaurants for some food and one bakery, they all give us some food, rice and beans with a bit of salads. We are use to the menu; we have been eating the same for the last months! Without any troubles, we convince the captain of the boat to take us to the island for free! Welcome to paradise, the atmosphere on the island is amazing, really peaceful...it seems like we are outside of the real world...it feels safe, relax...people hang out at night in the streets, chat together enjoying the evening drinking some beers or smoking some joints. We get in the night in Mogoyalpa, the main village on the western part of the island...we trust in destiny again and we meet John, a visionary who owns a hotel and get fascinated by our story and invite us directly to his property, a old monastery situated close to the lake. We enjoy the place and we can relax and take advantage of the situation to visit the orphanage close by and share our story with 5 classes in one morning...intense but enjoyable work at the NPH, "nuestros pequenos hermanos", an organization founded in Mexico that is present in more than 10 countries in Latin America. the pupils are attentive and listen carefully to our story...

Pura Vida in Costa Rica

Smooth entry to Costa Rica with our white faces and our red passports...we just walk through the border, get our stamps smile gently to the policemen. Like in Panama, hitchhiking comes easy...we just wait a few minutes before a car takes us to Neilly, the first town. There, a strong rain starts and we find refuge in a restaurant where the person in charge kindly invite us for a salad. It looks like a deluge outside, so much rain...and no one to collect this water. When it stops we recycle a pizza, some bread and we head towards our destiny. We get quickly to Golfito, a small city situated on the pacific coast. The night has come and we decide to stay there with the firemen who receive us with big smiles and offer us a room with bathroom...a 4 stars room that launched a wave of happiness in the group! They even offered us a shirt for everyone with the shield of the firemen of Costa Rica! Golfito is a charming town surrounded by nature, all constructions are in wood and the atmosphere is quiet...We recycle some food and wander around for two days.

The "Stahlratte" going to Panama!

Stahlratte...it sounds weird, right? A strange name, the kind of name that can only speak about something incredible. This is the name of the most beautiful boat we have ever seen. Maybe we were already blind by our love for this peaceful warship, maybe someone else would find this "steel rat" ugly with its rusted iron dress...but for us, it was a dream...the dream that will take us to the San Blas islands. the story started in the harbour of Cartagena. It is always a lot of fun to look for a boat. We enjoyed it in the Canary Island and we were excited about the idea of going every day to the harbour to talk to the captains. We find always genius character there, true sailors, outlaws who sailed away from the society for the unlimited sea. They are also some kind of revolutionaries...

Colombia!

We enter Colombia by one of the less traveled road thanks to the ¨Guajiros¨, the people of the Guajira, a region caught between Venezuela and Colombia. The "Wayuu" have been there long before the Spanish came and therefore they benefit today of a special status. They have the both nationalities and seem to live under different rules...they are feared and the police doesn't get into their troubles. While traveling on the back of a truck with a dozen of other people drinking whisky, we heard that when something happen between the Guajiros, they take care of it themselves...and most of the time it doesn't end well. They ensure us therefore that being with them we were safe! Our first steps in Colombia take us to Maicao, the main city of the Guajira. It is known for the incredible amounts of illegal exchanges of all kind of stuff...and, of course, the gasoline that is 50 times cheaper in Venezuela...the Wayuus take care of the transport since they are basically outlaws!

Discovering Venezuela...

Welcome to Venezuela, intriguing country where socialism is still fighting consumerism...We are the three of us curious about the land of Chavez and his red revolution, curious to check how a country that was sold to the US capitalism could reverse its course to come to a fairer and better system. Our first steps into Venezuela were magic, rhythm in our ears, the singing Spanish language everywhere, exotic faces and colorful streets. No control, a simple stamp, Europeans are more than welcome. People had treated us nicely in Guyana...but here, we got amazed by the level of hospitality and generosity of the Venezuelans. We didn't wait five minutes before the first car stopped and took us to the next village. We asked the first bakery and one restaurant and we had enough food for the day...Everything came very easy as a good welcome from the Latinos.

From Guyana to Venezuela

Places less visited, like the roads less traveled are often the places where people are the most humans and welcoming. Guyana is one of those place, the less touristic place in all Latina America, nobody talk about it...a forgotten land. We disembark on the Guyanese land without a problem thanks to the Surinamese authorities who had arranged everything for us. We didn´t even had to ask, we went to the police station just to ask for some information and the day after we were on the boat. the difference with the two other "Guyanas" strikes us immediately. Getting out of the customs, we got assaulted by a horde of shouting faces with bills in the hands trying to convince us to jump on their buses. As soon as they understand we are traveling without money, the crowd open and wait for the next victims.

Across French Guyana and Suriname

French Guyana comes ahead of us with its marvelous forest that stands on both sides of the road to Cayenne. Rain has stopped. birds and mysterious animals are singing again love melodies from the deep jungle. A haze comes out covering our sight with a spiritual and mysterious veil. From the other side of the Atlantic ocean, people call this place the "green hell", for us, it looks more like a green paradise where eyes are amazed by its unique diversity, its rich flora and fauna that spread on more than 90% of the territory. A certain kind of magic lives behind those high natural walls, an attractive force that invite us to discover the mysteries of the amazonian jungle..

Across Brazil

On the road again…after 1 month on the canaries islands, and 1 month surfing on the Atlantic ocean, we are back on the road. We are free to move again, to cover mysterious roads across the American continent. First step, Brazil, perfect place for the road lovers, thousands of kilometers through luxuriant jungles, arid steppes, rocky desert…green savanna… A dream coming closer, the world is open to the ones who smiles…

Crossing the Atlantic ocean

We can do that guys! At least till Cape Verd you are on board!”. With these words two Italian capitains welcomed us on their sailing boat “Fetse”, to start the biggest and most fascinating journey so far of The Locomotive of Freedom! After about one month spent researching a boat in Las Palmas, we are on move again! Our joy explode after those words, aware that the two captains will later on go direction Brasil and there are big possibilities that we can stay on board and follow them in the crossing of the Atalantic Ocean! Francesco and Marco their names, we have found them exactly when they were looking for a crew! They give us 10 day before the next departure, meaning we can goodbye Canary Islands and all the beautiful people we met in here… We come back to the Tomatera, the squat that hosted us during our research and we communicate to everybody our fantastic news.