#1 From the Batch of News to DESNORTEANDO
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I was 34 years old the first time I lost my way.
I had traveled before, always to well-known destinations: Europe, the United States, Latin American countries… I knew almost all of my own country, Brazil, due to my work as a reporter. Covering two presidential campaigns — in 1994 and 1998 — had taken me to 25 of the 27 state capitals, plus several towns deep in the '“sertão” (Brazilian backcountry) and the entire Amazon border to the North.
All those trips, however, had been well planned, with a clear purpose. Until my compass lost its way, in 2005.
The career I had invested 16 years in was a success, but it didn’t satisfy me.
My emotional life was a rollercoaster. Long, dragged-out climbs, interspersed with dizzying emotional dives, lived in small doses, one night at a time… My heart? The bastard beat for someone on the other side of the world.
And so, I lost my way.
I’ll never forget the shock on the faces of the team I led at the now-defunct Jornal da Tarde, in São Paulo.
I was the editor of the Primeiro Caderno (First Section). Reporters, section editors, and news chiefs were disoriented too.
– What do you mean, you’re leaving? To which newspaper? Which magazine?
The questioning made sense. In previous job changes, I’d always left one newsroom for another, with a better position, a higher salary…
Not that time, though.
– I’m going to Africa.
Africa?!?!?!
No one understood anything.
The then-Economy editor pulled me aside later. This couldn’t be true. He was sure my destination was a competing newspaper, but I didn’t want to spill the beans.
It was true. I was losing my way.
I boarded a flight few weeks later for Africa, on a solo journey with a backpack on my back. No laptop. Only a camera, a hardback notebook, and a mechanical pencil. No return date.
Okay, internally, I imagined a timeframe. I would spend at least three months lost. I might stay longer, but no less. Returning sooner would be a failure.
What was the purpose of the trip again? (Or should I rather ask: what is the meaning of life?)
Well, that ‘someone on the other side of the world’ was in Ethiopia. A coincidence, of course. It had nothing to do with her.
We hadn’t spoken in some time. Besides, I started my journey in Cape Town, South Africa. Technically, it wasn’t the other side of the world anymore. Still, it was the other side of a continent that, well, is almost like its own world.
The rational meaning I gave to that lost journey was different.
I was retracing, by land, the path of Vasco da Gama on the famous voyage that transformed the history of humankind. The 1497 journey to India, when, for the first time, a European ship passed the then Cape of Storms, today Cape of Good Hope.
A transformative journey in history. It paved the way for Europeans to sail the seas, colonize other peoples, and shape the world as we know it today. For better and for worse.
Vasco da Gama’s complete journey, both ways, took over two years — counting the 5 months he spent in India trying to establish trade relations. Mine lasted three months, and I didn’t reach India. I stopped at Lamu Island, in northern Kenya.
On that first lost journey, I sent updates by email to friends and family. In each new city, I would sit at a rented computer in an internet café with two goals:
I needed CD-ROM drives to unload the photos onto CDs. The camera, one of the first digital Nikons, stored the images on SanDisk cards of 32, 64, and 128 megabytes.
I needed internet access to send reports of my progress so far. In the subject line of the emails, the name I gave the updates: “Baciada de Notícias” (Batch of News).
It was a way to update friends, reassure family. An efficient, simple, and quick channel. There were no newsletters back then, but the principle was the same: only those who had given me their contact info received the updates.
I unearthed these memories from 20 years ago to explain why I’m creating this newsletter now.
For those of you who are new here, it’s worth explaining: DESNORTEANDO is a space to share transformative travel experiences. The kind that go beyond photos you never open on your smartphone, and beyond selfies on social media.
It was born in September 2024, after I moved to Bali, Indonesia, with my family — me, that ‘someone on the other side of the world’, and our two teenage boys.
DESNORTEANDO already has a website, channels on Instagram and YouTube, a Facebook page… There are so many platforms that sometimes I catch myself thinking: where, after all, will people interested in reading find the stories we share?
The best virtual place, probably, is each person’s email inbox. Just like it was 20 years ago.
You don’t need to search on Google, you don’t need to browse feeds… Just sign up. Every time I have new stories — initially, they’ll be weekly — you’ll get them in your inbox.
At the start of this journey, we’ll share stories from Bali, Singapore, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Australia.
I'll mainly talk about my inner transformations through everything I experience in my travels and in life – the wildest journey ever!
I’ll probably also do flashbacks to stories from that first time I lost my way in Africa, and other times I’ve gotten lost in Angola, India…
Memories that connect with today’s experiences, which helped transform me into who I am. For better and for worse.
Sign up for this newsletter to join me on this journey. In addition to receiving the stories in your email, you’ll be able to share your thoughts and experiences.
Oh, and please recommend it to friends who are interested in travel stories and itineraries that stray from the traditional tourism concepts.