Going on a trip is not just about reaching a destination, having a goal in mind that you propose, forgetting the path that led you there, taking a route and filling in stages. Beyond the beaten paths, perhaps isolated by them, are the true journeys, the areas that no one travels and that are satisfying to discover. Those areas that seem like no one has set foot in for years, where no one sees you and where you don’t see anyone. Places where it is not so much the physical effort to get there, but the mental effort to get off the path that everyone else is on.
The traveler takes pleasure in the journey, observes, enriches himself with what he sees, what he hears, and what he senses but does not allow himself to be seen. From the people he meets, their greetings, or the thoughts they leave him with for a few meters traveled. You should not travel just for the sake of traveling; you need to have a reason, any reason will do, but you must have one and justify the journey with it: to learn, to have fun, to discover, to find and to find oneself; never just to tire yourself out, although the fatigue of the journey is rewarding.
Julio Llamazares, a writer and persistent traveler, explores in a dialogue from his book “The River of Forgetfulness” the feelings of many immigrants when comparing that their town was a place where the mirage of the well-being offered by cities did not arrive. The time it took to return to the village became shorter with the infrastructure improvements and they left thinking that the commitment to return was within reach.
“To Valdorria?” repeats the traveler, incredulous, as he climbed it once as a child and finds it hard to imagine that machines could reach there.
“To Valdorria, to Valdorria,” insists the man, not without some skepticism in his words. “You see,” he says, leaning on the bar, “now that almost everyone has left, that’s when they remember to build the road.”
“Maybe that’s why,” says the traveler with sarcasm, taking a sip of his beer and also leaning on the counter, “to see if those who still resist will leave.”
The villages around the big cities that have not yet become part of them live under the threat of being contaminated by the city’s daily life, its vices, its customs, and its language. Of losing the events of their days, the charm of the landscape; enjoying the tranquility, the effort, the conversations, the spare time…
The pollution that many of us flee from is not only the rush, the artificial over-lighting, the noise, and the smoke from cars, but also bringing to the countryside and villages a mentality and a way of life that we want to escape from.
| Season 3. Chapter 15 | Caminando |
| Recording date | April 2020 |
| Duration | 2:24 minutes |
| Date of issue | Juli 21, 2021 |
| Location | San Mames, Madrid. España |
| Image and sound | Ernesto Cardoso |
| Edition | Ernesto Cardoso |
| Opusculum | Ernesto Cardoso |
| Music | Ketsa |
| Song | Dry Sand |
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