Peregrinationz: A Conscious Travel Guide for the 21st Century and Beyond

Hello friends,

I hope this message finds you all in good health and spirits, wherever in the world you are these days. I've had a very exciting past few months traveling in Europe, Nepal, India and South Africa, but am currently trapped at a friend's house in France due to train strikes and Icelandic ash cloud chaos! Fortunately, this has given me the opportunity to reflect on my whirlwind jet-setting, spend some time on my various creative/business projects, and prepare for future adventures!

My latest work-in-progress, an alternative travel website called Peregrinationz, is the impetus for this email; I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback, and invite anybody who is interested to participate in collecting and creating content. My vision is to create an online archive of travel knowledge comprised of the experiences, suggestions and reflections of fellow travelers. To give you an idea of my objectives and process, here's a rough draft from the website:

Peregrinationz

peregrination [ˌpɛrɪgrɪˈneɪʃən]
n
definition: travel from place to place, especially on foot and with the suggestion of a roundabout route.

“Wherever I wander, wherever I roam, I couldn’t be fonder of my big home…” (the jungle book)

Peregrinationz is a collection of stories, adventures, observations, images, reflections, perceptions and memories gathered by travelers on their quests to explore the unknown. These firsthand accounts give unique and intimate glimpses into the natural and cultural landscapes of countries around the world by illuminating the subtle yet meaningful moments which defined their author’s experience.

Together, they comprise an archive of unlikely information and unfiltered nonfiction, blurring the line between subjective narrative and collective knowledge; it is a resource for present and future travellers as well as a voyeur’s window to obscure events in foreign lands. These tales contain wisdom that fact-packed travel guides lack; free from the constraints of objectivity and publishing companies, they portray reality through the naked eyes of a stranger, yielding further insights into the natures of observer and observed. Through comparing different experiences of the same area or situation, we learn as much about the subject as we do of their corresponding perceptions and their cultural implications.

Peregrinationz is also a forum to document and discover places, people, things, events, animals, art, and other subjects of interest from around the world. These helpful hints and suggestions from fellow travelers are valuable tools for those venturing into new territory, and allow travelers to preserve and share their connections and memories.

I also hope to gather a list of conscious communities, permaculture operations, centers of learning and other communal living situations to teach and learn about alternative forms of organization and ways of being, and forge connections between like-minded individuals.

Additionally, Pereginatzionz is an ideal virtual space to showcase the businesses, artwork, music, creations, performances and events of friends and like-minded individuals. Please contact me if you are interested in submitting this sort of content for posting, be it yours or someone you know/like.

Once Peregrinationz accumulates enough content and a large enough following, I plan to expand the website to include location- and topic-based forums to facilitate dialogues on the nature of travel and connections between fellow explorers. These forums can facilitate geographically-determined meet-ups, tours, and hospitality arrangements - all of which have the potential to generate income to contributors around the world. Several of my acquaintances have expressed interest in participating as these ambassadors of sorts, and please let me know if you would like to contribute in this way as well.

Traveling, be it local or global, through inner and outer space and everything between, is inspiration’s aphrodisiac. Truth is stranger than fiction, and exploring is the only way that anybody figures that out. Let’s create a giant library of the Earth’s beauty in all of its different manifestations, and inspire one another to experience the unfamiliar wonders our world has to offer.

“I live on Earth at present, and I don’t know what I am. I know that I am not a category. I am not a thing — a noun. I seem to be a verb, an evolutionary process — an integral function of the universe.” (buckminster fuller)

So, there you have it. You can check out the website at http://peregrinationz.wordpress.com/. It's still in chrysalis form, and I want to accumulate a decent amount of content before I take it public. That's where you come in. I'd like to invite you all to submit your favorite traveling stories and suggestions, and to participate in creating this collective archive in whatever capacity you desire. I can't offer any compensation, but I can offer my virtual curation services and the satisfaction of spreading the happy secrets of Spaceship Earth.

These are the types of submissions I am looking for:

1. Interesting stories from traveling in a foreign country. Very open-ended. Long, short, old, new, near, far, happy, sad, reverent, scathing, surreal, scary, sexy, or absurd – it doesn’t matter. If you want to share it, We want to hear it.

2. Suggestions – Blurbs about your favorite places to go, fun things to do, quality nature excursions, art installation/buildings/museums, good local foot, friends to meet, floors for dancing feet, cool places to stay, beautiful views, tricks of navigating public transportation, creative shops to visit, or any (relevant) nuggets of worldly advice. Photos welcomed and encouraged! Even if you just have the link or name of a place/thing/&c send it to me and i will write something up! Even if your traveling is limited to your city or country, we are looking for contributors with a deep knowledge of their surroundings to be place-based "experts" and focus their content on their specific location

3. Photos – We are searching for images of beautiful places, images, and moments from around the world. We would also like to support and promote photographer/photojournalist friends by showcasing their artwork and connecting our audience to their portfolios (via hyperlink and personal profiles). All photo submissions should include a caption with a contextual explanation.

Submissions are open to anyone traveling outside of their normal realm of residency. (This definition is negotiable - tremendous exploration is always possible, even within finite geographical limitations).

You - and everybody you know - are encouraged to submit content as much and as frequently as you can! Change is inescapable and experience is infinite! Please feel free to forward this email to any and all travelers (past, present, and future) that you know!

And even if you don't submit your own content, you can participate by learning from other contributors and engaging the community with feedback and discussion! Check back regularly as this site will continue to grow and flourish with time and collective activity.

If you would like to post content to the site on a regular basis, or repost the content of your personal blog on my server, please let me know and I will add you as a contributor, with the administrative rights to post freely and participate in the structure and management of the website. I am trying to accumulate loads of content before I offically launch the site, so don't be surprised if I email you with a request to post or repost your blurbs or blogs that have inspired me. As a writer in the age of new media, I understand and respect the rights of artists concerning their intellectual property, and all contributors will receive full credit for their submissions. Additionally, this site has great potential to expand the readership of personal blogs - regular contributors can provide information about their own virtual ventures in their personal biographies, and even one-time contributors can direct readers to their work via embedded photos/videos and hyperlinks.

Concordantly, don't feel obligated to consent to - or afraid to decline - my attempts at prospecting for travel-writing content. I won't take it personally :) If you are on the fence concerning this issue, please feel free to email me with any/all concerns and questions. This is an important issue for me which I'd be happy to discuss and clarify with you at any point.

I'm currently in the process of acquiring a secure domain (hopefully peregrinationz.com) and will update you with any changes to the web address (though all searches will automatically forward viewers from the original http://peregrinationz.wordpress.com/ link).

If you've made it to the end of this email, CONGRATULATIONS! and thank you so much for your time and consideration. I don't have a phone at the moment, but you can always reach me by email at la.loquita.curiosa@gmail.com or on facebook (name: Cirque Du Renee). I hope to hear back from some (if not all) of you in the near future.

Be well & Blessings