User:Themodernnomad
About The Modern Nomad
One day in October 2009, Patrick Falterman decided that he’d had enough. He was working two jobs and going to school full-time, barely having a moment to sleep or have any sort of a conscious thought. He had fallen victim to being a machine for society, a slave to the endless, vicious cycle of the need to work all day just to pay rent and eat. The ends to the life he was then living came out to be…dissapointingly ordinary and excruciatingly dull. He wanted something more, a life with real meat. But how?
In late September 2009, the idea hit him like a fast train with no brakes; hitchhiking. So he sold his guitars, amp, and everything else he possibly could. He was going to jet and never come back.
And jet he did. On the 2nd of October, 2009, he abandoned his apartment on the Northside of Houston, Texas with five months still on the lease, dropped out of community college, and spent the last of his money on a backpack and some supplies. That morning he began hitchhiking to Arizona with no real plan or idea of what he was going to do when he got there.
After several months of working odd jobs in Arizona and California (including a stint as a door-to-door magazine salesman), and camping in National Parks for long periods of time without authorization, Patrick found himself in San Diego, California, squatting on the beach in a tent and playing his faithful harmonica for change on the pier.
One early December morning he decided to go down to Tijuana; just to check it out, right? Upon arrival to the Other Side, he found that he enjoyed Mèxico so much that the decision was immediately made to explore more of the country (despite the fact that he was not in possession of a valid passport). After a week south of the border, Patrick had it firmly in his mind to hitch hike all the way to Argentina.
He drifted down to South America, passing through Mèxico during the holiday season and the thin, troubled nations of Central America. He swam illegally across several international rivers, trekked through arid deserts, and swatted mosquitoes and marijuìs in the Bolivian Amazon.
He has experienced hunger and thirst, elation, fear, and times of great uncertainty…and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Personal Analysis:
I am The Modern Nomad, AKA Patrick Falterman, 21, from Houston, Texas. I have hitchhiked about 35.000 kilometres in 14 countries. I've been hitchhiking around Latin America since I was 19. I live in Punta Arenas, Chile, and work as an English teacher. I enjoy writing, and am an aspiring sea kayker and ex-marathon runner.
Countries The Modern Nomad has Hitchhiked in
United States, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina
Personal Hitchhiking Records
Longest ride: Santiago, Chile to Castro, Chiloè, Chile (1.169 kilometres) Furthest hitchhiked in 24 hours: Lima, Perù to Arica, Chile Strangest place ever rode: Between the semi trailer and the semi cab, in Colombia. Strangest thing ever hitchhiked on: Horse. Nicaragua
