Transcripts for Episode 160

These transcripts were generated by robots, not writers.

Stacy: Before we get into this week’s episode, I just want to let you know we are talking to a guest that is on the road. She is on her bicycle. She traveled from Portugal to Pakistan. So two things. One, you’re going to hear some background noise. The sound quality. Sound quality on her side is not as great as it normally is with guests, but that’s part of it. It’s part of the adventure of being out on the road. And unfortunately, we had the episode cut off at the end, but it was still so good, I wanted to share it with you. So with that said, let me turn it over to this week’s interview.

Stacy: Welcome. I am really excited about this week’s topic, which is all around travel exploration. We’re going to talk about book writing. We’re going to talk about art. And I have had a episode recently really digging into different lifestyles and different ways of exploring the world. So I’m really excited to get to introduce you to this week’s guest. Mara Mores is an artist traveler. Her favorite transport is the bike and she is currently on a big trip. She left Portugal in February and she’s now in Pakistan and then and perhaps beyond. She earns a living from travel books and paintings that she makes on the way. Mara, welcome. I’m so excited to get to talk with you today.

Mara: Thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much.

Stacy: You’re on an 18 month cycling adventure which is just, like, blowing my mind. And not only that, but you are doing it all by yourself. I would love to hear what inspired that decision and gave you the courage to. To do it.

Mara: Okay, so, basically, the 18 month trip was the last one in South America. This trip that I’m making now, I don’t really have a time limit. I’m just going till I was a finish line. I just like to have to travel without time, and, you know, if I want to make a different plan, I just do it.

Stacy: Okay, so, interesting, because I had, for some reason, I was thinking, this was your 18 month trip, but you actually already completed an 18 month trip, and now you’re doing it another journey. So you left Mexico in February. What. What was it that inspired you to head out and, you know, currently you’re in Pakistan, and, like, what is the. What’s the plan in this trip? What. What are you hoping to experience?

Mara: So, my goal was to visit Asia, because I’ve never been in Asia before, and when I was in Portugal, I was like, okay, I could take a flight to Thailand or to some other place and start there on the bicycle and go around, but I thought, why not explore everything on a bicycle? From my village, I just left Portugal. I only did some parts in Portugal by bicycle. The rest of Europe, I haven’t gone in a bicycle. It’s a completely different experience than just landing in a plane and don’t have the context of the place you land in. So I like to go and to see all the differences on the way. So, being in Pakistan, it’s already so much different than all the other places. I’ve been very similar to India. I guess. I’m very close to it, and it feels so nice.

Stacy: What is it like to travel by bicycle? I mean, I’d love to just hear a little bit about that experience. I mean, the first thing that comes up for me is safety. And so what does that like, and how do you. How do you travel by bike? Can you just give us some of the kind of date weekend, the life of a bicycle traveler? I’d love to hear about that.

Mara: Yeah, of course. So, basically, I begin my day with my oats. I like to eat oats in the morning. Normally, I’m camping somewhere in my tent, or if it’s hot weather, I don’t even put my tent on. So basically, I start the morning cycling. I stop a bit. I cycle again. I stop again. So it’s just like being in contact with the locals, and I can say hello to everyone. I can stop whatever I want to find or to take a picture or to talk. And it’s like, much more an open experience than, for example, being in a car that you are going so fast, you are inside a box. You are not so in touch with everything around you.

Stacy: So you said you camp. Do you carry like a tent with you? How does that work exactly?

Mara: Yeah, so I bring my tent and my sleeping bag and mattress so I can be independent and just sleep whenever I want. If I see a lake, if I see a nice landscape that I want to stay there and just put my tail, then it’s a nice way to just save money and not going to hotel. Normally I take showers at petrol stations, rebars, or anywhere I can get a shower or water. That’s it. And about safety, I mean, there’s a lot to talk about that, but I feel safe most of the time.

Stacy: Yeah, I mean, that’s definitely, like. That was probably one of the first things I thought about when I heard about you and what you’re doing. As a female traveling alone, what do you do to make sure that you are stopping in safe places and, like, aware and taking care of yourself?

Mara: So basically, as much as I travel, I start to understand a bit the intention of the person that has come to me or speaks to me sometimes. There were some things on this trip that I don’t even talk with some truck drivers because they thought they want to talk to me. And they just put the conversation on another topic that I don’t want. And I just keep going with the bicycle. I’ve had some cars following me, but I’m always very eyes wide open to see what’s happening around me. I’m very aware if I find maybe a village, I stop there or I ask help anyone. But normally I realize what. What. What’s happening is. I’m cautious about it, but we never know what happens. And it can happen something in Pakistan or in Portugal.
Stacy: Yeah. I mean, I think it’s amazing that you have overcome. Like, I think for me, that would be a fear that would prevent me from doing what you’re doing. So I think it’s incredible if you. You don’t think, like, I know you think about it. I’m not saying that, but, like, you’re reasonable about it and you’re still able to go and do this big thing that you want to do.

Mara: Yeah, I mean, I don’t think, like, that being a woman will stop me from doing anything I want, so I just carry on. I don’t think it will limit me in any way, just like, I mean, I just came from Iran and it was a wonderful experience. But of course, I need to be dressed in another way because it’s a muslim country. Like here in Pakistan. I wear long sleeves and pants, you know, but apart from that, I just feel that everything, it’s normal and people respect me a lot. And sometimes muslim countries are much more calm because they don’t drink alcohol, comparing to, for example, Armenia and Georgia, that people are very drunk on the street.

Stacy: Oh, interesting. Yeah. I bet you see a whole different side to things like this. Makes me think about when I travel. I prefer to go everywhere by foot because I really, I just end up having totally different experiences than if I’m, like, taking a taxi or an uber somewhere. And it takes a lot longer to get places. But I discover, like, a little bookstore. I get to see some historic thing that I never would have known about.

Mara: Yeah.

Stacy: How is it different traveling by bicycle than traditional forms of travel?

Mara: I think that people nowadays are just living so fast and always hurrying for everything. And just in a bicycle, you go very slow. You just think on your goal. Very slow.

Mara: You all.

Mara: I don’t know. I’m not in a rush for anything, so I just live life very chilled and I have nothing to worry about apart from my flat tires or something with a bicycle. I think people, when people travel, like most of the people now, they go take a plane from here to there and then the bus and then the train and then go and go. You don’t really get the smell of a place, the, you know, the. To be in contact and to know how the culture works in there or some special words that some language has that makes you change the way you think about everything, you know?

Stacy: Mm. Yeah, I just imagine you get a much slower experience with every, like, you get to really kind of take things in a way that you’re not going to get to do if you’re in a car.

Mara: Yeah, I always have time. When people invite me to their homes, for example, they are like, oh, do you have time to come? And I’m like, yeah, of course. I have. The whole time of my life, I have nothing to do apart from cycling.

Stacy: That’s just, like, so opposite my life. I think it’s really cool. I love hearing about what you’re doing because it’s just, and I’ve got two kids, I’ve got my business, all the things. And always it’s actually very hard to make time for things. So it’s neat to hear about a different way of living and kind of functioning in the world. I’d love to hear a little bit about a challenge that you’ve overcome either in your previous trip or this trip. I’m sure you’ve had things happen that you’ve had to overcome in these lengthy trips.

Mara: So, first of all, about what you’ve said, I think my life is much more about spontaneity than to schedule everything, and I like that. So I don’t stress about the future, but, yeah, about the challenges. I would say in my last trip, I had an accident in Peru, for example. And, you know, I most of the time, like maybe 80 or 90% of the time, I cycle alone. So I was alone right now. Tuk tuk hit me and I just went to the hospital and everything. It was okay. But at that moment, I was like, okay, that’s the moment to be strong. And I realized that, yeah, if I had someone with me at that moment, it would be a bit easier. But I think it’s part of the trip and just makes me a bit stronger.

Stacy: You probably have a lot of self trust actually going through those experiences alone, knowing that if something really hard comes up, that you can deal with it, you can navigate it.

Mara: Yes. I mean, I think it comes a bit from my genes. My parents, my father is also very adventurous and with confidence. My parents are not, like, so afraid of everything like some parents, so they always teaching me to do things by myself. So I do things by myself always. And I think I don’t. I try not to. How can I say? I try to be independent and to just follow at McLean, me and, yeah, to be confident. Of course, I’m very optimistic about life.

Stacy: That’s a nice way to live, I think. What has been a favorite experience of yours on this trip?

Mara: My favorite experience?

Stacy: Yeah. Yeah. Like something really awesome.

Mara: I think it’s always the people I meet on the way. For example, in Europe, I went to some friends houses and it liked to see them again. And to get there by bicycle, it makes it feel like, wow. And also, for example, to get from Portugal to Switzerland for me was my first goal because it was my father’s plan when he was 26 or 27 years old, before my mom got pregnant from my brother. So he didn’t make it my bicycle. And for me, doing it was like, wow. I did what my father was planning to do. And so also, I don’t know, to get to know other cyclists. Interview a lot of people cycling, for example, three friends from France, and we cycled together for like, two weeks. Then we got to see each other again in Georgia, in Armenia.

Mara: So we are always meeting the same people and meet them again in the other cities or other countries, because on the bicycle, you go slow and you can get to meet them again.

Stacy: That’s so cool. I love that. I’m sure that our listeners are curious how you support yourself while you are doing these trips, because obviously you have to eat and buy basic stuff. So can you tell us a little bit about your, how you do that?

Mara: So for my first trip, I was working for one year in a ceramic factory in my village, and I got some savings from that. I went traveling, and I thought, I’m not spending so much money as I thought. So I still came back to Portugal with some money. I started to make, to produce my book to travel that I make on the way. I do some sketches and I write about every day. I did some books, and now while I’m traveling, I sell them. My parents send it to the people. I packed every book so it’s ready to go to the mail. And now I’m doing again off district that time on when you.

Stacy: So just for our listeners who don’t know about your books, I know that you created a book out of your sketches that you’ve done on your travels, and they’re these really beautiful, kind of full color sketches or paint. I don’t know if you use watercolor or what the medium is, but of scenes from your travels. Can you tell me about that? Like, when you started journaling through art, did you intend to make a book out of it, or how did that evolve and eventually become this book that you created?

Mara:Yeah. So basically, I studied art. I was in an art school, art university, and I always like to sketch my observation, this means, like, if I am at a place, I like to paint what in front of me. And I guess, like traveling, you can go to some wonderful places that you never imagined. You can have a big glacier in front of you or, like, some beautiful mountains or a nice beach or some people at the local market that you can sketch. And it’s very inspiring for me, and for me, it’s my companion to bring my sketchbook everywhere, and I just mix the colors and, yeah, it’s part of my trip. And I think without it, I wouldn’t feel complete. So I try to do, like, I don’t do it thinking about the Miami, of course. It’s nice.

Mara:
But first of all, I started to do it because I like, it’s just what I love to do to create. So yeah, it’s nice to earn money like that.

Stacy: But did you plan to create a book, or did you decide to do that after you got back?

Mara: I plan to create because I’ve done other trips before, for example, in Iceland, and it was like a smaller trip, and I did. So I thought, okay, now let’s do me and do a bigger one.

Stacy: So can you talk us through, because we have a lot of aspiring authors that listen to this podcast, and I know you produced this book yourself fully, from what I understand. Can you talk us through that process from. Well, we heard about the creation of the art, but can you talk us through how you then turned that into a book? Like, what did you do and then how you’re. And I know you’re selling it through your instagram, but can you talk a little bit about that process and. And maybe a little bit about what you learned through creating that book?

Mara: So, as I told, I paint and I write my memories, and I feel all the sketchbooks. For example, the last trip, I filled six sketchbooks. So when I got home from the trip, I just scanned every page of the sketchbooks I scanned. I put it on Photoshop, I passed it to illustrator and put in, like, a big PDF of, like, a book. I created, like a cover and everything. And everything was written by hand. I didn’t pass anything for the computer because I like it in my style, like a dart piece. It’s not like a real romance or about something. It’s just the way I like to do it. So afterwards, to print it, I just sent it to an online printing graphic and that’s it. I didn’t.

Mara: I mean, I did it all by myself, and I presented this in some places in Portugal as well, because it’s written in Portuguese and, yeah, that’s the way it is.

Stacy: Wow. How long did it take you to put that all together and get it to market, play with, reload, intense focus to get it done? Well, yeah, like a very long creation period, because you had to make all the art. Right. And they have the experiences, and then that was the. That was the heavy lift, I suppose. And then it’s really about just pulling it together and turning it into something people buy.

Mara: Exactly. Exactly. The thing is, like, during the trip, sometimes I’m too tired to write, too tired to find or just to focus on it, but I need to do have a method. And just, like, when I have time or if I’m. If I’m staying at the house or an hostel or something, I’m, like I said, now it’s time. Let’s write something. Let’s put it on. And, yeah, every night I grab my phone and I write a little bit about the diet so I don’t forget. And then I pass it to the sketchbook.

Stacy: Wow. I mean, it’s interesting because I. I’m thinking about with traveling, how easy it is to be a passive traveler and not, like, fully experience what you’re doing. And it seems like the creation that you do along the way almost like, forces you in a way to be really present.

Mara: For me, it’s very natural. You know, I just do it because I like, and I like to have it as a memory. And there are many people that travel for a long time and that make their own art craft, for example, are people that do postcards with photography or people that do videos or people that do just macrame wrestle. You know, you just need to find your way to do stuff that you like and that you can carry on the bicycle. It’s not good. Something that it’s not too heavy or work online. I don’t know, something that you can do on the way and earn some money on the way.

Stacy: When you look ahead to the future for yourself, do you see yourself going on many more trips like this? Do you have other things that you envision? What does that look like in your mind?

Mara: So I will keep traveling, of course. That’s what I like to do. And I want to see other continents. I want to go to Africa, maybe United States one day, I don’t know. Or Mexico. And when I come back, I did, like, an exhibition about Swiss. So I want to be the same parties. I like to do sculpture. I like to do big by things in campus. So I like, when I come back, I like to focus and be also in a studio to create and put it on, put it all on an exhibition to show it to people. Because sometimes people have ideas of the world that it’s everything southern, that every place in Middle east is in war, and it’s not like that. So I like to share my experience so people don’t judge it just because they hear it.

Stacy: Yeah, it’s interesting. I mean, I have not traveled like you in any sense of the word, but I’ve definitely. I’ve lived all over the world. I’ve lived in three developing countries outside of Portugal, so lived in Caribbean. I lived in two southeast asian countries. And I agree with you that I think there’s so many assumptions that are made about other that are fear based and really not grounded in any reality.

Mara: You know, yeah, I agree.

Stacy: I’m sure that you’ve experienced that. Did you?

Mara: Everywhere. Everywhere I go is like, the next country. It’s the most. The most dangerous one. Like when I was in Uruguay, for example, and I was telling people, yeah, I’m heading to Brazil. And they’re like, no, don’t go. Or when I went to Peru, Colombia, people are like, no, don’t go. It’s very dangerous in Venezuela. But I go, and people are so nice to me, you know?

Stacy: Yeah. And I think it’s just interesting that you keep having that experience over and over, because I’m sure that it’s just so easy to go into a place and hold the same fear that other people have pushed on you about that place. It’s harder, in a sense, I think, to be completely open to the experience and forming your own opinion. I think it’s really amazing that you have moved through all of these countries with this kind of openness.

Mara: Yeah, I think that’s the. For me, it’s the right way. I don’t know, because it’s the way you can see a reality. And I really hate when people start to tell something about the place and I ask, have you been there? And they’re like, no. So how can you know? You know, it makes me very angry sometimes.

Stacy: Yeah. So I imagine there are. There’s somebody, or many somebody is listening to this that are just like, oh, my gosh, this is huge. Like, you’re doing this huge, massive thing. And I. Maybe for you, because it’s your everyday life, at some point, maybe it feels normal, but for most people listening to your story, you’re doing something really extraordinary. And I’m sure somebody out there is listening and thinking about something that to them, feels really big and really extraordinary and would require a lot of courage to embark on. And I wonder if you have any insights that you can offer somebody who’s, like, on the cusp of. Of taking that step. And unfortunately, our interview got cut off right there because of Internet connectivity issues. I remember she’s on a bicycle. She’s in Pakistan. These things happen.

Stacy: But I really wanted to share this conversation with you and encourage you to learn more about her and her work. She is on Instagram at Murish Marae, and we’ll be sure to link to that in the show notes. That’s where you can get her beautiful book. You can support her travels. You can follow along. I hope that you also got to think a little differently today and hear from somebody who’s maybe living a totally different lifestyle than you. I know. For me, it was really interesting. I could have talked logistics with her for another hour. I just wanted to know, like, how do you carry food with you? You know, we talked about showers. We talked about safety. We talked about Sharon’s money. There’s so much to that I find so interesting.

Stacy: But the thing that really inspired me about her story is that she is just like, doing the thing. And I love talking to people who are doing the thing. And I hope this inspired you today, too. I want to thank, as always, Rita Dominguez for her fine production of this podcast. She truly makes this and all of the other marketing things happen, and I am so grateful. And of course, I want to thank the rest of the team for all of their support in helping get this podcast out into the world. It’s not just a labor of love for me, it’s a labor of many to get this out to you. If you enjoyed this episode, please take just literally 20 seconds to go and leave a five star review. Right. A couple words. Love the show. Something very simple.

Stacy: It massively supports me in helping reach more people with the message of living a life that is beyond better. And I will be back with you before you know it.

Rita: Hi there. If you have been following this show for a while now, you have probably heard my name come up many times before. I’m Rita, and I am the show’s producer. And after this interview got cut out, I decided to send Mata over to the last question that we had prepared for her interview. So here’s what I asked her, and very shortly, you will hear what Mara sent over to me via an audio on Instagram. If someone is on the verge of doing something big but has something holding them back, what advice would you offer? The answer that Mada gave was very much in reference to her experience of taking on a big adventure, going on a big trip, and the type of bike that you might have.

Rita: Although I really think that we can take this as analogy for any big thing that we would like to take on in our lives. So I really hope you enjoy the last question of this episode, and maybe you will hear from me again soon.

Mara: So I think that if you are thinking on doing an adventure, it doesn’t really matter if you have the best bicycle in the world or not. I think what matters is your goal and your motivation to go. So I think everyone should do that. And the most difficult part is just to live the routine of our lives and to just go on an adventure and to leave everything behind. But after you are on the trip, everything becomes much easier. There is no big responsibilities and everything. It’s much more easy and nice.

Mara: That’s it. Just go for it.