Desert Canvas Appalachia and RVA Yoga and More In the Park

If you find yourself directed to this page, it is my first blog that I created just after I was laid off from my job back in 2014 and was prepping for my travels abroad.

I am now back in the USA (most of the time) and Desert Canvas is where much of my focus is.

I am helping build Desert Canvas, Appalachia a community built organization that helps individuals create their own reality.

To learn more about us feel free to click these links:

RVA Yoga and More in the Park (Facebook)

RVA Yoga and More in the Park (Meetup)

Desert Canvas Appalachia (Facebook)

Desert Canvas Appalachia (Website)

If you would like to know a little more about me continue scrolling or check out my website HugSonnyHey.com

2016 The Big Test

I had one conversation over and over the last year, with fellow Traveler's- whether it was in Argentina or Bolivia or Hungary or Poland or even the USA.  And that conversation started with how great and amazing traveling is.  How as a traveler, you find your true self, how you conquer goals you have set for yourself everyday, how each day really is a new day unique and vibrant and completely different than the last, how you are the creator of your future, and just how empowered and happy you become while traveling.  And the conversation goes on to what is going to happen when the traveling has stopped, when you have returned home.

And many people I talked with began describing that they would need to get a job, pay for bills etc, etc.  And they talked about living in the exact same way they were living before they left to travel.

Now that may not seem odd to you, but this kind of talk threw me for a loop.

Why did it throw me for a loop?

Maybe because I defined MY traveling differently.

Many times people back home would tell me after I told them of my plans to travel across South America for 4 months, that I was taking an extended vacation.  To be honest with you, I despised this statement because it implied some things that were not true about my trip.

1.  A Vacation is basically a break from your routine.  A time to relax.  A time to reset.  And what is implied is that after vacation, you go back to doing the same things you were doing before vacation.

2.  An Extended Vacation is all the things that a Vacation is, just longer.  A longer time to relax.  A longer time to reset.  And after extended vacation, you go back to doing the same things you were doing before extended vacation.

Maybe I'm wierd, but I traveled because I was unhappy with my life, in my first post I talked about deadlines and work life and that "I'm not looking for a paved road.  I'm looking to make my own."

My trip was about learning.  If I was unhappy before, I was do something wrong, and so I set off on my trip to learn about myself, learn about others, explore, discover.  And with the things I learned along the way, I have no desire to live my life the same way I was before I left.

With that being said, 2016 has brought on a new test.  The test is to continue conquering goals I have set for myself everyday, noticing that each day really is a new day unique and vibrant and completely different than the last, creating my future, and staying empowered and happy.  And in addition, I want to share what I've learned along the way.

One of the ways I am sharing is through articles I write on my website HugSonnyHey.com

And some of my big goals are:

1. Creating a website for foreigners full of information on traveling and backpacking through the US.  The site will provide information on cities, purchasing cars, hiking national parks, etc written by us locals living in the USA.  If you have something to say about where you live I would love for you to contribute!  There is nothing like this that exists!  That website will be fully launched Feb 15 of this year...If you would like to check it out now it is ShoobyUSA.com.  If you would like to write an article on ShoobyUSA's blog definitely email me at Hughey.Sonny@gmail.com

2. Riding Horseback with limited supplies from the end of the Colorado River Delta in Baja California to its beginning at La Poudre Pass at the center of the continental divide.  I plan to begin this trip,  March 1st, 2018.

The Next Doorway

I am on a mission to become an active and influential part of a major league baseball organization, this organization being one of the teams. Traveling these past four months taught me three things. 1. I am the most resourceful person I know and I have achieved, experienced, and done everything in life that i've wanted to up through now. 2. Every person's limits are drawn in the sands where they themselves put them. 3. I passionately want to achieve the first sentence of this post. I am traversing all of America to start on this path of accomplishing this goal. City to city, baseball stadium to stadium, friend to helper, learning and leaping closer to the next step. I am the person I want to be. And I am doing what I want to do. Cheers, to reaching high.

Lo lo lo lo lo lo lo lollapaloooooza

Really great two days at Lolla here in Santiago. I saw a lot of great bands starting with Dillan Frankenwriter spanning from the Kooks to great Chilean bands including Los Tetas and Astro, Back to dillon Francis, chet Faker, and Kings of Leon, Kasabian, jr gong marley, the Smashing Pumpkins. Bands that absolutely killed it were Alt-j, who played at a smaller stage as the sun began to descend into the late afternoon, perfect vibe for their sound......the forerunners of Ska, the Specials, Cypress Hill in a indoor stadium, packed to the third deck, Robert Plant, one of the guys who made Lolla a possibility to exist, and an absolute maniac and true genius on the stagee, Jack White. Here are a couple pics from the festivities....

Pucon and Concepcion

Here are somepics from Pucon and Concepcion.  Concepcion was great, i stayed with Luca, a friend of a friend, who lives in Concepcion and he showed me a great time.  There was a 9.2 earthquake in Concepcion in 2010 andthe city pretty much was an everybody for themselves situation for a week.  But the structural engineering is so good here in Chile that thw city looked in great shape. You couldnt even tell there was a major catastrophe here just five years ago.  Concepcion is a great city, full of young people, it is a big college town....not one that many tourists frequent, so it was very sweet to stay and hang.  I wish i could have stayed longer.  Anyways here are some more pics.  Last one is us eating the best empanadas in the world! From a small shop on the side of the road about a half an hour outside of concepcion, whole in the wall or ______ as they say here.

 Villarica volcanoe, that exploded a week ago, from outside my hostel, in Pucon

The center of campus of universidad de concepcion, a private and very high regarded university

Art gallery room inside art exhibition

Inside the art exhibition at universidad de concepxion...mural in the background was a gift from mexico to the chileans to represent unity of all of the american countries

Me at a secret laguna outside of concepcion

The country flower, a very rare find, but one that my friend Luca was able to spot

Puerto Varas and Myststerious Chiloe

Less than a week until Lollapalooza in Chile! The countdown begins and im super stoked for this upcoming weekend, but there is still more slated and lots that has happened since last post..... I am in the town of Pucon, the base camp sitting under Chile's most dangerous and active Volcanoe, Villarica, which exploded hot creamy lava last week over the surrounding area. I got here after spending the we,kend in Puert Varas, an old German town just west of the Andes and north of the port town Puert Montt, which is also sanwhiched between a lake and two volcanoes, you can see that in one of the pics.  Yesterday, i took a full day tour of Chiloe, the magical and mysterious island just off the coast in the Pacific, and also the end of the great intercontinental highway we call in San Diego "The 5". On the island they have really cool buildings, the houses one one side of the road are built on top of the water. Guess they like to maximize their space. After that tour I immediately jumped on a red eye bus up the five to Temuco, from where I had to ditch the bus at 3:00am and hacer dedo (hitch hike) into Pucon. I realized after a while its probably quite creepy/horror filmish to be hitchiking in the middle of the night, so it was a quick power camp next to the interstate and catch a ride 100km into Pucon. On tap for today is some level 5 rapids and a hot springs sesh in the evening with the hostel. Then onto Concepcion tomorrow! Here are some pics of the last couple of days. Puert Varas tops, Chiloe bottoms

Good Morning Chile!

I made it into Chile after waking up in the uncontroolled middle land between argentina and Chile to one of the most spectacular scenes of nature, a lake below the cliffs i slept on, with the river valley flowing from the east, and the forest, and high mountains way in the distance with the morning light streaming through the scattered clouds across it all, it just felt like i was on the right path.  2 hours later i was at the Chilean checkpoint with another four hours of trekking along another series of high lakes forest and then to a road and civilization.

I am now there at llanada grande, a small pueblo along a new unpaved road waiting to take a bus through to puerto Varas.  I did not expect to make it this far, however i was picked up almost immediately along the road by a vacationing couple in their later years who brought me to this little town strip.  After buying a pisco from the convenience store to celebrate  i was stopped outside of town by a topographer, as i was looking for a suitable place to camp alongside the road.   After talking for several minutes in my broken spanish with him he took me to a friends house farther up the road where they were happy to let me camp alongside their crystal clear and amazingly fresh flowing river.  I slept great apart from the rooster who thought the sun was coming up and 330 in the morning, and happened to also be a stubborn rooster at that.  But i am super stoked to start day two here and am very excited to spend my last month in chile, hopefully it will be just as fun and interesting as yesterday.

Yesterday, being the day that this journal is about was just as good as the first to start.  After catching the jankiest bus in the world, piled high with luggage from all the locals traveling to the port city from deep in the Chilean forest the bus came to an abrupt stop at a lake.  It turns out, part of the bus trip included a necessary boat travel across a Patagonia Lake to get to where the road picked up again!  Total cost for the boat was two dollars, and the views were incredible.  Truely a great suprise.