DIY Backpacker Spa

By special request, here is blog devoted exclusively to a DIY Backpacker Spa.

Trekking the world in flip-flops with a unwieldy backpack that seems perpetually affixed to your body, a backpacking gal deserves a spa night as often as she can get one. Even though some international destinations have beauty treats for the budget-minded girls, these 'fine establishments' don't always give you that pleasant, anticipatory feeling....more like a sensation that makes you duck your head and rush by with great haste, ignoring the sing-song voices trying to lure you into certain discomfort and unease.

So, when you need a break from the dusty trail, try some of these easy, inexpensive, and easy-to-find spa ideas!

SUGAR SCRUB: take a tablespoon of sugar (unrefined works best) and place it in a dampened palm. Mix one drop of shampoo or liquid soap and a few drops of water and apply in circular motions to rough skin. Good for hands, feet, elbows, etc. Wonderful solution for peeling beach skin, overgrown cuticles, itchy feet, and general exfoliation purposes. Make sure you rinse well to avoid sticky skin. Licking off the sugar is a possibility but not recommended (remember the soap....).

JOJOBA OIL: A little bit of jojoba goes a looooong way. Add a few drops to the palm of your hand, rub hands together to warm, then apply to face, hands, legs, arms, anywhere! Jojoba is the closest thing to the composition of natural skin oil, so it's great for every part of your body. Also great for dry scalps and chapped lips. Great option for a hot oil treatment for hair: microwave a small amount and then apply to hair (especially to the ends). Let sit for 30 minutes, shampoo/condition as usual.

UMBRELLA SPA: Yearning for a sauna? You need look no further than the bathtub in your (hopefully more quaint than questionable) hostel room. Run the bath hot, hot, hot, then climb in. Open an umbrella above your head (the possibility of bad luck is SO worth the risk) and let the steam collect under it, enveloping your mind and head in soft, thick warmth. Settle back, smile, and ignore the other backpackers banging on the door.

TEA TREE OIL: A natural antiseptic, tea tree oil is a potent oil from Australia. A drop mixed with water makes a great face toner, killing bacteria and germs and backpacking grime build-up. Add a few drops to a small tub for soaking tired feet. In a hot bath, tea tree oil will help congestion and cough, invigorating your senses!

TEA BATH: No matter where you are, herbs and spices are sure to be found. Shop around for some local treats to add to bathtime! Favorites of mine were Jasmine Tea Bath in China, Dried Rose Bud Bath in Morocco, Mint Tea Bath in Egypt, Rosemary Bath in Italy, and Lavender Bath in France. Be a tea bag and soak for a while!

AVOCADO: Not just for guacamole anymore! As a certain friend might vividly remember, avocado is filled with nourishing oils and is just the ticket to soothing dry, parched skin (especially sunburns). Slather it on, let it sit, rinse. Try not to use soap, as it will strip away the lovely oils that have soaked into your skin. Serve nachos or burritos for dinner in a dimly-lit room and hope that your friends don't notice your funny smell or greenish tinge.

On the road or nestled at home, have a backpacker spa night!

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Un Dia Gratis

August 2, 2010

We want to go to the Prado. It is within our grasp now.... instead we spend a day embracing the city as it is.

Today, we went to community art centers, foundation museums, centers for alternative work and thought and action. We just went out and took in Madrid. And, it did not costs us more than our lunch.


We are couchsurfers. Normally, we would have planned our trip in Europe around visits with new friends. This time we have a nice hotel we like and we are not inclined to move. We are in the last month of an over-extended honeymoon. We are treating ourselves special - and that feels right. No better city, we figure, to treat yourself special than Madrid, Spain. Madrid is a city for lifestyle lovers - a pioneering culture of quality of life ethos.

Remember, we are hotel owners first, hostel providers, tour operators; even if our businesses are small, our first love was getting to know travelers in backpacker guest houses - and we like to give back! We want to spend money locally as we have it. Plus, it is nice to have your private balcony overlooking the square and no one counting on your conversation save your beloved.


Please join us once again as we ramble. We cover the tiny alleys and vignettes without you here, so please forgive us our lack of details - what is important is the feeling - the free travel by design. Our pace, our joys, our happenstance endings are what we do best as travelers.

Museums - What are we doing. Political acts, saying things that are not said in mainstream, open to all, working, all ages. What we are doing with museums is to survey and feel our humanity.


Museums have so much in the way of education, of shared experiences. But, they are also storage sheds. More often, they are examples of historical reservoirs. They contain residues of what we choose to remember. We prefer museums and exhibits which challenge us and our society. Often, just by going to museums we provoke new ideas and creativity in ourselves. There is a tried and true difference between Big National, famous collections and the work that is taking place in small contemporary public spaces. We would not suggest that you miss any of it. But, for our 'dia gratis' we stuck to those of the beaten path. We found these uncrowded, filled with challenging and exciting materials, and very very contemporary.

Other spontaneous adventures we had along the way: lying in Retiro park, visiting rose gardens, and finding a graffiti park - built over parking garages tucked behind Retiro Park.

That is but a small taste of what we did and saw this one day. When we are in these amazing historic cities it is always clear that a lifetime would not be enough to explore them, to learn their intricacies and most intimate and personalized magic. Madrid is this way. Madrid has an aura of history. Its people are wonderfully individualistic, personal, self-confident, engaged, open.

Other great free options we have discovered in Madrid include the Train Station, Archeological Museum, The National Library, and Exhibits on Government Planning, and Urban History at Los Nuevos Ministerios -which has a nice park garden that is great for picnicking (or, if you are looking for another cool picnic spot try totally hidden but surrounded by dense offices and shopping plazas Plaza de Picasso - sorry no Picassos - but a great fountain, quiet, and lots of cool shade!).

Of course, there were things we had to pay for on this day of free Madrid. We walked, but we would have just as easily enjoyed the bus or Metro. Ten passes are 10 Euro, and may be used by multiple riders. We paid for a great hotel. We had a fantastic $20 lunch in Madrid.


Spaniards take lunch as the most important meal. It is large, usually three course. We like to split the lunch and order a smaller side dish or salad. This keeps our price lower and leaves room for drinks and tip for under $20.

We think and talk and write a lot about how to explain to people what we do. It is not how we do it that is important. How you do it is your own thing. But, when we choose to attend the free hours at the museum, we do so as supporters of the arts. We would like to think we find other ways to contribute, support, and spread our love of art around. We go to smaller museums, attend special exhibits, patronize small galleries, and buy art from artists whenever we can.

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Contraposition - there is another choice for what to do with a day in Madrid. It is surprisingly cheap - the cost is $40 ticket for 24 hours of use for the Madrid Tourist Pass. After all we describe that can be done for nothing - why do it? Because it too provides a way of seeing things. This could be the marathon adventure. You could challenge yourself to try and see as much as possible : Having a museum pass (and a 10 euro Metro pass) will allow you to see much more than you ever thought possible in one city in 24 hours. This route asks you to see things opposite of what we described above asking yourself, 'what happens differently in a rush'?


Magic is always happening around us - how we choose to encounter it is personal. We do choose - we twist and alter our fates accordingly.

Un dia gratis - un otro dia de gracias!!

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Introduction to 'un dia gratis' - A Day in Madrid.

The day was especially arranged by Brittany with total luck granted. She had taken her start-up information from Free Madrid Events listed on the web.

We are traveling as we want to. Though we have occasionally wished we had a bigger 'restaurant budget' or a more ethical, less consumption oriented clothes budget; we realize more often that when we set high expectations we are disappointed; and, we prefer surprises.

We do not want to be contributors to mass consumerism and materialism. That has been a point about how we have traveled this year.

We do not contend that our ability to live off a fixed sum for a long time is the norm. How is what we do different? We aim to use our travel as personal growth to share/blog so that others can benefit from our learning curve. How we are different we hope is by circling the world this year, not getting bored nor living 'on the cheap' and producing products from our travel.

We think and talk and write a lot about explaining to people what we do. At a dinner recently at L'Mansion, Morocco I was told that our budget for a year could not have lasted one couple a month abroad. They get tired, then go home to work. This is normal. We accept our differences.

We live abroad exactly as we hope to, as we expect to, as we would do at home. That is the magic. As our friend a world traveler told us, "You have Time or Money - choose one, you cannot have both."

So I am writing a blog titled 'un dia gratis - one free day' to explain to people who are interested in us, or our story, or in travel, how one day in Madrid, Spain can exemplify our travel ethic, our personalized economy, and a philosophy of urban and social engagement. Please continue to read our blogs as we hope to have many travel hints, experiences, and recommendations to share.

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La Corrida

As we are in Madrid, a wave of protest is sweeping the country: sentiments that are urged to a media-worthy level after the corrida (bullfighting) has been banned in Catalonia. The local news is filled with images of protesters, holding aloft bold phrases for bulls’ rights, accompanied by graphic illustrations. They argue that the corrida is cruel and unjust and a barbaric tradition that has no place in modern society.

According to Wikipedia, cruelty can be described as “indifference to suffering, and even pleasure in its infliction. Cruelty usually carries connotations of supremacy over a submissive or weaker force, insofar as a weaker party or entity can rarely inflict suffering on a party or entity that has greater dominance.”

Corrida in Valencia, Venezuela - 2004

Supporters for the corrida argue that it is an art form that must be preserved and honored, that individuals should be left to decide for themselves as to whether to attend the corrida, and that the banning of bullfighting will jeopardize the livelihood of thousands of Spaniards - the bullfighters, the breeders, and the individuals who work in and around the corrida culture.


Some people caught in the middle of the two arguments ask why the bulls must be killed, as death is not part of the corrida tradition in either France or Portugal.


I have been to a bullfight before, in Valencia, Venezuela, in 2005. The matadors were spectacular, they were dancers. A Spanish matador pirouetted around the thrashing, snorting, frothing, several thousand pound bull, her body holding perfect form in the swirling dust. We drank spicy Venezuelan rum and watched the performance, solitary gringos in a sea of onlookers. The performance was mesmerizing, a theater production, set against the grim stage of a bloodied bullring. Six bulls were pitted against strong and determined human athletes. I cried for each bull as it died. It was tragic, but the performance was beautiful, awe-inspiring, talented, highly trained, an incredible display of balance and well-honed technique.


The corrida is certainly a display of dominance: human over nature. Since the emergence of our species, we have always battled nature, we bully ourselves into positions of control, and force nature into submission. Asphalt and concrete and tunnels blasted through rock. Plowing and planting and foresting and deforesting our planet.


I say that Humans are cruel, my husband says that Nature is innately cruel.


Human society creates additional opportunities for cruelty. We, as a species, increase length of life, allowing people to live longer and (arguably) suffer longer. We pave fields and clear-cut forests, turning thriving animal species into road kill. We kill each other with great violence and cruelty. We use animals for testing and experiments, causing great pain and suffering. We destroy our earth a bit more each day, regardless of the long-term cost. We have rodeos and bullfights and horseracing and dogracing and dogfights and cockfights and foxhunts. All these are forms of cruelty, why choose only one - bullfighting - on which to wage war? Why is bullfighting deemed ‘more cruel’ than animal testing? Where are the priorities? At least bullfighting is a time-honored, talent-driven “sport” that has served as a cultural focal point and inclusive societal activity for several hundred years.


My point is not that bullfighting is right or wrong, but let’s get some perspective people! There are countless harmful and cruel activities that humans are engaged in every day.


Beautiful bullfighting photos can be found on BBC. Caution, some viewers may find the images disturbing.

Traditions can be wonderful. Traditions can be barbaric. Nothing, wonderful or barbaric, should be continued simply because it is a tradition - where has reasoning power gone? How many gentle pasttimes are carried on because of tradition? And how many cruel or barbaric pasttimes are carried on or attempted to be revived because they are traditional?

- ruffled_feathers, BBC website

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Reflecting on Estepona - Summer side hamlet with a view of Africa

There is a sculpture here in a park that says a lot about this ‘fishing village.’ It is an image on a hand. The wave seems to be landing - upside down! It is like an upside down ‘la vague’ with a child (baby Jesus) being swaddled on the end of an inverted waterfall. The sculpture is new but parts of the baby‘s finger digits are broken off. There is no genitalia to the infant.

This park wants to be useful and pretty. It has the sweep of wisteria covered arbors, lots of benches and a block fountain wall that seems to have an infinite pool perched on the edge above it. The fountain pours silently, rain over glass, onto a painted blue bottom pool. It is calming.

There is a sense in the park of a modern planning. It is recent construction. The good use of taxes. There are two paths that lead out of a fountain. They lead up rose covered walks to a sloping hills of manicured green, more arbors, more benches.

The benches are empty. They are waiting for people. The benches and the park are waiting for the town of old folks to adopt them and migrate in on afternoons. To be in the park away from dusty cafes, the tapa joints. The characteristic silent park is waiting for the English tourists and permanently disgruntled residents to take their pugs, bulldogs, and shelties here…once dogs and skates are allowed.

In Estepona, there is a park with an awkward sculpture hidden to the side of the entrance.

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