Time to Write

(4 minute read) (Originally posted 7/27/23)

For many years, about 20, I have been wanting to write about my experiences travelling throughout the world. Year after year, I tried doing this on the side, but it never happened. But what did happen was my incessant story telling about all the amazing adventures I had. I often felt like Forrest Gump at the bus stop telling his life story to strangers seated next to him.

Once I decided to start writing, I told myself I would not transition into this until I had a solid set of content, and a list of at least 50 topics. I am up to 72. I traveled mostly in the 1990s and early 2000s and then I took a pause. Until 2023, the last country I went to was Canada in 2004. Hard to believe that it’s been nearly 20 years before I started traveling again. A lot has changed since then. Fast forward to this year, my friend and I finally took the leap and started traveling abroad starting with a trip to London and Paris in January and again in April. That’s when I decided it was time to switch gears and start writing.

Back then I carefully recorded my travels in the journals I kept. I have about 8 years worth of travel journals – the meticulous kind where I numbered each day. The “past” me must have known that the “future” me might want this someday. It is about 20 hours before my flight to Chile. And now it’s time to make this entry. A lot of people asked why am I going to Chile. I still want to move to Paris. But when I was in Paris I struggled to try and speak French because I am still not fluent in Spanish.

So I opted to go to a Spanish speaking country next. I thought about Spain, but for now South America was the best choice. And Chile was next on my list (at any given time there are at least 5 countries “next” on my list). I have been to 30 countries. Chile will be number 31. Returning to global travel has been a long time coming. I have many amazing and unique experiences, but mostly I am glad most happened before the breakout of the internet. For me this first happened in the Peace Corps when I left for Lesotho in November 1994. While we had access to the BBC and VOA and a complimentary monthly subscription to International Newsweek, which only arrived in batches every few months, our exposure to daily news was limited. I remember the OJ Simpson trial was happening in 1995. I remember the day the verdict was given. I was listening to the BBC radio station that day. They interrupted the current program to tune in live to hear the verdict.

I immediately turned off the radio because I was not interested in hearing it. I didn’t want that to be in my head all day. And it must have been the same for the other Peace Corps volunteers because I don’t remember any of us ever talking about it. I didn’t know what the verdict was until I got back to the States in 1996 and my friend brought it up. He was talking about the trial and mentioned Johnnie Cochran. I asked “Who is Johnnie Cochran?” and he explained who he was.

I could tell you that putting iodine tablets in water will make it safe to drink, but it doesn’t taste good.

I could tell you that if wolf spiders live in your hut it’s better to leave them there because they kill all the other bugs, and they generally will not harm you.

I could give you ideas on how to deal with a broken zipper in your sleeping bag.

I could tell you how to store cheese for weeks without a refrigerator.

But I could not tell you who Johnnie Cochran was. And I was okay with that.

Fast forward to today. Off to Chile.