Scheme, scheme, fantasize, perspective
Wed, Jan. 23rd, 2008 11:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scarlettinaSo I have this writer friend up in Vancouver, lovely woman, terrific writer, scary-good photographer. She and I have done a couple of writing things together but for several years now, we've talked about taking some photography classes together, maybe doing an expedition or two with instructors. Well, last night I sent her links to some prospective ideas, and she came back to me with an e-mail basically saying, "I like these but you pick."
::growl:: (in a good way)
So tonight I sent her e-mail back with my choices. A couple of the things I'm looking at are local workshops and very reasonably priced. One, however, is a fantasy with a capital "F": Easter Island and Maachu Pichu. Pricey as hell, between the travel itself and the instructor/guide fees but...it could be amazing. See? This is what happens once you've traveled to somewhere wonderful: You never want to stop. I don't know that I'm going to do another big trip a year after Kenya, but suddenly...it's a possibility, and I'm fingering my passport thoughtfully.
My first real travel adventure was my trip to Mexico, almost 20 years ago. Doesn't sound adventurish, does it? And when I describe the trip in its barest bones--a week at Club Med in Cancun--it sounds positively pedestrian. But I took the side trips that the club offered, so I got to see Chichen Itza, Tulum and Xelha, chock full of ancient ruins and monuments--and I was hooked. The next trip was Egypt and Israel: Pyramids! Temples! Ancient cities! (Sensing a theme?) Kenya was the exception for me: a trip about wildlife and culture rather than ancient history, but just as satisfying and exciting.
So here I am again, considering another adventure. I don't know that it's going to happen this year, but I find myself thinking more and more about Maachu Pichu and Rapa Nui, and all those hours with issues of National Geographic. At this rate, of course, France and Italy and Spain and Greece may never happen, what with Angkor Wat, Bali, Denali National Park, the Grand Canyon and, oh yeah, the rest of the African continent calling. Is life long enough to get to all these places? I dunno. Still wanna try, though.
And speaking of Kenya (I was, way up above), I received a text message from O, one of the guides I got to know while I was in Tsavo, the other day. He texted me to let me know that he and his family are okay in the midst of the riots and craziness there. I've really been worried about him and the other expedition leaders. I knew I was walking in a different world when I was in Africa, but I'm connected to it now in this little way, and it changes one's perspective. It feels much more real than merely another news story on NPR or in the New York Times. I worry about my friends there. And I fret about the reality of living with that sort of instability on a daily basis. So this is the tough side of adventuring: your perspective changes, the world gets a little smaller, and the scariness and strife all seems that much closer. Ultimately, I think this is a goodness, but it is challenging.
::growl:: (in a good way)
So tonight I sent her e-mail back with my choices. A couple of the things I'm looking at are local workshops and very reasonably priced. One, however, is a fantasy with a capital "F": Easter Island and Maachu Pichu. Pricey as hell, between the travel itself and the instructor/guide fees but...it could be amazing. See? This is what happens once you've traveled to somewhere wonderful: You never want to stop. I don't know that I'm going to do another big trip a year after Kenya, but suddenly...it's a possibility, and I'm fingering my passport thoughtfully.
My first real travel adventure was my trip to Mexico, almost 20 years ago. Doesn't sound adventurish, does it? And when I describe the trip in its barest bones--a week at Club Med in Cancun--it sounds positively pedestrian. But I took the side trips that the club offered, so I got to see Chichen Itza, Tulum and Xelha, chock full of ancient ruins and monuments--and I was hooked. The next trip was Egypt and Israel: Pyramids! Temples! Ancient cities! (Sensing a theme?) Kenya was the exception for me: a trip about wildlife and culture rather than ancient history, but just as satisfying and exciting.
So here I am again, considering another adventure. I don't know that it's going to happen this year, but I find myself thinking more and more about Maachu Pichu and Rapa Nui, and all those hours with issues of National Geographic. At this rate, of course, France and Italy and Spain and Greece may never happen, what with Angkor Wat, Bali, Denali National Park, the Grand Canyon and, oh yeah, the rest of the African continent calling. Is life long enough to get to all these places? I dunno. Still wanna try, though.
And speaking of Kenya (I was, way up above), I received a text message from O, one of the guides I got to know while I was in Tsavo, the other day. He texted me to let me know that he and his family are okay in the midst of the riots and craziness there. I've really been worried about him and the other expedition leaders. I knew I was walking in a different world when I was in Africa, but I'm connected to it now in this little way, and it changes one's perspective. It feels much more real than merely another news story on NPR or in the New York Times. I worry about my friends there. And I fret about the reality of living with that sort of instability on a daily basis. So this is the tough side of adventuring: your perspective changes, the world gets a little smaller, and the scariness and strife all seems that much closer. Ultimately, I think this is a goodness, but it is challenging.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: Thu, Jan. 24th, 2008 03:47 pm (UTC)Heh. Fair enough. Growing up in New York, and living in Seattle, Mexico feels like a default vacation destination if you don't have a lot of money but want to go somewhere warm, sunny, and cheap. But I loved doing it the way I did it. When you live in New York, the Caribbean Islands feel the same way.
Interesting, your thought that one is either an Africa person or an Asia person. I haven't done Asia yet, but I do have a couple of places I'd like to go see. More of my destinations are sort of southeast Asia, I suppose (see above re: Angkor Wat and Bali); Japan and China haven't really been on my radar. I would never have guessed I'd develop an affinity for Africa but there it is. The more I go, the more I want to go. (I do want to see the great migration someday.)