The first time I travelled was to England. My husband had been teaching there and I took my two sons who were seven and five at the time. Travelling opens your mind, it helps you see the world from a different perspective. I also visited New Jersey and Florida.
I love travelling not necessarily on a plane though. For those who have never traveled they are missing a lot.
I have preferred to travel to first nations and cultures. Perhaps because I was born in P.R. and grew up in NYC. I have always wanted to know what other non-western culture were like. The whole Euro-man thing was/is still is a turn off. I wanted to know how much older cultures lived and how they thought of life? I knew that western ways where not very wholesome, but very destructive by design (at lease I so suspect it, back then).
While in elementary school, I would stare at the world map always wondering what the rest of the world would be like. I would run across pictures from different places and think about what people ate and what customs and music they practiced. I was also more interested in Nature as appose to the cities. Since I grew up in what many think is the greatest city, I figured I would not spend much time in them.
I was drafted and served in Combat in southern Viet-Nam. Some times while in the jungle or rubber plantations I would have moments of shear enlightenment in the midst of these new surroundings. Differing smells of fauna and the sounds of peculiar insects have a way of altering one’s perceptions, as well as enriching the spirit. Like when one taste some thing new, and is delighted by it’s newness and flavor. These things had created a hunger within me for more. I wanted to explore the whole of this incredible earth. The sensations of winds striking one’s skin at high speeds during a typhoon. The energy felt at high elevations while climbing mountains in both the Himalayas and the Andes‘ during a coming storm.
One of the things I fine most striking, are how people of native environments (out in the sticks), are so calm and at peace with themselves. I did not see all the crazy behavior one sees in western counties (including Latino America). So if you take the chance to travel, I hope your adventures are great. One need not leave this nation. Look into camping in national parks enter the wilderness areas away from the other campers. And relish those moments with the wild……Corvo