Have you ever totaled up the number of countries that you have visited in your lifetime? Furthermore, how many times have you traveled to each particular country? Breaking it down even further, what places/cities have you visited (with at least one overnight stay) in each destination/country? If you answer all these questions carefully, you’ll have put together your own TRAVELER’S RESUME.

Let’s start out with yours truly. My inaugural trip as a traveler happened in Dec. 1973 when I went to Mexico for 3 weeks. Over the ensuing 35 years, I have traveled to 25 different countries. If you look at my RESUME, you will see that I’m very partial to the tropics. Call me the tropical traveler if you may.

NORTH AMERICA:

• Mexico (18)

Puerto Vallarta (3), Mexico City (3), Guadalajara, Villahermosa, Merida,
Mexican Caribbean – Cancun (4), Playa del Carmen (2) and Tulum; Oaxaca (5),
Puerto Escondido (5), San Blas(2) Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo,
Baja California - Cabo San Lucas (4), La Paz and Loreto,
Costa Alegre - La Manzanilla (2) and Bahia de Navidad

CARIBBEAN:

• Jamaica (30+)

Kingston, Blue Mountains, Port Antonio, Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, Negril,
South Coast - Black River, Treasure Beach and Milk River Bath; Cockpit Country,
Mandeville and Christiana

• Barbados (6)
• St. Lucia (2)
• Antigua
• Dominican Republic

Santo Domingo and Sosua Beach

• Cuba

Havana and Varadero Beach

• St. Vincent
• Trinidad
• St. Maarten/St. Marten
• Bahamas

Nassau and Eleuthera

• Caribbean/Panama Canal Cruise

SOUTH AMERICA:

• Colombia

Bogota, Cartagena and San Andres Island

• Peru

Lima, Cusco, Sacred Valley including Machu Picchu, Amazon basin

• Ecuador

Quito, Otavalo and Mindo

CENTRAL AMERICA:

• Costa Rica (6)

San Jose (6), Heredia (2), Sarapiqui (2), Manuel Antonio (3), Dominical,
Pacific Lowlands – Carara ; Guanacaste – Canas and Palo Verdes NP (2), Tamarindo Beach (2), Ocotal and Los Innocentes; Jaco, Tortugero, Monteverde (2), Osa Peninsula, La Fortuna and Arenal (4),
Caribbean Coast- Cahuita (2) and Puerto Viejo; Wilson Botanical Gardens
(San Vito), San Gerardo de Dota and Nicoya Peninsula - Playa Samara

• Guatemala (2)

Guatemala City (2), Antigua (2) and Lake Atitlan

WEST AFRICA:

• Ghana

Accra, Gold Coast, Kumasi

• Togo

Lome

• Mali

Bamako and Mopti

• Ivory Coast

Abidjan

SOUTHEAST ASIA:

• Thailand (7)

Bangkok (7), Chiang Mai (5), Mae Sa Valley (2), Phuket (3), Koh Lanta, Koh Jum,
Koh Samui (2), Koh Chang (5), Pattaya (3), Khao Sok National Park, Chiang Rai Province – Doi Tung (2), Mae Salong (2) and Chiang Kong; Kanchanaburi (2),
Sangkhlaburi, Sakaeo, Sukhothai (2), Ayutthaya and Mae Hong Son Province-Pai (2), Soppong and Mae Hong Son (2)

• Laos

Vientiane, Luang Prabang, Mekong River Cruise

• Cambodia

Siem Reap(Angkor Wat)

EUROPE

• England

London Area

Please note: Number in Parentheses () indicates the number of visits

Feel free to submit your Travel Resume here!

I had my taste of travel on a 3-week adventure to Mexico in January 1974. Back at home, I found myself drifting into a career in travel – not only did I become a travel agent/entrepreneur, I had become a traveler. However another six years elapsed before I commenced my 2nd adventure – it was in February 1980 that I flew to La Paz, the capital of Mexico’s Baja California. From there, I took the bus to Cabo San Lucas, the new ‘chic’ beach resort located at the very tip of the Baja Peninsula. As Cabo was in “its infancy” as a beach resort, there were only a handful of hotels in the resort area. From Cabo, I took the car ferry overnight to Puerto Vallarta. Upon arriving at the ferry terminal in PV the following morning, I caught the bus to my next destination – San Blas, a relatively small obscure beach town that had become a favorite port-of-call with birdwatchers.

Although San Blas was located only 100 miles up the coast from Puerto Vallarta, the journey would take a good 5 hours or so because there was no coastal road at the time. As a result, the route went inland into the mountains thru Tepic, the capital city of Nayarit , where I had to overnight before completing the journey the next day. The ride on the local bus from Tepic to San Blas (a good 40 miles) was a most scenic drive – descending from the mountains to the coast on a very winding switchback road, we passed by lush coconut and banana plantations.

I have some wonderful memories of my first visit to historic San Blas, a sleepy hole-in-the wall surrounded by mangroves and some very lush tropical vegetation. Back in the late 17th century, San Blas used to be an important Spanish stronghold and port city – located on a hill overlooking town are the crumbling ruins of a large Spanish military fort. Except for the jejenes (sea gnats) - which come out en mass sometime before dusk - San Blas was my concept of paradise. The pace was slow, the ambiance special and the tropical setting just heavenly. While I was there, I befriended the head immigration officer in San Blas who took me on a memorable birding expedition in the mountains some distance away from town. As a bonus, my stay coincided with the celebration of the annual Carnival. Next the journey continues to JAMAICA.

One of the most miserable travel experiences happened to me when I was in Mexico. It was December 1973 and I had just spent an action packed week in Puerto Vallarta over the Christmas Holidays. As this was my first real trip to Mexico – previously I had only traveled to the border towns of Tijuana and Juarez – I decided to extend my stay an extra 14 days to explore the country. The plan was to take the bus from Puerto Vallarta on Mexico’s Pacific Coast to Merida located in the Yucatan Peninsula. The bus trip itself was very enjoyable as I got a chance to see Mexico’s many tropical landscapes – from the jungles of the Pacific Coast to the mountainous interior of central region to the lowland rainforests of the Yucatan Peninsula. To break up the long journey I stopped over in Guadalajara and Mexico City – Mexico’s two largest cities - and on the long final leg from Mexico City to Merida I layed over in Villahermosa, the capital city of the state of Tabasco.

After a long and arduous 14-hour bus ride from Mexico City, the bus arrived in Villahermosa at about 9:00PM. As soon as I stepped off the bus, I started sweating bullets. The weather was unbelievably hot and muggy even though late December is traditionally one of the more comfortable times of the year. In addition to the unbearable humidity, the air was thick with the smell of oil. Built on top of reclaimed swampland, just recently Villahermosa had become a major oil refinery center and this Gulf city was becoming a real boomtown.

Checking into a budget hotel in the middle of the downtown area, I was immediately greeted by a couple of bloodthirsty mosquitoes when I entered my room. To say that the room was infested with mosquitoes is an understatement. Walking outside into muggy evening air, I decided to look for accommodations at a first class hotel – I had to escape from the mosquitoes. I didn’t have much luck, as all the better (and more expensive) hotels were all booked up. That first night in Villahermosa was total misery – my room was like a sauna, and it seemed that the whole night I was occupied with swatting mosquitoes. I must have killed at least 20 of those bloodsuckers.

The following morning, I checked out of my hotel. Hopping into a taxi and asked the driver to take me to a decent hotel. Driving along the highway which leads out of town, I ended up at a lowrise bungalow affair which was surrounded by profuse tropical vegetation. After touring La Venta, Villahermosa’s famous archaeological park in the afternoon, I returned to my hotel. I didn’t fare any better in my new surroundings, as the problem with mosquitoes was just as bad as the first night. After another sleepless night of swatting mosquitoes and getting sucked, the next morning I was enormously relieved to catch a bus out of Villahermosa to Merida. Needless to say, I will not return any time soon.

On my way to Tenacatita Beach from La Manzanilla, my taxi driver asked me if I wanted to take a tour of the distillery. I thought he was taking me to a tequila tasting room, but when we approached the place, I saw the sign and I realized that that this was not a tequila tasting room but a Raicilla distillery (whatever that was). I learned later that Raicilla was a less processed, more organic relative of Tequila.

A docent by the name of Tony led the tour. Native of the New Mexican highlands, Tony was quite an interesting character – as a snowbird, he lived half of the year in Tenacatita, returning home to New Mexico during the hot summer months. Wearing a flowery Hawaiian shirt, with his dark swarthy looks he could have passed for an Indian chief, a Samoan or a Hawaiian. In fact, his mother was a Native American Indian and his father was a Spaniard.

Tony rattled off the history of Raicilla - it seems that the Native Aztec Indians were the originators of this potent concoction, and the Spanish conquistadors and their descendants pirated the basic recipe to jumpstart the large scale production of tequila. Tequila is produced in large factories and is highly processed - many additives are added to the final product. Raicilla on the other hand is a homemade product and consists of all natural ingredients - it has a taste similar to Tequila but is a lot smoother. For a long time it was considered moonshine or bootleg liquor; not too long ago, the production of Raicilla became a legitimate business and some of the former bootleggers in Jalisco formed a collective to produce and market it. According to Tony, drinking Raicilla gives a man a lot of power, strength and feelings of euphoria without any hangover. Very interesting - too bad I didn’t buy a bottle or two.