The Forgotten Continent

It's fair to ask what our ultimate travel goal is. But all I can answer at this point is that it is a work in progress. The classic answer is that we want to see the world. But let's face it, there are many places we won't have the time or money to see, and there are plenty of places we have little real desire to see (mostly because they are not particularly safe or welcoming to visitors).

Focusing on Europe has been an obvious place to begin because it has a deep history we are familiar with and connected to, and because it is relatively comfortable, very safe, and perfectly suited for do-it-yourself tourism. That last point is particularly important for us because we have little interest in being guided through a visit anywhere. We don't have any interest in experiencing some sort of made-for-tourists tour from the windows of a bus - our route being carefully chosen to pass only the most attractive areas while the places people really live remain safely out of sight. We couldn't afford the extra cost involved in trips like that, anyway. Planning and executing the trip ourselves makes the overall experience much more educational and rewarding. A simple test a place has to pass for us to feel comfortable visiting might be the car rental test; We have to be able to rent a reliable car and drive it anywhere without worrying about getting lost to the point of putting ourselves in danger.

But that does put some serious constraints on where in the world we would consider visiting. There are many places, particularly across Africa and Asia, where there are potentially fascinating places to see but little realistic way to do it effectively or safely without either being guided or being sequestered from real local life by staying in places locals would never go. I know there are ways to partly overcome these challenges. I'm always running across stories of people having a wonderful time visiting places you never even considered would be well-suited for tourism. But we have a limited budget and young children, too. I wouldn't know where to begin planning a trip to China, Thailand, Tanzania or Madagascar. Maybe several years from now when I know more about these more exotic options, the children are old enough to be independent (or are too busy to join us at all) and some of these places have more tourism infrastructure in place, then we will give these locations more serious thought.

In the mean time, in addition to Australia and New Zealand, there are still many other places I would like to visit outside of Europe. Many places in Central America have become mini tourism hot spots recently. Costa Rica seems to have evolved into one giant eco-tourism resort.

But the place my curiosity keeps coming back to is South America. Our neighbor to the south that you don't even have to cross an ocean to get to, is almost completely forgotten as a place of interest for most Americans. It seems to reside in a sort of tourism no-man's-land. North America is home. Africa is more dark and mysterious. Asia is more exotic. Australia is more familiar. Europe is more classic. There is something for everyone in those five choices. Perhaps South America simply lacks a tourism identity.

But from what little I know (and it is very little, indeed) South America seems to have a great deal to offer, including many wonders of nature, deep history, and interesting cities. Most intriguing, though, is that it seems to be populated by people going about their lives in relative peace, comfort and safety (at least compared to many other exotic locations) and yet their lives and lifestyles rarely ever enter our consciousness. I'll bet we know less about Peru than we do India; less about Argentina than New Zealand; less about Chile than Kenya. Why is that? It sparks my curiosity....