10 Places

I came up with the idea to do this post after stumbling across Alastair Humphreys’ post a week or so ago. I’d never heard of Alastair before that night and the only reason I had was because I’d just voted for Jennifer Pharr Davis as the National Geographic Adventurer of the Year for 2012. I clicked through to see who else was nominated and followed through to Alastair’s blog and wa-la, here was this magical blog post. Actually, there’s a lot more magic and adventure with Humprheys that I will talk about later (I’m still writing/ruminating my Living Adventurously post).

Anyway, I’ve been to some cool places in my life but there are still places I want to go to and a few I want to go back to. Here’s my top 10 list of places to visit…maybe some are far-fetched, maybe not???

In no particular order:

1. Prince Edward Island, Canada: This love affair has been on going since I was 9 and first read Anne of Green Gables. Yes a day or two in the touristy Anne areas but then I would meander around the island slowly, taking photographs and relishing the red dirt island of L.M. Mongtomery.
2. Antarctica: Um, hello, big adventure! Now, I don’t need to go to the South Pole or anything, but setting foot on the continent itself would be great, maybe visiting McMurdo Station, check out some Weddell seals and of course a few penguins. Going to the bottom of the Earth would be awesome!
3. Salar de Uyuni: Bolivia’s Uyuni Salt Flats. The brief one week I spent in Bolivia was mostly spent in the tropical areas of the southeast and not near the salt flats. If I went again, this is where I’d want to go.
4. Paris, France: This one will have to be a long term affair. My dream would be to live there for a year, soaking up the culture and learning the language fluently, seeing all of the historical landmarks, doing plein air paintings in the many parks and sightseeing the whole country. I’m jealous of my friend Rosemarie who is living in France for a few months this fall and winter as her husband goes to school there.
5. The British Isles: Again, I think I’d have to live in each of these countries that make up the British Isles in order to fully enjoy them. That and I’d want to do the Coast to Coast hike or any one of the numerous pub to pub hikes in Ireland or England.
6. Patagonia: A friend from college went to Patagonia a few years ago and as I looked through her photos I realized this region of Argentina and Chile had to go on my list of places to visit. I haven’t done enough research to figure out where I’d want to go exactly, but I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t be disappointed with anywhere I went!
7. Rancho Nuevo, Mexico: Seeing an arribada of Kemp’s ridley sea turtles…*awesome*! I could also handle Ostional, Costa Rica to see their turtle cousins the olive ridleys. My hiking trail name is Ridley for a reason!
8. Oyamel Fir Forest, Mexico: Another place involving masses of fauna in one places, the winter home of the monarch butterfly!
9. Everest Base Camp: This one might be a bit cliché but I think it would be fantastic! I ruled out climbing to the top of after reading Into Thin Air, when I said no thank you to pulmonary edemas and other high altitude illnesses that often result in death. Despite the fact that many people go to base camp, I don’t think enough people in the general public have gone to make it a ‘routine’ place to visit.
10. New Zealand: Some friends of ours in Florida, geocachers named FootTrax aka: Chris and Sarah, went there for their honeymoon and did a backpacking trip through some of the national parks there. Their photos were beautiful and I’ve heard New Zealand is the new Australia, as in, it’s the cool place to go.

Now for the places I want to go back to:

Galapagos Islands, Ecuador: Five days on three islands was not enough time during the summer of 1998. One of the islands we only spent one day on due to a protest on the island that prevented us from being able to go ashore. What I saw was just a teaser, a trailer to a larger adventure and more beautiful sights. It was freakin’ amazing!

Bolivia: Yeah I mentioned the salt flats, but I only spent a week in Bolivia and I want to see more! It is such a diverse country, high altitudes of La Paz down to the western Amazonian jungles…so much there to see!

The Bath’s, Virgin Gorda, British Virgin Islands: I think it was my parents 20th anniversary when we went to the BVI and at the last minute we kids got to tag along! We primarily stayed on Tortola but one day we took the ferry over to Virgin Gorda to sight see. Unfortunately for me I’d got a speck of sand or salt from the ocean in my eye and it had been irritated enough to go to the doctor on Tortola and I was thus banned from swimming. Therefore I did not get to enjoy The Baths much at all! I would revisit Tortola, too. I could enjoy also a Pusser’s painkiller now whereas I was only 15 then!

So, what about you? Where do you want to go? Entice me with your list so I have more places to add to mine!