Put Away Your Checklists and Slow Down

What do you think of this itinerary?" a fellow traveler once asked. His message listed 29 countries on six continents, with line items such as "Brazil: 5 days, Argentina: 6 days, Chile: 3 days, then fly to Australia: two weeks." The list went on and on like that, for a period covering one year. My reply was, in short, that she should throw out two-thirds of the destinations and start over.

The U.S. is living in a competitive society. Even when we try hard to avoid it, we are under pressure to stand out, to do better, to win every contest. We're wired to try to come out on top whether in our jobs, our sports contests, our classes, or our excursions to the mall or the car dealer. Raised on this competitive spirit, many travelers have trouble letting go when they decide to circle the globe for the first time. They want to see the most places, get the most passport stamps, and check off the most pages in the book 1,000 Places to See Before You Die.

Unfortunately, their whirlwind year abroad leaves them with mere snatches of memories. They form few relationships that last more than a day. Far too many of their stories revolve around the process of travel: bus rides, train rides, ferry rides, and time spent waiting for all of the above. Instead of stopping to smell the papayas, they choose to smell more diesel fumes.

I once read an article in one of the glossy travel magazines about a 65,000-mile round-the-world journey by one of the magazine's writers. It ended up being an article about planes, airports, and checking in and out of hotels. The writer wasn't content to actually spend some time in places and see what made them tick. Instead he had to turn it into something fit for reality TV: a challenge, a race, an endurance test. How long did he spend using this $5,300 batch of tickets through 46 cities? Less than two months. The longest he spent in one place was four days. He proudly listed the average hours of sleep per night at 4.5 and the number of cups of coffee at 249. When he says, "All too often, I could be found running breathless for my next flight," I couldn't help but mourn the giant waste of opportunity.

This is an extreme example of course, and probably one that only someone with a fat expense account would undertake. But the guiding mentality is not uncommon for those planning their first journey around the world. Many of them want to "do it all," as if this will be their only trip away from home for their entire life. As a result, their impressions of a city are limited to monuments and transportation depots. The only locals they meet are ones trying to sell them something.

On our third time circling the globe, my wife and I suffered a particularly hellish ferry ride out to the Togian Islands off Sulawesi in Indonesia. The overstuffed boat left after midnight (hours late) and hit rough seas, forcing nearly everyone into a state of regurgitation. In the morning the sun came up on our boat, which was moving along the equator, and we all baked until arriving at our destination a couple of hours before sunset. When we finally threw our packs down in our beach bungalow, Donna and I vowed not to leave for at least a week. Another couple came over with us on the same ferry. They had already breezed through South America, Africa, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand in a mere 10 months and were frantically trying to cram in their list for Asia before their RTW ticket expired. They ended up staying three nights on this blissful (and blissfully cheap) tropical island, then bid everyone goodbye. They had places to go, sites to pose in front of, things to check off their list. They only had a year to see the world and, by god, they were going to see it all. "This is the longest we've ever stayed in one place!" they explained cheerfully.

When we asked them earlier what they thought of particular places we had all been to, they'd talk about their guesthouse, what the buses were like, or that perfect slice of chocolate cake they'd gotten at some café. They hadn't had the time to delve any deeper. Like a glossy travel article that doesn't look much different than a tourism board brochure, their stories didn't have any meat. Many of the towns they had visited were already fading from memory, just a blur of one-night stopovers.

Here are a few tips to remember when planning an around-the-world trip. Keep them in mind, and I promise you will get a lot more out of your trip.

1. All countries are not created equal.

Two days in Singapore may be enough to get a good feel for the place. Two days in Turkey is a joke, just a glorified layover. I lived in Istanbul for five months and never ran out of things to see. And although the city is fantastic, one city does not a country make. London is not England any more than New York is America. To really experience a country, you need to spend some quality time off the main tour bus route.

Don't forget that it takes two or three weeks just to get your bearings in India and twice that to really see more than a few states. You can see a lot of Laos in two weeks, but if you're going to Vietnam for two weeks, pick the north or the south -- you can't see both in that short amount of time.

2. Pick clusters, not far-flung destinations.

Many travelers try to plan according to some internal priority list and end up paying a fortune to fly to disconnected spots on the globe. They want to visit China, Fiji, New Zealand, Chile, Mexico, and a dozen other places in Europe and Africa -- never mind that the destinations are nowhere close to each other.

There's a good reason Southeast Asia is so popular with backpackers. You can fly into Bangkok and then visit a long list of exciting places going overland or with short-hop flights. If you like a place more than you thought you would, you can stay longer. If you're disappointed, you can move on to the next spot quite easily. You can then get easy flight connections from Bangkok to anywhere in Asia and most places beyond. Similar clusters exist in the Middle East, East Africa, Central America, and parts of South America.

3. Go for quality over quantity.

When I took my third round-the-world journey, some of my family members were surprised that my wife and I were returning to some countries for the second or third time instead of going to all new places. We made this choice, however, because we knew we had only experienced the tips of the iceberg in Indonesia, Nepal, and India and wanted to see a lot of areas we had missed. We knew our experience would be more meaningful than if we went somewhere less interesting just to check off a box. As a result, we spent three months in Indonesia and really explored several islands in depth, at a pace that was never rushed. We learned enough of the language to chat with locals who didn't speak English. We got to places most tourists don't have time to visit and none of it was a blur.

4. Get off the beaten path.

Don't make your trip a long string of monuments, museums, and buses. Most of us have parents or family friends who have done some kind of "Europe in Eight Days" tour or a 1-week Caribbean cruise and we wonder how they could have really done anything of substance. Yet some backpackers end up doing an elongated version of this over a 1-year period, hitting the main sites and quickly moving on. When you get off the beaten path, however, you see a whole different side of a country. When you have loads of time in a less-touristed area, you can take things as they come. You can accept invitations from local families. You can follow advice from books that take you to a place that isn't even in the guidebook. You can rent bikes to go exploring or just walk around without a map. You can spend time with people who don't just see you as a walking wallet, and you can take life at their leisurely pace.

Remember, real travel is not a competition, and there's no winner. Nobody back home will care if you've been to 30 countries or 10 -- trust me. Really see and feel the 10 and you'll be much more fulfilled. Travel is much like the snack foods you can't stop eating -- you won't be happy with just one trip. Save some places for the next round.

By Tim Leffel

Argentina

Argentina forms the eastern half of South America's long, tapering tail. It's a big country - the eighth-largest in the world (with 0,6% of the world's population).The population is estimated at approximately 37.000.000 people. Argentina is the second largest country in South America in terms of land area (approx.1,000,000 sq. miles). The country is bordered by Bolivia and Paraguay to the north, Chile to the west, and Brazil, Uruguay, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. It also shares the offshore island territory of Tierra del Fuego with Chile, and continues to dispute the ownership of the Islas Malvinas (the Falklands to the Brits), which Great Britain invaded in the last century.

There are 5 distinct sections to Argentina, the coast and beaches in the east, the snow-capped Andes mountains to the west, humid jungles up north, Patagonia down south, and the Pampas (fertile plains), in the center of the country. Argentina's 33 million inhabitants are of Spanish, German, Italian, and English decent.

Colombia

Colombia was one of the three countries that emerged from the collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others being Ecuador and Venezuela). A 40-year insurgent campaign to overthrow the Colombian Government escalated during the 1990s, undergirded in part by funds from the drug trade. Although the violence is deadly and large swaths of the countryside are under guerrilla influence, the movement lacks the military strength or popular support necessary to overthrow the government. While Bogota continues to try to negotiate a settlement, neighboring countries worry about the violence spilling over their borders. Colombia is located in Northern South America, bordering the Caribbean Sea, between Panama and Venezuela, and bordering the North Pacific Ocean, between Ecuador and Panama.

Ecuador

The "Republic of the Equator" was one of three countries that emerged from the collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others being Colombia and Venezuela). Between 1904 and 1942, Ecuador lost territories in a series of conflicts with its neighbors. A border war with Peru that flared in 1995 was resolved in1999. Ecuador lies nestled in the Andes Mountains with Colombia to the north and Peru to the south. It is on the Equator from which it derives its name. The jungles of the Amazon basin lie inland to the east whilst the western coastline is on the Pacific Ocean. The Galapagos Islands also belong to Ecuador. The country is split into three main geographical regions - the eastern jungle, the central Andean mountains and the western coastal zone

Paraguay

In the disastrous War of the Triple Alliance (1865-70), Paraguay lost two-thirds of all adult males and much of its territory. It stagnated economically for the next half century. In the Chaco War of 1932-35, large, economically important areas were won from Bolivia. The 35-year military dictatorship of Alfredo STROESSNER was overthrown in 1989, and relatively free and regular presidential elections have been held since then.

The Republic of Paraguay is a country of some 5,000,000 inhabitants and occupies an area of 406.752 square kilometers.The capital is the city of Asuncion.

Chile

Chile is a long and narrow stretch of land at the southwestern end of América, between Los andes mountain range and the Pacific Ocean. The country is divided into 12 regions plus Greater Santiago, 51 provinces and 335 municipalities. The capital Santiago (of the New Extremadura) was founded on 12 February 1541 by the Spanish Conqueror Pedro de Valdivia. The official language of Chile is Spanish spoken without regional variations. Other languages spoken in very restricted areas are: "Mapudungu" (mapuche language), "Rapa Nui" (spoken in Easter Island) and "Aymara" (spoken in some areas of the mountains in the North).

Peru

Peru, the largest in area in the Andean countries, was the cradle of the most advanced indigenous civilizations and most powerful empire in pre-Columbian South America - that of the Incas. Peru was also the focus of Spanish colonial domination for its first two hundred years of rule. What remained of pre-Columbian America with regard to people, culture, and settlements is perhaps better represented in Peru than in any other country. The Andes are the site of the most fascinating pre-Columbian cities of South America-like the great city of the clouds, Machu Picchu.The country has a 2,400 kilometer (1,500 miles) long coast on the Pacific Ocean and borders Colombia and Ecuador in the north, Brazil and Bolivia on the east, and Chile on the south. It is the only country that borders all the other Andean states.
The Andes are by no means the only region to visit in Peru. Also of great interest is Peru's narrow, lowland coastal region, a northern extension of the Atacama Desert. Although the Atacama is generally known as the most arid region on the planet, the climate along Peru's shores is made cooler and less dry by La Garuùa, a dense fog created by the collision of the frigid waters of the Humboldt Current with the heated sands of the Atacama. Lima, Trujillo, and Chiclayo, three of Peru's major population centres, are located along this coastal desert.

Suriname

Suriname (formerly Dutch Guyana) is a small Republic on the Northeast coast of South America. It borders French Guiana in the east, Brasil in the south, Guyana in the west and the Atlantic Ocean in the north, and has an area of 163,265 square kilometres (63,064 square miles). The country contains many rivers and some mountains (highest point 1280 metres). The larger part of the country consists of uncultivated rain forest.The people are a multi-cultural blend and the land has many beautiful natural resources that make it unique. It is not unusual to see monkeys traversing the trees and boa constrictors crossing the various roads that are traveled daily. The Amazonian interior is unspoiled and sparsely inhabited. The official language of Suriname is Dutch. A reasonable number of people also speak English. Surinamese children are taught English in primary school starting in the seventh grade. The lingua franca in Suriname is Sranan Tongo. This is a creole language spoken by almost everyone. Suriname's national anthem is written in Sranan Tongo.
Nearly all 386,372 inhabitants of Suriname (1990 count) live within a 30 km wide coastal region. The capital Paramaribo lies about 20km south of the coast at the west bank of the Suriname river. It has 150,000 inhabitants.

Uruguay

The República Oriental del Uruguay is situated on South America's Southern Cone, its eastern shore lies next to the Atlantic Ocean between the 30th and 35th southern latitude parallels and between the 53rd and 58th western longitude meridians. It is the warmest zone within the southern region. Uruguay borders Brazil on the north and northeast; Argentina on the west and south, the River Plate to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. The climate is mild and mostly uniform in the whole country with distinct seasons. The absence of mountains exposes the region to a wide spectrum of cold and humid southeasterly winds. As its name indicates the wind comes from the southeast, and the southerner or "pamperos" which blows from the Patagonia Andes.

Venezuela

Venezuela was one of the three countries that emerged from the collapse of Gran Colombia in 1830 (the others being Colombia and Ecuador). For most of the first half of the 20th century, Venezuela was ruled by generally benevolent military strongmen, who promoted the oil industry and allowed for some social reforms. Democratically elected governments have held sway since 1959. Current concerns include: drug-related conflicts along the Colombian border, increasing internal drug consumption, overdependence on the petroleum industry with its price fluctuations, and irresponsible mining operations which are endangering the rain forest and indigenous peoples. When the first explorers arrived, they saw houses over the Sinamaica lagoon (Zulia State), close to Maracaibo; those houses reminded them of the city of Venice. They called the region "Little Venice", which in Spanish would be Venezuela.

Belgium

Nestling between the Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and France, Belgium occupies 30,518 square kilometres and is home to 10.2 million people. Belgium is Europe in a nutshell, multicultural and multilingual. Flanders in the north, a flatland criss-crossed by canals, is proud of its great art cities, Antwerp, Bruges and Ghent. To the south in Wallonia, you will find the rolling hills of the Ardennes, numerous castles, and the cities of Liege, Namur, and Tournai.

Belgium is a small country (11,730 square Miles, the size of Maryland) with a population of slightly less than 10 million. It has been a constitutional monarchy since 1830. There are three languages (Dutch, French and German). However, English is widely spoken. Many people think that "Flemish" is a separate and independant language. It's not. Flemish is just another name for the Dutch language, spoken with a "Belgian" accent. The three regions (Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels) have self-government in many spheres. Belgium has retained its old-world charm in the preservation of its ancient buildings and historical traditions.