These are our Top Ten-ish favorite uncommon experiences we’ve had travelling.
Mine
1. Tracked down the remotely located studio for famous Guatemalan artist Juan Francisco Guzman to buy a painting I’d seen hanging in a gallery a few years before
2. Bought huge banana leaf baskets at the iron market in Haiti, Paul and my first date
3. Saw 1000 gold Buddhas at Sanjūsangen-dō, Kyoto
4. Joined a rockband in Panajachel, Guatemala
5. Saw the building where my mom’s family bakery was in Brandenburg, Germany
6. Took an overnight train to a remote corner of Poland, by the Russian border, to see the town of my ancestors
7. Celebrated New Years Eve with my Dad and our extended family in Kagoshima, Japan
8. Visited Monet’s home in Giverny to the waterlily lake, then saw waterlily paintings in Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris.
9. Basket shopping in the market in the quaint winding streets of Uzes, France
10. Helped build many houses with rebar, blocks, and cement, in the remote highlands of Guatemala
11. Hot tub converstaion with friends until 3am at the Posada, Santiago, Lake Atitlan while the mist rolled in from the mountains and enveloped us like a cloud
12. Volcanic hotsprings of Arenal volcano, Costa Rica
13. Saw a live blues concert just off our balcony in Gravedona, Lake Como, Italy
(Favorite themes: music, art, family heritage travel, photography, ethnic noodles)
Paul
1. While driving up to a random castle in Montfaucon, Southern France we met the actual Most Interesting Man in the World. This winemaker graciously invited us to a private tour of his home(30 rooms!) and wine cellar.
2. Rode around Lake Atitlan, Guatemala on a scooter despite warnings that people sometimes get robbed, didn’t know it would be by the police.
3. Lived in Paris for three months in Montmarte with a view of Sacre Coeur.
4. Heard Voodoo drums through the night, echoing off the mountains in St. Marc, Haiti
5. Walked in Paris during a 15-hour layover to see the Christmas lights and market on the Champs-Elysées
6. Progressive Christmas Eve tapas tour in Madrid
7. Pizza Chris, a mobile pizzeria that rolled into St. Victor la Coste, France and parked in the town square every Thursday
8. Hardcore hike up Volcan San Pedro on Lake Atitlan, Guatemala during a lightening storm and torrential downpour, because mantreks cower to no weather
9. Best spaghetti in Venice (or maybe the world), complete with a Stairway to Heaven rendition by street musician on an electric guitar
10. Lived in an apartment above a pub in the Latin Quarter, Paris
(favorite themes: Paris living, wine, France, French wine, drums and mantreks, airplanes, wine with volcanoes and other forms of peril)
Kier
1. Feeding the not so wild deer roaming everywhere in the town of Nara, Japan
2. Adopted a rescue dog from Guatemala and got him home after the redtape maze and bribefest from hell
3. Passed out from seeing a machete arm gash during a Honduras medical brigade, worked in the pharmacy for the
rest of the day
4. Got a motorcycle to get to school and around town in Panajachel, Guatemala
5. Made the Guinness Book of World Records (most dancers in wooden shoes) in The Netherlands
6. Lived on a sailboat for the summer, learned to sail, scuba, and how to avoid being stung by jellyfish while showering, in the British Virgin Isles
7. At a young age learned how to stitch up a wound at a suture clinic, on a remote mountain in Guatemala
8. Took a picture of the Milky Way from the salt flats in Bolivia
9. Did a gap year, lived and worked in Madrid, and traveled around Europe
10. During a traffic jam in Peru, she abandoned her taxi and ran down the mountain to catch the last train to Machu Pichu. The crowd cheered her on from their cars, buses, and terraced gardens on the mountain.
(favorite themes: fearless solo travel, astronomy, sailing, photography)
Madi
1. Assisted with vet with spaying and neutering dogs on our back patio in Guatemala
2. Performed in Moulin Rouge in Guatemala while Tropical Storm Agatha practically swept the theater away
3. Fostered 13 street dogs in our backyard, 10 puppies, 3 feral mamas in Guatemala
4. How our boat pulled up to the dock to buy pickles in Spreewald, a town with 200 small canals west of Berlin, Germany
5. While we hiked in southern France, we came across a 3000 year old burial site beyond Cesar’s Camp, being excavated. We got a tour of the site and the skeletons from the lead archeologist
6. Visited the Paris catacombs, more bones
7. Trampoline sleepover in London UK with friends
8. First major solo trip to Europe at 14 to meet up with older sister in Madrid for the summer
9. Worked with World Vets in the smaller villages around Lake Atitlan, sometimes fixing 60 dogs in one day, running the post-op section and in charge of vaccinations
10. Ran barefoot through muddy streets to escape a housefire in Guatemala
11. Fed the monkeys at Iwatayama Monkey mountain near Kyoto, Japan
12. Saw international fireworks festival over the Mediterranean, Cannes, France
13. Working in a clinic with exotic animals like toucans, sloths, monkeys
14. Working in hospital in Thailand
(favorite themes: drama, bones, working with animals)
Cali
1. Being a dolphin trainer for the day in Cozumel, Mexico
2. Having a castle in our backyard in St. Victor la Coste, France
3. Petting the Stingrays at Stingray Island, Grand Cayman
4. Driving an underwater scooter around the Roatan reef in Honduras
5. Cave tubing in Belize
6. Learning to surf in Tamarindo and Jaco, Costa Rica
7. Releasing turtle babies into the Pacific Ocean, in Monterrico, Guatemala
8. Having a tree full of toucans and a sloth sleeping in a tree outside my window in a rainforest in Costa Rica
9. Holding a koala and feeding kangaroos in Brisbane, Australia
10. Roasted marshmallows on the lava rivers of Volcan Picaya, Guatemala
11. Going to all Spanish or French until age 13, many internationally, then being world-schooled for a year.
12. Regularly seeing sharks, dolphins, huge lizards, and tuna off our back dock.
(favorite themes: wild animals, adventure sports, marshmallows, photography)