Hola, folks.

I wanted to take a little time to talk about why I travel and why it’s important to me. It might help to know these things so you have a better understanding of why I am even starting this blog in the first place and why I want to discuss the topics I'm hoping to cover here.

I don’t know how or why it started but I have been in love with travel for as long as I can remember. I was always a nerd about languages and history, (for evidence see my family's anecdote about me walking around with a latin dictionary before I could read). During middle school, I started obsessively watching The Travel Channel, specifically Samantha Brown’s Passport to Europe and Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations. I would record Samantha Brown’s show because it came on at 11am and then I would watch it as soon as I got home from school. (Fun Fact: She has a new show that she funded and produced herself on PBS called Places to Love and it is just as delightful as her old shows).

I wanted to BE Samantha Brown. But seeing her talk to locals about their culture and history, visiting beautiful sights, eating allll the amazing foods, and getting to experience other places, I was hooked. I started collecting postcards and pinning them on my bedroom wall, planning my dream vacations and reading travel essays. I went on my first international group trip when I was 16 to Jamaica and my first international trip by myself to Spain when I was 18. Since then I have visited 13 countries and I’m always planning for my next adventure. Additionally, as I mentioned in a previous post, I'm an Anthropologist. I have a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Anthropology, in undergrad I focused in Archaeology, and in Grad school I focused in Cultural Anthropology and I’ve worked in multiple museums. Anthropology seemed like the perfect field, I could travel, learn about other cultures, and use my skills to connect people and places. I get excited talking about anthropology and archaeology because I love it so much.

Living the dream, being an archaeologist in Rome.

The best part of travel is when you arrive in a new place and you don’t speak the language, you don’t know your way around, there are new landscapes and smells and sounds and foods and climates. It’s exhilarating, like you're an explorer on your own personal journey of discovery. I know that sounds cheesy and may not appeal to some people, but just the excitement and anticipation of learning about a new place is enough to make me want to hop on a plane to anywhere. I’ll never forget arriving in Ecuador. We flew into Quito and landed late in the evening, around midnight. When we left the airport in our taxi, we were driving through an actual cloud, my lungs felt tighter from the altitude, the air was cool and humid, and I remember feeling like I was in a dream. We drove through the winding roads away from the airport and into the city and I was already excited to explore misty, mysterious Quito, up in the clouds just from those first few minutes.

Travel teaches you things, too. About history, people, and yourself. You may learn about a historical period you had never heard anything about, how your own country has influenced or been influenced by another country, or you may learn that you are not good with ambiguity or changing plans. But the best thing you learn when you travel, in my opinion, is that everyone is the same. As different as the foods you eat or the languages you speak or the houses you live in may be, I’ve found that everyone makes the same jokes, wants the same things in life, has the same day to day drama, and that’s what amazes me the most. Everyone tries so hard to divide people by religion, race, etc. but none of those things really matter once you’ve actually had a conversation with someone who is different from you in any of those things.

That brings me back to why I’m writing this. I want this blog to encourage people to travel more, to see the world a little differently and be more open to new places and ideas. I want to make travel accessible and less intimidating and teach people how to travel more mindfully, being aware that while places may seem overwhelming and intimidating, they really aren’t that different. Learning about the rest of the world and having meaningful experiences with people or ideas from other cultures also has the potential to make anyone more open to and less afraid of what they don’t understand. Especially in this day and age, I think this is the most important thing to be gained from travel.

Travel doesn’t just have to mean going to other countries though. Travel is going anywhere new, whether that be a new town in your state, a new state in your country, or even just a new part of town you’ve never explored. It would be elitist and wrong to say that only international travel was worthwhile. Some of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen have been less than a half a day’s drive from my apartment! I think especially in the US, we are so spoiled/lucky because we have access to so many different climates, landscapes, peoples, foods, cultural backgrounds, etc. Just visiting a new restaurant in town can give you a cultural experience that provides a glimpse into another country or culture. So I don’t want anyone reading this blog to think that when I talk about travel, if you aren’t able or aren’t interested in going anywhere international, that you aren’t included in this discussion and this world of travel. You most certainly are! I just hope to help you understand and reframe the way you think about travel in general, locally and abroad.

Dinosaur National Monument, Northwest Colorado

So there ya go. It may seem romantic and you may be skeptical of my starry-eyed view of travel, but trust me, this is how I feel even after experiencing intense 2 week food poisoning in Peru, blistering sunburns in the Galapagos Islands, and public transportation strikes in Rome every other week. It’s still worth it.

- Sami