Goal for our trip...

Why? Bike tour? (I'll let my man Ernie answer that simple question...)

"It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. ~ Ernest Hemingway

I thought of that while riding my bike.
~Albert Einstein, on the theory of relativity

To enjoy life... and go:

• Scuba Diving
• Biking
  
• Hiking
• Sea Kayaking
• Volunteering/Farming (WWOOF?)

Why Travel?
To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. -- Aldous Huxley

I am asked this question so many times, over and over. Why would you give up your stable job? Why go somewhere dangerous? Why take the risk? Why leave the beautiful city, state, and country you live in?

Well... I've always had some incoherent mumble of an answer, due to that fact that I wasn't very articulate... and most of the time, I traveled cuz it was FUN & rewarding... but mainly fun to:

• see new places (Andes mountains, quetazal - bird, animals, insects, people, culture, etc.)
• smell... well the must? OK, I'll forgo smell...
  
• taste the local cuisine (mangoes in Cuba, sushi in Japan, IPAs in cali, bulgogi in Korea, french fries in Belgium, caprese salad in Italy, etc.)
  
• experience new adventures, or daily slog of every day life in some other country...
• meet new people, see how the rest of the world lives...
• and be ready to think outside the box... it's really hard to imagine biking in cuba, or scuba diving in honduras, or hike the inca trail from your computer. Somethings... you just have to go do... like gaining an outsider's perspective on the world.
  

And why take the risk? For me, the biggest risk I'm taking is by NOT traveling, and missing what awaits on the road... I'd like to live with as little regret as possible. Sure.. when I dislocated my shoulder the first time, then had surgery 3 times on it, or when I rolled my ankle and had to be on crutches, or when I tried a back flip and landed straight on my head... yeah I regretted it. But overall, I've mostly regretted NOT doing something. And I'm NOT going to NOT travel...

Here are some quotes that help explain my feelings with elegance.

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. -- Mark Twain

I realized that what I treasured most about travel was not that it gave me a chance to see novel things. Travel gave me a chance to look with new eyes on familiar things. Windows to the World was one thing; but windows to death, littering, the right to remain silent, and the right to travel were others. I was returning home a different person—not Indian or Chinese, but a wiser and changed American because of them. - this blog

• Ten commandments of travel...