I forgot a pair of flimsy flip-flops, the kind you wear as protection in a hostel’s grotty communal showers. I forgot a messenger bag to carry during my walks around the city, toting instead my backpack, which makes a traveler’s belongings within a thief’s reach. I forgot to bring cash, thinking I’d use my debit […]
If you've followed this blog from the beginning, you might remember a post in late 2008 when I asked for your help. I was visiting a family in Cameroon that had hosted me six years before as a college student. It was a polygamous family, with four wives and about 20 children. And this family […]
This week, in preparation for my trip to Nicaragua and Costa Rica, I pulled out my tiny ASUS eee PC, the laptop I carried while backpacking through Africa. (We didn’t have as many options for mini-laptops way back in 2008.) Except now that my entire business revolves around a computer, I’m not sure I can […]
I’m on a I-bought-a-ticket high! I’ve been scheming for a while on my next trip, wavering on destinations, and I finally took the plunge: I’m headed to Nicaragua and Costa Rica for three weeks in February. I prefer to travel over land as opposed to flying, so I bought a one-way ticket from D.C. to […]
During a recent talk at a study abroad conference, I reminded a group of college students just how lucky we are. Travel has a way of hammering that point home, of reminding us that we’re so fortunate to have food on the table, shoes on our feet and opportunity in front of us. Most people […]
Hope you enjoyed your turkey (or tofurkey) day! Great reads for the weekend: Writer Torre DeRoche shares her secrets to getting published and explores whether being a woman is an advantage in the publishing process. Learn how to tackle the challenges of bootstraping your business while working your day job, at Entrepreneur.com. Great piece from […]
Wow. Big day here! Today I’m launching How to Take a Career Break to Travel, a step-by-step guide to making your dream trip happen. This has been a long time coming. I left on my own Big Trip in June 2008 — which is when I started this blog — and backpacked solo through seven […]
We talk a lot on this blog about following dreams, and that’s exactly what Torre DeRoche blogs about at The Fearful Adventurer. The Aussie also writes about facing her fears and the process of publishing her first book, which makes her a pretty perfect fit for an author Q&A here. Torre recently released her first […]
I’m in Nicaragua. I’m so NOT in Nicaragua. I’d bought a ticket to fly there two days after my last day at work, with little plans other than than to find a zipline and get away from my computer. But as I was stuffing clothes into my pack the day before I was supposed to […]
When I left my reporting job in 2008 to travel in Africa, I had no idea there was a career-break movement. In fact, I didn’t even call what I was doing a career break. I wanted to take a long-haul backpacking trip, and quitting my job was the only way I could see to make […]