I have been traveling the world since June 2011. I travel by motorcycle because I’ve found it provides the most freedom to achieve my goals for this trip. I travel with a fiddle because music is the one universal language in this world. Originally my goal was just to see the world, but all this changed when I reached Mexico….
I was told it is dangerous. I was told I would be robbed, shot, killed on the highway, or murdered out of pure spite. The truth could not have been more different. I visited Belize, a country I was told had nothing interesting to offer travelers but I deeply regretted my limited time in that fantastic country. I passed through Guatemala, a country I was told in no uncertain terms is filled to the brim with thieves on every corner yet I encountered nothing but beautiful scenery, friendly locals, and lots tourists. As I think back to the years I spent preparing for this trip I am hard pressed to come up with a location I have not been warned away from, including my home country, the United States of America!
As I pass through these supposedly dangerous locations I have passed by many famous locations. Denali National Park in Alaska, USA. Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, Canada. Yosemite in California, USA. Chichen Itza in Yucatan, Mexico. These famous locations have frequently left me baffled at the lure to the many tourists I encounter there. Name any famous tourist attraction, and I can generally name something equally (or more!) spectacular nearby which has almost no tourists and is overall more satisfying. There are a few exceptions to this, but not many.
The interesting part of the trip has been my travels along the way. The unknown locations with scenery rivaling any national park. The small towns with humble people going about their lives who are friendlier and more interesting than any tourist town. The way people go about their lives in conditions anyone in the USA would find appalling, yet are somehow happier than those who would look down on them.
With all this in mind, my reason for traveling has changed. I still want to see those fantastical locations I’ve heard about and seen only on television, but those are now only footnotes to the real reason I travel: The Quest for Truth. I want to find what the world is really like. I want to meet the people and see the places most travelers skip over as they take a vacation to the next big tourist destination.
I hope along the way I can share a little bit of the reality of what I see. Sometimes this will be blatant when I’ve encountered particularly egregious mis-information, but most of the time I will simply report on my experiences and let you, my readers, draw your own conclusions.
You will find many maps on this site similar to the one shown below. Whenever a blog post discusses a specific location, there will be a map on that page with a marker showing you where I was. The map below is an overview which contains all postings I have made so far. You can click on any marker below to start reading, or go directly to the blog using the menu above.