When I made my decision to leave Europe in 2015 and to move around the world, I knew it would be hard to decide where to begin this journey. My mind was going back and forth between Africa, Asia, the Middle East, South America, Central America and the Caribbean. There are beautiful and interesting places everywhere.
Looking at maps and photos and reading about places didn’t reduce the list of options (it rather expanded it), so I decided on a different strategy: I would subscribe to several newsletters with offers of cheap flights until I saw something that was such an extremely good deal that I would feel stupid if I didn’t book it.
Then I went for the one deal which was not a flight, but a cruise. Because I would have felt stupid not taking it. In October and November, cruise lines are pulling out their boats from the Mediterranean and shipping them to America, where they work in the winter. This means that the cruise ships cross the Atlantic for a week. Apparently, this is not very popular with tourists or business travelers. Otherwise, you couldn’t book such a crossing for 150 €.
For me, the idea of being on the Atlantic for a whole week is very enticing. One week on the open sea, no islands, no ports, just some other ships, maybe some whales and some terrible storms. No internet and enough time to read. Wonderful! So I booked a cruise from Gran Canaria to Salvador de Bahia in Brazil for November 2015. It will take eight days to get to America, more than it would have taken the Titanic to cross the ocean.
Once in Brazil, I will of course move around South America, Central America and the Caribbean over the coming years, staying in each country for a few months, like always exploring the nature and old cities, learning about the history and reporting on current events. Hopefully, I will also learn Spanish.
So if you are in Latin America and have a place to stay, want to go hiking or want me to write about your town or area, let me know. I’ll be happy about any invitation, except from the Colonia Dignidad in Chile.
But first, I have to survive the stormy passage across the treacherous Atlantic Ocean.
(Between now and November 2015, I will be in Eastern Europe, mainly in Romania, Moldova, Transnistria and Ukraine. – Hier gibt es diese Ankündigung auf Deutsch.)
Research carried out once I got home revealed that the only thing giving rise to consternation are the gaps in my arts education. “Mein Kampf” is an anti-Nazi farce about the young Adolf Hitler by the Hungarian director George Tabori.
