Monday, October 1, 2018

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. and finally 7 continents!

It only took me 42 years but... I've finally set foot on every continent!!!

Map by Duolingo

See below (in order of first setting foot on the continent in question), I think it's pretty clear when I was living in each...

North America: 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2006, 2015, 2016, 2017.

Europe: 1976 or 1977 (not sure which of those years my parents took me to Spain to meet the family), 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, 1990, 1993, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018.

Asia: 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018.

Africa: 1999, 2008, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018.

Oceania: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2011.

Antarctica: 2004, 2005.

Celebrating reaching 7
South America: 2018. AT LAST! 😎

I've just returned from Colombia today. Work trip. It was just a couple of days in Bogotá and a couple in Medellín... but it does the trick!!! Of course, now I feel weird about saying "I've been to South America", when I've just seen two cities in one country... (I felt much the same for years about "I've been to Africa" when I'd only spent a week in Tunisia, or even once I'd added a short week in Morocco) It's very incomplete. But it's a start. Some day I need to make it to Argentina... I have family there to meet! Or Chile. Friends I haven't seen in over a decade. Or Peru. That I've only been dreaming about visiting since I was a child (Machu Picchu! Cusco!). SOMEDAY!

A little gift to myself to celebrate the 7.

Even with just a few days there, that were mostly work, work, work... I still have quite a few tales to tell! For now, I'll just drop these photos from walking around town here...

in Bogotá (Barrio de la Candelaria)
in Medellín (Comuna 13)
The street art in Colombia is amazing!!! Superb work done by local and international graffiti artists... part of a local movement to hide previous signs of violence so people will feel invested in and appreciative of their neighborhoods again. 😀

4 comments:

  1. That is so cool. I don't know anyone who has traveled as extensively as you have. I'd love to see a post about when you went to Antarctica, especially since so few people get to go. How did you get there, why were you there?

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    1. I actually know 3 people in my office who have been to more countries than I have (but not as many continents ;) )
      Antarctica was in another lifetime! Back when I lived in Belgium and worked as an Oceanographic researcher (before the global economic crisis, when funding vanished). I did 2 trips to Antarctica, leaving from Tasmania in Australia, to collect samples of coastal waters to study microscopic algae (micro plankton).
      I've been wanting to post on it for a while but... time!!! I did do a short piece on the animal life for the Oceanic Blog-A-Thon a few years ago, here:
      http://criscrossing.blogspot.com/2009/06/aquatic-critters-from-down-south-waaay.html

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  2. Awesome! I'm envious, as I have never left my home continent. For that matter, I've only left my country once, and that was for less than 24 hours. But there's still so much to see here, I'll probably not make it abroad in this lifetime.

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    Replies
    1. Well considering the country you live in pretty much covers a continent, it's understandable! I had a friend whose parents had never left Spain, and didn't intend to do so. They said they could spend their entire lives holidaying in Spain and still not discover everything it had to offer... Such is the case of richly diverse countries! So even if you've never been abroad, if you've been actively exploring your own country, you've been doing some amazing traveling! :)

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