Liebster Award

Special thanks to Retrato https://retratonz.com/ for the nomination! What an honor…

The Liebster Award 2017 is an award that exists only on the internet, and is given to bloggers by other bloggers. The earliest case of the award goes as far back as 2011. Liebster in German means sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved, lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, and welcome.

And rules if you choose to accept

1. Post about the award, thank the person who nominated you and link to their blog.
2. Answer their questions about yourself.
3. Nominate 5 –10 people with fewer than 1,000 followers, let them know via social media.
4. Write your own set of questions for your nominees.
5. Feel good about yourself for winning an award and pass it on.

________________________________________

My questions from : https://retratonz.com/

What inspires you to write a travel blog?

I find myself somewhere in the world where I’ve never been and all these thoughts flood into my head. I started writing them down back in 1991, in a time before laptops, iPhones and iPads… good ole’ pen and paper. The inspiration just comes… again more like a feeling that just comes over my entire being.  I find it an escape. I find it’s a chance to share with others what I am seeing and feeling in the environment I am traveling through. In some instances I feel it is my obligation to be honest about a particular place that is maybe painted as an awesome place to travel and yet has so many things that are never disclosed about the reality of those places. Of course everyone has opinions. My blogs are my personal opinions I guess.

 

What’s your most unforgettable travel experience?

The Inca Trail, Camino Inka, Peru 2015.  My partner and Inhad trained for 3 months for this epic hike.  It is 27 miles of stairs pretty much up and down all over 10,000 feet.  The experience was amazing, hard, at times hopeless, invigorating, and maybe the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.  It taught me about patience within my own mind and body. It was humbling. The thing is… one doesn’t get the chance very often to walk on the same path that an ancient society built and used for commerce, spirituality, escape and pilgrimage. On the forth and final day of the trek we arrived at the  Sun Gate overlooking Machu Piccu.  The sight was breath-taking. I had been carrying my “moms” ashes with me the whole trek and it was here that I left her to have an everlasting view of an ancient city hidden high in the Andes.

 

Have you had any Anthony Bourdain-like food experiences?

Oh yes… The first was in Ethiopia. Warm cows milk out of a decorated gourd and injera.  The second was in Bolivia… there was a group of ladies that was serving us some sort of soup out of wheel barrows. I was told it was made with beef esophagus. Thank goodness I found that out after I had eaten it. In Ecuador… it was Guinea Pig, and something we call “weevil soup”. Unfortunately I have a few stomach issues so I always seem to come home with “something”.

 

If you were to live somewhere else, which place would that be and why?

I have been to many places that I would love to “live” in the near future.  “Live” in the near future, of course, will be different than what “live” means now. Stress removed, no time limit like a vacation, no excess funds going out to frivolous government over priced insurances. Perhaps Mexico for a year… Belize, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, a year or two in each. We seem to really like Cotacachi and the community there… so maybe that will be our travels end in 20-25 years for a home base.  There is just so many places I really would love to spend a lot of time in the near future. Take a trip around the world on a round the world ticket. I am just entering into the next quarter of my life. As long as we can stay healthy we will travel as much as possible, but as a traveler, not a tourist.

 

What advice can you give travel bloggers?

Be honest. We have an obligation to tell it like it is, the good with the bad. Our followers may plan a trip based on an advertiser’s rosy picture of a place… if we don’t tell it like it is, we let them believe the fairy-tale. Every rose has a thorn.

We need to boost indigenous villages with our travels and bring others in and educate them on their way of life and their customs. Often times “privileged tourists” travel and stay in chain hotels, eat at common name food establishments (such as McDonald’s), never venture into the reality of a destination, mostly out of fear.  We need to teach them to be travelers and not tourists.

Be informative. We are the National Geographic back door bloggers. The WikiTravel infomercials.  Take photos… lots of them.  Speak your mind and be brilliant.

 

___________________________________________________

Thanks again for the nomination!

I now nominate:

http://www.janzjourney.wordpress.com

http://www.mysurfblog.com

http://www.missxooley.wordpress.com

www.frantraveltales.com

http://www.retiredrambling.com

http://www.swedeinbarca.wordpress.com

_____________________________________________

My questions to you are:

1. Why do you blog?
2. What’s been the scariest thing in your travels?
3. As a blogger, do you feel a sense of responsibility for blogging “how it is”?
4. What was your favorite blog?
5. If you had to describe yourself as an animal… what animal would it be and why?