Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Where and how you choose to travel determines how much you'll learn. Organizations
offering “educational tours” turn the world into a fascinating classroom.
Back before my first trip to Central America in 1988, I specifically forbade my heart to get
caught up in economic justice issues south of our border. I knew there were leftists fight-
ing American-funded groups and it was a tragic mess, but that was it. There was too much
pulling at me, and the competing sides, excuses, and complaints were all too complex and
contradictory. I just didn't have the energy to sort it out, and I didn't need it in my life.
Then I traveled there and learned what Thomas Jefferson meant when he wrote that travel
“makes men wiser, but less happy.”
That first trip lit a fire in me. I realized I have the right, if not the responsibility, to
form my opinions based on my own experience, even if it goes against the mainstream
at home. It was liberating, empowering…and exhausting. After that first trip, I published
my journal, flew to Washington, DC, and spent two days hand-delivering it to the office
