Piggybacking on other people's travels

When I was a child, I used to tack the atlas with me to be bathroom, and while handling my physiological needs, I dreamed of travelling the world.

As I grew, the atlas began to shrink. The realities of geopolitics, as well as my own physical shortcomings and utter desire to stay away from problem resulted in the removal of several destinations from my "place to visit" list.

Today I have actually been to quite a few countries, many of the ones I desired to visit in the first place, but my traveling stories lack the most exotic places. It seems I will depart the Earth before getting around to visit these places, for they lack the appeal, or I lack the courage to visit them.

I have actually met two people that visited Guinea-Bissau. One was an IMF analyst. When he went there, in the nineties, there was a single weekly flight coming from Europe. So he had to stay there what amounted to be a very long week. Even the people in government asked for toothpaste and toothbrushes, given the lack of such day-to-day articles in the poor country. The other, a pastor who had a ministry there. He actually brought videos, it did not seem so bad. However, it did not seem so good.

I had heard about Nigeria's woes. A resource rich country, with a vast population, several tribes with no connection with each other sharing land and power, in other words, a volcano ready to explode. A friend of mine went there on a business trip in the 90s. It turned out that he and a friend of his had fallen for a Section 419 scam, and he almost lost his life. His ambition almost killed him, for a I had forewarned.

A friend of mine went to Ecuador recently. A cousin of mine lived there for a while, as  a director of a multinational company. It does not seem so bad. However, my friend, who had his ticket paid by the relative of another friend, had severe diarrhea for weeks. And he ate the best places. Mind you, that guy can eat just about anything, in industrial quantities.

A semi-relative of mine has both the funds and courage to visit remote places. He has been to Antarctica, actually diving off the coast of the gelid continent, and has climbed the Annapurna - not the whole thing, he made it to about 6000 meters. One day I actually dreamed of making it up and down such places, however, the glamorous reality of climbing high mountains is very different from  the discomfort and possibility of frostbite and falling off a 2000 meter drop. As for his diving in the frigid waters of Antarctica, he says he got very close to death when one of the breathing apparatus failed. He was diving solo.

Then, there was a single person I know who went to North Korea. He was invited, I have no idea why, to perform as a magician in the reclusive country in the early 90's (he is a magician). His impression of the country was not that great, and I imagine he was being nice. I have no idea if he made any money from the North Korean "tour" and he whether he ate only rice and cabbage, as most North Koreans endure as meals every day.
 

No sir,  I will keeping on visiting the places on my shorter list...