Remember the time you were stuck at the side of the road all night, trying to hitchhike your way to Andorra? Then there’s the time you spent four hours in a Madrid train station, trying to buy tickets, only to be thrown out by the ticket seller because you were a weeping wreck. Or how about the time you somehow lost your money and tube pass and had to hike four hours across drizzly London, using an A-Z to find your way back to your squat?

(No, not that kind of squat!) This life-sized artwork graced the wall of a cat piss-drenched room in Amsterdam. It was too big to remove & hide.

These lowlights of our trips can be excruciating in the moment, but later prove to be some of the best things that happened to you. Why are lowlights (as opposed to highlights) so great for the adventurous traveler? Here are five reasons the lowlights can be the real reason we leave home.

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DRESS REHEARSALS

Adventures are like dress rehearsals for the real thing. I have spent my life careening from one adventure to the next - always looking for the next big trip to tick off my list. Whether climbing Kilimanjaro, trekking through Bhutan or scuba diving with sharks, I told myself that by taking great risk, I was learning to handle crisis. Of course, I never imagined the kind of crisis I might have to face.

Climbing Kilimanjaro, I told myself that by taking great risk, I was learning to handle crisis.

I told myself that perhaps if I kept moving, kept adventuring, those bad things would never find me. If I filled my life with chosen risks, then there’d be no room for the unwanted ones, as if each life had a danger quota. For years I convinced myself that by taking calculated risks I was actually forestalling calamity.

But that’s not how it worked.

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On Monday, December 6, you can listen in on my radio tour as I share travel tips and talk about “They Only Eat Their Husbands: A Memoir of Alaskan Love, World Travel and the Power of Running Away.” I’ll be on the radio during morning drive-time from coast-to-coast. A couple of shows are national. Hit this link for a rundown of where and when you can tune in:

http://www.caralopezlee.com/events.php

I’ve recently become a fan of the Mortal Muses, nine exceptional female photographers from the USA, Canada, and Europe. Their blog offers instant inspiration via daily postings of beautiful, moving, and amusing photos. Today they’ve invited me to answer the question: What Inspires You? My answer is a post that considers where inspiration comes from when I don’t feel inspired. Please visit the Mortal Muses blog and leave a comment on my guest post for your chance to win a signed copy of my book, They Only Eat Their Husbands: A Memoir of Alaskan Love, World Travel, and the Power of Running Away. (If you’d rather guarantee yourself a book, you can order one now at Ghost Road Press.)

I only remember two recurring nightmares from childhood. In one, I was with my mom in the greeting card aisle of a store, and when I turned around she was gone. I searched for her in a series of rooms where I had to overcome bizarre obstacles. In the end, I walked out onto a sidewalk crowded with giant adults. I never found her. This is normal for a preschooler: the fear of getting lost.

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“It’s not contagious,” I repeated, as friends backed away from me in horror.

I couldn’t resist telling a travel tale involving skin-tunneling parasites. In turn, my friends couldn’t resist shifting back just a hair, although they insisted they understood there was no chance of worms leaping from my body to theirs. It didn’t help to explain that I wasn’t even sure I had schistosomiasis.

“Schi-what?”

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I was an only child until I was 33, and when my sister was born I couldn’t wait until we could do stuff together. I pictured us playing, camping and hiking: two adventurous, muddy, scabby-kneed girls. After her recent visit, I’ve accepted reality: my almost-13-year-old sister is an indoor girl. Not that she’s always inside, but she excels at lounging. Whenever the outdoors requires effort, boldness or curiosity, she’s just not that into it. Yet we’ve discovered that an outdoor girl and an indoor girl can enjoy 10 days together without wanting to kill each other - much. (more…)

Wherever I travel, I make a packing list, and make it early — not only because it’s smart, but because it makes me feel like the heroic leader of a National Geographic expedition. I start spreading my stuff out in the basement about a week before a trip. As I survey my soldierly lineup of trekking gear, I feel empowered. Indiana Jones had his hat and whip; I have my headlamp and clothesline. With any luck, I’ll find that I don’t have everything… yet.
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A fellow blogger who read my post, “The Other Lost City of the Incas,” asked if I had any pointers on high-altitude trekking.  High altitude treks offer life-transforming rewards, but altitude sickness is a real danger.   (more…)