Years ago I was onboard a Chilean Navy boat to Antarctica and we were riding through one of the roughest patches of
water on the planet: Drakes Passage. It wasn’t a bad day. The sun was out and the sky was blue, but the sea rose and
heaved and the ship rode alone with it. This resulted in many of the passengers making a bee line (if a curvy, kinda
drunk looking, weaving line can be called a bee line…which,
technically, I’ll bet it can since bees
don’t fly straight) for the rail, where they proceeded to upchuck their lunches into the cerulean sea. Luckily, I
wasn’t sick, but I did go to the rail (upwind, of course), because as I said it was a lovely day, and there I met a guy
who first told me about the Travelers Century Club.
The Travelers Century Club is a loose-knit group of folks
who over the course of their lives have visited 100 or more countries. A noble goal, to be sure. Most of the members
are older folk who have found the time late in life to travel. But some are young people are members too. This year,
the club is 50 years old, and its membership reflects the really amazing global changes that have taken place over the
years. Changes in transportation and communications have made traveling to any spot in the world about as hard as
booking your ticket, getting a VISA and going to the airport. It’s really quite amazing when you think about it. In
1960 there were just 43 members of the club. Today there are over 1,500 members throughout the world, with 317
countries on the TCC official list of countries. Kinda
fascinating.