Travel Makes the Big Smaller

by Erik Olsen on

When I was a kid, I used to skateboard from
Corona del Mar to Balboa Island to go fishing. That trip seemed like it took a lifetime to complete. Sure, the fact
that I had to propel myself via foot to road energy was a factor is making the trip seem long, but there was something
else about my life at that time that made the world seem so big. This was my little universe, these small beach towns.
They were all I knew. And so like a pre-Columbian citizen, I didn’t tihnk much of the world beyond. Where I was seemed
big enough.

Well, now that I’m back in Cali for a few days, I went back to visit my old home in CDM and then made the trip to
Balboa on bike. I was amazed how fast the trip went by. It was like heading uptown from my apartment in the Village.
And yet, back in those days, making that trip felt like crossing the state.

I was thinking about this today and I realized that part of the reason that these once big places now seem so small is
because I am a traveler. Travel, Mark Twain said, is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness. Indeed it is.
Travel opens you up to vast new realms of human existence, it broadens your view of everything, it virtually explodes
your notions of daily life – yours and others.

And this is all good. I sat talking to a friend on Balboa Island who doesn’t travel much, and he was explaining why he
felt there was no need for him to travel much. He made good money, had a lovely house, and everything he needed was
within a mile or less of his home. I tried my best to make the case that his view of things would benefit from seeing
how other people live, how travel would positively affect his outlook on life. He didn’t buy it, and I feel sorry for
him.

As for me, it doesn’t lessen my appreciation of where I grew up to have known many other places since. It makes these
big places seem smaller, all right, but because of all my travels, I feel like a global citizen. I feel like I can call
not just these small places, but the entire world my home. And that’s a cool feeling.

Expedition 360

by Erik Olsen on

A pretty impressive concept: Jason Lewis, a peripatetic Brit, is currently two-thirds of the way through an attempt
to be the first person to circumnavigate the globe without using only human power (i.e. walking, bike, Razor). His site
Expedition 360 chronicles the trip. His efforts to compare the feat with
circumnavigilistic (my word!) antecedents like Magellan might be pushing it a bit too far, but it’s quite interesting
nonetheless. The site gives the Where in the World is Jason? lowdown and provides a nice video intro to the trip as
well as ample press clippings.

Dive: The Ultimate Guide

by Erik Olsen on

We haven’t posted much about scuba diving here since our sister site divester launched, but a friend of mine
recently brought to my attention a cool book that every diver should know about. It’s called
Dive: The Ultimate Guide to
60 of the World’s Top Dive Locations.

The book is a glorious 320-page reference to more than 400 dives around the world, from Australia to Yap (and
everything in between). The book is filled with luscious maps and photographs, and author Monty Halls has scads of
information on water temperature, visibility, specific dives and depths and animal-life, as well it provides an
excellent beginner-to-expert grading system and the low down on where to find recompression chambers (which hopefully
you will NEVER need). A fine addition to the library of any avid bubble-blower.

Doing It Up in Guyana

by Erik Olsen on

I have been to most every country in Latin America, but there are several that I know almost nothing about. These are the little countries scrunched over to the top edge of the continent that I am guessing are also completely foreign to most people as well.

‘m talking about Suriname, Guyana, and French Guyana. The regimes in these countries tend to be repressive and tourism is nearly non-existent, at least compared to the rest of South America.

But in this nice little piece in The Guardian, Anita Sethi ventures into Guyana and gets the vibe of the place. She visits several unusual places, including Kaieteur Falls, one of the highest single-drop waterfalls in the world. The country, she tells us, is nearly devoid of tourism. Most people seem to associate the place with the horrible Jim Jones massacres from years past…AKA the Jonestown masacres. But it turns out it is much more than that, and the article really stirred my interest in the place. Maybe this little country is due for a period of intense eco-tourism…maybe it’s time to get there before ths happens.

“Greatest Good’ Documentary

by Erik Olsen on

First a question: under what cabinet division is the US Forest Service. If you
answered Interior (which has the National Park System, the US Geological Survey and
the Fish and Wildlife Service…well, you’re wrong). It’s Agriculture. And the DOA is an agency who’s purview is largely
an economic one, which means that when it comes to the Forest Service, the issues that the agency most often wrestles
with are ones of money, not conservation (and trust me, I worked at Interior for a few years).

But forest management issues are very complex, and over the years the agency has done a so-so job of protecting our
national forests. Some years are better than others. They themselves even refer to some periods as a shift to “the dark
side”.

If this is of interest, you might be happy to note that the agency has produced a documentary called
The Greater Good to commemorate it’s 100 years as steward of public
forest lands. You can catch a brief (very brief) glimpse of the film
here, and it will be showing at Forest Service events arond the
country. You can check out a schedule here as well.