My Country Visits in 2010

Overview of 2010 International Travel

In 2010, I became one of the top 10 travelers in the world as ranked by MostTraveledPeople.com (MTP). This means that my name appears on their home page. At the end of 2010, I was ranked #5 in the world.

I continue to be an active Life Member of the Circumnavigators Club and an officer in the Chicago chapter.

Highlights of 2010 International Travel

I made 10 major international trips in 2010:

• 1. Southern Caribbean Cruise in February
• 2. India & China in February and March
• 3. Western Europe Driving Trip in March
• 4. Russia & Siberia in April and May
• 5. Germany in May
• 6. Canada in July
• 7. Central America & Caribbean in August
• 8. Pacific & South America in October
• 9. Africa and Middle East in November
• 10. Pacific in December

1. Southern Caribbean Cruise trip highlights:

• Forty minute swim with two Dophins in Curacao was a peak life event. Very smart animals!
• Ziplining 100 feet (30 meters) high in the trees in Barbados was a classic adventure.
• A private tour of the Natalee Holloway sites in Aruba provided background I never saw on TV.
• A seaplane trip to Saint Croix was a perfect way to start a tour of its historic buildings
• The well rated Celebrity Constellation was an outstanding way to experience the cruising life style
• Fun island tour of St. Lucia to see banana farms, WHS Pitons area, etc., with guide "Yellow Bird"
• Saw the medical school that triggered the invasion & monument dedicated to Reagan in Grenada
• Fun tourist event, diving down to 130 feet below the sea in a submarine for 30 people in Aruba.
• Florida Everglades air boat tour revealed the true nature of the shallow, slow river that it is.

2. India & China trip highlights:

• Airport security people in Northeast India gave me a friendly greeting, remembering me from 2009!
• Visit to Hyderabad, capital of the potential new 29th state (Telangana) in India.
• Seeing famous Terra cotta Warriors in Xian & meeting the old farmer who found this ancient glory!
• Dramatic aborted landing in mountains, talked my way off plane in alternate airport using photo of my luggage & arrived 3 hours early.
• Trapped in snow storm for 4 hours on a highway north of Xian until salt trucks arrived.
• Tour of Kashi in far western China with its unique mix of peoples and cultures.
• Surprised to see rusted hulks of major buildings (due to overbuilding) on booming Hainan Island.
• I had to direct traffic to get off the hill with the Golden Temple in Kunming because too many cars created grid lock on the narrow road.
• I saw the largest display of outdoor lights in my life over 20 miles (32 kilometers) long in Chongqing. This was for Chinese New Year.
• Three Chinese airlines cooperated in a way I had never imagined possible to save our plans. A full plane waited for us for 30 minutes.
• I saw hundreds of kilometers of high speed rail (all elevated) all over China under construction.

3. Western Europe Driving trip highlights:

• In Switzerland, it was a thrill to see the monument to the national hero William Tell.
• Fun to see the area in Switzerland made famous by Heidi.
• In Pompeii, my discovery was what a wonderful Roman city it was; the disaster is only secondary.
• In Orleans, France, the statue of Joan of Arc was an emotional gift from the citizens of New Orleans.
• The Chartres Cathedral, one of the glories of the Middle Ages, is a World Heritage Site.
• What an experience to be driven thru most of the French, Italian and Swiss Alpine tunnels!
• I attended the ceremony and took the inaugural United flight #4962 from Madrid to Washington, D.C.

5. Railroad trip highlights in Germany:

• Visiting all the historical sites in lovely Weimar, famous for the failed Republic and hyperinflation.
• Visit with my pen pal from 50 years ago, Herbert Pietsch, in east Berlin.
• Discovering spot on Helgoland where Werner Heisenburg had the break thru for quantum mechanics.
• Hanseatic city of Lübeck
• Visit to Messel Pit Fossil site
• Town Hall in Bremen

6. Northern Canada trip highlights:

• Visiting Kluane National Park, a UN World Heritage Site
• Talking to 2 German hikers in Kluane in German for 10 minutes.
• Having a mother Moose and her child scamper across the highway in front of my car.
• Talking to 2 young Norwegian adventures on a 2 week canoe trip with rifles to hunt game.
• Public Murals in Whitehorse
• Hiking trail around the lake in Yellowknife
• Visiting unique Rankin Inlet, a successful town in the barren far north
• Talking to the visiting doctor and nurse in Rankin Inlet

7. Central America & Caribbean trip highlights:

• Tour of old Santo Domingo, first European city in the New World & a burial site of Columbus
• Helicopter charter tour of Volcanic damage in Montserrat
• Visiting St. Eustatius, site of the first salute to the new United States on 16 Nov 1776.
• Helicopter charter to explore rarely visited Redonda, discovered and named by Christopher Columbus
• On Nevis visiting the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton, a pivotal Founding Father.
• On St. Kitts, touring Romney Manor, once owned by the ancestor of President Thomas Jefferson
• Touring the Brimstone Hill Fortress on St. Kitts.
• Exploring the Portobello Fort in Panama, linked to Mount Vernon.
• Touring Port Royal in Jamaica

8. Pacific & South America trip highlights:

• In Tahiti (my third time), visit to the home of James Norman Hall, author of Mutiny on the Bounty
• Thrill of my first Zegrahm Expedition Cruise with outstanding staff, lectures, and places visited.
• Astonishment at Expedition leader Little John's skill in balancing a glass of beer while even doing a one-handed push-up!!
• Memorable visit to Pitcairn: walking 10 miles, talking to the mayor, the final farewell as the longboat returned with the Pitcairners who circled our ship with everyone waving good-bye.
• The surprise visit to the rarely visited Oeno & and setting the record (73 people) number of visitors.
• Second visit to Easter Island & learning the riveting story of the first contact with the Dutch in 1722
• In Santiago seeing the pride of the nation: the Fenix 2 capsule, that rescued the Chilean miners.
• At Lake Titicaca, meeting the ship builders that built the reef boats for Thor Heyerdahl
• Seeing the seals on Robinson Crusoe Island and being "co-pilot" of the small plane were neat.
• Touring the historic inner city of Paramaribo in Suriname
• I thought the wooden cathedral in Georgetown, Guyana was special.

9. Africa and Middle East trip highlights:

• Visited Juba, capital of South Sudan, before the historic vote in favor of secession from Sudan
• Visited the tomb of the Mahdi, the replacement of the hajj to Mecca for many years in Sudan.
• Interviewed in Khartoum by the National Public Radio in the United States.
• Had 4 dedicated armed guards with AK-47s during an interesting visit to Puntland in Somalia.
• In Djibouti, I talked to military officers of several countries, fighting Somali pirates, including Sweden.
• The ancient Roman city of Jerash was outstanding and should be a UN World Heritage Site.
• Seeing the whole of the Sea of Galilee from the Golan Heights was memorable.
• Visited holy Mt. Nebo where Moses saw the promised land and is buried in an unknown spot.
• Visited ancient Tel Megiddo, better known by its name in Greek: Armageddon.
• The terraced Bahai Gardens on Mount Caramel are breathtakingly beautiful. Slideshow.
• Learning how the Nabataean Ruins in Avdat are connected to Petra in Jordan

10. Pacific trip highlights:

• Visited Norfolk Island where half are descendants of the Pitcairn Islanders who came in 1856.
• Norfolk island is the home of the famous pine tree named for it, now planted all over the world.
• Chartered a boat (250 miles) to visit West Holmes Reef in the Coral Sea Island Territory at low tide.
• Visited Guadalcanal, the pivotal battlefield where the Japanese realized they lost WWII.
• Our mild mannered guide became very animated when he explained how he killed people in the civil war in the Solomon Islands

Travelers Century Club Initial Visits in 2010

The table summarizes the 30 TCC countries I visited for the first time in 2010. The 13 UN member countries are bolded. From the CIA web site and Wikipedia, I gathered key data on these countries providing guesses where necessary. The data was color-coded to aid pattern recognition. I hope you find this insight-dense table an educational experience.

Click to see my master list of visits with reference links for all 321 TCC countries.

MostTraveledPeople.com Initial Visits in 2010

MostTraveledPeople.com builds on the TCC base of 321 countries by adding the states or provinces of large countries and remote islands with the goal of having the most comprehensive list of places (872) for the serious traveler to visit.

In 2010, I became one of the top 10 travelers on mosttraveledpeople.com. My name and travel statistics are listed on their main page. I visited an astonishing 156 MTP locations in 2010 for the first time.