09/10/2024
As I sit in the airport returning home to my family and friends, I would like to share some thoughts many of which were penned by my fellow world cruiser and friend, Clayton F. about my amazing voyage. He has put into words what many of the cruisers including me are feeling.
I heard about this cruise within days of it being announced nearly three years ago and I knew that I had to be on it. I have learned life is short and you should jump at chances when they are provided, so I booked it.
I thought that this cruise might be something different, that this trip might be something special, that this unironically could be the trip of a lifetime. This cruise could give me a chance to see places I never thought i would see. It turned out to be that and so so much more.
We came aboard, passengers and crew, from many nations, many cultures, races, life styles, religions and politics, but our group soon coalesced into our own unique traveling village. We have seen and experienced what few will ever have the opportunity to see and do. On a typical trip you may fly into a country for a week or so, on a cruise maybe visit 4 or 5 ports, but this was an experience like none other with scores of stops in rapid succession. before we could catch our breath over what we had seen and done it was time for another port, another country, another continent.
There were places that tore into our souls with the extreme poverty we have witnessed, the avalanches of garbage and human detritus that littered the streets and countryside, an yet, the people still smiled at you, still waved at you, and still laughed with you. Then there were the places where our souls soared with the unimaginable beauty that God has wrought across the world, and marveled and the crowning achievements that man has constructed. The massive chest thumping waterfalls, the wildlife across the continents that we could not get enough of, horizon spanning deserts, the massive icebergs, the deep gashes across the landscape that are the fjords, water in every possible shade of blue, the magnificent voilence of an erupting volcano, and the ever elusive Northern Lights. The sky scratching towers that man has erected, the incredible churches, temples, shrines and mosques, built to show reverence to the divine, and the structures from the very dawn of civilization that defy time and still exist.
How can this journey not have changed you? Some were taken out of their comfort zone, isn't that what travel is? How can you watch school children in villages who live in huts with dirt floors sing and dance and be happy and not be moved? How can you see the frenetic pace of life in Mumbai, Tokyo, Manilla, or Rio de Janeiro and not be fascinated with the clockwork precision with which these cities move? How can you see the level of security and lack of freedoms the people of China live under and not be moved? How can you see the stunning wealth of some cities and the crushing poverty of others and not be moved? How can you visit the former slave prisons of West Africa and not be horrified? How can you feel the thuderous roar and see the veils of mists cast up from Iguzu falls and not be moved? how can you experience the quiet isolation and serene beauty of Antartica and not be moved? how can you snorkel with sea turtles and gaze upon endless herds of elephants and not be moved? My perspective of humanity and the world around me had changed after what I have seen and done?
Long after the farewell lunches, dinners and goodbyes have happened, it will take weeks, months and possibly years to really digest and comprehend what we have been through and the people that we experienced it with. Many of us have formed life long bonds, many we will see over and over again throughout the years. Others we may never see again but all made the adventure what it was . I want to thank each and every one of you for enriching my life during this journey and the memories that it has created.
I also want to thank everyone who followed my journey and sent messages along the way. This has been an amazing experience and I hope it will make me a better person.
