Travel bug: 98 stops and counting

Palm Coast Observer
Neighbors

Ten years ago, Gwen McCarthy made a bucket list of 25 items. One item was a trip to the Galapagos Islands.

“I put this trip on my bucket list when I was in sixth grade and had to do a paper on the Galapagos Islands; they so intrigued me,” McCarthy said.

Ninety percent of the Galapagos Islands is a national park. About 180,000 visitors are allowed to visit the park each year, and McCarthy was one of those visitors, in April, when she spent seven days touring nine of the 19 islands located 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador, with National Geographic aboard the Endeavour.

“The Galapagos Islands are a geographic wonder that is struggling to stay pristine,” McCarthy said.

But McCarthy’s travel bug did not stop there. Upon returning from her most recent trip to Ireland and Scotland, she added tacks No. 97 and No. 98 (36 countries, 49 states and 13 islands) to the world map that hangs in her garage.

“The best part of traveling is really being able to look at other countries beyond what you think you know, and what you read about, and really try to understand them,” McCarthy said. “Unless you stop and take a deep breath, you don’t get to really see the country.”

More than anything, McCarthy hopes to make each exploration overseas a learning experience.

One lesson learned is that people in other countries have the same issues and concerns about life that Americans do.

“It was amazing to hear about all the people in Scotland who can’t sell their houses, and their mortgage being under water,” McCarthy said. “Sometimes I think we get caught up in, ‘it’s only happening to us,’ and it’s really happening in a lot of different places.”

McCarthy said it’s healthy to explore the world. “I think it’s kind of a shame that more American kids don’t travel,” McCarthy said remembering the young people of other cultures she has seen on her journeys. “I think it limits the focus of Americans, and it makes us (focused) inward.”

For McCarthy, a retiree, traveling is a thirst for something different — the love of animals, historical significances and the quest for physical beauty.

And that thirst has not been quenched yet. McCarthy’s bucket list still has many more items.