Lorrie Joron - Round-the-World Traveler

1. When did you go on your RTW trip?
   February 2000-May 2000

2. How old were you when you took this trip?
   39

3. Including your air ticket and other expenses (from accommodation to souvenir-buying), about how much did your trip cost?
   $10000?

4. Nationality
   Canada

5. Where do you live now?
   Haida Gwaii, Canada

6. Occupation
   
   Before your trip: teacher
   
   Now: teacher
   

7. How did your travels affect your career when you got back?
   made me a better teacher, made me work differently to plan the next year off

8. What is the route you took/places you visited?
   Actually not RTW but RTPacific: Vancouver, Costa Rica, Ecuador & Galapagos, Peru, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, home

9. Why did you decide to take this trip? What got you into this type of travel, and/or influenced you to go?
   son was the perfect age(turned 14 the day we landed in San Jose, CR), grew up in a nomadic family and it was time to go. tooke me 3 years to convince the husband to go,

10. Out of all your experiences traveling around the world, what was the:
    
    • Best Moment
      snorkeling with penguins& sharks

    • Worst Moment
      food poisoning on the plane

    • Biggest Hurdle, Obstacle or Difficulty?
      coming home

    • Biggest surprise?
      my husband wants to go again

11. Who is the most memorable person you met on your trip and why?
    Mic the crocodile hunter in Australia, Veggie Steve our bus driver for several days in Aus, Johnny our guide in the Galapagos, all highly entertaining

12. How much planning and preparing did you do?
    Just Enough

13. What was your favorite piece of gear?
    My journal: kept souvenirs, drawings, notes, quotes, prices

14. What did you bring, that in hindsight you could've left at home?
    too many clothes, buy local

15. How did your round-the-world trip change your life? How did it affect and change you as a person?
    more appreciative, more knowledgeble, more thankful, more willing to risk, less stressed about career

16. If you had to sum up your round-the-world trip in one sentence, what would it be?
    Once is not enough

17. Are you planning more trips and travels for the future? Are you planning another round-the-world trip?
    Next trip 2009-2010 : circa Mediterranean- Portugal east Greece, Egypt, west to Morocco, Africa,India

18. Why do you think people should go on round-the-world trips? Why not just take a regular old one- or two-week vacation instead?
    Life's too short, two weeks are too short, too many places to see, too many people to meet, too many things todo, too many things to eat

19. What is the most valuable thing you learned?
    My husband and I don't value the exact same things in a trip but we lasted together with compromise

20. What is the biggest myth that people have about round-the-world traveling?
    fear of strangers!

21. Why do you like to travel?
    can't help it, it's in my blood(sis just got back from a year in Asia with her kids & hubby, parents are somewhere on the prairies in a 5th wheel- no permanent address- also just got back from Asia)

22. What is your advice for people planning their own RTW trip?
    Plan some, don't read everything in sight before you go, leave some room for surprises and spontaneity