Travelers & Tourists
“Whereas the tourist generally hurries back home at the end of a few weeks or months, the traveler belonging no more to one place than to the next, moves slowly over periods of years, from one part of the earth to another. Indeed, he would have found it difficult to tell, among the many places he had lived,
precisely where it was he had felt most at home.”
I’d already motorcycled across Ukraine and Hungary, grown fond of mint tea in Morocco, and dined over campfires with Kurds in Eastern Turkey by the time I discovered Paul Bowles, and so I felt his writing a validation as much as an inspiration. Why are people moved to leave comfortable lives at home and go God-knows-where for God-knows-what purpose? I stopped asking myself that question somewhere between Tblisi and Xi’an, and I still find it difficult to tell precisely where I feel most at home. This issue celebrates the drive to explore via wanderlust, but it also celebrates exploration in terms of pushing limits or broadening one’s horizons. Consider Arnold Palmer, whose relentless pursuit of perfection opened the game of golf in ways never before imagined, to an audience that hadn’t dared to tread on course until Arnie took the first steps. Read about some of his groundbreaking play on p140. Off course—far off course, in fact—Ed Viesturs took a childhood fascination from Indiana to the top of the world and became a legend, climbing all 14 of the world’s 8,000meter peaks without supplemental oxygen. Read about him on p42. Those inclined toward warm sand can explore the Caribbean on p68, while travelers who like their sunshine on vines can read on p60 about Sacha Lichine, who helps people to explore Provence from the comfort of their own homes via his Whispering Angel rosé and other incredible wines. There’s a lot to explore in this Kingdom, but one of my favorite journeys in helping to create the issue, certainly, was the transportive experience I had with the team from Santa Teresa rum. More than just a spirit, the rum connects Venezuelans around the world to their homeland. That it is a top shelf spirit is almost irrelevant (though it is absolutely world-class); its true value lies in its ability to bring people together across miles and across centuries. Harkening from Venezuela’s earliest days as a country and still making its way around the world, it proves that quality is at home everywhere, any time, and that people who appreciate quality, in some way all hail from the same place, no matter where they’re from—something Paul Bowles might have appreciated.