Goodby Home, Hello World

Call it what you want, escape, wanderlust, the call of the wild, but many of us fantasize about giving up the rat race to experience a different way of life in another part of the world.

Some people actually do it: Leo Urias, 27, quit his job teaching in Vista to climb the Himalayas; when the tables turned on Ginger Allen, 48, of Solana Beach, she righted them with travel to distant ports; Bill Wheeler, 48, of Solana Beach decided he’d rather cross the Sahara than practice medicine.

Although North County is home to these and other modern day vagabonds, for some this is the far corner of the world being explored: Sherlie Thomas, 38, left behind her job in British banking to sample life here.

Although they often get where they’re going by air, these travelers don’t stay in tourist hotels and eat in expensive restaurants. They conserve their dollars and most often live simply to stretch the length and distance of their travels.

Among those who regularly see people leaving their careers behind for travel are Angie Brenner of Word Journeys in Solana Beach and Carolyn Wood of Maps & Travel in Encinitas. Both say they’ve seen an increase in the number of customers in their stores who’ve made the decision to not just take a vacation, but to travel as a lifestyle.

Here is how four individuals broke away:

FROM ESTATE

TO ESSENTIALS

With a sprawling estate in Rancho Santa Fe, a 26-year marriage, three grown children and rewarding volunteer work, Ginger Allen thought she was living her dream.

But her life today could hardly be more different: At age 48 she is single, without possessions and doing odd jobs in far corners of the world to fund her passion for travel.

After a financially difficult divorce, Allen found herself struggling to keep a roof over her head and a new business alive. In a couple of years, she went from a large house to a small condo, to a smaller apartment. She was then burglarized of all her jewelry. “No matter what I did, money seemed to slip from my hands,” said Allen.

So throwing caution to the wind, she put her belongings in storage, took the money she had, and left for a six-month odyssey around the world.

“I had never done anything like it before,” said Allen. “But being forced to give up all the trappings gave me the freedom to do what I really wanted, and that was to travel.”

Her friends couldn’t believe she had the courage to take off by herself. But she was seldom alone. She met and traveled with people of all walks of life and ages. In Bali, for instance, she connected with a 21 year old American she met on a flight from Singapore. “I told her at the beginning she ought to hang out with people of her own age, but she insisted,” said Allen. “We ended up having a ball jeeping through the countryside. We met neat people, some her age, some closer to mine; two brothers for instance who put me up in Germany when I got there. The age factor diminishes when you’re traveling alone.”

In the port of Patrai, Greece, waiting to sail across the Adriatic to Italy, Allen found herself in a sea of faded blue jeans and backpacks. “I looked around and realized none of them were any older than my children,” she said. “But I was dressed just like the rest of them and didn’t feel at all out of place.”

But there were times when she did feel out of her element. Being married at 19, she had always been surrounded by family. “It was hard at first,” she said. “But I’ve learned to appreciate my solitude, and what kept me going were the everyday challenges of money, people, and finding a place to stay the night.”

Sometimes she stayed in private homes, other times in pensione-type places. In Greece, $15 was the most she ever spent on a room. In Bali room and board cost her $10 a day.

Allen booked transportation through Council Travel, a student agency at UCSD where she had just finished a credential. She had originally planned a shorter trip but found with special fares and free stopovers she could extend her journey for less money than planned. “If I can get there cheap and it’s cheap to be there, I’ll go,” said Allen. she traveled for six months for just under $10,000.

Allen’s lack of foreign language skills posed few problems. Even in the most remote areas she usually found someone who could speak enough English to help. “It can be frustrating sometimes not knowing the language because you can’t always comprehend how they do things,” said Allen. “But you learn to become flexible.”

The trip wasn’t always a bed of roses. She was robbed both in Czechoslovakia and in Spain, and suffered a nasty fall from a motorbike in Greece where she was hospitalized. “I had some outrageous scars,” said Allen, “but the thought of coming home never occurred to me.”

When she finally did arrive home, Allen enjoyed a deep sense of accomplishment. “I feel like I can do anything,” she said. “People worry about me and say, ‘If you don’t get a job, what’s going to happen to you?’ But I think they worry because I feel so invincible. If someone gave me $1,000 and a one way ticket somewhere, I could live the rest of my life.”

Allen says she wouldn’t want to do anything but travel right now, though she does have a vision a little house and garden near the ocean somewhere. “It could be in Costa Rica, Turkey, or who knows?” she said.

After seven months home, Allen took off again in mid-May for an indefinite stay in Turkey, Greece, and possibly beyond, hoping to land a job as an English speaking travel guide. “I’ll clean rooms if I have to just so I can continue traveling,” she said. “Some people have their lives planned more, but I don’t, and sometimes that’s a little scary.”

FROM HOSPITAL

TO WILDERNESS

Bill Wheeler is a restless soul who has found adventure in some of the world’s most exotic and remote places. The Solana Beach anesthesiologist used to block time in his hospital schedule to globe trot, but it got to the point where travel became more compelling than medicine, so he gave up his practice, rented his house, and hit the road.

Africa holds a particular magic for Wheeler, who has traveled there 15 times in the past 12 years. His favorite areas are the grasslands of East Africa, the rain forest, and the Sahara Desert. The Sahara may have the strongest pull on Wheeler. “It’s not only beautiful, it’s one of the last great wildernesses on earth,” he said.

Wheeler has always been more comfortable in the wilderness. He grew up in a two-block town in rural South Carolina and spent his summers playing Tarzan in a vast and isolated swamp. “I never liked cities,” he said. “When I’d have to go shopping or something, I never wanted to go, never wanted to put on my shoes or ride in the car. Even today, I hate cars.”

Wheeler’s preferred mode of transport is the camel. A year ago, he and a friend purchased four of them at the edge of the Sahara for $400 a piece, with the intent to sell them at the end of the trip. They then traveled 40 days in an area of the desert where nomads live as they have for centuries. His companion was an American student of Arabic studies who could speak the language, was versed in the Koran, and was attuned to being in an Islamic culture. Their guide however, proved to be less than ideal. “We didn’t realize it at the time,” said Wheeler, “but he plotted and schemed to steal our camels the whole trip. Near the end he pulled out his sword and threatened to kill us unless we gave him the camels. We gave him the camels.”

Horse and donkey also play a role in Wheeler’s expeditions. On one trip, his party, including three Masai natives, packed supplies on the donkeys, and started out on horseback for a 43 day journey from Kenya to Tanzania.

The trip was no joy ride, especially for two friends of Wheeler’s who left after a week because of the hardship: the ropes ate into the donkey’s backs, many of the animals got sick, and a horse was killed by a lion. “It was physically difficult for all of us, humans and animals,” admits Wheeler. The Africans in fact, had told him the trip would be so dangerous, his party may never make it. It didn’t stop him. “We lived like turn-of-the-century travelers,” he said. “It was great. I could have gone on doing that the rest of my life.”

Wheeler seems to feed on danger and discomfort. He’s been chased by a charging buffalo (which gored and broke his friend’s back), stoned by street urchins, and shot at by Ugandan bandits. On one trip, with his then 10 year old daughter, he ferried a Land Rover across the Straight of Gibraltar, drove 3,500 miles across the road-less desert, and into the thick of the rain forest. In between they narrowly escaped a military coup in Nigeria, where travelers told of mass hangings and people being burned to death in the street.

But along with peril there have been enchanting moments: climbing the Sahara’s colossal sand dunes, pink and golden in the setting sun, being welcomed by a village of Pygmies who danced and sang throughout the night, and marriage to his second wife, Linda, in a tribal ceremony where Masai elders spit honey beer on the bride in blessing.

Wheeler and his wife find Africa so seductive they toy with the idea of moving there. “I’m tortured by the idea,” said Wheeler. “But I get over there and miss things like getting all dressed up and having a romantic candlelight evening. Somehow we can’t pull that off in an oasis. I’ve found I can’t live happily in the wilderness, and I can’t live happily here, so I’m miserably running back and forth.”

People often ask Wheeler how he managed to retire so young (he’s now 48) and how they can do the same. He advises getting rid of the mortgages, and trimming expenses to the bone. “But most people don’t want to live that way,” he said.

Traveling independently Wheeler says is a lot cheaper than living in North County. The air fare is a big expense, he says, but the food is cheap, sleeping is free, and the guide seldom costs more than $10 a day. “You pay more for auto insurance than that,” he said. “But if you want to do something like travel, you may or may not have enough money, but its damn sure you don’t have enough time, because it’s running out for all of us.”

Wheeler feels these trips were vital for him. “It was like an emptiness in me because I never got to experience the wilderness the way I wanted,” he said. “Now that I have, I feel filled up. I have these fabulous experiences I can enjoy the rest of my life.”

FROM CLASSROOM

TO MOUNTAIN TOP

Leo Urias loves the outdoors, especially when there are rocks to scale and mountains to climb. The 27 year-old school teacher has hiked in North and South America, but has long dreamed of trekking in the Himalayas. A remote fantasy, he thought, but opportunity knocked when Pan Am issued his sister a voucher when she was bumped from an oversold flight. With no time to use it herself, she gave the ticket to Leo, who then applied for a leave of absence from Vista Unified Elementary School.

Trouble was, he lacked the tenure required for a leave, so he bit the bullet and resigned, hoping to get his job back when he returned.

The complications of selling or subleasing a home weren’t a problem for Urias since he was living with his parents and two younger brothers in Vista. After reading extensively and pouring over detailed maps, he narrowed his sights to a few spots he found particularly interesting.

“There’s a lot written about Nepal,” he said. “It’s set up for trekkers with guides and all, but I wanted to try somewhere less traveled like Northern India and Pakistan where you have to figure your own way around.”

With 40 pounds of equipment strapped to his back, he started out alone, but hooked up with fellow travelers, mostly Europeans, along the way. “It’s a good idea to trek with others,” he said. “Because a lot of times you’re a distance from civilization. A sprained ankle can turn into something serious when you’re a few days out.”

“This wasn’t serious mountaineering,” he claimed. “But we did get into some real exciting places: 18,000 foot peaks, glacial crevices, and saw a number of avalanches.”

Was fear a factor? “Exhilaration may be the word,” he said, “Adrenaline just pumping through your veins. I had never climbed on ice before with ropes and picks. I wouldn’t have told my buddies who were climbing with me, but yeah, I guess I was kind of afraid. But I was having a hell of a good time.”

After spending three months in the mountains of northern India, Urias traveled to Pakistan and China. He then stashed his equipment, and biked through southern India, sometimes camping with travelers, other times staying with villagers who would invite him into their homes to share a meal and stay the night.

His hosts didn’t speak English, and Urias didn’t speak the dialect, “but we communicate,” he said. Urias believes if he was in a group, people wouldn’t have been as helpful. “They either assume you have others to rely on or that you’re self sufficient,” he said. “When you travel alone, people usually help you out.”

Urias found the food surprisingly good, though the variety limited due to the lack of arable land, especially in the North. His diet consisted mostly of rice, lentils, potatoes and spinach. “Sometimes it got a little boring, day after day for months,” he said. “I found myself dreaming of burritos.” He was 25 pounds overweight when he left home, but came home trim and healthy.

“But India is not for everyone,” he said. “My sisters, I know would hate it. Bedbugs are common. Then there’s leprosy, elephantiasis; all those deformed and swollen bodies. You see a bit of that in Mexico, where I was born, and also in South America, but not to the extent you see it in Southern India.”

“Some of the slums in Bombay and Calcutta have no plumbing, so people just go to the bathroom on the street and clean with a small bucket of water. That was hard to get used to.”

The lack of sanitation may have contributed to Urias’ occasional stomach upsets. He had his own medicine, but one night after vomiting for hours, his Pakistani roommates urged him to try a mysterious herbal mixture of their own. It worked like a charm.

After several months of travel through India, Urias’ visa expired, so he had to leave the country and apply for a new one at a foreign embassy.

He went to nearby Sri Lanka for what he thought would take a week, but with all the bureaucratic red tape was forced to stay nearly a month. “Sri Lanka was beautiful, with some of the prettiest beaches I’ve ever seen, but it wasn’t nearly as interesting or as colorful as India,” he said. “If I was going to give anybody advice, I’d tell them to be certain of each country’s visa requirements, not just go by word of mouth.”

But there’s little else he would have changed. “I got to go to the mountains, the deserts, the big cities, he said. “Places where there was no one for miles to places where there was everyone. It never got tedious. When it does it’s time to go home.”

Money did Urias in before tedium. After seven and a half months and spending all but $12 of the $2,600 he brought with him, he returned to North County.

He’s now in his own apartment and back at the Vista Unified Elementary School as a basic skills teacher, tutoring small groups. It’s less pay, without a full contract, but he just got word he’ll have his own classroom again next year.

He feels the trip was well worth the career risk. “I believe you’ve got to take your opportunities when they come,” he said. “It was such a privilege to be there. It opened my eyes to a lot of things. I think I’m a little wiser, and a little more compassionate. And I got to live out my own fantasy.”

FROM BANKER

TO NANNY

After working 17 years as a personal manager for Barclays Bank in England, Scotswoman Sherlie Thomas felt it was time to cut her roots and see the world, before, as she says: “It’ll be too late.”

Her father and sister in Edinburgh couldn’t comprehend why she would give up a house and a good job and “go and do nothing.”

“They just don’t understand that travel is my passion,” said Thomas, 38, who has traveled in numerous countries. “I really want to take two or three years, go round the world and actually live with the local people, learn from them, and hopefully they’ll learn something from me.”

She decided with its proximity to Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize, San Diego would be a good place to start her round-the-world journey.

Traveling on a shoestring, she booked her first night at the downtown YMCA. A dismal choice, she discovered. “I’ve stayed in a few other Y’s around the world,” said Thomas, “but this one, whoa!”

So she moved out the next day into a cheap motel in a safer area, and then into a rented room in Clairemont, becoming good friends with the owner, a single mother of two young sons.

After three months of enjoying the sights, Thomas found a job as a nanny in Del Mar. But all is not car pools and Little League.

To bring her in touch with more people, Thomas took out a “Seeking a Friend” personal ad in a newspaper. “It’s fun to meet such weird and wonderful people,” she said. Thomas calls respondents first to see how they come across, then meets them for coffee around lunch time. Friendships with men and women have resulted.

“Most people I’ve met here have been so friendly and helpful,” she said. “Maybe it’s the weather. Or maybe it’s the accent. Americans just seem to hone in on it, and want to listen to you no matter what you’re saying. But if someone tells me it’s ‘cute’ one more time, I’ll murder them.”

Thomas is taking fencing and French lessons, and is considering taking a class in pottery or stained glass. “There are so many things for people to get involved in here, she said. “We just don’t have these choices in the UK.”

The food choice is also incredible to Thomas. “The Mexican food is great, but the cookies and the ice cream are the best,” she said. “And your muffins! I love the muffins! All my nanny and housekeeper friends have put on weight here. I’ve put on a couple of pounds myself, but I prefer to think of it as muscle.”

Thomas is in the process of extending her visa until the end of the year, hoping her house in England will sell, thus freeing her to continue her journey. But it’s been tough to get the visa extension.

“I’m getting itchy feet,” she said. “But not knowing what’s happening with the property back home and my visa situation, I’m not able to do it. Its very expensive here, but I do love it, and it’s better than being back in rainy England.”