On the Way: Reading “Tales of a Female Nomad”

My reading of choice on long flights are travelogues. I find they prepare me for the trip and how I do and don’t want to be. On this flight I’m reading:

It gets polarized reviews on Amazon, but that’s actually what intrigued me. What will I like and not like about the book? Where will I see myself? Where will it inspire thoughts about how to be a better traveler in other countries and cultures? 

Here’s the book’s description:

“I move throughout the world without a plan, guided by instinct, connecting through trust, and constantly watching for serendipitous opportunities.” —From the Preface

Tales of a Female Nomad is the story of Rita Golden Gelman, an ordinary woman who is living an extraordinary existence. At the age of forty-eight, on the verge of a divorce, Rita left an elegant life in L.A. to follow her dream of connecting with people in cultures all over the world. In 1986 she sold her possessions and became a nomad, living in a Zapotec village in Mexico, sleeping with sea lions on the Galapagos Islands, and residing everywhere from thatched huts to regal palaces. She has observed orangutans in the rain forest of Borneo, visited trance healers and dens of black magic, and cooked with women on fires all over the world. Rita’s example encourages us all to dust off our dreams and rediscover the joy, the exuberance, and the hidden spirit that so many of us bury when we become adults.