(10 of 10)
The landscape of gods and idols could be found again 7,500 miles away, amid the Mayan ruins of Yucatan in Central America: Chichen Itza's city of temples is unforgettable, as is the trip from Uxmal in a bouncing Jeep to look at the incredible breadth of Mayan art. There would be Chichicastenango in Guatemala, where worshipers slowly climb the tiered steps to their church, censers swinging in their hands, and kneel beside rows of thousands of burning candles embedded in pine needles and flowers. Not a mile away would be an unabashed pagan ceremony before the carved stone idol of Pascual Abaj. Since the religious fervor is closely associated with heavy drinking, it is not long before the participants turn the ceremony into a real swinging scene.
Even in Western Europe, so familiar to Americans now that it is nearly home, the tourist determined to seek the unknown can still find it. Northern Portugal's Minho province, for example, scarcely touched by the 20th century, is a tapestry of medieval simplicity, where the wines are commendable, the folkways innocent, and even the bullfights gentle (the bulls are led away to fight again another day).
And if Minho should get too crowded with faces vaguely reminiscent of the folks in Capri or Majorca, Tahiti, Tanganyika or St. Louis, the resourceful pioneer will know where to go to get away from them: Paris.
But that's another story.
*Sample medical kit for the prudent longdistance traveler: thermometer, aspirin, meclizine or a similar drug (for motion sickness), an antihistamine, bismuth salts or similar preparation (for simple diarrhea), tetracycline (a good overall antibiotic), insecticide, soap, tissue, telephone number of home physician. All Americans going abroad should have inoculations against smallpox (required), typhoid, typhus and tetanus (recommended). For parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America, they also need shots against yellow fever and, in Asia, against cholera. The Africa-bound also would be wise to take along malaria pills and to get an inoculation (pentamidine isethionate) against sleeping sickness.