Women of the world, unite!

By JANN HUIZENGA | For The New Mexican

September 1, 2007

Move over all you Marco Polos, Ernest Shackletons, Bruce Chatwins — you armies of men who long ago defined wanderlust as an all-male preserve.

We itchy-footed women are laying our own claim to the big wide world. And now, to cheer us on and offer us direction, we’ve got Stephanie Elizondo Griest’s 100 Places Every Woman Should Go — a pulse-quickening primer for vagabonding feministas. So ladies, grab a copy, apply lipstick and sally forth.

The beginning of the book is devoted to sites where travelers can soak up the feminine energy of iconic women of yore — places like Rouen, France, where Joan of Arc burned; Danvers, Mass., where Salem witches haunt the Witchcraft Victims Memorial; Lesbos, Greece, where Sappho wrote her poetry; and St. Petersburg, Russia, where Catherine the Great stuffed her city with art, the way you’d stuff piroshki with jam.

Also included is one of my all-time favorite shrines: the vibrant home of Frida Kahlo in Coyoacán, Mexico, a part of Mexico City. “Touring through La Casa Azul, or Blue House,” Elizondo Griest writes, “is like stepping inside one of Kahlo’s fantastical paintings. The walls are awash with color and mosaics; a Day of the Dead altar yields pastries, flowers, candles, and papier-mâché skeletons; the inner courtyard blooms with tropical flowers and cactus.”

But what of Georgia O’Keeffe’s stunning Abiquiú home? Missing. When I mentioned it to the author in a recent phone interview, she promised to consider it for the next edition. Which is good, because the homes of both artists — while at opposite poles in style — exude the same soul-nourishing vibe, showcasing a feminine seamlessness between life and art.

A native of Corpus Christi, Texas, Elizondo Griest hit the road at 21 and has rarely stopped moving. She calls herself “happily homeless” at the moment — living at writers’ retreats when not traveling or teaching. She was in town in June to teach a weeklong travel-writing course at the Santa Fe Writers Conference.

100 Places Every Woman Should Go is her second book. The first, Around the Bloc: My Life in Moscow, Beijing, and Havana, won Best Travel Book of 2004 from the National Association of Travel Journalists of America and is the 2007 pick for the Mayor’s Book Club in Austin, Texas. Elizondo Griest’s nomadism continues with Mexican Enough, her third book, due out in the fall of 2008. The memoir chronicles her travels through Mexico searching for her roots, interviewing undocumented workers and rallying with striking teachers in Oaxaca as well as the Zapatistas in Chiapas.

100 Places, unlike most travel guides, has a social conscience — and a particularly feminine one at that. An entry for Zanzibar, for instance, suggests visiting not only gardens and spice plantations, but the Zanzibar Orphanage, where you can donate books and toys or volunteer your time. Entries for Cambodia recommend a visit to the Traditional Music School in Kampot, “where orphans and disabled children give music and dance performances” and a meal at the Lotus Blanc in Phnom Penh because the restaurant “hires its employees from the nearby garbage dump, where thousands of families make their living sifting though trash.” You won’t find that in your standard Fodor’s.

100 Places also turns readers on to the Tsunami Volunteer Center in Khao Lak, Thailand, where scores of hotels “got sucked into the sea” and urges Thailand-bound travelers to “cram extra clothes, toys, medicine, and tools” into their suitcases.

I wish more travel guides offered suggestions for real ways to engage with real people. (Lonely Planet’s just-published guide, Volunteer, is another rare exception.) Elizondo Griest seems aware that we travel deeper when we visit places of hardship and pain, and when we leave something of ourselves behind.

but wait, there's more.....

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/67770.html

I'm a person. I don't do unions, groups or chick things. Sorry.

I'm a person. I don't do unions, groups or chick things. Sorry.

So, why are you in the ladies (chicks) forum?

What a great idea for a book. I particularly like the social conscience part. No good for me, sadly - I don't travel anymore, but I still think it would be a good read.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPUJIbXN0WY

Shister i hope that it works.......

Well know i know that you can see you tube its good... altogether now.....

Edited September 3, 200718 yr by Patsycat

Sometimes I can help. Ladies are people, too.

Sometimes I can help. Ladies are people, too.

freya stark is a favourite, loads of women explorers and travelers, dont get the credit they deserve