Something about the remote, the untouched, the places at the edges of the world has always called to me. Antarctica, Papua New Guinea, and Easter Island are a few\u2014each speaking in its own way, pulling me toward the unknown, the mystery, the stories woven into landscapes few have seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019ve been drawn to\u00a0Papua New Guinea\u00a0for many years\u2014the highlands where\u00a0tribes live untouched by Western influence, still deeply rooted in their traditions. Twice, I tried to make the journey happen. The first time, my husband wasn\u2019t keen on me traveling alone there. The second and most recent, with my\u00a025-year-old son\u00a0who was ready to join me, but after a deep dive and researching our itinerary, the\u00a0cost to reach the interior was astronomical, as one company controls all bookings and has monopolized the market. As much as I wanted to go, I couldn\u2019t justify the price.\u00a0Trust me, I love exotic adventures and am willing to pay to play, but this was the next level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I finally made it to\u00a0Easter Island ten years ago, it felt like stepping into another world. The\u00a0moai stood as silent guardians, their presence heavy with mystery, their origin stories tangled in myth and history. But it wasn\u2019t just the statues\u2014the\u00a0island itself, the rhythm of the waves, the depth in the eyes of the local people, the inexplicable magic that lingers in the air.\u00a0A place that imprints one’s soul, leaving memories that don\u2019t fade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And now, Antarctica awaits\u2014the ultimate frontier, a place of pure extremes, where ice and sky blur into endless white, where survival is raw, and nature reigns without apology. It\u2019s the only continent without an indigenous population, yet it holds a pull as strong as any ancient land. Maybe it\u2019s the isolation, the silence, the idea of standing at the edge of the earth with nothing but ice, sea, and sky stretching infinitely beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s a profound\u00a0privilege and gratitude\u00a0in making these treks, standing in places that few will ever see, and stepping outside my world and into another. Travel like this isn\u2019t just about checking off remote destinations\u2014it\u2019s about\u00a0expanding my cultural intelligence, deepening my understanding of humanity, and witnessing the resilience and beauty of people who live in ways so different from my own. Each journey strips away assumptions, challenges perspectives, and gives me a greater reverence for the diversity of life on this planet. I don\u2019t take that for granted. To walk among the moai of Easter Island, to imagine what it would be like to sit with the tribes of Papua New Guinea, and now, to prepare for the vast silence of Antarctica\u2014it is a gift, that continues to give and one that reminds me\u00a0how vast, complex, and astonishing the world truly is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I am prepared for my expedition, which takes place in five days, with two books in hand\u2014South<\/em>\u00a0by Sir Ernest Shackleton and\u00a0The Worst Journey in the World<\/em>\u00a0by Apsley Cherry-Garrard\u2014both thoughtful gifts from my bibliophile friend Edward. I\u2019ll also watch Werner Herzog\u2019s\u00a0Encounters at the End of the World<\/em>, which offers a philosophical and poetic take on Antarctica, adding to my human curiosity about the adventurous souls who choose to live and work there. This journey feels like a natural extension of the awe I found in Easter Island and had hoped to experience and encounter in Papua New Guinea\u2014knowing each place is a testament to resilience, mystery, and the untamed spirit of exploration. There is something magnetic about these landscapes and the people they draw in, perhaps mirroring my own restless drive to pursue, engage with, and understand the unknown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Something about the remote, the untouched, the places at the edges of the world has always called to me. Antarctica, Papua New Guinea, and Easter Island are a few\u2014each speaking in its own way, pulling me toward the unknown, the mystery, the stories woven into landscapes few have seen. I\u2019ve been drawn to\u00a0Papua New Guinea\u00a0for many years\u2014the highlands […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,40,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reflection","category-storytelling","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=929"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":934,"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/929\/revisions\/934"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prolificpreambles.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}