I am a bold, fearless traveler with 33 countries under my belt. Not one to plow through the landscape, I prefer to take in the sights on horseback, floating down the river in a canoe or looking out the window of a train. I can stay at a five star hotel, eating in an ever so chic new restaurant followed evening at the opera or hot new club or be equally happy branding cattle at a nearby estancia and eating an asado.
Antoinette Ford's Full profile
Hometown
Laguna Beach CA
Location now
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Work published
In my first career as an architect, I had a weekly column on Design in the Northwest Current and the Jewish weekly in Washington, D.C. I was published several times in The Potomac Almanac, Potomac Life magazine, Washington Post and Baltimore Sun. I spent one year writing the corporate new letter/new paper for AMP California as well as do press releases.
Travel philosophy
Tread lightly as you exploring new cultures, while taking with you memories, photos and some once in a life time experiences, but leave behind everything as you found it.
Craziest place
I once took a trip alone into the subtropical jungle of Panama to visit a tribe of 54 nomadic Indians, with out telling anyone of my plan for adventure. I was the first “white person” they had seen in a year. The women wore long sarongs around their waists and tabooed they’re naked, up bodies with henna. The witch doctor and the tribe leader gave me daily lessons on what I could and couldn’t eat from the jungle. The women showed me how to prepare food and dance. I slept with a family of four in their tree house, a single wood platform with no walls, water or electricity.
Bizarre experience
In Lahore, Pakistan there is a 1000-year-old city where people suffering from leprosy live in the shadow of a 100-foot wall that surrounds them, for the duration of their lives. A microcosm of Muslim culture mixed in with daily suffering, abject poverty and some of the most rancid smells I’ve ever experienced, as well as an occasional glimmer hopefulness and faith.
Advice
Appreciate that every country is different. Don't compare it to what you have back home but embrace how fascinating it is to try a different way of life.
Dream destination
North Korea, Thailand and maybe Cambodia
Traveled before
EUROPE: France , Spain, Italy ( also lived in Rome 6 mo./Florence 6 mo.), UK, Netherlands, Denmark Sweden, Switzerland, Russia, China, Viet Nam, Russia, Poland, Lithuania ,Latvia ,Estonia, Finland, Greece, Chechoslovak, MIDDLE EAST: Pakistan , Iran, Saudi Arabia, India, Turkey, SOUTH AMERICA: Argentina, Peru, Honduras, Panama, Nicaragua, Chile, Guatemala , Uruguay, The Caribbean, Canada and 48 of the fifty States
Going next
I am leaving for Antarctica at the end of January for my first time visit. In Early April I will explore the village life of the Dutch waterways, then fly down to the Canary Islands where I’ve never been before and look forward to experiencing.
