Hi Reader,

How's your week going? Ours isn't going exactly as planned.

We had plans to sail to Zakynthos and visit one of the most recognizable landscapes in all of Greece, the famous Shipwreck Beach but poor weather had us turning around and racing to beat a storm brewing over the island instead.

So we missed out.

It isn't the first time we've missed out on getting to see or do the thing in a place we are visiting. We missed out on seeing the pyramids of Chichen Itza in the Yucatan when we both came down with food poisoning, we missed out on seeing the Amazon when our van broke down in Peru, and we missed the whale sharks in Western Australia.

But when we look back on our travels I don't think we've ever lamented missing out on anything. In fact, the memories that stand out aren't usually the guidebook attractions we saw at all.

Rather our best memories are the time we were invited to a local birthday party in Mexico, the time we saw an octopus couple holding hands on the Ningaloo Reef, and the time a local bloke appeared outside our van with fresh coffee and pastries to welcome us to the village of Pijao in the Colombian coffee region.

And that's the beauty of slow travel. An approach to travel that prioritizes interactions with people, culture, and environment in the places you visit over collecting experiences.

It's hardly a novel idea, but thinking about our week has been a timely reminder that it's always a good idea to slow down and focus on being in a place, rather than hitting every must-see attraction.

If you want to read more about slow travel, check out this week's blog post.

​https://thevanabondtales.com/what-is-slow-travel-and-slow-tourism​