Joel Graham: My friendship with you has been an adventure! Seriously though, when I was at the University of Portland they had a student exchange program with Salzburg, Austria. So I decided to go study a year in Europe. We went to school four days a week, then we had long weekends free where we could do anything we wanted. Most of the governments were good about giving visas to American students... So I’d go out traveling.

You could grab a train anywhere – I went to Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia… The only place I didn’t go where I really wanted to go was East Germany, but they wouldn’t give us a visa.  This was still when the Iron Curtain was in place.  I did go to East Berlin. That’s really how I got the traveling bug in me. Since then, I’ve been a traveling maniac. I’ve been to 87 countries.

LYA: Before you moved to Argentina two years ago, you were traveling and working as a CPA. How did you manage that?

JG: I was a C.P.A. in San Francisco and I had a lot of clients there. Basically they didn’t care where I was working, as long as the work got done.

I can use this to call my clients. I’m talking to you on it right now! With a little ingenuity many people could maintain their income stream, or create a new one, anywhere in the world. 

LYA: It amazes me how under utilized this technology is. It makes many jobs TOTALLY portable.

JG: I’m living proof.

LYA: What were some of your most adventurous trips?

JG: Well… what does adventure mean? The most beautiful, the most…

LYA: That’s a good question, one I should be asking you!

JG: No, I asked you first!

LYA: Well, to me adventure, travel adventure, is where you have a point A and point B, but in between you don’t know everything that’s going to happen… there may be some risk, there may not be risk, but it’s not knowing what’s going to happen, just enjoying the ride, enjoying the thrill.

JG: Right. Adventure is anything you don’t have at home.  Where I lived in San Francisco, there was a Starbuck’s right downstairs. I like my coffee in the morning, so to me, an adventure would be, how I can get my coffee when I don’t speak the language! To answer the original question though, the coolest countries I’ve ever traveled to are in South America. I really dig South America. I went to Peru for the first time in 1997. I remember landing at the airport and looking outside of customs and seeing thousands of people. People selling taxis, rooms, people waiting for relatives, police officers with machine guns… It’s a beautiful place, but it’s always a little out of control.

LYA: What about “out of control” do you like?

JG: I like out of control as long as my personal safety isn’t at risk. In Peru I never felt I was in a situation that was life-threatening. In Columbia though, I have been in situations where I thought I was going to die. 

LYA: I know we’ve been in a lot of situations, like in Rio. The night before I got there you got hit in the head with a big rock. The night after I got there, you witnessed a murder on the street. Do you consider that part of adventure, or is that just crazy dangerous?

JG: That’s just crazy danger. It’s funny, when I think of Rio I don’t think of it as being dangerous. At certain times, I guess, like during Carnival, but the crimes then weren’t against me. The rock wasn’t thrown at me, I was an innocent bystander. The shooting, as the police explained to me in Portuguese [laughs], was a drug hit. I don’t go to countries where there are kidnappings, like Iraq or North Korea. But there are not a whole lot of other places I wouldn’t go. And I don’t like going to places where I have to take malaria medication. It makes me a little bit crazy.

LYA: Crazier, you mean! So what do you see for the future?

JG: Well, I’m moving! Because there’s been a big influx of foreigners, the real estate prices have drastically increased. So I’m moving to a smaller place in a nice area near a dog park. It’s kind of weird… I’m working on getting my residency, but right now I’m still on a tourist visa and foreigners aren’t allowed to sign a contract that’s for more than six months. So I have to pay the contract in advance. I want to stay here another two years at least, but if it gets too expensive I’ll move to another country in Latin America. Costa Rica, Nicaragua, maybe Panama.

And there are five things I want to do while I’m still able. Go to Rwanda – there’s an environmental group there where you can hang out with the gorillas. I want to do that. I also want to visit India, Cambodia, the Kruger National Park in South Africa, and Egypt. Maybe I’ll do Egypt this Christmas. And of course checking out more of South America. 

LYA: Thanks, Joel.

JG: You’re welcome. You still recording? I wanna talk about women… CLICK

Joel Graham – C.P.A., oxymoron, and single guy – can be reached at Joelacpa@aol.com

The following are Mark's previous articles for the magazine:

• Through Bolivia ~ Riding My Bike On The World's Most Dangerous Road
• Living Large In Buenos Aires ~ Argentina
• At The Bottom Of The World - Ushuaia
• Adventures In Colombia ~ The Journey Continues
• El Salvador Autohotel ~ Salvadoran Hotel Pleasure ~ by Mark McMahon
• Bolivian Safari ~ Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia 
• Baby Blue And La Paz ~ Making It Through In Bolivia
• What Doesn't Kill You...  ~ Noel Kempff National Park, Bolivia
• Bolivia To Buenos Aires -On The Road
• ANTI-AMERICAN SENTIMENT ~ Politics In Latin America
• Cuba ~ Having Fun

Go to Mark's web site and check out his new book, DRIVING TO THE END OF THE WORLD, due out at Christmas.  Click Here

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