Interview with Alpaca Suitcase - A Year Of Family Travel Adventure



Sandboarding & Dune Buggies in Huacachina, Peru

Alpaca Suitcase is about a California family that escapes suburbia to volunteer, travel and home school their kids for a year: six months in South America and six months in the Mediterranean.  Two decades ago Mom and Dad separately quit their corporate jobs and backpacked around the world for a few years.  Now they’re married with two careers, two kids in middle school, one huge mortgage and a bit of mid-life ennui.  To further complicate things, they’re mixing in a desire to volunteer, a yen for a “sense of community” in a foreign locale and Mom’s never-ending quest for the kids to be bilingual.  We got together with Jason Malinowski, principal blogger, and asked him to tell us about his travels and the unique experience which the family have just returned from:  

1. How would you define your travel ‘style’?

Less is more. Go slow, see fewer places, involve yourself through volunteering, courses, treks and activities.

2. If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you be and why?

Watching the sun set above Italy's Amalfi Coast and savoring a Limocello...or...watching the world go by and sipping a mint tea in the Medina at Fes, Morocco.

Trekking to Machu Picchu

3. What was your best travel experience?

Snorkeling with sea lions in the Galapagos; literally calling them out to play and taking turns doing crazy underwater flips and barrel rolls in an interactive game of oneupsmanship between humans and animals.


4. What was your worst travel experience?

An all night ferry ride on Lake Nicaragua in the overcrowded "first class" cabin from Ometepe to San Carlos.  Every flying insect on the lake came to swirl around the light bulb...all night long. There was no place to sleep so we counted the number of bugs on the back of the T-shirt of the poor guy in front of us (81!)  When we arrived exhausted in San Carlos, at the mouth of the San Juan river, the best guest house we found was so filthy that we did not want to touch anything.

5. Share an experience you've had with culture shock.


I was offered four camels for our daughter in Egypt's Sinai peninsula.  I didn't know whether to be offended or try to bargain for more camels.

6. What is your best travel advice for the TravelPost community?

Never listen to any advice from travelers.  Just go.

Jason

7. How did you come up with "Alpaca Suitcase"?

My daughter and I brainstormed by making lists of words and putting different ideas together.

8. Where and how have your family achieved a sense of community during your journey?

We spent 7 months in Cusco, Peru where we all had different volunteer jobs, an apartment, great neighbors and got invited to local parties and festivals.  We shopped at the produce market daily, the kids swam on the Cusco swim team and we played pickup basketball on Sunday mornings with our landlord's family.

Bonus Question: Anything you can't resist buying from a minibar?   

No.  Unless I'm super thirsty and it's a long way to a bar!