To know who we are, look at where we have been:
Paulo Mansur Raymundo has had the
opportunity to explore cultural aspects of the peoples in over 200 countries
where he lived, worked, studied or visited since the 80's. He has
been to several of the most hostile territories in the world, visiting
amazing places and getting involved in dramatic and sometimes hilarious
situations. Hiring a guide or joining organized tour groups always
sounded to him as an insult 
"Traveling independently allows someone to absorb an extraordinary
amount of cultural knowledge and self-knowledge that can not be
bought", he says. "You experience situations that can not be found by
reading a book, watching a movie, neither by attending an intensive
course."
Paulo has stayed in all
sort of places, from luxurious chain hotels to
the most simple and rudimentary Buddhist Temples at the foot of the
Himalayas. He has visited remote tribes in many countries and witnessed
religious rituals in extremely remote islands. Either having three meals per
day, or spending a week without eating any solid food, sometimes didn't
make much of a difference. Crossing the Sahara Desert, leading
scientific
expeditions searching for oil in remote locations where almost nobody
had ever been before, and getting used to extreme temperatures from
-30ºC to +52ºC was part of his daily routine. At different times, Paulo
shared his apartment with colleagues from 31 nationalities and directly supervised engineers and scientists from 58 different
countries. He has visited most of the
gigantic professional telescopes and astronomical observatories all
over the world, often being invited to stay overnight to observe. He's
also traveled solo overland
across the whole African continent
for almost a year, hitchhiking, taking local slow public buses and
collective taxis, cargo trucks and canoes, having crossed eleven war
zones unarmed and without a body guard, carrying only 8 kg of luggage,
often documenting what he saw with tens of thousands of photos; all
this was inexpensive and extremely rewarding at the end. He was in
Beirut during the civil war, and visited most of the obscure Eastern
European countries during the Soviet Union period. Paulo also became an
eyewitness to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's assassination. He even discovered a new species of crab in East Timor, and took
DNA samples from whale sharks in Mozambique. He was in
Kenya during an earthquake, saw volcanic eruptions in Indonesia,
Guatemala and Italy (a few kilometers away from Mt. Etna's mouth during
its memorable 2002 eruption), devastating hurricanes in Barbados and in
the Northern Marianas, a huge tornado in Georgia and even ran a
Marathon climbing the Swiss Alps. However, his exploratory marathon
throughout the world is far from over. Lately he has been revisiting
places already familiar to him. At each visit he rediscovers new facets
of cultures that if seen by untrained eyes, would go unnoticed.
Paulo has been a member of the Travelers'
Century Club (TCC) since 1994 and has visited 268
countries and territories; he is also listed in the Most Traveled People and Viajeros
Notables Contemporaneos (Los 20 Principales
Viajeros del Mundo) web sites, among others. Paulo's objectives as a traveler have never
been to visit all countries in the world, but mainly to interact with
foreign cultures and expose himself to different values as a way of
self-knowledge, to research the genealogy of his ancestors and visit
members of his family that spread all over the world long ago, to visit
the greatest astronomical observatories everywhere, to
see the underwater world in most countries, to lecture/visit/study at
the main universities and learning centers in the world, to visit the
main temples of every religion, to see the marvels of our times
climbing the highest skyscrapers and crossing the longest bridges, to
visit as many UNESCO World Heritage Sites and National Parks as
possible, and so on.
Below are the countries Paulo has visited, following the TCC List. Click on the name of a country to see the photos. The number after each country name means 'how many times Paulo has visited', if he has been there more than once. Countries where he has lived are followed by *:
|
Algeria Angola Benin - 2 Botswana - 2 Burkina Faso Burundi Cabinda Cameroon Canary Islands - 3 Cape Verde Central African Republic Ceuta Chad Comoros Congo (Brazzaville) Congo (Kinshasa) Djibouti - 3 Egypt - 6 * Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia - 2 |
Gabon Gambia Ghana Guinea Guinea Bissau Ivory Coast Kenya - 4 Lesotho Liberia Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius - 2 Mayotte Morocco - 4 Mozambique - 2 Namibia - 2 Niger Nigeria |
Rwanda
- 2 Reunion Rodrigues Island Sao Tome & Principe Senegal - 3 Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia Somaliland South Africa - 9 Sudan Swaziland Tanzania - 2 Togo - 2 Tunisia Uganda Western Sahara - 2 Zambia Zanzibar Zimbabwe |
| Afghanistan Armenia Azerbaijan Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Cambodia China - 3 (I've been to 15 out of 22 provinces) East Timor Georgia Hainan Island Hong Kong - 2 India - 5 (been to 23 out of 35 states/territories) Indonesia (Java) - 2 Japan |
Kalimantan Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Laos Lesser Sunda Islands - 2 Macao Malaysia - 2 Moluccas Myanmar Nakhichevan Nepal North Korea Pakistan Philippines - 3 Sabah |
Sarawak Sikkim Singapore - 4 Sri Lanka Sulawesi South Korea Sumatra Taiwan Tajikistan Thailand - 6 * Turkey - 3 Turkmenistan Uzbekistan Vietnam West Papua - 2 |
|
Anguilla Antigua & Barbuda - 4 Aruba Bahamas Barbados - 9 * Bonaire - 2 British Virgin Islands - 2 Cayman Islands Cuba Curacao - 2 |
Dominica Dominican Republic Dutch Leeward Islands - 5 French Leeward Islands - 2 Grenada - 4 Guadeloupe - 2 Haiti Jamaica Martinique Montserrat |
Puerto Rico - 2 San Andres & Providencia St Kitts & Nevis - 2 St Lucia - 3 St Maarten - 4 St Vincent & Grenadines - 3 Trinidad & Tobago - 7 * Turks & Caicos Islands American Virgin Islands - 2 |
| Belize
Costa Rica - 3 El Salvador |
Guatemala - 2 Honduras - 2 Nicaragua |
Panama - 3 San Blas Islands |
| Aland Islands Albania Andorra Austria - 2 Balearic Islands Belarus Belgium - 6 * Bosnia & Herzegovina Bulgaria Corsica Crete Croatia Cyprus (Republic of) (South) Cyprus (Turkish Fed. States of) (North) Czech Republic Denmark - 2 Dodecanese Islands England - 13 Estonia Finland France - 10 Germany - 18 Gibraltar |
Greece - 2 Greenland Guernsey Hungary Iceland Ionian Islands Ireland - 2 Isle of Man Italy - 5 Jersey Kosovo Lampedusa Latvia Liechtenstein - 2 Lithuania Luxembourg - 2 Macedonia Madeira Malta Moldova Monaco Montenegro Netherlands - 3 |
Northern Ireland Norway - 4 * Poland Portugal Romania Russia San Marino Sardinia Scotland Serbia Sicily Slovakia Slovenia Spain - 6 Srpska Sweden - 5 Switzerland - 4 * Transdniester Turkey - 5 Ukraine Vatican Wales |
| Abu Dhabi - 12 * Ajman Bahrain Dubai - 8 Fujeira Iran Iraq |
Jordan Kuwait - 3 Lebanon - 5 Oman Palestine Qatar - 3 |
Ras Al Khaimah Saudi Arabia - 3 Sharjah - 2 Syria - 4 Umm Al Qaiwain Yemen |
| Canada
Mexico - 2 USA (been to 34 states
on 58 different visits): |
Georgia - 3 Hawaii - 2 Illinois - 7 Indiana Kentucky Louisiana - 2 Maryland Massachusetts - 2 Mississippi Missouri Nevada New Jersey New Mexico |
New York - 12 Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania - 2 Rhode Island Tennessee Texas - 3 Utah Vermont Virginia Washington - 2 Wisconsin |
| American Samoa Australia Bismark Archipelago Cook Islands - 2 Federated States of Micronesia (Chuuk, Yap) - 2 Fiji - 3 French Polynesia - 2 |
Galapagos Islands Guam - 2 New Caledonia New Zealand - 2 Niue Northern Marianas Palau |
Papua New Guinea Samoa - 2 Solomon Islands Tonga Vanuatu - 2 Wallis & Futuna |
| Argentina - 3 * Bolivia Brazil Paulo lives here (been to all 26 states and the Federal District) Chile - 2 Colombia - 4 |
Ecuador French Guiana - 2 Guyana - 2 Paraguay - 3 |
Peru - 3 Suriname - 2 Uruguay Venezuela - 6 * |
Last updated 06 Feb 2010
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