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Bob Brophy

Travel

Bob: I got interested in travel because I grew up in a one child family out in the country, and there wasn’t much to do except farm labor. I spent a lot of time reading. I discovered that travel was the most interesting part because I could expand myself. I could be anywhere I wanted to be in the world completely lost in thought. I got interested in Peru South America because I had been reading about the Spanish exploration.

Yacht to Boston

Bob: Twice I took a yacht from Ft. Lauderdale Florida to Boston. The second time I went it was just a 45 foot yacht with the captain and myself. Just the two of us. He had a contract to deliver the yacht to Boston and he wanted company. “You want to go along?” Sure. We were going up the coast and the first few days there was no interest whatsoever. Just kept going north. But we got off the coast of South and North Carolina, and there was a storm coming in from the northwest. You could see. So we turned further out to sea. It overtook us. I couldn’t believe it. I was a newcomer at sea. I had been on a cruise ship. He had been eight years as a captain on the sea. The storm overcame us. I was aghast. To this day I can relive the whole thing. It was over with, in 10 minutes. There was lightening about every 3 seconds, and a downpour like you were going under Niagara Falls. We got set down on the seats and locked the wheels and buckled down into the seats and just hung on. I was scared! I was really scared! And he said a little later “I was a little upset too.”

Nude Sailing

Bob: After the storm was over we went in on the inland. We got on the canal and went out into Virginia…oh damn, my memory is failing me, but anyway we were sailing just the two of us on a yacht going north up this canal; and here comes a sailboat south, and as we passed about 20 feet apart, here’s a man and woman on board stark naked sailing the ship, and He says “Hi how are you, what’s going on?” They were buck naked. What am I going to talk about to these people? I didn’t’ have enough good manners to wish them a good trip too. I was so stunned. I remembered that all my life. It made me forget my good manners.

High Altitude

Bob:I read about it. I read about everything I get my hands on. I said I’ve got to go see this place. And I went to Lima and I spent the night in Lima and the next day I caught a flight up to Costa at 11 thousand feet and I walked into the airport and right away a group of people sat me down and made me drink a narcotic drink out of some kind of narcotic plant. I can’t come up with of the name of it. Here I am at thirteen thousand, or eleven thousand feet I think I am correct…and anyway they made me sit me down and made me drink some of this stuff. Coming from the coast. So I drank the drink it felt pretty good. I went outside on the street and here comes a woman very sick I met her on the plane, as it turned out I found out later she came up with one mind –shopping. She ignored these people with the drink and went out shopping right away. She got so ill from high altitude that she just barely made it back.

Inca Museum

Bob: I came back down to sea level in Lima to catch the plane back to the United States. I went in through the Museum of the Inca’s. It was a startling thing. I don’t know what the Inca people were thinking. But they had the most unusual figurines. Women were way out of proportion and so were the men. The museum was filled with Inca treasures, and unusual stuff. I saw most of it.