Excerpt Reprinted with permission from “Female Nomad and Friends” by Rita Golden Gelman. Copyright © 2010. Published by Three Rivers Press/Crown Publishers, a division of Random House, Inc. BUY IT HERE

Being a part of Servas is like having family all over the world. It’s actually better than family. People join Servas because they want you to visit them when you are in their country. Not always the case with family.

interview. Servas charges a small annual membership fee, and travelers pay a deposit for host lists in the countries they want to visit. During the visits, however, no money changes hands.

My first Servas visit was with Gabi and Batsheva in Tel Aviv in 1988. Before the trip, I saw their names in the Israel host book; I wrote asking if I could stay with them when I visited.

They welcomed me as they would an old friend. They fed me, toured me, guided me, and shared their stories as I shared mine. I helped with the cooking and clean- up and bought a meal or a snack here and there.

After only one day we felt so close that we decided their single son, then living in the Dominican Republic, and my single daughter, then living in New York, should marry! Never happened, but we did have fun planning the meeting and discussing the wedding. It was wonderful getting to know them.

Their love for each other made being with them a pleasure. Gabi and Batsheva met in an orphanage. Their parents were killed by the Nazis. During and after the war, the surviving kids were taken from Europe to an orphanage in Palestine.

The two found themselves among the oldest children there and ended up working on the same projects and caring for the younger kids together. They fell in love. Batsheva had a sister, Tova, who was also in the orphanage. I never met Tova, but Gabi and the two sisters shared a special closeness as the only survivors of both families. The sisters meant everything to each other.

As we shared our stories, Gabi, Batsheva, and I developed a special bond. Servas is like that. A level of intimacy is quickly established, and you always leave feeling as though you have made a new friend— or extended your family.

Several years later I returned to Israel for my cousin’s wedding. I called Gabi and Batsheva. Gabi answered the phone. He was excited to hear from me, but he explained that Tova had recently died and Batsheva was devastated. He didn’t think she felt ready for guests. The two women had been incredibly close, he reminded me. I suggested that maybe this time I could take care of Batsheva. They talked it over and decided it was a good idea.

Rita Gelman

I didn’t exactly take care of her, but I did some cooking and a little cleaning; and Batsheva was able to share her happy Tova stories, as well as her pain.

On the second day of my visit, Batsheva received a letter from a Servas friend in Brazil. Claudia had heard about Tova’s death and written a sympathy note. She had included her e- mail address. I offered to write to Claudia on my computer.

In the e- mail I introduced myself to Claudia, and then Batsheva dictated her response while I typed. I left the next day, sad, but pleased that I had been able to help.

Four years later in Argentina, I once again connected with people through Servas. I was staying in my friend Gera’s home in San Miguel, outside of Buenos Aires, so I didn’t need a place to stay, but I wanted to meet people in Buenos Aires. I took out my host list and called a few people. The response was fantastic. Servas members invited me to share meals, parties, and excursions.

After I had met a number of hosts, they told me that a group of them planned on taking a boat across the river the next Sunday to meet Uruguayan hosts. Would I like to come?

Of course. Our two groups got together in the charming Uruguayan town of Colonia and wandered for a few hours before lunch. Everyone wanted to talk a little to everyone else, so two of us would walk and talk for a while, and then we’d switch. The fi rst two Uruguayans I met insisted that I come back as their Servas guest (which I did). I was able to converse with them in Spanish, although they both spoke better English than I did Spanish.

The third person I met asked me not to speak Spanish. “My Spanish is not very good,” she said. “My English is better.”

“But aren’t you from Uruguay?” I asked.

“No, I’m not. I’m from over the border in Brazil.”

It was at that point that we introduced ourselves. “My name is Rita. I’m from the United States.”

“Oh, my God,” she said. “I can’t believe it. I’m Claudia.”

Yes, she was that Claudia! We hugged like old friends. And cried. And a month later I was a Servas guest in Claudia’s house in Brazil.

If you’re a traveler and a connector, check it out. It’s an amazing organization: www.servas.org or www.usservas.org.

We invite you to join us on the Female Nomad and Friends virtual tour. The full schedule can be seen at. You can learn much more about Rita Golden Gelman and her work on her website.

Jen, Holly, and Amanda are at a crossroads. They’re feeling the pressure to hit certain milestones—scoring a big promotion, finding a soul mate, having 2.2 kids—before they reach their early thirties. When personal challenges force them to reevaluate their lives, they decide it’s now or never to do something daring. Unable to gain perspective in fast-paced Manhattan, the three twentysomethings quit their coveted media jobs and leave behind their friends, boyfriends, and everything familiar to travel the globe. Dubbing themselves the Lost Girls, they embark on an epic yearlong search for inspiration and direction. This candid and compelling memoir will speak to anyone who has ever felt the desire to spread her wings and discover the world with her best friends by her side.

There is of course a book Amazon Link

and a website www.lostgirlsworld.com

and a YouTube clip -

Wanderlust and Lipstick:
The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo

Wanderlust and Lipstick:
The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo

published by Dispatch Travels www.dispatchtravels.com Dispatch Travels is devoted to publishing travel books for women with the express purpose of encouraging them to stretch their travel boundaries and to pursue their dream journeys.

Buy the Book here: The Cuban Chronicles: A True Tale of Rascals, Rogues, and Romance

Some girls have all the fun. Calgarian writer Wanda St.Hilaire has taken her passion for travel, especially to Spanish speaking countries, and has given readers an opportunity to experience Cuba from an original and spirited perspective

In the infancy of Cuba’s tourism, Wanda St.Hilaire takes a trip to the tiny island. In spite of her love of all things Latin, she puts herself on a travel ban to Castro’s Cuba, one that lasts twenty years.

When she is forced to cancel a trip to Oaxaca, Mexico at the last minute, she finds herself in Cuba twice, on back-to-back trips. Walking into the backstreets of Havana, eyes wide open, she is pulled into a dalliance with a charismatic cubano.

In The Cuban Chronicles, St.Hilaire’s travelogue/memoir, she describes that underneath the façade of Cuba’s tourism lies the desperation of a society living mostly in abject poverty. When tourists mingle with locals, we get a glimpse of what underlies the frivolity of Cuban entanglements. St.Hilaire speaks with an authentic voice and doesn’t mince words; she recounts her own activities, emotions and opinions with refreshing honesty. The author is a natural storyteller and her vivid descriptions of people and her surroundings make Cuba come alive for the reader. Being an epistolary composition (the book is based on a series of letters to a friend in Paris), the author’s tone is warm and confidential, and peppered with touches of humor.

Think Eat, Pray, Love meets Bridget Jones’s Diary
with a dash of cayenne!

Wanda St.Hilaire supports her travel and writing habit by working as a reluctant sales and marketing representative. She spent four blissful winters away from the frozen landscape of Canada living in the barrios of Vallarta, Mexico, and she has traveled throughout the world. She lives in Calgary, Alberta.

Simple Rules for…The Road Warrior Princess: “Thee” Women’s Inspirational Guide To Embracing The Open Road!!!

“I stumbled upon Simple Rules For The Road Warrior Princess while looking for travel books on Amazon.com, and boy what a treat!

It’s an inspirational guide for women to get them to take a road trip. It motivates you to embark on a journey whether it’s on your own, with some friends, or even family. It gives you the confidence that you’re going to need when driving through unfamiliar areas on your trip. No detail is forgotten in this book either.

It starts out with knowing the ins and outs of your car and how to perform some light maintenance on your vehicle just in case a situation should arise. Some examples are changing the oil, windshield wipers, adding radiator fluid, and filling your tires properly just to name a few. The author lets you know exactly what to pack and where to pack it in case of any emergencies.

If you’re not sure that you can afford to take a road trip, it gives some ideas on how to save money, budget properly, or even how to take one with just the money you have now.

If you have any inhibitions on getting into the car and taking a drive to whatever destination you so choose, this book will erase all of them.

There are also personal stories in the book which is a great addition because you know she’s actually experienced as opposed to some other books by authors that don’t give any proof of their expertise.

Now, if you’re one of those people who like to say I’d like to but I can’t because I have no money, I have kids, I’m married, I have pets, or I’m JUST TOO SCARED!, she has an answer for every excuse you can think of.

By the end of this book you’ll feel empowered. You’ll want to stand on top of a mountain and say “I am woman here me roar!”. You’ll feel unstoppable. You’ll be motivated to not only take a trip, but have the feeling that you can accomplish anything and that anything IS possible!”

Buy the book from Amazon Now

Wanderlust and lipstick

Beth Whitman of Wanderlust and Lipstick has written another travel guide for women – this time for women travelling to India. Beth has shared a lot of her special knowledge of travel on the Indian continent, and the two comments on Amazon say this book is a must for anyone travelling to India. Wanderlust and Lipstick have some great tours to India for women, and Beth’s blog contains lots of gems. Wanderlust and Lipstick: For Women Traveling to India

Also found another women’s guide to India on Amazon too – also good reviews A girls’ guide to India – a survivor’s handbook

The women have written such magazines as Vogue, Elle, Cosmopolitan, Tatler, The Sunday Times, The Sydney Morning Herald and more, and they come from all over the world. Los Angeles – Sydney – London – Paris – Perth – New Delhi – Melbourne – Dubai. Townsville – Brighton, and claim that “some of us never stop travelling at all!”

They have a Facebook page and seem to be steadily adding articles to the site.

I am not so sure – I think that we should write about the totality of our experience – that is what travelling is about. Not bad mouthing for the sake of a story (some writers seem to build a reputation on this style), but being real about the joys and struggles we encounter along the way – some of them of our own making! What do you think?

EATING: I identified so much with her description of depression as she seeks a way to live again after a traumatic divorce. This month it is two years since my partner Ngaire died, and among other things this four month journey I am on is about finding a place to stand without her alongside me. Like Liz Gilbert, here I am in Italy eating my way around the city, discovering magic places and delights along the way, while processing that sense of loss, alongside a desire to move on.

PRAYING: As Liz Gilbert meditated her way to wholeness in India. I have struggled to find my own sense of identity and centredness as I have been travelling. On a journey we are disconnected from our normal life – we are flung into situations where we are challenged by other people’s worlds, different perceptions and different languages. We are no longer comfortably in the ‘familiar’, so our sense of ourselves is challenged and stretched, and we have time to reflect on who we are. It is both scary and liberating, I have found it a great opportunity to stretch and grow and ‘feel’ myself in new ways.

And as for actually praying – surprisingly I seem to have been doing that too in my own way, as I have entered into the religious life of the countries we have visited – responding to the call to prayer in Morocco, lighting a candle at a small chapel on the Camino de Santiago, or joining in the Mass at St Peter’s Cathedral in Rome. We have sat through lots of Masses where I barely understand a word, but they have been a chance to sit still and reflect on life and travel and the give myself to what the present and the future is offering me.

LOVING: I have just finished the final section of Eat Pray Love – Liz finds love with her beautiful Brazilian man in Bali. This is a bittersweet ending for me as there is nothing I would like better than such a happy ending (though perhaps not with a Brazilian man!). I wish her well – the journey continues I am sure, as it does for me.

I particularly enjoyed her lesson from her local spiritual guide to meditate with a smile – even smile in your liver – he told her that smiling makes her beautiful. There is no doubt that smiling lifts the heart and creates a fantastic energy that communicates to others. It is something I find myself doing as I rest and go off to sleep or as I explore somewhere – smile. Like the TV ad in NZ – smile and it comes back to you.

One of the things I have realised is that many of the amazing gifts and events in my life have come because I have tripped over them, not because I have gone looking for them. Love, travel, work, friendships, skills – they have been opportunities I have been given along the way. So the mantra I began my trip with, I will continue to carry with me – Openness to love and life and what the future offers.

Camille Cusumaro, editor of Greece, A Love Story, published by Seal Press, writes in her introduction to the collection of stories about the Greek experience that she visited that “isle-perforated land of scintillating whites and impossible blues” for the first time in 1976. She “drank ouzo and retsina, ate the unforgettable cream of yogurts and wrapped her tongue around few Greek phrases,” and thought she had experienced the culture. But when she began working with the stories of this anthology she was carried back to Greece and her perception of the place was broadened.

For those who have been to Greece some of the personal travel essays in Greece, A Love Story are likely to do the same; those who plan to go can explore inside views of the magical charm and appeal of Greece, and some of its idiosyncratic characteristics, as well.

For many visitors, Greece is a place where their lives were changed, and where they awakened culturally. As well as being a sharing of firsthand experiences the women’s essays go beyond ordinary travelogue to capture the ways in which the country has shaped their lives or influenced decisions.

Greece, A Love Story is the winner of BATW’s Best Travel Book for Planet Earth 2008, and Diane LeBow’s story Dancing on the Wine Dark Sea also won Best Story/Essay in a Travel Related Anthology.

Read the rest of this story HERE