Kateryna Poliarska
CONTACT PERSON
While still a child, I actively traveled… without leaving my home – ecstatically immersed myself in books about authentic Native Americans and brave captains, thoroughly studied the National Geographic Kids World Atlas memorizing the outlandish names of overseas plants and animals. Afterwards, there was a launch into emerging adulthood with its traditional markers: higher education studies, office work, family, business trips as well as ‘sea to ski’ vacations. Until the year 2016, when I went off on my first-ever journey across the Atlantic with the Paganel Studio team and set foot on the trail of both Americas explorer)) Yes, indeed, I initially participated in an expedition to the sites associated with the vanished Maya civilization (Guatemala/Honduras), two years later we were racing the jeeps along the U.S. national park roads, then in 2019 we went to Peru, and after another couple of years we got ourselves right up to Alaska.
It was a truly unique – not gained from books, but real tactile – experience. The very case when an inhabitant of a vibrant and bustling metropolis, with an abundance of tasks on the daily agenda, plunged into another world and felt the breath of an entirely different continent: the jungle, abandoned Mayan cities, jaguars-coatis-howler monkeys... When you stand at the foot of the pyramid platform in Tikal and can’t understand how ancient people who had no knowledge of the wheel or metal tools and didn’t have horses could have built THIS. When you hear an extremely loud chilling roar kinda 5, no, 8 jaguars are tearing their prey in deafening silence at dawn – and the blood runs cold… But turns out it’s just howler monkeys waking up, a common thing in the jungle… When you finally saw the Native American descendants – the very same virtual ones from your childhood – and realized that you had imagined the Mohicans, Chingachgook and Montezuma somewhat differently – to be the powerful athletes with a towering height of 1.85 meters. Turns out, however, they are even shorter than you while you are about 1.59 meters tall.
And then there was an acquaintance with the Navajo Indians and incredibly beautiful sceneries of the parks – picturesque views, with all those horseshoe-dead horse-antelopes-arches-geysers to see… And a Cessna plane flight over the Nazca Lines, floating islands on Lake Titicaca, social gatherings with the Yagua tribe, remote wilds of the Amazon, Machu Picchu with my own eyes, and breathtaking impressions of the achievements of the Incas or ‘Сhildren of the Sun’, as they had called themselves. Having descended from the Andes, I acquired a whole bunch of knowledge: for example, now I can easily distinguish between a llama-alpaca-guanaco-vicuna)) beyond that I also tried а cuy)) During our expedition in Alaska, by the way, I learned how to properly salt red caviar from freshly wild-caught fish, so contact me, if needed, and I will share the recipe)) Besides, during the break between the two Americas, I had the good fortune of getting to the opposite side of the world – Raja Ampat, Indonesia... But this is a completely different - island - story)) And now I have a keen desire to experience Africa, Australia, and New Zealand firsthand.
We know what we are, but not what we may be ©.
Traveling is a great way to explore the world for yourself as it really is, but not as your abstract concepts and pictures of it are; as well as to discover yourself and find your place in this world.
"Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller." Proven through personal experience, this is how it works.
Well, the ball is in your court, and I am all that eager to hear your travel stories, guys!
Looking forward to hearing your travel stories, guys – you’re up next!
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