Bad Lands

I've just finished reading a book called Bad Lands: A Tourist on the Axis of Evil, written by Tony Wheeler, one of the founding writers of Lonely Planet. Compiled in 2006 and originally intended as a journal of visits to the three Axis of Evil countries, Tony has chosen to go and visit the most dangerous and repressive regimes on earth. He describes his travels through Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, North Korea and Saudi Arabia amongst others.

Tony undertakes a tour of each of these countries, some of which have never been documented by Lonely Planet and others (eg Iran), which have not had a tourist guide produced for more than 30 years because of the political climate and lack of tourist visas. For Iraq and Afghanistan, he visited some of the [relatively] safer parts of these countries, while for North Korea, the only way to get in is to join a government-sponsored tour group led by a government-provided guide and government-provided secret policeman which only visits government-sanctioned locations.

He then provides a "Evil Meter" index to quantify their relative degree of "bad" based on the way these nations treat their own citizens, their level of involvement in terrorism, and whether they are a threat to other nations (each country is rated out of three on each category). There is also a bonus point available for despots who have attempted to create a cult of personality around their leader, to give a round score out of 10 for each Bad Land.

What is the relevance of this book to my travels? As I work my way south through Latin America, I get closer and closer to South America's own Bad Land: Colombia. I'm in Costa Rica until 7 January and plan on getting a bus down to Panama after that. Then it is crunch time to decide whether to fly over Colombia or continue on the buses. Watch this space...



The following photos were taken in the Cloud Forest in the Monteverde National Park.





I'm at a funky little beach town called Montezuma on the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica for the next couple of days until New Year. Wishing a safe and happy New Year to everyone!