Introduction

Introduction

     Fran and Rich Juro have visited 180 out of the 195 countries or so. The only nations we haven’t been to are  Afghanistan (but we came close in northern Pakistan), Iraq, and Yemen, and 12 countries in Africa (out of 54). We don’t count stepping over the border or landing in the airport. Not included in this book were visits to Algeria, Angola, Antarctica, Bangladesh, Botswana, The Gambia, Georgia, Lesotho, Madagascar,  Malawi, Mauritania, Namibia, Paraguay, Rwanda, Senegal, Solomon Islands, Swaziland (Eswatini), Vanuatu, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe, among others. Fran has toured some countries without me: Bahrain, Bhutan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Zambia. 

     We met in Spanish class in summer, 1961, in Columbia University. Rich was from Brooklyn, and Fran was from Omaha. Fran was taking a course in New York City after she got permission from her parents. Fran was  attending Hood College in Maryland, and graduated from NYU. I was fulfilling my language credit at Columbia. We married in 1964 and went to Mexico for a honeymoon. After I had graduated from Columbia Law School, Fran planned out the trip covering 4 months covering 15-20  countries (depending on if you count on the USSR and Yugoslavia nations that got independence after 1989). We went in 1966 for $5(!) each per day including the USSR, the first story (Fran taught the Russians to do the “Twist”, the American dance craze that was popular that year).

     In 1971, we were taking the London tour but there was a coal strike; we called our friend, Andy, from law school. Andy had a bar in Tangiers while attending law school and worked on his doctorate from Princeton, and had a slave-sex partner from Morocco. He suggested we go to Haiti. That’s the second memoir, and it goes chronologically from there. Now Fran and I are too old to explore the 15 or so countries left on the list. But we do cruises.

     We hope you find it interesting.