2016 means I hope to “discover” 5 new countries.  It can be difficult since most of my trips involve one country at a time due to many factors like proximity, time and cost. It makes most sense for me to finish up one continent/region at a time and Europe’s map is almost filled in.

I’ll be going to Albania this month, via Istanbul where I found a cheap flight to Tirana. At least once each week I check fares for Barcelona in order to get to Andorra. Belarus and Malta are currently  too difficult and too expensive but the rest of Europe, east and west, have been checked off!

I did find a reasonable fare to South Africa in March and hopefully will manage to drive to Lesotho and then fly to Zambia (actually stepped foot on the shoreline once when I was on a canoe safari down the Zambezi back in 2001) for a few more days.

I am also watching the news in hopes that the U.S.  carriers will start flights to Cuba, allowing me to go on my own terms. Since there are a few too many variables with these five, I need to have some back-ups and will keep South America in consideration.  Brazil may waive visas this summer due to the Olympics and I’ve not been to Paraguay, Bolivia or Venezuela!  There’s also the possibility that I find a low fare to Singapore or  Hong Kong where I can find  a budget airline going to someplace exciting like Papua New Guinea or East Timor….