MY SADDEST PLEASURES: 50 Years on the Road by Mark D. Walker (Guatemala)
Mark Walker
In his new book, Mark Walker reflects on his fifty years of travel miscalculations and disasters and how and why he travels changed over the years, as has who he traveled with. As a young Peace Corps Volunteer with no overseas travel experience, the world was his oyster, and he figured he could go anywhere if he set his mind to it—with little or no money. Then he married a Guatemalan lady and had to think more about “our” needs; then, three children meant additional requirements and responsibilities. And later, as a professional fundraiser, he would set up donor visits to program areas where the organizations he represented needed funds, which meant considering the needs of up to fifteen individuals of all ages, including children and some donors in their 70s and 80s. He’s become a savvier trekker, although he was still prone to the occasional snafu. This book is part of the “Yin & Yang of Travel” series of ten essays” It’s an invaluable portal into the world of timeless travel and what can go wrong.
During the author’s travels and extensive reading, he discovered Moritz Thomsen’s (Ecuador 1965–67) third book, The Saddest Pleasure, whose title originated from a quote in Paul Theroux’s (Malawi 1963–65) Picture Palace: “Travel is the saddest of the pleasures. It gave me eyes.” This basic supposition inspired him to write his new book and would inform and put the author’s travels into perspective. It also helped him appreciate the miscues, disasters, and disappointments he experienced on the road and made him a better traveler and writer.
Mark was a Peace Corps Volunteer working on fertilizer experiments in Guatemala and spent over forty years helping disadvantaged people in the developing world.
His book, Different Latitudes: My Life in the Peace Corps and Beyond, was published by Peace Corps Writers. According to the Midwest Review, “…is more than just another travel memoir. It is an engaged and engaging story of one man’s physical and spiritual journey of self-discovery.”
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My Saddest Pleasures: 50 Years on the Road
— Part of the Yin & Yang of Travel Series
Mark D. Walker Guatemala (1971-73)
Cyberwit.net
May, 2022
63 pages
$ 5.00 (Kindle); $15.00 (Paperback)
From Evelyn Kohl LaTorre (Peru 64-66) Author of Love in Any Language: A Memoir of a Cross-Cultural Marriage.
I have traveled to the same countries as Mark D. Walker in his latest book, My Saddest Pleasures: 50 Years on the Road, and
found the author’s adventures thoroughly delightful and insightful. This is a book that entertains the lucky reader of the missteps the author has experienced in traveling the world. In 63 pages, with a color photo for each story, the author takes us to of a few of the hundreds of places he has visited over the past six decades. In easy-to-read prose, we are informed about the many non-profit agencies who have employed Mark that result in his intriguing, dangerous, and often amusing exploits. This book stimulates one to check out the variety of agencies Mark worked for and the countries he went to. A true gem of a book easily devoured in one pleasurable sitting.
Evelyn, I appreciate your insights and kind words. Congratulations on your new book as well–let’s just keep trekking!
Mark
Congratulations on your latest book, Mark. I very much enjoyed the stories in Different Latitudes.
Steve–nice to hear you liked “Different Latitudes!” I think you’ll appreciate some of my favorite “horror journeys”–let me know.
Mark
[…] This is from the latest Phoenix Writers Club Newsletter: Member Spotlight: Congratulations to Mark D Walker. Peace Corps Worldwide highlighted his new book, My Saddest Pleasures: 50 Years on the Road, on May 31st, 2022. It rolled out on June 1st. Here is the link to that blog: https://peacecorpsworldwide.org/my-saddest-pleasures-50-years-on-the-road-by-mark-d-walker-guatema… […]