The Out of Eden Walk is about a young guy named Paul Salopek and his 21,000 mile walk that starts in Africa and ends in South America. Salopek journals about his journey and unfolds the stories behind the first humans from the Stone Age and the Medieval Times. He meets so many people and goes to a lot of places along his journey, and blogs about each milestone adventure.

The first stop that I found to be interesting was called The Hinge, in Chapter 3: Autumn Wars. Salopek traveled through the Taurus Mountains with his mule and his walking partner, Deniz Kilic. As they continued to walk through the Cilician Plain, I could not help but admire the breathtaking photographs. As their journey continued, they came across a village in Turkey. The land in Anatolia is so fertile, therefore, there are many migrations and invasions throughout the area. It amazes me on how different all parts of the world are. People come from different cultures, backgrounds, and places; which cause their living style to be different. I am noticing that there are more differences than similarities when comparing my life style to theirs. Most of their things are hand made and are from natural sources, which tends to be an advantage and threat to others.

The second place that I enjoyed exploring was the M/F Bozcaada Ferry that crosses the Mediterranean Sea. The panoramic view gave me a clear visual on what to expect if I were on the Ferry. Salopek met a young fellow who only went back and forth on the ferry and I found that to be very interesting. I have been on the Cape May Ferry multiple times, but I get off of it when I get to my destination. I can only imagine what it is like to go back and forth all of the time. There was also many people who were sleeping, which was kind of confusing. I did not understand why they were laying outside.

The third adventure that I decided to dig deeper on was in Chapter four: Silk Road, called Horse Wrangling Began Here, But It’s Hard to Find One Today. Many years ago in Kazakhstan, there used to be a lot of horses. As time went on, people began to travel by foot instead. Salopek was able to actually get a horse from the wild and claim it to be his. This horse was entitled to help him with traveling and it was a uncommon thing in today’s world. There was a unique engraving of a horse in a giant block and I thought it was beautiful. It makes me wonder how it was engraved in there. Also, along with the world changing, ways of traveling are also changing, which was demonstrated in this part of the journey.

This website was such a big eye-opener and it amazes me how a person can take on this big journey. I plan on showing this to my students and teach them about the different cultures that Salopek came across. I think it would be so neat to create a project for my students where they have to virtually travel across a big chunk of land. They would be able to use Google Maps and lay out their route. Then, they would be able to select a few places that they would come across in their travels and research them. They would learn the history and present knowledge on each place. The Out of Eden Walk has made me brainstorm so many different ideas that I would like to incorporate into my classroom.