Hergé's Adventures of Tin-tin !

What fired your imagination as a child and instilled an urgent desire to see exotic places ?

Probably not the above, unlike Bernard, who knows all the books by heart. He has been waiting nearly 70 years to see if llamas really spit when they're fachés, whether Callao is the port of Lima and if the Temple du Soleil drawn by Hergé resembles the original. And of course it does. Hergé never travelled anywhere, but his drawings and historical detail are incredibly true to life.

Translations of Tintin’s adventures arrived late and never really took off with English speaking children. Why not ? Poor marketing ? Something cultural ?

What inspired us then to travel or at least dream of faraway places ? Travelers' tales ? Geography, history and language teachers ? Reports from across the world ? Films ?

Who in those days (and even now ?) crossed paths with anyone returning from (or going to) S. America ? Asia yes, Australia, Africa, the US, Canada… Those were the places we heard about.

Our missionaries didn’t return with tales of the Amazon or the pampas. We don't bear the indelible heritage of the Catholic church in South America.

We have our own burden of slavery in North America and the Caribbean, who told us of what happened in the south ? We know about the (relatively simple) fate of natives of N. America, but what about the incredibly varied histories of intermingling or extermination in the south ?

And what about migration ? How many films have we seen about immigrants to the US, about the pioneer life there ? Dozens ! And here in the south ? I can’t think of any. We suppose migrants were all Spanish or Portuguese stock… But that's forgetting the Japanese, Italians, Lebanese, Germans (long before the ex-nazis…).

Who in Britain learnt Spanish or Portuguese - spoken by the 300 hundred odd million people who live here ? It was never even an option !

Did we even learn anything about this part of the world ? Apart from the Armada… did we realise how the Spanish gold Drake and the others were after was obtained ? The Incas ? If we’d read Tintin, we’d know !  And what about the California gold rush – how many people realise that most hopeful Europeans sailed round Cape Horn, and helped develop the great port of Valparaiso on the way ? And the British involvement in the railways and mining ? A blank on the map.

And recent events ? OK, the odd earthquake, drug trafficker, dictatorship, revolutionary movement, coup d'état or human rights issue does reach British news… but that’s not exactly the stuff to attract you to a place !

The French on the other hand have emigrated here for centuries, in search of land, or just a better life. They maintained links with home (in Belem they even sent their laundry back to France !) and even today surprise inheritances arrive from long lost oncles d’ Amerique. Now young professionals dream of spending a few years here, and often end up staying. The continent is full of French visitors, whereas I can't have come across more than a dozen British tourists or backpackers in two months! In spite of the spectacular scenery, rich and varied culture and great infrastructure.

France has maintained close relations with the continent and opened its doors to South American exiles and dissidents : poets, writers, filmmakers and musicians are all well known.  How ignorant we are !

Or is it just me ? Lack of curiosity ? (And yet I have to admit to an aunt who emigrated to Columbia…). I'm so glad Bernard pushed me into the plane ! There's a whole world out here ! Come and see for yourself!