Almanac Book Review – Ken Haley’s The One That Got Away: Travelling in the Time of COVID

 

 

‘There exists one excellent reason for travel: to correct one’s abstract impressions by exposure to reality.’

– Ken Haley

 

 

 

I have now read two of the three Ken Haley books I own. I was blown away by the personal truths and journeys of ‘Emails from the Edge: A Journey Through Troubled Times’ (2006) and couldn’t wait to start to read Ken’s latest adventures when I saw the book advertised on the Almanac.

 

Published in 2021, ‘The One that Got Away: Travelling in the Time of COVID’ is Ken Haley’s tale of his travels to the Caribbean, USA and Canada in 2020. He had the luck to begin his travels on the 21^st of February 2020, before the world knew about COVID-19’s full catastrophe: lockdowns, infections, deaths, tests, masks, quarantines, flight cancellations, border closures, changing travel rules and all the other great new life and travel experiences of the last two years.

 

This was Ken’s twelfth long-haul journey over a 40-year period, so he is no stranger to preparations and organisation, and this trip was to cover Cuba, the Caribbean Islands, Mexico and other parts of Central America. Encompassing this extensive range of countries meant a vast array of paperwork, vaccinations, medical supplies, and itinerary preparation.

 

I am not a reader of travel books in general, but I will always recommend a Ken Haley one. I found it a mix of humour, exploration of time and place, history, politics, day-to-day concerns and a lens into the lives of those living ordinary lives – in this case – in extraordinary times. Even what is considered to most more able-bodied people just ordinary, everyday parts of travel (like finding suitable accommodation) become adventures in a Haley story. Ken always seems to find incredibly helpful people, except when it comes to crime, and even then finds creative ways to manage whatever has happened to him. He is resourceful and creative with people and places. He is trusting and it’s mostly rewarded.

 

Through Ken’s eyes I visited Cuba until a lockdown sent him packing after 21 days and all tourists had to leave. His next leg was a layover in Florida.

 

 

 

His three-month pause until he could get into Antigua was filled with survival at a good friend’s place in Florida and watching USA politics and local life. The Florida detour is as much a travel guide to people and places as his then future adventures through Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Dominica, Saint Lucia, Barbados, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada then back to Canada. (He had to fly to Central America from Canada for the last leg.)  Each of these countries are explored and we are given insight into small nations and their current state of being, for both locals and solitary travellers.

 

Ken tells me his favourite places to visit this journey is the ‘much underrated city of Santo Domingo (capital of the Dominican Republic), the west coast of St Lucia (in the south of the Island) and Old Havana as it was before Covid swept in.’ You will just have to read the book to find out why.

 

 

 

In every chapter, Ken brings us to the reality of the other great traveller at the time, COVID-19, and at each place he visits he reports on the current state of play: number of infections, COVID deaths, and number of infections per 100,000 citizens.  He also adds quarantine arrangements if any and social distance rules.

 

Hurdles in travel have always been part of the experience, but to hear Ken’s stories of this, more complicated but equally fascinating time of travel, is worth the journey.  We may not have even had this book had his suitcase been lost, rather than waylaid, on his stop in Canada with his journals and notes going AWOL at a precarious time in Ken’s battle for his health. Luckily, he was in Canada when his health failed and not a more isolated smaller country which may not have been able to save his life. If his medical supplies had arrived when they were planned in Fed Ex in Kingston, St Vincent, the story would have taken a different turn with Central America was reached…

 

Through Ken Haley’s storytelling, the world is full of adventure and possibility.

 

As Ken says: ‘Everything I know about countries I have never visited is from other people’s experience as translated in writing from the past.  Every country is a work in progress, some of them are a work in regress, and everything’s always moving, that’s the excitement of travel.  You literally don’t know what’s around the next corner, whether you are thinking of the sweep of history or crossing Old Havana and entering a plaza.’

 

No doubt Ken is busy preparing for his next journey in 2024, made up of planning, maps, itineraries for Central America and the north-west Gran Colombia region of South America. But as he says, he starts with an itinerary but as this book and adventure shows, real time life will often determine the destination. Despite all the essential planning, Ken tells me a successful outcome owes so much more to luck than he ever wants to admit.

 

As to Ken’s quote at the beginning of this article, the abstract impressions of the Caribbean being of luxury, a few martinis and never having to worry about work are taken over by the reality of the locals living by the sweat of their collective brows. A lot of sweat. And in this journey, Ken Haley has his share of all that sweating too, as well as joy and a sense of adventure. Travel with this book and you will join in the experience.

 

 

 

 

 

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