“So, are you guys Adventure Travelers?”  My mind was immediately reeling, and I laughed out loud.  Adventure travelers?  Us?  HA!  We had just pulled into a scenic spot on our game drive to have sunset drinks with our fellow jeep-mates, Jamie and Clint, who also happened to be Upper West Siders, when she posed this question.  Obviously we had just met these people but is this who she thought we were?  Are we adventure travelers?
 
Jamie asked this question just after she asked my favorite travel question of all time – what is your favorite place that you’ve been to?  Which, if you know us, duh: New Zealand!  Okay, fine.  People make assumptions that if you go to New Zealand, you’re a bungee jumping, heli-skiing, jet-boat racing fanatic.  We only did some of those.  But is a safari “adventure travel” if you’re sitting in a jeep for seven hours a day, looking at animals who (mostly) pose no threat to you as long as you behave?
 
Clint had just the previous day shown our guide a photo of his camp on Mount Everest at 8,000 meters.  If anyone is adventurous, I’d think it’s that guy.  He also said he has always wanted to go bungee jumping, and if someone offered him the chance to skydive he would.  Lance went skydiving for his 30th birthday.  I’m not sure that counts as travel, but it is adventurous.  Another lady we met in camp was shocked (shocked!!) that her tent was so cold in the morning, and swore she’d never book anything like this again.  Did she read the lodge website, or look at the weather?  She might be well traveled, but was she adventurous?  
 
Perhaps Jamie isn’t wrong.  Maybe we are adventure travelers, if you believe that adventure travel exists on a continuum from watching Netflix documentaries about wild animals to actually climbing Mount Everest, and we fall somewhere on that subjective spectrum.  Lance and I go on these trips to experience different landscapes, animals, sunsets, wine, and stars.  We go to meet people with different traditions and cultures, and by doing so examine the pros and cons of our own.  It’s not necessarily travel for adrenaline or sport, though those can occasionally be found inadvertently.
 
I suppose we might actually be considered adventure travelers.  Maybe like a 4 out of 10 on my scale, but I acknowledge that the steps on that scale might be defined differently by everyone.  We all travel, either for work or for play, or just to the grocery store.  Perhaps the only difference is the mindset you’re in at the time.  How much of it is an “adventure” is up to you.