It’s been just over a month since they returned from the Republic of Palau, in Oceania, and they are already organizing their next trips. For the Manresa couple formed by Mayte Galindo, 67, and Enric Moreno, 69, traveling “is everything.” They have been doing it for more than 40 years and together they have visited the 195 countries recognized by the UN. In reality, they have visited more, 204, and have repeated 73. Among them, India, where they have been 9 times.
In addition to the passion for traveling, they also share the passion for documenting. For each trip they have a personal diary and a guide with all the details. In fact, in their house, they have an entire room dedicated to their travels. Curiously, their next stop is Mallorca with Imserso, the only island in the Balearic Islands that they are missing.
In total, they have spent four years of their lives traveling in pure physical time and have taken more than 77,000 photographs. First they traveled once a year, during the holidays, but since they retired they have accelerated the pace. Six years ago they decided to achieve the milestone of setting foot in every country in the world and they have finally achieved it.
The couple met while studying engineering. Enric was already a travel lover and, in fact, at 18 years old, he was one of the first users of the Interrail in 1972, when it was created. The two made their first trip together to London to celebrate the wedding and, since then, they have never stopped traveling together and cannot imagine doing it without each other. During a period, they also traveled with their children: Carla and Martí, who explain that they have also inherited the passion for traveling. And, since they became grandparents, they have also taken the occasional trip with their grandchildren.
The ‘alma mater’ of travel, according to Maite, is Enric. He is the one who organizes the entire trip and who is in charge of the logistics part. Maite, on the other hand, takes care of the sentimental part. From all their trips they have a personal diary where the woman from Manresa details everything they have done during their stay, while Enric, when they return, makes a photo album and a tourist guide of the area visited. They have everything documented and keep all the passports, 29 in total, some from the Franco era. They even have a room in their house dedicated entirely to the trips they take.
They not only keep material things from their trips, they also keep anecdotes of all kinds. They have lived through historic moments – such as the death of Indira Gandhi, in 1984 – and have made a lot of friends with whom they still keep in touch. If they have to choose, they choose Asia as a continent, Uzbekistan as a country and Istanbul as a city. There are also others where they would not return, such as Tuvalu, in the Pacific. “You have to stay for at least four days because there are no more planes. There are three streets and there is nothing,” he explains.
