Vacation or Risk-cation? Get Our Travel Survival Guide So You Don't Bump Into the Grim Reaper

Travel abroad can come with many risks for the unprepared. This episode equips you with knowledge to travel smarter, stay safe, and fully enjoy your adventures. https://bit.ly/3KrxQhs

The Risk of Travel
Travel opens the door to adventure—but it can also put your life at risk. Compared to staying at home, the potential for illness and death increases with travel, especially when people visit exotic or remote destinations in lower income countries. Each year, U.S. travelers die abroad from preventable causes like traffic crashes, drownings, and violence.
People don’t leave to go on vacation and think they will never return. Learn information to make your travels safer.

Travel Tips You'll Learn
In this episode, we break down the real dangers of international travel and share practical, actionable strategies to stay safe and healthy. Whether you’re navigating unfamiliar roads, exploring new waters, or visiting bustling cities, this episode equips you to travel smarter, reduce risk, and fully enjoy your journey—so you can return home with stories, not become a statistic.

In this Episode:

• 01:58 - Film Recommendation: Disclosure
• 03:16 - Remembering Robert Redford
• 08:04 - How to Stay Safe on Vacation
• 25:31 - Excerpt from “In Our Likeness” by Bryan VanDyke
• 27:20 - Outro

#TravelSmart #TravelTips #SafeTravel #VacationPlanning #PodcastLife #PodcastEpisode #TravelHacks #StaySafe #TravelAbroad #ListenNow #HowNotToDieOnVacation

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:58 Film Recommendation: Disclosure
• 8:04 Remembering Robert Redford
• 8:04 How to Stay Safe on Vacation
• 25:31 Excerpt from “In Our Likeness” by Bryan VanDyke
• 27:20 Outro

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Everyone Dives. Travel can be exhilarating, but it also comes with real risks, especially when venturing abroad to exotic or remote destinations. Whether you're navigating unfamiliar roads, protecting yourself in high-risk areas, or simply looking out for your health abroad, this episode equips you with the knowledge to travel smarter, reduce risk, and fully enjoy your adventures.

Relax and settle in for our podcast about serious illness, dying, death, and bereavement. Our discussion about travel safety is in the second half, so you can fast forward to this week's topic if you need to. I'm Marianne Matzo, a nurse practitioner, and I use my experience from working as a nurse for 47 years to help answer your questions about what happens at the end of life.

And I'm Charlie Navarette, an actor in New York City, and here to offer an every-person viewpoint to our podcast. We're both here because we believe that the more you know, the better prepared you are to make difficult decisions when a crisis hits. Also, this podcast does not provide medical nor legal advice.

Please listen to the complete disclosure at the end of the recording. In the first half, we have Director J.C. Chander's recollection of talking about death with Robert Redford and our recipe of the week. In the second half, I'm talking about travel trips to help you return home alive.

And in the third half, Charlie has an excerpt from Brian Van Dyke's book, In Our Likeness. Hi, Charles. Hello, Marianne.

What's new? What's new? Pussycats. Whoa. Have you seen the, oh, I don't know what channel it's on because if I knew what channel it was on, it wouldn't be me.

Disclosure. That sounds very familiar. What is it about? It's about, well, it takes you a while to figure out what is really happening, but it's about a man and a woman whose only child is, drowns saving a little boy in Italy.

Yes. I have heard about this. I haven't seen it, but I've heard about it.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that is my recommendation of the week.

It is, takes you to places that you don't even think about going, or at least I don't, you know? Okay. But I would highly recommend it. Very good.

For our first half, our travels this week took us to Washington State, the state with the largest production of apples. And what could be better to take to your next funeral lunch than Washington applesauce cake, featuring plump raisins, walnuts, and the perfect combination of cloves, nutmeg, and cinnamon to spice things up. Bon appetit.

Actor, activist, director, and creator of the Sundance Film Festival, Robert Redford died a few weeks ago at age 89. In the Twilight Zone episode, Nothing in the Dark, an elder woman, terrified that death is out to get her, reluctantly allows an injured policeman into her basement tenement. The policeman was played by 25-year-old Robert Redford.

Glancing around the small room, she does not see Redford's reflection in the mirror and realize he is death itself. She is terrified of the unknown. He comforts her, explaining that letting go is a natural order of things.

She reaches an acceptance of death and moves on with Redford at her side. One of his most acclaimed films he starred in was All Is Lost. Directed by J.C. Chander in 2013, it is the story of a seasoned sailor, alone at sea, who wakes up to find his boat is taking on water.

His radio navigation are disabled, gets hit by a storm, supplies dwindle, and sharks are looking for a meal. He comes face to face with his death. In making the film, Chander talked with Redford about what happens when we die.

The following is an excerpt of the conversation. We were sitting together in a small, mostly deflated life raft, floundering in a two-acre water tank perched high above the Pacific at Baja Studios in Mexico. We had been shooting for more than a month.

Now the moment had arrived and, as 150 crew members stared at me, I realized I had completely failed to prepare my actor for this challenge, and as a result, we were stuck. The crew pulled the raft back to the edge of the tank so we could all take a break. I huddled with my producers, panicking in my realization.

He has absolutely no idea this scene is about his character, finally, for the first time in his life, confronting his own mortality. After a long silence, their response was very clear. Well, you have to go tell him.

I slowly walked over to his trailer and knocked on the door. As he always did, he kindly invited me in, and I sat down directly across from him at the dinette table. Our noses weren't much more than a few foot apart as my heart jumped from my chest.

He calmly asked me what was on my mind. Well, Bob, I said, we need to talk about death. Death, he asked.

Yes, death. Bob and I sat toe-to-toe for well over an hour and forced ourselves to discuss the scariest and most unknowable questions a human being can ask. Did he believe in a higher power? What were his greatest regrets? What is the point of all this? And of course, what awaits us when we close our eyes and take our last breath? That sort of contemplation didn't exactly come naturally to either of us, as we were both raised in strict grin-and-bearer traditions.

But deep down, we knew those questions were at the heart of the story. We were all working so hard to tell. As he was a deeply private man, I am reluctant to share too much of what we said that day.

But I can tell you this, he did not obsess over death. It was all quite simple to him. Life was the ultimate gift and you should live and fight for every day till your last.

When he laid his head down at night, all he needed to know was that he had given everything he had to all that he loved. His dear and treasured family, the many jobs and charities he worked so hard for, his friends and community, his beloved animals and the natural world. As long as you gave them everything you had, you could be confident meeting whatever is waiting for us all on the other side.

Bob, I thank you from all of us for the chance you gave us to witness an epic life lived. Please go to our webpage for this week's recipe for Washington Applesauce Cake and additional resources for this program. This is the part where we ask you for your financial support.

Your tax-deductible gift will go directly to supporting our non-profit journalism so that we can remain accessible to everyone. You can donate at www.everyonedies.org That's every, the number one, dies.org or at our site on Patreon under Everyone Dies. Mary Ann.

Thanks, Charlie. Compared to staying at home, the potential for illness and death increases with travel, especially when people visit exotic or remote destinations in lower income countries. People don't leave to go on vacation and think they will never return.

Today, I'm going to share with you some information to make your travels a bit safer and help you not become a statistic. According to the Centers for Disease Control, between 2019 and 2021, over 1,500 U.S. citizens died from non-natural causes in foreign countries, with motor vehicle crashes being the leading cause of non-natural deaths, accounting for 26%. Homicide, suicide, and water-related like drowning or boating-related deaths were the next most common causes.

We have a graphic in the show notes that shows these numbers. We'd like to increase your awareness of travel-related risks for injury so that you can make preventable steps to decrease your chance of injury. Each year globally, road traffic crashes involving bicycles, buses, cars, motorcycles, trucks, or pedestrians result in approximately 1.3 million deaths and 20 to 50 million injuries.

They are a major cause of death among all age groups, and 62% were among drivers and occupants of passenger vehicles, you know, cars, trucks, sport utility vehicles, and 19% involved motorcycles. The countries with the most U.S. citizen road traffic deaths were Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Ecuador in Vietnam. The causes for these crashes, injuries, and deaths include vehicles that fail to meet basic safety standards, roads shared by motor vehicles and vulnerable users, and the mix of traffic including animals, bicycles, buses, cars, rickshaws, taxis, and large trucks.

Other risk factors include vehicle speed, lack of familiarity with the roads, driving on the opposite side of the road, the influence of alcohol and other drugs, poorly made or inadequately maintained vehicles, travel fatigue, poor road surfaces without shoulders, unprotected curves, and cliffs, and low or absent lighting creating conditions of poor visibility. As an example of inadequately maintained vehicles, I was visiting a hospice in Serbia back in 2010 or so, and the head of the hospice picked me up to take me around. The passenger side of the car was so old, I could see the ground go by under my feet, and there were no working seatbelts.

So what can you do to reduce your risk of crash injuries? Remain alert and avoid distractions when cycling, driving, or walking. Choose your transportation carefully, for example, avoiding overcrowded buses. Abstain from alcohol while driving.

Don't accept rides from impaired drivers. Don't rent scooters or motorcycles because you think it might be fun to try riding one. There's a high risk for injury and death in this plan.

Violence is a worldwide public health problem that can affect traveling U.S. citizens. Over 68% of homicide deaths in U.S. citizens abroad occurred in Mexico. Criminals might view U.S. travelers as wealthy, naive targets, inexperienced and unfamiliar with the culture, and less able to seek assistance once victimized.

Traveling in high poverty areas or regions of civil unrest, including using alcohol or drugs, and visiting unfamiliar environments, particularly at night, increase the likelihood of a traveler becoming a victim of violence. You can reduce your risk when traveling to Mexico by staying on the resort you're visiting. No walking alone at night, and staying in areas where there are large groups of people.

Drowning is a leading cause of injury death in U.S. citizens visiting countries where water recreation is a major activity. Lack of familiarity with local water currents and conditions, inability to swim, and absence of lifeguards and duties can contribute to drowning deaths. Rip currents can be especially dangerous.

Diving into shallow water is a risk factor for head and spinal cord injuries that disproportionately affect young men. In some cases of aquatic injuries, alcohol or drug use is a factor. You can increase your chance of survival by not swimming alone or in unfamiliar waters.

Even if you think your kids are good swimmers, an adult with swimming skills should be within arm's length when infants and toddlers are in or around pools or other bodies of water. Don't be a distracted adult if it's your turn to supervise the kids in the water. There are also some general suggestions you consider taking when traveling outside the United States.

Get vaccines updated two weeks before you leave. For example, if you're traveling in the fall and early winter, the fall flu shot and the new COVID vaccine are two to have before you leave. There's a link in the show notes with the current routine vaccines recommended for adults.

Be sure your advance directive is up to date and all your paperwork, like your will, is where someone can find it. Make a copy of your advance directive and who you want called if anything happens to you and put it with your travel documents. Put an envelope with your travel papers that has code for your phone.

On the outside of the envelope, write open if I can't speak for myself. That way people can get your family's contact information, your doctor's number, or you could write it all out and put it in an envelope. While you're at it, make a copy of your passport and put that in the envelope.

It's always good to have a copy in case your original gets lost. Bring baby wipes to clean your hands and hand sanitizer to use and use both. Disease passes by touch and sneezes.

Try not to be too close in crowds and clean your hands a lot. I've known people who wash their hands in the sink in international places and come home with severe diarrhea. In advanced age, diarrhea can be deadly.

If traveling by air, high altitude and sitting can cause blood clots. Wear knee-high compression hose. The ones made out of bamboo are really comfortable.

Pack a few pairs so you have them if you're going to do any extended sitting like long car or bus rides. False account for one of the most common and serious issues contributing to disability and death. Footwear is very important.

I always say this and I'm going to say it again. I counsel my patients not to wear flip-flops ever. Get good walking shoes.

Break them in before you travel. Put them on when you get out of bed and don't take them off till you go to bed. Look at your feet before you stand up or move around in the crowd.

People get tangled and don't notice it until they're on the ground. I was in an airport last year and across from me was an older man and his wife and I don't know all the stuff they had right around their feet. But as he went to stand up, his feet got tangled and he nearly fell.

But I kind of dashed across the aisle and kind of steadied him and I said to him, I said, you know, just so you don't fall, look at where your feet are before you stand up. Make sure they're flat on the ground. And he kind of looked at me like this lady's insane.

But the reality is our feet can get twisted and you're not aware of it. So look at your feet before you stand up. Don't let people rush you when walking.

Uneven ground or not knowing where you are can result in a fall. Drink bottled water. You don't want to take any chances when traveling.

Use bottled water to brush your teeth and drink water to stay hydrated so you don't pass out and hurt yourself. Dehydration can be deadly. Don't risk it.

Be sure to have all your prescribed medicine with you and take it. People on diuretics, for example, may not want to use them when traveling because they're unsure about bathroom access. But who needs a cardiac event or a stroke when traveling? Not you.

Yes, you're on vacation. But just take your vacation with your pills. The food truck on the side of the road smells wonderful, but you have a delicate tummy at home.

It's not going to turn into iron when you travel. Make good choices with regard to what you eat and where you get the food from. Learn basic first aid and CPR before traveling internationally with another person.

We have links for more information in the show notes for these last few things I'm going to tell you. Purchase special travel health and medical evacuation insurance if destinations include countries where access to good medical care might not be available. Bring a travel health kit customized to where you're going and what you plan on doing.

And in the show notes, there's a really great link that helps you figure out what needs to be in your kit. Review U.S. Department of State travel advisories and alerts and check the U.S. embassy or consulate for country-specific personal risk and safety tips. Enroll in the U.S. Department of State smart traveler enrollment program.

Enrolled travelers receive emails about safety conditions at their destination and direct embassy contact in case of natural disasters and man-made emergencies like political unrest, rioting, terrorist activities. All of a sudden, traveling really is good for you, especially as we age. The Journal of Travel Research has documented the positive travel experience can benefit our physical, mental, and social health.

So if you wanna travel and see the world, do it. And make good choices wherever you're going. Travel smarter.

Live to tell the story. Charles, any thoughts? Many. Well, first, I like, I'm careful generally, as you say, not to just jump up.

Because a couple times I did, and, you know, I'm not in my 20s anymore. And I almost, like you were saying, I almost tripped over my feet. So yeah, that always bears repeating.

You know, the other thing you mentioned, okay, about washing hands. So yeah, I mean, just use bottled water. So even if, just to use a, basically not to use water, like in your room or some place you're not familiar with, right? Just always, you know, wash up and everything with bottled water.

You wanna air, well, your body, you know, you can use the shower and that kind of thing. If you're in a resort, typically the water will be okay. But still, for your mouth.

I use bottled water to brush my teeth. To teeth, right, right, right. Now, if I leave a resort or leave a hotel and I go to the airport, let's say, and you go to the bathroom and you like naturally, hopefully naturally, you wash your hands afterwards.

The water in the airport, you can't trust it. So that's where you would use your wet wipes and your hand sanitizer. Because I've known people who were very careful, you know, like on dive trips.

And they're very careful while they're at, wherever they're diving. And then they get to the airport and they wash their hands in the water, you know, at the airport, not thinking about it. And then come home with, you know, two weeks of diarrhea.

And I'm sorry, what? Oh, I'm sorry, what? What? What, what? What did you say about stockings? Oh, so they're, you know, like back in the day with, I don't know if your grandmother wore, you know, those thick black stockings, you know, for, for, you know, support stockings. Oh. Well, now they have really kind of nice ones made out of, they're made out of bamboo are the ones that I like.

And they, when I travel, I wear them on the plane. And if like, I'm on a long car trip, like when we drove to Michigan, I wore them because you want to give your heart a little bit extra help of, you know, facilitating, helping the blood flow back up to the heart. So your legs, because they're in a down position, it's harder for the heart to pump things.

Right, right. You know, like against gravity. And so what can happen is your legs can swell when they're in like that.

And also if you have any, what's called stasis, where the blood kind of sits there and it's not moving back up, you can get blood clots. Ooh. And nobody needs that.

No, no, no, we don't. Exactly. And they have really cute support hose now.

Well, listen, as long as they're cute, I'm there. They're cute, bright colors. Because nurses wear them a lot that are on their feet.

So they started making like really, really cute ones. And like I said, the bamboo are not too hot and they stretch and they're comfortable. So those are my favorite ones.

Isn't there something, some sort of stockings? Shoot, what am I trying to say? Their support, but I think because of the seat, where, I mean, you put them up on your legs and it helps with blood circulation or something like that. Is that the same thing? You know what I'm talking about? Yeah, yeah. Those are called Ted hose in the hospital.

They're like, they're white and they're really tight and people complain about them and they're hard to get on. And those are for people with heart issues will wear those really super tight ones. The support hose that you can buy, the bamboo ones are not as tight and they're not as hard to get on.

But if you don't have heart problems, they're perfectly good for if you're sitting in a car or sitting on an airplane. I mean, specifically heart problems or just, I don't know, what is that thing where your ankles, Trump has this thing where your ankles inflate because there's not, I think it's not enough blood circulation or something like that. Yeah.

So that would be a heart problem. Oh, but they're at my ankles. How can it be a heart problem? What are you talking about? Okay, I got it.

What was I gonna ask? Oh, yeah. The thing about it was checking with the State Department. There are also, I've read in the past and I forgot about it.

You can buy travel insurance relatively cheaply, right? Inexpensively, I think. Is that true? Well, there's a link in the show notes so you can look at where you're going and then how much it'll cost because the insurance depends on if you're traveling to a war-torn country, then the Gaza insurance is sky high. Makes sense.

Yeah. Okay, great. Thank you.

Thank you. In our third half, we have an excerpt from the book, In Our Likeness by Brian Van Dyke. On the first anniversary of my mom's death, I flew from New York to Michigan and then drove an hour to the town where I grew up, a place I hadn't visited since her funeral.

I came to see her ashes because I felt the need to make a gesture, however futile, to step out of my daily life for a day or two, to alter my orbit by the gravity of her for a little while. I don't want the universe to forget her. I say the universe, but I mean me.

The trip was important, cathartic even, but it did not bring me closer to her, did not conjure up her presence, dust and atoms in a wooden box with her name on it. That's all I saw. Far more useful for remembering her are objects that I keep in my apartment, like her familiar cursive handwriting on an old card, or my email archive, or hundreds of old messages from her sit, even the messages that are just about logistics for holidays, quick notes about the weather.

She's there. On the other side of the messages, the saved pages, the old photos, the original impetus remains, even if the person is gone. Love and basic human connection are all based on a shared history, shared truths, not the best case or the preferred past, the real one, the things we really lived while we lived them together.

And the truth is, all things have endings, but nothing's ever really lost if we can remember it. Please stay tuned for the continuing saga of Everyone Dies, and thank you for listening. This is Charlie Navarette, and from Queen Elizabeth II, grief is the price we pay for love.

And I'm Marianne Matzo. Remember, every day is a gift. The invitation of Everyone Dies, or by other members, is solely at your own risk.