Fil-Am world traveler Odette Ricasa visited 247 countries and counting

Author and artist Odette Aquitania Ricasa has traveled to 247 countries, more than the United Nations’ membership of 193 sovereign countries. All that globetrotting has led her to meet with accomplished Filipinos around the world.

 

“There’s a strong enterprising spirit among our people and many thrive in these capacities not only in the usual stereotypes of nurses and caregivers,” observed Odette, the president of the L.A.-based Network for Travel Club.

 

In Namibia, she met a Filipina who manages a five-star hotel called “Entertainment Hotel” where Angelina Jolie gave birth to her first-born Shiloh. Odette was offered a casino discount card so that instead of paying $280 per night at a four-star hotel, she only paid $70.

 

In Botswana, she met a Filipina who owns a huge garment factory with about 100 employees. She won the contract to sew the uniforms of the city’s police officers as well as their sportswear.

 

And by golly, there’s a Botswana Filipino Association. Odette met the vice president. “He picked me up from my hotel because it was far from the city and he drove me to town where the hotel is owned by, guess what, a Filipina who has four hotels in the city.”

 

In Mozambique, she met more business owners and entrepreneurs: a Filipino who owns the Cinderella Nursery school; Filipino families who own a Thai restaurant and a sushi restaurant. “In Swaziland, I met a Filipina married to a Swazi doctor. They own several apartments. She gave me a free room for two nights!”

 

A resident of Eagle Rock, where 17 percent are of Filipino descent, Odette belongs to a second group called the Travelers Century Club which requires having visited at least 100 countries to be a member. Last December 2011, she received a pin marking that she traveled to 200 countries. “I hope to get a pin at our December meeting for having visited 250 countries,” she said. The organization has a world list of 301 countries and territories.

 

Antarctica is on her bucket list which “can be reached only by a cruise ship that passes the Drakes Passage, where the waters can be very rough that the tables, chairs and furniture are chained to the walls.” Another destination to conquer is Tibet, which is 18,500 feet above sea level.

 

“The air is so thin that they give you a portable oxygen tank if you have problems breathing. When I was in La Paz, Bolivia, the highest airport in the world, I could not function well and had a terrible headache.”

 

It was the Fourth of July and Odette invited our press club members (FAPCLA, est. 1978) to see the much touted fireworks display a block away from her vacation home in San Clemente. Odette’s beach house-cum-art/collectibles gallery amazed everyone. There were hundreds of antique collectibles competing for space with her personal paintings which she stressed are “not for sale.” Her paintings in various media are displayed in different rooms at her three-storey beach home. They were from her painting lessons from the Mission Renaissance Art School in Pasadena, also from art schools worldwide.

 

“I take plein air and private art lessons when I travel. I have taken art lessons in Biarritz, France; in Alicante, Spain; Nouakchott, Mauritania; Bishkek, Kygyzstan; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Douala, Cameroon,” she said.

 

While touring each city Odette makes it a habit to buy some antiques because she’s fascinated with history.

 

Her most important collection is a piano that won the First Premium Gold Medal at a New Orleans Jazz Exposition in March 1886. No visitor of her San Clemente home would leave without listening or dancing to her music. Yes, she plays the piano too. “Whenever I play it, I feel as though I am at the Preservation Hall of New Orleans along with passionate musicians,” she said with excitement.

 

Odette’s affinity with arts and music runs in her genes. Her father Sixto Aquitania was a piano maker and businessman. He had a small warehouse in Quiapo that assembled the parts from Germany and sold the completed pianos at his Century Music Store on Arlegui Street. At the back of the store was an art gallery where budding artists displayed their works.

 

A graduate of the College of Holy Spirit in Mendiola and Assumption Convent in San Lorenzo Village in Makati, Odette compares poverty in the slums of Manila to Mali, “the poorest country I have ever been.” Her journal entry read: “Bamako, the capital, like Metro Manila, is modern. But the natives in the Sahara desert are so poor. They plant and eat only millet (a kind of grain) for breakfast, lunch and dinner. They live in huts with cardboard or leaves on the floors. Our car broke down in the middle of the desert, and we had to wait under the scorching heat. I passed by one hut. I saw two feet swaying and heard somebody saying, “aspirin, aspirin.’ The lady was sick and was begging for medicine.”

 

Not quite world-weary, Odette has set her sights on revisiting certain countries to see places that are off the beaten track. After Turkmenistan, south of Russia, Sierra Leone and Liberia in the Fall, she is gearing up for Jayapura, Irian Jaya in Indonesia and the Jeju islands in South Korea by October.

 

Odette has her favorite country which is Spain. She fell in love with Spain which she has visited 30 times, and counting. She loves the fiestas in these cities which she named in a beat: San Sebastian, Santillana del Mar, Santiago de Compostela, Seville, Granada, Cordoba, Alhambra, Toledo, Balcon de Europa, Valencia, Figueras, Lugo, Vic, Cadiz. “The Philippines inherited so much of its culture, customs, words (from Spain), and their cuisine is to die for,” she narrated.

 

A retired systems analyst and accountant with the Los Angeles Unified School District, Odette also ran a real estate brokerage in L.A. before deciding to be a full-time traveler.

 

Odette’s enticing travelogue is captured in her four thick books published in the U.S.: “Unguarded Thoughts,” “Pieces of Dreams,” “Excerpts from Life,” and “Running with Echoes of Desire.” These are all available on Amazon and Ebay.

 

“I encourage most people to save and travel,” said this mother of three. For good measure, she reminded tourists: Don’t forget to buy travel insurance. - The FilAm Los Angeles