In 1982, in Leuven, Belgium, at the World Youth Esperanto Conference, he discussed his Sephardic Jewish ancestry with Neil Blonstein.

Starting in 1939, Sekelj was a tireless globetrotter, and while he always returned to Serbia in between his many journeys, his need to explore new horizons melded with an insatiable curiosity about people.

This difficult decision was due not to a lack of personal courage—Sekelj was known to display almost foolhardy bravery throughout his life—but because this Jewish Hungarian/world citizen was simply unwilling to hew to any ideology tied to military purposes.

Within two years[6] he had honed his knowledge of Spanish and got work as a journalist, publishing a monthly magazine dedicated to travel and exploration.

With a budget of two thousand dollars, Sekelj chose to explore uncharted regions of the Brazilian rainforests in Mato Grosso, otherwise known as the River of Death.

In 1946 he undertook first of two expeditions into the Amazon jungle, which produced a popular book, "Along Native Trails" (Por Tierra De Indios).

Eventually the book Por Tierra de Indios (1946) chronicling survival in difficult circumstances, amid illness and near-starvation, met with great success, was reprinted repeatedly and translated into many languages.

During the following years he audited classes at the University of Buenos Aires to attend lectures on anthropology, ethnology and archeology, in order to get useful knowledge for his upcoming expeditions.

After going to Caracas to oversee the creation of a series of historical murals, he began traveling through Central America on his own, as by this time he and Mary and separated.

[9] This friendship is in part the subject of Tibor's book, « Nepal opens the door », 1959, which he first wrote in Esperanto while in Madras studying yoga philosophy.

After spending six months in Europe Sekelj again flew to India, this time to teach Esperanto to the great Indian Mystic, Vinoba Bhave.

Between lecturing and writing newspaper articles, Sekelj earned enough money to buy an airplane ticket to Sri Lanka, and then to Israel before returning to his home base in Belgrade.

In March 1962, Tibor set off for Africa on a Karavano de Amikeco (Caravan of Friendship), with eight people from four countries in two all-terrain cars.

With a goal of direct communication between people, this yearlong journey reached Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania.

When a second caravan meant for other African countries failed to materialize, Tibor climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa.

In 1965, on his way to the World Congress of Esperanto in Tokyo, Tibor traveled by train across Russia (Moscow) and Siberia (Irkutsk and Khabarovsk) to Nahodka, before landing in Yokohama by boat.

During his six-month stay he climbed Mount Kosciuszko[10] In New Guinea he met with natives whose lack of previous contact with the civilized world led to tense situations.

Certainly he adapted easily to odd customs (including bizarre food), but if there was a single thing in particular that helped in this regard, it was his communication skills, which transcended even his facility with language.

He famously attributed this ability to the fact that he did the work of seven: Writer; cameraman; assistant; photographer; and buyer and shipper of ethnographic artifacts.

1912–1988 Tibor Sekelj was adroit at a wide range of skills: journalist, explorer, adventurer, mountaineer, writer, drawer, filmmaker, geographer, ethnologist, museologist, polyglot and actor on the political stage, relating to politicians including aforementioned heads of state.

[16] Working as a journalist for an Argentinian newspaper, he decided to join a planned expedition to Aconcagua, the highest mountain of Americas (more than 7000 m according to contemporary ratings).

The title-pages of exclusively all six volumes are of Sekelj, only in the 4th issue he left the place of the editorial to Aafke Haverman ("Aviadile tra Afriko") and laid his "Kun la Ajnoj de Hokajdo" in the central booklet.

His detailed description of the ascent on Aconcagua in a book in Spanish became a sort of textbook for mountaineering in Mexico, and other countries across South America.

Across a span of over forty years he studied, and engaged with, tribes from the rain forests of Brazil and New Guinea, always learning and annotating the customs, lifestyles and philosophies of then unknown peoples in Asia and Africa.

To all of this we can also add the few months he spent living with the Indian philosopher and political activist Vinoba Bhave, not to mention many, many heads of smaller regions and cities and states across the world.

Sekelj learned 25 languages and countless dialects, of which he retained nine at the end of his life: Hungarian, Serbian, German, Esperanto, Italian, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese.

His contributions to the language are immense: Sekelj founded ten Esperanto-Associations in South America and Asia and Esperanto-societies in 50 of cities across the world.

[25][26] For over twenty years Sekelj was a committee member of UEA and he was single-handedly responsible for the second resolution where UNESCO positively addressed Esperanto in 1985.

His very intensive activity in the name of IOE had a strong effect on the classical neutral Esperanto-movement in the practical application, on the one hand in terms of culture and tourism and on the other to a more elastic conception of impartiality that followed TEJO.

Wherever he was, in his lectures and activities he conveyed to his audience his simple philosophy of life: man as an individual is the most precious thing in his own environment, regardless of descent or education.