To interesting travellers

(Friday, 29 May 2009)

It’s common to say that one of the best things about travelling is meeting interesting people who happen to be doing the same as you. I qualify that statement: I agree with it, but think it only applies to a minority of those you meet. But when it does, it really does.

The hint that a certain village by the sea or a certain hostel is a popular place for backpackers to hang around is typically a warning for me to stay away. It may be prejudice, but groups of youth travelling to party in the third world like there’s no tomorrow – always well supplied of beer, rum and whiskey (at least) – are just not for me.

But then there are also interesting folks, people who share a certain concept of travelling and who can open your mind to new possibilities and ideas.

Like the Swedish-Chilean couple I met in Costa Rica, camping in the wilderness with their 3 children – of 5 years, 3 years and 3 months old! They had been travelling in South America for more than 8 months. She was riding Brazilian buses while 7 months pregnant! They decided to have the baby in Costa Rica, and now keep travelling. Can you imagine?

Or the couple of Chilean painters who has been on the road for over 2 years – for her is more like 14! – making a living out of jobs they commission at some of the places where they settle for a bit longer.

Or the Swiss couple who 14 months ago brought their motor-home from Switzerland, have been wondering around the continent since then, and are now preparing to go back home. The real one, and not the one on wheels, which will be shipped back to Switzerland too.

Or the Spanish whose 6 months travel in Africa 9 years ago changed his life. Since then he left his well established marketing manager role at a large blue-chip company and makes a living out of travel. Every year he spends 6 months at home and 6 months travelling, writing his chronicles in the web (www.vagamundos.net), for which he gets sponsorships. One year Latin America, the other West Africa, the other India. No one sets the itinerary but him – there are no editorial pressures.

As we were exchanging experiences he told me this trip should change my life forever – it happened to him. “Whether you want it or not, you’ll be a different person when you get home. You’ll feel the ground disappearing under your feet and you’ll wonder what you’ll do about it.”

I don’t know if I‘ll be a different person or not. But I’ve been thinking about what I’d like that difference to be.

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Cheers, to interesting travellers.