Friday 23 May 2014

Travel Sickness

At some point in every trip you're likely to get sick.

You'll eat the wrong thing, party too hard, or sit next to the wrong person on a bus.

I'm going through this at the moment. It's nothing major – it's not malaria or rabies – but for the last couple of days I've been hanging very close to my hostel in case, well you know.

It's an easy thing to happen. You get a bit run-down from trying to push yourself to do much, then you eat something dodgey and then the exacerbate it by not taking care of yourself properly when it happens.

The result? A couple of days of not really being able to do anything, which when you're travelling is torture. I've basically missed out on seeing Lima because I've had no energy and felt like death. In a normal situation I would have just stayed longer, but I've recently beenworking to a timetable for the first time, so I have to move on whether I like it or not.

I shouldn't complain too much as I've been really lucky in the past with travel sickness. I also got all of my shots and have all of the medication so the major problems wont occur. I do however have some friends that are suckers for bad luck when travelling, including things I've never heard of.

It can be really serious too. Every year there are travellers who head to exotic locations and pick up equally exotic bugs. The thing is, its not just the exotic bugs that can do it. Eating the wrong thing has brought many a tourist undone. Things can go from uncomfortable to life threatening if you're in a strange place and don't know how to get help.

While spending much of my days catching up with TV and reading is not the way I'd like to spend my time with less than 70 days left in my trip, I think its good for me to rest before the craziness of the next four weeks kicks in.

Also, with a 21 hour bus ride to Cusco ahead of me, I'm hoping the rest has worked.

(You'll notice there are no photos in this weeks blog - best for everyone)   

Monday 19 May 2014

I don't want to leave

A few months ago I posted a piece about how I was struggling to leave a lot of the locations I've been visiting on my trip so far. I spent over two months in Mexico, well over a week on an island in Belize (doing nothing) and over a month in Guatemala. My thought was always, if I'm having fun what harm can it do to stay a little longer.

Parque Tayrona

Now though, it is starting to catch up with me. Arriving in Colombia in late April it dawned on me that I had only about 100 days left of my trip and my original plan was to see all of South America.

That plan is now out of the window.

Taking just under five months to get from Mexico to Colombia, it is obvious that I no longer have enough time to see all (or even most) of the continent, so I'm now having to speed up just to be able to pack a few countries in before the FIFA World Cup starts in a few weeks time and everything is all about football.

Bogota

The first casualty of the cutbacks has been Colombia. I'd originally intended to spend close to two months in the country, however with my new timeline, I've just left after less than three weeks and I really didn't want to leave.

Colombia is a place I could see myself spending a lot of time in. Unfortunately, many people can only think of the negative parts of Colombia's history, but it is a country with so much to offer.

With colonial cities, beautiful beaches, ancient ruins and lush jungles, Colombia has endless places to visit to see some amazing scenery.

Arriving in the beautiful colonial port town of Cartagena, I was blown away by the beauty of the old town. While I've been to many colonial cities on my trip so far, the fortified city walls and many beautiful churches in Cartagena are certainly a stand out. The landscapes and beaches of nearby Parque Tayrona were equally beautiful.

Enjoying a Colombian coffee

For all of the scenery and landscapes of Colombia, there are other things that make it stand out as a location to visit. Colombia is known for two things that are on the extremes of my personal spectrum of liking. One being coffee and the other (salsa) dancing. Anyone who knows me at all knows which is which.

Visiting a coffee farm in the picturesque town of Salento I was able to see where the entire process of how the drug I love gets from plant to cup – and more importantly drink copious amounts coffee.

Dancing, on the other hand is something I've never been fond of. While 99.99% of the world enjoy shaking it on the dance floor of a weekend (or at least pretend they do for social reasons) I've never been a fan. Many friends have often told me I don't enjoy it because I've never found the right motivation. it turns out they might be right – the right motivation appears to be Colombian women. The club scene in Colombia – from Medellin to Bogota to the salsa capital of Cali – is all about dancing, but unlike anywhere else in the world, I had fun doing it. The locals love to party and enjoy partying with travellers – which makes for a great combination.

Salsa in Cali


Which brings me to the best part about Colombia – the people. I've written previously about how the people in Burma and Mexico are some of the friendliest in the world, but I think its time to add Colombia to that list. The locals there genuinely seem interested in your journey, and are so eager to help out or just have a chat.

This has all made it quite difficult to spend such a short time in Colombia, and my next destination, Peru. 

On the other hand, it may just mean I'll have to come back to South America again soon - and with the Olympic Games in Rio in two years time, it may well be a good chance to take the Long Road to Rio once more. 

Sunday 11 May 2014

Travel Buddies


Arriving in the Colombian city of Cali early in the morning after another overnight bus trip I settled in for some breakfast at my hostel and started to chat with some of the other guests. In this part of the world one of the first things you find out about someone is whether they're going 'up' or 'down'. I told the group that I was heading 'down' towards Ecuador and would probably leave in two days time. Another guest quickly added that he had the same plan, so we decided we should go together. It was perfect – and we hadn't even gotten each other's names yet.

So goes the world of travel friendships. Someone who has little more in common than being another foreigner in the same direction can turn into someone you hang out with constantly for days or even weeks on end – before saying goodbye and often never seeing them again.

This is one of the reasons I love travelling so much. While back in the 'real world' people are often happy with the group of friends they have, when people are travelling they're almost always up for meeting new people. Especially when, like me, they're travelling independently. Finding people to discover a city with, eat with and party with can make your experience in a location far more enjoyable. Similarly, finding someone to do a two day bus trip – including border crossing – with can make things a bit safer and easier, even if all you know about your new travel companion is that they're also from the same country.

Travel Buddies I met in Mexico and then again in Guatemala

Quite often the finding of travel buddies involves nothing more than talking to the person who happens to be in the dorm bed next to you, or saying hi to the girl across from you at the breakfast table. Within five minutes you've found someone to go see that beautiful church or have a drink at that funky bar. Or if you're lucky, maybe something else.

While everyone you meet has their own ideas of what they want their trip to be, much of the time your plans share a lot in common with others (you're plans are far from original!) and you'll spend some time travelling with other people or arranging to meet them at the same time in other locations along the way.

On this trip alone I've met more than a handful of people that I've been able to travel with or catch up with in more than country. One such friend I've managed to catch up with in four different countries. So far.

Best Friends (for a day or two)

Whatever happens with your travel friendship, the one thing they all have in common is that they end. You all go back to where you're from and in the majority of cases, you never see them again – sad but true.

Sometimes you'll meet someone from your own town – or at least close by – and you'll try to catch up and see if the friendship can translate to the real world. A lot of the time it cant. After you've reminisced about the adventures you got up to together, you'll start talking about your regular life and often find out you really do have nothing in common. In the real world, merely being from the same place is not enough to sustain friendship. Everyone in your home town is from here.

If you're lucky, some of these travel friends will become buddies you can catch up with occasionally and have a drink. I've been fortunate enough to make some of my best friends while overseas – and many of those live in Melbourne and have transitioned to 'real world' friends which is the best of both worlds.

Another way to keep travel friendships alive – as crazy as it sounds – is to travel some more. With social networks and the like these days it has never been easier to keep in touch with your new friends, and when planning your next trip abroad you know you have friends that love to do the same things as you and can organise to travel together.

Alternatively you can go travelling to a country from where your travel buddies were from. While travelling through Europe from 2005 to 2007 I met a lot of other travellers from the US and Canada. When I eventually got to go travel there in 2009, I was able to catch up with many of my new travel buddies in their home towns. It is never quite the same as when you're travelling. They've generally got “real” jobs and responsibilities, but it's always still fun. They're often keen to reminisce about their travelling days and forget about said responsibilities.

Despite the condensed nature of travel friendships, like any other relationship, its really what you make of it.

As for my travel buddy from the hostel Cali. after five days, many hours on a bus, a few hikes and a bunch of beers, today we parted ways.


While writing this blog I was chatting with a girl sitting across from me who is heading to the same town tomorrow. A new travel friendship is born.

Sunday 4 May 2014

World Cup Fever


The moment I stepped off the boat in Colombia you could sense it. This was a country that was really looking forward to the World Cup. Everywhere I went I saw people sporting the uniform of their national team. There are people selling replica World Cup trophies everywhere and even people decorating their entire car in the lead up to the event.

During my time in Mexico and Central America it was a lot less obvious. I'm sure there are many people there looking forward to the big event, but it wasn't so overt. Colombia is a country that has been waiting for this for a long time.

Some people are really into World Cup Fever

After qualifying for three straight tournaments between 1990 and 1998, the team has not been back to the Cup Finals since. With it's team currently ranked number five in the world by FIFA, the anticipation is huge that this side will finally bring some glory to the country – the fact it is being hosted on their own continent just making it even sweeter.

The fever has certainly rubbed off on me. While I've been looking forward to the cup, it has certainly taken a back seat to my travels through places like Mexico, Guatemala and Nicaragua, which have been some of my favourite destinations ever. Now though, the anticipation for the world's biggest event is really starting to take hold.

Since arriving n Colombia I've met dozens of Australians and people from other countries all heading to Brazil for the cup – including Colombians who are determined not to waste this opportunity.

Within a day of arriving in Colombia I finally took care of all of the logistics of my trip to Brazil. While I was fortunate enough to already have tickets to all three of the Socceroos group stage matches, I'd been a bit lay organising everything else. With dorm beds going for as much as US$220 and flights into Brazil at a premium, it certainly took some work, but was well worth it.

I was eventually able to find some decent priced rooms through AirBnb, a website I would strongly recommend to anyone still looking for somewhere to stay, while another great resource is Road to Brazil, run by and for Aussies coming over for the World Cup.

At this point, nothing in Brazil will be cheap, but for the once in a lifetime chance to be at the biggest event in the world in a country that loves it the most, I think its going to be worth every cent. Sure, Australia is certainly up against it, but there's going to be thousands of Australians there to cheer them on towards what would be a massive upset.

Or failing that, hopefully at least a goal.