Why backpacking?

Hola a todos,
Lots of people ask me how I travel alone to so many places, if I get lonely, why I choose to travel the way I do. I like to shove everything in a backpack and go for as long as I can, wherever I can. As much as I usually dislike cliche quotes, there's one quote in particular from Mark Twain that I enjoy:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It

Traveling, and especially backpacking, is a great way to open your mind to new ways of seeing the world around you. When I toss everything in a 20-pound hiking pack and go on a long bus ride to a tiny hostel somewhere in Latin America, I'm not trying to escape; I'm actually trying to get into the world. It's taken some time, but there are some general truths that I've discovered through this kind of travel.

Hostels are wonderful places. When you find a good one, it's like some kind of marvelous secret and you feel initiated into a special circle. When you stay in the same hostel for a few nights in a row, you get to know other people, the staff, the town. You become an insider, and you can sit around on the back patio talking politics or philosophy or comparing stories and feel like you belong to this place in this moment. You feel at home, like you are fulfilling a special niche in the backpacker ecosystem. You might be traveling alone, but you never feel alone.

The problem is leaving. When others leave, you are reminded that you are on your own, you may feel a little abandoned, and you have to start everything all over again. Creating instant camaraderie with strangers from all over the world is no small feat, but it gets easier with practice.

When you're the one leaving, you have the adrenaline rush that comes with new beginnings and new places, but you sense that you are leaving something behind. You forget to exchange email addresses, you leave things unsaid, you forget all your food in the refrigerator and your soap in the shower.

Backpacking is mobile existentialism. Backpackers are keenly aware that this moment in time will never exist again. The people whose paths cross here will never see each other again, the happy community we create out of nothing cannot last more than a few hours.

Perhaps that is what makes backpacking so special, the keen awareness of every passing moment. Other people don't live like this, other people take their lives for granted. Backpackers take nothing for granted, because what is here in this moment will never return, never repeat, never constitute part of reality again.

For me, backpacking is a refresher course on life. There are basic rules for backpacking that everyone should follow.
- always be friendly
- always clean up after yourself.
- share when you can
- make friends with everyone.
- trust and be trustworthy
- always have a sense of humor
- don't be attached to material things
- create community wherever you can
- go with the flow
- don't judge
- listen a lot

Backpacking is a way of life. It's an awareness of the human condition. It's finding joy in a clean shirt, sunshine, a piece of papaya that a German girl gives you at breakfast. It's cooking a meal with a room full of people from around the world and the simplicity of satisfying the need to eat to stay alive. It's finding common ground, sharing experiences, making friends. Backpacking makes you thankful for every time you laugh. You are thankful for a comfortable chair, a bottle full of water, a sharp kitchen knife, clean-smelling sheets, a new book, a shower.

You notice more details when you backpack. You notice how the fog touches just the tops of the coffee plants on a hillside while the sun is still shining. You notice what sidewalks are made out of in different countries, as well as their height, width, and slipperiness in rain. You notice the flavor of your tap water, the humidity in the air, the scent of different flowers.

Backpacking heightens the senses, creates community, opens dialogues, inspires reflection and personal responsibility, and reminds us what it means to be human, to live together in one place. That is why I backpack.

The Art of Waiting

If you are traveling, and particularly if you are backpacking, chances are you'll spend a lot of time waiting.

You'll wait in line to buy bus tickets, you'll wait on a bus in traffic, you'll wait to check in to a hostel, you'll wait for a flight, you'll wait when your flight is delayed.

There is an art to waiting. Some people are good at it. Some people aren't. Some people are used to it, and some are just naturally impatient. I like ot think that I'm a patient person, but even I have my limits. Here's how I make my life worthwhile when I have a long wait ahead of me (like my bus trip this week that took 16 hours...)

1.) Journaling
That's what I'm doing right now, in fact. As I write, it's 5:45 p.m. I left my hostel at 8 a.m. today, and I've been waiting on various buses, in ticket lines, and in traffic since then. I'm on a bus right now traveling from David to Panama City, and we've been sitting in traffic for the past three hours. So I know what I'm talking about.

Journaling is an excellent exercise that I recommend for any time, not just when you have nothing better to do. Journaling gives you the chance to organize your thoughts, reflect on your day, resolve issues, and it's just good therapy.

I journal all the time when I travel (maybe because I need a lot of therapy?). Journals are a great way to relive your travels, sometimes even better than photos, and you know how much I love photography.

2.) Reading
Maybe it's not your activity of choice, but it certainly does help to pass the time. Reading's good for you, too--it helps develop sustained associational thinking (i.e., you're forced to think deeply about stuff for a long time). There's nothing like a good story to keep you entertained when the screaming baby behind you makes you want to tear your ears off.

3.) Sleeping
I bet you didn't see that coming--what teacher encourages you to sleep when you could be reading, or studying Spanish, or doing mental math?

But seriously, this merits a mention. YOu shouldn't just sprawl out wherever you are and start snoring. If you find you must nap in a public place, such as a bus, a train station, the airport, the beach, or wherever, there are some things to keep in mind.

First, if you have a bus or train to catch, set an alarm. It would be rather sad to sleep through the departure you've waited so long for.

Next, keep in mind that you are in

public. Do not invade others' space, do not slump or sprawl about inappropriately. People will likely trip over you or just generally be disgusted with your lack of courtesy.

Finally and most importantly, always know where your stuff is. A friend of a friend once fell asleep on the beach in Brazil, and someone took everything--she had to borrow money for the bus ride home, and she had to ride that bus barefoot and in a bikini. Keep your passport and wallet on you at all times, preferably attached to your clothing somehow, and out of sight. If you've got your backpack with you, find a way to strap is on while you sleep. If you're in a place where you can lay down, you might put everything against a wall and curl around it. Check the floor first so you don't lay in anything unsavory.


You might think you'll never do any of the crazy stuff I've been describing, and you're probably right. Just in case, though, it's important to think through everything. If you think it's awful to sleep in a bus station, imagine waking up in that bus station and all your stuff is gone. Worse, no?

Ultimately, waiting won't kill you, and the more relaxed you are (and the less whining you do), the happier your life will be, no matter how long it takes to get where you're going.

6:15 p.m., still in traffic... I think it's time for a nap.


Other helpful hints:
- always have a bottle of water (you'll lose your place in line if you try to go buy water)
- don't rely on electronics to keep you entertained. You may be in a place where it is a very bad idea to flash electronics of any kind. Plus, your battery might die.
- I know I've said it before, but BYOTP. And hand sanitizer.
- Always take a jacket, even someplace warm. It can double as a pillow, or the AC might be turned way up, which is the case on Panamanian buses. You never know. 12 hours on a highly air conditioned bus can be miserable.