Fighting the “following the herd” RTW travel blues
When you’re planning a RTW trip it’s easy to look at all of those places you’ll be going as exotic, exciting, and far away (in more ways than one) from your current life. But sometimes when you actually get there, you find that it’s a bit more like life at home than you were hoping for.
Marina is a month into her RTW trip in South America, and is a bit depressed to find that she and her travel partner feel like “a couple of meaningless middle class crappy tourists following the cattle track.”
So we have been to Patagonia, hiking The Trail and taking the picture hundreds of other people took that day, posting it on their travel blog for it to be commented “great photos, x, im so jealous you seem to have a lot of fun dude”, we have stayed at more than one hostel with rastamen at the desk playing Bob Marley all day long, we have visited Buenos Aires and El Calafate and Mendoza, and we have talked to traveling Australians, Americans, Belgians, French and other youngsters. We have spoken to locals but only to hear about the amount of pesos X or Y is.
As Marina says, she doesn’t want to sound like they’re ungrateful for the opportunity they have to travel, they’re just hoping to turn their travel experience into something that’s a bit less cookie-cutter than it feels like at present.
It has all been really nice and all but we feel that we lack a mission, a project or some magic that comes from a culture clash or truly meeting a person from a totally different place with totally different ideas. For now we are making our trip a flavorless succession of eating, drinking and walking around.
Is Marina expecting too much from just a month of travel? Do exotic experiences just happen, or can you make them happen? Marina’s looking for ideas and inspiration from the BootsnAll travel community, and she’d love to hear your thoughts. If you have suggestions for her and her partner, please click over to her question on the BootsnAll boards and leave your two cents.
April 18th, 2010 at 1:42 pm
Staying longer in each place may help. If you’re living like a tourist — trotting from one must-see to another — it’s no surprise that you’re only meeting other tourists and you feel like a tourist. If you settle into a place longer, a month or more if you can do it, you can start to feel like a local, shopping where the locals shop, cooking and eating at home like locals do, becoming a regular at the neighborhood meet-up spot, whatever it is. You might also consider sharing your expertise in order to meet more locals, i.e., teach English or whatever special skills you have. Or you could volunteer with a local nonprofit. Good luck!
April 18th, 2010 at 9:57 pm
Get a job. That’ll change the picture.
April 19th, 2010 at 12:21 am
I’m from Argentina. A good idea would be to rent a car and go to a close village. You
will be the only tourist, but dont dress like a foreigner with your camera holding on
your neck. Go and eat in the first place you see, not in McDonalds. You will see
how people will ask you where are you from and all that stuff. They can give you an advice
on good spots also. Good luck and enojy the views!
April 19th, 2010 at 8:40 am
Travel is what you make of it. Sometimes experiences just happen. If you’re in your head about how your travels should go then they will not turn out the way you expected them to be. Let go and enjoy the journey…
April 24th, 2010 at 9:50 am
I would side with Rebecca. My first adventure through Central America, I found the same. I now credit the months I spent preparing, over-romanticizing, building expectations, etc. I didn’t find myself like I was hoping. God didn’t appear from the jungle to tell me my purpose in life. I returned home after a few months a bit dissapointed. I’ve started to realize I find more when I’m not looking for anything. Expectations kill. I’m guilty of it, but have been trying harder not to try so hard and do as exactly Rebecca said: “Let go and enjoy the journey”. This can be twisted around/taken too far and interpreted as complacency, settling, lowering standards . . . it’s not.