Roughin it

I think about the times that I have traveled more comfortably.  Taxis, vacation rentals, buffets, chain bars and restaurants, shopping malls, and so on....

Once a planned vacation suited me.  A trip to Cancun, jet skiing, sitting in the pool at the resort and swimming with dolphins, snorkeling with a guide, and paying obscene amount of money to zip line over the ocean.  It was amazing and beautiful.  But it was America in another country, there was nothing different.  Everyone still spoke English and served the food I was used to.  I ate at Senor Frogs and went to the coolest clubs.  I was comfortable.

My desires have changed.  I crave to be uncomfortable.  To be in a place that I sleep in a tent in a small town, if even in a town.  I want to be forced to learn the language and to get involved with these other countries.  To really see how they live.  To eat at places that look sketchy, to go to where the locals are and to get in a car or on a bike and get into the depth of where I am.  No taxis, no chains, no comforts..... okay maybe a bed that consists of a sleeping pad and some warmth, but even that is negotiable.

What do we do in the world when we travel to places that are exactly like where we came from?  Does it bridge gaps between worlds or further the gap?

There is no right or wrong answer here, it is just a thought to question why we travel and what we want?  To expose ourselves to the world in all of its different lights, climates, foods, languages, rituals, spirits!

I can hardly wait to experience that feeling again.  Even more so than I did last year on a trip to Mexico with my dude.  Though we drove 26 hours into Mexico and slept on the beach for 3 weeks and ate at places that most would cringe at I still had his help with Spanish.  Though I was left on my own every now and again to communicate with someone who just stares as blankly at me as I do them when talking, it helped to have him there.

What it did teach me is that when someone doesn't understand English it doesn't mean that you speak louder and slower to them...  It won't help :)