Choose your own adventure – Colombia and Ecuador

Maybe the question I get most frequently doing this trip is: ‘how did you plan for a trip like this? I am dreaming up something similar and don’t know where to start.’

The answer is: I chose a destination, a time frame, and beyond that, pretty much have just winged it from there. I spoke to the guys at REI about bike touring, bought what I could afford, and then loosely budgeted as best I could. I fluctuate from being totally stressed about how to afford the next leg and feeling ok about it all. But the stress of the money is part of the adventure. Figuring it out.

And people like to apply rules: I only want to bike. I want to bus. I want to fly. I want to be done by such-and-such date.

My suggestion: make loose rules and let the trip tell you what’s next. Respond to the feeling you have when you’re in Ecuador, or south east Asia, or whatever is coming next. If you live by rigidity, you will give yourself more stress than you need or want.

 

I’ve been biking for thousands of miles, but also taken buses in and out of major cities for time and safety (not so much fear of being robbed, but fear of being run over on a freeway). I don’t have hard dates of where Phillip and I will be next, and that is a great freedom. But I know I want to be done by Christmas, and having a sunset on the trip gives it a dimension that provides peace of mind. I am a community builder, and being gone for a year and a half can make you feel disconnected. So knowing when I’m going to be home is a wonderful feeling. Allows me to feel more present in the season of traveling I am in.

Our time in Colombia was full of new people and incredible nature and culture. The mountain biking is exhausting, and the fluctuating temperatures can be a real challenge. But the challenge is the best part: it surprises you and you surprise yourself.

As we travel deeper into South America, we go deeper into the unknown. My ignorance about these countries is large and total, and almost everything amazes me. The poverty, the surprising wealth, the total lack of infrastructure in some places, and the superior infrastructure in others has replaced one ignorance for another: how does it all fit together?

 

It’s hard not to make sweeping generalizations about how a country works, how ‘these people’ live, etc. I have almost given that up and just let each person, each town, each culture teach me the little truths I can glean. That is another type of freedom: freedom from expectation and generalization.

So often, I am filled with a sense of ‘Yes, this is just what I hoped this trip would be!’ and other times I am amazed by how much this trip has taken its own shape far from what I thought it would be. I didn’t expect to feel so at home here. I didn’t expect to enjoy the biking as much as I do. I didn’t expect to enjoy the buses as much as I do when we take them. I didn’t expect to take buses at all. I didn’t expect to be so excited to write the novel I plan to grow from this trip. I think about it every day. I didn’t expect South America to have so much wifi. I did expect the trip to challenge things I took for normal and challenge things I’ve always thought.

I didn’t expect to feel so much like a stupid kid. But I do. And I love feeling it. It is a new youth, a wonder at how it all works, and an eager open brain to learn without pre-determined truth.

 

If you’re planning a long trip, I hope you’ll just set the most basic of parameters, and then just let go. Don’t get lost in other’s expectations of your trip. It’s yours, not theirs. Just save some money, set a time frame, look on a map and meditate on the places you’ve always wanted to go, and see where it takes you.

I promise it’ll change you. In good ways, in hard ways, and in ways that will influence the rest of your life.

Safe travels. And stay tuned. Phillip and I are half way done with this trip if you can believe it. And we have a lot more to learn.