I was having a conversation with a couple of well travelled friends yesterday and mentioned that these last couple of weeks before my trip to Bogota Colombia have left me feeling a bit anxious and unsure about going. This is apparently a very natural stage that a lot of people go through about travel and my friends freely concurred that this has also been their own experience.
I never feel fully prepared though I do seem to have most of my ducks in a row for this second visit in Colombia. All I still need, it seems, is sunblock, hydrogen peroxide and then I'm all set, or so it seems. The comfort zone of my little apartment and my familiar daily routine really become something precious to me while I prepare to go away for a month. My anxiety becomes heightened and I feel physically weak, a kind of psychosomatic reaction.
I know from reading some of last year's travel journal that I enjoyed being there in Bogota and would even look forward to returning. The comfort of familiarity is very seductive and something tells me that were I to cancel the trip that I would somehow regret it. It would be like turning back from a transition in life, or a rite of package, that my future development has been depending on.
I know that when I return in April I will welcome all the more all the familiar foods, faces, places and walking routes, plus what I will have brought back with me in terms of experience and the lasting and indelible impression that can only be made by interesting and engaging people who live in a foreign land.
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