Trade Offs

This might not be your idea of an ideal vacation but it is working for me.  I suppose that different people have different ideas of vacations and a lot of that is fed and maniplated by the advertising media.  I remember one fellow who rather likes the stuff telling me that once I arrive at my destination that all I need to do is relax in a nice lounge with a nice big glass of wine.  Not my way of relaxing.  Others think in terms of the all-inclusive.  You stay in the alcohol and food laden shelter of your tacky tourist compound, pile on the pounds, get drunk every night and misbehave.  Uh-uh.  And there are the extreme backpackers, almost all younger than forty, who don´t bat an eye about sharing quarters with strangers in noisy hostel dorms and party party party.  There are others who will stay at a luxury or near luxury hotel, with room service of course and all their needs and wants catered to.  Doesn´t really attract me.  I don´t do the restaurant route either, if I can help it.  I prefer to source local food and take it back to eat in my bed and breakfast.

I seem to be more the bed and breakfast and small pension kind of traveller.  I don´t come to a place to indulge myself but to learn and to do lots of art in my sketchbook.  I also get lots of rest but I hate being waited on.  There are trade offs of course.  You are going to have more contact with the locals and you will be working a bit harder.  You will also become aware that the local people and customs might not all be agreeable and pleasant. And that they might have a very similar experience of you. But you can still negotiate with tact and patience and perhaps grow a bit as a person.

I have already mentioned that I try to maintain my daily rhythm and routine as much as possible while here in Bogota so that I won´t come home feeling like a soft helpless idiot.   On the other hand I also have to respect the boundaries of the people I am here among.  Today the cleaning lady was going to turn out my room for me.  I already mentioned that I do the bathroom every day and I also dust but I also had to resist the temptation of going in there and helping her do her job, knowing that this would not be appreciated.

Maybe a luxury hotel isn´t such a bad idea.  If I skip going anywhere next year then really splurge the year after...I´ll probably end up helping the staff with the cleaning!