This is my last full day in Monteverde, for now anyway. I would like to return in a couple of years, if I can afford it, that is. I think I´ve already given a pretty balanced account of what it´s been like so far. The annoyances have been minor and few and the enjoyment tremendous. The lovely and interesting people I have met and befriended by far outnumber the twits I have encountered. And don´t get me started again about the natural beauty here.
Yesterday I was reading a post from another blogger about why it is better not to travel alone. For the most part I couldn´t help but disagree, but I also had to make an effort to understand her perspective as well as to respect that she did mention that she had already spent a number of years travelling solo.
I would first of all like to focus on where I agree with this blogger. She wrote about the importance of having someone nearby who will have your back if things go wrong, especially when there is a strong risk of falling victim to crime. She also stressed the unbearable loneliness and boredom that can make solo travel an absolute misery. I couldn´t agree more, having myself been threatened by criminals in Colombia and Mexico. I have also at times felt quite lonely and bored, but not too often.
When pulling things like this from the Internet it is also helpful to get an idea of the kind of demographic the writer is trying to appeal to. In this case, it would be an American middle class female, white (probably), under forty, likely heterosexual, college and university education, fan of pop culture, faithful consumer of material goods and technology, not an original thinker, likely agnostic or nonreligious, highly extroverted with a close family and large circle of friends, averagely bright but nowhere near Mensa category.
Being myself a Canadian working poor male, over sixty, sexually unlabelled, with a smattering of college education, uninterested in pop culture, anti-consumer, artist, writer, original (I hope) thinker, strong professing Christian with a highly developed experience of spirtuality, neither really extroverted or introverted, without family, having a moderately sized circle of friends, an IQ that puts me in the top two percntile (I am neither bragging, nor fibbing here, Gentle Reader, just statin´the facts), I would be inclined to suggest that I am not going to be a member of this blogger´s target audience.
This blogger does not like the kind of introspection that travelling alone can induce, citing that it can lead one to a kind of bottomless dispair from seeing how empty and purposeless their lives really are. I agree that for the unprepared, this kind of self-revelation can be hell and could even significantly damage one´s mental health. On the other hand, it has been individuals courageous enough to go through this kind of self-evaluation, however painful and dispair-inducing, who have literally had their lives transformed and have been themselves powerful forces in challenging and changing the way we think. (Mahatma Gandhi, anyone? Martin Luther King? St. Francis of Assisi?) But if it´s something you´re not ready for, then ¨chuck me in the shallow water before I go too deep.¨
I also can´t imagine having to share a hotel room with someone. Where do travel buddies get the idea that they have to always be together twenty-four-seven, anyway? I cannot think of a better way of ending a friendship. And the idea that dining alone or not being able to enjoy a sunset without being able to share it with someone else to help ratify the experience, strikes me as something bordering on pathetic. How does she know, anyway, that waiters and other diners will look at her with scorn and pity for eating alone? And why would anyone need to have someone next to them to confirm to them that the sunset they are seeing is indeed spectacular?
And don´t get me started about the need to take nothing but selfies without anyone to share the frame with. Who really needs to travel with a camera anyway, unless photography happens to be your passion? I might be alone with this idea, but nothing makes beautiful places like the Taj Mahal or the ruins of Macchu Pichu look worse than some dumb tourist being photographed in front of it, obscuring the grandeur. I´m not suggesting that people shouldn´t take pictures while travelling, and one reader of this blog always regales me with their spectacular photo-documentaries of the many trips they go on. I am really suggesting that in order to travel well, whether with someone or solo, a little thinking outside the box can go a long way.
I also will concede that my reasons and motives for travel might be a bit out of the ordinary. These times away give me needed solitude to pray, think and experience life out of my familiar context and away from my comfort zone. They also facilitate my development in the Spanish language, as I travel only in Latin American countries. I am treated, as well, to all this free time to do artwork, to walk and explore and meet people. Before any of you get started on this oh, Aaron must be an introvert kind of nonsense, let me make one thing perfectly clear: I do not subscribe to the binary nonsense of introvert versus extrovert. If I were a true introvert I would not find it easy to meet people and make new friends while traveling abroad. If I were a true extrovert I would shudder at the thought of having to spend so much time alone. I really think that people who lable themselves as extroverts or as introverts are really just too lazy, or too afraid, to explore and develop other sides of their personalities. It is scary at times having to think.
Anyway, this is not to dis travelling with others. In my case, I think my real reason for travelling solo is very simple. No one I know wants to travel with me, and I´m not going to let that stop me from the experience, the joy, the thrill, the challenge and the beauty of exploring other parts of the world and expanding my global circle of friends.
One other thing. When we travel alone we are opening our lives more to the possibility of change, even of transformation. I think that those of us who are able and willing to do it learn invaluable lessons about ourselves and develp new and solid skills of survival, adaptabilty, flexibilty, creative thinking and self-discipline, as well as encouraging us to respect and appreciate different cultures, and this can only help us in our journey towards becoming better people.
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