Traveling Solo

As stated by Joe in the last blog post, our trip has taken a fairly quick turn of events as Joe decided to head home due to money issues that weren’t a problem yet but were going to become one well before our scheduled return home in the second week of March. He dropped off while he was still ahead, with a great two-month trip under his belt and time to be with the family for the holidays, and hopefully sign up for some second semester classes near home.

This, as I’m sure one could imagine, hugely changes things for me and the rest of my trip. I’m not upset about the situation, or worried. It’s just not something I had been in the mindset for in a long time. When I originally made plans to go to South America they were to go alone. However, as soon as I started getting serious about it, when I didn’t sign up for Fall classes and started buying equipment and these types of things, Joe was hit with a realization of what I was really about to go do. In a single serious conversation one night he jumped on board, and I was glad to have him! Before that night a huge amount of both my excitement, and mild nervousness, was due to the fact that I was going alone. There are a lot of things to consider with the idea. Many of them great advantages, and others, things that would make the trip more difficult.

After Joe decided he wanted to go, I stopped thinking about it and started thinking about the trip we were now planning together. Joe, being my twin brother was probably the only person I would have been completely comfortable with joining me. When we need to we can work as one unit. We’re very different from each other but for the most part we’re in sync. My advice to anyone considering a trip like this is either to choose your partners very wisely, or go alone. Some of the most stressful situations I’ve ever had to deal with have come about while traveling, and stress can cause friends to be real ass-holes towards each other. If you and your partner can figure out when to leave something in the past and move on then things should be fine, but if you can’t then things will build up and explode. Any type of relationship whether it’s between friends, family, or couples, will be tested differently while traveling then it would at home.

The day Joe decided he was going to go home after two months of fairly successful and happy partnered traveling, I didn’t know what to think at first. Then all these thoughts started coming up into my brain that I had had before. All these original motives I had originally had for solo travel started to creep up, only this time unaccompanied by the nervousness. Now I want to be fair to Joe and the awesome trip we had and give that its due recognition. If I hadn’t had my brother with me for these last two months then traveling and getting the hang of things would have been a lot sloppier. We were there for each other to do things like look out for signs, or understand someone’s Spanish as a team, or read the map, keep each other company, and just plain watch each other’s back.

But when I realized that I was going to be alone for the second half I realized how perfect it was for what I personally wanted out of the trip. I’d like to think I know what I’m doing now. My Spanish is better, I have a better gauge of the people, I make small talk with taxi drivers, and there’s no way I’m missing a bus. I think this is as good a time as any to go solo. Yes, I’ll have to use my whole brain now instead of 75 percent of it. Yes, I’ll have to work harder on my Spanish. Yes, if I want some company then I’m going to have to go make some friends. And yes, I’ll have to make every decision regarding where, when, and how I do things for myself. All of these things are good, and they’re all things that will help me grow and help me get everything I’m looking for out of this experience. I didn’t hesitate about taking a year off of school because I knew there was the potential out there to find two degrees worth of experiences, and stimulation, and knowledge in five months of traveling. This will without a doubt be the best way to tap into that potential. I’m sure I’ll have more to write about solo traveling in the next few months, but for now I’ll leave it there and wait for the experiences to flow. After all, it has still been only a week.