Some Things I've Learned From Backpacking

After being in Medellin for a bit and still not entirely sure of what I wanted to do here, I decided to do what a lot of people do when they need time to think: pick up and take a bus 12 hours away to the Carribean coast. When I first got to Cartagena I was a little unsure if I made the right decision of leaving my little Medellin bubble and setting off into the big bad world of backpackers who had been at it for 10 months and a whole new range of local people. After wandering around the city and seeing the historic colonial bit that people say looks like Spain, I ventured back to my hostel's pool to see if anyone would approach me. Let's be clear: yes I have traveled before, and yes I have traveled alone before even, but whenever I have traveled alone I always have had a place to go to with people I knew. So I'm not going to lie, I was a bit nervous about my first time out in solo backpacking land. Eventually, however, someone invited me up on the roof of the hostel to hang out. I played it cool and spent another five minutes or so in the pool and then darted off to shower (which really did me no good as I was sweating again immediately upon turning off the water) to look my best for my new temporary set of friends. They turned out to be a mix of people from places all over including Ireland, England, Australia, Sweden, Norway, and Dubai. We hit it off and I enjoyed the rest of my week traveling on the coast with different people from that first group. Some things that I know I learned from backpackers before but were even more reinforced in my brain this trip that I should point out is 1. Every night is a weekend; 2. It is perfectly acceptable to stay up all night because you have to catch an early bus but then end up missing it because you wanted to catch just an hour's sleep. When you're up and realized you've missed it, you can't just go back to sleep, you're already up so why not take advantage of the wonderful morning and have yourself a rum and coke while hanging out in the pool at 8 o'clock in the morning; 3. You say you're leaving today, but find yourself staying another week; 4. You say you're moving hostels today because this one is too expensive, again you end up back on the roof at 2 o'clock in the morning; and 5. For some reason hiking two hours with all of your gear, getting copious amounts of bug bites, sleeping in an uncomfortable hammock with no room to swing because you're packed alongside fellow travelers like sardines, and having to shower outdoors with your bathing suit on while other guests look on-for some reason all of that is ok because you are on one of the most remote beaches with cyrstal clear water in a beautiful national park, just with 100 other tourists who caught wind of the same "remote" beach.

Disclaimer: These things I've learned did not all necessarily happen to me personally.