Bye-Bye Hostels
After traveling alone for over three months (minus one week in Bariloche with Kris), I have a travel partner. Margaret met up with me on the 19th and we will travel together for a little over two weeks. All of a sudden, it feels like someone hit the restart button, and I've started a whole new trip.
Since this is Margaret's only vacation of the year, she's understandably in a different travel mode than I am after three months of travel. So I've said good-bye to bunk beds, lockers, and common bathrooms and hello to doors with locks, leaving toiletries in the bathroom, and privacy once again.
The first two nights, we slept in a private room with just the two of us, and maybe it's because I'm used to sleeping in bunk beds with a few other people now, but both of those nights I slept terribly and woke up in the middle of the night in a hazy confusion, wondering "Where am I?!?" This after over three months of travel! It hasn't happened since I first arrived in South America! Also, for the first time in over three months, I've had some stomach problems... I made it all through Argentina and even Bolivia without incident, only to have problems in the upscale tourist town of Paraty. Strange!
It is interesting because traveling with someone else feels more like I'm bringing my world with me. I don't need to make any effort to meet new people if I want to have a conversation. In some ways, I feel like we could be anywhere, chatting like we normally do. It's like there's a cushion of home around me now-- a certain comfort of language, familiarity, and reference points. It feels very different.
Since this is Margaret's only vacation of the year, she's understandably in a different travel mode than I am after three months of travel. So I've said good-bye to bunk beds, lockers, and common bathrooms and hello to doors with locks, leaving toiletries in the bathroom, and privacy once again.
The first two nights, we slept in a private room with just the two of us, and maybe it's because I'm used to sleeping in bunk beds with a few other people now, but both of those nights I slept terribly and woke up in the middle of the night in a hazy confusion, wondering "Where am I?!?" This after over three months of travel! It hasn't happened since I first arrived in South America! Also, for the first time in over three months, I've had some stomach problems... I made it all through Argentina and even Bolivia without incident, only to have problems in the upscale tourist town of Paraty. Strange!
It is interesting because traveling with someone else feels more like I'm bringing my world with me. I don't need to make any effort to meet new people if I want to have a conversation. In some ways, I feel like we could be anywhere, chatting like we normally do. It's like there's a cushion of home around me now-- a certain comfort of language, familiarity, and reference points. It feels very different.
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