Travel - the unspoken side

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Travel is this wonderful, amazing, incredible thing that allows you to have all kinds of new and different experiences. It provides an avenue for learning about new cultures and provides you opportunities to learn about yourself. And other than a short period on our way to Puno, I have loved every second of it. And so we keep traveling and writing about the places we have been and all the fascinating things we see.

Well, for me, that all came to a hault in Arequipa and continued until we got settled in Huaraz (yes, we are a little behind on our blogging). Perhaps it had started before Arequipa, but I had never really noticed. While travel is such an amazing experience, you rarely hear about the challenges. And with this blog being somewhat of a journal of our trip, I thought it would paint an unrealistic picture to leave the challenges out and just talk about all the cool stuff.

So, bottom line: Travel is not easy. It just is not. Before coming on this trip I assumed travel was all just roses and great times based on reading other blogs and hearing stories. But there are underlying stresses we go through every day and a rather repetitive, boring process that do not often get captured. On a daily basis I experience way more stress than I do on a daily basis back home. Constantly some, or all, of these stressful questions are running through our heads:


• Is Sarah doing ok?
• Are we safe (and the thousands of different iterations of this question)?
• Is this collectivo/taxi driver taking us to the right place (as we try to read street signs and follow where we are going on the map)?
• Are our bags ok under the bus? Do I need to get off at this stop and make sure our bags are not accidentally or purposely taken off the bus?
• Is the bag we carry on the bus safe? Can I sleep on the bus without worrying about the bag? Can I sleep without worrying about missing our stop?
• Are we getting ripped off? Every single thing we buy, are we targeted as tourists or are we getting a fair price?
• Is my wallet still in my pocket?
• Say what? Did I understand that right? Did I communicate what I wanted to right? Ugh...I have no idea what you are trying to tell me...
• Is this normal? Is whatever is happening right now normal? Should this security people be raiding the bus and pulling off small black bags of stuff (turned out to be tax evasion t-shirts)? Should this woman who was trying to sell stuff be screaming to get off the bus for half an hour (yes, she is not supposed to be getting on the bus to sell stuff and the bus driver was teaching her a lesson - apparently something the other passangers had seen a million times). We always look around at everybody else to see if something is normal that we are not used to seeing...and while often times it is normal, the not knowing is stressful.
• Are our bags ok at the hostal?
• Are there seats for the next bus?
• Did we leave anything at the last hostal?
• Will the ATM work so we have money?









Typing it out, may not sound like much. And #1 and #2 encompass so much, consolidating them to two bullets minimizes the appearance.

99.99%!o(MISSING)f the time there is no need to worry. Everything is ok. But being new to this kind of travel it is hard to put these things out of your mind and they just add up.

Add to that the almost mezmorizing boredom of the process: pack, bus, search for a hostal, unpack, do something, pack, bus, search for a hostal, unpack...repeat...again...and again...and again. It can be tortorous, especially at the lightening fast pace we have been going.

And by the time Arequipa rolled around it hit me like a ton of bricks. It probably did not help that there was not any activity/town I was really excited about before Huaraz (only 5ish days away - a long time by travel standards) so my mind was not distracted with something upcoming. I had time to think about just how stressed I really was. For the first time in my life I have tension in my back that is quite uncomfortable (which may or may not be stress or may or not be related to the pack I have on my back every day).

It took me about a month and a half to recognize the cumulative effects of the stress. Sarah caught on to it a little earlier than I did. I am guessing this kind of thing effects everybody and now I better understand some of the travelers we would see just hanging out in hostals all day long. No longer do I wonder, "why are they just sitting here, why are they not out experiencing all of this?" And now that we recognize the challenges and acknowledge them, we are better equipped to deal with it.

Perhaps I will add an update once we get to posting Huaraz, but lets just say things are going great now. We have slowed down our travel and are more cognizent of managing stresses. My back is still jacked up though...Jillian, may need to get your two cents on that one.

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