Home On The Road

Mmmmm so fabulous to be back out traveling. Back on the road where wearing no make up and the same close for two days are perfectly acceptable..... the place where no one cares what brand your jeans are or if you kitchen counter is made of granite or formica. Life here is simple and basic - the smaller your backpack, the fatter your passport and the more advice you can offer are the fuel of connection.

"When did you leave home?" I ask some fellow travellers. "October 21st." They reply, then ask if I can sum up the collapse of the economy. Okay, so maybe being that out of touch with the news is a little scary, but the round the world trip they´re on isn´t. They´re a British couple who quit their London jobs and hit the road. They started in India, then Cambodia and Vietnam. They spent time with friends in Australia and New Zealand, and made their way to South America working their way north to where they met up with me in Costa Rica. Eventually they´ll fly home out of Florida. It´s a common story, one I´ve heard numerous times in the past few weeks and I feel boring by comparison.

We talk for hours, swapping travel tips and recommendations. They want to know how Americans can cope with only two weeks of vacation a year and flip when I tell them many people don´t even use it all. That´s got to change they say, it´s bad for people´s health, their well being, why do they accept it? It´s a good question and I have hours of theory, but won´t bore you with it. I´m sure it´s just culture, but think about it.... why do we accept it when Germans receive a minimum of 45 days and the EU dictates at least 25....?

The couple tells me Vietnam is overly commercial and Cambodia is lovely. They say India is frenetic, but you miss it when you leave and the cab drivers in Peru can be scammers. They´ve had no trouble, budgeted about $10k each for the trip and rented out their flat. There is no energy of boasting or bragging. It´s a community of interest and adventure, a forum for planning future trips and staying safe. It´s fascination and awe.... it´s oh my god, I have to go THERE!

Other people join in as we talk: a pair of Isreali´s backpacking a month in Costa Rica and two in Nicaragua, a Canadian student completing a semester abroad, a Philippine couple doing a short three week trip to CR and Panama, a Dutch woman living in NY with my same itinerary - Costa Rica to Belize in two months. We make plans to meet up along the way. There are other Americans too. Ones on extended trips, some working their way south to fly home from Buenos Aires or staying indefinitely in Costa Rica hoping to find jobs in eco-conservation. We make fast friends and talk about people at home. People who look at us heading out on the road and think we´re odd. People who might not get it, people who might not understand us, but right here, right now, in this community of kinship, we´ve found a home and fit right in. Heaven.