Backpacking: 1994 vs 2000

My first trip overseas was when I was 21 and I did the "Europe backpacking thing”. A rite of passage for any young Aussie.

Back then I had no idea what I was doing. I booked my flights almost as an ultimatum to my best friend Fiona who was supposed to come with me. That didn’t work so there I was, in Europe, on my own.

Obviously it worked out well because I have been roaming around various nooks and crannies of this planet with some regularity ever since.

In 1994 the internet didn’t exist for common folk. Neither did mobile phones.

When you met people and hoped to meet up again, firm (well kind of) plans were made and it either worked out or didn’t. Mostly it did. I used to always make two meeting times just in case trains were late or you were held up for whatever reason. Quite often it was let’s meet outside the cathedral (there’s always a cathedral in Europe) at midday and then 6pm if midday doesn’t work. It was quite a successful strategy.

I exchanged addresses (and I mean postal addresses) with several people and we used to write each other letters and send Christmas cards.

To contact home, I would call reverse charges from some phone box, somewhere. When my credit card stopped working I’d call Mum reverse charges and she’d sort something out then I’d call back the next day to check everything was okay. Of course, we wouldn’t know if my card had been maxed out until she received the statement in the mail each month.

For entertainment on train journeys I had a walkman. I was regularly buying AA batteries and had limited myself to 20 cassette tapes. I had spent months preparing mixed tapes with enough variety to keep me amused before I left. The twenty tapes took up a sizeable chunk of space in my backpack but it was worth it. I can’t live without my music.

My camera was a lovely little Canon. I remember getting to Ireland towards the end of my trip and putting in 20 rolls of film to be developed. They took up a bit of space in the backpack too.

Sixteen years later and technology characterises the modern backpacker. I am not unique travelling with my Macbook Pro, Sony Lumix camera with HD Video and iPod classic which currently holds around 23,000 songs.

I can listen to music, watch movies, read books, check the news, manage my banking and sundry other admin on the computer. I skype family and friends regularly – for free! I am anti Facebook, that would make everything just too convenient. But I email friends to check where they’re at and to organise where we can meet again. I email photos to them too sometimes. When I am somewhere without electricity or wifi I feel slightly anxious - what if something is happening and I don’t hear about it straight away.

With friends, often time is spent sharing music and showing each other our favourite Youtube clips. There is some great stuff out there. One day in Antigua on my first visit there, we spent an entire afternoon playing theme songs from American TV programs on Youtube. Yes there were a few beers involved that day. I have discovered many new ways to waste time and amuse a group of people with a computer and wifi.

But aside from technology, everything else is the same. Travellers on a journey from somewhere to somewhere else. Some for months or years, some for days or weeks. Some seasoned, some first timers. Always interesting. Travellers are an interesting breed. Everyone is on some sort of budget so shouting drinks in bars is not part of the situation. But people are generous in other ways. Gifting things which are no longer required – books and clothes mainly and the odd bit of medication, sunscreen or bug spray. Travel stories and advice is a dominant part of any conversation. Most of the hostels I have stayed in have been based on recommendation rather than research.

Occasionally you meet someone who knows someone you know. The other day a friend bumped into some Aussies in Mexico who knew me. So I guess many conversations are where have you been, where are you going, and oh did you meet so-and-so. The best thing about travelling is these coincidences.

Now I’m on the way back down the isthmus. Oaxaca was my northernmost point (on land). Most travellers start in Mexico and work their way down so a lot of people I met at the beginning were towards the end of their trip. Now I’ve done a U-turn, I’m seeing the same people in different places. I’m looking forward to more of that over the next couple of months.

Mucho Lluvia

Just a quick update from Guatemala. This is the worst rainy season in 60 years with lakes overflowing and landslides absolutely everywhere. It is a tragedy that is still unfolding with up to 50 people dead, many more missing, and rains and landslides continuing. It is heartbreaking to see such tragedies in a beautiful but impoverished country.

Friends of mine had been stranded at Lake Atitlan and eventually got out by trekking through knee deep mud to make it up to the road where they could then drive out. The Lake area seems to be one of the worst, and I thought the roads were bad when I was there a month or so ago.

I arrived in Lanquin today after an eight and a half hour bus ride from Antigua, there were hundreds of landslides along the way of varying sizes. I'm almost getting used to seeing massive boulders on the road and parts of road just washed away down the mountain. The drivers still seem to drive quite recklessly with us having to yell out "despacio por favor" (slow down please) a couple of times.

But I'm safe now and Lanquin is beautiful and idyllic and I'm just chilling out with a beer.

More retrospective blog updates tomorrow. Maybe.

Antigua, again...

After an overnight bus, followed by a five hour wait for the next bus that got me to Guatemala City at 7pm, I thought it best to jump in a cab straight for Antigua so that all the travelling could be out of the way.

The staff at the hostel there are just lovely and it was really like coming home, being welcomed back with a big hug by Adela. Just what one needs after a couple of days on buses.

It was easy to spend another five days in Antigua and with landslides happening everywhere and tourists stranded because of the situation near the lake, there were quite a few people just hanging around.

I pretty much spent these days in Antigua finishing off the Christmas shopping, buying all the last gifts to send home. Sam arrived on Sunday after being stranded down at the Lake but ended up seeing Antigua in record time, managing to climb Pacaya, all in a less than 24 hour stopover. Makes me glad I’m not rushing.

Most of the people in the hostel were either Australian or Israeli, Aussies travelling for a long time and Israelis just for a month. I managed to learn a few words of Hebrew but all I can remember is difduf (not sure about the spelling) which means when it is sprinkling. Sorry Dor!

Zipolite

I had no idea where to go after Oaxaca and Nick turned up with glowing praise for Zipolite which is about 60km south of Puerto Escondido, back on the coast. So I decided to head down there for a bit of sunshine. A week too late though apparently, it was raining when I arrived and didn’t stop so after a couple of days I cut my losses and headed back to Guatemala.

Here is the description of Zipolite from the brochure at the hotel - their words, not mine:

Zipolite means “beach of the Dead Ones”. It’s a magic place. Since ancient times it was visited by the Zapotecans, inhabitants of the high plains of the Oaxacan Valleys, who turned it into a tourist attraction and a ritual site. Afterwards, during the sixties, it was discovered by young people from different nationalities, known as hippies at that time, who found in these beaches great enchantment living among the few native settlers that inhabilited the area. Thus, a town and a tourist development with very peculiar characteristics was originated.

A great interest for nature contact, a high appraisal to rustic and simple life, far from the artificial comfort of modern world, and a tendency for liberal habits brought down differences of races, beliefs, nationalities and languages which nowadays turned it into a place that is frequently visited all through the year by hundreds of young open minded people, from all over the world, who love nature, freedom and peace. Zipolite consists of around one hundred homes whose families rent rooms at very low costs, and offers a wide range of possibilities such as restaurants, bars, discotheques, stores and many other attractions to visitors which can be considered as a “very special adventure”.

Oaxaca

With Tropical Storm Frank threatening the Oaxacan coast, I decided to head inland to Oaxaca the city for a few days and come back after the rain. The road from Puerto Escondido to Oaxaca is one of the windiest I’ve ever been on. Almost eight hours on the road and I don’t think we travelled a straight stretch for more than half a kilometre at any one time. Oaxaca is a beautiful town which reminds me a lot of Antigua in Guatemala, although there's not as many tourists here.

I was incredibly weary when I arrived and spent the first couple of days resting, doing laundry and all that stuff. My first couple of nights were very quiet but then by night three I ventured up to the roof terrace to chat to some of the other travellers – a pretty good group here.

On Thursday I took some local buses to a couple of the local villages, Teotitlan and Mitla. Teotitlan specialises in the beautiful hand woven rugs which are exported all over the world. You can just go into people's houses and watch them work on their huge looms. David who worked at the public amenities, handing out toilet paper for 2 pesos, gave me his dad's address and said I should pop in there, which I did. Dad was a cute old man who looked about 85 years old. Unfortunately I didn't have a need for a rug as much as their work was beautiful. The town of Mitla had more embroidered clothes and other bits and pieces. Both towns were pretty quiet with just the locals going about their business.

Nick turned up on Friday morning and I’d bought tickets to a Bossa Nova concert at the theatre that night. We managed to get him a ticket even though the event was sold out. It was great, a beautiful theatre, a chilled out event with some great music. On the way there we got caught up in a street parade with huge papier mache dolls with people inside them, a marching band, dancing, fireworks and a large eyeball with something about glaucoma written on it. Interesting way to raise awareness for a medical concern…

Saturday morning Sophie, Chalise, Sam and I hit the big market for a hot chocolate and tried our hardest to find the artisans who only come in on a Saturday – that was to no avail so we had a beer instead. We had some evening drinks on the rooftop terrace before venturing out to a few bars later on.

Puerto Escondido

Arriving in Puerto Escondido was like arriving in Bali after escaping the Sydney winter.

I ended up spending four nights here which involved muchas fiestas – we were at the beach after all.

We had developed a tight knit group which included Lucy, Dan, Mike and Nick and over the few days we had a lot of fun together. Sipping margharitas in hammocks on the beach, swimming, surfing, gymnastics (well sort of), a pretty coastal walk, a cancelled fishing trip, card games, cooking, bars, clubs, karaoke and clothes swapping.

Monday was extremely sad when one by one, Dan, Lucy and Mike took night buses to their respective destinations. Nick and I, expecting a quiet night, ended up at a club dancing with some locals - déjà vu.

Time to leave in the morning…

Destination Mexico

After leaving the farm and craving conversation and maybe a little bit of technology, I got to the town of Huehuetenango where I was to meet up with Lucy and we'd head to Mexico the following day. Plan was to get there, check my emails after a week's absence, eat and maybe sit somewhere and drink a beer and read a book.

Well, it turned out that Huehue had no electricity when I got there at about noon. Magda, the lovely lady who ran the glamorous Hotel Central told me it would be back on at 4pm. We ended up with power out for the entire town until around midnight so it was another very boring day for me in the hotel room reading another book. There were no bars in the town and the central park was barricaded off so I couldn't even sit in the park and read. I was so happy when Lucy arrived in the evening when I'd just returned from buying some cheap wine so we could sip that out of plastic cups by candlelight and catch up on our last week.

Next day after eight modes of transport, we crossed the border into Mexico and arrived at San Cristobal De Las Casas, a lovely colonial town in the southern state of Chiapas. It is so nice to be in Mexico where everything is a little closer to the luxuries of home and my expectations for food quality are quite high. We pottered around San Cristobal for a couple of days and met some other backpackers who were quite good fun.

San Cristobal is up in the mountains so therefore it is rather chilly and it is still the rainy season here so each afternoon there is a huge downpour where the streets become rivers. My clumsiness combined with slippery surfaces is not ideal and I am starting to develop some spectacular bruises.

Anyways, we're very excited for the beach and are heading out to Puerto Escondido on the night bus tonight!