Home / Posts tagged 'travel mates'
Manu | 16 October 2012 | 4 comments

Sunset on the road

As you may already know at this stage I do love traveling alone.

When I decide to travel alone is most of the time not only by chance but it’s my choice, and the more I travel by myself the more I like it.

There are several points that make a solo travel something to aim for.

The day I arrived to Iceland, for the first time

First of all the preparation. It’s only about you. You decide when you take the ticket to go and when you go, you decide what to see, where to go, what to do and even at what time to wake up (always an important factor for me!).

One of the things I hate the most when I tell people I am going to go somewhere is the fact that I have a lot of candidates who wants to join. Fine, I don’t mind, but all of them they just say that, they just say they want to come with me, but then when I buy my ticket they always find an excuse not to get theirs. It happens all the time, and by now I have learned not to care of them anymore and not to wait for anybody. At the end if anybody really want to join he or she does it, without asking too much. I don’t like to waste my time for people I know they won’t come.

Sunrise, somewhere in the Patagonian Pampa

If at least once you have been traveling alone, you know it’s an experience that is unique and unforgettable. When you are out there, alone, you are much more open to the world

On the top of Cerro Campanario, in Bariloche, the most windy place ever been!

surrounding you and to your own self. You learn to listen to your inner voice, that makes you stronger. Your fears become your possibilities, as you know nobody is there with you and for you and the decisions you make are your own decisions.

If you haven’t done it yet I always suggest to do it at least once. It makes you grow and when you come back you know you are much stronger, and all the travels you are going to do after will seem so much easier. Solo traveling help the traveler that is in you to come out and to define your personality.

This doesn’t mean I dislike to travel with others. I don’t. It’s still great to share some steps together with friends outside the daily life, discovering something new and having some great time to remember forever. Traveling with others is a way to build amazing memories in a friendship. I love it, especially if you travel with people you have a strong connection with, it helps to make your link stronger and more special. I had some great trips with some great friends in my life, and now that I don’t share my daily life with them anymore, as my paths have gone far away from them, we both still remember that crazy time of fun and discovery together.

Yes, into the raibow!

Traveling alone is totally different. I have been asked often if I am not scared of going alone, if anything happens to me. Well, I am not anymore, but of course I must be twice careful with everything, and at this point I am used to that.

The first time I traveled alone was in Scotland, back in 2003. After that amazing trip in a country that I learn to discover little by little through its amazing people and landscape, I got such a strong connection with that land that I use to come back up there at least once a year. After that time, I went solo traveling lots of other times, including my 2 trips to Iceland in winter and the one to Patagonia.

At Dimmu Borgir, Iceland

In Patagonia for a moment I was afraid I was not gonna make it. It was when I discovered that the bus trip I had to take, from Buenos Aires to Bariloche, was going to last 22 hours. I took that bus and I was really afraid of how I would have faced such a long time alone on a bus by night, as the distance was huge, and I was literally in the middle of nowhere alone and with nobody knowing where I was. When I tried to fall asleep on that bus it was so weird. I didn’t know exactly where I was, I just new I was in the middle of the Pampa, far away from Buenos Aires, my starting point, and even more far away from my destination, Ushuaia. I felt sad and scared for a moment to do all this by myself, without even the possibility to communicate with anybody. That night there was a storm in the Pampa. The lightnings were shining on the desert, enlightening the shapes of that amazing places. Everything was dark and silent, and I could only see what was outside when the lightnings were shining in the sky. It was one of the most amazing moments in my life. Everything was so incredibly beautiful, even the darkness. I thought that moment was really like the life of everyone, dark and silent, until some lightnings shines on you. And even thought it is scary it’s actually in that moment you can clearly see where you are. That night, before I fell asleep, I realized how much I love this, how much I love that moment as well, the possibility I choose to have , to be in the middle of nowhere somewhere in Patagonia and how free it made me feel to be there, to make it by myself, no regret at all, no fear anymore, just the willing to keep going and arrive to the End of the World.

One of the many incredible sunsets I saw on the road

After that long trip everything became more possible and easier. I did some more, and even longer. From Bariloche to El Calafate I was on a bus for 28 hours no stop, but nothing mattered anymore. After that, even now, I am not scared of the distances anymore. Now 4 hours by bus or by train seem nothing to me anymore. And even going to the other side of the planet alone is just an incredible adventure rather than something to be scare of.

Traveling alone enhance your senses and your social attitude. As you are alone you are much more opened to the others and everyone, every conversation, every moment spent with people become an opportunity to discover something more and not being alone, every person met on the road while alone gain much value as he or she become someone to share a precious moment with, he or she become a mate, a company a precious value on your loneliness on the road.

At Ushuaia, the World’s End

I simply love it. I love being by myself when traveling, deciding the path to go, the destination, how to get there, the people to hang around with, and most of all enjoying the landscapes, both human and natural,and enjoying my feelings and the flow of emotions that always keep guiding my steps.

It seems weird but in a certain way when you travel alone you value much more the company you get. When you decide to do a travel together with someone you already know, a partner or a best friend, it usually finishes to be like an honeymoon, where especially if you are in two, you don’t meet anyone else outside your tiny and cozy group. When you travel alone you always find yourself sharing some great moments and memories with amazing people, an evening at the pub, in a hostel, with some you share some days together, with some others you keep going together with for a while, and most of the time you gain a friendship forever.

Along the road…

When you come back from a trip alone you come back much

In Isafjordur

strongerand sure and happy. I love the feeling of speaking about my trip slowly, I don’t have to keep talking about it with others if I don’t want. Most of the times I don’t know what to say about my trip on the first days I am back. I need to absorb it, to understand really where I went and what I made. I love the fact that in this process there is nobody to disturb me, as usually happens when you travels with others and you find each others talking for days only about all the things that happened. I love to remember slowly, to enjoy my memory, to grow with them and once I am ready, I finally start talking about it, trying to share some emotions that at an earlier stage would have been too amazing to mention. At that point, when I start realizing where I went watching a map of the world I get what they call saudaje of my condition on the road, of my freedom, and I think it’s the only way and time I really fall asleep always with a smile!