How did you do all that by yourself?

Every time I answered: "I went from Colombia down to Ecuador, and all the way through Peru and Bolivia down to Santiago in Chile. It took something like 2 months in total traveling mostly on buses" to someone asking me where I was, the next question that immediately comes is: "How did you do all that by yourself?"

And there I always think "huh, I never really felt alone and by myself, ok a few times maybe, but I have met so many people I have spent time traveling with" and "It didn't seem like very long and like I did a lot of distance, ok I spent 24hours consecutively in a bus once but that was ok, and "all that" like you say makes me feel I have done nothing"

Thinking about distances, I actually looked at a map when I came back home. It is not that I never looked at a map when I was traveling or planning my trip but it is different to look at it once you have done it and you know how slow buses were or how windy and hilly the roads are. So from the map I can say that I have covered roughly 8000 kilometers in buses, and 2000km by taking twice a plane (Quito-Cuenca in Ecuador, and Lima-Cuzco in Peru) in 2 months.

Too fast? It depends how you see it, some people (most backpackers..) will tell you that this is crazy, that you're rushing it and you don't have time to appreciate things or see everything. And I think that it is true. Most backpackers will take 6 months or even a year to do a similar trip. Many times I wished I could stay longer here or there, spend more time with nice people I have just met and not simply say that I have to take another bus further south the next day. But to me it was also a good occasion to discover countries. It a bit like taking a bite of each, and you come later to take full meal of the one(s) you liked the most. I think I will explain this more in details in another post.

To come back to the original topic of this post, I think that what amazes people when you say you have been traveling in South America for 2 months by yourself it that they think you had to do everything yourself without no one to help you: find a place to sleep every night, arrange transportation from city to city and country to country, and all that in countries that are far from being developed...

But you know what the more the countries are "developed" the more difficult it is to travel as a backpacker. You need to book in advance for trains or flights, you need to make a reservation for hotels/hostels to make sure you will have a place to sleep when you arrive, you need to show tons of papers to get a visa or rent a car, etc. AND it is expensive. In South America, in "non-developed" countries such as Bolivia like people see it, there is no need for all that.

You go to the bus terminal, ask when the next bus is leaving, "how much does it cost?" Too expensive? you just go to the next counter ask to the other bus company. You get your ticket, hop on the bus, spend a few hours looking at the landscapes, read your Lonely Planet about what there is to see in the city you're going to and look at the accommodation section, see the sun setting and the night coming darker and darker, and arrive in a new city. You ask to people around you where is a good, cheap hostel. Many of them are willing to answer or at least they don't to have this western-world look that says: "what do you want? I don't know you, i don't have time". You get to the hostel, ask if they have a room, how much it costs for a night, ask to have a look at it. It's fine, you take it, drop your bag and go wander around. In the hostel you find people to talk with or simply decide to go in town to eat something in the street. Easy, fun, AND cheap.

Ok this sounds easy but it really is :) For sure having a tourist guide such as the Lonely Planet helps. If you need one I would really recommend "South America on a shoestring". You have all south america countries in one book. Explanations are short and you find quickly what you need (what to see/to do, where to eat, where to sleep, how to move to/from there). It is very useful when you arrive at 11pm in town and you just wanna know where is a good hostel.

On the other hand it also formats your travel as you tend to do and see what the guide tells you do. Without such a guide and sufficient time I think you will have an even better and more authentic traveling experience as you rely on other travelers and locals' advices. You don't simply follow the backpackers' footprints and I think it is the only way to start to understand a bit the local culture by living with locals.

Now regarding planning such a trip in advance. What you need is: very little planning :p. The more flexible you are the more you can change your plans and follow people somewhere or go see something that wasn't written in your traveling guide.

Basically I had borders (I land in Bogota, Colombia on a specific date and I need to take my flight home in Santiago Chile two months and 8000km later) and I had things I wanted to do and see.

In the end "planning" gives:

-November, 11th, land Bogota 3:15pm, sleep at Alejandra's place

-November, 12th, visit Bogota, take bus to San Agustin

-November, 13th, visit San Agustin, take bus back to Bogota

-November 14th, take bus Manizales

-November 15th, visit Manizales

-November 16h, visit Manizales, climb Nevado del Ruiz

etc.

So I had this written on a piece paper for 2 months of traveling and that was it. I changed my plans many times, I also followed them perfectly for a few days some other times. In my case I needed to have a rough idea of how long it takes by bus to cover Bogota-Manizales for instance. On a map it is not so far (~500km) but in reality it takes 12hours so it is the kind of things you should do if you want to keep moving from place to place in a short period of time. I think that people that have 6months for such a trip don't even write down where they wanna be on what day. They just have a rough ideas of things they want to see (Salar de Uyuni, lake Titicaca, Cuzco, Macchu Pichu, etc.) and that's basically it.

Finally to answer to the "by myself" I actually LOVED it. You do what you really want without interferences of other. You feel like taking the bus now to go there, just do it. No need to see if others agree, if there is another places of everyone, etc. You get to talk more to locals because you have no one to talk to. And if you feel lonely you can still make friends or find traveling buddies in hostels or just while being on a bus. I am almost about to say that I liked it better than traveling with friends but I actually liked it differently.

One regret? There is one thing you can't do when you traveling alone: share your experiences like you would do with a good friend or talk about it ages later with your friend: "Hey you remember when we met those locals that invited us to a birthday party? That was crazy."