Backpacking and Great People

Back home here in Southwestern Ontario, I look over my shoulder out the window and observe what I have been avoiding for the past 17 days, snow and not only that, but the cold that came with it as I stepped off that plane coming from 29 degrees celsius to a whopping -29 degrees. Brrrrr. Now believe me I don’t expect any sympathy or deserve it, just the absolute shock is incredible. If your regular readers you saw that I managed to get out one post while travelling abroad and that was more or less a warm up to what the next 14 days had in store for me. Four more days after that last post I still travelled solo, which some people thought I was crazy to do in Mexico and I’ll tell ya at no point did I feel less safe than travelling in any big Canadian or American city, if anything I felt safer more relaxed and for the most part stress free and at peace. There is a lot to dive into during my travel, but the one thing that stood out me was my stays at the hostels I had booked.

I would by no means call myself a seasoned traveller, learning a lot through reading and YouTube videos. I have never considered myself a resort type guy either, more of an explorer, waking up every day and deciding my own agenda, grabbing my backpack and going for a wander, even if it led to nowhere. Staying at my second hostel of the trip in the beautiful beach town of Sayulita was a highlight of the trip. After getting off the bus, which cost 3 bucks for a 40 min ride, I grabbed a quick burrito and smoothie to quiet my rumbling tummy. It only took about 15 minutes to find the place, high on a hill, dogs and chickens greeting me at every quick rest stop, once upon the hill I made my way into the hostel. Entering the lobby I still had anxiety about being there alone and figure I’d probably be the lone 50 year old guy staying there. Thankfully I was wrong. The place itself was a very clean, welcoming and had a relaxing vibe about it, only downfall about seven flights of stairs to get to the bar, restaurant and pool, oh well.

I checked into my dorm and found myself on the top bunk this time, thinking back to my time as a kid I don’t think I was ever on the top, a first for everything I guess. I was told there would be a meet and greet at 8:30 p.m. that night for new people and games to take part in, awesome! I wandered about the town, grabbed a real dinner as I was famished and made my way down to the beach, along the way called into a bar for happy hour, I said I’d be back in a bit, I wanted to catch the sunset. This town was quite a bit more of a party place then where I started my journey in Punta Mita and from the short time being here knew this would be fun. I walked back up the strip and stopped at that bar, it was still empty, had a happy hour drink with the bartender and noticed a couple behind me pull out a cribbage board. “Canadians?” I asked. “Yes sir” they said, “Want to join us?” and the crib game was on. I talked with this couple for an hour when after falling behind (bad cards) I had to continue on my way back to the hostel for the night’s activities.

Climbing the daunting stairs finally brought my to the rooftop bar, where a table was set up for the new arrivals. We all took turns introducing ourselves, along with the reason we were travelling and what had brought us here. The anxiety I had initially felt as a first time solo traveller instantly disappeared, as more than half of the 20 people were on the same journey. Listening to people open up to complete strangers was so enlightening and the wide range in ages put me at further ease, along with a couple drinks helped. So many people were there because of the daily stress of life in Canada and the States, most had quit and walked away from their jobs because being happy and true to themselves was more important, regardless how we are trained to think up here. It’s so strange and yet so human to develop connections that can be so positive in such a short time, conversations carried on for awhile until game time. Beer pong was the activity of the night and being a 50 year old Canadian that’s right up my alley. I found myself a partner, another solo traveller from Alberta, figuring two Canadians as unstoppable, lol. Now this wasn’t true beer pong, trust me being a cancer patient I know my limits, for the most part. It was the game without all the drinking, well drink at your own discretion. First game, win, Second game, win. Third, another win and onto the finals and first place was 1000 Peso, nice. We played some young guys, by young I mean my kids age, I think they figured the money was theirs to take, but by the end of the game 500 peso was in my hand and other other half in my partner, Chris’s hand, Champions!

Needless to say the second stop of my backpacking adventure had started off about as good as it could get and those young men ended up being some of the guys I hung out with the most and we headed downtown and shared the winnings. Now everyone who took part in the meet and greet went out and it’s fun like I’ve never experienced before, when a group of people who really don’t know each other go and spend an evening talking, dancing and drinking, from many different countries and cultures and the only thing that arises from it is smiles, real conversations and good times. When you stand back and watch this in a country that’s supposed to be “dangerous” it brings with it a small sense of hope that the world we live in is still full of good, decent and very smart people, all of the opposite of what we read and watch nowadays on our phones and T.V’s.

I learned a lot on this trip about myself and people in general, so the next few posts I will break it all down. From the small amount of items I was able to get by on, the way I felt on the trip as a cancer patient to the cost..and once again not to judge a book by it’s cover. Most fellow travellers are looking for something, a break, new beginnings, to sort out grief. All it takes is to open your mouth and introduce yourself and the kindness and stories you hear will change the way you live and look at life. I wish I had filmed it, next time. Lot’s more to come, so I hope I can cheer you up during these next cold couple weeks.