Last updated on April 6th, 2018
Why do people travel the world? Is it really just the travel bug?
“I never had to wait for a taxi in an airport,” Hennessy said. Originally, our Sunwing flight 772 was supposed to land in Panama City, but with the new Rio Hato Airport opening in the beginning of August, we landed in Playa Blanca. It was bit of an inconvenience. I’m just trying to travel the world.
We met a few minutes ago while waiting for a taxi. The blonde-hair, blue-eyed woman was heading to Panama City but needed to get to a bus stop first via taxi. I was going to Rancho Los Toros in San Carlos.
She backpacked through South America, Europe and Africa. I felt like a newbie traveller.
I’m listening to men of the Ngobe Buglé tribe play the accordion outside my room while I think about these questions in this Central American country.
Travellers live outside the norm. They avoid the stressful work-lives that plague the North American and European workforces. They avoid the all-inclusive resorts, stay in the city and stroll along the sidewalk while breathing in the surrounding culture and go to the local supermarket to make their meals. They photograph, take salsa lessons, volunteer, learn/teach languages, party, ski dive, surf, snowboard, hike, watch a soccer game, get annihilated by mosquitos, save endangered animals, fall in love, get heartbroken, and live.
There’s a thrill about the unexpected. That thrill is lived everyday traveling the world by nomads. Having a routine of working five days a week, going to the gym, then hitting the beach or the patio for drinks on weekends is routine, bland and average. If you’re happy with an average life, then that’s fine, but you will only have an average amount of happiness.
We don’t wait for life to send us a no-expiration gift card, we go out and live.
Is life really about working full-time until retirement? I don’t believe so. We need to be living now instead of living during retirement.
Approximately, the average person spends his/her time as follows:
⅓ Sleeping
⅓ Working, school, running errands, doing chores, being sick (ex. commuting, grocery shopping, brushing teeth)
Now you have one-third to actually live your life, bearing obstacles don’t get in the way. We need to be making the most of the spare time we have or make more spare time. This is what travellers realize, we only have a limited amount of time on this planet; they go out and live life by experiencing what Earth has to offer, not just the neighbourhood. You want to see, touch, smell, taste, hear and feel the world.
I love listening to a great story. This reminds me of the stories I heard while sitting around the camp fire with friends in Canada. This is one reason why people travel the world: travellers come with even more stories. Many of which will never be written, but only told. I write about my travel experiences but some of my best ones I have to take to the grave.
Ross works at the Ranch Los Toros and owns a few condos in Panama City. He’s semi-retired and graduated from Oklahoma State University (Go Cowboys).
Ross told me during the dry season the neighbour’s cows would come onto the ranch and eat anything that seemed edible. The grass is mostly brown during the dry season. One night the cows came onto the ranch and ate the corn. Ross forgot to put a guard against the fence. “Fuckers,” he said. “One night they went up to Brian and Rebecca’s house and ate all the dishwashing soap that was left outside. Brian looked through the peep hole and saw a cow looking back at him. He had to shoo away the cows.” I already miss Ross’ stories!
I find travellers enjoy life more. They look past the negatives in societies, make their own opinions instead of that of their peers or media, and the risks they take to travel the world is more rewarding than staying at home.
Raising a family is the challenging part and it’s not for everyone. I admire people working (hopefully less than more) for their families. Many travellers postpone having children due to financial and time-management reasons. Statistically (CNN) in the United States, it costs approximately $250,000 to raise one child to the age of 18. Children need to be in school 8 to 10 months a year; travelling with children will need to be done on holidays and during their vacation. Having a seasonal job, running a small-business or working from home would be beneficial in situations like this.
Travellers do a lot of freelance travel writing and blogging to earn an income. Working as a developer or graphic designer remotely is pretty big now. You may not become rich off this but you’ll be able to travel more.
There is no way to escape work. You need income, but be life-oriented instead of career-oriented. Try to make everything happen now instead of ten years from now. You don’t know if you’ll get a terminal illness or hit by a drunk driver. This is why people travel the world, now and often, to live now and not tomorrow.
With all the world has to offer, why only live it from one place.
Hola Parceros,
I’m the founder of Aperlust. I enjoy web development and SEO and am into snowboarding and linguistics. In my spare time, you can find me destroying my opponents in chess across the globe.
