Sitting on a beach is perhaps the most stereotypical place to ‘find yourself’ but my experience was a little different. Yes it was a ‘tropical’ beach with white sand and clear warm waters in Mexico but it represented to me everything I didn’t want and everything I wanted to be free from.
Hundreds of burnt reality-escapees lazed around me, occasionally applying more suncream to their already damaged skin, talking little, taking selfies, drinking the latest craze and cooling off in the just as packed sea, over-heating sea.
And it was here that I had come at the end of my travels to relax and unwind one last time before heading back home. But I just couldn’t stop thinking back to the other places I had been. Places I had really felt free but hadn’t been able to appreciate it until now. Seeing how the other half live – I knew it wasn’t for me.
I’d gone to Central America to volunteer on a conservation project in the south of Costa Rica in a little place called Piro, an hour and a half bumpy collectivo ride from the nearest town. As you head down the road, away from the civilization, you soon lose phone signal, as the cables all disappear and the roads get less cared for and the houses turn to farms. This was the real side to the country – where ordinary people lived their ordinary lives that were so far away from my own. I spoke little of the language, I had turned up by myself and I felt alone and vulnerable but free. It was scary of course, but it was the only way to become a proper part of the local way of life.
From this place to the Cerro Negro volcano just outside Leon in Nicaragua I learnt a lot. It was a tough walk up, the path winding between rocks and craters and the wind was so strong at the top that you had to actually concentrate in order to not fall over. But once at the top you could look down across the remnants of previous eruptions and see the string of other volcanoes stretching far into the distance. In that moment you are shown how big the world is and how small you are. That can be too overwhelming for some. But for me, it reminded me that if I was small, so were my problems. That the life I lived at home was not everything, in fact to the people who would be wiped out should these volcanoes erupt – it was nothing at all. I realised right then I could do anything I wanted, and whether I succeeded or not, the world I watched from atop the volcano would continue just the same; so why not try?
Another city in my travels – Granada, Nicaragua, I sat upon a hostel roof looking out over the tiled roofs baking in the sun. I couldn’t see down to the street but I knew the people were there. I realised that I could have been anywhere just then. That all the unseen people were not so different really, everyone has these same thoughts and goals and basic human experiences and the lucky have the opportunity to do what they choose and if that’s the case, we should do it, even when it scares us. And if it all becomes too much for me, now that i’m back home. I will think back to those people on the beach, the people whose lives I didn’t want, and think back to the people of Costa Rica, living a simple but happy life. I will think back to what I felt on top of the Volcano and remember there is so much more than this moment, and everything can change in a second. I’ll remember that feeling and I remember I am free to live.
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Going to Central America? WSGT found these travel books and gear to help you prepare.
Central America on a Shoestring: Don’t have a lot of money but a travel lust? This is the perfect book to help you plan!
Spanish phrasebook: Learn some of the local lingo before you go.
