When I was passing by Colombia’s coffee region few months ago I met an Indian guy who’s been to Colombia six times in the past ten years. He explained that he loves the country, and since he’s been there before he’s comfortable with the environment, knows where to stay and where to party.
To me it sounded absolutely absurd. There’s a ton of places in the world, so why keep coming back to the exact same one, especially so many times? Out of all the places I’ve been there’s very few that I’m interested in returning, and even those will have to wait until I see some what the rest of the world has to offer.
There’s a big difference between my friend and myself. My friend works full time and is only allowed a limited time off during the year. On the other hand, I can work wherever there’s a decent wifi connection. So I have absolutely no problem staying six months in Mexico or two years in Brazil. For my friend, short of resigning or getting fired, this would not be a possibility.
The flip side of this scenario is that when I visit a place, I usually stay until I’m really really done with the place. When I wake up and have no reason of getting out of bed; when the place ceases to have its magic is when I start messing around with Google Maps and planning my next destination.
I get asked a lot as to why I left Brazil if I liked it so much. I left it after it stopped making sense. I left it when my life needed deeper meaning than going to the beach, drinking and picking up girls. I left it on my own terms when I was ready and not when my boss needed me back to keep making him richer.
Now that I left, I have barely any desire to come back.
Even with knowing the place, the language, having close friends and a few girlfriends, my desire to return is very low. I felt I’ve done it all, experienced it all, and it was time to move on.
This open-ended travel strategy is not without its faults though. One disadvantage of having such wide flexibility is that laziness and procrastination set in. As of now I’ve been in Copenhagen for one and a half weeks and I barely seen any of the city as I’ve quickly settled into my working and training routine.
My other friend who travels on a whim every weekend to a random destination does so in a “work-hard/play-hard” methodology. That’s a bit difficult for me to employ because of a murky separation between work and pleasure when not having a time limit or deadline.
There different ways to skin a cat, and different ways to satisfy your curiosity of the world around us. One way is to keep coming back in bursts like the aforementioned Indian guy.
Another way is to travel slowly and thoroughly. Each one depends on your unique situation.
I’ve come to a point in my life where travel and living merge into one living and breathing experience. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.