Caribbean insights

Today I find myself in Taganga, Colombia. Not a great distance from Santa Marta or Tayrona National Park. All thanks to a revelation.

For the past week I have been mopping. Not entirely sure why, when life is pretty grand. Sweater weather? Check. Awesome food? Check. Museums? Check. Perhaps not everyone’s ideal, but for me I loved it. I loved heading out of my hostel in a random direction and seeing sights that perhaps no one cared to notice. The fly in the ointment was definitely my attitude.

It’s not that I am ungrateful for where I am or what I’m doing. But something about it seems wrong. I think some part of me has read one to many blogs about “seeing every country” or blah blah that makes me want to do that too. But inherently, that’s not who I am. I don’t want to “go” to a country merely to cross it off of some list I have in my head. Instead I want to experience a place or just see a good majority of it anyway.

I can go to a hostel and eat good food in many a place. But will I have an opportunity to interact with the locals? Maybe. Last night I found myself talking to the receptionist/security guard at my hostel in Santa Marta about greed, corruption, governments, bad multinational companies, and life. It was inspiring and heartbreaking to hear that he felt the same way I did, yet had no idea how to rectify that.

And while it was a great conversation, at the same time he said something to me which seemed so innocent, yet for some reason had a profound impact on me.

 “Why do you want to go to Cuidad Perdida?”

And I had really didn’t have an answer for him. Sure it sounds cool to go on a 6 day trek to the Lost City (and based on the photos, it looks amazing), but at the end of the day is it really what I want to do? And the answer was no. It’s not because it wouldn’t be cool or amazing. But the truth is, I don’t feel like it’s what I really want to do/see/pay for.

What I do want to do is to go to Peru. So within the next 24 hours I hope to have a plan to get there. After all I have  roughly 74 days left to travel and I want to make the most of it where I really want to be.