After going around the world you are not the same, you are your best you!
1. PATIENCE
If you're one of those people who can't stand queuing or you go up the wall just thinking about your mobile data and YouTube... relax, traveling will help you develop your patience: it will be your best ally when you face the scoundrels that await you en route . “I have discovered that, traveling, all problems are solved by sitting down and waiting”, explains Fabián C. Barrio, a traveler who has crossed more than eighty countries on two wheels. What if a policeman asks us for a bribe? “I always act the same: I sit and wait; sooner or later he will let you go , well because you wear out his patience, good because his shift is over and he wants to go eat ”, adds Barrio, author of books such as Inhabitant of the asphalt or The best motorcycle routes around the world.
Fabián C. Barrio's motorcycle on Moyale Road: the toughest track
two. IMPROVISATION
First of all great trip you can be tempted to organize every detail of transport, book accommodation and plan meals, but this way you will only stumble upon what you expect. “When I started to improvise, the trip enveloped me and the nomadic life caught me: At first I did not trust one hundred percent that I would be able to make quick decisions , but as the days, weeks and months passed, the magic appeared to stay”, describes Jorge Sierra, a globetrotter who crossed the globe for four years in an original, repaired and prepared Citroën 2CV, his Naranjito.
When Jorge Sierra released the compass from him, the places chosen to sleep far exceeded the initial ones , the improvised meals were suddenly out of the tourist and the people with whom he passed in the small towns without names ("those that do not appear on the maps", he says) , suddenly became "my best friends, in my brothers, in my guardian angels...”, explains the Galician. His superpower had a secondary effect : “I realized that life as I knew it had been designed for me by a society that barely knew me: suddenly I was aware that thanks to improvisation, once and for all, I was able to take life with both hands and, for the first time, to be as much master as possible of my destiny”, he says.
Jorge Sierra and his "Naranjito"
3. INSTINCT
There he is, crouched, buried by the comfortable routine: your instinct. Use it! “When he lived and worked in A Coruña, before leaving, he had never asked me if today's men and women have, need or use our instincts Sierra says. “But when I started my trip around the world, everything changed, suddenly it was a fundamental part of my person: trusting my instinct made me not trust those people whose look made me suspect ; that I got into some paths and not others, or that, for example, decided to cross one border and not another for no apparent reason ”, He remembers. A skill that made him stronger and more alert to "local hustlers who are always ready to fleece the unsuspecting tourist" and to complete his four-year adventure on the road.
Go with your instinct (yes, you have it)
Four. HAPPINESS
Get rid of the gray and that stale pose of "serious person and good professional". Repeat, as Neruda wrote in his Ode to Joy, "With you around the world!" Go home with a suitcase full of laughter, hilarious anecdotes and zero complexes. Joy is the superpower that traveler Toti Roger absorbed after years touring the world: “ I discovered how the smile is common in children : from tribes in Laos, to rural corners of China or the children in Saharawi refugee camps… they all show an impressive joy”, he recalls. And he puts it into practice: this early childhood education technician has founded nomadic smiles , a project with which he travels the world "spreading joy, both in places of social exclusion and in those that are not". Mario Benedetti already wrote it: defend joy as a trench, a principle, a flag, a destiny, a certainty and a right.
The traveler Toti Roger travels spreading joy with his project: Nomad Smiles
5. SIMPLIFICATION
“Start by carrying the minimum of the minimum in a backpack; Y at the end of the trip you will realize that there are many things that you have not used ”, explains the founder of nomadic smiles , Toti Roger. After more than ten years traveling and living in different continents, always follow the maxim of less is more : “the less you carry, the fewer things you will have to pay attention to: you will have fewer worries if you do not carry valuables and thus you will be able to keep an eye on yourself”. Technology included: “it is best to travel without a computer, without a telephone and return to the origins, to the nomads and recover that essence ”.
6. CONFIDENCE
Embrace the mantra of “everything will be alright” , with the conviction that, whatever happens, it will be so. This is what the travelers Andoni Rodelgo and Alice Goffart have verified after more than nine years touring the world by bicycle, even with their young children Maia and Unai. “We have been trapped in a port at more than 4000 meters with a lot of snow, we have suffered sandstorms in the middle of the desert, blizzards with hail that even caused damage when they hit us... in the end, there was always someone who helped us; in these extreme situations one comes out stronger and with a lot of confidence ”, explains Andoni. A trust that begins, according to Andoni, with a first step "you have to have the courage to say one day I'll leave everything and go on a trip without a destination or return date and, after closing the door at home, immerse myself in a wonderful world full of surprises, hospitality and humanity ”.
Alice and Andoni have published their experience in "The world by bike"
7. NON-FORMISM
Exploring the planet makes us more aware of the time and energy available to us; It forces us to choose, prioritize and achieve our goals. “ Traveling has led us to fight to pursue our dreams and not resign ourselves to living lives that we do not want. ”, he comments Paul Strubell , author together with Itziar Marcotegui , of the project A great trip . Now create your own manuals for globetrotters and organize the Days of the great trips to be masters of your time and choose your own path: "the self-knowledge that travel gives is the best tool to promote non-conformity".
8. MODESTY
Leaving the tourist circuit leaves us exposed to the elements: it confronts us with constant changes and contrasts, makes us more reflective, makes us equal to the other and makes us more humble. “We were going to sleep on the street and good old Ismael, without knowing any English, took us to his house , in a small town on the island of Borneo; everything that happened after there was a tremendous humbling : We have always wondered if the same thing could happen in our city or if we would ever have considered picking up someone so that they would not sleep on the street”, remember travelers Rubén Señor and Lucía Sánchez from something to remember .
Traveling wakes up your mind, on the go!
9. AWARENESS
Exposing yourself to inequalities can also make you grow a superpower that is often silenced by excuses: commitment. “What traveling around the world has taught us is to work to try to change things from our field (communication), which is the main objective of our blog: encourage other people to pursue and fulfill their travel dreams but above all to be able to see the good and the bad of each place (including our country) and try to enjoy the positive and that the negative does not harm us”, they explain Ruben and Lucia .
“We have discovered that there are certain things that cannot be controlled but that what yes we can control is the way we deal with them ”, they explain. Now they are much more positive and active: "it is not only about seeing the glass half full, but work to fill in the missing part ”, they sentence.
And you, what superpowers have you discovered while traveling?
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