20 reasons to go around the world
1. TO TAKE YOUR BODY TO THE LIMIT
Subjecting it to the 54ºC dry heat of the Nevada desert , or at more than 40º with the 95% humidity from the Colombian Caribbean . Cross Isla del Sol from end to end, at an altitude of 4,000 meters and with a 20 kilo backpack on your back. Or walk 15 kilometers with the same backpack against the merciless scourge of the Patagonian wind and rain, and its frigid temperatures. Not that you feel Bear Grylls, the last survivor. Is that you feel someone much harder . You feel like Bear Grylls cameraman . That anonymous person, who does everything the protagonist does, but with an image and sound team on his shoulder. And eating bologna sandwiches, no feces or rotting animal carcasses.
To take your body to the limit
two. TO EXPLORE YOUR OWN LIMITS IN GASTRONOMY
It is a strange feeling to remember your "I" that months ago said things like "I can't eat a steak if it's not well done" , while, starving, you take to your mouth the fetus of a bird, or the least greasy morsel from a bag of dog meat. I guess in some psychological circles you might call it hatred.
3. TO DO A WORK OF PROMOTION OF YOUR LAND
And in a much more efficient way than any political institution in charge of tourism. If all those to whom I sold their goodness suddenly come to visit me in Galicia, we will be in a position to counteract the effect of the much feared jump of all Chinese at the same time.
Four. TO BREAK THE RECORD OF PEOPLE WHO CAN ENTER A VEHICLE
In my case there were 21 in a 14-seater minivan.
Colombian buses: another way of understanding public transport
5. TO CONTRAST TOPICS
Will you be chased by a family in a van, between shotgun blasts and country music, if you sully a southern girl? Is there really that tension in the Thai night every time a girl approaches you, for fear of a delivery error by the parcel service? How comforting is a hug from a koala? These and many other questions will be resolved in a meridian way during your Tour of the World.
6. TO SELECT THE MOST HIGHLIGHTS OF YOUR COUNTRY AND PUT THEM UP IN FRONT OF THE WORLD ELITE
It was exciting to visit the Caribbean, Indonesian or Californian coasts , and compare its beaches with those of Galicia . Enjoy the Brazilian carnival, the Argentine joda, the Chilean reel or the night of Las Vegas, and measure them with the Galician troula. Or taste the Peruvian, Chinese or Indian cuisines, and equate them to the gastronomy of the land. I must say that in each of the three confrontations, Galicia shows that it is in a position to compete with the most contrasted examples.
7. TO BE A MILLIONAIRE FOR A DAY
Rarely in my life, if ever, will I pay for something with money worth a million. Even if it's in a currency as terribly undervalued as the Vietnamese dong . And even if what you are paying for is a tortuous bus ride between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. No matter. It's a million. you feel powerful.
Is a hug from a koala so comforting?
8. TO BE A REFERENCE FOR CONSULTATIONS
And have the last word in classic bar discussions Like, who would win, the Colombians or the Argentines? In fact, you didn't taste a single one. But we all have eyes. And what you don't know, you make up. Let's see who is the handsome one who dares to contradict you.
9. TO LEARN LANGUAGES
In addition to the classic "hello", "thank you" or "please", surely you, more decent and with more and better values than me, will learn from each language things like "how do I get to the museum?", or "Do you have vegetarian food?" I know how to toast in 17 languages.
10. TO BELIEVE YOURSELF THE MOST POWERFUL OF SUPERHEROES
After emerging unscathed from inside the Ijen volcano fleeing from a very thick cloud of smoke. After arriving alive at the shelter after hours swarming lost in the Tiger Leaping Gorge, in Li Jiang, the darkest night . Or even after traveling more than three thousand kilometers in five days hitchhiking to reach the end of the world by southern cone, Ushuaia . Once you accomplish these and other feats, you can't help but imagine the debate circles at the next Comic-Con, where the geeks will discuss who would win the fight, if you, or Conan with the cape of Superman and the belt of Batman . And Spiderman's spider sense.
Ijen volcano
eleven. TO FEEL AT HOME IN THE MIDDLE OF FOREIGN CULTURES
So alien that not even the universal language serves to communicate. Because yes, friends. The kindness of the human being is infinitely more powerful than his capacity for destruction.
12. TO LEARN TO VALUE THE CULTURAL DIVERSITY OF THE PLANET
There is nothing more beautiful than the infinite variety of cultures that exists throughout the world . Different ways of living. Different ways of communicating, of understanding their own realities and those of others, their differential fact . There are people who proudly uphold the motto that we are all equal. What a great fallacy. I could not agree more that we should all be equal in terms of rights, freedoms. Resources, possibilities. Something that, by the way, today is light-years away from being a reality. And walking away. Otherwise, We couldn't be more different. Wonderfully different. And it is that, as I am not tired of saying: each culture that disappears from the face of the Earth, humanity dies a little.
The beauty of cultural diversity
13. TO GO AROUND THE SKY OF THE WORLD
Fabulous to go from the firmament of the Northern Hemisphere to that of the Southern Hemisphere, and vice versa. I'm not lying to you when I tell you that I fear I have fallen in love with the little constellation of the Southern Cross. Nor will you lie when you say that, in addition to being a nerd, I am depraved, since the relationship between a man and a group of stars is impossible. No matter how much of a defender of free love he is.
14. TO FIND YOUR LITTLE CORNER OF THE PLANET IN WHICH YOU FEEL ATTRACTIVE
Are you paler than Iniesta with hypothermia? In the Amazon, for example, you will be little less than revered . Are you so hairy that Chewbacca looks metrosexual next to you? In the Far East you will stir up passions. Pachamama is so diverse, understanding and kind that she is able to find accommodation for even the most sordid, bizarre and misunderstood species.
fifteen. TO PUT YOURSELF IN THE SKIN OF THE CHARACTERS OF YOUR FAVORITE FILMS AND SERIES
The Friends building, the How I Met Your Mother bar, the _ Breaking Bad _ desert, the Baywatch beach, Hobbiton, the Hangover hostel… Although most of the time I spent in Matrix.
16. TO MAKE YOUR OWN CLASSIFICATION OF THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD
Personally, I think that leaving out the Temples of Angkor to include the Corcovado Christ, It's like refusing a date with Megan Fox on a paradisiacal beach and toasting with fruit juice from the manna tree, to go with Carmen de Mairena to a political rally in which the music is provided by Maná's most agonizing repertoire.
The desert in a caravan like 'Breaking Bad' (but without setbacks)
17. TO MEET NEW FAUNA
And I'm not just referring to Komodo dragons, Tasmanian devils, or sloths. I am also referring to little animals that we already have here , but that in certain locations on the planet take on another dimension. And I would like to place special emphasis on the concept of another dimension. Because I don't think that Iberian mosquitoes and those that fly over the Amazon can be considered the same species. The ones here bite. Those from there vacuum pack. Galician ants lift 50 times their weight. The Amazon women lift 50 times the weight of Iñaki Perurena.
18. TO EXPERIENCE THE PRICELESS SENSATION OF SPENDING A YEAR CONSTANTLY LEARNING
Every step you take is territory to discover. Every person you talk to was a perfect stranger up until that point. Every language you hear, every bite you taste, every landscape you look at. Everything is new. Not even the oldest contestant on Saber Y Ganar. Not Johny 5, the Short Circuit robot. N no one can reach such a rate of learning. It's brutal.
On a trip around the world you don't stop learning
19. TO RECOVER FAITH IN HUMANITY
Because the one who gives the most is the one who has the least. And as we know, the vast majority of the world's population has very little. If possible.
twenty. IN DEFINITIVE: TO FULFILL THE DREAM OF YOUR LIFE
At least mine was . Twenty reasons to go around the world. As if you ask me twenty thousand . The problem will be space, not a lack of ideas. What would cost me more work would be to think of one not to do it. Perhaps so as not to suffer an error in the delivery by the parcel service in the Thai night… No, not even that. As I say in reason No. 18, you learn from everything. Travel, fools!
- Adrián Alvarellos went around the world accompanied by Pablo Cons, leaving Madrid in February 2012 for Brazil. These two people from Vigo reflected on their journey in this blog looking for their seven Magic Balls.
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Travel, fools, TRAVEL!