Backpackers of South America

So recently we have been titled the “Champagne Backpackers” by a vagabond Spaniard, and I need to reflect on this:)

On our trip we have met a number of backpackers who travel across South America on buses, often taking 20-30-40 hours to get from one place to the other. In fact lot of them are measuring the length of the trip not in hours, but number of movies displayed:) I would love to experience the romanticism of such rides, we just don’t have the time to do so, as we have maximum one year to complete our trip and arrive back to Europe.

We have also met a number of people who arrive to a city without any idea where to sleep that night. For some reason recently we met a lot of lonely blond German girls doing so:) The most extreme case was a blondie, arriving to Salvador at midnight, speaking little Portuguese, no plans of whatsoever. Well, Salvador is not the safest place to be lost:) Nevertheless this kind of travelling is also fine, but again, we prefer to spend our time getting to know places instead of searching for places to lay our head day by day, therefor, whenever we can, we plan ahead.

Thirdly, we have also met a number of people who are saving all the money on food and lodgment, but willing to shell out large amounts of cash just to get drunken on any given night …to wonder next day if he drank too much or he was robbed:) This is a kind of travelling we try to avoid, and instead put those bucks somewhere else.

I have to say I admire those kind of “hippie” travellers, who put together just enough money to fly in and out, then completing a rich journey with budgets way smaller than ours. In fact, much more people should do that, …much more Hungarians should do that!