What ethical travel looks like, and what to avoid.

How to make a good impression for the traveler that follows you.

Ive spent a number of years on the road and I have come across a few things that to me are important.

To travel, to shed the name tag, to become a soul in the tidal world. This is something that is not understood by your average vacationer.

I will risk a few things here.

• Making myself seem extremely arrogant.
• Poking at a lot of “travelers” soft spots.

When I went out on the road, I was guided by one simple rule.

Expose myself to new experiences and people in order to learn and grow..

I found a few things that are to be avoided if this is your goal for travel.

• Tourist traps
• Similar people
• Backpacker hostels.

Backpackers were too much like me. I didn't fully realize the harm of people that were too much like me, until I spent time with them. I was tired of the system I came from, I wanted to explore lands that were different, I wanted to feel like an explorer and when I would unite with someone similar, I ended up being dragged into those old “comfort habits” that pulled me away from my goals.

Backpackers, in general, are a breed of affluent young adults that go on a trip to another country. Generally, as a gap year, they “explore” the other countries' natural wonders, find general labor jobs with other backpackers, and live in low-cost hostels.

They move into a college dorm room, without the responsibility of classes.

This is all the experience some people want.

I get it, you had an expectation of what living in another country would be like, and its way too uncomfortable for you to expose yourself to the real country now that you know what its about. But, its so cheap, and the beach is nice, and you already have the money to spend, so, you'll just stay until the time you told your friends you’d stay here for is up.

And that's it. I saw it many times on the road. Kids in hostels that just got drunk, went on overpriced guided tours with other kids in the same situation and got shuttled around from hostel to hostel. They would share stories of the guy that asked them to buy the cheap bracelet every day for a week, how annoying it was, and how they just wish they didn't have to deal with it. The Instagram posts were about personal growth and development. But their life was about comfort and pleasure-seeking.

It hurt my heart, knowing that these people selling the bracelets on the beach were certainly annoying, but only because 1 out of 5 backpackers would pay exorbitant prices for cheap bracelets just to get them off their back. An ugly cycle. A cycle born from an unwillingness to challenge the paradigm.

In the backpackers defense, they at least came with some spark of an intention to go out and see the world. It is definitely more than most people do after high school and, even though they didn't push themselves too far out of their comfort zones, they did go on an adventure.

But, backpackers were just traps for me to become distracted from my initial goal, so, I had to keep walking.

Tourist Traps

If you are going on a vacation, or went on vacation, be honest about what you did. If you flew into Mexico, but only stayed in the resort, did you really go to Mexico?

I think a lot of people tend to lie to themselves, and the people around them. This is the rub, the part that really gets to me. Backpackers, Instagram stars, celebrities, glorify this sense of “world travel”, they make it seem like this lovely 5-star experience. It can be at times. But I think if it's that way all the time, you are missing some important reasons to travel.

It makes me feel underrecognized. unaffirmed. unimportant. “Ah yeah, I went to Mexico once.” The assumption is made and I am grouped into a category of vacationers that stay in Tulum, that little beach town that was cookie cut from California and placed in a Mexican coastal town.

Why fly halfway across the globe to have a similar experience to the one you could have at your local beach? And don't say because it's cheaper. Cheaper now, but more expensive for the planet, for the future generations, for your puppies, puppies.

“A few years ago, environmental group Germanwatch estimated that a single person taking one roundtrip flight from Germany to the Caribbean produces the same amount of damaging emissions as 80 average residents of Tanzania do in an entire year: around four metric tons of CO2.” Link

And what are you gaining from it? A couple of stories? It most likely wasn't as easy as a vacation to a resort in Miami. Maybe you didn't understand the people, maybe someone robbed you, maybe someone bothered you to buy something you didn't want. Isn't vacation meant to be relaxing/ enjoyed?

I guess it's all based, in a way, out of insecurity- out of a sense that we need to self-promote. A sense that we need to look good or exotic or we lose position and perhaps respect.

There is something interesting here, we want to look a certain way, we want to keep up with these hip ideas and stories, but we are not willing to actually experience them.

I guess we don't push ourselves to truly get out there because of the stories we've heard. Or because we don’t know the language, or because we want a comfortable room with AC at night.

Perhaps we aren't willing to push ourselves because they aren't our stories, because we aren't called to them. We just do it, because it's a cool thing to do.

There are more cost-effective and healthier ways to “up your status” and have a truly genuine experience.

Take a risk.

No one will really respect you if you go to some resort in Cancun anyway.

• Take a shot at couch surfing if you want to live cheaply.
• Search for an air bnb and stumble over your Spanish in a small Mexican town.
• Buy some delicious late-night tacos from a street vendor in the plaza.
• Have a conversation with a local family in the park.

Really, if you want to go to another country, go to the other country. Dont just go to some resort and tuck away behind a bunch of guides, translators, and resort bus drivers.

Live the experience and be open to learning from it!

I dont know exactly why I am being so preachy to all of you, my fine readers…

Maybe deep down, it's just so you can see the world from my eyes a bit more. Maybe because I want you to go out there, so you respect me. Maybe it's because I want to have something to vibe about with you.

Why I travel is a personal affair, just like it is for everyone. I guess today, I just feel a bit like expressing this jaded view I have towards certain styles of travelers.

I really care about the world, the people reading, the people that are mistreated by tourists at resorts, the people mistreated by hostile backpackers. I even have a slight bit of sympathy for those same aggressors who are stressed in a different land.

I saw myself looked at on the road in a way that made me feel like nothing more than dollar bills. I felt like I wasn't even a human. At times I felt like all that I had to give of myself was worthless. At other times, generally in far off untouched places, I felt like a king, like a blessing from the gods, like I was something special.

From these places I learned something. I learned to leave the place better than I found it. I think this is the root of it all. Being a traveler has a certain set of ethics that one should stand by. The biggest in my eye,

Leave the place better than you found it.

I was genuinely curious about the people and places I visited, but perhaps the people before me were only interested in the surf, or the nightlife, or where to buy weed.

I urge the next person who goes out on a trip to other lands, considers what they are doing by being over consumptive, by flaunting their wealth, by being rude. These actions make a huge difference. You are not on vacation in another country, you are an emissary of your motherland. Go, visit, be curious, but try and leave your baggage at the airport.

I spent a year riding around Mexico on a motorcycle and bicycle, and through all of that, I stumbled upon some amazing little places. I also learned how to travel, and I expect you do the same.

But you get to through my writing, not through hard earned experience, unless you want that of course.

This article is to share some of those hidden little gems and share some anecdotes, as to the touches that make them special.

If you know Mexico at all you will have heard of “Pueblo Magicos”, those lovely little “magic towns” that earned their name for good reason. I was consistently impressed with how these towns, with their charming brick roads and welcoming squares, cozied me up to a feeling of comfort.

What I deeply love about Mexico and this could be because I don't live there full time, is the feeling that I am really living.

The spicy chili salsas invigorating the mouth, the joking and jolly nature of the street vendors, the horses that trot down the city streets. Not to mention, the narcos lurking in plain sight, the edginess, the lawlessness, and the sense that you do have to be on your toes, but you can enjoy the simple senses of the vibrant world here.

The dry arid landscapes giving way to high mountain pine forests that give way to jungle in under 100 miles.

batopilas

real de catorce

Mazunte

san cristobal de las casas

mineral de monte