Wil Gritten

For some reason my library mixes travel writing, travel guides and history of countries and regions all in together. I was taking a mooch about looking for nothing in particular when I spotted this amongst the other books. I picked it up and decided to read the blurb on the back, this turned out to be much harder than I had expected. The cover is a dark metallic blue and the blurb written in black but I managed to read enough that made this book seem like an interesting prospect.

Like many people I have a romantic image of traveling being all sunshine and delights. However the reality is often different. Don't get me wrong, I love traveling but it can get pretty stressful at times and it is often not until after the trip that I appreciate how much I enjoyed it. Perhaps I am just a bit odd like that. I expected this book to be full of the delights of traveling South America and thought it would make a nice 'reality escape' read.

However this isn't the glossy, wonderful travelogue that I had expected, it was so much more and so much better. Gritten tells the tale of being sick of travelers he meets along the way who are 'doing' traveling, ie seeing what you are expected to see and ticking them off your list. He wants to travel off the beaten path and meet the locals along the way, all of this fueled by drink, drugs and youthful exuberance.

At times he gets pretty low and things get pretty hairy. He described the numbing fear experienced when landing in a new country with no idea where to stay, how to speak the language or what to do. He knows by experience that pushing on will ease the fear until he can enjoy himself but this is never easy. There is also the beautiful friendships that are made along the way and the strain that this kind of travel can put on them. Along with the social tensions there is also the mental pressure and fatigue that comes along the way. This is where letting go can turn into losing it, something that many travel writers overlook.

This is a great read on the realities of traveling off the beaten path.… (más)