Author: Jack Hawks
In 1996, I and two friends undertook our first backpacking experience instead. We traveled from Costa Rica to Guatemala in 6 months. Originally we planned to travel for a year, but half way decided to do something more useful with our presence in Central America and applied for volunteer work in Honduras and Guatemala.
Most people, like they were in search of a real getaway. It would be rare to find someone to travel for less than 3 months. As a matter of fact, most people had begun in the north of the continent, or often in Mexico and planned to travel as far south as Peru or Patagonia. They are 8 months or more to do. The main reason for his trip was not much travel in itself, the majority of backpackers looking for a different lifestyle. Either that, or had already found a way of life they were seeking and has successfully be an adventurer, his way of life.
These adventurers had more time, then the money and were consciously escape the first world. The idea was to make a statement against modern life and travel to third world countries was a way to express their disagreement with the first hectic world.
Today, if you travel through Central America, is another type of backpacking. The adventurer has to work harder now to find the leak. He will have to travel to less accessible places just to avoid the holiday atmosphere in popular destinations in Central American countries today. Hiking and adventure tourism has grown more popular in the last 10 years. Now it’s common to take a vacation of 3 weeks or 2 to an exotic place like Guatemala.
This new adventure tourism is much less adventurous as our scouts 10 years ago. Not interested in leaving normal day everyday first world. He is just looking for an escape from everything. This adventure does not have the time to adapt to another style of life really, just wants a bit of it, a small snack.
The new adventure traveler is not really interested in knowing lifestyle of the Third World is not prepared to live like the locals around you in your travels. As if the world was a great museum that wants to be there and watch from a short distance. The consequence is that local restaurants and hotels must adjust their services to this new demand, even if it means losing their own culture. Although current demands travelers interested in other cultures, is very demanding to change their needs. A change in the culture bag is sad that leads to a change in the local culture of the third world.
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