There is only a month to go before I leave for South
America, yet I haven’t worked out the details of the trip. I haven’t even
finalized the itinerary. There are so many reservations and bookings that I have
to make and transportation routes that I have to study. How did I let it come
to this? Perhaps we should just wing it this
time: be more spontaneous, adapt as we go, and not plan anything in advance.
Why do I insist on traveling independently when we could go
for one of those guided tours that would organize everything for us? We could simply
be chauffeured all around the continent instead of going through the trouble of
finding and booking hotel rooms, buses, and flights, haggling with cab drivers,
dealing with touts, and making our way through countries where English is not
that widely spoken. The convenience organized tours guarantee is very tempting,
I admit, but I’d always choose freedom over ease. When we travel on our own, we can choose where
to go, how to go, when to go, and when to leave. Why spend time going through
the same sites and the same route most groups go to when we can skip all of those
and spend our time in a small village that we like and do nothing? Traveling
independently would give us more opportunities to get a feel for the local
culture. And I’d surely get a chance to practice my Spanish too.