vacation vs travel

I wrote this two days ago, but the computer that I was using crashed whenever I logged on to MovableType, so I'm just now posting it.

I'm in San Pedro de Atacama now, after spending 12 hours on a bus rolling through more of the Atacama desert. To be fair, I spent almost all of that time sleeping.

San Pedro de Atacama is a beautiful little town in the middle of the desert. It´s very laid back, and quite relaxing. I walked a little ways out of town earlier today and climbed up on a hill. All around me was sand and rocks, shimmering with the heat coming off of them. Behind me, though, was an island of green trees and cool water, with Linconbur (a 6000m volcano) in the background. It was quite beautiful.

Yesterday was a fun day. I saw Lord of the Rings in Arica, probably before most of my friends in the states. I really enjoyed it, though it was very strange to realize that I was sitting in Chile, 4000 miles from home (maybe), doing exactly the same thing that I'd be doing if I were in the states.

I was quite emotional when I left the movie. I don't know what name to attach to the emotion, exactly. It was an odd mixture of things, but it was overall quite positive. I had been fairly lonely in Arica, which resulted in a twinge of homesickness. Seeing the movie solved that homesickness -- it was like being home. It also made me feel somewhat lonely, watching how stong and how important the friendships in the movie were. When I walked out into the sun, all I could think was, "what a life!"

I started to realize that traveling is my life for now, and it's different from being on a vacation. Seeing Lord of the Rings was something that I would do at home, but that I wouldn´t normally do on vacation in another country -- I'd rather actually see the country. The thing is, that way of thinking creates a wall, separating home life from vacation life. There's a sense that soon the vacation will all be over and you will go back to things as they were before. With traveling, it's different. You are always home, or never home, but there is no "other life" to go back to. If I didn't see LotR in a foreign country, I wouldn't see it in the theater at all.

There are a lot of different things that get wrapped up in the distinction between traveling and vacation. I think the biggest thing is the perspective from which you view things. I can't yet put into words exactly what is different between the two different paradigms, but it's along the lines of "vacation is observation; traveling is interaction," but that's not quite right.

As I travel, I have no real schedule. No real obligations. I'm here to learn what I can, to teach what I can, and to enjoy what's around me. The same or similar could be said of any of my vacations, but I think that the traveling lifestyle has a much strong commitment to the ideals above. At least, it does for me.

I feel very different about the trip now than I did when I was just starting in Peru, and one of the main differences is this shift from vacation to traveling.

Anyway, that's what's been on my mind a bit over the past day or so. Perhaps its all just semantic nonsense, but I'm sticking by it for now.

I think I'll be here for at least another day or two, then keep on heading south. I want to get to a place where I can do some hiking / backpacking / camping.

Posted by vanwie at December 18, 2003 02:50 PM