5 Years on the Road

By RUBEN ARNAL

A five-year trip around the world through 145 countries and many other places that aren’t recognised as such by the United Nations. Hundreds of anecdotes that include deportations, time travel, rituals, nights spent at the police station, military escorts and encounters with wild animals and curious people. A chant dedicated to life, where you will also find lots of advice about transport, visas, accommodation, insurance, vaccines, safety and what to do in each country.

• Language: English
• Publisher: RUBEN ARNAL
• Release date: Apr 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9781071517239

Book preview

Chapter 2. My travelling story: past and future stages

This section might be a bit boring for those who know me well already, but I think that it may be essential for those readers who have found themselves with this book in their laps and have no idea who on Earth I am! To the former, I recommend you read this section quickly, maybe skip a few paragraphs or, even better, re-read my story and count yourselves lucky for having me in your lives!

When I was young I didn’t travel very much, only on the usual school trips or family holidays, but always within Spain. I was 16 when I went on my first proper trip abroad. It was with school and we left Valencia on a coach to Italy. On the way we visited Nice in France, and Monaco, and once in Italy, we visited the cities of Milan, Siena, Pisa, Venice and Rome. The trip lasted nine days, three of which we stayed in Rome, so you can imagine the pace of the trip. It was clearly a cultural trip, but at 16 years old you’re not really aware of what is happening around you or what the world can offer, and you’re much more concerned about your teenage angst or how to make more friends.

I remember my first flight was at 18, which could be considered quite old nowadays. My brother was on military service in Ibiza and in order to get to a cousin’s wedding on time we flew from there back to Valencia. The journey there was by boat, which was usual for our summer trips to the Balearic Islands from Valencia, or sometimes we would go via ferry to Denia, allowing us to take our family car and travel cheaper. We would normally go with some neighbours and we’d have an amazing time in the sun on the beach or enjoying the hotel activities.

Later on, I went on trips around Spain with friends in our own cars and also on a trip to Vienna and Prague by plane. I remember these trips being really fun and although we focused more on partying than sightseeing, I’m convinced that these trips marked the beginning of my future travel addiction.

At the time, the idea of tourism to remote locations didn’t appeal to Spanish people for economic and cultural reasons. Considering the expense of flights and the cost of living in other European countries and other continents and the fact that Spain has one of the lowest national incomes, foreign travel was out of reach for most low to middle class families. On top of that, Spanish people generally preferred to have a second house at the beach or in town rather than confronting another culture and I don’t even want to talk about the fear of confronting a foreign language! Luckily, all of this is now changing.

Nowadays you’ll find Spaniards in nearly every part of the world, whether they’re studying, working or travelling. The cost of flying has been slashed and almost of us have an itch to travel, even if it’s just to ‘say you’ve been there’ and to have your photo taken somewhere exotic.

The Erasmus and Leonardo grants, among others, have made travelling easier for young adults, allowing them to learn what it’s like to live in another country and deal with cultural differences. What’s more, the bombardment of TV programmes in Spain such as Españoles por el mundo (Spaniards around the World), Callejeros viajeros (Wandering Travellers), Planeta finite (It’s A Small World), Dutifrí (Duty Free), Pekín express (Peking Express), Una familia en mi mochila (A Family In My Backpack), Pacífico (Pacific) or Espíritu salvaje (Wild Spirit) has made it easier for us to dare to explore the world, including with small children. I’ve met families, mainly from Northern Europe, travelling with babies or very small children to some of the most diverse places. In Myanmar, during a 12-hour boat ride I met a German couple with four small children backpacking their way around on a very tight budget, something which would truly require endless amounts of energy!

I can’t forget the hundreds of Spanish or foreign documentaries I’ve seen, nor the adventure programmes such as Al filo de lo Imposible (On The Verge Of The Impossible), or those by Jesús Calleja, some of which I’ve enjoyed and have been really inspired by. At one point, one of my friends even nicknamed me ‘Calleja’. Instead, the more endearing nicknames have stuck, like ‘Willy Fog’ or ‘Uncle Matt’ from Fraggle Rock. After I got back from my round-the-world trip my friends bought me a t-shirt with the Fraggle Rock logo as a gift as I would usually send a monthly email telling them about my adventures in the same way Gobo’s uncle would send postcards from ‘Outer Space’.

Nowadays another thing that encourages us to travel is the arrival of low-cost airlines and the extremely cheap bargains on package holidays or cruises offered by travel agencies. The cheap fare is not only about having the planes more time in the air, giving no food, flying with less fuel, not printing boarding passes or paying less airport tax, as passengers have to walk to their plane. These companies also receive millions of Euros through tenders and grants from local governments who are promised thousands of tourists from this way of flying each year.

However, while someone may be able to travel cheaply, the person next to him could be paying ten times more. If you buy your tickets first you probably get a better price, since the cheap seats are usually limited. Flexibility with time and destination is key for finding these bargains.

Everyone complains about this service, but I’m grateful that it’s there. In my opinion, the planes are always full and I don’t know anyone who has refused to travel with them, because the fares are always appealing. Also, in my case, I’ve had fewer issues such as delays and cancellations with these low-cost airlines than with the bigger companies.

During my last years at university and my first years of work, I dedicated practically every day of my holidays to travelling. Ryanair has revolutionised the market and my way of life up until now.

My first journey with this type of airline company was to London. I’d found out at the last minute that some colleagues were going to visit a mutual friend who was studying in England. There weren’t any Ryanair flights from Valencia in those days so we went in my car to Reus, Tarragona. Parking was free for those four days and the flight cost us less than €60. It was so cheap, I just couldn’t get my head around it! Later, I took flights to Stockholm, Frankfurt, Oslo, Dublin, Paris, Manchester, Amsterdam, Berlin, Malta with this and similar low-cost companies.

Another turning point for me was my trip to Malta. I remember being at work and seeing €1 outbound and €1 return flights so I bought them straightaway and later asked my boss if I could take a few days off. These prices are usually limited and can shoot up from one minute to the next. I then found out that sometimes companies use cookies to find out which flights you’re interested in and bump up the prices when you go back to search again. I think this practice is prohibited, but if you remove the cookies or perform a search from another IP address, you’ll get the original price back. Once I bought the tickets, I began looking for friends who would like to go on the trip with me, but a lot of people weren’t able to take holiday that easily. It was coming up to the date of departure and I had to decide whether to lose the flights or go alone, so I went alone.

One of the questions people usually ask you is ‘Who do you travel with?’ They’re usually surprised when I say that I travel alone. There are so many people who still don’t understand the advantages of travelling solo. It’s not for everyone, but more and more people have been converted to this way of travelling, especially for long trips. In the same way you can make lots of friends while travelling, there are also lots of friendships and relationships which have been affected by travelling together. Spending 24 hours a day together in sometimes difficult situations can bring out your best and worst sides. Without a doubt, going on holiday for two weeks isn’t the same as travelling for several months.

Everyone always mentions boredom and safety as the main reasons against travelling solo. ‘Do you not feel lonely?’ The truth is that because of my way of travelling I usually end up in backpacker hostels or sleeping in other people’s houses. I remember more moments in which I’ve actually wanted a little more privacy than when I’ve missed having someone to talk to. Also, I’m fairly independent and enjoy having time by myself to read a book, watch a film or work on my blog and social media pages.

Previously with Skype and emails, and nowadays with smartphones, WhatsApp and video calls, you can be in constant contact with the human race so you don’t have to feel so lonely. In fact, sometimes I’m grateful to go without Internet access so that I can switch off from my home country, because is that not also part of travelling?

It’s also easier to start a conversation with someone else if you travel alone than if you travel with others. People see you as more approachable if they see that you’re by yourself rather than having to interrupt your conversation or if you’re surrounded by a group of people.

Talking to people on the street can seem a little extreme, but on coaches, in hostels, on tours, while trekking or visiting tourist sites, it’s not so bad. If you’re in an area where there aren’t many tourists, the locals themselves might be interested in you! If they’re not, you can always try to letting your hair grow out and dying it blond to grab their attention (well, that worked for me, anyway!).

Asking someone to take a photo of you, asking someone where they’re from, coming across another foreigner on a local bus, or listening in on someone who speaks your own language can give rise to an interesting conversation and may even lead to you travelling with that person for a few days.

In Laos, on a three-day cycling-kayaking-hiking tour, I met a guy from Valladolid who was travelling with a German guy, who he’d in turn met in Vietnam. We three were all travelling in the same direction so I joined them for a week which ended in a leaving party in Vientiane. Afterwards, I carried on towards southern Laos, David returned to Thailand and Mark went to work in Australia. Our hostel would offer free vodka 24 hours a day and that night there was a special party held by Beerlao, the country’s main brand of beer, with free shows, t-shirts, sun glasses and other merchandise, so you can imagine how that night ended...

In Maseru, Lesotho, I met a Japanese guy at the coach station. We were both heading to the same hostel in Malealea and we were both carrying the same rucksack and tent. In the end, we travelled together for about ten days through Lesotho and South Africa. I didn’t always want to visit the places he had in mind, but I think it was worth us travelling together because he’d just come from travelling the entire west coast of Africa so he was able to tell me all the details and prices for where to obtain each visa and about transport and accommodation... I think it’s such a great idea for people to keep a notebook full of all this information and their expenses, so much so that I do the same. I really encourage this if you don’t already do this.

In Mozambique I also spent a few days travelling with a guy from Israel. In this case it was he who made more of an effort to travel along my route, since at the time he didn’t have a definite route in mind. Finally, he returned via South Africa while I ventured towards northern Mozambique.

As you can see, I also advocate the idea of travelling with others provided that a common route, budget and travelling style is shared and mutually agreed. Firstly, the route is the most obvious thing that needs arranging, although sometimes you say goodbye to someone only to see them again a little while later. For example, after our travels in Laos, I stayed with the guy from Valladolid for a few days in Thailand and we visited Ayutthaya together. I’ve also visited people who I’ve met during my travels in their own homes. Here, technology also plays a big role and makes it easier for us keep in touch and communicate: when I first started travelling it was email, then Facebook, and now WhatsApp.

Secondly, budget is the factor that often makes all the difference. It’s plausible that people who travel less prefer to sleep in cleaner and more comfortable places, eat in better places, stick to certain habits, spend more on certain activities or take a taxi now and then. But those who choose to travel on a strict budget have to make their money last for as long as possible. I accept the fact that I wouldn’t be able to go on a big trip with many of my best friends, but I’m sure I can adapt to a more luxurious lifestyle for a few days in order to enjoy their company!

If you travel as a couple or in a group, certain things will cost you less; normally you’ll save on transport or accommodation, especially in places where there aren’t any shared dorms. Likewise, it might be cheaper to share a taxi between four than getting the coach.

Lastly, the travelling style. There are some people who only want to party, wake up late, take two hours getting ready, take their time to eat, don’t like walking, can’t stand the heat or the cold or who never visit a single museum. The differences, as in any couple, can be huge. We’re not just talking about obvious things like only one person wanting to hitchhike and the other hating or fearing it. Luckily, there are people who are more cooperative and the fact that many travellers follow the same guidelines from the travel bible Lonely Planet makes it possible to still meet lots of travellers with your same concerns and travelling outlook.

For those who still aren’t ready to travel solo, there are lots of websites where you can find travel buddies. Or, if you have an open mind, I’m sure it’d be easier for you to join someone or a group who you meet along the way.

At the train station in Varanasi, India I met a couple of girls from Holland and Malaysia who were spending several weeks travelling together and had planned their journey online because they didn’t really want to travel through the country alone. Another Malaysian friend joined them for the last few days and by then I’d met Tomás, a guy from Argentina, at the train station in Khajuraho, so once we’d all met up, we found accommodation and planned a few visits of the city together. Later, I went with the Dutch lady to Nepal where we also met up with Tomás again and together we visited a few World Heritage Sites while the Malaysian girls spent their few last days travelling in India.

During a visit to the Salto del Ángel (Angel Falls), the highest waterfall in the world, there was a group of Russian guys who would not stop drinking. I don’t know how but they even took tonnes of bottles with them onto the small six-person plane that took us to the National Park, even though they were over the limit. I presumed that they were all together since they didn’t really talk to the rest of the group because of their limited English, but as soon as they were drunk, they offered us shots and rum and cokes.

Interestingly though, when the tour was over, I was approached by a young Russian guy who was going on to Caracas; he didn’t know any English or Spanish and was going around with a basic Russian-English dictionary, which obviously didn’t help him a lot in Venezuela! He got the coach with me to Caracas and once there I had to put him in a taxi to the airport, despite explaining to him that he could go by coach. The guy was in over his head, alone and repeating that he would never travel by himself again... There are different degrees to which you can experience things and it’s certainly true that some destinations can be too much for you if you’re not prepared, but communicative resources are available to you and with some effort you will more or less move forward.

Anyway, this off-topic detour was simply to explain how my first solo visit to Malta went. In my case, contrary to the Russian guy in Venezuela, everything turned out just fine: I spent less money than during any other trip and for the first time I got to know what it’s like to do whatever you like at any moment, although at the same time it’s always you who has to make the decisions, like when you live alone.

During the times when I was working, I balanced the cheap Ryanair flights with trips with friends and solidarity trips, which I’ll talk about later on in a section about different ways to travel.

Working morning or evening shifts in my department, either 8am-3pm or 2pm-9pm, meant that sometimes I could stretch my weekend out. For example, I could land on Monday morning and be working by the afternoon!

On the other hand, most of my colleagues preferred long holidays in the popular summer months of July and August, which made it easier for me to take days off outside of the typical holiday seasons during the summer, Easter Week or Christmas.

Having 25 days holiday available, plus some extra for working public holidays, many of which would fall mid-week, mean that I managed to accumulate a lot of 4- or 5-day weekends or periods of nine days using only five days’ holiday. I took several trips per year and people were wondering how it was possible for me to take so many vacation days: it’s called good planning! Gunner Garfors, 37, has been to every country in the world without ever having to quit his job, using his five weeks of holiday per year. Recently I’ve also read that a dentist based in Singapore has completed the 193 list alongside his regular work. Where there’s a will, there’s a way!

So along came 2009, which changed my way of seeing the world and in turn my life! From actively looking for a place to buy in Valencia, and even making an offer or two, to finding myself living in Peru in a children’s home for a year! If I’d bought a flat when flat prices were sky high, I’d have a mortgage for 40 years, meaning that I would be giving 70 to 80% of my salary away to mortgage and bills!

It’s true that in recent years the mortgage repossession system in Spain has been made easier, but certain formalities and money decisions can still be daunting. Each case is a case in itself and we obviously can’t generalise things, but the options are there. For example, you might like to give the house back to the bank and buy something cheaper, bigger or with better facilities, or rent out what you already own and live somewhere else (I’ll leave it up to you!).

The fact is that because of the financial crisis, we were told at work that there was one too many staff members in the risk department of my savings bank. Following the pattern of previous years, the department was shut down and we went from analyst work to being responsible for debt recovery. They were not going to fire anyone, just move them to another department or office. I talked about this to all of my colleagues, one by one, and no one was prepared for the effort of moving at this point if it wasn’t with a substantial change to their salary. The truth is that despite the bad situation we were comfortable in the department, with a good relationship between our analyst colleagues, business managers, and with the bosses.

Within the company there was an opportunity to take unpaid leave for a period of up to one year with the aim to volunteer or collaborate with an NGO or non-profit organisation. This could take place within Spain or abroad; it didn’t come with a salary, but your job was held in the same department until your return. I told my department heads that I would like to request this and, if they agreed, we could reassess the department’s situation when I returned. I discussed this with my HR department and they gave me the go ahead.

I felt very strongly that, if I was going to help other people, I had to go outside of Europe. Lots of people are in need in the Old Continent but many more are in need, and in different ways, in America, Africa or Asia.

Marta, a friend from Murcia who I’d met the previous year in Nicaragua during one of the solidarity trips which I mentioned earlier, was working with an association in Cusco, Peru for a few months after passing her Social Worker examination and before being assigned a job. My background is economics, having studied Administration and Business Management, not Social Work, but often willingness and interest in certain areas are what counts.

If the association agreed to accept me and process everything in record time, I’d even have the time to spend a few days there with my friend, which would make everything easier for me. She would be able to show me how everything worked, give me a comforting welcome to the country and pass the work on to me as I took over.

Finally, all the paperwork was sorted and a few days later I found myself in Peru with my backpack behind me and a year ahead of me! This was my first time in South America and I didn’t really know what I was going to find but luckily it worked out perfectly as Marta had waited until I arrived to see all the sights before she left. So, within my first ten days in the country I’d already been to Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca, Arequipa and the Nazca Lines. I also learned how the country functioned for tourists, foreigners living here and more importantly, how the association was run and what my home for the next year was going to be like.

In the next chapter I’ll explain my work in the home for those who are interested. Volunteering is another way to travel or to complement your travels. It’s a very enriching experience and I really recommend it.

As I’ve mentioned before, the experience changed my life. Suddenly I found myself living with children and families who were in danger of social exclusion or experiencing abandonment. This wasn’t just someone who I was watching on TV or who I’d met briefly. Through the home visits and others things that I saw in this country, I was shown poverty at first-hand.

What’s more, every three months I had to leave the country to renew my tourist visa. I took advantage of this opportunity to visit neighbouring countries with short trips to Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador and Brazil. On these 7- or 10-day trips, I started meeting travellers who were spending months travelling through South America. Besides discovering amazing places at ridiculous prices, my desire to explore the world and take longer trips (not only holiday-type trips of less than a month) was building.

My values and priorities were changing so, when I returned to Spain, instead of looking for a house with a swimming pool, I looked for something fairly basic and cheap which would let me be as independent as I pleased but without mortgaging 40 years of my life away! So, I bought a small flat in an old building on the fifth floor with no lift. As well as not costing me much, I also saved money from not needing any gym membership!

I re-joined my old department and worked for two more years at the same company, but the crisis wasn’t over, it was just getting worse. It was at this time that re-structuring and mergers started in the financial market. In my case, seven savings banks were joined together to make up one single bank. Offices which were very close to one another and other central service jobs overlapped and the whole workforce needed restructuring.

In record time, the unions and management negotiated certain conditions in order to reduce the number of employees without having to fire anyone so as not to tarnish their image or spread panic among their customers. Retiring at 55 was the most common way to do this, but they also offered early retirement buyouts, reductions to the working day and paid contract suspension.

For a period of three years which could be extended to five, you could collect 20% of your salary without working and at the end of that period you could re-join or receive the amount of money you would for a paid contract suspension (similar to a wrongful termination) by deducting the amount already paid during the previous years.

I asked for this, but it took them nearly a year to get back to me about this since it had to be accepted by both parties. A period of two years was kept aside for a reply, and at that time, with the amount of retirements in my area, they needed staff numbers in the offices. I worked for eight months, hoping for an answer. Little by little, they began to restructure the workforce and transfer workers to areas with those on leave, most of them to the Canary Islands or Andalucía, and others within the Valencian Community.

In the end, after much perseverance, I saw that they were going to re-open this process so I took the opportunity to put a request in. I had very clear plan and knew that I would dedicate this 3-year period exclusively to travelling. I made an ambitious itinerary in order to visit around 90 countries by the end of this period, a combination of countries I already knew as well as new ones.

To begin with I would go on a year-long round-the-world trip which would allow to me discover a large part of Asia, Australia and New Zealand. On another trip I would visit Central America and the countries in South America which I still had to visit. Another trip would take me to Eastern Europe and the countries in Western Europe which I still had yet to visit.

In the end, during these three years I went on the following journeys:

- Stage 1: A 3-month trip to South America. I returned to Cusco to visit the children’s home where I lived in 2009 and to lend a hand as much as I could for one month, then I went to Bolivia, Brazil and Venezuela (22/02/2012- 22/05/2012).

I’d already been to Bolivia in 2009 to see the more well known places, but after climbing up Kilimanjaro (5,985m) in Tanzania, I just couldn’t get the idea of climbing 6,000 metres out of my head, so on the way of Brazil I climbed up Huayna Potosi (6,088m) and visited Cochabamba and Santa Cruz. I spent one and half months in Brazil visiting the main sites and spent the last week in Venezuela, making the most of the cheaper flights from Caracas to Madrid. The highlight of the trip was Angel Falls, the highest waterfall in the world at 979m, but I left this country with more desire to explore and I knew that I would come back when I returned to the continent to visit The Guianas and Colombia.

-Stage 2: I went back to Spain for a friend’s wedding and a nephew’s communion and made the most of the trip back home to walk my first Camino de Santiago, along the French route. This involved 34 days walking 866km from Saint Jean Pied de Port, in France, arriving in Santiago and continuing on to Fisterra. I then took the opportunity to visit the city of Porto, in Portugal, since there was a return flight to Valencia which cost more or less the same as a flight from Santiago, only €25! (05/06/2012-13/07/2012).

-Stage 3: A 23-day trip to Greece, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania. Actually, it was more like a two-week trip with friends to Athens and the Mykonos Islands, Santorini and Crete but, as I had more free time, I flew to Thessalonica from Girona a few days before the trip on a cheaper flight and then met up with my friends in Athens. In terms of the buses and the overall stay, I spent the same amount of money as my friends, but I was also able to visit these two cities before they arrived and when they flew back from Athens I continued my journey for a few more days, visiting the capital cities of Bulgaria (Sofia), Macedonia (Skopje), and Albania (Tirana) (14/08/2012-05/09/2012).

-Stage 4: The long-awaited round-the-world trip! If I was doing this again, I wouldn’t do this exact same trip, nor would I buy the type of flight tickets I did, but at the time I thought it was a good option. I would’ve spent more time in Asia and Oceania, but I didn’t realise back then that I could extend my travelling time in order to travel more within those three years.

Later on, I’ll explain how these types of Round The World (RTW) plane tickets work and why I made the decision. In short, during this time I was able to visit all the countries which were my main priority, as my itinerary was: China, Macao, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, India, Nepal, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the United States (including Hawaii), Canada, the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic (02/10/2012-16/07/2013).

-Stage 5: It’s at this stage when you can appreciate how small and well-connected Europe is. In three months I visited 32 countries, and this includes the month when I found myself between Turkey and Iran. If you want to quickly tick countries off your visit list, this is definitely the continent for you. I went in Autumn/Winter and had Christmas set as my return date. I dedicated my time to exploring the capitals as well as a few extra cities in certain countries, but there are clearly countries that require much more exploring. I’d already been to some of these countries before and wanted to return to almost all of them. Iceland is the only European country left for me to visit, as I could not find the time to cross it off my list, but it was clear to me that when the time comes, I would need to take at least ten days to explore it (19/09/2013-20/12/2013).

I flew from Valencia to Bologna in Italy on another cheap flight and from there I didn’t take a single plane, using only buses, trains, and boats for the rest of my journey to: Italy, San Marino, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, Transnistria, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Slovakia, Hungary, Germany, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Belgium and France.

-Stage 6: Ten and a half months in America! During this stage I returned, similarly to back in 2012, to Peru for nearly a month to visit friends and to help out in the children’s home again. I also set my return date for Christmas, but if I hadn’t, I would’ve happily stayed and used more free time to visit other countries such as Colombia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico, where I also have some friends that I visited.

I would’ve also spent more time in most of the Caribbean Islands, enjoying the beaches, volcanoes, mountains and culture. I bought my flights fairly far in advance and without knowing what to visit on each Island. So, when planning my couchsurfing nights I opted for an average stay of around four to five days for the smaller islands and between one and two weeks for the larger islands. Accommodation isn’t cheap since the islands don’t have any particular infrastructure in place for backpackers. Prior to this, I thought that asking to stay for more than four days in someone else’s house would be mean outstaying my welcome, although I know cases in which people have later extended their stay to at least a month!

The countries I visited were: Cuba, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Saint Martin, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Martinique, Saint Lucia, Barbados, Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize and Mexico (09/02/2014-15/12/2014).

However, I should clarify that I prioritised visiting independent countries, although I also visited Puerto Rico, the Cayman Islands, Saint Martin and Martinique, which are territories of the United States, United Kingdom, France and the Netherlands, and France respectively. I would’ve love to have visited other islands such as Monserrat, Anguilla, Guadalupe, Bonaire and Curaçao, among others, but because of the time pressure and lack of infrastructure I decided against this.

For the same reason, I only went to Antigua, Saint Kitts, Saint Vincent and Trinidad, leaving out Barbuda, Nevis, the Grenadines and Tobago because of lack of time and because the prices shot up. The beaches were spectacular, but it got to a point in which my body needed something other than simply sun and sand. I believe that you can partake in this type of tourism at any age, but I don’t see myself climbing up volcanoes or other such activities in a few years’ time, so I would prefer to use up my physical strength and psychological resistance now, as you just don’t know what you’ll be like as you age.

I decided to fly after making sure that the flights were not that expensive, but this part of the world is full of people with their own boats sailing from island to island. I’m sure you can get free rides or trips in exchange for being part of the crew or helping with the cleaning and cooking, although you will need a lot more time for this. I contacted several people to ask if I could sleep on their boats, since some have joined the Couchsurfing network, but in the end, I slept on the island as the dates didn’t coincide.

Three years passed and I didn’t once get tired of travelling, so I decided to extend the (temporary) suspension of my contract for two more years. If I’d have known about this extension from the beginning, I would’ve planned my trips another way. But I didn’t feel too misguided because in some respects my aim was to visit as many countries as possible without the whole things turning into a simple ticking off exercise, but instead I wanted to be always on my way somewhere.

At this point two more years of travelling lay ahead of me and I didn’t want to lose any time because I was also trying to stay on the road for as many days as possible! This wasn’t an overnight decision: in my head, I’d already been planning new itineraries for the past year.

-Stage 7: A 5-month trip visiting Italy, Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, Mongolia, China, North Korea, Tibet, South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, East Malaysia, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, the Seychelles, Réunion, Mauritius, Madagascar, Comoros and Kenya (04/03/2015-02/08/2015).

Despite the fact that I pretty much kept to the overall schedule of this trip, much like my previous trips, this was the most chaotic and improvised of all the trips I’ve been on! There were so many changes and uncertainties about the trip. Travel broadens the mind and because of this, even without you wanting it to, you can develop certain skills which can mean the world to you when you’re out of your comfort zone. Here are some examples of things that went wrong that I remember the most:

- I left home without a visa for Belarus (no embassy in Spain) but was able to get it at the airport when I landed, even though I almost wasn’t allowed to board the plane in Ukraine.

- I had booked a tour to visit Chernobyl but I couldn’t go due to a bomb threat in the reactor.

- My organised tour of North Korea was cancelled because of the Ebola outbreak, but in the end we were able to enter the country since they opened the borders a few days before my trip.

- I learned the day before going to the Mongolian embassy in Irkutsk (Russia) that I no longer needed a visa to enter, thus freeing up a few extra days in the country.

- I was under the impression that I could get a permit to enter Tibet simply by paying a fee when I arrived in China. The same day, after practically dismissing everyone who told me that I’d need at least two weeks to get the permit, I was able to get it through an online agency, and that way I had everything ready on my return from the nine-day North Korea tour.

- I organised my whole China tour by purchasing seven train tickets and booking six hostels all in a single day once I arrived in Beijing!

- I changed my pre-planned Pacific Islands route to another, totally improvised, African islands route by planning it from one day to the next and buying a total of 16 flights within a couple of days while in China simply because I couldn’t find cheap enough flights for my first trip option to the Pacific.

- With the money ready to climb up Mount Kinabalu in Borneo, I saw part of the mountain collapse before me because of an earthquake, which caused two deaths at the summit. The climbs were cancelled so from having to sleep at 4,000 metres, I found myself spending a night sleeping at sea level and washing myself on the beach.

- Three of my flights were cancelled in one week and I had to alter my stays in the Maldives and the Seychelles at the last minute, having already contacted the couchsurfers and booked a room through Airbnb.

- When I arrived at the airport, I found out that my flight from Réunion to Mauritius was delayed by half a day so I had to get in touch with my couchsurfer who was waiting for me and then ask for compensation from the airline. If these kinds of things happen, at least you can get some free food out of them. Nothing ventured, nothing gained!

- When I was on an island off Madagascar which was a day’s travel from the capital, and with a flight to catch from the capital the following day, they cancelled the boats which connected my island with the main island. We eventually had to find another way to get there, which deserves more explanation later on in the book!

- The airport in Madagascar was closed for several days due to a staff strike. I only found this out once I arrived at the airport and despite the fact that they didn’t know when they could get me another flight, I managed to fly the following day to Comoros.

As you can see, the unexpected can occur at any moment, but there’s always a way around it. And rather than becoming really paranoid and having a plan B for every situation, instead a positive attitude can help you to know how to react quickly when faced with any problems which arise. Having a good amount of time to deal with it obviously helps a lot, but in case not everything goes 100% according to plan, you have to know how to accept it and move on. Sometimes it will be something that’s unavoidably bad, but sometimes it becomes a new opportunity that adds a touch of adventure and sense of freedom to the journey.

-Stage 8: A 16-day trip to Italy (13/08/2015-28/08/2015). I again planned my return from a previous trip to attend a wedding of some friends in Italy and to go to a music festival. The wedding was in Caserta, but by taking advantage of the fact that Valencia is well connected with various Italian cities, I planned my trip so I could spend a few days beforehand with friends and extend my trip by revisiting the cities I visited on my previous school trip 20 years before, as well as some new cities. For less than €100 I flew to Rome and returned to Valencia from Venice. I visited Rome, Ostia, Herculaneum, Portici, Pompeii, Sorrento, Caserta, Florence, Prato, Verona, Padua and Venice. I love this country and am always in the mood to visit again!

-Stage 9: My second route of the Camino de Santiago, this time the Northern route along the coast. 37 days walking from Irún to Santiago de Compostela, 823km (07/09/2015-15/10/2015).

-Stage 10: A month and a half in the Eurasian, or Central Asian, area (03/11/2015-17/12/2015). In the end I could only visit four of the five countries that I wanted to see due to lack of time, because there were no entry visas available during the week that I’d planned to visit Turkmenistan. Luckily, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are now exempt from visas so we only need to get them for Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. One great attraction of these countries is the countryside and the mountains, so I recommend visiting this area in spring or summer because in winter they may close some roads and routes because of the snow. I decided not to do certain things due to the lack of time because I want to go back to Valencia for Christmas and because it was cold, which made it impossible or really expensive to visit certain places! But of course, I really enjoyed this part of the world, which attracts less tourists than others, and overall it wasn’t as complicated as I initially imagined.

-Stage 11: Seven and a half months visiting the east coast of Africa and the Arabic Peninsula. A total of 28 countries, which would’ve been 29 or 30 if I’d have included Kenya, which I visited the previous year from Madagascar, and Egypt, where I went in 2007 with an organised tour from Spain. The 28 countries were: South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Burundi, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somaliland, Djibouti, Sudan, Oman, United Arab Emirates, Eritrea, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon and Jordan (02/02/2016-16/09/2016).

I would’ve gladly added Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia onto the list, but the open war within the first three and the difficulty in securing a visa for the latter made their visits impossible.

I have to say that the first few months of this trip flew by and I really enjoyed it. Cut after Malawi it became complicated in terms of obtaining visas, having to buy a lot of flights, organising the tours of countries like Eritrea and DR Congo and the intense search for couchsurfers in certain countries because accommodation was priced beyond my budget. This uncertainty often made me anxious and weary but now looking back, it makes me even prouder to have achieved my goals and that I can say that I’ve been to each and every country along the African east coast, something which I never would’ve imagined as I left home.

-Stage 12: The third route of the Camino de Santiago, the Primitive Way. 12 days walking 343km, leaving from Oviedo and arriving in Santiago de Compostela (20/09/2016-06/10/2016). As I had a few extra days before my return flight I visited the cities of Vigo and A Coruña and walked a stage of the English Camino, which I completed in 2017.

-Stage 13: A 9-day trip to Algeria (29/10/2016-06/11/2016). When I found out that they had opened a boat route from Valencia to Algiers, I saw a wonderful opportunity to visit this country and its neighbour, Tunisia. I was still on the Camino de Santiago when I began to look at tickets and the country. The boat tickets were not as cheap as I was expecting, but I found an offer and immediately bought a return ticket from Algiers to Valencia for €4.99. And that’s not a spelling error. It cost me less than €5! Although I had to pay the usual fee for paying with card, which was €5, so I bought the trip for €9.99. Obtaining a visa wasn’t as simple and as they only gave me a single entry visa, the return flights from Tunisia being fairly expensive, I decided to also go back from Algiers, although this time the return trip cost me some €50. That’s really expensive, right?!

-Stage 14: A week-long trip to Tenerife. Cheap flights from Valencia and car hire and free accommodation (I slept in the car) for the entire trip, during which I was able to do a round trip of the island and go up Mount Teide, the highest mountain in Spain at 3,718m (19/11/2016-26/11/2016).

And here came the moment of truth! Either I went back to my previous job after five years or extend my trips and other concerns until my financial situation would allow me to!

The financial sector isn’t my passion and I complain about many aspects of it. I didn’t start working at the savings bank for vocational reasons, but mainly to be part of a big company with the potential to evolve and also to work for intense periods which would then allow me to have more free time for the aspects of my life which are really fulfilling and dignifying.

I was comfortable in central services, performing a much more administrative role, but I didn’t want to develop a commercial profile based on products that I didn’t believe in and be pressured into meeting monthly or annual targets. With practically all the central services departments being based in Madrid, I was sure to simply end up in an office performing business-related tasks or extremely repetitive work in a savings role.

In the future I’d like to focus my professional career on something related to social work and I wouldn’t mind doing less qualified work for it. I know that I’ve been lucky with everything I’ve seen and experienced. Work opportunities will always exist here or elsewhere, so I do not really worry about these kinds of things nowadays.

The willingness of my parents to help me in case I needed it and the fact that my flat was rented out helped me make the decision. If I returned to work, I’d be returning to a mortgage, electricity and water payments, leaving me with just half my salary! On the other hand, this would prevent me from collecting part of the compensation which was owed to me so in the time it’s taken me to write these few pages, I’ve also told the company that I’m not coming back. Carpe Diem!

People usually ask me, ‘what’s left for you to see?’ The simple answer is ‘50 countries’! But actually, I’d like to go back and see many countries again, although not the same places. I’ve only ever returned to a few countries, but in each case it’s usually been for the people, to see someone or out of necessity when I’ve had to pass through on the way to somewhere else.

The more you travel, the more places you discover that you have to go to, so the travel list gets bigger rather than smaller. For every place you cross off the list you’ll add ten more. You would probably have to dedicate your whole life to travelling in order to see everything. As I also have other things going on in my life, I consider it impossible. There was a point when I even felt anxious to visit certain places, but now with what I’ve visited and with my way of thinking, I’ve calmed down.

In a later paragraph you’ll appreciate this point more, as some people have dedicated themselves to sectioning out the world in regions in their attempt to work out who are the ‘most travelled’ people in the world, but, for example, think about the time that it would take you to visit all the 8,125 municipalities of Spain and to apply that to the whole world.... even just choosing the prettiest would be immeasurable.

There are many people who have described travelling as a drug or something addictive and as such we should take care and shouldn’t let it take over our entire lives.

The fact that during this time I was able to generate funds rather than just use my savings, with temporary work, book sales, photos, videos, or articles, dictated my future travels... I’m not short on travel projects, the most prominent of them being:

- A journey through the west coast of Africa from Morocco to South Africa, while attempting to visit all the possible countries.

- A visit to the Pacific Islands, or at least the independent countries: Papua, East-Timor, the Marshall and Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Micronesia, Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Nauru and Palau.

- A trip to Bangladesh, Bhutan and southern India.

- A trip to Iceland.

- Visit 50 states of the USA.

- Complete an intensive trip of Europe, visiting all of the possible World Heritage Sites, and all the most important natural parks, cities, and towns.

- I would also like to complete the different routes of the Camino de Santiago, including one from outside of Spain, and to do a least a section of the Via Francigena, which goes from Canterbury (England) to Rome. The Camí de Cavalls (‘horse’s route’) in Menorca, a route along the Galician coast, or somewhat less feasible in Japan, a route of 1,200km which passes 88 temples, called Shikoku Pilgrimage.

- For me, it wouldn’t be the end of the world to return to countries such as India, Nepal, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Mexico, New Zealand, Japan, China, Brazil, or Russia to see new places, but not so much to simply repeat the same journeys.

Those who have travelled the most usually have UNESCO World Heritage Sites on their visit list. I initially didn’t consider these but now I plan more itineraries based on the most important or accessible ones. If I could I’d visit all of them, but some are very remote or expensive to visit, so until teleportation is invented it’ll be impossible to visit them all!

As you can see, I don’t lack ambition or ideas but I have to admit that I do sometimes think about slowing down because travelling the way I do is exhausting. I’m aware that when the time comes, I’ll be prepared to throw in the towel. I’ve seen and done more things than a lot of people and although I’ve known myself to turn down certain things, at the moment I wouldn’t change what I’m doing. The point is to keep dreaming and to enjoy life as much as possible.

Right now, with no strict time limits, seeing as these three years became five, my future will be based on my energy and economic means. I hope that this book will help the ideas swimming around my head to materialise.

In terms of visiting every country in the world, it’s much less of a priority for me. In the end, no matter how much you’d like to adjust your budget, you must go with a large amount of money or, failing that, be prepared to invest a considerable amount of time looking for sponsorship. Of course, I would like to reach my goal of 180 countries in the next few years but, as I’ve said before, it isn’t a priority. I hope that in a few years the situation will have changed in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Chad, Niger and that countries such as Saudi Arabia and Turkmenistan will make it easier for tourists to enter. Only time will tell, but I must make it clear that I don’t intend to visit every country at all costs and that I have to consider my finances and my safety.

-Stage 15: The fourth and fifth routes of the Camino de Santiago. 67 days walking 1,427km. The Silver Way, from Cádiz to Santiago and the English Way, from Ferrol to Santiago and from Santiago to Fisterra and Muxía (27/03/2017-06/06/2017). At this point, I took the opportunity to join an awareness campaign for the Spanish NGO Manos Unidas (United Hands), founded 58 years ago. 98% of the staff are volunteers, that’s more than 5,000 volunteers, including me, and they have more than one thousand projects in 60 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America involving agriculture, social work, sanitation and women’s rights work. On my travels I visited nine local delegations, as well as the one in Valencia, out of a total of 71 in Spain. I went to visit groups in Cádiz, Jerez de la Frontera, Seville, Caceres, Salamanca, Zamora, Ourense, Santiago and Ferrol. We took the opportunity to organise local PR opportunities and interviews with the written press, radio and television, as well as using social media. The aim was to promote the annual campaign of EL MUNDO NO NECESITA MAS COMIDA, NECESITA MAS GENTE COMPROMETIDA (The World Doesn’t Need More Food, It Needs More Committed People) about food waste, in which a third of all global food produced is thrown away, that’s around 1,300 million tonnes. I don’t know the impact of our articles and radio and television programmes or the audiences that they drew in but my arrival in Santiago was viewed by more than 14,000 people on Facebook, which I’m very happy about and I’m glad to have done my bit to help.

On this journey, also, I took the opportunity to write a large part of this book in what were two very productive months. Apart from visiting beautiful places, practising languages and promoting the charity Manos Unidas, I can say that I also travelled across Spain, coast to coast, on foot.

I don’t know if we will see the next stages of my journey captured on paper one day, but I’m sure that I’ll publish them on my blog and Facebook, so I invite you to join me in experiencing the rest of the journey with me in real time.

Chapter 3. Volunteering: a consistent, sustainable and supportive type of tourism

3.1 My experience in Peru

In this chapter I’ll transcribe almost word-for-word what was published in 2009 on the intranet of the savings bank where I worked. There was also a campaign organised by colleagues for collecting school materials and funds. I later went back to volunteer at this same home in 2012 when I was no longer on unpaid leave in Spain and also in 2014, when I returned to America to visit the Caribbean islands and other places that I still had to visit in Central and South America, although on those two occasions I only stayed for about a month.

Hello everyone, my name is Rubén and I would like to tell you about my amazing experience this year working with a non-profit organisation as a volunteer.

Through my story I simply wish to introduce you to one of the many reasons why people are inspired to develop new ideas for creating or collaborating with these types of organisations and support people who need it most, whether it be through donations or volunteer work.

The organisation I worked with has set up a children’s home in Cusco, Peru. They act as a sort of last resort and believe that someday the children who come from environments in which their prospects are reduced to mere survival will become true professionals; that’s to say, that they will work towards their own futures thanks to adequate education and the correct emotional and psychological development.

The organisation was formed in 2006 by two Spanish women while they were spending a season working in other children’s homes in Cusco, together with a Peruvian psychologist who was also working in these homes.

These three collaborators, with the idea of creating a new home, contacted the local public prosecutor’s office to see which needs still needed to be met and which weren’t receiving enough support. With this, the project was developed, and currently welcomes in children between 2 and 12 years who are suffering from cases of ‘moral and material abandonment’.

The uniqueness of this project resides in the fact that while other homes claim to look after minors until they’re assigned a family or are adopted, this project works together with the parents so that during their time at the home the children won’t lose contact with their parents or