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#71
08-08-2007, 01:24 PM
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Re: Ask Cancuk about backpacking/independant travel.
Just discovered this thread. Good sh,it.
"In Peru: Northern Peru town of Mancara.. surfing town, awesome.. best beach I saw on the west coast of South America. Cool feel." I'm leaving for a town just south of Mancara, called Lobitos, at the end of next week. We're flying from Miami down to Guyaquil (sp?) and then taking the bus to mancara, then a cab down to Lobitos. my buddy's been there before and says the surfing is great but the people are uber-sketch. I plan on dressing like a bum and not bringing anything valuable other than my passport and our surfboards. Any other advice about staying safe? Do I need any vaccines? Any insight about the general area would be awesome. 
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#72
08-08-2007, 01:33 PM
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Re: Ask Cancuk about backpacking/independant travel.
[ QUOTE ]
Just discovered this thread. Good sh,it. "In Peru: Northern Peru town of Mancara.. surfing town, awesome.. best beach I saw on the west coast of South America. Cool feel." I'm leaving for a town just south of Mancara, called Lobitos, at the end of next week. We're flying from Miami down to Guyaquil (sp?) and then taking the bus to mancara, then a cab down to Lobitos. my buddy's been there before and says the surfing is great but the people are uber-sketch. I plan on dressing like a bum and not bringing anything valuable other than my passport and our surfboards. Any other advice about staying safe? Do I need any vaccines? Any insight about the general area would be awesome. [/ QUOTE ] Um, when I was in South America I didn't get any vaccines, but that's a pretty stupid thing to do. You should google to see what is recommended. Ya, just be careful with your stuff. Bring a couple of locks (pad lock and rope lock) and just be careful... but also don't worry about it to much so it ruins your whole trip.. I only stayed in Mancara in that part of Peru, so I can't comment on Lobitos. But Mancara wasn't really sketch at all. Good feel there: lots of backpackers, nice beaches, good partying.. lots of surfing as well... i'm sure you'll spend some time there. If you're in that area, you should go to Montanita, Ecuador. It's about 3 hours north of Guyaquil.. it's awesome. Surfing there too (not sure how good, I don't surf) but it's a sweet place. Go there for the full moon party, good times. a little bit more touristy than Mancara, but we were only there during Full Moon time, so that probably explains it. Have fun man.
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#73
08-08-2007, 01:58 PM
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Re: Ask Cancuk about backpacking/independant travel.
i don't understand people walking around with those gigantic backpacks. I think you can fit three or four people in there. Do you use one of those?
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#74
08-08-2007, 02:15 PM
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Re: Ask Cancuk about backpacking/independant travel.
[ QUOTE ]
i don't understand people walking around with those gigantic backpacks. I think you can fit three or four people in there. Do you use one of those? [/ QUOTE ] What don't you understand? I definitley use a backpack. I agree that most people bring way to much stuff, but I don't know what better way to carry things around for a full year would be better than a backpack. Suit case? Also, 4 people would have to be pretty small to fit in one of those.
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#75
08-08-2007, 02:58 PM
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Re: Ask Cancuk about backpacking/independant travel.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] i don't understand people walking around with those gigantic backpacks. I think you can fit three or four people in there. Do you use one of those? [/ QUOTE ] What don't you understand? [/ QUOTE ] Wtf it is that you guys have inside of there? Ive done some backpacking and I just used a regular sized backpack from high school. here is an example http://www.flickr.com/photos/ongaein2/90392395/ but the ones I see people with usually are bigger than this and go about a foot over their head.
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#76
08-08-2007, 03:05 PM
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Re: Ask Cancuk about backpacking/independant travel.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] i don't understand people walking around with those gigantic backpacks. I think you can fit three or four people in there. Do you use one of those? [/ QUOTE ] What don't you understand? [/ QUOTE ] Wtf it is that you guys have inside of there? Ive done some backpacking and I just used a regular sized backpack from high school. here is an example http://www.flickr.com/photos/ongaein2/90392395/ but the ones I see people with usually are bigger than this and go about a foot over their head. [/ QUOTE ] As I've said, a lot of people bring way to much [censored], but even sooo... think about any [censored] that you're going to want for a year.. or even 6 months, through multiple climates in lots of cases.. and then try nad put your whole life into a backpack.. there will probably be a lot of [censored].
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#77
08-08-2007, 03:12 PM
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Re: Ask Cancuk about backpacking/independant travel.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] i don't understand people walking around with those gigantic backpacks. I think you can fit three or four people in there. Do you use one of those? [/ QUOTE ] What don't you understand? [/ QUOTE ] Wtf it is that you guys have inside of there? Ive done some backpacking and I just used a regular sized backpack from high school. here is an example http://www.flickr.com/photos/ongaein2/90392395/ but the ones I see people with usually are bigger than this and go about a foot over their head. [/ QUOTE ] As I've said, a lot of people bring way to much [censored], but even sooo... think about any [censored] that you're going to want for a year.. or even 6 months, through multiple climates in lots of cases.. and then try nad put your whole life into a backpack.. there will probably be a lot of [censored]. [/ QUOTE ] this is another thing i don't get about backpackers. its like you guys want to visit as many places as possible in as little time as possible. i guess if you are short on money or going to college you don't have the time to stick around, but it seems like 2 things are missing from your travel experience 1. you have no contact with locals, because you are always leaving next week so you spend all your time with white people. 2. you are always going to be seeing the touristy sides of places. in my experience, you arrive in a destination and then it takes awhile to find all of the cool places that tourists don't know about - this again comes from making friends w/ locals or doing your own investigating which obviously takes more then 3 days. your statement about thailand being a tourist trap seem to highlight this. if you are a tourist, then of course its going to seem like a tourist trap. thats because you go where all the other tourists are going.
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#78
08-08-2007, 03:34 PM
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Re: Ask Cancuk about backpacking/independant travel.
What's so bad about going where tourists go? I mean, there has to be a reason all the tourists are going there... I do subscribe more to your line of thinking though, where I'd rather stay in one place for a while that is less "touristy" but that's b/c my main reason for traveling is to surf, and I'll sacrifice some safety/nightlife/touristy attractions to score quality, emptier waves.
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#79
08-08-2007, 03:53 PM
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Re: Ask Cancuk about backpacking/independant travel.
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] [ QUOTE ] i don't understand people walking around with those gigantic backpacks. I think you can fit three or four people in there. Do you use one of those? [/ QUOTE ] What don't you understand? [/ QUOTE ] Wtf it is that you guys have inside of there? Ive done some backpacking and I just used a regular sized backpack from high school. here is an example http://www.flickr.com/photos/ongaein2/90392395/ but the ones I see people with usually are bigger than this and go about a foot over their head. [/ QUOTE ] As I've said, a lot of people bring way to much [censored], but even sooo... think about any [censored] that you're going to want for a year.. or even 6 months, through multiple climates in lots of cases.. and then try nad put your whole life into a backpack.. there will probably be a lot of [censored]. [/ QUOTE ] this is another thing i don't get about backpackers. its like you guys want to visit as many places as possible in as little time as possible. i guess if you are short on money or going to college you don't have the time to stick around, but it seems like 2 things are missing from your travel experience 1. you have no contact with locals, because you are always leaving next week so you spend all your time with white people. 2. you are always going to be seeing the touristy sides of places. in my experience, you arrive in a destination and then it takes awhile to find all of the cool places that tourists don't know about - this again comes from making friends w/ locals or doing your own investigating which obviously takes more then 3 days. your statement about thailand being a tourist trap seem to highlight this. if you are a tourist, then of course its going to seem like a tourist trap. thats because you go where all the other tourists are going. [/ QUOTE ] I think both of these statements are pretty broad, blanket statements. I usually stay as long as I want in any place. If I like the "feel" of a place, i'll stay there for an extended period. If I dont, then i'll probably leave pretty quickly. I really try to find cool areas of places and very rarely go to any "tourist attractions" inless they're something I really want to see, or supposed to be "unmissable". Do I get out of one city as much as someone who lives there for a year? Of course not, but I get out as much as I want/can in the areas that I like and want to see. I don't think I ever called Thailand a "tourist trap", and if I did that's not really what I meant. I only spent about a month in Thailand, and the only places that I actually liked were Bangkok and Chang Mai, spending about 10 days in BK and a week in Chaing Mai. The thing I didn't like most about Thailand was the tourists/backpackers. It seemed to me like every backpacker was pretentious about all this "3rd World Travelling" they were doing here on Koh San Rd, and the "culture" they were getting by paying thai chicks to [censored] them. In the south I didn't have the time to find a secluded beach, and just went to Koh Pha Ngan for New Years/Full Moon. Again, I think you're making a broad statement saying we have no contact with locals. The whole idea of travelling is to experiance other cultures, atleast to me. What's the point of going somewhere like Thailand and eating banana pancakes the whole time? I'm not going to sit here and tell stories with examples, because that would look stupid, but this is certainly not true, atleast in my experiance.
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#80
08-08-2007, 04:16 PM
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Re: Ask Cancuk about backpacking/independant travel.
[ QUOTE ]
What's so bad about going where tourists go? I mean, there has to be a reason all the tourists are going there... I do subscribe more to your line of thinking though, where I'd rather stay in one place for a while that is less "touristy" but that's b/c my main reason for traveling is to surf, and I'll sacrifice some safety/nightlife/touristy attractions to score quality, emptier waves. [/ QUOTE ] I would say the majority of my travel are in areas that aren't popular tourist destinations. When you go the same place as everybody else, you don't really apprecaite/experiance the culture.... or what you're experianceing is a "westernized" version of the culture. See: Koh San Rd, Bangkok Thamel District, Kathmandu Plaza de Armas Area, Cuzco San Telmo, Buenos Aires etc.
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