The Sleazy Life of Backpackers

It’s been some time since my last foray into the world of the backpacker and for good reason, I’m 37 years old. The last part of that description, ‘old’, being a relative term. However surrounded by 20 something’s on harsh budgets in foreign lands, it kind of seems a more correct terminology.

 

And that’s exactly where I found myself trying to kill some time before the bike arrives. It’s a place called Huacachina, billed as an oasis in the desert, a former holiday spot for the Peruvian elite. If the Peruvian authorities let me lose with their travel guide then I might make a few modifications to their descriptions. Never one to shy away from the brutal truth in advertising (and I know that two of my former employers read this blog)I might use phrases like past its prime, mildly void of morals and as being the source of demand for the ear-plug market.

 

But I don’t want to come across as too negative. There were some people clearly enjoying themselves, right up until around 3am just outside my room. And you couldn’t say it was expensive, for only $4 you could purchase yourself a very fulfilling portion of marijuana or cocaine from numerous cheerful young chaps on the streets.

 

And friendly! Everywhere I went I was asked to come in for a beer, a meal and even once for a root. Although I’m not sure about this last one, the young lass might have been offering me a flute; she was having some difficulty breathing through her nose.

 

And the setting was special, nestled within towering sand dunes carefully funnelling the towns rubbish into a distant valley. The centre piece however was a lagoon, an almost iridescent green, stagnant puddle quite possibly breeding the next amoeba life forms that will take over the earth once we have eradicated ourselves from it.

 

But I can’t help but think that the sleaze and contempt is nothing more than a reflection of the kind of itinerants that visit. Respect and effort towards host cultures and other travellers seems as thin on the ground as the joints for sale on the streets.

 

Or maybe I was right at the very beginning, I’m just old…….

[End Rant…]