Ten Tips for Traveling Solo

After reading the two remarks from readers about my safety, I thought I might write a little bit about being a solo woman traveler to those who may be thinking or dreaming of going someplace farther away than the next big city alone.

And I am sooooo appreciative of my reader's concerns... and it is because of those issues that I took this subject today and offer my Ten Tips for Tight-Assed Traveling... mostly for women, but men might find this helpful, too.

There is always a lot to see in a new city or country; take
time to do your research before going to enhance your trip.

First, I think it is essential if one is planning to travel solo anywhere, by car, plane, train, bus, ship or NASA moon rocket to have some kind of itinerary mapped out which is shared with several people who will be receiving your calls, text messages or e-mails along the route.

Second, an agreed-upon phrase to use which will indicate there is a problem and thus some kind of plan of action worked out. It is comforting to know that when you carry a cell phone it is like a homing device for the authorities. As long as it is on, it will "ping" various cell towers in range and you can be tracked in that way. (So if you plan to have an affair and don't wish to be found, leave the cell phone behind.)

Third step is to make plans so that when you arrive someplace you have a car, taxi, or hotel van ready to meet you after customs or baggage delivery. This is required if you arrive after dark! 

If you are driving on a trip (such as across the country as I have done more times than I care to discuss), make it a rule to stop before dark. If possible, call ahead to reserve a room. These places along highways are less security conscious, so if you are at all concerned and feel the room offered doesn’t provide the kind of security you want, ask to have it changed and that’s why you make sure you arrive before dark!

TIP: Those GPS systems are worth their weight in gold for finding the lost motel or hotel in a strange city in the dark!

I didn't take my own advice on this: After getting up very early in Florida on Thursday, I arrived in Bogota that night about 8 p.m. I was concerned that the hotel I had reserved for the night would not know my flight information and would not be at the airport for me because I couldn’t remember when I made my reservation on line if I had told them I was arriving by plane. Guess what? They must be psychic! They were there; I just didn’t know it. (More fool me... an American woman arriving in Bogota for one night is very likely to be arriving by plane. How did they know which one? Do you really think you are traveling incognito? That’s a fiction.)

But I got assistance from the nice folks at Avianca (airline I flew in on) to find out if there was a hotel shuttle - there was - and to help me locate the representative. The Avianca arrival location at Bogota's airport is away from the regular arrivals so that was another part of my concern. But my name was on their hotel list and they whisked me away and got me into my room by 9 p.m.

Most of the international modern hotels today are very secure and don't do such foolish things as hand over a key and announce in a loud voice, "Here you go, Miss, your room number is 1234 and it's the single room you asked for," as happened to me in Denmark 35 years ago, resulting in a room invasion. That's a story for another time and although I was married, I was traveling alone, going on ahead to wait for my husband.

In fact, arriving at a hotel in Bogota, Colombia is like arriving at a G-9 summit meeting with armed guards, police dogs and undercover agents watching as people move about the lobby.

Have a camera handy if you enjoy capturing light and colors as I do.

The Ar Hotel Salitre is brand new (open only three months), very modern and charming at the same time. There was live music in the bar, the staff is sharp and professional and helpful, and even though the airport is close and the hotel is in a busy section of the city, most noise from outside is greatly diffused. And the hotel food was delicious, which is more common than not, at least in Colombia.

Security is top notch, with guards at the entrance, a para-military structure is in place with a dog patrolling the entrance outside along with its keeper, and all the rooms are only accessed by a card and you must have the card to access the elevators and other facilities - they have a fabulous spa and 'soaking pool' for guests; something I will hope to enjoy during my next visit.

I have written about Bogota before, but if you want to get some of the details and see some photos (I am usually here for such a short time and usually arriving in the dark, so I don't get the best ones.), then please click on the link.

Fourth on the list: Have currency for the country you are going to visit in hand when you arrive. There is nothing more risky than having to get money changed upon arrival and there are LOTS of people watching you when you do this. Most of the larger and international banks can get you some initial funds (equivalent to $200 USD, let's say) for taxi rides or tipping or meals. I make it a point also, to have small bills in a small wallet for these purposes and never, never show larger bills from that wallet. I keep the larger bills in another location in my bag and when I go to the loo, I transfer what I think I will need into the small wallet.  This avoids any big display of money when getting in or out of cabs, vans, or busses when you are really at your most vulnerable to pick-pockets, etc. I also try to have a tip amount tucked away in a pocket so I can just reach for it, knowing ahead of time how much it is.

When buying souveniers, remember that most sellers do
not have change for large bills and you will draw
attention to yourself unnecessarily.

Fifth point: Savvy travelers (men or women) dress to impress or dress to be invisible. I have learned I am more comfortable dressing to blend in and also to be comfortable. Long flights in tights are in the past for me, thank goodness! I wear Patagonia ‘sweater-things’ with zippered pockets ensuring tip money won’t be easily removed or lost and they are wonderful in multiple temperature zones. I wear black pants with a bit of elasticity so they give and don’t show the dirt. Then when I arrive I don’t necessarily look like I’ve been put through a travel wringer, though I occasionally feel that way. The last aspect of this point is that when you travel and are comfortable with how you look and how you feel, you have an air of confidence that tends to put Sneaky Snakes (apologies to Tom T. Hall) off to look for more vulnerable hits.

Sixthly (just kidding): Take your jewelry with you to wear for that special event you are going to, but limit what you wear. I wear a pair of simple gold hoops, a band on each ring finger and a simple silver or gold pendant (sometimes). Although not married, the wedding ring finger band discourages unwanted conversations and the other band seems to add enough confusion that I just continue to do it.

Number Seven: Never, ever take more luggage than you can handle all by yourself! Depending where you arrive and when you arrive, there may not be any porters or other service people to assist you. So all that rolling stock, ladies, better be able to be stacked, wrapped, hoisted or heaved onto your existing bags or your back... and the new baggage rules are 50 pounds per bag - absolutely - no wiggle room. Avianca even limits the weight of the carry-on to 10 pounds now. Spend $7 at some department store and get the baggage weight thing that tells you how much your bag weighs. Oh, and weigh it as well if you are taking it with you.

TIP: If your trip requires more than one bag and more than one stopover, choose one bag to be the one you open at the hotel and leave the other one alone until you are at your destination. This ensures you don’t mess with the weight of each bag by packing and unpacking at all your stops along the way and also makes getting up and out the next day a little bit easier.

Eight down, two to go: Do not tell strangers your life story while standing in line or at the gate. You do not know who is going where and what their agenda is. If someone asks you where you are going or who you are going to see, just change the subject or ask them those same questions. BE PRIVATE. It is possible to be friendly and still be very private. If they persist, be courageous enough to tell them it is none of their business why you are traveling. I am sure I have offended some people by telling them that, but I also ensured that the Sneaky Snake farther back in the line was not going to find out my plans.

Ninth: After arriving, don’t let your guard down. Pay attention to the people around you. Listen to your intuition. Even if you are going to be in a hotel with a group, don’t forget that there are people watching you. Some are hired to do that by the hotel or facility, but there are others who are looking for a chance to improve their situation by messing up yours. This doesn’t mean you have to be paranoid about everything and fearful - not at all. It does mean that you make plans to do things with an eye to your own safety.

Remember: if you have an agreement to call someone upon arrival, please do what you agreed upon. When I was in the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, the biggest number of calls we dealt with were people who were called in, by concerned friends or relatives, as “missing” but they were actually those who failed to call in that they had arrived at their destination and were safe.   

Obviously... (amazingly not so obvious to some people) don’t leave jewelry, computers, other valuables like mp3 players lying around the hotel room... that’s why they have wall safes. Use them.

Last - Number Ten: The biggest reason for traveling alone is that you can sleep late if you want to, you can see what you want to see, you can stay as long as you want at the museum, have a massage or go shopping. There are a lot of joys to traveling alone. I met several really interesting people on my recent train and plane trips. I laughed, I enjoyed a meal with one of them, I got some good tips on new books to read and shared photographs of my travels with someone who is never going to be able to do what I am doing. She said, “I am not envious because I am too old for that. But you have made this old woman’s day of travel one she won’t forget. Thank you!”

That’s my reason for traveling... to share, to care, to listen, to talk and discuss, to learn something new, to have fun. I hope your next trip is successful and that you get out of it everything you expected and for those things that are not, may those surprises be wonderful memories.

Journey to the Coast

The trip from Barichara to San Gil was uneventful and after getting all the campo mud out from the undercarriage of the car at the car wash in San Gil, it seemed as if the old girl was considerably lighter on her “sneakers.”

After days of rain, it was pleasurable to see the sunshine and the trip to Bucaramanga was done in record time... just under two hours! The Chicamocha Canyon was vastly different from all the rain... all the cacti and other growing things were swelling and green and the Rio de Chicamocha was roaring down the canyon.

Just upon arrival in Buca, the rain started and followed me down the other side of the mesa. Due to the excessive amounts of rain, there were a number of places where the land has slid anywhere from 10 to 50 or even more feet down onto the road, carrying rocks, trees, and other plants with it. But all the blockages except one had been bulldozed away. 

Although an incredibly dangerous act, the driver was
leaving the same stop we were and I have to think he
was aware of his 'tailgater,' as he drove slowly up the hill.

Two hours north of Bucaramanga took me out of the state of Santander and into Nord de Santander, countryside that was still very mountainous, and also very green, but with long stretches of flat land that provides a lot of grazing for cattle and horses. But the small villages along the way are, for the most part, exceptionally dirty with trash from daily living scattered throughout the pueblo. And in the cleaner towns apparently the residents take their trash out to the roadways and dump it there. There are a number of signs that stipulate “No basura aqui!” (No trash here!). Colombia needs to help their populace learn how to recycle and give them ways to dispose of the non-recyclables that doesn’t blight this otherwise beautiful countryside.

I found a small, but clean “hospitaje” just as the sun was going down. The patron, a woman, showed me a room with two beds... concrete platforms with mattresses inserted into them...for $15000 (about $9 USD) and in a few hours, in spite of flying ants swarming in the room, I was asleep.

This appears to be the milk 'wagon' getting ready to
make a delivery someplace.

Venezuela begins about where the mountain are. This is
from the Departmento Cesar (state), north of Bucaramanga.

The next morning my failure to inquire about hot water came back to haunt me. The shower was a pipe and clearly had only one spigot... COLD! But it was clean and soon so was I, although shivering.

Breakfast was two scrambled eggs and an arepa (corn pattie cooked on the fire) with some wonderful fresh jugo (juice) of mora... a red berry that looks like a cross between a raspberry and a blackberry. Breakfast was not included, but for the equivalent of $3 USD, it was a good deal.

Back on the road at 8, the road continued downward and by the time I reached border of the next state, Cesar, the mountains were more distant and the vegetation was that of rivers and flat agricultural producing areas. And the temperature was higher as was the humidity. The young men in their military uniforms at all the checkpoints along the way made a point to be standing in the shade.

If you look carefully at the bicyclist just behind the moto,
you can see he is carrying not one, but TWO washers!!

As I worked my way north to the seacoast on the Atlantic/Caribbean side, the color of the skin of the natives seemed to be darker, there were more palm trees (in fact, grove after grove of them) and the other plants and trees had a more tropical appearance. And the road got straighter and better.

Sales of mandarinas were slow, I think, at this 'bump' in
the road, one of about 50 we passed over on this route.

I arrived in Riohacha, in the state of Guijara, just before sunset. I don’t know what I was expecting, but the city is like a larger version of the villages... not mud huts exactly, but the construction seems older, shabbier and the alley ways are muddy and  narrow. Colombian “resort” it may be, but it has a long way to go to match Mexico’s Cabo San Lucas for style and charm. The hotel I found was hardly three stars and yet it was full, so I could only have one night there for the equivalent cost of $75 USD. The room was sparsely equipped with a single bed with a horrible mattress and a set of bunks, cheap dresser and a small TV with poor color. In the U.S. this would have qualified as “fleabag,” (not even one star) but here it is considered “upscale.” Perhaps because the room has AC and a hot water handle...but no hot water! However, breakfast is included.

The security guard told me it was not wise to walk on the beach at night. So since “night” begins at 6 p.m., my planned beach walk was postponed for the next day. Instead I went for dinner at the hotel restaurant which was clean and pleasant and had their version of steak for about $8.

This was all the sunset to be captured in Riohacha, Colombia.

After a steady day of driving - not stopping along the way except for gas - I was exhausted and after using the hotel’s wifi access to check my mail, I was able to fall asleep on the mattress from hell... I am too spoiled, I admit it!