Get lost!

If you are spending a long enough time somewhere during your travels where your days are not completely filled with activities, I strongly recommend you take some time to lose the map and wander aimlessly. Of course, there are some places where wandering around without a map might not be the best idea … like a big city, because obviously, you could end up in an unsafe neighborhood. But as far as I’m concerned, not-so-big cities and towns are better appreciated when you can explore them on foot without worrying about where you’re going.

I recently read an article recommending such wandering in Venice, Italy over taking a gondola ride. Though I have never been there, Venice evidently has quaint alleyways that have hidden cafes and shops. This reminded me of the callejones (alleyways) I have explored in Latin America. Guanajuato, Mexico is pretty much entirely made up of callejones (see Guanajuato photos below), with most of the major streets for cars found underground in a really incredible tunnel system. The charming city is built on hills and you could just get lost for hours if you wanted, walking up and down those hills. Who needs a step machine when you’ve got callejones on hills?

Along with some other locales, I also took time to wander in Xela, Guatemala. Often on Sunday afternoons at the beginning of my stay, I would enjoy the peace and quiet of the day and get lost. It was a challenge to try and find my way back to Parque Central. As I got to know the city a little better, things would start to fit together, as they do when you become familiar with a place. “Oh, I remember seeing this shop when I got lost a few weeks ago. And here it is, just a few blocks from where I buy ice cream! Good to know! And here’s that tour company that takes small groups to a coffee farm. Now I know where to come to set something up.”

One thing that is so incredible to me as I walk these callejones, streets, and hills, is that people live on these beautiful alleyways. Families reside on these incredibly quaint streets. Not only that, but they walk up those steep, and sometimes very long hills, every single day, sometimes a number of times. Young or old, it doesn’t matter. That’s what they do if they go out and about. They must be in really great shape, because not only are they carrying themselves up those hills, but also bags of food from the market, babies, baskets of laundry, water jugs for the bubbler … you name it, they carry it. 

Better than the gym. Here is a guy in
Guanajuato, Mexico delivering beer to a store quite
a ways up a hill on a callejón. He passed my mother
and me (below) as we climbed up to get a better view
of the city. We were in awe (of the guy and the view).
And also a little tired. 

These homes built on hills and attached by charming callejones are also painted in bright colors. No two houses in the same area are uniform. It’s like you’re walking up a giant color swatch from the paint store, with all the colors you’ve never before seen on a house … but wish you had because they go perfectly with the bright blue sky, and the fresh air, and the smiling people who walk there everyday.

You cannot see such things very well from a cab or a car or a bus or a microbus, even on the regular streets of Xela, where cars, buses and motorcycles roam. You can see so much more when you walk around aimlessly, wandering through the streets, taking in all the differences, and learning about this place you are calling “home,” even if it’s only for a little while. You may not know what’s around the next corner, but that is half the fun.