Peeing in Front of a Little Person and Panamanian “Health Care”

This week’s Ask Jules and Christine question doesn’t come from one particular person, but a question we’ve been asked many times from friends and fellow travelers. It’s hard to pinpoint the absolute weirdest moment we’ve had while traveling, but these are definitely at the top of the list. Enjoy and please send us your travel questions! From the serious to the ridiculous or intrusive. We’ll answer anything!

So be sure to email us all your questions at dontforgettomove@gmail.com or write them in the comment section below.

“What is your weirdest travel moment?” 

 Christine: Adventures at a Panamanian hospital

My weirdest travel moment tested both my Spanish skills and my stomach. I was out one night at a hostel in Bocas del Toro, Panama. The hostel was adjacent to the ocean and out back they had cut a hole in the deck to essentially make a swimming pool. At the very bottom of the pool was a shipwrecked boat that had coral growing on it. In the states, this would be a lawsuit waiting to happen. But in Panama? No problem. One of the guys in our group jumped in and cut his foot on the coral. He was bleeding a bit but we didn’t realize how much until we stopped to grab food on the way home. He was leaving a pool of blood trailing down the street and more blood was gushing from his foot. Two police officers came over and demanded that he go to the hospital.

As the only one who spoke Spanish in the group, I was elected to go with him to translate. They sent an “ambulance” which was more of a wooden cart than anything else. Seriously, not even a Band-Aid in sight. At the hospital I used my broken Spanish to explain what happened, as he continued to bleed all over the waiting room. They took us into the clinic and I watched them stitch up his foot without a lick of anesthesia. After they finished, we tried to find a cab to get back to the hostel. The streets were barren of course, as this was about 4 am, so we went back to the hospital. When they saw us coming they locked the doors and wouldn’t let us re-enter. We had to walk back to the hostel in the rain. Thank you Panamanian health care!

Jules: Peeing into a kitchen sink in front of a little person in Uribia, Colombia

Ok, so I know this sounds really weird, but it’s true and I swear it was her idea. We were on our way back from Cabo de la Vela in Northern Colombia, after sitting in a bumpy 4×4 for 5 hours, cramped in with a dozen people, chickens, goats and three desert tortoises, and I was busting for a toilet stop. When we finally stopped in Uribia my first point of call was a toilet. An aging cowboy on the corner directed me to a small restaurant, which ended up being more like a residential house, and I was ushered through the living room and out the back.

Unfortunately all I found out there was what looked like a locked storage cupboard. By this stage I was about to burst. I was just standing around, visibly distressed, when a woman of smaller stature (about 4ft) came up and tapped me on the arm and pointed to a little sink. I asked her if she was serious and she just keep saying si and to go for it. Hesitantly I approached the kitchen sink, as she approached the one next to me and started washing up some dishes. She was standing on an old crate so she could reach the taps, and I was peeing into this little sink as she looked across at me and smiled. I thought I would have got a little stage fright from those watchful eyes, but the sound of running water next to me helped and before I knew it I was thanking her and ducking out the back door. A memorable moment and a reminder that sometimes you just need to go with the flow. No pun intended.

Welcome to the latest and greatest segment in the ongoing developments of Don’t Forget to Move called “Ask Jules and Christine”. A new backpacking questions and answers section where you can ask us absolutely anything about our travels, and we’ll answer it! From the informative or the intrusive, to the wacky and the weird! Get in contact with us through the CONTACT US form and we’ll give you our best expert advice on the matter.

{Enjoying a night out in Havana}

Recently we were contacted by an old volunteer buddy who had a question about our travels. It’s a question we’ve encountered many times on the road, which has always had a different response, but this time we’re going to try and sit down to answer it properly. After semi-nomadic traveling for four of the last six years around the Americas, Australia and Asia, on minimal funds, here’s how we responded to the question;

“How have you guys been able to afford to travel for so long, and how can I do it?”

Great to hear from you, and what a great question! The fact that you’re asking these types of questions with such passion and intrigue means you’re already on the right track. As cliché as it sounds, the will to make it happen is your strongest advocate in long term traveling.

The question shouldn’t be how we’ve been able to afford to travel for so long, but more so, how we’ve traveled for so long on what we have. We’re not about to disclose our personal savings accounts on the net, but let’s just say they aren’t anything to boast about. Our trip has been about conserving funds and traveling modestly and slowly, rather than traveling quickly and spending more.

Yes it is true that we both saved up a bit of money before going on this latest trip, but it takes a lot more than savings to stay on the road long term. It definitely doesn’t come without its sacrifices. If you take our Budget Breakdown article for San Cristobal de las Casas you’ll see we were on a fairly modest $350 a month each, which included absolutely everything (fully furnished room, utilities, food, activities, travel, tequila, etc). When you start moving around or doing more activities you start to accumulate more costs and have to cut back on other things. It wasn’t uncommon for us to eat plain cold oats for breakfast with powdered milk or simply bread with mustard for lunch…. for days on end.

{Nothing but mustard on these rolls}

Christine always says that people usually have one of two things when traveling, time or money! And as we’ve found throughout our travels, this is mostly true. Generally speaking, you’re either on a short blast through South America, doing all the tourist activities and smashing your way through the bars… or you’re casually drifting from town to town, conserving funds and basically living like a local. Very rarely will you have the time and the money to do both, so you need to choose what’s right for you.

We turned 28 and 26 this year (update – now we’re 30 and 28). Probably a time that society expects us to start settling down, but the older we get the more restless we become. As of last week we just finished up 21 months of traveling without working. While we’ve spent time at low-cost volunteer organisations, that helped slow down some spending, we haven’t had an income for the last 2 years. But we get by because our aim is to stretch the money and increase the time we get to spend learning about travel and the communities we meet.

Take Latin America for example. Life on the road is cheap, but it still doesn’t come without sacrifices if you plan to extend your stay. Sometimes we’ve slept in airports to save money, spent hours waiting for a free hitchhike ride, CouchSurfed with complete strangers, forfeited the fun hostels to secure a place with a kitchen to cook, had numerous parasites from always eating like a local in the markets, smuggled rum into bars, exchanged work for lodging and taken 8 chicken buses instead of a nice direct shuttle. We’ve done pretty much everything but prostituted ourselves along the way. (Although Jules did a sexy dance on a table one time for a few free beers, but he felt dirty after it.)

There are as many different travel styles as there are travelers. It really is up to you to find a style that works for you. Our biggest tip for traveling cheap is to live as much like a local as possible. Eat where the locals eat, take public transportation and drink at the local bars. Not only will you get a richer cultural experience, but you’ll be able to stay on the road for longer.

Hope this helps you work out your next plans, and see you on the road soon!

Got any other questions about how to travel long term and save money?? Contact us with a comment below, or find us on Facebook and Twitter! 

{Sweaty at the Tikal ruins in Guatemala – this entrance fee cost us a week of mustard rolls}