Making Friends While Traveling: The Risk and Reward
One of the best parts about traveling is making new friends while you do it. Making friends can be hard for us introverts when we overanalyze how to do it and worry about it too much.
The truth is though, that it usually happens so naturally and organically that all that worrying was for naught. If you’re still worried, we’ve got you covered with some great advice.
This is a story about how I made some friends under pretty adverse conditions, and how it paid off big time.
Where it Happened
I was in Campeche, one of the safest places in Mexico. I spent all morning walking the streets of Campeche around the market trying to find the collective that would take me to Edzna, a prolific archeological site 60-90 minutes away.
I finally found it and took the ride for the low price of 35 pesos, or about $1.75 US. When the van let me off near Edzna, I realized immediately that I had no way of getting back to the city. I was in the middle of nowhere with no waiting taxis, buses, or even passing traffic.
In the spirit of traveling, I decided not to worry about it until I was done enjoying the site. And, enjoy it I did! The grounds were pristine, beautiful, and contained very few people; just the way I like to see a ruin site.
How it Happened
I saw a couple taking pictures near the Grand Acropolis of Edzna, where you can find one of the most unique and impressive-looking pyramids from the Mayan civilization.
I asked them in what I now realize to be truly terrible Spanish if they wanted me to take their picture. After allowing me to stumble over my words for a minute, the man said, “It’s ok, we speak English.”
Thank God, I thought. I’d realized by this point in my trip that my Spanish needed serious work if I wanted to be able to communicate effectively.
They declined my offer of a picture, but offered to take mine, which is really what I wanted anyway. I love it when a plan comes together.
After a bit of small talk, complaining about not being able to get closer and scale the main pyramid due to newly placed restrictions (this was in late 2020), they asked me how I was getting back to the city.
“I have absolutely no idea,” I told them.
“Well, we have a car. Why don’t you come with us?” the man said.
I was pretty taken aback by that. It was my first solo trip, and I’d done pretty much everything myself thus far. I’d been making some friends, but not like this.
Then he added, “We’re not going back right away though. We’re going to another site after this that is about an hour or hour and a half away. After that, we’re going to another site that’s another hour or more from that. It’s a full day, we’ve got no idea where these places are but we have our GPS ready to go. This is an all-day thing.”
Leap of Faith
Sometimes traveling requires a leap of faith, as does making friends.
“What the hell, let’s do it.”
I had no other plan to get back to the city. There were two other ruin sites on their list. Ruin sites were quickly becoming one of my favorite things to do. I came on this trip to push my comfort zones.
So, we went. We spent all day in the car together, driving the deserted roads off the beaten paths to these other ruin sites, neither of which contained another tourist.
We exchanged travel stories, got to know each other, and made a few morbid jokes about how easy it would be for any of us to bury the others in the Mexican desert and get away with it. All in all, it was a risky ordeal that required a fair amount of faith in humanity.
The Payoff
My leap of paid off in the form of two new friends. It worked out so well that we all ended up meeting in Guatemala City four months later. We flew to Flores together and spent four days exploring Peten, Guatemala, headlined by our visit to Tikal and Yaxha.
From traveling to and exploring ruin sites in Mexico and then in Guatemala, making these friends was definitely a highlight of my trip.
