Slow Travel: Decentralize Yourself for a Better Experience

4) Tips for safety

One of the most elemental lessons I have learned about safety is to remind yourself you have options. Stepping into any scenario where there is only one way through, whether by your estimation or literally, is to step into an inherently risky situation. This category of tips is angled toward safety and grounding. 

The following points are not intended to frighten or dissuade. Travel does, however, present very real risks that most of us do not face in our daily lives and may thus overlook. Often, the means rise to meet the need, and we can skate by. In the thru-hiking community, we say, “The trail provides,” and the second half I would add is, “where it doesn’t, you find your resilience.”

Hope for the best and plan for the worst

These are two concrete practices to set you up for safety. Once you book a ticket, also set a news alert for the region and watch the trends. Secondly, American citizens can also register for STEP Notifications, which provide general and dispassioned government notices from US embassies about political and natural events.

Equip for risk

Queer folx and women viajando solas should and already generally do travel with heightened risk awareness. Avoiding a dangerous situation is generally preferable to getting out of one. Remember, if you feel unsafe, you don’t owe strangers the benefit of the doubt.

Safety concerns can be broached by research and connecting with voices of experience within our communities ahead of time. It is a huge asset to have someone who knows the area and what you are up to, established and within digital reach. I also made it a point to find and pin the locations of Queer bookstores and cafes in major cities ahead of time. These were places I could go to find cool happenings, retreat to in risk situations, or just sit back and let my guard down for a bit. In rural locations, I learned to seek out groups of abuelas, usually gathered at local shops or in front of homes, if I needed information or was being followed.

Don’t stop at tapping the voices of others– practice raising your own. If you are being targeted, get loud. I recommend practicing screaming in appropriate venues ahead of time. I did it while hiking far away from people. It’s strange to feel how much a lifetime of being told to keep your voice down or natural shyness represses a critical first line of defense against predators. 

On Her Odyssey, when making initial gear and shopping runs, it was a priority to find pepper spray and then determine a specific and accessible spot to carry it so I could train muscle memory. At one border crossing from Argentina into Chile, immigration officers confiscated our pepper sprays. The agent later returned them to us on the sly, saying that, while it was against the law to enter with a weapon, they understood we were women alone in remote regions on foot.

Safety When Traveling Alone

Two general safety practices I highly recommend arise particularly if traveling alone. The first is to establish a place to sleep before you touch down. If you find someplace better you can always move, but the added stress of finding a place upon arrival introduces a significant degree of risk. 

The second piece arises if you meet someone who catches your fancy along the way. It is made pointedly and repeatedly in certain Reddit threads: never go to a second location. Disregarding this advice does not necessarily lead to the worst-case scenario. However, I’ve also never seen it lead to the best case. Give yourself a few encounters to decide what and who to trust.