Ignoring the assumptions: Solo female travel in South America
“I hear you’re leaving us.”
“Yes indeed. I’m off to South America for six months. ”
“Good for you but Amy, please try not to fall in love with everyone you meet. I can see it now, bone through your nose, baby on each tit.”
“Sorry, WHAT?”
Sadly this conversation, which took place with my Line Manager, wasn’t the first completely absurd (and offensive) piece of ‘advice’ I’d been offered since announcing my plans to travel alone from Buenos Aires to Bogota.
The minute I decided to go to South America, family friends, colleagues and near-strangers suddenly got very chatty. It seemed everyone had a nugget of wisdom they wanted to share with me, be that through pulling me aside at a family party, emailing me YouTube videos of violence, or sliding terrifying articles across meeting room tables at me about military coups, sexual assaults, kidnappings and *insert terrifying event here*.
I shrugged off the negativity. After all, some of it was hilarious and besides, if I’d chosen to take everything on board, I’d currently be holed up in a bunker somewhere, terrified about being a citizen of earth.
What was more difficult to dismiss was the assumptions that were being made willy nilly about why I was travelling, how I would handle it, and what might happen to me as a solo female traveller. If I hadn’t travelled before, these assumptions might have put me off doing it entirely.
Date:
18 June 2018
