"Travelling is not having fun 24/7"

TRAVELLER ID

Name: Sofia

Instagram: soff.luengo

Website: https://sofianicolas.wixsite.com/mysite

Age: 24

Nationality: Spanish

City you're currently in: San Juan, Puerto Rico

Peculiarities: Hip hop dance teacher trying to dance in as many countries as possible

Type of traveller: Solo traveller

Most beautiful place you've been to: Cebu, Philippines

Motto: Trust the vibes, energy never lies

How would you describe yourself?

I would say that I’m really adventurous, that I really like to get out of my comfort zone. I know it sounds so clichè. Everything now is about getting out of your comfort zone. I’m really curious. I really like getting to know people from different cultures. It’s such an enriching experience. I think the world is so vast. There are so many things outside, that if you just stay in your home country, you are missing out on a lot of things. I have a little bit of FOMO. When I travel I really want to get the most out of the experience. It’s something I’ve been working on because sometimes you don’t need to do everything and see everything. I just want to be happy at that moment. I’ve been travelling since May. One thing that I’m learning to do is not to be afraid of missing out on things. Sometimes, staying at a hostel with guests and having a good conversation with them is more enriching than going on a tour or doing all the things you’re supposed to do when you go to a country. 

How are you travelling?

I’m travelling but I’m also living. I’ve been living in Puerto Rico for two months. I can’t be on the move all the time. I don’t have the money to afford that. When I’m living in my hometown I’m not doing stuff all the time. When you live in different places while travelling, the root of it is that you are living. You can’t go non stop all the time. You wouldn’t do it in your hometown. There’s one thing that my friends have a hard time to understand: Travelling is not having fun 24/7. You’re going to go through rough moments. You’re going to have to deal with your emotions. You’re by yourself. In Guatemala I found the best group of friends. I was feeling super loved. Here it’s different, the dynamics are different. When I have a bad day here it’s just me laying in bed. You don’t have anything to rely on. You’re not on holiday. You’re travelling. That’s different. 

What motivated you to travel?

For me the main trigger was that I hated my hometown. I couldn’t stay there and I needed to get out of there. Since I finished high school and I started my degree, I knew I wanted to do something like this. After my first year of my degree when I discover this app, Worldpackers, I thought “I can actually do it”. I wanted to travel, work at hostels, work in projects to save turtles. All these different things that are going to make you grow. They will give you something to think about when you are older, when you are going through a hard moment, or when you think life is s*it. You have all these experience that make you realize that life is not s*it. It’s just a moment, you are going through a bad moment but it’s not all life. I don’t see myself travelling forever. I would really like to settle down in a town and travel for my work. I really like Barcelona. 

How do you support your travels?

I saved up for a couple of years, because I really wanted to do this. It wasn’t that much, like 3000$. With that money I paid for my flights, insurance, travel license and so on. I use Worldpackers app. You sign up as a volunteer and they put you in contact with hosts around the world. That’s how I found hostels in Guatemala, Costa Rica and Puerto Rico. The same with Mexico next. When I travelled to Guatemala I was working as a receptionist. In that hostel the manager offered me to do extra hours for money. So that’s a little income that you have. I was also bartending and I got all the tips from that. I was in Costa Rica for another two months and I was volunteering at an NGO, so of course I didn’t make any money there. It was so hard for me to find a job in Costa Rica. It was low season and nobody was hiring anybody. Costa Rica was a tough moment because I couldn’t spend much money since I didn’t have any income. I had to lay low. I did things that are free, like going to the beach. I didn’t explore Costa Rica, I didn’t know the place because I didn’t have the money to explore it. 
I started wondering if it was worth being there and not being able to do stuff. Like “Why am I staying here?”. The aftermath was: “Yes, it’s still worth it. This is my life now, and there have been moments in my life, in my hometown, without any social interactions either.”
I got to Puerto Rico with only 200$. I already had the hostel but they weren’t giving me food. I was like “I need to find a job”. The other option was to call my mum and ask her for money for a ticket back. I didn’t want to do that. I’m 24 and I don’t want to ask my parents for money. Luckily, on my second day here I found a job at a restaurant.

I saw you dance hip-hop. How do you connect travelling to this passion that you have?

I found what I do is an international thing. For me it’s also a source of income. For example, when I was in Guatemala I was teaching dance. That was the way for me to get money. I realized I really need dance in my life, so wherever I move to I need a dance studio because I need dancing. Here in Puerto Rico there is no classes at all, so I’m going a little bit crazy. I also taught some dance in Costa Rica to some kids that were doing a project with an NGO. You learn from people with different backgrounds. The moves say a lot about that person and about that culture. Dancing is something that unites all the people in the classroom, but it also gives you an insight from the culture and from how dance is understood in that country. It’s another way to connect with people and get to know the culture.

Tell me about your passion for writing

I discovered I really love writing and telling stories. When I was in high school, one of my favorite things was to write essays and I was pretty good at it. I love to travel and I love to write, so I decided to be a travel journalist and apply for journalism. I love what I studied because I really wanted to go to different countries, tell stories and write them for a paper. 

One of the stories that shocked me the most was the one one of my best friends in Costa Rica told me. He is a graffiti artist and he told me he lived and grew up in one of the worst neighborhoods in Guatemala City. He saw one of his best friends getting slaughtered. Rough things. One of my future projects is to go from Mexico to Guatemala to tell that story. 

I also write for myself: I keep a journal and sometimes I share what I experience. On Worldpackers they have a section where you can become a member of the web and you get paid. I wrote some articles and I also became a content creator for them, for a couple of months. That’s another source of income I have when I travel. Sometimes I don’t feel inspired, though. 

When I was in Guatemala I went to a local market and I took some notes while in the market. The other day I was reading those notes and I thought “I totally forgot that feeling”. Sometimes when you write something in the moment you’re living it, it keeps the memory alive. It’s pure emotion, pure feeling that you felt. It’s gonna last because it’s on paper. 

Do your friends and family support your choice of travelling?

Yes, 100%. I’ve been so lucky. My parents are always encouraging me to do these things. Of course they want to see me, they miss me and I miss them. For every decision I make they give me their insight, but they are never disappointed. They never discouraged me. They are always like “If that’s what you want to do, go for it - be careful but go for it”. My friends are also like “Sofia, don’t stop travelling - you’re doing what you love so keep going”.

What did you learn during your travels?

The biggest thing about my travels is that I really get to know myself. The most shocking thing is that when I think I already know myself something happens and I’m like “Oh, I didn’t know THAT part of myself”. I’m constantly getting to know myself. Know your limits, put boundaries. You’re out there by yourself. You really need to know how to rely on yourself. You’re the only constant thing. People come and go. You’re staying with yourself 24/7. That’s for sure, for the rest of your life. Take care of yourself, love yourself and rely on yourself. You need to know yourself and know if you want to do something or not.  I don’t want to risk my mental peace just to look “cool”. If you want to stay in bed and read a book, you don’t have to go out and have dinner with people that you met. The world is not going to end. That’s also something you learn when you travel. Another important thing I learned is to value my time and my money. I’m volunteering at a hostel and I meet a lot of people. Sometimes I find amazing people that you really want to spend time with. Sometimes these people are not going to show up. I don’t need to force a relationship anymore. The moment I see a person I will know if I’m going to connect with them. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. I will be nice to them - why should I be rude? - I will do my job and welcome them to the hostel, but I’m not going to spend my time with them, because it’s not bringing me anything. I think If you travel with an honest mindset, with humility, that shows. You have to be yourself in order to connect with people that you have something in common with. Another thing I realized while travelling is that when you are away, people that really care about you are going to stick with you even if you are 10000 km away. If you lose people when you travel, that means those people are not worth in your life.