Great Escape
The Trouble With Disappearing
When your backpacking trip meets revolution, it’s a good time for a Plan B
It was the fall of 2013, and I was stuck in the town of Popayán in southwestern Colombia. Protests had erupted throughout the country—farmers were revolting against low pay and high fuel prices; truckers and students joined in, both to show their support and air their own grievances. Soon, the entire country seemed to be on strike, with rumors that the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC, was secretly stoking the flames. Solemn men with shotguns patrolled block-long lines at banks. Food prices fluctuated wildly. Every route to Ecuador was blocked.
I had been drifting around for a long while by then and had become accustomed to the thrill of moving on. I’d wandered around East Africa, spent months crisscrossing the traveler meccas of Southeast Asia, and was a few weeks into what would become a year in South America.
Most of the time, escape was wonderfully uncomplicated: You settle one all-cash hostel bill, pack your bag, book a ticket, and disappear. Almost as powerful as the curiosity about that next place is the rush of leaving one behind. Suddenly, you’re magically anonymous all over again. No one you meet knows anything about you. No one you know has…
