RIP Camping

We gave it a real honest shot, but we aren’t campers. Maybe it was the sand at Santispec, the tough sleeps and the long evenings. Or maybe, it was that the hotels and apartments were working out so well. The simple truth is that it never gelled with who we really are.

I maintain that my heart was in a good place when I conceived the idea. We would get some basic equipment, trial it out at home, and hit the road with the confidence that we could slide in a night of camping here or there to a) save some cash and b) enrich our experiences. The second part is important: I believed we would get more of this whole thing by getting our hands a little dirty and that’s where it probably all went wrong.

It’s likely my influences got in the way. I wanted to be a little rugged, a little hardcore and prove to myself (I guess) that I could sample from other adventurers I had learned from. People were sleeping in their vans and campers for weeks at a time – we had to sprinkle in some nights in a tent. Except, of course, that we didn’t. It never fit the narrative.

There’s some obvious privilege here that I have to acknowledge. We have a good deal of money saved up for this trip so that we can cut out the camping, opt for a hotel, and make out fine. I never needed to schedule those nights in the first place. It would give me the feeling that we were being responsible and trimming expenses, being practical, but of course that comes with a different kind of cost. This won’t work for everyone.

Still: camping through Mexico is viable, if that’s what you want to do. Trade a comfortable $50 hotel room for a $10 night in a tent and your dollar goes much further (obviously). You’ll have to plan a bit more carefully. You won’t want to try camping just anywhere – heat or cold or utter absence of facilities – but that’s not the point. It’s the flexibility that you’re after. The best resource is ioverlander.com . I like to filter for official campgrounds only, search for a place I’d like to visit, and then pan around the map, expanding outwards and clicking in to various locations to see what people are saying. Even if you don’t camp (or camp very little), the site is an awesome research tool.

There are also knock-on benefits of planning to camp. We brought all that gear with us from home that we continually got to put to use. Stopping at a lonely beach? Pull out those camp chairs. Sit outside your hotel room and cook up some noodles or coffee on the deck. Checked into an apartment lacking in kitchen gear? It’s a good thing you brought that all with you. We even pulled out our camp blanket for snuggling up on the couch for a movie. Overall, the investment in the gear was not extreme, there was room in the car, and at least we gave ourselves the opportunity to trial the experience.

Of course it’s humbling to see yourself in one way only to have it made blatantly clear your perception was flawed. It’s nice to believe that we can be anything, if called upon. There’s a secret to finding bliss in camping that we do not possess, will never possess, and we just have to get on with it. Which comes back to the theme of this whole enterprise, about rediscovering curiosity and making room for adventure in our lives again. Our trip is not a prescription. We don’t know what we’re doing. Each day I am full of doubt: questioning our route, our accommodations, the entire scheme. What stays consistent is my joy of exploration. So we’ll keep doing that, even if the camping didn’t work out. Maybe it will work for you – give it a shot!