Travel Lesson #7: Go with the Flow

My on-the-road anxieties have been eased by this one important mantra. Call it zen, call it what you will, but there is something utterly freeing about the reality that life is sometimes beyond your control and that you just have to let things go.

By CC Staff

An illustration: Back in December, I was on a plane from Bogotá to Quito. A very short distance certainly, but it was the longest journey from point A to point B I’ve ever endured.

In the end, it took me twenty four hours to fly the short 450 mile distance between the two cities. I grew a gray hair of worry that I wouldn’t be able to catch my connecting flight back to Los Angeles, but I certainly learned a great lesson that I now apply to all the impatient moments in my travel career.

In mid-flight, as we hovered over the border between Colombia and Ecuador, we passengers were informed that Quito’s international airport had closed due to bad weather and that we would be returning to Bogotá to be re-booked on a future flight to Ecuador. As you might have guessed, a Latin American riot of chaos ensued upon our arrival to the gate from whence we left two hours prior. Passengers were shouting at agents for refunds, faces were turning bright shades of red.

It was late, I was tired and, fortunately, we were treated to a stay at the Crowne Plaza that evening. Instead of complaining in my broken Spanish at the ridiculousness of the situation that was unfolding before me. I resigned myself to the reality that I would be staying in Colombia for one more night (not a bad compromise, besides). I grabbed my luggage at the baggage claim, hopped in a free shuttle to my luxury hotel, took a hot bubble bath, watched cable T.V., woke up the next morning to partake in an all-you-can-eat buffet breakfast, took the free shuttle back to the airport, and waited the necessary hours to finally board the plane (the one that actually made it) to Quito.

If ever I lose patience on my travels, I remind myself of these twenty four hours and realize that sometimes the only path you can take is the one that presents itself to you. There’s no way to will it. You just have to go with the flow.