Alaska Highway

Episode 4 – Hosting Communities

 Recently we have joined two of the travel hosting communities, Couchsurfing and Warmshower. What are they? How do they work? What is the idea behind them?

The idea the spirit behind them is to built a community a net where the traveler and the host has an opportunity to share experiences,  where the mass tourisms is bitten by a closer,  warmer approach between the travelers and the locals. There is a big sense of trustfulness on human kindness overall.

Those communities work over the internet, once you has joined in you have access to look for people along the places you are planning to go, then you have a list of people in those places with theirs profiles so you can read them and contact the people you think have the most in common with you then you can contact them regarding to host you. It is totally up to the host if they want or not to host you and how long and that is arranger on the internet or over the phone.

Our experience as new members is not very big but so far We have to say that is being amazing, it has totally blown our head away all those people who has opened their houses totally to us, sharing their time, food and life with us, with two strangers, and how We have felt with some of them part of their families for a while. It's amazing to arrive to a new place and have a place to stay and people to host you, to share with you and vice versa, definitely is a two ways experience which enriches both parts a lot host and traveler giving and receiving.  Many of those experiences We had come to my mind I've remembered very warmly those two days We've spent with Tony and Sara,  after 16 km of tough uphill looking for their place which was farther and tougher than Tony described to us on the last email,  We were a bit disappointed but when we arrived to their place all this silly feelings were wiped off by these wonderful people who for a couple of days adopt us as part of their family feeding us with great food,  taking care of us,  fantastic conversations,  sharing experiences by the bonfire or those pancakes Tony prepared for breakfast for all the family(us too) and we had the by the terrace enjoining the morning while chatting,  laughing. Experiences like that makes the traveling a unique experience, to us the best you can get out of traveling is to meet all those people.

Or this other one We got to a big town and there was this lovely girl waiting for us to host us for a night at hers and surprisingly after We had a cup of tea with told us I "I' m going to my boyfriend's tonight so you can enjoy the house for yourselves, sleep on my bed better than in the couch so you will get a proper rest and she left us in her place with all her stuff, trusting totally a 2 strangers, waooooo!!!! That is what comes to my head.

These people are opening, widening our way of seeing other people, making us in a way better person than we already were. I have been all those years traveling and avoiding going to hotels or even hostels that are so far from the communities and people who live around them When I have been spending a night or so in one of those "spaces „I felt always as a tourist, having tourist conversations and ending gathering just with other tourists, sometimes it was fun though, but not even getting a small sense of the place you are visiting or traveling through or the people who live there.