Couch surfing, part 1

Couch surfing is a global social network that enables travellers in need of a place to stay to connect with hosts who are interested in making new friends, having a cultural exchange, and helping someone out.

People with a spare room or a couch let travellers stay with them for free for a few nights. Hosts and surfers set up profiles with the couch surfing website, and users are encouraged to create accurate reviews of hosts and guests to keep the network free from murderers, crack heads and croc-wearers. Here’s some frogs to help you understand how this works:

Couch surfing is so popular that it’s now one of those words that’s pronounced the same in every language, like radio, or bikini, or coca cola.

In fact, the system works so well that it hardly ever goes wrong. Out of the 827 times* that Pepe and Breni have couch surfed, they have only encountered problems twice. And even these weren’t totally a big deal. I mean, the first one’s hardly even counted, if you want to get pedantic. Like, we didn’t even meet her so you could pretty much round it up and say that couch surfing has never gone wrong, anywhere, in the whole world.

Generally, an average C.S. experience (saying ‘C.S.’ shows everyone else just how cool you are for being on a nickname basis with a global corporation) proceeds more or less exactly like this:

…but not always.
Breni and Pepe had organised to stay with an Alaskan girl who had seemed very excited to take them in. And because she was American, she lived in a military base. Cool.
All they had to do was present their passports at the gate, and drive through for happy fun times in couch surfing land.

Once the nice military officer told them to get off his taxpayer-funded property, Breni and Pepe went to a popular chain of internet cafe to skype call their C.S. host.

If she could meet them at the gate to the military base, the nice military officer would let them inside.

If only she would answer her phone.

Then the understanding and helpful night shift manager at the internet cafe suggested that they quickly leave his franchise-funded property too, so Breni and Pepe went to find a discreet location where they could sleep the night in their car.

They had definitely found better spots in the past.

*represents a vague estimate and/or exaggeration. Has no actual correlation with reality or with how cool Breni and Pepe think they are.

Proceed with caution

This is a very common sight in Mexico

It even happens in peoples’ own homes

In fact, just about the only place where you are likely to see toilet paper is in the supermarket, where it is cheap and plentiful, and sold in individually wrapped rolls to trick people into buying an insufficient amount.

This depression-era rationing of T.P. has certain effects. Some are quite obvious:

Others are less predictable:

And then some are just strange:

It plays with your mind. You begin to feel things about toilet paper that you have never felt before. That which is scarce becomes coveted. When, on the rare occasion, you see that by some massive oversight a person has unwittingly left free toilet paper unguarded, you feel an urge to act. That which has become so highly prized must now become yours.
In the end, the question is not if you should take it, but how much.

One of us

One of the best parts of cycle touring is the feeling of solidarity among the cycle tourer community. It is an unwritten law that each time cycle tourers cross paths, they must stop and chat.

Sometimes it is brought to the attention of Breni and Pepe that, although all cycle tourers are created equal, some cycle tourers are more equal than others.

Not for all the ice cream in Cuba

Breni and Pepe talked to a lot of people in Cuba who said they often went hungry, and that their government allocated rations had to be supplemented with other food that they couldn’t always afford. Long lines at government run shops were common and sometimes the shops would run out of food.

Breni and Pepe couldn’t help but feel partially responsible

The ‘official’ system of water use in Mexico

Breni and Pepe come from a country that tries very hard to conserve what little water it has. This prioritising is not so in Mexico.
It appeared to Breni and Pepe that the accepted system of water use in Mexico was as follows:

Town water, which is available for certain hours several times a week, is pumped into reservoirs, which then provide for the water needs of the household while the town water is unavailable. In theory, this system is very sensible. In practice, this happens:

Breni and Pepe think the system leaves a lot to be desired.

Every night’s a party

Camping in Mexico is a very special experience, because in Mexico, every night’s a party:

Every night…

Without fail:

Every SINGLE night.

Sit down and drink your flies

The people in Cuba were very nice to Breni and Pepe:

Even thought it is illegal, Breni and Pepe stayed with lots of families:

And the families were very generous with what little they had:

All was going well, until…

What would you do?

Give us a break, Cuba

What Breni and Pepe thought the beaches in Cuba would look like:

What the beaches in Cuba actually looked like:

Crazies

While undertaking adventures, Breni and Pepe meet all kinds of people. Some of these people are crazies.

They seek you out in moments of vulnerability.

There is a crucial moment when they decide that you are their next victim

Then they usually do something nice so that you are forced by your own inherent politeness to tolerate their presence.

They are often needy and insecure

And don’t respect personal space

Never agree to be moved to the second location

This is where they will talk about themselves, about controversial topics that they are clearly under informed about, and they will interrupt you constantly and will not show the slightest interest in anything you have to say.

Some people are more susceptible than others. Pepe did get his shoes fixed and his bike washed for free, though.

Who invited the hippy?

Breni and Pepe went on an adventure to Cuba with their bicycles. They managed to get a transfer from the airport to their hotel for free with their flight ticket (they also got the hotel for free too), so they had to rush so that their transfer didn’t leave without them.
Of course, it took a very long time for the man to find Breni and Pepe’s bike boxes.

This was the first and definitely not the last time that someone in Cuba asked Breni and Pepe for money when they had clearly done a terrible job at whatever it was they were doing.
Breni and Pepe rushed to get their transfer.

Some would say that Pepe is an easy target for airport security.

One hour later…

Fortunately for Breni and Pepe, the other people on the transfer shuttle were not very good at adventuring, and had been standing in line at the airport exchange desk so that they could pay lots of fees and a terrible coversion rate. They all arrived at the hotel transfer at the same time, and Pepe learnt not to laugh at airport security.