Juan Pablo Villarino: commitment

Transcript context

…If you’re going to visit a new country or region where you’ve never been, other than simply going, what kind of preparation do you do in advance? The fact that I hitchhike doesn’t mean that I leave everything at random. People sometimes tend to think that I will just land there and start hitchhiking randomly in any direction, which is not the case. I always travel by hitchhiking. That’s a rule, but of course, I always read a lot about the country, about its history, and I try to identify regions that have their own identity within that country. That’s normally the case. If you go to Ethiopia, you have the Omo Valley, and you have the highlands. Everything changes between each region. I try to read a lot of history about the country. But then I will stick to my standard approach, which is choosing small roads, minor roads, and visiting random towns along them. That would be my average strategy of trying to get to the stories and to the people. In two weeks, I’m going to Ethiopia for 11 days. Given that you’ve been there and done some research, what advice or tips would you give me for my trip?…

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