| How factual was The
Gringo Trail? There were times I wondered if I were reading
a novel instead of a work of non-fiction. Did this trip really
happen?
It's completely factual. I wanted to avoid what I regard as
a problem with many travelogues, which is that there is often
no real story to them. An author travels, describes and returns,
but there's no real development of story or character. This can
make travel literature dull, even when it's well-written, because
it is story and character development that holds the reader.
Obviously my narrative has personal elements which lent themselves
to a more story-like treatment, but I also deliberately employed
devices from fiction. But, as I said, it is definitely factual.
Would you write another novel?
Yes, in fact I'm talking about it right at this minute. But
it probably won't be about South America. It's just a question
of whether I can afford to - as you probably know, writing a book
doesn't bring in that much money, and it takes a lot of time!!
After all these travels, do you have a favorite place in
South America?
Probably Ecuador,
although it's hard to put a finger on exactly why. I think because
there's so much (scenic) variety - coast, mountains, rainforest
- in such a small place. But I also liked Colombia a lot: the
Colombians are probably the most fun and friendly nation in my
experience. Particular places: San Augustin and Nabisumake in
Colombia, Huarez and the Cordillera Blanca in Peru, Vilcabamba
and the Oriente in Ecuador.
In this book, you and your friends consume a lot of drugs...
I mainly wanted to use the drugs for humour, although with the
hallucinogens such as San Pedro I feel that these plants really
open up important and meaningful areas of experience. The big
problem with writing about drugs is to avoid being perceived as
saying "hey, look how many drugs I've taken" because if you get
into that sort of thing there's always someone who's taken more
drugs than you - Hunter S. Thompson, for instance. Also, I didn't
want to give the impression that South America is only about drugs,
because it's obviously not - and the drugs are only a small part
of the book, really.
How do you look upon backpackers?
I regard myself as one, just about. I think backpackers are
probably, on balance and in general, more likely to interact with
local people and spend their money locally.
The only thing I disagree with is the attitude of some backpackers
that 'we're not tourists'. Of course backpackers are tourists,
and the same issues regarding responsible travel apply to them.
Just being a backpacker doesn't stop you being an inconsiderate
idiot, if you're an inconsiderate idiot in the first place.
In particular, you probably noticed that there are few actual
Latin American characters in the book. In fact, most of the people
we met were other backpackers. The
Gringo Trail is a book about backpacking and I deliberately
wanted to portray this aspect of backpacking - the tendency of
backpackers to stick together in hostels and not really to mix
with the locals. The trip made me aware that, as a backpacker,
you only engage with local people/life to a limited extent. It
also led me to look for ways for travellers to go beyond that.
One episode of our trip which did seem to offer a greater level
of contact with local people was our visit to the Cofan village
in the Ecuadorean Amazon, described in Chapter 4, which was the
first 'community tourism' trip I visited. You could say this visit
was the original seed for Tourism Concern's Community
Tourism Directory.
Can you describe the project or projects you are working
on now?
I've just written the Community Tourism Guide which lists many
community tourism projects. Right now we're urgently trying to
secure some funds to pay me to manage the Tourism Concern website
and to make the guide into an ongoing project. I've found that
this sort of promotion is often very hard or even impossible for
many poor communities, yet is vital if their tourism ventures
are to succeed, so that's what we're trying to set up. And then
there's the possibility of that other book that you asked about
at the start.
In terms of promoting responsible tourism, it's easy to make
a list of "what to do" and "what not to do" for travelers, but
in your experience, what really works?
The bottom line is surely just to treat all people with respect.
We need to remember that wherever we go we are visitors in someone
else's community/country and we should behave as we do in our
home country.
We wouldn't walk up to someone in our local high street (shopping
mall, etc) and point a camera in their face, so why do we feel
we have a right to do so just because we're in a poor country.
Starting from a basic respect for people, the rest surely follows.
It's the general double standard we in the West apply to all
human suffering and life - we'll spend millions on pet food and
cosmetics but won't cancel Third World debt, and so on - and this
double standard obviously extends to tourism. We tend to travel
as if our enjoyment of our holiday is more important than it's
impact on the people we visit, whereas it should be the other
way around. Actually, the same applies to the environment - if
we travel (and live) with genuine respect for nature and the environment,
the specifics will surely follow.
There are a lot of questions I'd like to ask you and will
no doubt pester you about in the future. One final question for
this interview. In your view, what is the best way to evaluate
a community tourism program?
It's very hard to draw up standard assessment forms and so forth
because each tourism project has to be seen in the context of
it's individual situation. Most communities that turn to tourism
do so in response to some other pressure - perhaps an oil company
trying to take over their land, for instance. Tourism, like any
form of change, brings pluses and minuses and it's very hard to
draw up a 'balance sheet'.
Also, some organisational structures work in some places but
aren't suited for others. For instance, some communities benefit
from working with a commercial tour operator, while in other cases
the tour operator may be exploiting them. Ultimately, much depends
on the good faith, honesty and competence of individuals. So really,
the only way is personal, first- hand experience of a project
over an extended period of time, and using one's judgement.
Mark Mann can be reached via email. |
