Meet Erin Burt, A Tiplr Explorer
Erin is an avid traveler and environmentalist from Oceanside, California. She has an MBA in Environmental Management and is interested in marine conservation. She has been backpacking around Asia, South America, and Europe for two and a half years. She also loves IPA’s, scuba diving, trekking, reading, animals, the ocean, and taking photos.
When did you first catch the travel bug?
While my brother and I were growing up our parents always placed a high value on education and travel over materialistic things. We took countless road trips when we were kids, which sometimes meant two straight days in the car. These long haul driving trips were usually from California to Utah and to Baja California, Mexico. These aren’t exactly dream trips for kids (especially ones with attitudes… ‘Are we there yet?’). But that type of budget-friendly travel really made an impression on me. Driving through Mexico every summer is probably what led me to be so comfortable in developing countries. Most Americans visit countries in Western Europe because they can relate more closely to the culture and lifestyle. I, however, have always had this deeper sense of wanting to explore the unfamiliar.
Where was your last trip?
My last trip was six months through Asia. I had already been to a fair amount of South East Asia and I was eager to get back and see more. The last trip included India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, The Philippines, Borneo (Malaysia and Brunei), and The United Arab Emirates. The first three months of that trip my brother and I did together, which was quite an experience. But we both survived and it turned out to be an amazing trip. Not many people can say they backpacked through a region of the Himalayas with a sibling!
Favorite thing you found “by accident” while traveling?
While traveling in Sri Lanka we stayed at this little surf spot in Midigama that a friend told me I needed to visit. There were two restaurants and the guesthouse right on the beach but not much else. This same friend had also told me I needed to visit the ‘snake farm.’ I really didn’t have any idea what it was but we decided to go and check it out anyways. We got lost on our scooters and kept stopping to ask locals how to get there (mostly making snake gestures with our hands as many people we asked didn’t speak English). Eventually a tuk tuk motioned for us to follow him and we took a random dirt path up into the hills.
When we got to the top of the hill there was a single house that looked like a local family lived there. ‘No way is this the right place’ we thought. Then a man came out of the house and assured us in broken English that this was in fact the snake farm. As we entered the house there were boxes with mesh tops that were ‘locked’ by means of twigs. Inside each box was a snake.
We found out that the man was a third generation Ayurvedic practitioner who captures snakes found in the local villages. Often times the snakes are found by peasant farmers who call the practitioner to remove them. Once captured, he produces holistic anti-venoms as a long time alternative to western medicine. He keeps these remedies and treats farmers that are too poor to go to the hospital, which is often too far away. After two to three weeks he releases the snakes in a national park nearby.
Sadly this long-standing local tradition and practice is dying out. This man we visited is one of the last Ayurvedic practitioners in Sri Lanka. With modern science having such strong a strong presence throughout the world, the need of a ‘medicine man’ is declining. In order to earn a profit, this man will bring the snakes out of the boxes to show you each type he has and give you information about the species. The poisonous snakes come out on sticks while the less dangerous are hand held!
Why do you travel?
This seems like a silly question but it’s actually kind of tough to explain. Traveling opens up so many doors and gives such insight in ways you’d never imagined. It’s definitely a form of learning that is so different to a proper education. I think they both go hand-in-hand and they definitely compliment each other. You learn so much about yourself, about the world, and about others. It really is crazy to think how much I’ve changed since I began these big trips and how differently I view the US and the rest of the world now. While plenty of Americans travel it’s not something that’s engrained in our culture. Some statistics state that over fifty percent of Americans do not have a passport. Essentially half the population doesn’t even have the means to leave the country. The people that do have passports and a means to leave may not even travel very often. I want to explore and see as much of this amazing earth as possible before more habitats and local communities have disappeared.
Where to next?
I’ve recently returned to San Diego, California where I am looking for employment. I haven’t given up on the traveling though! I’ve got some trips through the United States planned. I’m also looking forward to becoming reacquainted with my city as so much has changed since I’ve been off traveling! I’ve met up with so many friends from different countries and they are always so hospitable when I visit. I’m excited that I can return the favor and host them when they come to visit California!
Favorite thing you’ve written about so far?
That’s got to be a trick question! Writing about some of the places I’ve been brings up so much nostalgia and just a sense of awe. I’m dying to go back to everywhere I’ve been, even if it’s just been a place I originally thought was so-so. I have realized that I tend to have a pattern. When I’m in (or have just left) Asia, I want South America again, which is probably why I’ve been writing so much about South America lately. But when I’m in South America, I’m dying to get back to Asia. It’s like a tug-of-war between these two continents. There’s so much to see and I’ve just barely scratched the surface. And don’t even get me started about Africa… I’m saving that continent for a future mega-trip!
Favorite thing that you haven’t shared with us yet?
Well now that you mention it, there is this little island in the Philippines that I spent five weeks on. It’s one of those places where you feel like you’d be doing an injustice if you told people about it. We’re talking what Bali was probably like fifty years ago before tourists and want-to-be surfers ransacked it. I spent two months in the Philippines and I could have spent much longer. There’s so much incredible scenery and so much to do. From diving to trekking volcanoes, you’ll never get bored in the Philippines. It’s a place that I didn’t expect to love as much as I did, so I have to figure out where to even begin!
What’s the strangest experience you’ve had traveling?
I’ve had some surreal experiences while traveling, but it’s usually hard to convey it to anyone that wasn’t there. One incident that has always stuck with me was on an overnight bus in Bolivia. My friends and I got off the bus in the middle of the night for the bathroom break. The driver wasn’t very nice and kept refusing to stop even though it had been hours and people needed the toilet! Needless to say we were all exhausted and irritated when we were finally let off.
When we got back on the bus, my friends realized they left their backpack on the seat. South America, especially Bolivia, is known for its levels of petty theft. The bag was gone. A nice Bolivian man who was a passenger helped us search the bus for the bag, but whoever took it was long gone and was no longer on the bus. My friends were devastated as the bag contained all their pictures over the past six months, their travel journals, etc.
Once morning broke and we approached the last rest stop. The same Bolivian passenger found police officers and informed them of the incident. By then we knew the bag wasn’t on the bus but the Bolivian man insisted that the police conduct their own search. The police came on the bus and began a search similar to the one we had conducted. Then all of a sudden a man a few rows behind us was removed from the bus with all of his belongings. Once they were off the bus our new Bolivian friend turned to us and said that the man that was removed had twenty kilos of cocaine in his bag! Anyone who has read Marching Powder (a very popular book among travelers in South America) has a pretty good idea of what happens if you get caught with drugs in Bolivia! The search immediately ended and the driver was pleased to be able to leave the rest stop. We were on our way, without the stolen backpack, and without the man carrying cocaine in his hand luggage.
