The Backpacker

My sister has taken off on a backpacking adventure through South America. She's 25, not married, no kids, so this is totally acceptable. I would be lying if I said I wasn't a little bit jealous. We all know how much I love to travel (I mean, I wrote a whole book about it). But then she started throwing around terms like "farm work stay" and "$7 per night hostel" and "will just take buses from one country to the next." She plans to stay as long as she can, and hoping for around six months. Now I have a few concerns.

1) Can someone survive with diarrhea for six months straight? I know she's going to get it (she's already suffered) and I'm not sure a backpacker can afford the amount of bottled water she will need to rehydrate.

2) Should she be quarantined for lice and bed bugs from the farm stays and hostels before she's allowed back in my house?

3) Will she make headlines for getting the Zika virus and having symptoms not yet being endlessly covered by the media?

4) What kind of snakes, poisonous frogs, or other biting things will she encounter? Will she know what to do when they bite her?

5) Will she be robbed on a bumpy bus while traveling across the continent?

She is currently in Central America and hasn't made it south yet. Above is a photo she took of her dinner one night in Honduras. Apparently there were lots of armed guards and men with machetes around her. That sounds like a relaxing dinner. I am looking at the plate and hoping that everything is cooked nice and hot and that the meal didn't give her any parasites.

It's going to be a long six months.