[JKCalhoun]

You're gong to throw away a life of living above fear if you focus on the 0.1%. And you'll never know what you were missing.

You can stay at home your whole life, avoid travel, avoid meeting people. From my experience (60+ years now) the best times of my life have involved taking those "chances".

[bryanlarsen]

Me too. But is it the privilege of being large, male and white with a small but real family safety net? I specifically specified "vulnerable people" in my comment.

[JKCalhoun]

That's fair—and it's true I wasn't addressing them. Although I feel like vulnerability, in my experience, is a thing that absolutely elicits sympathy, compassion from strangers.

Part of why hitchhiking works is because you are putting yourself out there at the mercy of a stranger—making yourself vulnerable as it were.

[dpc050505]

I know several women who've travelled alone at various places in South America.

My sister had her credit card blocked by her bank while travelling in Belize just before coming home. She got a ton of help from locals who understood her predicament.

[bryanlarsen]

Sure, lots of women travel alone, and most of them have excellent experiences.

But you generally don't have to talk to a lot of them before you encounter one that's been sexually assaulted on her travels.

Does that mean women shouldn't travel alone outside of "safe" countries? I am not in any sort of position to make that call. But I'll be supportive of my daughters if they decide to do so.

[dpc050505]

The vast majority of sexual assaults happen in the safety of a home (it also happens to give the offender privacy) and the culprit is somebody the victim already knew.

[andrewl]

Not traveling alone on foot in a country in which you barely speak the language does not mean staying shut in your house and never traveling at all and never meeting people. There is a middle ground.

[Noaidi]

Everything you said here is selfish, do you understand that?

"From my experience (60+ years now) the best times of my life have involved taking those "chances"."

You are not focused on giving, it is all about getting. And why is staying at home your whole life something looked down on? Just think of all the carbon it saves going into the atmosphere, if you can that is.