Hanging Up The Travelling Boots......Well, For A While At Least!

After my last travels, I always said that I wanted to do it all again, another big trip, backpack and all, just once more before I turned thirty and it's surprising how if you want something that much, you will actually make it happen. Even if obstacles fall down in front of you, you climb over them using all the effort you can muster, even when the rat race tries to absorb you back in, you momentarily allow it but you remain strong enough to resist being blinded to what is really important to you. There aren't many things in life that I have said I want to do and will do that I actually have kept to my word but travelling, it is one of the few things, maybe even the only thing, that I am so passionate about. I love seeing all the places, the people and their lifestyles so different to ours and experiencing the magnificient wonders and beauty that make up this incredible world.

This time, due to circumstances and timing, our trip was a lot shorter than our last. Ideally I would have liked to have gone out for 3 months although going out for any amount of time is better than not going at all! It was a lot colder, that was a fact! Rather than chasing summer, we had arrived in South America in the midst of their winter with an unusually cold front making it even chillier than usual and at times, the cold certainly put us into a foul mood (it's hard to stay cheery when even though you are so bundled up wearing everything you own that you can't move and yet you still can't sleep because it so frigging freezing cold!). And yes, I will certainly be the first to admit that a lot more crap and bad things happened to us on this trip compared to the last - being ripped off at the bus station, the miserable cold weather, the problems before, during and after Uyuni, namely the storm which delayed us, the broken down jeep which cut short our tour, the horrible tour agency woman Lydia, the incident in Sucre. We definitely found it far tougher, be it for the reasons above or together with the fact that we were that little bit older this time around (we certainly did not slum it at all on this trip although I think the cold had somewhat quite a bit to do with it) or maybe simply because the first month of travelling is always tough and requires adjusting to (remember China and how miserable we were at times at the beginning in Beijing?) and just when we were starting to, it was time to go home. But was it still an absolutely amazing and memorable experience that I would do again and again and again? HELL YES!!!

Nothing, not even all the bad times can compare to all the good and wonderful things that we got to see and do and experience. You can't imagine what it feels like to be standing at the top of an Inca citadel in Pisac looking out across the breathtaking view of the Sacred Valley or wandering among the ruins in Machu Picchu having spent 2 hours hiking up to it in the dark before dawn or riding in a traditional reed boat from one floating reed island to another on Lake Titicaca or seeing dried llama foetuses on sale in markets in the highest capital city of La Paz or staring out across the 12 square km seemingly endless white canvas that is the world's largest salt flat in Uyuni.  Yes, bad things will happen, they always do but the good things, those great amazing experiences and sights from which lifetime memories are created, they outweigh the bad - always.

I said I wanted to return to South America and I am so glad I did. No, I wasn't exactly fluent in Spanish as I hoped I would be by the time I returned but it was simply amazing to see Machu Picchu and Bolivia like I had wanted two and a half years ago. Although I am ready to hang up my travelling boots and definitely my backpack for a while, I doubt this will be the last of my big travelling adventures or at least I don't want it to be. And where would I go next time.....haha, South America again obviously! There's Brazil and Ecuador and Uruguay and Paraguay and of course more of Argentina, Chile and Peru, oh and Venezuela for Angel Falls! Oh and perhaps even further up a little into Central America to Costa Rica and Panama and perhaps even Mexico! You never know, maybe by then, I will actually have learned Spanish!