Here we go Again

Back on the road again. I am finishing the third part of this trip in South America. The plan is to go basically from Antarctica back to CO overland. We will see if it happens or not!

So far I love South America. It is nice to sort of speak the language. It is different than traveling in other countries because I have not felt like a single person has tried to cheat me here. The locals are so friendly, I can’t get out a map without at least one person asking me if I need help. Nobody wants a commission, they just offer to help and then leave. There is very little English spoken here, almost none, but that is good for me trying to improve my Spanish!

People are incredibly welcoming. On inaguration day, after watching it all, Colleen and I went back to the guesthouse we were staying at. The family that runs it had glasses of beer ready for us to celebrate. They insisted that we join them that night for an Obama Party/Feast. We sat out in this back shed with an open fire cooking this crazy food that is actually typical on the island of Chiloe, potato and flour mashed up and put on this huge, maybe 7 foot rolling pin to cook. (My neck was hurting so I didn't make it to the end to see how it turned out). They plied us with beer and warm converstation. It was fantastic to hang out with a family like that.

Another time, the same day actually, Colleen and I were sitting by the bay speaking English. A man heard us while he was on his way home from a journey but he plopped his bag down and sat next too us, talking until it was too cold for us to sit there anymore. At a hostel we were staying at in Punta Arenas, the guys there bent over backwards to help us. One guy gave me his favorite necklace while I was leaving because he said I was the funniest and nicest girl he has ever met and he was sad I was going. I about cried right there because he had been so helpful and interesting to me. Another guy there had seen our cheap bottle of wine and before he left he bought us each small bottles of nice wine.

Nobody has given off any sort of feeling that their intentions were anything but pure. I have become quite hardened and suspicious in my years of travel, but there seems to be nothing to be on guard about here, just genuine people wanting to talk and include as and willing to put up with my appalling Spanish.

I have focused my time in Chile so far. I was so happy to meet back up with the love of my life, Colleen. It is so different to travel with someone else and recently I have realized that for some reason I seem to make things much harder than I have to by myself by traveling so cheaply and traveling alone. I do enjoy traveling alone and wouldn’t change the things I have done in the past for the world, but it is also nice to feel like I no longer have to prove to myself that I am independent.

I am also on somewhat of an anti-social kick, not really wanting to drink or party or even hang out with many other travelers. I feel like I am at a point where I would rather talk to locals or be alone, and don't get me wrong, that sounds horrible. I am just trying to focus on being professional and writing a lot more on this trip, and I am so sick of 2 years of the same conversations you have with other travelers. "Where are you from? Where are you going? How long have you been traveling for? Where have you been?" So it has been really good to have Collleen there who really knows me so I am not completely a loner. But I have decided this trip is more about professionalism and internal things than external.

So South America has been more fun and less difficult so far. Sadly, Colleen and I split up tomorrow. But so far we have been to the colorful city of Valparaiso, then on to the more remote island of Chiloe. On Chiloe we explored the national park there and spent a day talking on one of the most amazing beaches I have ever seen. Now that is happiness.

After a 36 hour bus ride to Patagonia (the first of many and nowhere near the longest) we explored Punta Arenas and spent a lot of time in Puerto Natales. I just got back from a 5 day backpacking trip in Patagonia. We had an incredible time hiking through Torres Del Paines, up Grey’s Glacier and camping in the park. Next I head to Ushuaia, the southern-most city in the world, my jumping off point to Antarctica.

It is good to be back on the road and to begin to think about how my trip is going to end. It has been quite the journey and part of me is terrified to think about trying to re-integrate into a normal life at home. But visits home have helped and I have found more reasons to stay, though I fear part of my heart will always be on the road.

Evaluating how the last year and a half of travel has been, I still have some regrets and feel like I regressed, but all I can do is move on from here, and everything has so far turned out better than I ever could have expected in the end. I have learned that it is much easier to say you will follow your heart than to actually do it at times, especially for someone as nostalgic and attached as I am. Sometimes it is hard to let go, even though you know it is for the best and it is what you want to do. I also learned I need to really stick to my intuition. Like, why did I change my mind and decide to go to Europe even though I knew that was a terrible idea and setting me back in my quality of life? Live and learn I suppose. But that is still frustrating to feel like I harmed myself so much when there was no reason to and I was not being true to myself.

But it was good to get back on track. And I trust that the answers will be clear someday and hope I can continue to trust in life. And really good to once and for all get rid of things in my life that were dragging me down for way too long. Long overdue for that one, but what can I say, I’m a difficult case.

Don’t get me wrong though, I love my life. I was hiking in Patagonia next to this huge glacier the other day and I got to thinking. How on earth did I get to be so lucky? Reflecting on the last year and a few months alone, I have been to places like the Serengeti, the Himalayas, the Sahara and Patagonia. I go to Antarctica in a couple days. I have trained horses in South Africa, been tear-gassed, ridden water-buffalo and camels, cage-dived with great white sharks, interviewed refugees as they fled with nothing but what was on their backs, drank mint tea with turbaned men in Morocco, played with children in the slums of Kibera at an orphanage, slid down sand dunes, meditated along the Ganges, saw lions in the wild and was bartered over to be married off for 100 camels and 20 horses to an Egyptian man.

There are stamps in my passport from Namibia, Kosovo, Zambia, Bosnia, El Salvador, Ethiopia. How on earth did I get so lucky? I don’t know how I worry about anything .I look at my life and have nothing but gratitude for not only all the things that I have been fortunate enough to do, but for my family and everyone at home and the people I have met along the way that make my life worthwhile. I care about them more than words could express. And I am so incredibly lucky to have this amazing mom that supports me in absolutely everything that I do. Life is good, so I need to learn to let go and enjoy things more.

I am excited to see how the final leg of my trip turns out. I want to focus on strengthening, healing, passion, lightness and adventure. I want to do random things I never thought I would do. Instead of asking “why?” I want to ask myself, “Why not?”

And here I jump into this last leg of my trip, with some sadness that it is the last, but also hoping for some miracles and at the very least, incredibly happy with my life.

My mom sent me a card with a quote that I always want to keep at the forefront of my mind:

When you come to the edge
Of all the light
You’ve known,
And are about to step off
Into the darkness of the
Unknown,
Faith is knowing one of two things will happen,
There will be something
Solid to stand on or
You will be taught
How to fly