One Year

We are now back in chilly Chile before we fly home. I´m tucked up under the warm covers as I reflect on the past year and write my last blog. We flew from Bogota the other day and could look down on all the wonderful places we had visited through South America, the Amazon and it´s jungle, we flew over Arequipa and the Colca Canyon region, I could see Lake Titicaca and the salt flats of Bolivia, the volcanoes and the rainbow coloured mountains there, the Atacama Desert and as we landed in Santiago we could see Aconcagua jutting out very clearly against the Andes.


It´s winter now in Santiago, the mountains surrounding the city are now snow capped. The shorts, T-shirts and sandals we wore 3 months ago when we travelled through here have been replaced by beanies, gloves and scarves.


I feel a mix of emotions at the moment. I can´t believe our trip is about to end and at the same time it feels like time has slowed down for the past year. I am excited to see my family and friends, but also sad to finish our travels. I don´t want to forget all the experiences we have had and all that we have witnessed.


We have met so many wonderful and diverse people that have shared their lives with us. From Henry the aspiring truck driver living in Chapata, Zambia, Pauline the pregnant Botswanan woman facing the prospect of being HIV positive, to Ali Barber the local Tatouine doctor working hard to send his kids through med school, Hernan the Chilean painter and partner of an architectural firm in Santiago, the lovely Zimbabwean couple we met in Ecuador Brian and Nina who have struggled to get visas on their around the world trip but haven`t let that deter them, to Faith the retired teacher of the blind and a passionate peace activist who spent 3 months in a US federal prison for acting as a human shield and volunteer for the injured in hospital in the Iraq war, to a Turkish UN worker in Kenya, to crazy Austrian cyclists and Finnish para gliders the list goes on and on. We really have made some great friends.


We have slept in the wilds of Africa all by ourselves with only a fire to protect us, spent one precious hour with the gentle giants of the Congo, played soccer with the local kids in South Africa, we walked hundreds of km`s until my feet couldn`t take it anymore, appreciated and learnt all about the pre-colonial cultures of both continents, laughed with the locals while being squashed on a bus or two, seen countless sunrises and sunsets, seen canyons, rivers, deserts, jungles, mountains, plains, waterfalls, glaciers, islands and volcanoes, crossed oceans and seas. We have visited churches and mosques, ancient ruins, museums, art galleries, souks and medina's, forts and libraries.


I don´t want to forget about the plight of the people in the places we have visited and the environment that is progressively polluted and destroyed in the name of economic growth. I like to be in places that remind me of all of the ugliness that goes on in the world, it´s all too easy to get caught up in the mundane day to day life and forget.


I like the broader perspective travel gives. It rewrites my understanding of history from another perspective. It is so much more than just a collection of things to see and do, that´s ticked of a list somewhere, more than a collection of sights and activities. Travel is interesting for the sights you see, the food you taste, the music you hear, the smells that fill the air, the hands you shake from the people you meet, to the things you learn and the culture you experience. It all adds to an appreciation of our diversity as people, but also our similarities as humans. Although we wear different clothes, eat different food, listen to different music, sleep in different style houses and follow different traditions and beliefs our human needs are no different to our own.


I have spent the last year mostly traveling through the third world, across two of the worlds poorest continents. I have seen it´s sadness and it´s beauty. I have looked at the face of poverty and marvelled at planet earth with all it´s richness. It´s impossible to come back the same person, all that I have witnessed has seeped into my consciousness. I am bound to feel confronted by what I will now witness back in the first world with all it´s materialistic desires and complaints they may seem petty after what I have seen.


During the last year I have lived out of my backpack with only a handful of things and it is all I have needed. The world economic crisis hit and from a place where people make their own homes from mud and grass, grow their own food from their small patches of land, make do with what they have and fix whatever breaks instead of throwing it out and buying a new one, it hardly seemed to matter. I have been to places where the unemployment rate is at 70% and heard other western tourists complain how bad things are at home.

I can only hope I come back more grateful for what I have in life. It has been an unforgettable year that`s for sure.

Colombian Fried Ants and Mud Baths

I sit here typing out another blog, probably my last or second last for this amazing trip, with bits of fried ants stuck between my teeth. Nick and I are in Bucaramanga, Colombia and the fried ants are a local treat, so we had to try it of course. Personally I didn't think they were very tasty, Nick seemed to like them though. We also tried some Lemon ants in The Amazon, they were alive ones. They were supposed to taste like lemon, but I think I ended us grabbing the other ants who like to hang out with the lemon ants, as I didn't get that nice lemon flavour, just a numb sensation on my tongue.

Anyway, so far we have had a great time in Colombia. It has been the highlight for South America for us. The place in stunningly beautiful, the people are super friendly and the travel is much less touristy and real.
We have travelled through Pasto, Popayan, San Augustin, Bogota and Cartagena on the Caribbean Coast so far. San Agustin was an interesting place full of ancient archeology that is linked to Ancient Egypt, Asia and Africa. Interesting stuff!

Here is some exerts from my diary recently.

12-6-09 Volcano Mud Bath

"What a surreal experience today was. We dunked ourselves in the contents of what has to be the worlds smallest volcano. We were suspended from within the mud completely weightless, I think this must be one of the closest feelings to being on the moon....There was a Colombian couple with us from Medellin. All I can say is, when plastic surgery goes bad! I had read about Colombia being the plastic surgery capital of the world, but up until today I had found that hard to believe. Think bad botox and boob job, I really felt for the poor woman. Why do people do that to themselves?!...After a 45 min bake in the volcano mud we exited looking like a swamp monster, covered from head to toe. I noticed one girl getting out of the mud had had a blowout on her bikini bottoms...too much mud weighing them down, luckily the mud covered everything... "

13-6-09 Hop, Skip and a Jump to Mompox

"Back on the road again today and it was another enjoyable day of travelling. We were woken up early by the screaming young school girls staying in our hotel, sometime between 5:30am and 6:00am...we got a taxi to the bus terminal as it was raining in Cartagena this morning. The bus station was miles out of town and it would have taken a long time by bus, so I'm glad we did. A lot of Colombians ride motorcycles and you often see whole families on the same bike on there way to work or school. On this raining morning, we saw one family riding along with their umbrella in a vain attempt to keep themselves dry.

We were directed straight onto a minivan headed for Magangue, a place I can not pronounce on the Rio Medellin, the same river we were near in San Agustin, in the South. There was the expected faffing here of course as we waited a further hour to actually leave the bus station as we waited for other passengers...We drove through lots of green fields that reminded me of parts of Africa near Uganda. Some of the buildings were also reminiscent of African huts built of mud, sticks and grass. We twisted and bumped along the road, the driver was going so fast that half the family sitting in front of us on the bus were throwing up. The granny was sick, then the young boy, emptying the contents of their stomachs into numerous plastic bags when they made it. It was quite a vomit feast for a while there. The mother was busy handing out bags to the gran on her left, then the young boy on her right, all whilst holding her little baby. The husbands job was to collect all the vomit bags and sit with them. We managed to make it with all the contents of our stomachs in tact. Although I found out later that I wasn't helping matters when I gave Nick a running commentary of the little boy and the plastic bag distribution around the bus. Oops! Anyway we got off the bus and the family gave us a cheery goodbye...We were directed to the boat ramp for the next leg of our journey, on a chalupa (a small passenger boat) for a small fee...The street vendors dangled there goods by the side of the boat as we waited again for a full load of passengers...We considered buying some bread, but the guy was charging too much so we declined to prevent embarrassment in front of the locals. At which point they all seemed to take an interest in where we were from. They were all so warm and friendly. I love days of travelling like this. We didn't take long to reach the stop for our final leg of the trip...We opted for a shared collectivo with the 2 friendly young girls we were sitting next to on the boat...As we drove along it all felt a whole lot more laid back and relaxed and I was enjoying the beautiful rural scenery role by. Pigs with their piglets, a small child riding a bike that was so big for her she could hardly reach the pedals, dogs wandering about, farm houses, potholes, motorbikes weaving there way around the potholes. We were stopped 2 times by the police or army, either way it was just a routine check for drugs or weapons. The first one was particularly friendly and when he found out Nick was English he felt the need to share his love of UB40 with us. The 2 young girls in our taxi had no idea what we were talking about as they played their own Latin American music from their mobile phone..."

Today we are leaving Bucaramanga for San Gill. We are slowing making our way back to Bogota. We have less than a week left in Colombia before we fly back to Santiago for a few days, then back home from there. See you all very soon.