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 The shorts, T-shirts and sandals we wore 3 months ago when we travelled through here have been replaced by beanies, gloves and scarves.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.