It is with mixed feelings that I must now face the prospect of returning to normality and board a flight back to Sydney. Mixed because although I look forward to seeing friends and family and to having regular access to good coffee once more, I will miss life living out of a small carry-on backpack, and the freedom to explore new places, try new things and have new experiences on a daily basis. And I will miss this continent - its varied and breathtaking landscapes, it's vibrant cities, its delicious (if not always healthy) cuisines, and its friendly and welcoming peoples. Even with the luxury of almost six months, there have been dozens of places where I have felt my stay was too brief and which I feel I will need to return to in the future. There are others to which I don't feel a pressing need to return, however much I enjoyed them at the time. But there are none that I regret visiting or would recommend against including on any itinerary of South America. In fact, ultimately I am delighted with how this journey turned out - with the places I've been, and the things I have seen and done. I am not usually one to worry about what could go wrong, and I have the firm belief that there is always a way through any hurdle when travelling. Even so, parts of South America have a reputation as places where things can, and do, go wrong. But, with the exception of the impact of political unrest in Bolivia requiring a minor change of plan, I managed to avoid any issues and never once felt unsafe or concerned. I fell ill with "Bolivia belly" only once, taking me out of action for just one morning during the safari across the salt flats (which was a morning of transit anyway). On top of that, I can count amongst my blessings incidents including:
- Having my new phone fall out of my pocket somewhere in the mud along the Lost City trail in a torrential downpour during the very first week of the trip. When I finally realised it was missing, I turned to retrace my steps with despair and very little hope of finding it wherever it had landed somewhere along the muddy trail, only to have a fellow hiker call out "Are you looking for this?" just a few minutes into the hopeless search, and hand me my soaked through, muddy, but still completely functioning and otherwise unharmed phone!
- Deciding to wash my dusty day pack in San Pedro de Atacama after the rigours it went through in the desert and salt flats of Bolivia, and realising after the fact that my new earbuds, in their charging case, were still tucked inside it. One full wash and rinse cycle later, the case came through looking immaculately clean and inside were two fully functioning, undamaged earbuds!
- After hundreds of kilometres of driving on unsealed tracks through the desert of north-eastern Argentina, finally getting a flat tire. But somehow managing to puncture it on a 5km drive from a winery into town. This meant that when we realised we had a flat the next morning, the car was already parked in town, around the corner from a tire repair place that fixed it (as opposed to changing it for the spare) on the spot for less than $20!
I would also list my blessed wildlife sightings (particularly, the giant turtle off Paraty, the pod of seventy-odd whales off South Georgia, and the many jaguar in the Pantanal), and the weather, as other massive wins. I can count only a handful of days where I saw rain, and most of these were in places where it didn't matter as I was in transit from place to place or in a city (notably, Sao Paulo) where the activities were mostly indoor based anyway. Whenever I needed good weather, when rain would have made for a miserable time, I had blue skies - hiking in Patagonia, trekking the Andes and arriving in Machu Picchu, safaring the Pantanal, cruising in Antarctica etc etc. I never fail to remember and appreciate how lucky these kinds of happy accidents and circumstances are, and how big of a difference they can make to the enjoyment of a holiday. So thank you to whoever was watching out for me.
Thank you too, to those who made this trip even more special by joining me along the way. I won't name names on a publicly accessible website where your photos also feature, but you know who you are. It has been the biggest blessing of them all to share these experiences with you, and the trip would not have been the same without you. And we will now be able to relive it over wines and cocktails for ever more!
With that, this blog draws to a close for now. I say "for now" because this trip has inspired in me a thirst to explore a whole host of wild and far-flung destinations that now form part of a new bucket list, so who knows, the blog may yet be resurrected in an effort to chronicle those future adventures. For the moment, thank you for reading and coming along on this wild ride. See you soon!
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