Big decisions

"I love that the biggest decision of my day is which direction to walk on the beach."

I heard this line 10 years ago sitting in a first year social work class. My professor, a woman in her 60's with the energy of a teenager, was talking about self care. She was explaining its importance and how her biggest method is retreating to a beach every year where nobody else is around. Peaceful solitude.

The line resonated with me and continues to do so. As someone who is usually quite busy and with multiple ongoing commitments this seems like a dream scenario. Just decide which way to walk. Since landing in New Zealand I've been traveling 100% solo and so have had no schedule to adhere to or commitments to hold. The other day I was in a small tourist town called whitianga. I had intentions of going to a place called cathedral cove on a neighboring beach. When I woke up in the morning the weather was not going to cooperate and not going to make a beach day much fun. I thought of alternatives but in a beach town with a small population when the weather doesn't cooperate your options reduce drastically. I found myself thinking about potential ways to spend my days, but after examining logical possibilities I found myself with an unexpected question "which direction would I like to walk?"

I headed east. I decided to hike an old historical site which also acts as a viewpoint and nature reserve. Midway through my walk it hit me. I had a sudden wave of peacefullness that would be hard to describe. I tried to think back to when I had felt like this before and couldn't recall a time. It wasn't that I was overly jovial, I was simply at peace. I had my moment where what direction to walk became my biggest question of the day. I think that the moment I realized it I probably had a huge grin on my face. I spent the next 3 hours slowly strolling through the coastal forest of new Zealand absorbing the beautiful nature around me. It was wonderful.

I have slowly been able to feel the honey moon phases of the trip dissipate and it's a far cry from every single moment of every day being amazing, but unexpected moments of contentment sure are wonderful, especially when they resonate back into your past of a phrase and a time that fuelled imagination.

Bolivia, Argentina, and first endings.

Last post was shortly after I arrived in Bolivia. Having now moved on I can say that it was a great country. Some people in the group didn't really like the place but I had a blast. It is a developing country after all so the fact it doesn't have rural roads is something to deal with amongst other things. Favorite place was Sucre. It is a white city that was super laid back and just a good hang out. Death road was amazing as were the salt flats. I knew they were big but until you are on them then it's hard to comprehend just how big they are. To be standing on a sea of salt which consumes the horizon is pretty neat. We had lots of fun on the excursion. Taking photos, playing football, cranking the tunes, And seeing flamingos in the Andean highlands were all part of the fun. 

We had a brief stop over in Chile for 2 nights which was pretty good. The highlight for me was a 3 hour bike ride I did solo to climb a "mountain". It was a lot of work but the reward of accomplishment along with the view were great.

Argentina. Long bus ride to Salta where we had a dinner and dance show on Christmas eve and did a gift exchange within the group. Christmas day was a highlight where we went horseback riding and had an Argentinean bbq. It was so fun. all the wine you could drink and meat you could eat. Next day was spent flying to Buenos Aires or BA for short. My first impressions of this city were nothing but positive. It's beautiful, and so are its people. The more I got to know the city and the culture I thought "of course I love it here". How could I not love a city and culture that values and is known for: dance, music, meat, art, and wine. These are all my favorite things. BA might just be my favorite city I've ever visited. 

I end in BA tomorrow and this is my first real ending of my trip. It is the first time I've had to say goodbye to friends I've made, say bye to a continent I've gotten to experience for the last 5+ weeks, and close a major chapter on the journey to this point. It's been such a whirlwind and an emotional journey but it has also been amazing and transformative. 

Keep it coming. 

1 month in

So I started megatrip just over a month ago with my solo travelling beginning just under a month. Th first month has been a bit strange only in the sense that I wasn´t sure what to expect from my travelling. how would I feel about being on my own¿ about spending time with a tour group day in and day out? about potentially missing people? Mow, I´ve certainly missed people and elements bout being back home but travelling this far in and I feel pretty good. As with anything, there are some good days and some bad days but for th most part I´m really enjoying it. The biggest growth for me in this time is my (travelling) confidence. When I first started the trip I was sort of self concious about not knowing spanish and I held back in many spots. Now, I don´t profess that I have good or even competent spanish skills but I´ve now grasped enough that I can get by on my own. further, I´ve actually found that attempting to get by on my own and even small tasks like ordering food or asking directions when done successfully as big wins. My big moment of when I knew my travelling confidence had increased the other day in Sucre, Bolivia. I had decided to go to a hat factory by myself and in doing so I was totally solo. I was crossing a city that I was unfamiliar with in a country I´m unfamiliar with where I don´t speak the language to go shopping. Don´t get me wrong, I knew I could do it and that I would be successful, but the fact that I was doing it and doing it is what gave me the boost. I certainly wouldn´t have had the same gumption a month ago. This is all part of the process.

Separately, Bolivia has been pretty cool. tomorrow we set off to go to the Uyuni salf flats which is and was the big draw for me going to Bolivia in the first place. I´ve found that Bolivians have been fairly nice for the first part, excvept for when people are loud in public spaces, then they get really owly. Bolivia is inexpensive, relatively clean, culturally interesting, and all in all a realy cool place. I like it more than Peru.

Thoughts on Peru and hiking Machu Picchu

So after getting to Peru and wandering around Lima for half a day by myself I met the rest of the group as part of the group travel experience. Through the first few days I started to get to know the group and find my stride in the pace of group travel.

Peru is an interesting place. On the surface the cities look really hard and tough but in seeing the people and communities it seems there is a good sense of connection and community here. Peruvians have been friendly, even though a number of attempts of being overcharged have been apparent.

As far as Peru goes, I'm just going to fast forward to hiking Machu Picchu. There was 4 days of hiking.

Day 1: we took a bus from the town of Ollantayambo to km 82 which is the start of the Inca trail. After getting our gear sorted out, the army of porters (small and ridiculously strong Peruvian men) began walking, and women attempted to sell tourists water bottle holders and buffs were poltiley declined it was time to start the hike. We took a group photo and got passports stamped and then it was on to the hike. The hike on day one was pretty simple. It was a few hours of straightforward hiking. We had some great views and passed by some ruins and it was all pretty simple. Arriving in camp the porters had set up all meals, tents, and give you a drink upon arrival. One thing that was a bit strange is that they clapped for everyone upon getting to camp. It was certainly a bit patronizing considering these men just walked the same route, carrying substantially more weight, and then set up camp, all while doing it faster than we walked. A solid day one.

Day 2. We knew today was "the hard day" with climbing over 1000 metres of elevation gained. It was basically a 6 hour hike straight uphill. Nothing fancy about it. We just had to grind out a huge uphill climb. Some of the guys in the group and I started naming parts of the hike to make them sound more intense and perilous than they actually are. This particular mountain we named in sections. After finishing "the gringo killer" I had to finish "the grinder" to get to the top. I was able to do it finishing about 5th in the group of 18. Day 2 hike ended and we were back at camp resting when the toll of the hike began to be noticeable. My legs were certainly very sore but I was getting off easy. During the actual hike some people really struggled and took a long time to finish, but it wasn't a race so didn't think too much of it. That night at dinner one member of the group actually fainted. She was put on oxygen and rested for the night. A couple more people said they were experiencing headaches and were worse for wear as well. The guides stressed several times the importance of drinking water, going slow, and taking our time on the trek. This was no joke. The rest of the group who seemed to get away unscathed were speculating as to what was happening: sickness, exhaustion, altitude? We weren't sure

Day 3. A few of the people who were not doing so well day day 1 had since bounced back and were feeling better but there was a lot of struggle going on in the group this day. One other person was in a lot of trouble and struggling to get through the hike. The hike itself on day 3 was probably my favorite hiking I've ever done. Big elevation changes, stone path, thick jungle growth, spectacular views, and great weather made for an awesome day. Again we passed by Inca sites which is amazing to think that these have been around for so long and because we were walking the Inca trail we arrive at these sites with either nobody or very few people there so it's almost as if having the place to yourself. Day 3 was awesome but after the number day 2 did on my legs and the distance of day 3 my legs were cooked.

Day 4. This was a short day as we were close to machu Picchu. 3 am wake up call so that the porters could pack up and get back to town. We had a short walk to a control gate where we had to wait around until 5:30 for it to open. Once it opened we were off. You could definitely sense the excitement in the group this morning as everyone seemed to be feeling better (except for aching muscles) and the pace of the walk was reflecting that. The path was a bit more narrow and with the drop offs you had to be careful. In no time we were at the sun gate which is where you can get your first look at Machu from. Being that it was so early the morning mist had yet to clear and so the view was a bit blocked, but it was fine as we had to get to the site itself. Once we were at the site it was interesting because most of the group was really excited to be there, but everyone was so exhausted that was hard to muster up the energy to truly absorb all the information being given to us. After a few hours of being at the site it was time to leave.

No amount of words I can write will do the trek any justice in terms of what it was like,  it was simply an amazing experience. Throughout the 4 days I told myself so many times "I'm actually hiking the Inca trail, this is awesome." Doing the hike was certainly a once in a lifetime time sort of experience and I'm glad I did it.

Keep the adventures coming!

As an aside. After the trek finished 3 more people weren't feeling well including myself. I was so hungry during the trek and run thin I think I was simply exhausted in the true sense of the word. A few of us went for lunch and when my food had come I had no appetite. After taking it easy the rest of the day and this morning (as I write this) I feel much better as some rest was in order.
That's all for now.

The most emotiobal day of my life.

Yesterday was the most emotional day of my life. I've had plenty of days where I've felt emotion on a high level and it has taken over my day, but this was on a whole new level. I had several emotions all going at once and on a very high level, all day. Yesterday was the day I would leave Mexico and start the trip "for real" it was also the day I'd be saying good bye to Stacy and be on my own. The amount of emoyions swirling I just couldn't seem to settle down. In fact, I was in the line up checking into my flight to lima and I almost broke out into tears. Between the nerves, sadness, anticipation, and excitment I just needed some sort of release. I'm usually pretty good at keeping my emotions in check, but this was just too much. Getting onto the plane was tough and Stacy and I both cried for sadness. I cried again for happiness less than an hour later as I looked out the window of the plane and knew I was doing it. I was seeing this dream materialize.
It was the most emotional day of my life and I'm sure as the journey gets more intense the nerves and emotions that go with it will get more intense as well. Who knows, maybe I will become someone who cries more often.

1 week in

So, it's been one week since I started this mega trip and already it's been quite the experience. My first week was in Mexico with Stacy and her family. The funny thing about doing the trip with Stacy and her family and deciding to go to a resort is that it allowed to ease into the whole trip. I was able to meet my cousin Alex at one point and she had made the comment that booking a resort is like the Wal-Mart of travelling. You don't have to do much and everything is right there.
One element that struck me upon landing in Cancun is that I really didn't give Mexico the excitment it deserved. The Mexico portion had almost become an after thought. When the plane was descending and I was able to see the trees and the soil I found myself excited. I had forgot about how thrilling it can be to visit a new place . I was so wrapped up in the larger trip I didn't give mexico it's due.
As the only other time at a resort I quickly found myself bored. For the first few days there I was trucking along and chilling out but Stacy and I both agreed that the resort thing really isn't us. We are more explorer types. I felt like the Mexico portion of the trip really hit its stride about mid way through the week when we rented bikes and rode into Playa del Carmen. We got off the resort, saw some people who weren't tourists, and had fun doing it.
A few days later we did our one excursion which was a full day trip to chichen itza. The days started with almost 4 hours in busses and we hadn't done anything yet. When we finally got to Chichen it was pretty neat. A complete tourist trap, but the history of the place is undeniable. The element that struck me most about the actual Yucatan temple is what great condition it was in. Could have been built just 100 years ago and I'd believe it, it was that good.
From chichen we went swimming in a huge cenote. This was the highlight of my week. After the sweltering heat we went into a sink hole about 150 feet down swimming in cool water along side fish with the hole open so you could see all the vegitation above. It was awesome.
The rest of Mexico wrapped up pretty nicely spending time at the resort with Stacy and her family.
For what little consideration I gave Mexico it sure delivered the goods.

The Process

It isn't achieving the goal, but the process of working to a goal that will change you.

I've heard something to this affect a hundred times. I tend to listen to motivational speeches when I go to the gym. It's great for my mental and physical health but this particular shred of knowledge is a reoccurring theme.

Since making the decision to go on megatrip it's startling to reflect on how much I've changed. The most noticeable is in attitude of being able to achieve goals. As I mentioned in an earlier post, for years, I questioned whether or not I could make a trip like this happen. I realized that I could make it happen, and what's more is that it's pretty simple to do! I even find myself experiencing a pang of irritation when I talk to people about my trip and I hear "I wish I....." or "if only I could......" or "it's too late....." In keeping with having civil conversation I tell the person that they can achieve it, whatever 'it' is. I resist the desire to scream how it's possible and go into motivational speaker mode, but I have this forum. It's so possible, and very simple. It's not necessarily easy, but it's simple. You must be focussed on what you want and just make it a priority. For the last 2 years I've de-prioritized eating lunch out, buying clothing, buying toys, and making other purchases that I would normally otherwise make.

As a result of my prioritizing I am now 10 days away from making my biggest adventure and one of my life goals a reality. Hasn't always been easy, but it's been amazingly simple. Whatever the goal you work towards, it is the process not the goal itself that will transform you.