travel south america

Im going to Brazil for 2 weeks on 23rd July…..cant wait :-)

This is probably the area of the world i am most drawn to… i’d love to thoroughly explore South America with a friend/partner for a few months. True back packer style.

follow che’s route

I spent a summer in Brazil while I was in college and it was an awesome experience for me. Because I was there so long and because I was living in the dorm of a small Bible college, I had a chance to get to know some people and make friends while I was there and live the way people live in the equatorial parts of the country. I slept in a hammock all summer, ate some of the best chocolate I have ever had in my entire life, learned to love (or at least tolerate) cold showers, and became quite addicted to guarana soda and other Brazilians delicacies. More than anything, I got to know some great people native to that country who helped me rethink the way I live in my own country. When I returned to the USA at the end of the summer, I was totally freaked out by the frantic way people in Texas drove and by the fast pace of life here after spending months living at a slower, more laid back pace. But mostly I cried for my friends I left in Manaus and missed the way they didn’t let things or busy-ness get in the way of relationship.

I have been fortunate enough to make some lovely friends in Colombia, also, who also live at that same, less harried pace. People in the USA mistake it for indolence, but it is not. It is a recognition of what is really important and an unwillingness to sacrifice the important for the merely urgent.

If you go as a sightseer, you will get something out of the travel, I suppose, but if you go and allow the going to change you, you will come back with much, much more.

This is literally all ive been thinking about for the past week.. and thats funny because i havent been this obsessed about something in so long. About 2 months ago i decided that i wanted to go back to school without much direction or idea about what i want to really do. I knew i wanted to learn about cultures and languages but that’s about all i knew… ive got applications and all that shit and throughout this process so far i havent gotten excited. then one night last week i was drunk and at a party and i talked to this 33 year old lady who told me about her life and made sense to me. she convinced me that going travelling for an undefined amount of time isnt procrastinating life, which up until then i thought it was, but it was actually living it. just because not everyone else is doing it doesnt mean its bad.. and that was hard for me to accept. Ive always known im not like other girls… or people for that matter. i seem to always be concerned with running out of time and not being able to fit everything in that i want to do and i never really understood it. through working in an office situation for much too long i learned that i cant do that kind of thing… and i can already rule out many other jobs and that’s scary cause then i dont know what im supposed to do for work. but im over it… like why should i be looking for WORK to fulfill my need to live. thats all wrong isnt it. work is a good way to settle down and im in no way ready for that… im a strong, independant young lady with more than enough ambition and i just need to spread it out… Ive been on a life changing trip before and ive never felt better about myself or so complete. It all just makes sense to go out there again. SO ANYWAYS, i’ve made a little map outline thing about a possible schedual and ive emailed my travel agent. ive also decided i want to do southern Chile, go up south eastern argentina all the way up to RIO ( a place ive ALWAYS wanted to go) and then somehow fly over to Lima for machu pichu etc. i also really want to go to colombia and the amazon if at all possible. venezuala would be nice and after all that i want to find a job in costa rica or something and stay till i WANT to go home. sounds pretty fucking cool hey? I have 11 months, no money and a huge plan. should be intresting… WISH ME LUCK!

my boyfriend and I travelled South America for 3 months with our 1 1/2 year old daughter. FANTASTIC experience, although we didn’t see even a 1/4 of what we would have liked to. So we will go back at some point to continue our journey.