The adventure begins
After contemplating for so many years, I’m finally starting one on my lifelong dreams: a long trip around South America. You know, life goes fast!
Excuse me for a tangent: as soon as life gets stable and days start to feel the same, it flies. With no new experiences, the brain decides that a day so similar to another is not worth storing and it simply forgets. With no memory, there’s no perception of time. It’s like a computer, if a day had something stimulating and new, it goes to ROM memory. If it’s just another day, it goes to RAM memory and gets flushed as soon as it’s not needed anymore. With that in mind, I decided to fight this and live my life in a way that I can bend the perception of time in a way that days should feel longer, instead of shorter.
In the ideal scenario, I’d take a whole year off, explore the world and come back ✨a whole new person✨, exactly as the cliché goes. Different from the professional travellers you see around, I still have bills to pay. Also, I prefer South America over the typical Asian trip.
The reason is simple, after learning Spanish language, I fell in love with it. And as a culture enjoyer, I must say that there’s nothing like exploring and experiencing a country when you know the local language. The experience is more authentic, the people are more open and you feel more connected. The opposite is also true, when you go to an exotic place but only speak English, everything around you will be made for tourists (think of The Truman Show). In favor of making the experience acceptable for the biggest audience, you often end up with the lowest denominator. The food can’t be that spicy (don't forget the burger & pizza joint in the main street), the tour can’t be that dangerous and the hotels need to look familiar. I despise that.
Without a clear plan in mind, my idea is to take a slow-pace rhythm and explore places, cities and food as close as a local would. I want to connect with people, learn their expressions and try to see the world with their glasses. Not an easy task and a bit pretentious if I’m being completely honest. I'm aware that this can go in the opposite direction and I could meet a group of gringos and we'd do all the “unforgettable/must do” activities written in every travel blog. I hope not!
The plan is to not have a plan. Be open and be ready to reset my mind after those (so intense) past 6 years. I’m sure that regardless of what happens, it will be cathartic in its own way and I know I will be a bit different in 3 months. Hopefully the change is for the better.