Since coming home, my days have consisted of waking up, eating breakfast, then going back to bed while perusing Facebook on my laptop. Going through all the pictures of our travels, I'm thoroughly amazed that we accomplished so much and emerged virtually unscathed. Bowels and gastrointestinal tracts included. Which brings to mind our initial goals for the trip:
a) not dying
b) having a greater summer than any of you will ever experience
c) learning to eat spicy food
d) avoid getting explosive diarrhea
e) successfully communicating in Spanish
A) is a phenomal accomplishment, but we did have some close calls... During the run to the heights of Machu Picchu I gave up on relying on my cheap windup flashlight. Consequently, I tumbled down a set of stairs and rolled my ankle over a misplaced step, almost sending me over a cliff. Biking down the World's Most Dangerous Road - the entire 8 hour bike ride was a near death experience. In the beginning you speed past glaciers and mountain snow passes at 50 km/hr, and after descending into the jungle, it becomes a gravel road where your bike tires are literally inches from a 3300 ft drop to the left, with cascades pouring down on the right. It requires extreme concentration, and we had little mountain biking experience, save for the Banos expedition/day of hell (please see
Banos post). After a challenging turn, I looked up from my handlebars for 2 seconds, which sent my bike straight towards the drop, and so, completely terrified, I swung back and forth, wildly overcompensating trying to right myself back into a straight line, while hurtling towards yet another gut-wrenching curve. To eliminate excessive disaster possibilities, we went with Gravity, the most expensive and most reputable of all the guiding companies. They said that only one person had ever died under their care while tackling the WMDR. He was in his 50s, and they supposed that he suffered a heart attack, because there were no cries and no brake marks before he went over the drop. Before they built a newer road several years ago, this road used to average a fatality every week.
Where the road started in La Cumbre, at 4700m
The road ended in Coroico, 1100m after biking like this for 4 hours
B) This one is tough to judge, especially after learning of the incredible places where our other friends were travelling - all over Europe, Egypt, Senegal, Costa Rica, Japan, etc. Except none of their travels were as thoroughly documented as ours and the only proof was their photos which could have been cleverly photoshopped, so we'll still take the honours. However, my younger sister (the biggest newborn, as described
here) experienced Snoop Dogg live at Bluesfest, a secret dream of mine that will probably never be realized, so we'll call it a tie.
C) Surprisingly enough, spicy food is a rare commodity in the South American places that we travelled to. Most of their typical food is actually really boring, consisting mainly of soup, rice and potatoes. Cool fact: the Incans grew over 3,000 different types of potatoes. Anyways, we tried enough rediculous foods to last a lifetime, which we described in
this fantastic post. Which leads to the next goal...
D) I don't want to get too detailed with this topic, but I will say that I got the loosey gooseys more than once. Meghan can speak for herself if she wants to. There are a number of possibilities - seasickness, high altitude, lack of sleep, drinking the water... but I think one episode could be attributed to the fried pig skins and raw onions that a bought for $1 from a street vendor in Banos. Immediately before horseback riding. Sometimes you have to learn lessons the hard way. Luckily it never got to the explosive level, so I still say this goal was successfully accomplished. For all you present and future travellers, I strongly recommend that you bring Ciprofloxacin, an anti-explosive diarrhea wonder drug.
E) This goal is still iffy, but you can't say it wasn't attained for lack of trying, as evidenced by
this conversation and
this one later on. Having a background in French helped immensely because the languages are so similar, but really all you need is a positive attitude and an open mind. I constantly made mistakes and so was constantly the laughingstock (I once claimed that I was a man, intending to say that I was hungry), but it's all in good fun. Once you explain that you speak
muy poco Espanol but you're willing to learn and practise, everyone becomes very patient and helpful. Having a pocket dictionary is oh so very handy as well.
So it's been a full week since my plane touched down in Canada, and I'm actually really happy to be back. Not much has changed, except that my driving skills have significantly deteriorated, not that they were very stellar to begin with. My parents took me to Zehrs and I wandered into the cereal aisle where I stood, amazed, at all the varieties staring back at me. Our grocery bill has doubled since I've come home, I'm not even kidding.
Anyways I've given it 7 days, but I still have... the itch. It won't go away and I think about it constantly. The travelling itch, I mean! Two months just doesn't do justice to South America, and I'm envious of all our travelling companions that we met who went on to the salt flats in Bolivia, surfed in Venezuela and saw the Igazu falls in Brazil. I'm determined to go back there one day, but it won't stop at that continent. I want to do all the wonders of the world, especially the pyramids, as well as the Mayan and Aztec worlds. So I guess what I mean to say is that I hope this won't be the last post, because the future holds so many possibilities for disaster travelling. Anyone want to join?
-V
Looks like a normal plant, but its unassuming leaves and stems contain tiny silica hairs that become imbedded in the skin, releasing a poison 10 000 times more potent than poison ivy. There is no known antidote except using wax to remove each individual hair, which breaks off the silica in the process. The remaining needles can cause pain every time the skin contracts for weeks, months and even years.
Ever since the Australian government banning the killing of crocodiles in the 1970s, the population of these reptiles has exploded across the coasts of Queensland. Australian 'salties' are the largest crocodiles in the world, famed for their quick tempers and fierce intelligence. Every Aussie I've met has a favourite crocodile story to tell. The most memorable one involves an elderly woman who was walking across her property one night to checking her crab tracks, when a 4.2 m croc lunged from the riverbank. She managed to fend it off using her walking stick. Luckily, her walking stick was a double-barreled shotgun.
