Around Christmas 2006, I decided it was time to change something in my life. I had been working for several years as a chemical engineer, and was tiring of the travel and lifestyle, and the quality of my work was slipping. It took me about 3 months to finally decide to quit, and another 3 months before I had finished the last job. I began to plan an overland journey from my home town of Adelaide, Australia to England (for lack of a better destination) on a motorcycle. Chances are that I´ll still do that trip one day.
For some reason instead, I ended up flying to South America on a one way ticket (shhh, don’t tell the immigration authorities). It’s not as if I’ve always dreamed of travelling South America, but some good friends were there, and we agreed to meet up for a bit of a holiday in Peru in July. So that is where I started.
My initial planning matched what I normally do before a holiday, ie almost none. I rocked up to the airport with a one way ticket, and needed to buy an onward before I could get on the plane. I arrived with a few hundred dollars US, a heap of English pounds, and thankfully a credit card. It turns out that English Pounds are basically worthless in Peru (I managed to change them in Ecuador though). I did get some jabs before leaving, so hopefully my health doesn’t let me down. And Spanish? ¿Que?
The main plan is to ride from the middle of the world to the bottom. Ie from Quito to Ushuaia. Will I make it? I don’t know. (Update: March ‘08. Well, I’m only 700km away, so hopefully I will now). Chances are a few buses will be used at some point. The main plan is to take a break from work for a while, learn some Spanish, meet some new people and see how life goes on in South America.
So basically I have no plan; I’m making it up as I go along. Situation normal. I’ll keep going until I get bored, or run out of money. Hopefully I don’t run out of money…
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