Solo South American Adventure!

Lima

carolinelawrence — Sun, 8 Sep 2013 07:39:00 GMT

Lima: From airport arrive at hotel at around midnight. What a strange feeling. Sometimes a person might feel lonely, but it´s not often that you truely are, and feel, alone. I don´t mind it, I know it just takes a little time to adust and then the following day, I´ll enter my room after a full day of touring and it will feel familiar and welcoming. The very first thing I want to do it Skype my boyfriend and family. I almost tear up when I can´t get reception. I end up crouching on the cold tiles of a long, dark corridor trying desparately to get reception. As soon as I take one single step towards my room, it drops out. I move to the common area and hear the voices of my loved ones. The best! Words can describe.

Lima: I have the option of a few tours. I choose a full day tour to Caral, the second oldest ruins/civilisation in the world. My tour guide meets my at reception. He immediately puts me at ease, he is fluent at English and is very funny. I like him! We get picked up by some driver and before I know it I fond myself driving at what feels like 148 kms per hour through the streets of Lima with two complete strange men. Hmmmmm. They say to trust your gut and my gut said its all good.

Never have I seen such poverty. The drive was a very long 6 hours in total. Although painfully long, it was a fantastic opportunity to see not only the city but the outskirts of Lima. It was jaw dropping. I felt like I was on a different planet. You go through such different emotions when you observe an alien country. To be honest, the city areas of Lima city we drove through felt threatening. I´m glad I was with my tour guide. The outskirts of Lima, I felt very sad for them, and slightly guilty. The drive was crazy. My tour guide tells me that we are about to go through smog. I think, no problems. However, they speed at what the drive was going did not decrease according the the level of visability (of which I would catagorise as non existent´ and sharp corners. It was on the way home that the fog had cleared, I looked out of the window and noticed a sheer cliff edge. The tour guide accompanies this realisation with some interesting facts about that particular road, that I would prefer not to mention in case my mum is reading this journal entry.

Caral was amazing! What a sight.

Flights: 36 hours

carolinelawrence — Sun, 8 Sep 2013 03:44:00 GMT

Door to door? I think it worked out to be around 36 hours. Lots of fun! Flights went pretty smoothly. Flying into Santiago was the first time it sunk in that I was on my own in South America! It was a mixture of excitement and fear. Flying into Santiago: Black peaks surrounded by thick clouds, almost like whipped cream. This was unlike anything I´ve ever seen before in Australia.

Attempt at Spanish #1: My stopover in Santiago was around 9 hours. After wondering around aimlessly for half an hour, I decided to test it out......Spanish. FAIL! Walk up to a lady in the shop to ask her, well I think I asked her, ¨Where can I access WIFI around here? She didn´t even look at me! Nothing! She stared straight through me. Oh god, is this what it´s going to be like! That small amount of confidence that I had in my travellers ability to speak Spanish? Demolished...

Attempt at Spanish # 2: So after and hour or two or building up the courage to give it another go, I approached a Starbucks (yes, they´re everywhere) I asked in my broken Spanish again, success! I was able to access WIFI, however, for some reason was unable to use my card to purchase food or water. So for 8 hours; no food, no water. How to waste time?...Waste time = Facebook... and Coffeebreak Spanish (crammimg Spanish lesson # How to ask for Internet Access, Ordering food and Describing Emotions (very important, cansado comes to mind!)

Flight to Lima: After 8 hours of waiting, I lined up to get onto my flight from Santigo to Lima. Hand over passport and the man says something in Spanish and pulls me aside. Oh crap! He explains to me, that I hadn´t checked in! Long story. So I start to sweat. He manages to get me on the flight and I tell him I love him forever. Him: No smile. Too much perhaps???

Flight to Lima: I´m ruined. Squeeze into my seat, pull my hood over my head and close my eyes...but...I can feel a presence. Two young Chilean girls are sitting next to me and staring...like I´m about to perform just for them....Well, perform I did.

Attempt at Spanish #3: They are just waiting for me to say something. Monologue: Okay Caz, think this through, what Spanish do you know? This is a good opportunity to practise speaking to children for when I´m teaching.

´Cual es tu Nombre?´ - they say their name

Ummmmmm, think Caz, what else Do you know? So I ask them how old they are. They look confused. I ask them again. I ask the big one, then the little one. They still look slightly puzzled and giggle a little. They answer my question finally, after me asking them numerous time. One´s 8, the other´s 12. I later found out from my tour guide after asking him how old he is, that I actually asked them ´How many anuses do you have´....repeatedly, infront of their parents. Too polite to correct me I assume... Anyway, it can only get better from here.

I land in Lima, find my guide amongst the 100s of yelling taxi drivers and head back to my hotel.

It begins...

carolinelawrence — Thu, 29 Aug 2013 05:12:00 GMT

As a solo female travelling South America, this trip seems radical. I like that. I suppose that's a major part of why its happening in the first place. I've been very inspired by reading other female solo travellers journals, so here goes!

4:00am: Night before I leave for a solo trip to South America. Feelings/behaviours???? Combination of things: envisaging my escapes tactics if I'm being kidnapped (blood curdling scream combine with a sudden kick to the shins - someone told me to pretend to start vomiting to freak them out, but that will probably happen involuntarily anyway) very smoothly and confidently executed whilst managing my personal belongings; compulsive checking of 15 different lists I have on the go, all of which keep getting longer the more I get done; a sudden increase in awe and appreciation of my loved ones; sleep deprivation; craving foods from home (hmmmm...I haven't..yeh); and great anticipation of the unknown...Ooooo an adventure!!!!!!!

Two elements of my trip: teach and travel, both of which are very exciting. Bit of backfill: Obviously a teacher and recently competed a Tefl course, hence, the idea came to be in the first place. Initial thoughts were Vietnam...then saw the pink cheeks of the Peruvian kids and I was hooked. Plus: Machu Picchu...How I can't wait to meet you! I'm also very interested in finding out just how much I can challenge myself. I've always been interested in other people that challenge themselves; love reading all about them, so why not me?!

This writing thing seems therapeutic.