What I Saw...

I have been on the road for nearly 8 months now. In this time I have been in places as varied as the top of a 6000m volcano in Bolivia; the temples of Angkor in Cambodia and the beaches of Rio and Bahia in Brazil.

My time in each of those places, as well as hundreds of other places on the way, has allowed me a fantastic opportunity to really see and understand the lives of hundreds of millions of people that share this planet Earth with me and you.

While I'll cautiously report that life seems to be going rather well for most of the people I've seen while travelling these last few months, there is also incredible hardship right in front of your eyes. There's also creativity, cunningness and perseverance in large doses.

Some places are nicer than others, some are more relaxed than others, and some are just simply tougher than others. But what strikes me as a hopeful sign for the future is that people everywhere increasingly seem to be aspiring to the same broad range of goals and objectives. Especially the younger generations. As a wise Chilean man once told me: "People just want to live happy productive lives!".

It's an incredible feeling when you are able to meet sincerely friendly people who will allow a window onto their lives. Luckily, this seems to happen a lot on the road. The people who you will meet while discovering your planet are truly one of the biggest highlights of making that decision to get out of the house and go see it for yourself.

Which brings me to José, the boatman I met in Bonito, Brazil - on the very first day of this latest adventure! He is a 30-something tour guide on the Sucuri river. Married and with two kids, this son-of-the-land actually had the opportunity to move to "the big city" and get an education, but could not fight his instinct to come back home and "live a simple and happy life in Nature".

"Definitely worth coming home to!", I thought, as monkeys played on the trees and fish swam around us while we floated down the river.