Latin American Journey

I have been to many incredible places and met some amazing people. I have found that it is traveling that makes you who you are and that the addiction to traveling can change your perspective on life.

This time last year, I took a three-month trip around South America. I saw Christ the Redeemer watch over its magnificent capital city, I danced the tango in Buenos Aires, I was crushed by the power of Iguaçu Falls, I climbed up the most active volcano in Chile and drank all the Pisco in Peru.

I arrived in Rio de Janeiro alone. I have never been religious, but the first time I saw Christ the Redeemer, it gave me a sense of hope and security. I thought that it was a magnificent statue looking over this fantastic city. It definitely beats the Angel of the North, which greets me every time I head back home to Newcastle. Brazil, what I saw of it, is a wonderful country, the beaches, the sunsets, the people; it’s an extraordinary place, one I have to discover more of.

However, as I am a keen enthusiast of Hispanic culture and wanted to know more about it, I particularly loved Peru and its post-Colombian, Incan background. I visited the heart of the Incan kingdom, Cuzco, where the essence of the Incas is still alive. The Inca trail and the amazing, cultural trek to the Machu Picchu was fantastic. It was a land where you get to imagine the life of the Incans 500 years ago.

Their intelligence was unbelievable; mathematicians marked out windows to represent where each month’s full moon would fall, which produced a calendar. They also created a water irrigation system in their stone walls. The Incans loved puzzles when they were building their empires; they put in a rock that has 12 corners so that it could fit in between all the other rocks in the wall.

I find that whilst journeying, you gather such fascinating trivia through meeting locals and this is what I love most about traveling. I admire their pure love and interest in their country’s past; they have so much to share and are willing to let everyone know how their fantastic country has developed and where they came from.

Staying with Bolivian host parents on Lake Titicaca was a completely different experience during my travels. The contrast between our lives and theirs is breath taking. We were dressed up in their traditional clothing, which included a bright pink, long and puffy skirt with a black waistcoat.

Living with these people was an amazing experience. We sat in their ‘kitchen’ – a basic, small room with a wood fire and pots and pans, which were heated on top of the fire. It was very basic, but for them it was everything they needed. The food was nothing I’d ever eaten before and there was plenty of it, thankfully! We were invited to a show at the school where the children performed a dance for us, which we then had to imitate. I was so overwhelmed by how happy these people were with what little they had that I happily obliged just to please them. I was thrilled that everyone wanted to share their lives with me.