Three months in South America: Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. Now I am sitting in between: at the airport in Houston looking forward to my next adventures in North America…
…I landed in Rio de Janeiro a day before my 31st birthday. I was completely lost in Rio, stumbling around between Christ the Redeemer and the Sugar Loaf in culture shock: Rio de Janeiro and Brazil are basically first world: Fantastic western food, beautiful roads, men cutting the grass along the dual carriage way and I kept on wandering why the hell it is necessary to cut grass alongside a motorway… I could not identify locals and tourists by their skin colour anymore and the Mercedes Workshop in Rio de Janeiro was shiny and incredible organised and horrible expensive…
On our journey to Buenos Aires the Iguaçu Falls: definitely impressive! And Buenos Aires for sure one of my favourite cities in South America.
Crossing the Altiplano between Chile and Bolivia: off road at 5000 m altitude: no roads, crossing small rivers, ice blue lagoons, hot springs: This is what I do the job for: finally a bit of freedom and adventure in the wilderness.
At the same time six weeks of hostels and hotels: no camping, every day towns and freezing temperatures. I miss sleeping on my truck and being outside all day long.
The trek to Machu Picchu is breath taking (literally as of lacking oxygen and landscape wise), the Andes regardless if Bolivia, Peru or Ecuador are amazing, breathtaking and with their lakes, waterfalls and friendly people a definite highlight.
But for three months now I mostly have only seen the beautiful places, convenient hotels, nice cafes and restaurants, bars with mostly westerners… but I travel because I want to see the world in all aspects:
“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” – Mark Jenkins
My passengers I have taken across the continent are amazing people and made my trip definitely very enjoyable. Driving a truck and being on the road is fantastic and I cant get enough of it. Definitely many more road trips to come: for the near future en los Estados Unidos!