July 2021 - Restless in love

Not having blond hair and blue eyes, as is typical in my country, helped me blend in with locals in pretty much all the countries we visited. Even my name is quite popular in Latin America.

My Peruvian, even more so, could have easily been mistaken for an Argentinian or Mexican. And that helped us a lot, especially trying to get the local prices. In some places, however, being overcharged was unavoidable. I remember in Haiti I was asked to pay 24 times more (I calculated!) for a pineapple in the market. Sure, I definitely didn’t look like a local there, but luckily I had some local friends with me who talked the old man into giving me the fair price.

This is how I wanted to start writing this time. And only at that point it dawned on me that I did have blue eyes!!!

So scratch that! Let me start over.

I bet my Peruvian didn’t expect to carry two fully loaded backpacks at some point during this trip. And he didn’t think he’d have to clean the terrible looking bathroom after me (I’m so so sorry!) Or maybe he did. That’s what an adventure and being on the road is all about, right?

So before we jump to the bad, let’s start with the good. I can’t count how many amazing things I experienced during this trip, but I will mention a few highlights:

Hiking up and down the canyon. The trek took us 4 days in total as we wanted to visit the ruins off the beaten track. Every mosquito bite was worth seeing the Choquequirao in Peru, but ,damn it, the trek was so hard (and it was my first time, too) I cried. The flip flops I was wearing didn’t help, nor did my Converse.

Freediving in Utila, Honduras. It felt good to learn something new. It felt even better to stop for a while and sleep in the same bed for a couple of weeks.

Teaching English in a small town of San Pedro by Lago Peten Itza in Guatemala. I enjoyed it so much that it inspired me to get my TEFL certificate later on, which eventually brought me back to Latin America a few years later. Plus, I made good friends with a really lovely girl from Australia.

Camping in Atacama Desert, Chile. Everything about that place was magnificent.

Reaching the top of the world in Parque Nacional Huascaran, Peru. Freezing cold. Freaking beautiful.

Being one of the two temporary inhabitants on one of the islands in San Blas, Panama

Having a $1 lobster in Cuba. The first time at the restaurant we paid $10 USD. The second time in the less fancy restaurant it cost us $5 USD. Then finally we got freshly caught lobster for $1 USD. Delicious.

Fighting dinosaurs in Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia. Who would have thought, eh?

Trying out the famous sopa de caracol. We liked the soup and the restaurant so much, that we went out of our way to come back there the second time.

Thanks to all the wonderful places I got to see, now I’ve got my list of the three most beautiful beaches in the world:

Port Salut, Haiti

2. Playa Bahia de las Aguilas, Dominican Republic

3. Beach strip in Zona Hotelera in Cancun, Mexico

Where there is good, there’s bad, and where there are highs, there are lows. The trip didn’t lack the latter, which only made it more memorable – looking back, not at that precise moment! It’s hard to see the beauty of the place when you are lying on the bottom of the boat and praying for it to stop moving as the contents of your stomach move just at much…

‘The furthest distance in life is between what it is and what you thought it would be’

– The Only Living Boy in New York.

I couldn’t agree more, especially when it comes to relationships.

I don’t fly across the world just for anybody. I do that when there’s a connection, when we have chemistry, when I believe we’ll get along better than fine and when I see myself in a long white dress saying ‘I do’ and actually liking my new last name.

Some guys are very straightforward, painstakingly so, and they shatter my dreams in a blink of an eye. ‘If you think I’ll marry you one day or have family with you, you are wrong’ – announced one boyfriend after a few months of being in a relationship with me. ‘You will never be enough for me’ – blurted out the other one after a couple of months of being together. Ouch! Talk about being honest…

So you can see now that taking that flight to Lima, Peru, was the natural step my universe. Did I think the guy was gorgeous? Yes. Was I head over heels in love with him already? Yes!

I told you once this will not be a travel blog. And right now I wish it was. Because I have so much to say, so much to share and so much to be grateful for. For once, I never imagined that I’d be backpacking through 15 plus countries in Latin America. What a mind blowing experience that was!.. I never expected to see so much kindness in this world, to meet so many beautiful souls. The trip made me rich in a way no money ever could. And for that I will forever be grateful to my Peruvian (I would have not done this without him), his family and every single person that I met on the way).

What happened during the 3.5 years is a treasure. Of course, not all of it was roses. Far from it. The beginning was tough. We were very different, we came from different cultures. Things got better along the way as we got to know each other better, but we had many misunderstandings turning into fights. Had we been living in our own places and dating, it would have been a very different story. Spending 3.5 years with another person, when the furthest he gets from you is the other side of the tent, is no joke. Even when we were fighting we couldn’t run away and hide. ‘At least we have each other’ became both our blessing and our curse.

Hitchhiking was no walk in the park either. Those days when nobody stopped (and I mean nobody) was a torture.

But the smile on my face rarely faded.

The drivers that did pick us up were not all sweet as honey. One tried to put his hand on my knee, the other tried to kiss me. I said: ‘No, dude, get off me’, and still took the ride, but let the Peruvian sit next to the driver.

Besides the few above mentioned episodes, we were lucky to encounter a great deal of amazing people, probably as eager for a company on the long road as we were eager for a ride on that same long road.

And riding like this