Home - Safe and Sound!

Well what can I say? What a fantastically amazingly wonderful time I've had! I'm so pleased I kept up with the daily blog. Sorry if it was a bit much for people to keep up with, but I was mostly doing it as a diary so I can look back and reminisce.

Thank you to all of you though (especially my biggest fan, my mum) who kept up with me and commented along the way. It made me feel not quite so lonely.

Mostly I've had no problems doing this alone and I've enjoyed doing my own thing with no compromises, but I don't think I'll do it again. All the amazing sights I've seen would have been so much better if I'd had someone to share them with. I've felt really close to my Dad on this trip. Especially the mental adrenaline filled activities. Cos I felt him right there with me! I guess this blog has been my travel companion really. Is that a bit sad? I know Polly was with me throughout (thank you Jo x) but she has limited vocabulary and sometimes I didn't get her sense of humour.

Along the way I heard many horror stories. People getting mugged at knife point, buses getting hijacked and ALL belongings being taken, scams where something wet drops on you, a guy fusses around "helping" to wipe it off while the other guy steals your stuff (this happened to a woman TWICE! You'd think she'd have learned!), passports being lost, and less severe, forgetting to take drying towels etc from one hostel to the other. I've not mentioned any of that along the way as I didn't want to tempt fate. I went to South America with the full intention that I would at least lose stuff. However I'm very pleased to say the only emergency I had was when I locked my padlock keys in my bag and had to have it cut open. And the only thing to go missing was said padlock! Oh yeah and my camera dying on me. But that was on the last day of my last "things to do". Perfect timing!

I would recommend travelling in South America to everyone. However I completely underestimated this vast continent. 3 months was nothing. You need 6 minimum to do what I did, and I only saw about a third of this remarkable area! I feel so lucky and privileged to have been given this opportunity to visit some truly stunning and unbelievable places. Chile was my favourite. Especially Patagonia. I'll go there again, when I can speak Spanish a bit better!

Hasta Luego Chicas!

Mucho amor
Paulinedidsouthamerica
xxxxxx