Home sweet Hove..... So - for one last time I feel compelled to type out some words describing my feelings and what I've been up to onto a website which I have just found out is completely open to the public...... Was contacted today by an NZ Travel Company who want to use my NZ blog entry! Ha - eat that Mr Ruff, (my old English Teacher)! National Geographic here I come........

Anyways, where was I? Ah - for one last time...... Well, I've been back a month now. It's been brilliant I have to say. People keep sympathizing and saying how I must be feeling now I'm back. Don't get me wrong, the time I had away was amazing but it's been great coming home too. There are worse places to live than Brighton, the weather has been great, I've had the World Cup, (England performances aside) and having friends and family around to see and speak with is difficult to replace whilst you are away. Earning money and having some sort of value / use is always good. But I guess the fact I've carried over my travelling attitude to my weekends in catching up with people has been a major factor in the high I've experienced since being back. I have no doubt it will wear off - already I've found myself looking through photos, reading old blog entries and remembering stuff - and real life will start to hit me but for now, one month after getting back, things are good. I've met up with Jonny and Sophie who I met in Thailand, Nicole and Jay have been to visit, Chevron has been down and I met up with Jana too. Hopefully there will be plenty of opportunites to meet up with others from my trip over the Summer and beyond - indeed we're having a Peruvian reunion in August; hopefully there will be Pisco and Cusquena a plenty.....

Nothing has changed, Brighton is still as it was - maybe a couple of bars have changed names and maybe some new people have joined the group or somebody is going out with somebody else but on the whole, it is like I never went away. Back in my flat, working on the same Project with EDF Energy, back drinking in the same old places and doing the same things I did before. But then again, things weren't bad before I went away so it's all good eh?

I've been incredibly lucky to be able to have the last 6 months AND come back to all this. I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone and hopefully seeing some of the people who made my trip what it was. I've been asked so many times what was my highlight or my favourite place. It's so difficult to pick one - I could probably choose that one single moment which sticks out more than any other though: waking up on my birthday in pitch black with a million stars in the sky to climb to the mirador for the Torres in Torres del Paine and watching the sunrise in such a truly epic setting whilst opening cards and presents from friends back home with a cup of tea, sat in my sleeping bag! But there were so many other highlights so I'll just list them in chronological order:

1. Christmas Day and Boxing Day in Ha Long Bay
2. New Year in Sydney
3. Road Trip in the Wicked Campervan with the smelly sister
4. Getting drunk in Wellington and meeting the locals....
5. Flying over Queen Charlotte Sound
6. Finding Tuaca in Auckland
7. Arriving in South America
8. Crossing the Andes and seeing Aconcagua
9. Wine tasting in Mendoza and drinking with Mr Hugo
10. Buenos Aires - everything about it, both times!
11. Iguazu Falls - just unbelievable
12. 20 hour bus trips
13. Steak
14. Patagonia - Perito Moreno Glacier, El Chalten, Fiztroy, Ruta 40 and just the sheer barreness of it all - for 2 days!
15. Torres Del Paine - simply breathtaking
16. Bariloche - could of stayed there forever
17. San Pedro de Atacama - an amazing oasis in the middle of the driest dessert in the World
18. Salar de Uyuni - absolutely staggering
19. World's Most Dangerous Road
20. Cusco - the people, the drinking, the general feel of the place
21. The Amazon
22. Inka Trail and Machu Picchu
23. The majestic Condors in Colca Canyon
24. Sand dunes in Huacachina
25. Kite surfing in Mancora
26. Partying in Montanita
27. Galapagos - speechless
28. Cotopaxi - one of the hardest and most amazing experiences ever
29. Brasil - short and sweet and mainly for the people I met in my last few days
30. Getting home - so nice to see friends, family and familiar places, and to have your stuff back!

So, from arriving back at Heathrow, getting a lift back to Brighton with Kate, being sat in stunned silence all the way home and walking around in a daze that first night to being sat here on a train home from London with all the other commuters, I am now home and it's all 30 (or more) amazing memories to bore people with for years to come. But at least I may stop showing people my photos from 10 years ago now - I have many many more now, (slide shows commence every Sunday evening at 6pm, duration 6 hours)!

Hope everyone is enjoying the Summer; lots going on and it's only just started!

Hasta luego chicos!

Chao.

Matt.