While traveling is awesome and it’s exciting to experience new things, not everything’s been fun and games. It’s been less than 6 months since we began our journey and we’ve already had a few mishaps. My paragliding accident happened only 3 weeks into the trip where I learned trust and patience in receiving major healthcare in a foreign country. The hospital had broken X-ray equipment, I waited 2 weeks for a surgery that would have likely been done instantly in the US, and language barriers made it difficult to understand the extent of my injuries and what was being done to fix them.
After nearly 3 months of recovery back in Colorado, Brenda & I went back on the road. We’re both pretty seasoned travelers, but I made a couple of rookie mistakes right off the bat. When we arrived in Lima, I used my debit card to acquire peso’s from an ATM and accidentally left my card in the machine. Big OOPS! That same night, in the process of notifying my bank about the lost card, I left my cell phone in the lobby of a hotel which was never to be found.
In the Amazon Jungle near Iquitos, Brenda & I were peed on by monkeys and many of the few clothing items we had were permanently stained from being laundered in brown water. In Puno, I got some sort of flu bug and spent a miserable night in a hostel with a high fever and chills – thankfully, a strong dose of antibiotics (acquired without a Dr. prescription) took care of it quickly. In Chile, we rented a car which was great outside of the city but, in Santiago, we spent more than 4 hours in heavy traffic one evening with added navigational challenges due to our dependency on technology which had lost it’s charge.
Speaking of technology, neither of us have roving phone service or wifi since we’re trying to travel frugally so we’re reliant on the free wifi connections from places we’re staying which have been slow and unreliable. With frugality in mind, we’ve stayed in hostels and shared bunk rooms with as many as 8 other people. I hate to admit it but, we’re a bit older than the average hostel patrons who seem to go out around 10 and return around 2 so we’ve had some restless nights and it’s also challenging to unpack and repack your stuff when the only horizontal surface available is the floor.
We’ve been “accosted” by taxi drivers and street peddlers trying to sell services and stupid touristy items at “gringo” prices. We’ve walked a mile with heavy backpacks on to catch a bus that was only a couple blocks away because we followed signage and directions we’d received and turned right instead of left only to find out that the signage and directions were for a different bus terminal than the bus we’d reserved, and, while we’re both prudent and acutely aware of our surroundings, Brenda had a necklace stolen right off her neck by a hooligan punk passing on a bicycle!
Most recently, we both acquired a pesky case of ringworm and have no idea how we got it. While we were able to get medication to treat it at a pharmacy without a prescription, whatever the cause, it’s a pain in the ass and it’s difficult to treat without the ability to launder our bedding and clothing daily.
While I’m grateful to be on this adventure and am definitely not ready for it to end, I couldn’t continue posting only the fun things without sharing a few of the “not so great” things about long term travel. Traveling this way is a huge learning experience. We’re becoming more experienced in adapting to ever-changing conditions and environments. We’re increasing our ability to work together and increasing our communication skills. Most of all, we’re making new friends and appreciating this awesome experience called life!
