My final entry before I fly back to Australia
Trip Start
Aug 26, 2005
1
125
126
Trip End
May 26, 2008
San Francisco,
California,
United States
Friday, May 9, 2008
I leave San Francisco to fly back to Australia on the 14th of May and arrive in Aus on May 16th at 0625am. What a scary thought. After so long away, its hard to fathom what lies ahead. All i can see is aussie meat pies and beautiful beaches and all my old mates.
It may be tough to oadjust to life back in Aus after all this travelling.
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I left Sydney Australia almost 3 years ago, on a one way ticket to Buenos Aires in Argentina. It was the 26th August 2005 and i had no idea what i was getting myself into. The plan was to travel all the way to Ushuaia, the Southernmost city in the world, then make my way overland to Alaska over 2 years. I guess i got a little distracted and now, close to 3 years later, i have made it to San Francisco and tonight, at 1045pm, I finally fly back to Australia. Back to my family and friends. This is an email to thank all the wonderful people i met along the way, and to all my friends and family back home. Even though you werent here with me, you guys made all this possible and now I have finally reached the point on this trip to come home. I dont think of it as the end, its just another beginning and the start of something new in Australia.
My head is absolutely loaded with memories and experienes that i cant wait to share with everyone. Over the next few months I will try to write some kind of book. Even if its just for my own memories, but if i make it big, then ill be sure to send one to everyone that helped make this insane trip a reality.
So much has happened over the past 3 years, its hard to sum it up but i have jotted down a few of the more memorable experiences below and attached a few photos from my 3 years of wandering. I never imagined doing as much as I did, and somehow i pushed it all the way through 17 countries, a thousand or more busses and many many hours traveling.
Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil,Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Utila, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico, United States of America and now, back to OZ.
I want to take the time before i get home to thank the hundres of people i have met along the way.
Maybe we shared a bus, or a beer, or a hike, maybe an 18 bed dorm room. Maybe you shared your couch but whatever it was, i thank you so much for making this trip the best thing i have ever done.
Out here, our lives revolve around the food we eat and in these strange countries, dinner is always an experience. Ive had my share of the local delights...
I ate tons (literally) of Prime Steak in Argentina washed down with the best red wine in the world (Malbec from Menzoda)
I was tricked into eating goat testicles in the highlands of Argentina...never again.
I voluntarily ate Kindney, liver and tripe in Uruguay, and vowed never to do it again.
The Ceviche in Chile crippled me for a week, but the endless
Rice and Beans in Bolivia restored my faith in non toxic food.
The Guinea Pig in Peru was too lifelike to stick a fork in. I simply covered it with a napkin and returned it to the kitchen, hopefully to be burried or at least sacrificed to an incan god.
I bought a real live sheep in the peruvian highlands and carried the little guy for hours before slaughtering it and devouring the freshest meat i will ever eat.
I ate Chicken foot soup in Ecuador
Tripe soup in Colombia
Lobster and fish galore while sailing from colombia to Panama
Enough tacos loaded with chilli went into my system to burn through my innards in Mexico
and I finished it all off with a big Mac in the USA.
Ive spent even more hours expelling the above foods from both ends in every country, but now i cant wait to get back to aus, devour a pie, some fish n chips and a pavlova.
Not all those who wander are lost.
"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain
"Tourists don't know where they've been, travelers don't know where they're going." - Paul Theroux
"The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page." - St. Augustine
"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving." - Lao Tzu
"The journey not the arrival matters." - T. S. Eliot
I have seen some remarkable life changing things and could go on for hours but some of the highlights include
My arrival to Argentina sparked a month long bender where i ate enough steak to keep an entire third world country from starving. The Argentinian parties rank among the best in the world. Especially in Buenos Aires.
I watched as sea lions climb aboard and eventually sunk a yacht in Uruguay, while sipping mate (a traditional tea)
I visited the most spectacular waterfalls in the world - Iguazu, on the border of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina
Celebrated Oktoberfest, in the biggest german town outisde of Germany - Blumenu in Brazil
Argentina was full of adventures, i went on a hike and became lost in thick fog and was rescued by park rangers
I Surfed the longest (and debatably the coldest) wave in the Americas in Pichilemu Chile where i Celebrated Australia day with a great bunch of aussies.
Chile was full of active Volcanoes. I climed an increadible one, covered in glaciers and threw rocks into the hot magma in the centre of the crater.
almost got robbed in one of the most dangerous pirate towns to exist- valparaiso chile
I got robbed by the damn police in Chile.
hippies and a full moon festival in el bolson in argentina. It helps to know the belgium djs and get into the vip section. That was a riot.
i survived 8 cold nights and over 100kms of trekking in torres del paine national park way down in the south of Patagonia.
After 6 months, I Made it to the End Of The World, and flew past it in Ushuaia, the southern most city in the world
I hitched my way north, getting stranded in the middle of Patagonia, but failure only makes you stronger. I got a bus the next day
I worked in a hostel in the far north of Argentia, conducting wine and cheese tours
I rescued a dog which i called Surri
Surri and a few of us hiked for 5 days in the deserts in salta in argentina.
I had my own personal nun, when i spent a week in a Bolivian Hospital.
I was the proud owner of a 4 year old mountain puma called Roy, working for 2 months deep in the jungles, in an animal refuge in bolivia.
I purchased Dynamite (actual nitro glycerine) in the streets of bolivia and set it off deep in a silver mine.
I got addicted to coca leaves to relieve the exreme altitudes of the salt planes in bolivia
I ate my first and last guinea pig in the surreal floating island on lake titicaca, the birthplace of the sun in peru.
Huacachina in Peru is famous for its desert sand dunes and i have the scars to prove my attempts at sand boarding down them.
My tattooed and pierced body then engaged on a hell of a hike, in the Cordillera Huayhuash climbing to well over 5000m in Huaraz in the north of Peru. On the same hike, i became the proud owner of a sheep, which we later slaughtered and ate.
The capital of the Incan Empire, Cusco was a riot, with more ruins and museums than i can remember, but also the infamous Machu Picchu, which blew me away.
Crossing into Ecuador was easy and I visited a place that the aussie government told me not to visit due to recent volcanic activity. Fresh lava flows had engulfed a small town, and i had to sneak into the village to see the lava flow glowing from the massive volcano that night.
From the end of the world i made it all the way up to the Centre of the World at the Ecuator in Ecuador.
I almost got arrested at the border of Colombia when the fools failed to stamp my passport, but a few dyas later, brother stu arrived and we traveled around one of my favorite countries, way into the jungles, hills and coffee country. eventually ending up in the amazing port town of cartagena.
We spent a week on the beach, castaway style, living off coconuts and rum
From there, i sailed to Panama, finding an island with nothing but one palm tree.
Central america was fun and in Utila in the north of Honduras I found a brilliant girl called sabrina, i had a house, brother stu was there, we had a dog, and a bike, working as a dive instructor on a caribbean island called utila. One year flew past and i spent my last few months visiting Guatemala, Mexico and finally the USA.
Phew, thats a load. But now, its almost over and tonight at 10:45pm, i board a plane from San Fran to Sydney and the next chaper in life begins.
Im leaving my options open at the moment, Australia could hold a million oportunities. Maybe i settle back into a life and a job, maybe i save up and get back on the travel scene again. i really dont know at this stage, but right now, im just focusing on simply getting back to australia and catching up with my family and long lost friends. we have alot to talk about.
So for the sort term at least, I will be settling down in Sydney. If anyone is ever in my part of the world, please let me know and you can have your very own tour guide and a place to stay.
Thanks to everyone who made this trip so much fun for me. I will remember you all.
If you want to keep in contact visit my website www.murrayw.net
Thanks again to everyone.
Murray
MAX
Muzz
Farewell
