What travelling in South America taught me

I've always said that travelling gave me an education I could never buy. One that could never be taught in schools or universities; that simply needs to be learnt as each opportunity presents itself. Those opportunities could be great fun or amazingly challenging. All of them important to deal with.

I feel so thankful to have had another four weeks to continue my education in life and as slow as I've been on my blogs I want to share some of those learnings. Some useful, some not.

Language is great in it's ambiguity:
I thought I spoke Spanish to a point. I guess that's still strictly true but we had some fun experiences with it. It was quite empowering to realise I was still able to get by in Spanish, speak to people and get done what I needed to get done even if it wasn't perfect.
What I did learn was there are many more differences between the Castellano I have learnt and South American Spanish. In some of many language confusions we established that I have a penis accent and that a wanker in the hand is worth more than 100 flying (to be fair that was just poor pronunciation on my part).
All mistakes led to great amusement - on my part at least, and that as far as I'm concerned is the most important thing.

Never make assumptions:
One of the worst ones we made was that even if people spoke English they couldn't generally understand an American and a Kiwi speaking directly to each other so we often forgot to filter. We jumped in an uber one day, spoke to the driver a bit to clarify where we wanted to go etc and then started chatting to each other about a semi-private conversation. The trip probably took around half an hour and we chatted away during this. As we began to arrive at our destination my friend went to ask a question in Spanish and went blank on the word she wanted. Our lovely driver just turned and said in absolutely perfect English "You can ask me in English". At which point I burst into hysterics and through fits of laughter asked if he'd understood our entire conversation. He replied "Oh yes" and continued to ask me questions on this topic. I truly thought I would have learnt my lesson after this entertaining encounter which kept me giggling all day, however we made a very similar mistake in front of my tattoo artist about a week later. I even knew he spoke English, I just forgot to filter once again! After he started laughing I told my friend to behave, I didn't need the guy tattooing me to be laughing!

Road lines are guidelines - if that:
I was so entertained by the driving around the place. A multi-lane road is actually just a really wide road to weave around other cars who aren't going as fast as you wanted to (but with some white decoration). I guess staring death in the face and telling it to bugger off makes little things like this amusing instead of scary.

I'm stronger than I thought:
I'm definitely physically much weaker than I used to be. I found myself quite happy to let generous people help with my suitcase, I had to take breaks sometimes after our lift broke and I had to walk several flights of stairs to get to our apartment and I regularly sat down during walking tours, even on grass, steps and kerbs - nothing was off limits as far as I was concerned.
My strength, I realised, was in being able to keep going when I felt weak. In being independent and taking care of myself and in putting myself in a more challenging situation and embracing it.
I felt so empowered for discovering that strength!

South Americans are wonderfully friendly people:
As much as I will always love Spain I wouldn't describe too many of the people as warm and friendly but I found in South America most people were more than happy to help out whenever I asked for it. If I wasn't sure of where to go I never had trouble getting directions, borrowing wifi to contact someone or even getting into a bank for a cajero on a Sunday (that would have been embarrassing if I still got embarrassed!).

                       (A wonderful couple we met, 85 and 90 years young and their daughter)

But don't expect prompt service:
As wonderfully friendly as people may be, including wait staff, don't assume that just because you order something means it will come anytime soon. In fact don't expect it within the next hour (or next three cigarette breaks). Luckily I was on holiday and just took great amusement from trying to remind them I had ordered something.

Sometimes you just have to trust in the universe:
I've always said that as I've helped people out in the past I assume this will come around to help me and so I simply have faith and often hope things work out for the best. For example, trying to get back from Montevideo to Buenos Aires - a crucial trip as I had a flight early the next morning. I went over to get onto the coach I had been directed to only to be ushered to another and dismissively assured this would also take me to my ferry. There wasn't much more I could do at this point so after ending up with two seats to myself I curled up for a nap and thankfully found myself at the ferry terminal in plenty of time for my boat.

Friends are wonderful blessings:
This trip gave me an opportunity to spend time with friends I haven't seen for some time. To see them in person and chat to them honestly about what is going on. Something I am amazingly thankful! It also gave me the opportunity to make new ones and that's also something I feel thankful for. The other thing it did was make me miss the friends I wasn't around and look forward to seeing my friends at home when I did get back, a great wake up call to what I have in my life.

A post-trip come down is real:
After all the amazing experiences, daily excitement and opportunities to meet new people, coming home has left me in a weird in between place. Still buzzing from the excitement I've had and also having to face reality once again. Having to start tests and visit specialists once again. I have now lost my coping technique which is simply to book another trip and now I simply need to find ways to enjoy my day to day life still and find ways to take myself on a mini-holiday - a drink in a cafe, or a trip to the local swimming spot. It's actually been a more challenging return than I expected and I've had to learn from that.

Well I doubt anyone has learnt anything from my ramblings so I encourage you to take yourself out for some education today. If a trip isn't a reality right now take your mini-holiday, even if it's 15 minutes walking barefoot in a park and feeling free! Have wonderful days everyone!