This is it.

This right here is my final blog post for South America. After a year of travelling throughout this continent, and not even able to see the entirety of it in that time, I bid farewell to my Latin American friends and prepare for my long flight back home.

And in truth, Sydney will always be my home. I’ve come across many cities and towns in this trip, and in previous holidays too, where I would seriously consider living for a period at, however I know I was always return back to my city on the harbour. Of all the many places I visited in South America the small town of Chachapoyas in northern Peru is at the top of the list of somewhere I’d happily stay for many years, and my recent time in Salento, Colombia, would be a close second – I was even making business plans there with an American that also had the desire to stay.

There are so many things to see and people to meet in a year abroad, and South America is without fail one of the finest continents to just that. From the colourful friendly locals of Ecuador, the amazing culture and cuisine of Peru, the alien landscape of the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivar, the living art of Chile, the passion and the tango of Argentina, and the welcoming warmth of Colombia, I’m going to miss this place. I definitely will be leaving with a heavy heart, but a heart filled with fond memories and an undeniable love of Latin America.

As a backpacker it’s also the other backpackers you meet along the way that can make the trip ever so more worthwhile. Hanging out in Cuenca with Dev and Lissa. The Dutch and Indian brothers I kept bumping into in Peru. The Englishman Tom and the Irish girls, especially Michelle, in the Salar. Danish Mike and the nights drinking whiskey in Buenos Aires. Staying up until the next morning drinking White Russians with Dave and Dan at the Speak Easy. Staying longer than anticipated in Salento with Bennet and Emerald. Even the crazy people will stand out in memories, from John preaching about the Illuminati and the second coming of Jesus, Casey and his CIA conspiracies and the American Scottish guy whose name I never got that believed aeroplane vapours were poisons planted by government. Everyone leaves their mark, usually for the better and rarely for the worse.

Amongst all the people I’ve meet one thing has truly rung home is you can instinctively know whether someone is a traveller or not. Travellers have an insatiable desire for visiting new countries and experiencing different cultures.

You just know when someone else is like you. However there are a lot of pretenders out there too, so many people just checking off another country on their list while proudly announcing how many countries they’ve visited. Passing through a country for only a couple of days does not mean you have visited that country, and it certainly does not make one a traveller.

With only two more nights here in Buenos Aires before I’m back on a flight headed on the long haul to Australia, I have no idea what lies in store for me back home. The scariest part of taking a year off is leaving your job and flat, and now that I’m almost back home I have to begin to think about returning to society and
finding both these thing again. I won’t lie, there’s a part of me that is just
saying fuck it and continue travelling for a time more, and yet a greater part
longs for that terrible routine of a worklife. That routine is comforting. It
doesn’t ask what next city should I visit, what time the next bus is, will
there be any hostels with available rooms when I arrive.

Give me a week back home and I’ll be scratching at the walls demanding those questions be raised again. Such is the life of a traveller, we don’t stop and will never tire of it. Where to next, the little bug asks in the back of my mind, and for
how long? Perhaps not a year next time, it is an awful long time, but there
will absolutely be a next time.

And who am I kidding, of course I already have a list of places I need to visit next… the hard part is deciding which first.