What
I am currently setting out on a new adventure to travel around South America (with a brief vacation in London to start things off). I haven't done anything close to this since I biked across Europe from Portugal to Istanbul with my brother Peter nearly three years ago so it's an understatement to say that I'm excited to get out there again!
I feel incredibly fortunate to be given the opportunity to travel like this and want to maximize my time learning new crafts and mastering old ones. Here is my ongoing list of skills I would like to engage in while on this trip:
- Spanish
- Running
- Reading
- The Pale King by David Foster Wallace
- Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
- Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
- The Lessons of History by Will Durant
- Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
- Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
- Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway
- Photography
- Writing
- Sand skiing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKkms6hYJQQ
- Scuba Diving
- Surfing
- Whittling
- Publish the Guillotine app that I have been working on for forever (I'll post a project summary of this at some point along the trip)
Who
For the entirety of these three moths I'll be traveling with Pat, AKA Patty boy AKA the Pint Man AKA the Peaky Blinder AKA the Ocean Liner. Pat enjoys deep meditative walks across London sponsored by pubs and 5 AM benders at Fabric.
Pat and I met each other Freshman year of college when we got paired up as chemistry lab partners. We developed a genius system of minimizing work and maximizing time for Spring quarter frat shenanigans and have been great friends ever since. Pat is a brilliant guy who is heading off to med school in the Fall so we know that we have to make this last hurrah count.
The supporting cast includes two weeks of Rigo AKA Puerto Rigo AKA Rigo Suave and Ricardo AKA ... Ricardo who are going to help Pat and I survive in this Spanish-speaking world while we get a handle on the language. Later on we'll be joined by Damir AKA Damacklemir in Santiago who will join us for a bit of motorcycle adventuring.
When
We are starting our trip in London from March 15th - 19th for a little pre-vacation vacation and then heading down to Buenos Aires where we will meet up with Rigo and Ricardo until the 26th. We will then fly down to Patagonia and explore the wilderness for five weeks until we have to head up to Santiago to meet up with Damir for a week. After that our plans are pretty open ended with loose plans to go to Bolivia and Peru, possibly even Columbia. If you have any suggestions of what to see or referrals of people that would be down to meet up please let me know!
How
We have several modes of transportation that we want to utilize during this trip. Obviously there are places to which we will have to fly but for all of the short trips we will hopefully be able to hitchhike with locals. Not only is this a cheap way to travel I have heard that it is one of the best ways to practice Spanish. Once we have actually made it to a locale we will mix staying in hostels with camping. We won't be roughing it as hard as Peter and I did on our bike trip but I am excited to get a good amount of wilderness living in, especially in Patagonia.
Why
Down to the most important question: why leave my home and job for three months to travel? I see travel as an opportunity to challenge assumptions about one's self and redefine one's comfort zone. Life at home is easy but complicated. Life abroad is hard but simple. These conditions are essential to diving into one's self and separating one's own priorities from those held by society and others. I don't see that this trip as being a re-inventive experience; I am not looking for that nor do I believe that I need that sort of experience in my life right now. I do hope, however, that this trip adds definition to my life in certain areas, especially in how I interact with and listen to others. I can't tell you everything that I will get out of this trip because frankly I have absolutely no idea. I do know that this trip will provide countless opportunities for the kind of growth I am looking for and that I couldn't ask for a better partner with which to explore these experiences.
I'll keep y'all posted on what we find.
-Joseph