Where was I…

In case anyone was wondering where I’ve been since my last post the answer is South America; more specifically Ecuador, Peru and Chile.

The reason for this unplanned detour was that our daughter Lucy was turning 21 on 1st July and I wanted to be with her for this special birthday.

Originally I expected to be travelling back to Sydney from wherever I happened to be in Australia, only to discover that she’d be travelling in Central America with our son at this auspicious time. So it was agreed, my wife and I would rendezvous with them on the other side of the Pacific which was both and unexpected and unique opportunity to travel as a family again and go to places that none of us had been to before.

So while I was travelling around Tasmania in May and June the rest of the family were busy planning this ever expanding trip that included 8 days sailing the Galapagos islands, staying in an indigenous owned and operated eco-resort deep in the Amazonian rainforest, 4 days trekking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and visiting the other worldly Atacama desert high in Chilean Andes.

While initially thinking this trip was an inconvenient interruption to my point2pointless odyssey I now realise that plans are made to be broken and often the best experiences are the spontaneous ones that come out of the blue and take you by surprise.

Not only did we visit some incredible places and have some amazing experiences but the trip it was made so much more special by all us managing to find the time and prioritise our coming together as a family to share what turned out to be an experience of a lifetime.

Another thing that made this trip exceptional was the contrast between the old world and the new. Literally, the timelessness of Australia’s ancient landscapes compared to some of the newest islands on earth in the Galapagos, the spectacular snow capped Andes mountains and the Amazonian jungle. Between the cold thin air at high altitude and the heat and humidity of the rainforest and islands straddling the equator. Between the reassuring certainty of our rock solid continent and the restless uncertainty along the Andean fault line, the most seismically active region on earth with its volcanoes and the ever present danger of earthquakes and tsunamis. Between the unique wildlife we take for granted and the equally weird and wonderful creatures of the forest, mountains and islands of South America, and between the people, the Australian way of life I’m used to and the frenetic sound, movement and colour of the Inca infused Latino culture which seems to be as much a product of their environment as it is a legacy of the Spanish intervention almost 500 years ago.

In fact one of the things I found difficult to understand was the all pervasive influence of the catholic church which was brutally imposed on the indigenous population by the Spanish conquistadors and missionaries. Not only did the Spanish steal the Inca silver and gold and destroy their temples and shrines to build cathedrals and monasteries in their place but it seems they stole their hearts and minds of the local population too. I’m not sure I’d be as forgiving if they were my ancestors!

Despite their devotion to this foreign ideology the modern day descendants of the Incas still seem to have a deep connection to their ancestors whose belief systems were more aligned with the World in which they lived and which set the seasonal rhythm of their lives. This stands in sharp contrast to our prevailing first World lifestyle which seem to be increasingly detached from the real world as technology challenges nature as the defining force that shapes our lives!

This was also one of the main takeouts from my time spent in the wilds of Tasmania and something I look forward to further exploring as I resume my travels and head west and north.

Which reminds me, another result of this “side trip” is the need to reroute my circumnavigation from the originally envisioned clockwise circuit to a figure 8 course (or maybe an infinity loop?) by heading north from Adelaide up to Darwin then across to Broome and down the WA coast and back east across the Nullabor to finish in Sydney before Christmas.

Anyway that’s the plan. I’ll be heading off in the first week of September, stay tuned to see how it materialises.

p.s. While I was away I did manage to visit a few lighthouses!