Surely some people wonder how we are doing personally, because that’s not what we’re usually writing about. I think I’ll do the part.
We are only four weeks on the road and already it is different than the four-week test trips we did to Morocco in order to prepare for our long journey, in which we knew that it is “only” holidays. And yet I think every day, the plane home would have leave soon, the holiday is over soon. So it’s pretty ambivalent.
It’s definitely not a short-term trip. We are already much more relaxed and do not have to complete every tour on the same day. I’m often surprised how, especially Oliver has adopted a much slower pace and makes comments, like, “Well, I do not know if we’ll do that tomorrow – let’s see.” A very different Oliver for sure.
Of course we are still travelling too fast. That’s very clear to me. But I think that’s normal, especially at the beginning. It is difficult to stand still and to look for a task, or simply to do nothing that we both fail to do, but that is what we want to learn. Or simply stay in a place, share the life with the people in each place. Participate. Contribute.
I still do not have contact with locals. Somehow it’s hard to come by. It may be because we often live in isolation, because we certainly still need to improve our language or because the Argentines and Chileans are not necessarily the most open people. I dont know.
However, the feelings that overwhelm us when we walk through this beautiful, rugged nature are indescribable. It is raining heavily. At home, not ten horses would bring me to the door. Here it fits to the situaion, we are in cold rain forest. It’s just green, it’s loud through the water, moss everywhere, even on the branches, the wooden planks on the ground are slippery and we have to balance it, sometimes we can barely move because everything is overgrown. We understand the locals, who we see from time to time with machetes walking down the street. The suspension bridge sways, I stop, look into the green hell and say “thank you”. Thank you to the trees that give us the oxygen to breathe. It touches me infinitely to see that here in the quiet life happens and not in the city. We are soaking wet except for the underwear, despite expensive special clothes, but happy. That counts.
