Hola amigo/a,

In February 2015, one and a half year ago, I was coming back from one semester of internship at the Embassy of Switzerland in Jakarta. 6 fantastic months, full of discoveries about myself and the world, about another society with its stunning similarities and its surprising differences. It was as well the continuation of my experience with solo travel, which I definitely enjoy a lot. And it was also my first real contact with poverty. In brief, this period in Indonesia left its trace on me. However, I came back a little frustrated by the structure of my stay there: working in a megalopolis, I was stuck there most of the time, and, although my numerous short trips allowed me to get a good grasp of the country, there’s so much more I could have and would have done that I promised myself to go back!

More generally, this frustration brought to mind the desire buried within me for many years to go on a long, big backpack trip, far away. It was always a bit of an ideal travel, a dream that seemed unreachable. But we often say about dreams that one should believe in them, therefore I decided to find the means to realise it!

If “people” can do it, why not me?

This why not seemed valid enough to me to set up a saving plan, even more so because timing was favorable: I had one year left before completing my degree and finishing my studies, as many months to plan everything as should and make sure to have sufficient financial resources.

South America sort of imposed itself to me, to say the truth. Of course there are regions I want to discover on (basically) each continent. But if I go back to Southeast Asia I’ll first go to Indonesia, I never went to that America… and I wanted some change! Moreover, Indonesia left me a bitter memory of frustration for linguistic reasons: since I hadn’t learned the language there because classes were too expensive, I could communicate essentially with people who spoke English (therefore, from a certain social class). As I had been learning Spanish at uni for some time already, and felt like putting these skills into practice, it seemed logical that South America would be my destination. It had attracted me for some time, and I had overcome the mental block due to the fact that “everyone goes to South America”. It’s true. But, nowadays, everyone goes everywhere… and in the end, what matters to me is that I am the one going.

Therefore I am setting off, with the weight of a bag on my shoulders and my loved ones in the heart, and I really feel like Bilbo Baggins: “going on an adventure“. I’ll be happy to tell you about all this here and, hopefully, perhaps make you travel with me through photos and stories.

Maliciously yours,

Aude

PS: all images and photos on this website were taken by me and belong to me unless otherwise specified, you are allowed to use them but only mentioning this site as the source and me as the author, thanks

PPS: the cover picture was taken at Cinque Terre in Italy 4 years ago, I hope to take photos this beautiful during this new travel