So, it´s been a month since I started my trip. Wow, where did it go?!!? Sometimes it feels like I´ve been travelling for ages and other times I am scared that it´s all going too fast. But then I remind myself that I am only 1/4 of the way through my journey. Already I´ve packed so much in this month that I feel like I have enough stories for a lifetime. I am constantly challenging myself here, pushing myself to every limit I possibly can. I have been in a boat crash, I´ve been thrown around like a kite in a cessna, I´ve been on a 4x4 on sand dunes, I´ve been in a crazy rainstorm in the middle of the Amazon jungle, I´ve been to cities so remote that there are no paved roads leading up to them! I have been the most scared than I´ve ever been, I´ve been the most hungry than I´ve ever been, I´ve been the stinkiest than I´ve ever been, I´ve been most at peace than I´ve ever been!

My journey so far is going to a place, seeing all the sites that place has to offer, taking part in the activities that place has to offer and then packing our backpacks and moving on to the next place and doing it all over again. Yes, it´s a bit tough coz we seem to be constantly on the move. Today, we arrived in a city after spending 2 hours in a 4x4 van on really bumpy sand dunes...followed by 3 hours on a local bus with no air conditioning in the middle of 40 degree heat. Needless to say I am fucking stinking right now. And we are only staying here for 2 days including today. So, yes...I do get tired some times. But I would not trade this for anything back home right now. I would rather have the constant stimulation of seeing new places, experiencing new things...having my days jam packed with activities EVERY DAY!!!!

The best part of travelling, however, is meeting people. We meet different people everyday. It seems like the travellers are a whole different breed of people. For instance, a couple nites back, me and Kirsty (my roommate) were sitting in a pizzaria in a shit hole city trying to figure out the Portugese menu. The waiters did not speak any english and we obviously dont fala portugese!! So, we were trying to figure out what the difference between Cerveja Lata and Cerveja Garaffa would be. Kirsty said that garaffa probably meant refrigerated but I seemed to think it was a large bottle (coz it sounded like giraffe). We were arguing about this when we saw a guy walking by who we had seen in the city we were in the nite before. We called out to him and asked him if he spoke english. We were in luck..not only did he speak english coz he was an american but he also spoke fluent Portugese. He asked us if he could join us for dinner and we ofcourse welcomed him with open arms. Next, 2 French guys strolled into this pizzaria. We had gone to the sand dunes in the same group with these guys the day before. We said hi and sure enough now we had 5 people in our group. As the cerjevas garaffas (I was right...it did mean large beer) started pouring in, I saw a couple walking by that I had seen at a beach a few days back. I called out to them and asked them if they were at a beach in Sao Luis a couple days ago and they said yes. We asked them to join us and they sure did. And then there were 7 plus our tour leader showed up as well. So, within a half hour of me and Kirsty being bored, we were at a table with 2 French men, One American/Portugese guy, One Belgian couple and us. THe mileu of languages, the accents, the conversation...it was fantastic. We ended up spending 5 hours there, drinking, talking about spirituality, travelling, politics, religion, etc.etc.etc. Its amazing how quickly people open up to each other when they are travelling. Daniel (the american/portugese) guy was thinking of moving back to Brazil coz he doesnt like the american culture. SO, he was travelling around Brazil trying to look for a place that calls to him. Infact, he said he´d been travelling around the world doing that for about a year and a half. It was interesting talking to him coz that´s what I am doing right now. It´s nice to know that there are other restless souls like me out there coz back home I just dont seem to fit. I don´t even know which place I could call home any more. My mom was asking me to finish my trip in SOuth America and just come back home to Vancouver. I shudder at the thought of that at the moment. I´ll keep going until I can´t anymore. For now, I am loving every minute of it.