THE TALES OF GUAVA (my new nickname):
So here I am again after three weeks of no blogging...and what an amazing journey I`ve been through..both physical and emotional. I have pushed myself to the edge both physically and emotionally and have come back triumphant!!! I pity the people who dont rise to challenges in their lives for the fear of the unknown, for the fear of losing, for the fear of not making it!!! But I have decided never to live my life like that any longer coz each time u r faced with a hurdle in your life, and each time u think u can`t make it past this one, and each time u pull yourself together and make it past it, you get stronger!!! I have surprised myself with my own inner strength...I have learned so much about myself and what I am capable of. Ashley, you will be very proud to know that I have not used any valium since I last spoke to you. I have found a good replacement for valium...i.e. running! I have started running in the mornings and I need to thank Michael for that. Michael has been a great source of inspiration and motivation in my life. It is amazing how when u need people in your life, they just turn up. For someone who doesnt travel long term, its hard to understand how anyone can not have fun on their vacation. There is a huge difference between travelling and vacations. When u r travelling for months on end, just moving from one place to another, away from your friends and family, away from anything ´normal´it can get a bit overwhelming sometimes. I have always said that I am the luckiest person I know and I still believe that. I have met some amazing people who have extended themselves to me...my fav five so far are Brett, Marisa aka Crazy, Jennifer aka Sponge Bob aka Spongy, Carolina aka Maharani and Michael who calls me Goddess Ria. I can`t say I have a problem with that name. Marisa is a rock, strong, independent, funny, caring. Reminds me a lot of you Larissa and her best friend`s name is also Laura :) Spongy is a goofball. If I am sad, she makes me laugh, mostly at my expense. But she`ll make goofy faces, dance like sponge bob, has an amazing sense of humor and I love her. She reminds me a lot of Ashley, they share the same birthday and also the same sense of humor, and the same pasty white colored skin. For example, she said to me today if I needed to go read this morning. I know only Ashley will get that joke but I am glad I have her with me for most of the trip. HI I AM THE SPONGE, AND APPARENTLY I AM A GOLFBALL, VERY WHITE AND A LITTLE BIT ROUND! Lol! Sorry, the sponge just took over writing and she`s laughing at me...AGAIN for being so cheesy! Anyway, moving on...Carolina is our trainee tour leader and she always is there to listen to me and also to provide us good material for humor. I must admit, she is the butt of a lot of jokes me and spongy come up with. She has such a cute Spanish accent and we make fun of her coz we think she is in love with a guy on our tour. Michael is an inspiration, when we go running, we talk about a lot of stuff that a lot of men won`t talk about. The fact that he is gay may make him a little bit more in touch with his feelings. Me and him share the same birthday so I think he has a very clear insight into my personality. He knows all my insecurities, my passions, my ambitions, without me really voicing it to him. He has really helped me figure out what I might wanna do with my life. And last but not least, Brett. Brett is such a fine human being, he really extends himself to people in his life. He is so positive and everytime we chat, or email, his optimism rubs off on me. I am so lucky that I have been able to make such great life long friends.

Now lemme tell u about what I have been up to in the last three weeks. I have been white water rafting, canopying, almost went paragliding but the weather was too unstable to jump off the cliff so i`ll have to do that in Sucre, climbed a volcano 4000 ft in one day, went horse back riding! It`s amazing when I look back at my life and I wonder where all that fear came from. And all the amazing experiences I was denying myself because of inexplicable fears. Climbing that volcano was absolutely fantastic. It took us 4 hours to do the climb. First we had to get to the base and we had to do that on a chair lift. My first time on the chair life was last April with Ashley in Whistler. I was so scared and it was only on a little bunny hill. This was a very high chair lift and the kicker was it didn`t even have a bar. I was amazed at how relaxed I was. The climb was tough, zig zagging our way up the snow covered mountain. Every time I looked up, the climb looked really daunting, but every time I looked back, it was breathtaking and would encourage me to keep going. But when I made it to the top, I was in tears. I could not believe the beauty of nature. I was standing at the top of the volcano, on the snow, looking inside the crater, while the earth roared and spit out hot molten lava literally a hundred feet away from me. We went for a bit of a walk along the edge of the crater. I was right behind the guide at this point and I asked him if he realized that what we were doing was absolutely insanely crazy. We were walking on the edge of the crater, not wide enough for two people to walk side by side. On one side of this ledge was the crater (no fence around it) emitting hot lava, on the other side was snow covered cliffs. Either way you fell, you were not gonna come out alive! It was exhilirating and the downhill sliding was so much fun. I have never felt so much like a kid for a long time. We wore these bum sliders on our bums and literally slid down the 8000 feet of snow with nothing but an ice axe to slow us down. Obviously in the beginning i was a bit scared of the speed and I kept using my axe to slow myself down. But as I got used to it, it was so much fun and i forgot to use my axe. Loved it but I have to say that was probably the max I can physically push my body to do in one day. Until ofcourse the Inca trail.

Chile is one of the most beautiful countries. We went to the end of the Pan American highway and Michael was gonna take a pic of me trying to hitchhike at the end of the highway. But we couldn`t find a sign that indicated the end of the highway. Penguins were beautiful when we finally got to the island of Chiloe. It was literally at the bottom of the earth. Tonite a 16 hour bus ride will take us to the desert oasis of Atacama. It is the driest desert in the world. We are gonna take horses into the valley of the moon. After that we make our way to the salt flats of BOlivia. But I will write about it when I have done that. There wont be any kind of communication with the outside world for a few days. BUt i am going to continue blogging from now on. Thanks a lot for ur love and support.