The End

"The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one's own country as a foreign land." 

Though I never thought this would happen, my trip has come to an end and I am back in Eugene for the summer. I already miss my backpacking way of life though, and I know that as soon as I can, I will be on the road again. I will miss meeting new people all the time as I have for the past year. I will miss living with just the essentials, a few shirts and a pair of pants, without a cellphone, computer, or other "unnecessary" things. Most of all though, I will miss all the amazing things I got to do throughout the year. People always talk about culture shock when you go somewhere new, something I have yet to experience (I guess I always go somewhere with no expectations so I don't understand how I could be shocked), but it can happen when you come home as well. It is weird for me to be back in a country where busses work, where there is always hot water and electricity, and where everything is so clean and expensive. I now notice how many people have cell phones, how big and well kept houses are, and how there is no trash in the streets. If you put me back in a Latin American village though, I wouldn't think a thing was off. Coming back to a large house, with a tv, multiple computers, so much food in the fridge... And everything else, I feel a bit out of place. I would rather be living out of a tent, or on the floor of a shack, with almost nothing to my name but my experiences.

Everyone asks about my highlights (and favorite countries) from this trip, so here they are. Peru. That was the most exciting part of my trip, getting to climb 6,000s in the Andes, doing beautiful treks, and living in the mountains. I had never really thought about taking up mountaineering, the idea had appealed to me, but I had never gotten the chance to try it. Now, after climbing in the Andes, I am absolutely addicted and most of my future trips will probably be centered around climbing. My next favorite part was my Nicaraguan village. Though it was hot and without mountains, I lived on a beautiful beach, tried to learn to surf, and met an amazing group of local surfer boys. I definitely enjoyed the "village" life, where everyone knows everyone as well. Lastly, I really enjoyed living in Bolivia. It was the most different country, so poor, traditional, and such a different way of life. I also stayed there over three months, which gave me the time to feel like I knew it a bit better. Though those were the highlights, I enjoyed just about everything I did over the past ten months, from working with monkeys in the Bolivian jungle, to hitchhiking through Argentina and Chile, to volunteering in orphanages.

Countless people have asked me why. Why did you do this trip, why so young, why alone? My answer, why not. I was brought up traveling, I took my first trip to Europe at seven (at which time I told my parents I would later live there, which I did), I traveled at least twice a year abroad from then on, and then lived in Belgium for a year at sixteen. As my fellow travelers know, once you do it once, you can't stop, it becomes a way of life. It was completely natural for me to leave for a year this year, and for all the people who asked me why I am doing it, I want to ask them why they weren't. It is one thing to do vacations (as I have done before), visiting a place for a few weeks. It is completely different to leave for an extended period of time. Once you do one "big trip," there are bound to be others. I already had a list of countries I want to visit or live in someday, and throughout this trip, my list more than doubled. Really, my life pf traveling, mountains, and adventures has only just begun.

Though I was a bit afraid to come back, it has been an amazing few days. After getting in at 2am, a friend picked me up at 4h45 to hike the butte at sunrise followed by a day of long boarding, biking, and visiting my best friends. I then headed to the mountain at 5am the next morning, and spent the weekend skiing and taking pictures. Now, I am really looking forward to this summer. Being away has made me appreciate where I grew up even more, and since I can't be on the road anymore, I plan on taking advantage of my summer here in Oregon. I hope to climb Hood, mountain bike weekly, start rock climbing, downhill at Willamette, backcountry ski something, sail, sky dive, and complete a five week long bike trip through Oregon. Even though my trip is now done, I have decided to keep up this blog on occasion (when I do something exciting) so that family and friends far away can keep in touch, and because it ends up being a good journal for me to look back on later on. Now, this chapter of my life has finished, and the next one is about to begin.

In the land of sun, salt, and sand

“Home is where the heart is, and my heart is wherever I am at the moment.” 

Instead of doing my PADI (diving certification), visiting the corn islands, and going to Honduras, I decided to spend the rest of my time at my beach home in Nicaragua. From my first day there I loved it, and I had no desire to be hopping from place to place for my last few weeks. Though there were many parts of the culture I liked there, I know I could never live there permanently. 
The good- The open door culture, everyone knows everyone, and you literally can't walk down the street alone because you always find a friend to walk with. Being outside all the time. People here don't live indoors, ever. In all houses, the "kitchen" (which is a few pots and pans and an open flame) is outside, as well as the bathroom (often not a flushing toilet, just a hole in the backyard), the shower, and basically everything else besides the bed. Everyone lives simply, family and friends are more important, and status, money, and material things mean nothing.

The not so good- People don't have anything to do here, so from an early age, a lot of the kids spend all their time drinking and doing drugs (not only the kids either, it's not unusual to find old men passed out on the side walk). It is also a macho culture. The girls stay in the house (normally from the age of 16-17, taking care of their kids) while the boys either work, or go out and drink and hunt for other girls. It was a joke that it was always me and my beach boys hanging out, because there was literally never another girl with us (at least not one from there). Another prolem is that there is nothing motivating the youth there. Many kids don't finish school, and even for the ones that finish high school, more school or starting some kind of career is not even thought about since no one does it. It's sad, because the kids here are so smart, street smart, and grow up so fast, but yet then they don't make anything out of it. I worked with some local kids, and they were some of the smartest kids I have met, they can fish, climb trees to reach coconuts, take the bus and do the shopping for the family at the age of five... But when they are older, they will just sit around, watch tv, and let each day pass by without doing anything. Tied onto that is the fact tha planning ahead is not a concept. People live from day to day, which is good in some ways, but bad in other such as bank accounts (don't exhist) or planning for the future if their kids. It was interesting for me to see and live this way for a while since I'm usually always doing something. I think that in a perfect world, it would be a mix. In North America, people focus too much on work and doing too much everyday, so mixing a little of the Nicaraguan culture would do them all some good. Now, after living this way, I'm going to try and mix a bit more of that into my life too.

Now, I am in Honduras, and sadly my trip is finishing tomorrow as I take the plane back to Eugene. Though I am not looking forward to this trip being over, I know it won't be my last.