One year ago

Fruit salad with cheese at the San Gil market

It's the 11th September and all the news media seems to be reflecting on the anniversary of the terror attacks. Me, I was wondering what I was doing on this day just last year. I knew I was somewhere in Colombia because I remember waking up to the news of the Christchurch earthquake in a hostel in San Gil. Facebook tells me that 5 days later I hadn't moved on - the fruit salad at the market for breakfast, shared dinners with new Dutch friends and its claim to fame as Colombia's adventure sport capital meant I found it exceptionally hard to move on.

Tasty dinner of ants...yeah right! Could feel ant legs stuck in my teeth for hours afterwards. Ew!

This day one year ago I was underneath an upturned raft in the middle of a class 5 rapid. Today I slept in (a fair few ciders were downed last night while watching the Pumas play), cooked breakfast for the flatmates, did the weekly Pak n Save dash and made fish pie of peace a la Cheryl West. How times have changed. My feet are itching to hit the road again, but another (but smaller) part of me is happy in our cosy flat, doing much the same thing week to week. I am very much looking foward to a taste of freedom in exactly 10 weeks time - back to Samoa again for 5 nights. And I've opened another account to start accumulating some funds for next year's holiday(s) too.

Gorgeous view over the tobacco plantation

bus ride back to town, on the back of a truck

If only I won Lotto... if you did, where would you go? I'd head straight back to South America but fly via Tahiti - Easter Island - Santiago - Chile's vineyards. Although the new flight route that's just opened between New Caledonia and Reunion in the Indian Ocean would be equally exciting. Imagine the kind of around-the-world trip you could do with the Bank of Lotto. Sometimes it is fun to daydream!



the nearby village of Barichara