15 months of travelling are over now. I am sitting in the plane home, trying to look back on all that time. These months have passed so very quickly, I can still not believe a more ‘normal’ life is just around the corner. What is it, I have found on my journey? A lot. Hard to describe what – but I will try.

I have met so many people I would have never got to know otherwise, made many new friends. I think they are the most valuable bit of the journey. I have also learned a new language, Spanish, and thereby found a new facet of my personality which I am very grateful for. I have also had the time to pursue a hobby, photography, semi-seriously, which has left me now with several ten thousand images to go through (ouch!)…. Buenos Aires is a gem I have encountered. I would have never believed a city could so much capture me. But again, this has probably all to do with the people I have met there, be it in the language school or outside – Argentineans and others.

Then, I have seen breath-taking natural beauty in so many places. Among the most impressive are certainly the mountains and glaciers all along the Andes. Surely a literally and figuratively eminent place occupy the glaciated five- and six-thousand-meter summits I have scaled and walked about in Bolivia and Peru. Places of outlandish beauty – when the weather is fine. A fierce and seriously life-threatening environment – when not. I was a lot closer to death by hypothermia than ever before in my life on one of the climbs. And I have witnessed a tragic accident in the distance once, climbing one of the mountains in Peru, which has made me much aware of the fragility and the temporary nature of life.

As for unique landscapes I have seen, Bolivia had certainly the biggest share of all countries I have been to! The Altiplano with its lagunas, salt lakes, geysers, and volcanoes has to be mentioned here. Also the jungle was absolutely amazing, swimming with the pink river dolphins was very special and the abundant wildlife everywhere is truly impressive. And then Lake Titikaka, yet an other unique landscape of stunning beauty!

Argentina – being one of the biggest countries on earth – is incredibly varied, too. From the desert landscapes in the north covered with towering giant cactuses along the rugged Andean peaks, at times in their somewhat more modest but nevertheless special beauty, e.g. near Bariloche, and the vast glaciers farther south, towards the endless Patagonian plains and the heavily weather-beaten landscapes of the southern end in Tierra del Fuego. And then the falls of Iguacu, clearly one of the wonders of the world.

In Chile I have seen a similarly varied natural beauty, as it is covering the same climatic zones as Argentina. Climbing the active volcano Villarica was only one of the special experiences and trekking around the Torres del Paine together with Volker was very memorable, although the weather was mainly rather ‘patagonian’. In the far north, the Atacama desert with its almost surreal desert landscapes was impressive.

Of Ecuador I have only seen the Galapagos Islands. But what I have encountered there in terms of wildlife on the islands and in the sea surrounding them, easily tops all I have ever seen anywhere else! The incredible joy of playing around with flocks of sea-lions while snorkeling is hard to describe. And just the memory of their incredulous looks under water with their big black eyes focused straight into mine, from less than arms length away, still sends shivers along my spine.

The Red Center of Australia with Uluru (Ayers Rock) and Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) also deserves to be mentioned, it is a very special landscape. In Sydney I have found one more special city – hard to imagine there is any other city in the world with a more beautiful setting and a comparable quality of life. The gorgeous beaches and the immense Harbour Bay in the middle of the city – where else would you find that paired with an almost perfect climate and very open and social people? It was great meeting so many friends there, among them several I had met before in South America. It was a great little break from travelling staying wit my friends there for quite a few weeks.

Finally, during the last weeks travelling through Thailand and Cambodia, I realized I should have really reserved much more time for South-East Asia! There is just so much to see, to learn about, to taste, to understand… I have only had a very quick glimpse of that. Angkor Wat was certainly an overwhelming highlight and I truly wish I had had more time than just three days to explore the incredible temple ruins! I will sure come back on a later trip. And then, life on a white coral beach under the palm trees, the crystal clear sea caressing your toes while sipping a fresh coconut comes very close to paradise. But you already knew that, I guess.

So, am I any wiser after my journey? I do not think so. Any questions of life answered? Surely not. Has it changed my perspective on the world? Yes, to a degree. I am maybe asking similar questions as before, but in a slightly different way, it seems to me. Very hard to explain. So many experiences that have left me impressed, puzzled, wondering…

I feel I have received an enormous gift – the great luxury to take the time to do what I really enjoyed, to explore what I liked to see, to change my plans whenever I wanted, and to encounter what I had never expected or been looking for. This is it, maybe, what made this journey the beautiful treasure I feel I have found. I feel deeply grateful for that.

It was also a very humbling experience to get to know many wonderful people, mainly in South America, to whom such a journey would be economically beyond even their wildest dreams. That made me very aware of the incredibly privileged situation we are in – us in the ‘developed world’ to whom such a journey is certainly affordable. (If you disagree – just skip buying the next car. And there are many long-term travellers out there on even a much lower budget…) The privilege, of course, goes much further than just the economical situation we live in. Nevertheless, among the poorest people I have met on my journey have also been some of the most generous and happiest people I have ever spoken to.

The list of things I feel grateful for would have to be much longer to be complete, but I shall stop here. I have never regretted my decision to take time off for this journey, not even for a single second. This is not to say there were not also moments when I was not so well, tired of it all, lonely, ill or frustrated. Travelling is not holidays – I have written this quite early in my blog. And those of you who have been travelling yourselves will certainly know what I mean by that. But the occasional hard times are more than fair a price to pay, in my opinion.

What is next? I will see. I am certainly looking forward to the future adventures life has to offer! And I do have a motivation to ‘do’ something ‘sensible’ again for a change! I actually miss work. I would have never believed I would ever say that.

Many thanks to everyone who has been part of my journey!