On the Road Again

So I came home from Tibet and embarked on a mission to become a "normal person". I moved into a house. I bought furniture, DVDs, and little tupperware containers to put my left-overs in. I even went out and got a job - a real one, with meetings and deadlines, and strange rituals like 'performance reviews' and 'team planning sessions'.

Yep, those traveling days were behind me, just pub-stories about glory days of dysentery, hunger and hyperthermia. It was time now to kick back and enjoy the comfortable life. My job was interesting enough (as far as jobs go anyway) and it paid well. The house was comfortable and before long started to feel like home (I even owned white goods). Both my health and my funds began to restore themselves to their pre-Tibetan levels. And to top it all off, I even managed to 'commit' myself (to some degree anyway) to a romantic interlude or two. Yep, things were skipping along nicely, what's more I was enjoying myself.

So why the hell am I now on my way to South America to work on a sea turtle conservation project? I'm not really sure myself. Perhaps I missed the open road: the joy of squatting over yet another open pit toilet; the thrill of dodging military patrols in the midst of a riot torn city; the excitement of getting lost in desolate mountains; or the camaraderie of sleeping under a steam roller and nearly dying of exhaustion and hyperthermia.

In all honesty I can't say what prompted me to take to the road again. I guess the best reason I have is 'why not?'. Perhaps this time round I won't find myself in the same life threatening situations I managed to get into last time. Perhaps this trip will be a little more comfortable and easy going than the last. Perhaps I'm a little older and a little wiser now. Perhaps.

I'm flying solo this time round. Despite my best efforts, I could not convince Glover to be my wing-man. After several weeks of failing to convince him through coercion and persuasive argument, I tried appealing to his obsession with danger and stupidity. I sent him the following quote from the Lonely Planet in an attempt to convince him to come along:

"The Interamerica Highway stops at the town of Yaviza in Panama. It reappears 150km further on, far beyond the Colombian border. This break in the highway between Central and South America is known as the Darien Gap, where untamed jungle are a major obstacle to travel. Although a trickle of travelers have walked through this gap, the presence of Colombian guerrillas, paramilitary, smugglers and bandits make this a foolishly dangerous trip."

His response was as follows:

"It sounds tempting, very tempting, but I'm still not coming. It's taken me 6 months of fucking hard training to get close to the shape that I left in, my arsehole still itches uncontrollably regardless of what pills I take or what ointments, herbicides, or pesticides I rub on it, and there's only so many dogs that one can see before they all start looking the same. Have fun though."

So now I'm in a hostel in Los Angeles, killing a few days before my flight down to Costa Rica. There I meet up with a team who I'll be joining for the sea turtle conservation project (see www.cva.org.au for info). The work is for two weeks and involves night patrols on the beach finding turtle eggs and moving them to an incubation center.

After that I'm heading into South America to wander the Amazon. I have no fixed plans but am hoping to see the Galapagos Islands and to walk the Inca Trail. I'm planning to be away for at least three months but will basically go until I feel I'm ready to leave.