Notes from March 24th, 2019
I have to admit, by the time I hit Ecuador I was kinda done. I hadn't realized it then, but really for me to get the full value out of my travels, I needed a sort of eight-month-on/six-month-off rhythm. When I landed at Earth Train the first time, I was around month 8 of my travels, and Earth Train gave me a 7-month break. When I got back into Brazil after Colombia, Venezuela, and the Guayanas, I was around month 8, and I really should have stopped. I ended up sort of falling through Brazil and not enjoying myself very much. From there, while I certainly got a lot of value out of the rest of my trip, in hindsight, I was lonely and tired, and I should have stopped for a while. I think the long layover in Puerto Natales helped, but I could easily have stuck to my original plan and spent 6 months just hanging around Brazil doing odd jobs and then picked up again ready to take on the rest of South America.
Alas, I didn't, so when I got to Ecuador, I threw in the last remaining scraps of my interest, pushed through the country, and made my way back up to Bogotá for Christmas and, unbeknownst to me, a flight home after 3 years and 1 month abroad.