11,000 km

When I look back on the last 11,000 km I see a change in me in so many areas. For one thing, I own less now than when I left 7 months ago. I only have two sets of clothes and I have become a survivor. I feel that I could almost sleep anywhere, in any weather condition and I have noticed just in the last few days that I do not get hot nor cold. I noticed the other night when everyone was talking about it being cold, I felt comfortable and the next day when everyone was talking about it being hot, I felt perfect.

I have not spent more than a few days with any one person and just about the time I get to know someone, I head down the road where I will meet others and share life with them for a few days before going further and further. It is funny because some would think that I would be cold towards friendships and would forget the ones I meet, but I find just the opposite. I find that my heart just grows more and more and I do not forget one person that I have met, nor a face, instead my heart grows with all the new friends I make. I make friends fast and love deeply and trust more quickly. I have to. If I held up my guard then I would have no friends. Life is too short for me to hold people at arm's length.

I have realized how little we actually need to live and it seems the less I own the happier I am, and I must say that I am about as happy as I think anyone can be. I own about 45 kilos including my bike and all my gear and my heart is full of a million kilos of memories, faces, sounds, smells and sights. I often wonder how after these last 7 months, I can ever do anything else. How could I ever go back to talking about movies, sports, watching the same TV programs as the masses, living off two week vacations and fast food, driving a car that I would not own, nor a house I cannot afford, making enough salary to pay off the interest on a dozen credit cards? Some ask me how I do it, traveling like I do and I want to ask- is it hard living in slavery to debt, because I am free of debt, free of commercialism, capitalism and the rat race. Yes, sometime it is a little lonely up in the mountains looking out on one of the most wonderful sunsets, not because I am lonely but because none are with me to enjoy such a wonderful moment, instead so many settle for the 5 o’clock news over a microwave dinner.

11,000 Kilometers has taught me so much, but I do not know if I could ever adequately explain it. Maybe it is a dream that the alarm on the side of my bed will wake me from but then again, maybe your life is a dream and you will wake in the Andes mountains to ponder upon the millions of stars in the sky, or then again maybe your alarm will wake you to a cup of 12 0z cup of coffee and a thirty minute commute to work where you will wish it had just been a bad dream. Really 11,000 km is not that far, or is it?