Introduction

It’s pretty remarkable writing memoir-like entries such as this because it’s an opportunity to take stock of internal affairs just as you would in a market. I get to look at the shelves of my mind and the products that occupy them. Sometimes it’s necessary to move ones from the lower shelves up so they may be in the forefront of my consciousness and not out of view. Other times it’s time to throw expired ones away because they no longer have the ability to nourish me. It might be painful because they once may have (or at least felt like they did), but I know for my market to operate well and provide the highest quality products, I can’t afford to hold space for anything other than the best and healthiest options - especially not because of pure nostalgia.

28 - 30 Oct

Picking up where I left off in the first South America entry, I was in the desert of Chile - the driest place on planet Earth - and I was loving it. When I first got to San Pedro de Atacama, I initially felt I had planned to stay way too long there, but after a few days, I wished I had more time. Each morning when I would go out on the porch of my desert cabana to write and enjoy my coffee, I was joined by Pancho and the unnamed cat that “came with the house,” in the words of my host and new friend, Jota. He invited me to climb an hour or so north of San Pedro in Laguna Miscanti with his mother, wife, and their two niños. However, my favorite part of the day was the drive back through the incredible rural and frankly barren stretch of northeastern Chile, just Jota and I, picking his brain about all the curious nuances the Atacama had to offer. I’ve come to place an incredibly high value on spending time with people who have an outlook on life as Jota does: well-rounded from various life experiences, showing love to everyone, being down-to-earth, and expressing genuine curiosity about the world. I got to see his generosity in plain view as we stopped to pick up a mother and her two children making their way back to town.

30 Oct - 03 Nov

Although I was thoroughly loving my time in San Pedro, I was also confronted with some unexpected relational toxicity, which brought forth some old trauma responses and triggers. Things that I thought I had figured out that were manifesting themselves in robust physiological responses and causing me mental turmoil. Fortunately, I was equipped with the wisdom of my life experiences and the healing I’ve undergone, which reminded me to use reason rather than rely on my emotions. Doing so helped me make the best and healthiest decision to overcome the newfound obstacles. I was also having vivid, repeated dreams of situations in my past that had elicited similar responses and which I had handled poorly. Beautifully, though, now I was responding healthier, even in my dreams, which afforded me more confidence in navigating the situation in waking. I discovered an unwillingness to jeopardize my mental health and progress and made hard but necessary decisions to protect my inner peace - I had to discard some expired products from the shelves of my market, to quote the metaphor above.

Navigating the situation wasn’t easy, but I had confidence in the way I was handling it. I felt connected to my heart just as intimately as I did to my hunger or need for a bathroom - it was apparent when I was neglecting it and needed to be attended to. The rest of my time in the desert was surrounded by immense beauty. My friend Chris and I spent our days exploring miles of slot canyons in Valle de la Luna and road-tripping across vast stretches of dirt roads above 14,000 feet near El Tatio. Every corner we rounded in our rental car felt more and more like we were exploring Mars in a rover. Very few moments felt like we were on Earth, yet somehow I felt grounded beyond belief amongst the giant desert peaks and volcanoes. We spent two nights at the famous ‘Magic Bus’ photographing, light-painting, and basking under seemingly unreal night skies above the Martian landscape. A moment forever seared in my brain was taking a manual time-lapse of the day-to-night transition near the bus, where we witnessed the most beautiful sunset I’ve ever experienced. Oh, and I can’t forget to mention the 5.3 earthquake outside of Calama, whose aftershock almost threw me out of bed - tick another item off the bucket list.

03 - 06 Nov

Nevertheless, the time to depart the Atacama did eventually come, but not before exploring Antofagasta and some of my favorite sites, such as Mano del Desierto, Balneario Juan Lopez, and La Portada. We had to catch our flight down to Punta Arenas at 23:00 on the 3rd, and by the time we stepped off the bus in the Chilean Antarctica town of Puerto Natales, it was 13:00 the next day. This was the start of a very fast-paced and very restless week spent in Patagonia, but I wasn’t complaining. I had gone from tropical beaches and jungle to the bohemian cities and vast desert and now to towering mountains at the southern tip of South America - and I loved it. In a strange way, Puerto Natales felt like a Colorado mountain town. There were shaggy dogs roaming the streets, craft breweries, pizza shops, and granite towers padded by glaciers just beyond the shores of the fjords. I was in heaven. I couldn’t help but notice the novel types of fauna and deciduous trees strewn about the landscape that made it feel like I had just emerged from the Ice Age (I would later learn there are indeed several species of tree that have survived since the Jurassic.) I expected to run into a short-faced bear or mylodon at any moment.

All of the tension from the previous week had all but evaporated, and I was able to simply explore and bask in awe of this complicated and intriguing part of Earth. I spent two days exploring Torres del Paine National Park - one on a guided driving tour around the park and another hiking up to the famous towers. Interestingly, while I was there, the park rangers happened to be on strike and were not checking for entry tickets. We visited the Grey Glacier, Cascada Rio Paine, Salto Grande, and my absolute favorite, the drive through the valley just south of Estancia Pudeto. The next day I was up even earlier to catch the shuttle to the trailhead for the hike to the base of the towers. Having freshly finished the Colorado fourteeners just a couple of months before, I still had my mountain legs, so the hike, often described as incredibly arduous, felt very manageable. I genuinely couldn’t believe my eyes when I arrived at the base of the towers - it will always remain one of the most beautiful things I have ever encountered on our planet. I sat and basked in all the glory for a good hour before beginning the descent with my new friends Tomasz from Poland and Gisella from Italy.

06 - 10 Nov

The morning of the sixth, I was up, you guessed it, way too early to catch a bus to the Argentinian city of El Calafate. After stopping at the border checkpoints to leave Chile and enter Argentina, our bus was permitted to continue. I was exhausted and found little relief sleeping on the bus as it made its way through the windy Patagonia passage on old dirt roads. I arrived at my cabin in El Calafate after securing my rental car, which I discovered I would only have for 24 hours due to poor planning. I had planned to hike to Laguna de Los Tres, but after realizing it was a three-hour drive and I needed to start at sunrise, I elected to take a rain check and spend the next day filming and exploring. The drive from El Calafate to El Chalten was utterly euphoric. I must’ve pulled my manual Fiat rental over a dozen times to capture the various landscapes as an uncontrollable smile painted my face. When Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre eventually displayed themselves across my windshield as I entered Los Glaciares National Park, I couldn’t help but allow the tears of joy to run down my face. That night I journaled how the day had “left a permanent mark on my heart.”

10 - 12 nov

The morning of the 10th, I got up to meet Chris at the airport in Punta Arenas and catch our flight to Cusco, remaining physically tired yet feeling nourished in my soul. We touched down in Cusco, and just like that, another utterly different vibe greeted us. This wasn’t jungle, beach, city, desert, or mountains - Cusco was a vibe all of its own. The air buzzed with history and culture as we walked through narrow roadways barely big enough for a car surrounded by 1700s Spanish architecture laid upon intricately constructed Incan-era walls. That evening I bought a little baggy of weed in the Plaza de Armas from a street painting vendor as a policeman curiously started to approach us - luckily, I made it out without any trouble. We slept a few hours before waking up at 02:00 to make our way to Montaña de Colores. After a quick stop for a soup breakfast complete with coca tea, we finally arrived at the trailhead perched above 15,000 feet, and needless to say, I felt terrible. No sleep, no acclimation, and now arduous exercise. I pushed through the pain of a pounding headache and was rewarded with Vinkunka and El Valle Rojo views. Comically, our bus also broke down on the way back to Cusco.

12 - 14 nov

After spending a couple of fast-paced days in Cusco, we began making our way to Aguas Calientes, the town nestled at the base of Machu Picchu. The most popular way to arrive in Aguas Calientes, and the method we opted for, was by train, but in order to get to the train station in Ollantaytambo, we first had to take a bus. The train ride through the valley was magical, and arriving in town was even more so. Catching my first glimpse of the massive peaks overshadowing the town, it felt like I had walked into the movie ‘Avatar.’ You could walk from one end of town to the other in a matter of minutes, yet there was no shortage of restaurants and markets. We were among the first circuit of the day to enter the site the next day, so it was relatively uncrowded, and we got to enjoy it without too much noise. Additionally, there was a blanket of morning fog that washed in and out - revealing and then once again concealing Huyana Picchu. I met some new friends at the top of Huyana, and we bathed in the spirituality and history of being in such a majestical place. My favorite part was the tree planted right in the center of the site - indeed newer than the people who built the structures that its roots have found refuge in - but nevertheless, it felt sacred.

14 - 20 nov

When I returned to Cusco from the Machu Picchu pueblo, I was pleasantly surprised by the incredible view from the loft/penthouse Airbnb I’d be occupying for the next few days. One of the massively common themes on my trip, especially during my time in Chile, Argentina, and Peru, was a reckoning of my actual needs. What do I mean by that? Well, it’s my belief that most of us try far too hard to control our circumstances out of fear of not getting enough - this was undoubtedly my story before coming to South America. The word for this mindset is scarcity. Over time, I’ve been refined to realize that the less I worry about things, the more I am taken care of. Some things inevitably have to go, but I didn’t need them to begin with thus, shedding them creates space to focus on what I truly need. The word for the mindset I try to occupy is abundance. I had been trying to be more intentional in my abundance mindset, and my loft provided me with an excellent opportunity to do so. I also got to tour the city of Cusco, which left me with a wealth of knowledge surrounding the Incan Empire and the eventual Spanish conquest.

The following week, I finally had the chance to relax and catch up on sleep. I dedicated time to working on my vision for progressing Back Road One and being a full-time creator. I began creating a new video that I had been thinking about for some time and hadn’t had the time to focus on. I created drafts and trashed them as I began to realize the dichotomy of quality versus quantity and dedicated myself to putting in more effort than I had before. I spent a fantastic few days in the ‘White City’ of Arequipa with my younger brother’s host parents, Susana and Felipe, whom he had lived with for a year on foreign exchange. I thoroughly enjoyed Arequipa for many reasons but most notably because of how much I could recuperate and be taken care of. It was powerful to experience the city my younger brother Conner once called home and walk away with some of the same beautiful teachings he had also received. A notable highlight was the afternoon I spent exploring Santa Catalina - a monastery built in 1579 and seemingly frozen there. Between the smell of palo santo, red-painted walls, and the volcano El Misti looming in the background, I will never forget my time walking around the famous heritage site. The Plaza de Armas also remains high on my list of favorites, most notably watching the traditional Peruvian dance events held there and the time I got turned away from entering the main cathedral since I was wearing shorts.

20 - 28 nov

I made my way north to Lima along the Pan-American highway over the next three days, stopping in Nazca and Huacachina for the evening. In Nazca, I hit a weird low moment that I feel was initiated by the recognition that I was over the hump of my trip and began reckoning with the reality that I had not yet been able to make ends meet as a full-time editor. The thought of returning to Colorado and having to work a job that I hate until I could make my vision a reality was gnawing away at my heart. I came face to face with a feeling of being lost which, if I’m being honest, is still with me as I write this. As I continued to pray about it, I gained some clarity on it. Work harder and never give up. Talent is nothing without hard work. Copy. My mind was thoroughly blown between the archaeology museum in Nazca and standing atop the primary dune of Huacachina (the only true desert oasis in South America). I met a new friend from North Carolina named Maddie on top of the dune as a small group of people gathered for sunset, and we shared some laughs and stories over dinner.

On the 26th, I touched down in Costa Rica for the second time and felt the same feeling I get when I begin the descent into Denver after being abroad - it felt like I was home. Costa Rica had drawn me back - Nosara in particular. I had discovered new place after new place the previous month, and though incredible in their own regard, none elicited the bliss and feeling of home that Guanacaste had. One day and a miserable five-hour bus ride later, I was back in Nosara, joined by my friend Estephania from San Jose, whom I’d met my previous month in Costa Rica. For the next two weeks, I would have no obligations, no travel, and no stress. I had yearned deeply for this moment since I had first departed, and it was utterly blissful to have finally arrived. We spent our days surfing, watching the sunset, creating crab racetracks, and spontaneously exploring the beach and rock features. I felt immense gratitude, which made coping with the lost feeling much more manageable. As I write this, I’m currently a week into my time in Nosara and looking forward to writing about all I have learned in my next entry regarding month three.

Thank you for reading, and much love.

South America, Month II