Thoughts After 100 Days on Round The World Trip

Today marks the 100th day since I departed for this trip, and for the most part it has been a very enjoyable and rewarding one. I don’t feel like time has passed quickly. Instead, I feel like I have already seen and experienced so many things during this time.

The trip started with a hectic pace. Within the first month I got to see many of my must-see places in South America: Salkantay Trek, Machu Picchu, Nazca Lines, and Salar de Uyuni. The next month was spent watching the world cup with friends in Argentina until the final match, when I got to experience it live in Rio de Janeiro. The following three weeks in Brazil were great, including an amazing six days in Ilha Grande with a great group of new friends. After that, another South American highlight: Iguazu Falls. Now I’m back in Buenos Aires for a couple of weeks before continuing my journey.

While watching the World Cup on TV in Buenos Aires, there were days in which I had very little motivation to plan and research upcoming destinations. That lack of motivation went away when I went to Brazil and had a great time at Ilha Grande. Since then I have been motivated to keep moving and exploring new places. Every three or four days though, I do need a “lazy” day where I don’t do much except some admin work. These include editing and uploading photos, keeping track of expenses, booking buses and trains and hostels, doing laundry, etc.

A problem that I had at the beginning of the trip was that a lot of times I would not be fully conscious of what I was experiencing. I described this on my ‘Thoughts After One Month on Round The World Trip‘. I have since developed a little technique which consists of me describing to myself what is that I’m doing at the moment or on that day. For example, I would tell myself:

Today I’m in Foz do Iguaçu and I’m on my way to see the Brazilian side of the Iguazu Falls. I have been traveling in Brazil for 3 weeks, and a total of around 80 days since the trip started. Tomorrow I’ll cross the border into the Argentina

I find that doing this frequently bring me to the present moment and makes me aware of what I’m experiencing at that time.

A new problem that came up recently has been me becoming hostel-weary. I had enjoyed the hostel in Sao Paulo, but the one in Curitiba made me really feel the lack of privacy and space. So much so that I decided to stay in nice hotel rooms during my four days in the Iguazu Falls. I just got tired of sleeping in triple bunk beds and not having any space to spread my belonging out. I hope this feeling goes away soon since staying exclusively in hotels is not a feasible solution, not so much financially, but because it doesn’t present chances to meet other travelers.

Aside from the issue above. I have really enjoyed these first 100 days. I can see myself doing this for many more hundreds of days provided that I take a nice break once in a while. I have had so many great experiences already, and can’t imagine what a few more years of travel to even more exotic places will bring me.

Tomorrow I will be taking a ferry to Colonia, Uruguay. My first visit to that country. It’ll only be a short 3-day trip though. The following week I’ll be flying to the northern Brazilian city of Salvador, and slowly make my way to the Amazon before moving on to Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, and Guyana. At least that is the plan for now.