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Anniversary

On three months of travel

Ayesha Dar

• 4 min read
On three months of travel
Salar de Uyuni

Recounting the most memorable moments thus far...

  • The kindness of strangers in Colombia: whether offering to pay for our bus ticket to the airport, or keeping our bags in their apartment as we travelled to an island, bus drivers interested in where we come from and offering recommendations, people waiting with us next to ticket machines translating the info on the screen.
  • Crazy bus driver in Colombia driving insanely fast on curves and hillsides got us praying for our lives.
  • Delayed flights and countless overnight buses; buses which smelt like feet, buses that broke down in the middle of the night (because of which we were two hours late to our destination), buses that were super fast because of which we arrived two hours early (4.30am in the morning with nowhere to go!).
Waiting for a bus in Villazon (Left), Me pictured with my kindle in an overnight bus (Middle), Munis and I on an overnight bus to Sucre (Right)
  • Completely misreading the weather, deciding to go for a hike in Patagonia and ending up walking for 6 hours in the rain (which ruined my cellphone).
  • Getting to touch an iceberg (which made up for walking in the rain).
  • The breathtaking scenery of Patagonia (more posts to follow).
Me holding a piece of an iceberg (L), Munis and I posing for a picture after completing a hike in Cerro Torre (R)
  • Seeing animals including penguins, a sloth, llamas, cappybaras, flamingoes, macaws, monkeys in their natural habitat.
  • The mesmerising beauty of Iguazu waterfalls.
  • Being without a cellphone for a month with no access to WhatsAapp and social media (and counting).
  • An old woman on an overnight Bolivian bus carrying a puppy like a baby near her chest and talking to it like its here child.
  • Being at an elevation of over 3500m in Bolivia and feeling like you can’t breathe.
  • Meeting big dogs, small dogs, three legged dogs, hungry dogs that follow you, dogs making puppy dog eyes, dogs wearing clothes, dogs wanting pets.
  • Finding out I am allergic to cats *aaachooo!*
  • Countless packed sandwiches of tuna and pesto and egg salad for buses, hikes and day travel.
  • The heatwave in Buenos Aires and the daily ice creams.
  • The electricity outage in Buenos Aires and sleeping in the heat reminiscent of nights in Karachi.
  • The exchange rate in Buenos Aires and carrying wades of cash around. There are two exchange rates in Argentina and given the difference in currency and lower denomination of notes meant we would have to carry loads of cash on us always.
Withdrawing cash in Buenos Aires (L), A sunrise from an airbnb in Buenos Aires (R)
  • The coffee in Columbia.
  • Klaus joining us for the Bolivian leg of our trip.
  • All the guided tours in Bolivia.
Munis and Klaus at the end of our Amazon trip together (Left), Klaus, Munis and I pictured with Andres, our tour guide for Amazon (Middle), Munis, Klaus and I posing in front of the Red Lake (Right)
  • Pollo broaster aka fried chicken is a popular food across Latin America, we enjoyed the meal on several occasions and had the best fried chicken of our travels outside of a bus station in Sucre, Bolivia.
  • Celebrating my 35th birthday in the Amazon jungle.
Birthday celebrations in Mashaquipe Lodge in the Bolivian Amazon