"What do we leave behind when we cross each frontier? Each moment seems to split in two; melancholy for what was left behind and the excitement of entering a new land." (diarios de las motocicletas)

My story is one of adventure. A story of two like minded people embarking on a journey into a land whose oldest memories still mark her surface.
I am on the verge of realising my dream of touring South America, and throughout this diary that dream shall come to fruition. My travelling partner is my girlfriend, Tracey, whom over the last few years has begun to share my dream, and in the months leading up to my departure has taken the leap and joined me. Tracey will travel with me through the majestic city of Buenos Aires, across the expansive salt flats of Bolivia, and up the relentless stairways of Macchu Picchu, perhaps to simply appreciate the relics of past civilizations and the incomparible South American landscape. However my purpose does not mimick that genuine outward interest, but lies in the lack of purpose with which my life is currently wound. Inside myself I have made a decision, not a calculated well thought through decision, but a decision that is if anything a true choice of my heart. A choice to surrender myself to the world, to find out if I have a true worth.

When Tracey returns home in December, I will chase my thirst for purpose from Argentina to Ecuador, ofcourse sharing my time with the wonderous places that pepper my path. In Ecuador I am to become a volunteer worker in the 'Cloud Forests' that hang on to the Andes by a delicate thread. (www.volunteerecuador.com)
After my volunteer work I hope to have the stamina to explore the Amazon (A world hidden within a world), where I will take the most extreme caution not to offer my dangling toes to piranha, or my bare pale skin to mosquitos. The mighty Rio de Amazonas (should it grant my passasge) will bring me to the unparalleled beaches of the Brazilian coast, and to my first encounter with the Atlantic Ocean. An ocean which I hope to not see long before becoming emersed in it.
Las playas de Brasil are the last point on my pocket size travel map on which I have scribed an 'X', and from here the future will be open to the endless stream of possibility.

Join me on my journey,
Andrew Casssels

Mum
Don't worry I'm looking after myself.
xxxxx
Bye


if you would like to view a travelblog for Tracey, that I assure you will be far superior, search for Tracey Messenger in Travelblog. (if there is more then one, she is the pretty one)

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