The time is now

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(Short note in Spanish) - a mi familia y amigos: el blog lo voy a escribir en inglés, ya que así puede ser leído por un número mayor de personas. El que quiera información específica de algún lugar, me lo puede pedir por mail o a través de FB, saludos a todos.

This blog exists for mainly two reasons: 1) as a personal journal and 2) so family and friends can follow up on my travels.


Now down to business - at last the time has come. I had been thinking about doing long term travel for about 3 years now and finally the time has come to do it. Due to different circumstances, the idea of travelling often remains as just a dream, or something that one will do “someday”, when “the circumstances are right”. Fortunately, I think I became aware that the best time to travel is “now”, there’s never going to be a perfect time to travel, so I’m a strong believer in taking opportunities when they present themselves, and this time of my life was about as good as it could get – passing on this chance would’ve been a mistake I would’ve regretted in the future. Right now there’s no real plan, I only bought a one way ticket to Australia (considering I have the “Work & Holiday” visa), and see where I go from there – no plan, no itinerary – that’s the whole idea.

Before departing, a lot of preparations had to be made, including asking permission to leave for a year from the Chilean Navy, in which I served for the last 14 years of my life. But all deadlines are met and this was no exception. In all, it took me about 6 months for the whole process.

The day of my departure from Chile, I was left off at the airport by my parents, brother and sister, an uncle and an aunt with their 5 kids (cousins from the ages of 7 to 15) and 2 good friends of mine who arrived as a surprise. Needless to say, I had a few farewell parties, dinners, etc. with family and friends.

At the airport, most of my cousins had made me drawings or letters as farewell gifts. In particular, I'll mention my 9 year old cousin Trinidad who gave me a letter with the specific instruction that I could only read it once I boarded the plane. After the takeoff, I opened it and inside, apart from wishing me a good journey and that I had a good time and that she was going to miss me, it went to a more serious matter – I have to get married in Australia because she wants to be a ring bearer. We’ll see about that. (Trini: if you’re reading this, I only wrote it because it’s a sweet anecdote I want to remember in the future).

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