6 Months in - Travel Rant

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Don’t get me wrong, I love travelling but sometimes you just have those days. And the smallest thing can tip you off – for me the other day it was my towel. Yes, my towel. This may seem petty for all you at home but my towel is small. I cant wrap my towel around myself. And washes are few and far between, and because of the material its not just a small towel anymore. It’s a small smelly towel. I hate my towel.

Unpacking and re-packing. After nearly 6 months, I still have not mastered the art of being able to pack what I think I may want at the top of my bag. Every time we get into somewhere it seems the only thing I want is right at the bottom and I have to take everything out. Then mess goes everywhere. This annoys me. My bags not even big, I only have 10Kg’s and a 50L bag. I saw a girl yesterday go to her fully packed bag and pull out a hairbrush in less than 5 seconds. If that was me there would be tops, undies, bathers, my stinky towel going everywhere and I may even give up before I find it. How did she do it? Not only do I hate my towel, I also hate her.

Another thing that grinds my gears, is South American side walks. Its like walking around on a field that’s previously been covered in land mines. Im all for a giggle when someone else trips, lets be honest its number 1 cheap laughs (maybe number 2 after someone falling either down or up the stairs), society’s guilty pleasures. But when its me, its not funny. The other day I didn’t trip but I stubbed my toe. My little toe was ugly enough, it really didn’t need the dead now black dark skin flap on the top of it. Awesome.

Hippys. Again, don’t get me wrong, I don’t actually have anything against them, and hey im all for the ‘why shower for’ but right now as a type this in a Café there are 2 hippys. One playing the guitar, one on the bongos and one just sitting there. They will play about 2 songs, then come by and ask me for money then go to the SAME café I am in and buy a coffee. Noone gave me money when I walked in for being awesome to pay for my coffee, why do they expect me to pay for theirs! I want a raisen cookie, but im 5c short.

Showers and Bathrooms. I miss the days of not walking into a bathroom with extreme anxiety. Some of the pit stops in Bolivia have scared my toilet experiences for life. In 6 months, I haven’t been able to flush toilet paper and have seen some things that I just cant possibly un-see. Now if it was just me not being able to flush it maybe it would be fine. But its not just me. Its everyone that has been before me, and its everyone that will go after me. There’s talk of many place fixing their plumbing, but this at the moment is just a pipe dream (pardon the pun!) for SA, and many a plastic bags full of used toilet paper to come!

Animals and Bugs.
I have officially been shat on by a bird not once, but 5 times. The other day they shat on my board shorts that where laying next to me. I have no idea what I have done to annoy these birds, but it has become personal. Why cant Brenden get shat on? He only got pissed on by a bat, which of course is HILARIOUS – but NOT funny when its me!

We had a big night out in Montinita and woke up the next day and I had small spots all over my foot. Later, Brenden stumbled across a site ‘What bite me’ – turns out it was FLEAS. FLEAS!!! They didn’t hurt, nor itch at all but still, there’s just something depressing and dampening about getting bitten by fleas.

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