The Arrival

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MY YEAR OF TRAVEL My name is Piet Kailola I am 32 years old. In 2007 I decided to leave Australia and see what else lied beyond our shores. For the past three years I had been working as Physical Education Teacher. I have always had a fascination with travelling and have done one other big trip that was to Canada in 2001. In 2004 when I first started teaching I was posted to a small Aboriginal settlement in the Gulf of Carpentaria (Northern Territory) Borroloola. Living in this community was very different something that I had never seen before and yet it was in my own back yard the living condition of the community were virtually third world condition and this was in Australia one of the most advanced countries in the world. In my previous travels I have mainly only visited first world countries like, Canada, Europe, and New Zealand. While living in the community I met the local pilot Ben who told me of his adventures through South America.

So three years later I now have enough money to take a year off and travel to many parts of the world I have not yet seem. So I packed my backpack and set off around the world. In my year of travels I spent most of my time in South America. There I visited the following countries Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. The original plan was to spend 3 months in South America, 3 months in Europe, 1 month in Africa and 3 months in Asia. However with no real plans and the world to explore things ended up being very different. I ended up spending 6 months in South America a month in Mexico, one month in the United States of America a country that originally wasn’t at all on the agenda, two and half months in Europe, and one week in Thailand. The extra time I spent in South America meant that I didn’t arrive in Europe until September instead of June like my original plan. However I don’t regret spending longer in South America. In Europe I visited the following countries England, Holland, Germany, Czech Republic, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland. On the way home to Australia I had a week in Thailand. My journey was not just about visiting incredible places, but also the people that I met and life lessons that I learnt along the way.
The Arrival I left Australia on the 13th of January and headed for South America. The first country that I set foot on in South America was Chile in the south. I landed in the capital Santiago, I was very jet lagged since it took 26 hours of flying to get there. Although the funny thing was that I left Australia at 12 O’clock Eastern Standard time and arrived in Santiago the same day but at 6:00am so I gained 6 hours. I found my hostel and just crashed out for the first half of the day. Later that afternoon I went for a walk around the city with Mat an Australian who was staying at the same hostel. Mat was a very tall and lanky guy with short black hair. We caught a train to a lookout overlooking the city also visited a zoo and saw some strange animals that I had never seen before. The next day Mat and I decided to explore some more of Chile and see where we would end up. We headed north to Valpariso and Vina De Mar. In Valpariso we stayed in the old part of town on top of the hill. Naturally the hostel we stayed at was right on top of the hill we eventually found it. There were only four people staying in the hostel, the two of us and two quite cute girls from Norway Linn and Merete. After checking in Mat and I went out and walked around the town, which was at the bottom of the hill so we had to walk down a lot of hills and through some alley ways to get there. We walked around for a while then we started to get hungry so we stopped in at a burger joint to get some food. This is were I learnt my first few Spanish words hamburguesa con queso a ensalada (hamburger with cheese and salad) and the most important word of all cerveza (beer), probably the most valuable Spanish words for an Australian to learn. That night after dinner Mat and I sat up top on the terrace and had some cervezas. After a few cervezas we decided to venture out into town and see if we could find any night life. After and walking into a couple of completely empty bars we found one with a roof top view, it cost 2000 Chilean pesos to get in which converts to about $2:50 Australian. This included two free drinks. You get about 800 Chilean pesos to one Australian dollar. Converting the countries currency into Australian dollars is something I had to get used to good thing I am a Math’s teacher.
Previously on the way to the bar Mat and I met this Chilean guy, who heard us speaking English. He ended up coming into the bar about 15 minutes after we did. He saw us and came and sat at our table with us, at first this was ok, but then after talking English to him for a while he became a little annoying for soon mat and I realized he only wanted to practice his English so we ditched him and went and got some beers. After drinking quite a few beers and exchanging stories we headed back to the hostel at about 3am. It was quite a long walk back especially since we had to venture up the hill to get to our hostel. We eventually got back to our hostel at about 4am. The Hostel that we were staying at was very big and old with a huge front door and a very old fashion lock on it. The hostel was run by an old Chilean couple in their late sixties. The old lady spoke no English and old man only a little. We both tried the keys they had given us but neither of then seemed to work. After medaling around for about half an hour with the keys we decided that we would have to rig the door bell. Both Mat and I felt guilty about doing this due to the age of hotel owners. They both came down the stairs and greeted us with huge grins on their faces in their pajamas. Mat and I both felt like guilty teenagers being busted by Mum and Dad for coming home late from a party. But the couple greeted us with big smiles and open arms instead of being yelled at. In the morning they left breakfast at our door

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