Well, here I am. The last day of a nearly 6 month long journey through a bit of South America. The last weeks moved swiftly as I made my way north from Pucón, Chile to Valparaiso on the coast, eventually flying from Santiago to the States. Valparaiso is just about an hour west of
Santiago and is the regions largest port. It is also home to a house of the famed poet Pablo Neruda, numerous Pinterest-worthy restaurants and more artsy graffiti than you can shake a spray can at.
I spent 4 days there with Leigh and a German girl we adopted in Pucón, at the home of a wonderful Couchsurfing host named Lucho. Together we ate seafood soup at 6 in the morning, sang in the streets with friends who play the accordion and saxophone after a particularly late party, swam in the ocean and cooked thai food. Valparaiso is pretty hip. Go visit if you can.
Stray Friends
At the beginning of this trip I had many doubts and fears. Doubts that I wouldn’t be able to communicate with locals or figure out the busses in Peru. I had fears that I might be mugged or hurt in some way while I was by myself. My parents worried, some friends warned me to “be careful!” and prejudices told me to guard my things as well as my free spiritedness.
I do not claim to be particularly brave; these warnings and worries weighed heavily on my mind as I prepared for the trip and in the first few days after I arrived. However, with each bus ride I completed and each interaction or conversation that took place, those worries disappeared like gas from a balloon.
Cliché Answers
Now, bare with me because this next bit is going to sound very cliche, but I thought I would find something on this trip in South America. Some answer to my questions about who I was in this world and what I could offer to people when I returned to my “real” life. In short, I discovered, nothing has changed within me. If anything, I’m more confused, haha. But the difference is, is that now I’m ok with that confusion, whereas before, I was anxiously awaiting the answer. I have found that the other travelers i met have these same doubts and fears and that the reason they travel is simply to chip away at the unknown mountain of answers.
I thought making a trip and conquering some fears within me would change who I was, but it hasn’t. It has however, changed how I see the world. it has set my regular self onto a new path, a path of motivation and inspiration for life. A path full of multiple perspectives and a thirst to be the best version of myself for myself and the others around me.
I don’t know how long these feelings will last, but before I feel them diminishing I will plan another trip. To anyone who read some of my blog over the last few months I say, “thank you”. It wasn’t much, but it was nice to share some thoughts and photos if only to keep a record for myself and assure my parents of my continued survival.
Globalizing South America
South America is a beautiful continent to visit. The colors and landscape, food and people all have so much to offer. However, Like much of the world, globalization and desires for increased knowledge and technology are changing the continent and slowly mixing cultures in a way that leaves very little to be discovered. One can see this in the South American cities as familiar North American companies move in and homemade items and goods move out.
That being said, there is plenty to see and experience before anything changes too much, but you must act fast. Buy a plane ticket! Pick a place, any place, and use the abundant info on the internet to explore the options for travel. Stay with some strangers via Couchsurfing or Workaway, it is the best way to see a city or town. Cook and camp when you can. Research the things you want to do before you arrive. Read some blogs! They have a ton of hints and pointers. Don’t let a language barrier stop you from traveling! The only thing stopping you from exploring the world is your own mind (unless it’s money, in which case you better open a savings account tomorrow). The world is friendly and we humans are more alike than you might have thought and a simple smile can go a long way in terms of communication. I saw so much generosity from strangers over the past 6 months that 
I can’t imagine how I existed before without it. It is contagious and inspiring.
Ok, no more spewing my cliche revelations, it’s all been said before. Come talk to me if you have any questions about southern Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile or traveling in South America in General. I look forward to a new chapter in my life, (far from a final one though) and to the people I will meet, only now it will all be in English!
Alyssa Maunders
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After our time spent on the Peruvian coast, we travelled East, climbing in elevation and winding through the 
people book treks up the Inca trail months in advance and I am sure those are great experiences. However, from the info Leigh and I collected while making our way to Cusco, we found that most people said the Inca trail was often very busy and underwhelming. It can be very crowded and expensive and you often see many of the same things as other, less expensive treks. In high season, july -september, the trail is often so busy that the maintenance crews can’t keep it clean and the smell from the out houses lingers like the sound of 
would try to start a conversation, at which point i asked them, in Spanish, if they were sisters. I thought I would relate to them by saying that I too had a younger sister and that she was really funny…but I didn’t get that far, not even close. Instead, after repeating my question at least three times through the wine and rain, each time getting louder, the girls started to laugh even harder. I thought they were laughing at my accent but I could tell from the look on Leigh´s face that I was missing something. Leigh looked at me and started laughing. “what did I do?”, I asked my friend as the girls ran away, clearly bored by this conversation. “Alyssa”, she said to me, ” what were you just trying to say?”, her face cracking into a huge smile. “I was asking them if they were sisters…wasn´t I?”, I repeated the phrase to Leigh, “Estamos hermosas? Si?” “No, Alyssa! It should have been, Estas Hermanas. You just told them that ´’We are pretty´, three times”. Haha, needless to say, since then I have put a little more thought into my Spanish questions.
dinner are huge portions of steamy white rice and vegetables, many grown on the farm. The company is a mishmash of volunteers from around the world, the US , France, Italy, England yet we all have something in common in the way that we have found ourselves here, in a post dinner trance, hot tea in hand playing a card game called 
got out and walked in the direction I knew the beach would be. But, after about a half a mile of scrambling over boulders while dodging a questionable smelling stream of black goo all with my big backpack on, it occurred to me that this might be wrong. I feel like an idiot now that I even walked that far knowing somewhere, in the back of mind, that there should be a dirt road or something. There was no way the volunteers were making this walk multiple times a week. Turns out, no one was making this walk, ever. I was nowhere. I confess, when I realized I was truly far from my real destination,there were tears, but only a few panicked ones that barely left my eyes. 
I made it back to the road just as the sun dropped behind some misty, green slopes near the pavement and I stuck out my thumb. It was nearly night and I was not at jihuay. In fact, I had not even begun the 30 minute walk to the farm yet. I had only had a very real detour. I was picked up by a nice couple who looked at me with a mixture of concern and fear as they asked where I was going and where I was from. I could barely answer there questions I was so relieved to be in a car for a moment. They dropped me at the Santa Rosa stop about 3 hundred yards up the road. I could have walked. I was so close and yet had gotten so very much off track. So close and yet, still at the top of a hill at night with the fact that my destination was down somewhere at the bottom. So I took out my light and walked. My feet were killing me and it was chilly. At this point I had already thanked my friend who gave me the bright orange, down coat I had been wearing that evening a dozen times. But it was still cold, probably from the thin veil of sweat that had appeared all over my body when I had to hustle back to the road and hitchhike, for the first time mind you. 
leveled off at the bottom and rounded a bend to find a large wooden gate off to the right. I had made it. “Fundo Jihuay” was written on the white plaster wall so I reached up and pulled the rope for the bell. I was quickly greeted by 2 huge ride guan ridgeback dogs and a smaller, silver mastiff puppy. These dogs would eventually be my friends but right now I was a stranger in the dark. At that point though, nothing could scare me, I was so numb with relief at arriving.
middle but that does not deter tourists from paying 10 
It was at this hostel called Corola del Sur that I met Jason who just completed his first year of travel. He saved for 5 years so that he could travel the world for 3 and here I am itching to call my parents after 72 hours. His story was inspiring to me that he could spend so much time alone. I pride myself on being able to converse with strangers and it can be easy to make friends in the environment of a hostel. People come and go and it’s easy to begin a conversation: hey, you traveling alone? No? Oh how many people? Where you from? Where you going? And it usually takes off from there. However, it is just as easy to find yourself very alone yet surrounded by people. It’s difficult if these people have already decided on their friend groups for the day. You must establish yourself quickly in this setting and I refuse to be alone all the time. If I want company I will find it.
