Hello World: It’s a pleasure to meet you

I began an adventure just over a year ago, in Guatemala with a lot of shiny new shoes, clothes and ‘traveller accessories’. Being 32 at the time and pretty inexperienced at travelling outside of the Central Line,  I was worried about missing my creature comforts and scared of getting lost after stepping out of London – a city I had only really got the hang of after 10 years of living there. I had no sense of direction and at the time, no Spanish or knowledge of other cultures. You can read more about how I initially felt when I started this blog here…
A year on and my clothes have fallen apart, my shoes are stylishly muddy and carrying stories of smoking volcanoes, ancient temples, and islands made of reeds. Accessories have been left at various hostals and replaced with unnecessary, but irresistible colourful items bought at bustling markets, and I can hold my own in a chat with the locals in downtown Quito. I’m not scared anymore. Meeting the world outside of London has been the best thing I’ve ever done and I never want the adventure to stop.
Feet and an Inca Site
Wandering feet picking up stories in Inca territory. Peru.
My blog is about travel, currently with quite a focus on Central and South America and travelling solo as a 30+ person. I am in love with everything Latin America and try to find words and pictures to make others feel inspired and fall in love with it too. You may also notice that I have quite an obsession with anything animal or bird related and have spent a lot of time sitting quietly with a fairly basic Canon camera so I can attempt to capture the incredible creatures of this planet.
Munching llama, Peru.
It’s impossible not to love a llama!
I started this blog for the usual reasons – keep up with family and friends while being on the road and to try and keep some kind of record of my trip. However, now I’d love to connect and share inspiration with other fellow travellers. In particular, I’m interested in travelling over the age of 30 and perhaps making choices that don’t follow the traditional settling down kind of lifestyle that most people understandably go for. I say understandably – I think to have a house, a nice job and family is a wonderful thing. However, I personally found the pressure to do these things got overwhelmingly strong as I hit 30 and all my friends settled down. Yet I didn’t feel ready or in the right place for it all. Previously, I felt in a bit of a panic about the whole thing and convinced there was something wrong with me. However,  as soon as I started tucking into my first tamale, and wiggling a distinctly British salsa bottom – I realised that this pressure isn’t real and we don’t have to live exactly by the rules.
So, if you are thinking of travelling solo in your 30s and have any doubts about it, questions or fears then I would also love to hear from you. I’m happy to talk and discuss travelling until I’m blue in the face. If you have dreams that you always thought about but never had a chance to do when you were younger, then I would like to tell you that you can do it. It could be travelling or simply a hobby – anything you think ‘it’s too late now’. There is always a way and it’s never too late. If I can inspire one person this year to take that leap and start an adventure, then I will feel that I have been successful.
I’m writing this as part of a course called ‘Blogging 101’ which is run by WordPress and I hope will help me improve and gain some knowledge about blogging in general. Any feedback is greatly appreciated from anyone about any part of my blog.

 

6 Comments

  1. This is my favorite blog so far.. I actually read through the entire adventure…it makes me wish I had been able to travel more when I was young enough to do it. Your photos are wonderful and so is your writing.i

  2. I think I’m going to blog now instead of later on my traveling. The main reason I can’t do real traveling now is mainly because of money…and I’m not being coy. I did a considerable amount of realtiy tours, in Chiapas mainly. I was in my 60s then, and it was a lot harder than it would have been in my 30s! 🙂 Some “older” travelers are fun, others are a pain in the ass…but that’s another story.

    1. I’m so glad. It can be tricky to realise it when you are in certain situations – especially when there are pressures to be a particular way and to ‘fit in’. But travelling allowed me to see outside of it and how many other ways of living and options there are out there 🙂

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