Off on a South American Adventure...

If you saw me on the lead up to this trip and were one of the many people who asked me if I was excited, you may have noticed some hesitation. The truth is, while I have been looking forward to this trip for months, as it drew closer and closer, my anxiety grew. With the exception of a cruise last year I have not been overseas since I was sixteen and went to East Timor so the idea of traveling to a completely new place, a total of sixteen hours away by plane, was very much out of my comfort zone and something that I was starting to wonder what had possessed me to sign up and pay a lot for.

Maybe you were one of the people who asked what I was looking forward to the most, or what I was hoping to get out of the trip... If you were, you'll know that my answer to both was that I have no idea. After experiencing world youth day in Sydney back in 2008, I wanted to do it all over again. I don't remember half of it now, but what I do remember is the feeling of positivity and hope I felt. I had never before felt so at home in my own city and had so much fun walking around the streets of Sydney meeting other people like me from all around the world. It was that feeling that made me want to go to the next one but I missed out and so decided no matter where the next one was I would go.

So here I am, officially on pilgrimage for World Youth Day in Rio 2013.

After frantically packing on Friday night and managing to squeeze in about two hours sleep, I arrived at the airport feeling rather tired on Saturday morning. After we did the family goodbyes and went through customs I chucked in some gum and hoped and prayed my anxiety wouldn't kick in. We boarded the plane about an hour later, and to

my surprise I was fine all through take off and on the flight. Four hours in I was pretty ready to get off though and sadly didn't sleep a wink for the rest of the time. After 13 hours we landed in Santiago Chile where we spent the next four hours waiting to board our four hour flight to Lima. By the time we got to Lima it was 5pm local time and I still hadn't slept, but was so excited to see a wonderful Peruvian family who were waiting to greet me holding up a welcome sign and a flower. At this point I had had a total of two hours sleep in the past 30 hours and should have been on the floor but was so excited by the welcome that I was re-energised.

We then all piled onto a bus with a lovely guide and headed towards our accommodation, a retreat house in the San Isidro district of Lima.

On the way we were told a bit about Lima and Peru in general and I was surprised most by the fact that even in Winter Peru gets no rain, just a very light drizzle and no more than 1mm of rainfall each year! Sadly in Winter though due to the clouds getting stuck between the mountains and covering the whole sky they don't see the sun or sky. The sky during the day is a grey, and by night is an orange colour.

The streets heading from the airport to our accommodation were lovely. There was greenery and flowers in most the medium strips and bike paths everywhere. The streets themselves were also incredibly clean even though some of the buildings on either side of them looked decrepit. I noticed also that all the houses/apartments had strong coloured paint, and had flat roofs. I later found out that because there is no rain, there is no need for a slope for the rain to run off, and for the same reason the paint doesn't get ruined by prolonged water exposure.

I also found the street art/graffiti really interesting... While there were some basic tags, there was some really beautiful paintings and in some cases mosaics representing significant events.

After arriving at our accommodation and having some dinner a few of us decided to go for a walk to explore the local area. We had an 11pm curfew before they wouldn't let us back in the gates after that so we didn't go out for long, but we walked a few blocks in circles until we eventually found a shop, got a drink and some snacks and walked home again. Along the way we must have walked past about twenty security guards in front of houses and apartment blocks, and even some sitting in little phone box shaped boxes on the street corners. I had never seen so much security anywhere other than when the president or pope goes somewhere so it was interesting to learn that the reason for the security was a result of the terrorism that had happened in the past and that everyone in the middle and upper class neighbourhoods all chipped in money to hire a security guard for their area.
After an exhausting Saturday, which ended up being about a 39 hour day once we'd crossed time zones, I tried my luck with having a hot shower, but sadly I lucked out and chose the one with the worst water pressure, so I rushed through and jumped in bed.

Though it was a long day of traveling, and sore legs and back for me, it was so surreal looking out over the balcony before I went to bed and realising that I was on the other side of the world, and though I have no idea what will come from this trip, except of course what it written in the itinerary. I was finally ready to answer the question, yes, I am excited!!