A year after the #YellowTheWorld expedition to the Everest Base Camp it is time for a new adventure.
Why? Where is it written that you have to go somewhere?
There are several reasons.
The utmost goal of the Himalayan expedition was to raise awareness about the Usher Syndrome and it was the part of the #YellowTheWorld campaign. Yet I do not feel like stopping and if I look at the map of the places in the world yellowed so far I see some big gaps. Someone has to go there, right?
On top of this I have discovered that I have not only Usher syndrome. One syndrome is not enough. I think I have all symptoms of Wanderlust Syndrome, be it a consequence of the first one or not.
Finally after a long period spent in South America between 2009 and 2010, I felt the need to go back. Of course I would like to go back to Africa, I would like to go to Thailand and Indonesia, but their time will come.
This is the time of … Peru!
No, I have not always dreamt of going to that country. To tell the truth, I know little or nothing of its people, traditions and history. Well, instead of taking a book and studying it from A to Z, I will be going there to learn about it, walking on the Andes, on the snow-capped peaks of Salktantay to get up to Machu Picchu and then maybe get to the Amazon rainforest, rain permitting.
Just putting these names one after the other I get an adrenaline rush.
Perhaps this was how my finger pointed at Peru while the globe was spinning in front of my eyes.
Well, it is so big that it was hard to miss.
Peru is also the destination I would have chosen to run away forever and not be found any more. It would be my place for two hearts and a hut.
If you did not hear from me for several weeks, you’d know where to go looking for me.
Peru is a fairly safe country to return , after the Base Camp , to walk above 5000 meters and trigger a new wave of yellow on the other side of the world.
As usual, a trip of this kind requires a lot of preparation and also this time I sent dozens of emails, contacted friends and friends of friends, signed travel insurance papers, consulted guide books, checked online forums…
So I have not a defined itinerary.
Lima, Cusco, Machu Picchu and then… who knows.
Pure adventure, pure road, pure forest, pure freedom.
Or the illusion of freedom.
Whatever it is, as long as I have a bit of independence left (my eyesight continues to worsen), I will also have the energy to go on the road, whatever the cost may be.
Because the journey is still a discovery and however hard it will be, it is in the dimension of that distant loneliness that I will try and maybe find some answers to the eternal question.
Who am I?
And here I am walking alongside the roads of the knowledge of the world and knowledge of the self.
Hasta pronto!