THE SIMPLE LIFE

It's funny how traveling makes you appreciate the simple things in life, like a hot shower, clean clothes and a comfortable bed. All things that we take for granted in our everyday lives, but these things are not always that easy to get when your on the road. It really doesn't take much to make me happy these days. If I get to a hostel and they have hot water, that's enough for me. For a girl that lives, works and buys into a materialistic environment, back home in London, it's quite a contrast to have been traveling for over 4 months with my only processions being what I can carry on my back; the essential things; the simple things.

My appearance as completely deteriorated on this trip, my skin is bad, my clothes have holes in them and my hair is wild and unkept. I keep thinking if people could see me back home, they would go "Carly what the hell has happened to you?"
Due to this fact, I have for a while now stopped looking in mirrors, as I can't bare looking at my appearance without feeling completley ugly, but recently I've been feeling very happy with things and within myself and the other day, I caught sight of myself in the mirror. Instead of turning away like I normally do, I took along hard look at myself. There I was, just me staring back at me; no make up; no trendy clothes; hair scraped back; nothing to hide behind; just Carly Griffith. I may not be the most beautiful, intelligent or kindest person ever, but I thought to myself; you know what? Your alright, and you have met so many people recently that think your alright too, and who like you for who you are, without all the fanciness. They like the real Carly Griffith and for the first time in a long time, I thought to myself, I quite like her too; she's bloody good fun!

Anyway, all the corny, how I'm feeling stuff, over with, let's get back to the story at hand: Travels! I had once again found myself back in chile, in a place called Valparaiso. Many travellers had told me, how great it was and with the dissapointment of Mendoza, I decided to cut my losses and head of there.

After another memorable bus journey, in which I was the only gringo and English speaker (crossings the border was nightmare of lost in translation) I finally arrived in Valparaiso and checked myself into a hostel. As I was shown into my dorm, the owner informed me it was just me and a German guy in there, but there was no sign of him. After going out for a bite to eat, and getting back to a still empty dorm I decided to retire to bed early. I was woken from my deep sleep, in the early hours of the morning by the most almighty racket, of someone banging around. It was so bad I decided to turn on the light, only to find my fellow room mate standing there completely naked. He was clearly wasted as well. Well I didn't quite no what to say, until "Had a good night?" popped out of my mouth. Funnily, he was the one that looked at me like I was strange, then carried on stumbling about and banging around, until he fell onto his bed and passed out on top spread eagled and fully naked. I kind of just sat there for a bit in shock and then realised there was nothing else left to do but to turn the light off and go back to sleep, well not before I had a good old look at his you know what (you know you would of as well, so don't be all high and mighty now)! I woke up, to still find him naked on the bed, so decided to be very English about things and carry on as if it wasn't happening, by pottering around. Eventually he woke up and after a moment of clearly not knowing what was going on, he sprang under his sheets and everything came flooding back to him. He apologised to be about his behaviour and said how embarrassed he was, without looking me in the eyes. I told him he had nothing to be embarrassed about after what I saw last night. This only made him go redder and he ran off to the bathroom. He checked out an hour later. God, all because I saw his penis. I don't know what his problem is? I'm sure I'm not the first girl who's seen it and I'm sure I won't be the last!

After all that excitement I decided to spend the day getting lost among the narrow streets and old buildings covered in paintings in Valparaiso. Magical, and felt very happy in my own company for the day, taking it all in. I returned back to my room to find two new additions; a girl from Taiwan who's name I could not pronounce, so I ended up just calling her Tai. Her English was so bad, I could hardly understand her and her Spanish? Well let's just say it was good to finally meet someone who was so bad, they made me look fluent. She was sweet though and was a buddist so just meditated most of the time. The other person was a big German girl, who scared the hell out of me, as she looked like she could beat the shit out of me. I didn't ask her name, as I was too scared!

I went to check my emails and saw I had an interesting message in my inbox. It was from an English guy called Andy, saying that he had checked in on Facebook in Valparaiso and had seen that I had too, and that we were from the same part of England and if I wanted to meet up for a drink with him that night. He added at the end of the message, that he understood if I didn't want to as I might think getting this message from a complete stranger, a bit strange. Dam right! Could be a serial killer or something. Weirdo! I went back to the dorm. After 5 minutes of realising that my night now consisted of still being scared of German girl and having to listen to meditating and bad English with Tai, I decided to opt for the serial killer instead. I sent him message and told him to meet at eight in the square. Besides, everyone I meet traveling and end up hanging out with, I've only known 5 minutes and don't know from Adam, anyway! I was also on a good run with my impulsive's, after the Aussies and Martin. If push came to shove, I could kick him in the nuts (I've got a good kick) and run fast, as I was no longer at high altitude. Before I left I thought, for extra safety I'd tell some one where I was going so interrupted Tai from her meditating and said in really loud, slow English " So his name is Andy and if I don't come back alive, tell the police you can find him on my Face Book inbox, OK"? She just nodded a lot. I left thinking she hadn't bloody understood one word I'd said!

I went to the square to find, not a serial killer, or a weirdo, but an ordinary northern guy. Relief! We headed straight for a bar and ended up in some tacky hell of an African theme bar (the Chileans love their theme bars)! Andy is a computer programmer who now lives in Toronto, but has no trace of an accent. He was nice company too and we talked, and drank the whole night. He was the perfect gentleman, who never tried anything on with me. He just wanted good company and so did I. Two northerners together makes for a big session of drinking and by the time we left the bar, we were very drunk. As we got some late night empadanas we got talking to some Chilean screaming queens who wanted us to go to a gay nightclub with them. Andy looked horrified while my impulse told me this could be fun, but then my impulse became blurred and then it told me I had to much to drink, and it was probably best to be sensible for once and let Andy walk me to my door.

The next morning I woke to find Tai looming over me and saying
"I'm glad you are back and alive Carly". She then went back to meditating. "Only just alive", I said feeling my banging head. Well a least on the bright side she understood what I said last night, I thought as I rolled over back to sleep.

The next day I took a bus to the capital, Santiago. My main aim in this place was not to go sight seeing, but to buy a new pair of jeans. The ones I was wearing, where full of holes and falling to pieces. Also there was a big hole in the crotch and if you sat at the wrong angle it could be classed as indecent exposure. They had to go. Now I love shopping usually; it's my job for God sake. The problem is I'm a 5'10, skinny girl with not much ass, which doesn't really fit the shape of the average south American woman. I knew it was going to be a nightmare, and it was! After going to the biggest department store I could find in Santiago, I tried on a ton of jeans, which came half way up my legs and sagged inwards where my J-Lo ass was meant to be. This seem to amuse the locals a lot, when I came out of the changing room everytime wearing them asking to try another pair. Yeah! Let's all laugh at the skinny, tall, Gringa with no ass! Funny ha ha! Not! I was starting to become a bit distressed with the situation and was about to give up, when lovely Carmen who worked in the store, decided to take pity on the weird body shaped Gringa, and made it her mission to get me a pair of jeans. After a lot of effort, she found me a pair and I have to say, they probably fit me better than most of my jeans in England. Thanks Carmen; you have saved the rest of South America from indecent exposure!

Now when you have a 24 hour bus ride a head of you, the sensible thing would be to get an early night, which I did have the good intension of doing. All I did was go for one beer at the hostel bar! At 4am and God knows how many beers later, I crawled into bed after meeting a ton of travelers at the bar, playing drinking games, truth or dare and dancing around to stupid music. So not exactly the sensible night I was thinking of. Bloody funny though! I had to keep telling myself, the "Funny!" thing when I was sat on the bus dying of a hangover, then when it broke down and we had to sit at the side of the road in the middle of the Andes for an hour; then when they squashed us all onto another really shit bus; then when the old Chilean lady kept talking to me in Spanish LOTS, even though I told her I couldn't understand her; then when the only food I got to eat on the ENTIRE journey was sandwiches!!!!; then when I didn't sleep for the whole night as the big Argentinean guy sat next me, snored all night and encroached on my space. By the time I got my first glimpse through hazy eyes, of Buenos Aires I was totally exhausted, but then when I found myself alone at the bus station, in this bussling city of 17 million, of what I'd heard so much about, that I had dreamt of for so long, I found a new lease of life. I was excited. I was about to start my Buenos Aires adventure, but that's a story still waiting to be told, so you will have to wait to hear that one another day.

WHERE AM I GOING?

"All the world is a stage and and all the men and women are merely players", that's what Shakespeare said, wasn't it? Well if that's the case, can someone tell me what role I'm meant to be playing, because I don't know anymore. You see, while nearly all my friends are growing up in life, by having babies, getting married and getting mortgages, I seem to be at the age of 31 rebelling from it all by wandering round south America, partying, having flings with guys from foreign lands and trying not to be responsible in anyway shape or form. The truth of the matter is, I'm completely lost at the moment, I have no clue where I'm going or what role I'm meant to be playing but it's OK, because I'm traveling and it's OK to be lost when traveling. It's because of this reason, I have decided to extend my trip by a month. I will now not be back until the end of May. My family and friends who say they miss me, have waited this long for me to come home, they can wait a little bit longer for me. I'm not ready to come home yet. I don't want to come back to reality. I want to be lost a little bit longer.

Speaking of lost, I now seem to have found myself now in Chile, which again is a detour from my travel plan, but what a lovely detour it is. This is the story of how I got here.

Me, Eva and Tanja took another awful Bolivian bus ride from Potosi (the highest city in the world) to Uyuni, which once again included terrible roads, having to pee in the open and bad 80s music, which also comprised of a Spanish cover of Chris de Burghs, lady in red! Eventually we arrived at Uyuni, which was a complete dump! Still it was a must on the Gringo trail as it was the gateway to Salar Uyuni, which is the biggest salt desert in the world and a must see in South America.

As much as I have loved Bolivia as a country, I have been very disappointed with the people. After the kindness of the Colombians and the Peruvians, the Bolivians seemed rude, unfriendly and had a really bad attitude to Gringo's. Added to this Bolivians bad roads and that Uyuni was such a horrible place, me and the girls decided on the plan of taking a 3 day tour into the Uyuni desert, after which we would get dropped at the Chilean border and get the hell out of Boliva.

As I have learnt from traveling, when you take a tour, your experience depends a lot on the rest of the group. Well the rest of our group consisted of all Brits! Now I try and avoid Brits abroad, as they are usually just that (Brits abroad!) and I find myself apologising for their behaviour, even more so when their ages range from 18-21, which the rest of my group was; all ten of them! Four of them girls, who all dressed the same, could not be separated from each other, even for the toilet; all they seemed bothered about was the way they looked and between them had the brain capacity of a pea! The boys were just one big bag of testosterone, who only seemed bothered about getting in the four girls knickers and trying to act hard to disguise their public school boy past. All in all it made for entertaining 3 days if nothing else! There was one other member to the group, a another Brit Elliott who at 26 was more with us as he fell into our age group, of the golden oldies, which we had began to feel like!

The group was split into two jeeps. Our jeep consisted of me and the girls, Elliott and two of the young guys; Johnny and Dave, who seemed very reluctant as Eva was sick and they thought she was going to throw up over them and they couldn't be with the other girls and work on getting into their knickers!

So off to the desert we went. The day consisted of the boys drinking loads, the girls stripping off to their underwear in the desert to take photos of each other, the boys getting erections, finding some binoculars and shouting " Oh f**k, that's so hot!" a lot. As distracting as this juvenile behaviour was, it did not ruin for me the salt desert of Uyuni, which has to be the most amazing landscape I have ever seen in my life. It's so magical, it doesn't look real, even when you see it with your own eyes. I do believe there is nothing like it on earth. What I saw there will stay with me to the day I die.

We then had a three hour drive to our hotel for the evening, so we decided to get in some beers. The boys had got some nasty local spirit and were mixing it with coke and kept offering it us. Well if you can't beat them, join them so we did. Before we know it we are all soooooooooooo drunk. We are singing our hearts out to Oasis songs; Eva is mixing the drinks and getting whiskey all over her arms, which she makes the boys lick off; we piss off our driver, Mario by having to stop to pee ever two seconds; we have to pee next to llamas; Tanja is soooooooooooo drunk she starts trying to catch a llama; Tanja starts kissing Johnny and the next thing Elliott asks to kiss me and I say "OK, then"! It's totally crazy. I'm drunk in the back of a jeep in the desert, kissing some guy over the seat that I don't even fancy, like a thirteen year old. Hanging with teenagers has turned me into acting like one. The rest of the night is a bit of a blur. I do remember Tanja throwing up and being put to bed; me thinking I was fluent in Spanish while talking to the locals; me losing my bag; me finding my bag and me nicking one of the pea head (I now refer to the group as the pea heads!) boys toilet paper because I couldn't find ours!

The next morning we all woke up with huge hangovers and Tanja not knowing where she was. I sat with Elliott for breakfast and we both hadn't got a clue why we had started kissing and laughed about it. Then it was also revealed he had kissed Eva later that night, even funnier, though he did start quoting the bible to her after (worrying)!

The rest of the day was quite painful, because not only did I have a hangover, I had to deal with the pea heads too. After surviving the day and seeing some amazing scenery, we arrived at our accommodation for the night. After eating me and the girls decided to have a early night because we felt so rough.

Unfortunately we were sharing our room, with the pea head girls, who decided they were going to go to the pea head boys room and play drinking games to the early hours of the morning, which is shit when the walls are paper thin. You can hear everything, so when they crawled back to the room late, I was still wide awake, which should of made me angry as we had to be up at 4.30am, but I would not have wanted to have missed the following for the world! Please imagine the following conversations, in the most girly, squeaky, stupid voices you can imagine.
"Oh my God girls, the boys call us the untouchables, because we are so untouchable! Isn't that cool?"
"yeah that's cool"!
"So cool"!
"Cool!"
"Steph, I think you should get off with Dexter!"
"I can't! He looks like my dad! I can't get off with my dad can I?"
"Lucy, Brad loves you, I think you should have sex with him".
"Really? Does he? Maybe I will have sex with him"?
"Is it wrong to shave your stomach"?
"No Paris, it's cool, I did mine in the shower this morning".
"It's cool Paris".
"Cool".
While this is going on I'm under my sheets, shoving my pillow in my face, so they cannot hear how much I am laughing. I find out the next morning Tanja was doing the same.

After really no sleep, but a very entertaining night, we head out to see the Geyesers and the hot springs. All the girls are put in one jeep, which I quite enjoyed as I am finding the pea heads very funny now, probably for the wrong reasons, but funny all the same.

We head for the hot springs, which all the pea heads are very excited about: the boys because they get to see the girls half naked and the girls, because they get to show the boys themselves half naked and they have also shaved their stomachs. Me and Tanja sit and watch with amusement, but when we head out of the spring, we realise the boys are making comments about us and having a good stare at us in our bikinis. I guess the girls aren't as special as they think they are. When guys are that age, they are so testosterone all they really need is a woman who is breathing, and with breasts. I then realise I have left all my dry clothes in the jeep and have to runaround in my bikini. That said there is something very liberating parading around the Andes in just your bikini.

After breakfast me, Tanja and Eva have to go to the border in a jeep, to catch our bus in time. This seems to be a very traumatic thing for the Pea heads as it means three of them have to come in our jeep, thus separating them all for more than 2 minutes. The girls flatly refuse to come with us (selfish as well as dumb)! The boys all can't decide and the whole thing turns into a mission, which we are getting very angry with as we might miss our bus. After shouting at them, three very reluctant boys sit riding with us to the border. We reach the most remote boarding crossing ever and I'm glad to see the back if them all. I'm too old for all their rubbish and I'm reminded why I would never want to be 21 again. No more teenagers, though I can't say it wasn't a very entertaining experience, just one I don't want to repeat.

I am now in a great little town called San Pedro Accama in chile. It was so the right decision to come here. The people are great, there is brilliant wine, I'm out of high altitude at last and back into shorts, vests and flip flops. The only regret is that I haven't got more time to explore Chile. Tomorrow, we head for Argentina. At least there is one place I know where I'm going in life.