11 months = 335 days

  Pucon, Chile
Sunday, April 15, 2007

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Travelling can be defined for each traveller... an escape, a quest, a goal, a mean, a beginning, an end? A little bit of all that?

Can I recall the initial idea, the original motivation? I think I can: at the time already I was travelling regularly, and the time spent working abroad was just as enriching as the shorter tourist trips to more exotic destinations. I could spend time, lot of time, with numerous locals (Nigerians, and then Algerians), to discover their countries and cultures through their words, through the thoughts and opinions that we exchanged.
There were also other expatriates: Europeans, Anglo-saxons, Asians. Many encounters, a lot of time shared in places far away from everything. Rich human experiences in overconstrained remoteness.

But I was missing something. Or rather, I could feel a frustration growing, from the conscience of having a life too short, already predictably too full, faced with a world too vast, way too big. Seeing, doing, living everything is an absolute impossibilty. But at some point came together the urge to go visit the world, and the possibility to do so, by a combination of circumstances and choices. So off I went as a visitor.

To pay a visit to Earth, to Nature and mens. A visit, because I only wanted to pass by. If I had desired to experience more deeply a place, a culture, I would have had to find a place, and then to stay there. That is what I did before. That is what I will do after. I went just as a visitor, as we can visit our surroundings, out of curiosity, or for the sake of it. And maybe to find places that invite you back,or make you stay for a while.

These were the reason of my leaving, if I recall well. Not a search, not an escape, not an entertainment. For a reason that is its own mean: make each instant a beginning, make every time a first time. That has to be achieved from inside as much as from outside.

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It was in May, it was a Monday, 11 months ago exactly. 335 days visiting a fraction of our Earth.
Many experiences since, all of them very subjective of course, resulting from circumstances I met and choices I made.

The thirst for discovery has been quenched, the panic from the vastness of the world has been soothed.
And this trip, very early, gave me a revelation, something totally unexpected about life: it is long!
Nevertheless, wanderlust has not ceased to grow.

I had decided to come back this summer, if only to be able to leave again.
Today I have a few months left... and a bit too much to do. Buenos Aires and Patagonia kept me under their spell longer than planned, and Latin America is handing me an invitation, to stay and discover her at her pace, at the rythm of her people and of her seasons.
Other than Argentina and Chile, I have enough time left to visit Bolivia and Peru.
But just there, right in the continuity, are Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela. They are part of my original itinerary, countries I wanted to get to know. And also... once back into active life, when again will I be able to afford the time for months-long travelling?

My ticket home is valid until the end of 2007. And I am wondering... why not?

I would like to see everybody, but I know you will still be there when I go back.
And anyway, I have you with me, all the time and since the begining, following my steps and sending me news and photos.
Above all, always as strongly do I carry you in me, each of these moments shared together that made me who I am... I am not alone, that is a fact.
In short, I am missing you, without needing you!

There are still things that annoy me. Like missing the weddings; like not seeing the little noisy thingys that are growing up; like not beeing there to help my brother Alix to study more (lucky him!).
For all the rest (stories, conneries, parties, food orgies, photos and gigs, new faces and same old songs), I am sure I can catch up later, and anyway I will have my share to report too!

I am definitely not facing a difficult choice, far from that. I have to choose between the pleasure of coming back, and the pleasure of staying and then coming back.

So I am wondering, and I am also asking you...

Keep travelling during the summer, and go back at the end of fall... why not?

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