Three days ago I picked Donkey up at the harbour in Montevideo, after three months of being apart.

In this time I decided that I wanted to continue traveling, though be it in a different fashion. I borrowed my mom's old backpack that she used 30 years ago when she went on her walkabout, and set off to South America alone.

So much has happened in these three months that I find it hard to summarize the most important points. I guess it is best to start at the very beginning and work my way from there.

All flights that I looked at from South Africa, flew through Sao Paolo. No matter what country in South America I wanted to reach, I had to go through Sao Paolo. This made my decision as to where to start easy. I would fly to Brazil and travel from there. Man was I in for a surprise.
Now anyone who has heard of Brazil or watched the Movie "Rio" will know about Carnaval. The biggest party in the World. Now, having the luck that I do, I landed in Sao Paolo just in time fro Carnaval. In fact, one week before.
Being here at such an iconic time of the year, I couldn't miss out on it. So after a week in Sao Paolo I caught a bus to Rio de Janeiro.

Now, the biggest party in the World does not even begin to describe the situation in Rio during this festival. IT IS INSANE!!! I have never experienced a city descend into so much chaos and still be so thoroughly, epically, fun. It was out of this World. The music, the colours, the people and the place. Wow!

After such a week of party, naturally I needed a rest to recover and see the World in its normal colours again. So I took a trip down to Florianopolis, to hike and surf and be on the beach.

After a month side questing, it was time to get back on track with my travel plane. Winter is coming and I had a whole Patagonia to explore. To save time, I took a flight all the way down to el Calafate in the south of Argentina. My goodness, what a change. From tropical, warm, sunny days in Brazil, to almost arctic cold with biting wind. From lush green forests to icebergs and glaciers.
I was now closer to Antarctica than Buenos Aires.

The winter however is early this year and Nick Frost had already set his sights on the south. I moved northward bit by bit to try and stay ahead of the snow. First to el Chalten with Fitz Roy and some other epic hikes, then el Bolson with the icy blue waters of the Cajon de Azul and finally Bariloche, the Switzerland of South Argentina with beautiful lakes, chocolate and fondue. However I can only run so far before I get tired, and after another month I decided to resign and stay in one place for a while, whatever may come.

I crossed over into Chile and volunteered at Spectra Lodge in the town of Malalcahuello. A magical purple castle out in nature, this themed hotel was my home for four weeks. I helped with carpentry work, plumbing and bathroom installations. All in a bid to get the place ready for it's grand opening in July.
After four weeks I moved to the adventure capital that is Pucon, to volunteer in a hostel for another three weeks. This is where the winter truly caught up with me.

In my second week there, we didn't see the sun once. It was so bad, a rumor spread among the guests, that the famous Villaricca volcano doesn't actually exist. On the mountains more than 1.5m of snow fell, closing all hikes except with snow shoes... or skis.

Skis you say, well that was me in. Daan, another volunteer in the hostel, and I rented touring skis and headed up the volcano. Now I never in my wildest dreams thought that I would be skiing on an active volcano ever in my life, let alone in May, which theoretically is the middle of Autumn. Very unusual weather led to one of the highlights of my life.

This brings me to my final stretch of travel without Donkey. Time was running short and I had to get to Montevideo to be reunited with my trusty steed. So back on the road I went, crossing the entire continent in a span of seven days. First to Concepcion and Santiago, to visit old traveling buddies. Then on to Mendoza, Argentina for a bit (a lot) of wine. Buenos Aires was my home for a weekend, which by the way is no where near enough time to enjoy the city that never sleeps.
A quick visit to the South African embassy to cast my vote for the national elections, and I was on a ferry to Uruguay and to my Donkey.

So this brings me to where I am now, in Montevideo Uruguay. Donkey has been rescued from her container, and all the bags are packed and ready to go. Tomorrow we continue our great adventure, together, on two wheels...