In 2007 I was working a tedious door-to-door ‘marketing’ job, which required 14hour days 5-6 days a week. I knew I wanted to do something different, but couldn’t quite figure out what it was.
One day I walked into a careers office and explained to them the general gist of my interest. “you want to work in international aid and development” the advisor told me.
After some further research I looked at studying an MSc in ‘Environment and Sustainable Development‘ at University College London, but it was extremely competitive. to get an advantage I decided to volun-travel in South America, learning a second language and gaining some work and travel experience.
With a 6 month position in Bolivia sort-of arranged, I took off and took a bit of a looping trip around the continent. First, I flew into Lima, Peru. This was Dec 31st 2007, so it was a great way to start a new year and a new era. Peru is amazing, we visited Machu Picchu and hiked the Inca Trail, went to the floating islands and visited the indigenous people that live on Lake Titicaca and went sand-boarding in Huacachina, a desert oasis.
Here is Machu Picchu. Personally, I think the best views are from the large mountain behind the ruins, Wayna Picchu:
After some exhausting days climbing I headed to Rio de Janiero, Brazil, for some sunshine and relaxation on Copacabana, the world’s most famous beach. The highlight of Rio de Janiero however, turned out to be a trip up Sugarloaf Mountain; the views were spectacular, and when a huge storm came in abruptly and left us stranded up there, things got really interesting! Here is a picture of the storm as it recedes and the sun comes back out:
To cut a long story short, I ended up traveling through Uruguay, Argentina and Chile before I made my way to Bolivia on a road trip through the giant salt flats in the south of the country. There exists some of the most beautiful scenery on earth, all thrown together and somewhat unexpected at 4000 meters above sea-level:
…Arriving in Bolivia I discovered the work placement was not quite as organized as the company had made out! But this turned out to be a blessing is disguise. I had a bit more time available, and decided to explore Bolivia a bit more in depth. One major tourist attraction is ‘El Camino Del Muerte’ – The Road of Death! – which many people mountain bike down, starting at 4600m and descending down into the jungle on the windy, perilous road. I have no videos of my ride down the mountain, but quite like this Mitsubishi commercial which was shot on the same road and includes interviews with some of the locals:
Surviving my mountain biking adventure (one girl in our group was not so lucky, emerging with a broken arm and smashed teeth), I continued traveling North, through Ecuador and it’s amazing jungle, up to Colombia. Unfortunately Colombia has a bad reputation, but it really is an incredible country, and Cartagena de Indias is one of the most spectacular colonial cities I have ever seen, combining Old World architecture and traditional Latin elements:
Eventually I had a new pacement arranged with an environmental education group called CEDO (Centro Intercultural de Estudios de Desiertos y Oceanos), in Sonora, Mexico.
One of CEDO’s main goals is to protect the Vaquita Marina, the world’s most endangered sea-mammal, which lives only in the Northern part of the Sea of Cortez. Here is a video of this extremely rare animal:
I spent a year working at CEDO, learned Spanish and then met my now-husband whilst on a a sustainable building internship across the border in New Mexico. Needless to say, I never made the MSc in London…
