When the Cheshire emerges...

Travel sickness can be a bit of a pain. Travel injuries are a whole other story. And then those combined with a scare of nearly not making a flight is a good plot for someone's worst nightmare.

Thankfully I've never had anything serious in the way of these during my previous travels, but both injury and sickness were definitive in the final hours of my trip to South America - pushing me towards actually wanting to return to Australia.

Yeah, on the last day I really did just want to be home.

After being unable to meet with my friend in Santiago, all my sightseeing hadn't gone to plan on the second day there ahead of my flight. I was continuing to have issues with my bowels (which to be fair hadn't felt right since heading to Peru two weeks before), and I'd hurt my knee on day three of the Inca Trail, feeling a pain on the outside of my right kneecap as I completed the bulk of the downhill climb.

Not sure if the strap helped, but I wore it for the rest of the trek - thanks Hans!

I was grateful that the Inca Trail had been in the last week of the trip, knowing I would soon be able to see my physiotherapist at home. I could walk, but it was getting really painful and limping was a near necessity. As for the bowels, they worsened the later it got and toilet trips were becoming more frequent than breaths for air.

Then I almost didn't get on my flight because of damn Lan Airlines. Told at check-in I'm on standby - they apparently had 20 people over because of a change in the size of the plane taking us. Being told to wait there, and with the body not holding up, I sat on the floor before actually bursting into tears. I did not feel well. I had my Sydney day with friends planned that I was really excited about and a connecting flight. I did not want to stay an extra day!

Thankfully I was with two lovely sisters, Morgane and Armelle, from my Santiago hostel who I'd spent time with, and they were in the same boat. With an 11.20pm departure, 10pm comes and goes and there's no news like they said there would be. I'd been given a free food voucher so went to use it (where the people swarming around me were not terribly helpful). On returning I'm found and told they called my name. Then the woman at the counter says "You can't get on, you've missed it, it's past 10.20 and that's an hour before departure. You should've been here at 10 like you were meant to." It was 10.20 on the dot on my watch, but she tried proving otherwise on her iPhone. I then have back-up from Morgane and Armelle (who had received their tickets) arguing I was around at 10 - "but I went to use the voucher YOU provided me because I was told I wasn't getting on this plane".

And then she finally let me on. Miraculously with a seat letting me stretch out my leg.

***

I ended up losing any holiday weight and then some because I continued to have a lack of solid digestion during and after the plane ride. So there was good out of that I guess. Although that easily creeps back as I've found without regular exercise.



Yes, I can't exercise properly yet because of having to recover by doing these exercises with a foam roller. The knee pain is my showing of ITB Friction Syndrome, a common problem, so I have to ease my way back to fitness. And nearly three weeks since coming back, jogging for more than 10 minutes on a treadmill isn't going well. So I definitely can't manage weights or other classes, and it's killing me. I just want to sweat it out!

I'm on the home stretch before my departure for South America. It's very exciting, but I still feel like there's a heck of a lot to do.

I've found out it doesn't always pay to stay up late to send off correspondence though. After having found out I need to pay a 'reciprocity fee' to enter Argentina (hello hidden costs), the same is applicable for Chile. While that fee is payable at the airport on entering through Santiago I wanted to confirm how much it might be or how else I may need to go about it.

This is my response.

Oh deary me.

After watching the Olympics and reading about my friend Luke's amazing two-week sporting extravaganza over there, I was excited. Excited about really wanting to get out somewhere for ages again. Doing something on a big scale like seeing sporting events day in, day out for ages.

Sporting events...

BRAZIL 2014.

I mentioned this briefly at the end of the Games, and this week I decided to do my research for the next World Cup.

Unfortunately, in the words of a travel agent, I was just a little too keen.

Not much has been revealed in terms of tours (I did discover the Fanatics are taking interest already for theirs though, that would be fun), and flights and accommodation for that time aren't released until next year.

That didn't stop the agent from telling me all about possible tours I could do around South America before or after the event. After all, there's so much to see - I wouldn't just go for the soccer, right?

The pictures in the Intrepid catalogue alone transported me to another world, the intense colour in every shot just drew me in. They really pop, so beautiful. And they do Antartica!

***

Slight tangent: a few weeks ago my mother tells me the household's latest revelation.

My dad apparently wants to go to Antartica in two years time.

He watched this series of videos about people who had toured and apparently it's something he wants to do. Now, whether this is still the case in a year is up for debate... but 2014 is in two years time as well. So it makes total sense for me to want to go to the World Cup so then I can get down to Argentina and get the departure with Dad to Antartica. Making sense? Gosh, how wild would that be if I managed to pull it off?

***

If I do commit to saving up for the World Cup, that means any overseas trip next year is a no-go (although, maybe somewhere in south-east Asia could stick if I really had an itch). This particularly affects my pre-Olympic idea which I got rather excited about; while I was home, I was thinking of the USA because Topdeck had just announced their first itineraries there in 20 years...



...and while I'm sad because this is 99.9 per cent on the backburner, I got the agent to pass me a brochure over anyway. Since she was there and all.

Oh deary me.