SOUTH AMERICA

Our journey through the fourth largest continent on Earth is over. In 169 days, we experienced a lot. We traveled to 8 countries, visited 25 cities, 4 islands, and numerous villages. We fought our way through the jungle, froze and sweated in the desert, hiked in the mountains, swam in various seas, and walked on the most beautiful beaches. We marveled at the second largest waterfalls in the world in Brazil and Argentina, visited the highest capital city in the world in La Paz (Bolivia), explored the largest market in the world, and witnessed one of the most beautiful sunsets in Minca, the highest coastal mountain range in the world. We walked through the largest salt flat in the world in Bolivia, visited the Salvador Dali Desert and photographed the Milky Way among cacti and waterfalls in the Atacama Desert in Chile. We followed the traces of the Incas, visited their temples on the 'Isla del Sol' on Lake Titicaca, and walked through the famous ruins of 'Machu Picchu' after climbing nearly 2,000 steps. We experienced the carnival in Rio de Janeiro and played paintball in the ruins of Pablo Escobar's villa. We caught piranhas in the Amazon in Ecuador and spotted anacondas. We dove with fish in the Caribbean and had disputes with coatis over our food in Brazil. We saw hundreds of different birds, including parrots and ostriches, various monkeys, sloths, caimans, snakes, spiders, lizards, frogs, llamas, alpacas, and many more. During our journey, we also met dozens of people. We got to know locals who became families and travelers who became friends. We encountered hospitality and contempt, love and hate, joy and sadness. We saw a lot of poverty, people without a future, and dogs and cats left alone on the streets. But we also saw people who were far from impoverished despite their lack of possessions. We learned about different cultures, heard about interesting and repulsive traditions, and listened to incredible stories. Of course, we also wanted to travel culinarily through the countries of South America and tasted pretty much everything we were given. We had incredibly sweet cocktails in Chile, the best caipirinhas in Brazil, and drank a liquor from a bottle containing a dead snake in Peru. We ate very fine and very disgusting local specialties, but most of the time it was just rice, beans, and chicken. We experienced a lot and saw a lot, but most importantly, we learned a lot. Even though it wasn't always easy, we somehow survived almost 6 months in South America. And despite being one of the most dangerous continents and despite all the stories we heard from other travelers, nothing happened to us. We were neither threatened nor robbed. We were not provoked, deceived, or insulted in any way. Thank God!