By: Milly Sanchez
It all started when some friends started traveling on cruises for work, so I said to myself, at 21 years old and at a time when Instagram was not popular and Facebook had just been launched after the popular hi5, there were no reels, and the internet did not show you the world as it does now; I said to myself “I can do it too.”
First, because of what I could earn, for someone of my age, the salary they told me seemed very attractive. However, when I boarded the plane for the first time, alone and staying static in a middle seat in the middle row from Lima to Miami, it was that kind of shock that when you wake up it’s like a catharsis, like everything is literally being in a dream and you no longer know where you are, what is that place Miami?
For me, it was like I was Alice in Wonderland… I don’t think I’ve ever been able to describe it like I do now…
From there I worked on a cruise ship in a position that allowed me to go to many ports of call. I was able to visit so many countries, the United States, the Caribbean, Europe… obviously you pay a price for that experience, sometimes challenging, sometimes fun, but it was all part of what now, a few years later, I understand what it is to live.
After 18 months of working on it, I started to get to know my country, several times alone, sometimes with someone else. I traveled so many times alone outside the country and I was able to do it, obviously, I am capable of anything, is the almighty thought of a girl.
The first trip abroad after the cruise was to a place I thought I should see before I die, Ushuaia, the end of the world, so I headed there, but of course, how am I going to spend a plane ticket for just one destination in Argentina? We are going to make several visits, I told myself.
So I linked several places in Argentina. After that I remember very well the scene on YouTube of a young man jumping on a bed mattress in what he called -the mattress test- and I found it very funny so I started to check out the channel, I saw so many places, countries and experiences. This started to make me dream of traveling more because for a while, although I traveled internally, I had dedicated myself completely to my profession, and when I say a while I mean 6 years.
I left Costa Rica for Chile, I was stranded in Canada because they wouldn’t let me fly to Europe because my passport had 7 days left to be valid… quite an issue.
That trip to Canada was incredible. There I was, illegal (because my visa was only for transit). The immigration officer’s benevolence, thanks to the fact that I’m a veterinarian and her daughter is too, let me leave. According to her, she knew that I wouldn’t stay illegally in the country. Well, I wasn’t planning on staying either, but I was planning on spending a weekend in Toronto. It was Friday night and my flight was leaving on Monday. I couldn’t do anything, so I stayed in a hostel, in a room with 20 people. When I woke up, a young man offered me marijuana for breakfast hahaha. I went out with the wrong shoes on the street because my feet froze and got wet.
I saw people ice skating, people queuing to buy books, I met a Mexican man with whom I went ice skating.
It was a great trip, I returned to Costa Rica and went on vacation to the beach, met more friends, drank and danced and I kind of got over the sadness of not being in Europe.
I have continued traveling, I was finally in Europe, falling in love with the Turks in Turkey, in London where I met a young Indian man who ended up inviting me to his wedding, which I obviously attended (how could I miss it) and from there I backpacked around Asia.
On that last trip to India and Asia I did it with Alan’s book, I’ll leave you with some of the photos. In July I’ll go to Easter Island to celebrate my 40th birthday, I haven’t found a better way, we’ll see what new anecdotes I collect. Thank you, thank you for reading me.
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