Life and love lessons: Things travel has taught me.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”
― Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad/Roughing It

As I re-read this post, I will warn you it's somewhat stream of consciousness and unfiltered.  But it's my blog and I'm not changing it so, deal with it. Mark Twain's greatest gift as an author was evoking passion, opinion, and emotion from his readers.

I wonder what Twain would think of how accessible it is to travel and how connected and small our world has become, yet how distant we still are. There are still only a small percentage that view travel as a way to learn, self-awareness and personal growth.

Finding myself in the sand...Atacama Desert Sandboarding

Well, let me first say, I will always be a skier.  But when standing at in the world's driest hot desert in the world, I guess a snowboard will have to do. If you ever find yourself in Chile this is a must do on your list.  There are about 15 different places where sandboarding is possible in Chile.  I chose Valle de la Muerte just outside San Pedro de Atacama.

Sebastian's shop is right in the square across from the church, and I literally walked in and signed up for the next day right there.  Price was reasonable and included my sandboarding and gear, lesson and two short hikes in Valle de la Luna, one at sunset. When we met in the square, I was the only Canadian with a bunch of fun loving Aussie, UK and American backpackers.