Solo Sunsets

After much thought and little decision making I arrived at the bus depot with very little idea where my next destination was to be. One option was to cross the Andes into Santiago, Chile and the other was to head North to Salta and then over the mountains that way. As it happened I ended up taking the latter route.

A 16 hour bus journey followed: tiring, frustrating and pretty much experienced in its entirity. Actually I did manage to get around an hours sleep before being woken to enjoy another pitiful excuse for a bus breakfast.

I arrived shattered as I usually do in new cities and slept in a quiet yet pleasant hostel. My bed felt so soft and comfy that I didn't really want to get up for dinner. But it was all you can eat BBQ, and I needed to hit the bar to make aquaintance with some other people. Everyone seemed quite nice but I went to bed without really feeling I had bonded with anyone. I did get on fairly well with an Australian girl, but she was to leave the next day.

The next day was spent with Alex before she left and then exploring the streets of Salta, a beautifully colourful city with imposing colonial churches and green parks heavily populated with orange trees. The weather is beautiful, actually it's not beautiful it's perfect: The sun is warming without being baking, and the colourful city feels wonderfully complemented like walking through a postcard.

However, my wayward journeying North is calling and after ambling through the city I took myself off to the station to acquire a ticket across the mountains. By this time the sun was dipping and I hopped on a cable car to the top of the nearest mountain (not every day you can say that) to watch the sunset over the imposing mountains that I am to cross in a few days.

So here I sit, as I have for the last hour, watching the city alight below as the sky darkens, slowly progressing through a myriad of yellows, golds, oranges, purples and finally the dark blue canvass spotted with stars. I'm actually humbled by watching the world close its day's business in such a beautiful setting. I don't know anyone in the city below and if I'm honest it doesn't really matter if it remains that way. I'm totally alone with my thoughts and yet not remotely lonely. Almost three months through my travels I recently realised that I've been so busy that I've had little time to process everything. Time to just sit and watch the world turn, and in turn contemplating my position in it. Because the person who sat staring out of the window desperate for change needed not just to go on a literal, physically journey but an emotional, contemplative and, in some ways, spiritual journey. Otherwise the change that I so desired would at best be a break. The world's turning and for the first time I'm finally able to sit back and watch it do so.

I arrive in the Atacama Desert exactly three months through my travels ready to roll on to adventures anew in the North. Bring it on.