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"Every dream is given to us with the
power to make it come true"
Kinga & Chopin
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One way ticket, two backpacks, a
few hundred dollars, little plans and lots of dreams. That's
what we had when we landed in New York in October 1998. We knew
one thing - we wanted to travel the world.
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How to do it almost without money?
How to do it, to get to know best the people and culture of
the places we'll be travelling through?
Hitch-hiking!
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The world is huge and we want to not only
go around it, but also experience and live it. We've been on the road
for over three years now. Enough happened during that time to write
a thick book (maybe some day we will). Now just shortly...
We knew our Travelling Protective Spirit
landed in New York with us, when the first night on New Continent we
met Ellen and Eddie, who invited us to stay at their place, so we didn't
have to sleep in Central Park.
In Canada with one of the longest rides,
from Great Lakes almost to the Pacific Ocean, we crossed the continent.
Resting for a while with Kinga's family in Vancouver we woke up one
day with a dream to go north.
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Thinking "Yukon", we ended up in...
Alaska. After the whole day and half a night of waiting on covered
with snow Alaska Highway, the right man stopped for us. Colin
took us a few thousand kilometers, to Anchorage. There we had
an ultimate hitch-hiking experience. We went to the airport,
stuck our thumbs out and... hitched a ride with an airplane.
Flew over the mountains, stopped right next to a glacier.
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Then along the coast, to some warmer place
- to California. There for a few months we experienced living in one
place working and saving to give our dreams a better chance to come
true.
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When the right time came, we
packed our backpacks and hit the road again. Lost ten dollars
gambling in Las vegas, hiked down to the bottom of Grand
Canyon, visited amazing national parks in Utah, walked for
a few days along the Appalachian Trail in the Smokey Mountains,
visited museums in Washinton D.C. and Amish farms and Rainbow
Gathering in Pennsylvania.
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In Chicago Chopin had a genius
idea. We got to know quite well the roads of America - "Let's
change them for the rivers". We were considering a raft,
but hitch-hiking is hitch-hiking, and nothing is impossible
if you only want it strong enough. After three days by the
river the boat of our dreams arrived - a boat named "Spirit".
For almost four weeks we were looking at America from a
different perspective - from the water. By rivers, to the
Gulf of Mexico and then to Florida.
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There, back to the highway and through the
southern states, through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, back to California.
Then - Mexico - two months was hardly enough
- streets markets, people, colours, nature, Mayan pyramids.
In Guatemala we went hiking through thick
jungle looking for the ruins of El Mirador with the biggest Mayan Pyramid.
Three hard days just to discover the way was unpassable at this time
of the year.
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Through all the countries of
Central America we went to Panama. There the road ends.
The boat of Kuna Indians took us and dropped on a tiny island
of San Blas Archipelago, where living in a cottage with
an Indian family (sleeping in hammocks) we were waiting
for some boat towards Colombia. Every day they said it will
come - "tomorrow". After ten days we boarded a Colombian
ship not knowing with whom we're going... Contrabanditos
dropped us in the middle of the night with all the cargo
they were smuggling on an unknown beach on Colombian coast.
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From Venezuela, through Amazon jungle to
Manaus in Brasil. Then by Amazon River to Belen and then by roads along
the coast.
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In Rio de Janeiro one
of Kinga's big dreams came true - she hitched a ride with
a paraglider.
Chopin likes the language so much (we're picking languages
along the way), the atmosphere, the people, that he says
Brasil is the first country he could live in.
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Iguacu Waterfalls, Paraguayan Gran Chaco,
poor but fascinating Bolivia with its mountains and traditionally living
Indians.
Peru... condors over Colca Canyon, mysterious
drawings on the desert in Nasca, boat trip by Ucayali River from Pucallpa
to Iquitos and by Napo River, through unofficial border to Ecuador.
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Back in Peru, after three days
and nights in the truck (it's not always easy and comfortable)
going towards Cusco, we had enough and got off. Waiting
for another ride we learned about the little known ruins
of the last Inca fortification. We turned to the little
village where the trek begins. There... we bought a horse.
And with Alasan carrying our backpacks we were hiking for
one week through high mountains and deep valleys reaching
the great ruins of Choquekirao, then Machu Picchu.
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Then long, thin Chile. The driest
desert of the world, geyser El Tatio, salar Atacama. And
slowly towards the south.
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To Argentina, and to the very
south of the continent. Ushuaya in Tierra del Fuego. Huge,
windy, neverending spaces of Patagonia. We met penguins
up close, and sea lions, flamingos and dolphins.
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Along the Atlantic coast up to Uruguay and
back to Brasil. Finally once more accross the continent, to Valparaiso
in Chile.
We travelled all over the Americas. The time
came to move on. Having looked hard in different Southamerican countries
for a possibility to cross the Pacific with some ship, we discovered
the world has changed - it's not easily done nowadays. We had to take
a plane.
Looking for a way to get to Australia, we ended up in New Zealand first.
Found more luck there - after almost three months of travelling around
that beautiful country's North and South Island, we found what we were
looking for. A yacht that took us on - on a journey to... Vanuatu. Thirteen
days of just the ocean and the sky and we made it to one of the most
exotic and fascinating places we've been to. There more luck, another
yacht, and ten days of handsteering and we finally made it to the land
of OZ.
How much longer...? We don't know. We are not limited
by time. The world is big. And fascinating. And we want to see it.
And the most beautiful thing is to go without a hurry and plans and
just let things happen, and enjoy the journey, because there is no
destination.
For more about Kinga and Chopin's travels - visit
http://www.geocities.com/kingachopin
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