Subject: The end of the world as we know it
Date: December 12, 2009
My dearest darlings,
After 457 days and 39 boats, seven trains, five bikes, four horses, one tractor, a donkey cart, a parachute, a pair of crampons and way more buses than I care to count, I finally reached the end of the world. There was even a rainbow.
There were moments when the enormity of the journey was so overwhelming that all I could do was collapse on a curb and cry. When I stepped over a body bag, when I rode by a bullet-riddled wind shield, when I heard a mother’s screams as she wheeled a pink tricycle down a highway. During the scariest moments of my life, your faces shone in my mind. Thank you for being my unwitting guardian angels.
When a wild puma clenched his jaws around my knee, I fancied you and I were drinking coffee and chatting about the Red Sox. While I was being chased by an adorable baby sea lion and his angry, enormous mother down a beach in Ecuador; when a firework came whizzing towards my left eye; as I barreled down the most dangerous road in the world; when I couldn’t find the strength to pull myself up the last foot of a 6,088m mountain; as I was led through a Colombian cocaine factory. When no habia nada y todo era roto, when I sat down to Thanksgiving dinner with strangers, when a travelling perfume salesman offered me a ride back from the end of the road in the Darien Gap. Through the good and the bad, the zany, exciting, exhausting, invigorating, terrifying, and awe-inspiring, I carried you with me.
No matter where we are, we always think of ourselves standing upright on top of the world, with everything else rotated around underneath us. (I didn’t want to say anything, but a lot of you have been standing upside down for the past few months). Here I am at the end, standing exactly as I was at the beginning, only the world has changed a bit under my feet.
To the travelers, thank you for sharing my journey. I hope you find roads that are scenic and tortuous and always lead you on exciting adventures. To the ones who prefer our glorious nation out of the wide expanse of the universe, I hope your roads are well-paved and traffic-free. As for me, it has been a long, long journey, and I am finally heading home.
Love, love, love from my end of the world to yours,
Laura
