A near year of seeing beautiful places and people

The author saw so much of the world, only to realize how little she had seen. (COURTESY OF CARA JONES)

I arrived at the Buenos Aires airport on a sweltering January night, barely able to speak Spanish, knowing no one, not sure how to get anywhere. Traveling internationally on my own for the first time, thoughts of excitement and trepidation traded places in my head. Going through customs, I attempted to put my giant backpack on at the luggage carousel. "I can do this," I said. I got it up to shoulder level . . . when it toppled to the floor with me attached.

Four weeks later, on a hike with my Spanish teacher through the lakes and mountains of southern Argentina, I was telling her the story of how I got there: how I left family, friends, two closets of clothes, and a career as a TV news reporter back in Boston. I was speaking in Spanish! I was in shorts in the middle of January and, with sunshine overhead and snow under my sneakers, I was looking from a mountain peak to swirls of green and blue in a valley below. It occured to me at that moment that, having quit my job, having bought a one-way ticket to Argentina, and having saved enough to carry on, I could keep going. Suddenly I was reunited with a feeling I hadn't realized I had missed. Hello, freedom.

And so, I decided to travel on. I made a list of all the places I'd ever wanted to see and all the things I'd ever wanted to do. Gradually, without planning more than two weeks ahead, what was supposed to be a stay of a few months in South America evolved into a 10-month around-the-world adventure.

My travels took me through much of Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Spain, France, Italy, and India. There were homestays, hostel stays, and nights in a sleeping bag under the stars. There were bus rides, train rides, rickshaw and donkey rides, and among those miles, some of the most unforgettable moments of my life: the morning I walked among thousands of squawking penguins in glacier-filled southern Patagonia, the afternoon I swam in the rain with dolphins in the Amazon jungle, the evening spent dancing with a Ladakhi family in a Himalayan village.

One week I found myself with a group of Spanish-speaking Italians on a tour of Bolivia's dramatically white salt flats and flamingo-filled deserts. Another week, I was hiking with a group from Scotland, Quebec, France, and the Netherlands on a trek to Machu Picchu. I jumped out of an airplane at 12,000 feet, cruised through wine country in a bright yellow convertible, sat in a boat under the Iguazú Falls, and felt the sheer force of nature tumbling upon me.

I spent two weeks doing genealogical research on my great-great-grandmother in the Chilean port city where she lived. I drew butterflies for orphans in Bolivia and taught English to Tibetan monks. In India, I felt the glow of the Dalai Lama as he walked past and I managed not to talk for 10 whole days in a silent meditation retreat. I biked through most of Paris and walked across the entire north of Spain. My 546-mile trek along the historic Camino de Santiago began at the French border and, 29 days later, ended where the trail meets the Atlantic.

Sometimes now, more than a year later, I think back to that girl who collapsed under the weight of her backpack and smile. I think about how little she knew about what she was getting herself into - and how glad I am that she forged ahead. Through it all, I experienced a spectrum of emotions: fear, awe, loneliness, wonder, frustration, and bliss.

I saw so much of the world, only to realize how little I have seen. I met so many different kinds of people, only to understand how we are all so much alike. I discovered that no matter where you go in the world there is always something to learn, and next to nothing to be very afraid of.

Travel taught me that when you're willing to surrender your job title, your address, and your favorite jeans, foods, and handbags, the world responds by showing you the most beautiful places - on earth, in others, and in yourself.

Cara Jones, a freelance writer in Waltham, can be reached at cejoness@yahoo.com.