Baconater Happy Happy Funville

Day 434: Vancouver, Canada

When I wrote the posts reflecting on a year of travel Lindsay Hogg, aka Hogga, asked in the comments section for more dirt on my South America travel. I promised her I would answer them when I returned back to Canada and thought the best way to do it was for her to interview me on my site – so I’m turning it over to Hogga.

 

 

The images in this post are from her new site Chicken Chunk, which is brilliant and hilarious. I have never met Hogga but I do know this girl is a star.

A few weeks ago I asked Baconator to write a ‘best of’ post. Not because I wanted her to write some fluffy shit about what’s cool in South America, but because I wanted insight on her happy happy-funtimes-awesomesauce.

What I’m getting at, is that Baconator often shares her gushy insides with us. That’s why we love her, she’s honest and not afraid to write about the hard parts in life. No sugar coating going on up in this blog.

 

WORD.

 

But it’s inspiring because she shares these ‘hard parts’ and how she has overcome them. Some posts have actually made my black little heart burst for A-dawg, to the point I coundn’t even bring myself to write a vulgar or totally unrelated comment, as per usual.

 

Me-speechless-ever? How sneaky of you, Baconator.

 

Thus, in lame, rainbow filled, pink, fairy dust, chick flick kinda terms – I would like to know, what makes your ‘heart soar’ Baconator?

I know, I can’t believe I just said that either. I literally just punched a stuffed animal to try and balance out my feelings. I would go make some children cry to feel normal again, but I’m too busy writing these questions. Here we go:

1. Who is the most memorable person you’ve met on your travels? Did you make out with them? Would you make out with me? I’m pretty easy when I’m drunk…

That is an impossible question to answer. I am blown away by people I meet all the time. The last person who made me so excited about the world was actually a taxi driver in Argentina.

He picked me up and we were talking about if it was dangerous for him at night to drive a cab, by accident he missed the turn to my destination, immediately turned the meter off and explained to me that he would still drive me to where I wanted to go but I shouldn’t have to pay more because it was his fault.

This is pretty incredible for a Buenos Aires cab driver as they are infamous for driving you way out of the way to crank the meter up.

 

I did not make out with the cab driver.

 

In Central America I spent a week traveling with a girl who was 19 and her inexperience in the world was so refreshing. I felt so jaded by life and seeing joy through her was so cool. I would have never been friends with a 19 year old in Canada but in Nicaragua we had so much in common.

 

I did not make out with her.

 

If I had to choose it would probably be Andres in Ecuador. He really helped me understand how things aren’t cheap there, they are actually really expensive. And while we jaunt off to South American countries, most of our home countries would never allow the same people we take photos of in our borders.

 

No comment on Andres.

 

2. What spot/scenery or whatever, most took your breath away? Like that kind of “I’m gonna cry because I’m a pansy and my life is so awesome” kinda scenery.

And why do you think it had this effect on you? OR – are you a robot and nothing effected you this way? *Fingers crossed you answer robot*

Without a doubt the Atacama Desert. I know you aren’t a desert fan but the mix of the salt cracked earth fighting for space with the oasis was incredible. If it weren’t so incredibly hot I would want to move there.

I’m so lucky at this point I’m jaded, always surrounded by pretty mountains, pretty lakes, pretty volcanoes, yeah they are nice but they didn’t move me.

I don’t know why I felt connected to the desert. Maybe because the stars were unbelievable and I could actually see the Milky Way – I have a thing for astronomy.

3. Name one night in SA to which you had, what I would call ULTIMATE FUNPANTS. It can be daytime too, but I feel like that wouldn’t be as exciting.

I was on my way through Ecuador and stopped in Cuenca, for what I thought would be one night but it turned out it was their national holiday, well more like a holiday week.

I met 4 other girls in my hostel dorm room and we became immediate friends drinking far too much for far too long doing things I will never write about on this blog.

4. What did you find out you liked, that you didn’t know you liked beforehand? For example, I realized I enjoy sexy-time with Latin men. Ha, as my mother would say, “TMI Lindsay” (She thinks she’s cool when she uses abbreviations… it makes me angry).

I’m not sure I discovered anything I really liked but travel made me younger.

I loosened up and was able to laugh at stupid jokes, not worry if I looked silly to others, and not wonder if what I was doing was age appropriate – mostly because it wasn’t.

5. Seriously, I want numbers – bring it:  How many new friends did you make and how many of them do you think you’ll keep in contact with?

I don’t make friends easily, sometimes I realize they will just be an acquaintance and I don’t even add them to Facebook.

I would say over the year I made 10 friends I know I will keep in contact with on Facebook and 5 that will always be friends.

 

How many days a week would you say your intoxicated on the road?

I never write about this but I am a huge lush. I have always been a big drinker, it’s my one vice (I don’t consider eating pork a vice) sometimes it was 5 nights a week, like in Colombia but others maybe only 2-3.

How many one day, week, month boyfriends have you had on this trip?

Hogga you know I don’t like to answer these questions! It’s been a handful, ONE handful. It could have been more but I am picky and so many backpackers are gross.

But I don’t want to leave you hanging so I will tell you that the very first one-week boyfriend was 14 years younger that me. I know! He lied about his age. But it did set the tone for the rest of the trip.

Ahhh I should probably ask you something boring here, like um, how many countries did you visit? zzzz….

I think 11…

6. As readers, we’ve been through a lot with you. Breakups, eating weird foods, physical and emotional challenges… now tell us what makes you happy. In my embarrassing terms above, what makes your ‘heart soar’?

(Old people falling and chasing squirrels makes me pretty content with life)

Note: This question is under the assumption that you are happy. So um, if you’re not, just tell us your favorite colour. High five…

One of the greatest things about travel is that you discover who you are when there is no one and nothing to define you.

What draws me most to Latin America is people wear their heart on their sleeve. They are uninhibited at displaying affection, anger, joy, sadness.

I have always been a bit of a distant person and while I have had lots of friends, very few *really* knew me and so many were unaware of any insecurities or fear I had because I always wear this mask of confidence that everything is okay.

Here I learned it is okay to cry and show vulnerability and not know what you are doing with your life. I really feel like this is where I need to be. I have also learned that I don’t always need to know the answers, I don’t know what I am doing with my life. I have made decisions.

I am really enjoying just living life, drinking too much wine tonight and not worrying about what will happen tomorrow.