One of my favorite pictures from my last trip to South Africa
Greetings
little wizards! Little wizards- is that what I should call my readers? My blog
has been dormant since my return from Costa Rica, but that’s not due to lack of
travel related news! In fact, I started thinking about my next trip even before
I returned home from Costa Rica, but I didn’t want to announce anything yet.
However, now that my next trip is officially booked and mostly paid off, I
think a blog post is due. But first, to explain how this trip came to be, I
want to tell a little story that happened a few months ago.
On February
eleventh, the day after my big tour of the Arenal Volcano in Costa Rica, I was
sitting in a restaurant in La Fortuna having lunch, waiting for my bus back to
San Jose to get back to the Animal Rescue Center. While connected to the
restaurant’s wifi, I got a Facebook message from my friend Ryan (whom I always
call Cake because that’s his last name and it’s just perfect). I first met Cake
while volunteering at White Shark Projects in May 2015, then we returned and
worked together again in March 2017, both times along with our other friends
Lizzy and Beth (all three are from the UK). He first said it looked like I was
having a great time in Costa Rica, then told me that he, Lizzy, and Beth were
all planning on going back to White Shark Projects at the beginning of June, in
case I wanted to join them. My first immediate thought was, no way. As much as
I want to, there’s just no way I can make that happen. I’m still in Costa Rica,
I’m not currently earning money, early June would mean I’d only have about
three months to work, and work won’t give me another Leave Of Absence again
that soon. I can’t do it.
But, even
before my lunch was over, my mind was trying to combat those ideas, and find
loopholes that would allow me to make this trip a reality. I wasn’t spending a
lot in Costa Rica, had a decent amount of money saved up, I could go back to
work as soon as I got back home in a couple of weeks, and I wasn’t sure if work
would let me take another LOA that soon, but hey, it couldn’t hurt to ask,
right?
You can
probably guess where this is going, but to make a long story short, over the
past few months I worked hard, saved money, did a lot of planning, and now,
almost three months after having that conversation with my British friend Cake
via social media in a restaurant in Costa Rica, my deposit for White Shark
Projects is in, my flights back to South Africa are booked, and in less than a
month I’ll be back in my second home of Gansbaai for another four weeks of
volunteering at WSP, the organization I love so much!
Back in
January, I had no plans to go back to South Africa this year. I really didn’t
think it would happen. Sure, I had travel ideas beyond my Costa Rica trip for
this year, but I didn’t think I’d return to South Africa until maybe next year.
But when Cake messaged me saying that he, Lizzy, and Beth would all be returning
in June, I decided to scrap another plan and do everything I could to join
them.
On top of
that, I have another very exciting experience that I’ve worked into this trip-
but I want that to remain a surprise for now! I got the idea to work this extra
experience into my trip from almost the moment Cake messaged me, but I wasn’t
sure I’d be able to make it work. Just a few days ago I officially confirmed
that I could make it happen, which made me so happy! All I’ll announce for now
is that in about three weeks I’ll be accomplishing a goal that I’ve had for
over four years, and that I thought would take me a lot longer to achieve.
I already
have a rough itinerary planned out for this next trip, but I think this blog
post is long enough, so I’ll save that for my next blog post. See you in less
than a month, Gansbaai! This post’s food for thought: “If you want to know
where your heart is, look where your mind goes when it wanders.”- Vi Keeland
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