My mind is still far away while my body is here back in Brussels – being in between worlds as it were…. I’ve been back for over a week now from my big Bolivia trip. I miss being in the hustle and bustle of its colourful streets and jungle. Bolivia is an intense country. You feel it in the welcoming people, in the overwhelming nature and in its passionate music and colours. For me now Bolivia also goes hand in hand with friendships – The true value of old and new friendships. There was even a moment on a raft in the middle of the Madidi jungle on the Tuichi river when two complete strangers, a German tourist and a local guide, became friends of always. We forgot for maybe 20, 30 minutes who we were, that we normally would never have met. It felt like we grew up together and somehow met again after years of separation. This moment might have been the red thread for the whole trip or for life in general. Not that I have no friends back at home, on the contrary. But this trip remembered me more then anything else about new and old friendships and how much I need to cherish them.
The rafting moment was not the only moment, I got the chance to make plenty of new friends and treasure existing ones. Now back here in cold, cold Brussels (-4 as we speak!!!), even in the most lonely moment I’ll try to think back of that river and of those two unlikely people, who for a moment were my best friends in the world. Hopefully we will meet again some day.
