I've always found myself yearning to be an explorer, but never had the funds, time or company to venture off into the wild. I used to quench this thirst for adventure through my writing- I'd find words to weave my dreams into, and maybe feel a little bit happier at the end of it all. But a few months ago I met someone who taught me that life is full of possibilities, and I haven't been the same since.
With good fortune, we travelled to the country's final frontier- an island glowing green and blue, guarded by limestone cliffs and the friendliest locals. Days were fun, yet admittedly as ordinary as trips tend to be, until a storm decided to grace us with it's presence and leave us stranded in paradise. It was perhaps both the worst and best part of the trip. Nobody wants cloudy skies and rain while they're surrounded by glittering sand, or cancelled flights that threaten their exams, but it forced us to get out of our comfort zones and left us with the most adventurous days of our lives.
We knew we couldn't last a few more days in paradise drunk on the sun and running out of islands, so we searched for new adventures in the form of boats breaking down in the middle of the ocean, calling for help from fishermen who knew the seas like the pathway home, and sailing for ten hours into the dark, searching for any sign of land to ease our troubled minds. Hostels filled with mice and walking through the city in the middle of the night, looking for a bed that was willing to house us. Scuba dives into ship wrecks, beside cave walls, on lakebeds made of ash and into communities of catfish and shrimp. The vast blue ocean and all it's mystery will always be one of my favourite things on Earth. Motorbike rides through the pouring rain, soaked to the skin like teabags, clinging onto each other for warmth and dear life. Horseback riding through sixteen hectares of hills and catching the last rays of sunlight radiating off our beaming faces. Going home under a cloudy sky that couldn't have been darker than it was then, starless and lonely, looming over the mountain. Pressed against your back, arms around your body, shivering in the freezing wind as we rode back home. I was full to the brim with love and gratitude, whispering to the universe, "thank you for giving me the best person I have ever met."
I couldn't say goodbye to the place on earth that made me so happy. Blood pumping, lungs breathing, brain pulsating and spirit singing with a swollen heart and arms open wide, I was finally Alive.
