Was working till the 5th of December before taking my flight out of NL to start my sabbatical. The trip started already in the plane with a Chilean woman and a teenager with me on the place. The teenager literally gave me a presentation on Chile on her laptop to begin the journey. With high spirits and great weather I started my journey in Santiago in hostel Ventana Sur as my base camp.

Ivan who runs the hostel is such a great host with barbecues all the time and the hostel having a great bunch of people, I really settled into vacation mode. Going out into the city or just chilling in the pool the vibe of the place really took over to help me take a step back.

In the weeks there I had a simple routine, go out and see vans/cars in the morning, chill in the pool in the afternoon to cool down and in the evening hangout with people at the hostel or prep van hunt for the next morning.

2 weeks in and with people coming and going I became one with the hostel, Ivan and the cat Kika. It was comfortable but as things were not going my way I felt frustrated. I met a lot of incredible people in Santiago everywhere and heard even more stories of the majestic Patagonia where I was looking forward to climb.

With the mountains close but yet so far 2 weeks in, I gave in. The van idea stopped making much sense and it became a bigger blocker, instead of giving me the freedom I wanted it was holding me down.

I made plans to fly south into Puerto Natales to do a popular hike and spend new years in the mountains. As soon as I let go of the van idea, things started to flow.

I had met Ashley a few weeks ago at the bouldering gym and we went climbing Saturday and Sunday (Christmas morning) in Cachón de Maipo. Beautiful rock to climb on and with the company of locals around me, I had one of the best weekends in ages just hanging out on the rock.

It felt good and felt right. This gives me more confidence that the I am going where I am supposed to go. With a ‘see you soon’ to all the friends I made in the city, I flew out to Puerto Natales to start my mountain journey.