It’s always weird coming back after a long trip. Your body’s home, but your brain’s still somewhere between the Pantanal and Patagonia. One minute you’re chasing anteaters, the next you’re back in your living room, wondering what to do with yourself.

One of the main reasons I travel is to spend time in nature and see wildlife, especially the kind you don’t bump into every day. During our five months in South America, we saw hundreds of animals. But some encounters stand out more than others.

Now that I’ve had some time to look back on our South America trip, I thought it’d be fun (and fair) to share some of my personal highlights… and also a few places that didn’t quite do it for me. Obviously, these are just my own experiences, so if one of your dream destinations ended up on my “meh” list, don’t come for me. Everyone travels differently, right?

Whether you’re traveling short-term or long-term, chances are you’ll eventually encounter some rude or entitled travellers. During our South America trip, we noticed it especially in more luxury destinations like the Galápagos and Patagonia, where some people seemed to behave… a little differently.

You were probably taught in school about the importance of your carbon footprint.

Wildlife tourism is booming. From jungle hikes to open-ocean dives, more and more travellers are seeking out encounters with animals in the wild, or something that resembles it. And while that curiosity and interest in nature can be a really good thing, there’s a darker side to it too.

During my master’s program, I came into contact with several conservation projects in Malaysia. My whole life, I’ve been searching for purpose, and I truly thought conservation was where I’d make a difference. I wanted to change the world.

I wanted to write this because it’s not a topic that’s brought up often by travelers or bloggers. Mental health, and especially the less ‘Instagrammable’ sides of it, often gets left out of the narrative. This is for anyone who might feel isolated or misunderstood while traveling, especially if you’re navigating the road with a mental health condition like bipolar disorder. When people picture long-term travel, they think of adventure, meeting new people, and constant happiness. What they don’t picture is quietly managing mood stabilisers in a guesthouse in rural Peru while trying to figure out if the high-altitude dizziness is physical… or mental.