Today we would like to tell you about our experiences during our sabbatical. It was a trip that was planned for 8 months, starting with the agreement with meinestadt.de about the time off. Part of our salary was withheld so that we could receive it during our travels and experience them with peace of mind while still receiving 70% of our average salary. Then our destinations were roughly chosen, with South America being decided from the beginning, but the final decision on the countries was only made shortly before the trip. In 3 months we planned to explore Colombia, Chile and Ecuador. The decision to include Peru in our itinerary was made spontaneously during our trip.
We rented our apartment to friends and our dear work colleagues took over our tasks. Then, loaded down with rucksacks, we made our way to the airport. First we met friends in Colombia and traveled through the country together for two weeks. Medellín and the Tayrona National Park were particularly impressive. Then we went on to the Galapagos Islands on our own, where we snorkeled a lot and saw an amazing variety of animals. We then explored the rainforest in Ecuador, where we spent 4 days in the jungle and experienced everything from swimming in the Amazon to night walks in the rainforest.
Our journey took us on to Chile, where we explored the north in a rented van. It was great that it was allowed to go wild camping everywhere and could always stand alone on beautiful beaches. We dropped off the van in the Atacama Desert and joined a tour to admire the Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia. We had deliberately decided to travel outside of the tourist season (i.e. it was winter in South America) to avoid mass tourism and to have nature to ourselves. However, this also meant that it was sometimes very cold, for example in Bolivia with -11 degrees. But with 5 layers of clothing, that wasn’t a problem either.
We then headed to the south of Chile – to Patagonia, which was definitely one of our highlights. The nature there is breathtaking, with waterfalls, mountains and an impressive tour to the glaciers. It was incredible to stand in front of a 50-meter-high wall of ice. The Chilean side of Patagonia is quite expensive, especially out of season, so we only spent a week there. There was a small faux pas when we arrived at the airport a day early and only then realized that we had to spend another night there. But that’s also part of traveling, and since we had so much time, waiting and changing plans wasn’t a problem for us anyway.
Throughout our trip, we kept meeting great and interesting people, including many who highly recommended Peru to us. So we spontaneously changed our plans and spent the last month in Peru. Of all the countries, Peru was our favorite, with great food (we especially loved the ceviche and pisco sour), warm-hearted people, understandable Spanish, the many llamas and alpacas and of course incredible activities like visiting Machu Picchu. The differences in altitude in the country were challenging, but our bodies got used to it.
In order to return home completely relaxed, we ended up spending some time on the beach and simply doing nothing. Three months was the perfect time for us to switch off and travel. But towards the end, we realized how much we appreciated our home in Germany. So it wasn’t quite so bad to go back. Our colleagues covered everything brilliantly and we were able to get back to our jobs quickly. Nevertheless, we will both remember this wonderful experience for a long time to come.
We can warmly recommend everyone to take advantage of this great opportunity and explore the world. 🙂
Julia and Marius