Bolivia

For every experience I've had travelling, there are probably a dozen I missed out on. There are many places I'd like to return to and more than any other is Bolivia. Maybe it was the circumstances, maybe it was who I was travelling with, or maybe it was the impossibility of leaving that left me with a sour taste in my mouth, but it will remain a source of disappointment when remembering past trips. Getting there required a long, uncomfortable bus trip from the sea level city of Lima, Peru, through Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world to the capital of La Paz, the world's highest capital city. Before we left Peru, I had eaten raw chicken, and the severity of my food poisoning was rivaled only by the altitude sickness I developed once we arrived. Despite that, I still attempted the "World's Hottest Curry", a terrible mistake that was just as spicy coming up as it was coming down. I was bedridden for a couple days as my companions explored the jungle, climbed a mountain and went on a camping excursion. When I was finally mobile and could keep a meal down, our time in La Paz was coming to an end. One of our group had lost a close friend biking Yungas Road, or The Road of Death, and consequently no one wanted to join me in the bike trip down it. We only had limited time to get to Brazil, and couldn't fit in a detour to the Salt Flats in Sucre. Instead, we spent four days waiting for violent protests to end so we could board a train, slept in the street at the border waiting in line with hundreds of other stranded travelers and caught a 22 hour bus into Brazil.  Almost every thing that could have gone wrong did, and when I left I vowed I'd never return. After I left though, I realized the reason I disliked the country so much was because I missed out on it entirely.

Canada

Every time I come home from travelling, I appreciate the little things that I enjoy so greatly about the country I live in. I also realize just how much there is to see in Canada, and just how massive our country really is. One of my life goals is to travel to every province and territory. So far I'm 4 for 13, which leaves a lot of options. This means my options for my first $10 flight would be adding one more province to that count. The only time I've been to Ontario was stopping over before connecting to other flights, never leaving the warm interior of the airport terminal. I've never seen the CN Tower, never been into the Hockey Hall of Fame, or seen the Blue Jays play. As a Canadian, typing this it seems pretty absurd I've never had these experiences. I've looked into flights, and with three day weekends, I can easily go. The only problem is that the Maple Leafs don't happen to play my favorite NHL team in that time frame, maybe I'll just go to Winnipeg.

Where Next?

Recently, my mother got hired at WestJet. Because I'm under 25, I'm entitled to flight benefits through her. For the last week, in this busy time of term projects and finals,  all I've been able to focus on is where I want to travel to. At one point, you could go to the airport wait for a flight with an empty seat and jump on a plane to a random destination for next to nothing. But unfortunately, standby flights, carrier seats and other forms of cheap travel are a thing of the past. This recent development, changes that completely. From domestic flights from the standard rate of $2.50 to industry standard rates of under $400 round trip to Europe, suddenly I can travel anywhere I'd like on a student's budget. I can go to Montreal for less than a cab ride home from the bar. Combined with the vast network of partner airlines and interlines that WestJet has,the world just got infinitely more accessible. On January 16th of next year, I'll be able to fly anywhere I'd like for almost nothing, and I guess I should figure out where it is I want to go first.