What to do when... What to do when you've lost any sense of direction in your life? What to do when your job bores you beyond sanity? What to do when the most exciting event of the week has been getting a $70 parking penalty fee? What to do when, in your mid-20s, you can predict what tomorrow will be like by looking at what yesterday had been like, and the day before yesterday, and the one before that? What to do when... Aaaahhh to hell with it! To sum it up: I quit it all, sold my car, dried out my bank account, and went berserker planning a one-year-long journey around the world! I needed a 180° turn in my life, and a refreshing adventure like this seemed like a good way to start. Here we go...

So, who am I? Allow me to introduce myself: My name is Hector Yagüe. I'm a 27 years old male from Madrid (Spain), and this will be my first long travel adventure of my life. I've traveled around before of course, but mostly as a tourist rather than as a backpacker, and for no longer than a month at most. I'm what you could call "the typical twenty-something western guy": I had a happy and comfortable youth, I've been living at my parent's for most of my life, I got my university Business Administration bachelor degree, I've been working for a couple of years already, and now I'm looking for my "place" in the world (without much luck so far, I reckon).

But Hector, why a journey around the world? I guess I should start off by relating how all these crazy plans about circumnavigate the globe begun. To make the whole thing short, I'll simply say that, after finishing my studies, I had been working in a couple of different places, the typical corporate sort of jobs. You know the drill: sales reports here, business meetings there, that kind of stuff. It seemed like the beginning of a successful professional career. As a matter of fact, I even got offered a promotion. So there I was, a 27 years old fellow with a promising career ahead... But the cold truth is that all that crap was boring me to hell and back. Every single day the same routine, the same hamster wheel. It all became dull and gray quickly: boring job, limited social life, too much time at home hooked up on internet, no exciting goals to look forward, etc. I won't deny that money was OK, but you can justify doing something that you don't enjoy for money's sake just for so long, and hell money wasn't even that good. I remember one day having a coffee with an old friend of mine, and while he was talking on about something, I went totally mind-absent picturing myself escaping away to some remote places living wild adventures... So that evening I went home and punched a bunch of random words at Google.com such as paradise, travel or far away, etc. One of the entries I got was the web site of this other fellow who had traveled around the world himself few years back. I remember spending the rest of the evening reading about his travels and man, oh man, I had not felt that free and enthusiastic in ages, just by reading about that guy's travels all over the globe... I had to do something like that myself for Christ's sake, and so was how the spark of my own trip suddenly fired up within me... But I'm digressing away the point here. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there had to be something better out there, something more fulfilling than a rat race in order to achieve some "social success". It felt like I was living my life for a system rather than for myself, working my ass silly for someone else's dream. I do not know if I am making much sense here, I hope you understand what I mean. So not only I declined the promotion, but I left the job (and probably my corporate career) altogether in fall 2003. From that moment on, I've decided that I won't dedicate my life to something that I don't really enjoy. And, since I decided to start it all from scratch, an U-turn experience like this trip to shrug all the misery off me seemed to fit the bill. I'm not sure what I'm searching for with this journey, or how long will it last, or whether I will find whatever I'm chasing, but what I do know is this will be a once-in-a-life-time experience that will remain deep in my heart till the last of my days, and that's a good enough reward. I spent the following three or four months researching all the logistics that you got to consider for a big enterprise like this one: itinerary and possible destinations, health concerns, visas, flying tickets, budget and money matters, and a looooong list or similar stuff. There seriously is a lot to research, specially considering this would be my first ever long traveling experience, and on my own on top of that. Well, not only I spent the following months preparing myself on the knowledge and lecturing field, but also psychologically. Being honest, this journey meant leaving everything that was familiar to me behind. You do need some sort of guts to undertake that. Mind you, I did have the guts, I just needed a bit of time for the whole idea to sink in hehehe. So I did take it easy, not rushing the departure date at all. You must do it when, and only when you're 100% ready for it, ain't it? All in all, the whole process ever since I took the decision to quit my job to travel till I actually flew off my home town took around six months. Well, that's mostly it. I have not been this excited in... years! Last time I remember being this excited was in february 1998 when I decided to take a brake from the university (it was a similar situation than now: everyday's boring and dull routine was devouring me inside-out) to spend some time in London just for the hell of it. I ended up staying there two years and they were the most amusing two years of my life. So now I guess it's time for me to embark in another adventurous project to get the kick back once again... ...And it's just around the corner. I can't believe I'm doing this. God, I just can't wait! By now I've probably bored the hell out of you with my philosophical struggles, so I think I better stick to the travel log itself... So read on ladies and gentlemen, for the journey begins!