Travel Diary of a PWCF:

The Biggest Adventure Of All - Stephen Corbett

Iguess for me the adventure started long before the trip to Chile. Before Covid in fact. If anything, Chile was the end of a much longer adventure. You see after my transplant there was a lease of new life and a sense of deep gratitude for life that I could never explain in words, but there was also an emptiness.

Physically, it was beyond anything I ever imagined. I still pinch myself sometimes nearly nine years later. But mentally, things weren't quite what you would expect. Because for me having no purpose in your life beyond survival had its price. When you achieve that goal, finding an equally profound purpose can be strangely difficult. You live life fully. You go on adventures. You do all the things you always wanted to do.

Then there's... well nothing. Not having a deeper meaning in my life left me in a place that you wouldnt believe a person as blessed as I was, would go to. So for me my adventure actually started in 2018, living at home with no ambition and way more depressed than somebody in my position should be.

In classic romcom fashion, I met somebody that turned my life around. Somebody who taught me not to be afraid of my past or future, somebody who taught me to always be here right now, fearless. And she did all of this just by being who she was. With time, I felt motivated to get my life together, even though I hadn't yet figured everything out. Even when Covid hit, we simply isolated together and we grew even closer with time.

With time I knew there was nobody else I could imagine spending my life with, so I asked her to marry me. She said yes.

If nothing else, that alone made my whole life up until that moment worth it.

So going to Chile was not only a holiday. You see my wife is Chilean, and because of me, she had chosen to stay as long as she had in Ireland. Since she had stayed around three years here because of me, spending three months in Chile was the least I could do.

So we planned and we planned well.

For everything we had a plan B and a plan C. Medicines, insulin, everything. We negotiated with the pharmacy to give us four months of medicine (an extra month just in case), bought four months worth of factor 50 suncream and all the clothes necessary to stay covered in hot weather, long sleeve tshirts, long thin pants and two hats each.

On top of all that there was a lot of documentation to prepare given that this was still on the tail of the Covid crisis. The situation had been taken very seriously in Chile so you needed to be up to date on your shots and follow all the necessary procedures.

But once the preparation was done, it was really no different to anyone else travelling. Three months of meds through customs is never going to be a dull moment after all! There was the usual fun around airports, waiting times, airplane insomnia were the usual expected situations.

When we got there, we had to isolate in the hotel and that was fine too. In fact I'd say you were safer in Chile from infection than in most countries!

We visited many different kinds of places. We went to Elqui Valley, where I saw more stars than I ever thought possible in my life. We walked through the mysterious valleys, only half knowing where we were going, with a bottle of frozen water in the bag to keep the meds cool that we would slowly pour down our backs as it melted, and have a bottle of sports drink each that was really a saving grace in the constant 30° heat. At the end of the day we would swim in the river at the bottom of the valley and listen to the old stories about the place from the locals.

Then there was Villa Rica, the volcanic lakes to the South, which was home to the indiginous tribes of the Mapuche people. If there was ever a place truly untouched by human hands it was here, and gave me an appreciation for the beauty that can be found in the world around us. I could swim in those crystal clear lakes or walk through those valleys of covered in waterfalls every day for the rest of my life and never feel like I needed anything more.

And finally there was San Pedro in the Atacama Desert. This was the trip I had the most anticipation about for the most obvious reason. If these new lungs were ever going to be put to the test, it was going to be at 4000m above sea level! So at first we got acclimatised to a mere 3000m in the town of San Pedro. I felt fine at the time, and surprisingly I loved it. In fact the biggest change I noticed was the freshness of the air at that altitude. The only way to describe it was how clean it felt as you breathed it.

For a few days we spent our time down there. Seeing a desert lit up by stars alone is something I'll never forget. Then on the big day when we went up to the higher altitude of 4000m, something truly amazing happened. Not only was I okay at that altitude, I was actually in better shape than everyone else.

I can't explain it, but in that same moment, I understood. All that time in my life I spent surviving, that simply wasn't enough. Surviving for the sake of surviving will never be enough. However, surviving for the pupose of living a full life full of love and adventure, that's worth the fight, one-hundred times over. A full life full of love and joy is worth every moment of the indignant pain, grim hopelessness and even the blatently irrational grit that goes into surviving. But if you choose to live a good life with it, it's worth it.

So for me, getting to the top of this mountain range at 4000m was the end of a much, much longer journey. And for the past year that adventure is ongoing. I'm creating a life together with someone I love.

And I know in my heart that that's the biggest of all adventures.