From the swivellin' chair...

When you sign up to volunteer in South America, you should probably expect a certain amount of personal stretching. But when, like TP member Brian Chu, you're asked to don a lab coat and carry a stethoscope, you have to start wondering exactly what you're in for.

A month-long stint volunteering for a medical centre in Huancayo, Peru is the latest adventure in five months of trekking across South America for Brian. Pre-departure, Brian wrote:

Leaving in half a day. It's about freaking time. Didn't intend to wait this long to leave but plans change quickly, as I'm sure they will along my travels. That's why I've only got a plane ticket with an open return date and one night's accomodation booked. Other than that, just a loose plan and general direction in my head that I'm secretly hoping won't come to reality. Spontaneity's the key this time round.

So far, Brian's wish for a journey guided by spontaneity has been pretty well rewarded, albeit with a fair share of bad luck: in Potosí, he took a tumble, landed unconscious and relied on Bolivia's dirt-cheap health system to restore him to order; a couple weeks later and still in Bolivia, a horse-ride gone wrong warranted another fall; and in the ever-expanding theme of things falling over, Brian's bus toppled sideways as it attempted to make the 8 hour trip from Ayacucho to Huancayo. Talk about bad luck.

Toppled bus between Ayacuho and Huancayo. Photo courtesy of Brian Chu.

Despite all these rather dangerous experiences, Brian keeps the complaints to a minimum and the humour to a maximum. Witty writing and photos carry his blog, which seems to be guided by the same principle of spontaneity as his travels. As a reader, you never really know what's next. Then again, it doesn't seem Brian does either.