On your way you’ll face a wall closing the whole world in front of you… If you overcome it, nothing will stop you on your way… (from visions)

I planned to travel South to Argentina from Brazil. Then I wanted to cross Pacific Ocean and arrive at Oceania. I also wanted to see Patagonia – the world of icebergs and snow mountains… But I was so cold because of the mountains of Peru and Bolivia that I decided to fuck trade mountains for seas, palms and beaches…

I visited the consulate of Argentina in Rio. They requested me tons of documents for visa and told me that it would much easier to get visa in Iguassu.

However, as soon as I got there I realized that I could get only 3-day visa… I was fucking pissed off surprised… Argentinean embassy fucked misinformed me for the second time: first in La Paz, then in Rio!!!

Negotiations didn’t bring me any result… I simply figured out that there was a force restraining me from Buenos Aires at that moment… I accepted that fact and treated the situation as a sign. It's not the time for Argentina yet…

At the same moment another problem arose. Brazilian visa was expiring in couple days… I was planning to go to Argentina so I didn’t care about that… So I was in trouble… How was I supposed to continue my journey? A huge wall of the ocean and visas to  Argentina, Chile, New Zealand, and Australia just unexpectedly appeared in front of me… The worst thing was the lack of time to solve that issue…

I googled the whole internet and made a list of island countries with no visa requirement in my neighboring region… Here are these great countries: Tuvalu, Micronesia, Palau and Samoa… The problem was that no one flew there from South America…

That’s it… I was at the dead end formed by the ocean and bureaucracy… The future of my circumnavigation was questionable… The last option was to evacuate to visa-free Peru and make Australian visa there… However I realized they didn’t have Australian embassy there… They only had Chilean one… The option of evacuation to Peru, waiting for Chilean visa for one-two weeks there and then waiting for Australian visa in Chile didn’t make me happy at all…

Then I was dawned that I was pretty close to Paraguay border… Probably, they had consulate in Brazil… Yeah, they did :)))) I thought I could reach Monte-Video if they gave me visa and we'll see what happens next...

They told I should wait for the visa for 10 days at consulate… The $100 I offered for speeding the process didn’t work… However, the Paraguayan guy I was talking to, paid attention to my Brazilian visa that was expiring in 10 days instead of 3… I mistakenly picked a start day for the 30-day visa… That fact changed everything… I was still in the game on the territory of Brazil… We keep rolling…

The next day I bought tickets and left to Brasilia. Every day was too expensive… The next morning I was on my way to the embassies of New Zealand and Australia… The officers of the first one told me I had to wait at least 15 working days… The Australian guys mentioned 5 days… I wrote a very touching letter to the consul and submitted it with all the other documents to Australians.

At that moment the only thing I could do was wait…

My world journey was at the risk of failure… If Australians don’t give the visa or delay the process, then I’ll lose… I could fly to Asia via Africa from Brazil… Or I could even go back via Europe… That actually was cheaper and much easier… Anyways, that wouldn’t be around the world trip!!!! I had to cross the Pacific Ocean (!). I actually lost my inspiration after several failures with Argentineans in a row… I started to think of retreat options since my Brazilian visa was expiring… That was so awful to feel that your desired wish could not come true because you have a “wrong color” passport…

Well, thanks God! One week later I received my Australian visa… New Zealand guys informed me that I didn’t need transit if I flew to Australia via Oakland…

I was waiting for the flight Brasilia-Sao Paulo-Santiago (Chile)-Oakland (New Zealand)-Sidney (Australia)… That’s more than 20 thousand kilometers… half of the planet… 35 hours of flights and connections…

There was one more problem in Santiago… They didn’t give me a flight seat because I didn’t have New Zealand transit visa… That was enough shit for me! I went crazy and was completely furious since they had not told me I didn’t need the transit visa. Moreover, they showed me the visa requirements information print-out that I had shown to Chileans…

My around the world trip will fail if I’m not allowed to take the flight… I lose several thousand dollars I paid for the tickets… And arrive to the situation of standing on a border with no other flight direction besides Peru…

I kept negotiating using all the rude words of all the languages I knew (and I knew a lot of them). I made Chileans call New Zealand guys who gave me green light…

The wall seemed to be impossible overcome collapsed to dust at my feet… The only next countries were Australia and Asia I had been several times… Now nothing can stop me from locking the circle around the globe…

I took cover with 3 blankets while trying to fall asleep 13 hours after we left South America. I looked and the route monitors and saw the world map with the red line… The line originated from the continent of South America and the other end was pointed with a tiny aircraft facing New Zealand… Here it is… I did it… That picture made tears appear on my eyes… I turned to the illuminator to hide the tears… I was looking at the darkness while my tears were falling on my cheeks… I swear I physically felt the way Earth rotated under our aircraft at that moment…

P.S. As soon as I got Sidney the custom officers wanted to give me a fine for a stew can they found in my backpack… I didn’t pay the fine but they took the can… That was sad because the can was decently crumpled since I carried it through the entire America planning to open it for some remarkable event…