The small, sprinter van, tour bus picked me up at my hostel at 6:30AM. There were 12 of us headed for Valparaiso and it was quite the international contingent. Ireland, France, Japan, Brazil, England, Colombia and the United States (me). Our driver/tour guide, Edson, impressively gave his tour in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

It took about an hour and a half to reach Valparaiso. In the 1800s Valparaiso was the most important and prosperous port in South America. It was to Chile what San Francisco was to the United States in the late 19th century. Critical to the development of the county. That all changed after the Panama Canal was opened in 1914 as ships no longer needed to travel around the length of South America to swap oceans. While still an important port for Chile it is not the largest and now handles less than 25% of the cargo it did in the early 20th century. Unemployment in Valparaiso is the highest in Chile at a heartbreaking 27%.

Now a UNESCO world heritage site, the original city is a snapshot of the early 20th century. Since it was not designed for cars it has very few roads. Just narrow twisting lanes and staircases. They developed a network of elevators called funiculars to scale the steep cliffs many of which are still functioning. The city is famous for its brightly colored buildings which are made of corrugated metal, skinned over wooden skeletons. The paint helped prevent corrosion from the salt air and as rickety as most of the buildings look, they have survived many earthquakes. As I wound my way down the streets, I noticed that a building might appear to be only one or two stories tall. However when seen from behind they might be six to eight stories as they were build along such steep hillsides.

During our lunch break I had a chance to chat with Edson. He looked to be in his early 40s so I asked him about how he became a tour guide. He told me that he had gone to university to become an accountant and had worked as a corporate auditor for several years. He said that one day he looked at his oldest child who was seven at the time... "I could not remember anything since I was changing his diaper. I knew my laptop better than I knew my son. Something had to change." He quit his job and went searching for something new. His son is now 15. "I make about a quarter the money but I am four times as happy" he said. "I enjoy my family and friends and I really love what I do".

I think that is the key. Figuring out your priorities. It's a tough balance and we can easily get caught up in our societal norms. To complicate matters our world is constantly changing... and we age. For myself, I've had to try on several different ways of being before I started feeling comfortable in my own skin. And yet, I feel that my evolution is never complete.