Hi there, I'm Lale Arakoglu, and welcome to the second part of our series on solo travel.

This week, we share the highlights and challenges of a bold journey to South America. Christy Bowers went to seven countries in six months.

We'll hear how she planned and budgeted, how she juggled solitary days with sociable times,

and we'll find out if her life actually changed when she got home to New York.

I flew into Bogota, and then I went down to Leticia,

which is at the crossroads of Peru, Brazil, and Colombia.

I took a boat from Leticia along the Amazon to Manouse.

That was like basically my starting point.

It was like a 36-hour, like speedboat ride.

From there, I did, I was in Brazil for nine weeks.

I did Argentina for a couple weeks, Chile for about a month. Then I went to Bolivia for three to four

weeks, Peru, for only a week or two because I had done it before. And then I ended in Ecuador.

Christy's plan to go on a South American journey was triggered by a classic New York scenario.

Her landlord gave her notice to leave her Brooklyn apartment.

For Christy, this looked like an opportunity for a reset.

I guess my reaction was like, well, if I can't live in this apartment, I'm leaving the country.

So I thought about it for a couple months, but then it just landed on the decision of like,

it felt like a good time. I felt like I had enough money saved anyway. My thought was I can get

a new job when I got back. I get the impression you were a pretty experienced traveler to begin

with if you were going into this, but how long did you spend planning? I bought, like, the Lonely Planet,

just South America book, just to get started. I spent a lot of time just reading that and, like,

getting excited more than anything else. But then I wanted to be a little spontaneous.

...