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I remember it like it was yesterday October 2012, day 17 on a 300km uphill trek in Nicaragua. We (myself and the group I was travelling with) had spent the night sleeping at a beautiful ranger station and rose at 5am to climb Cerro Negro a beautiful (and active) volcano in Nicaragua, this remains one of the most beautiful sights I’ve ever seen, I remember remarking that it reminds me of Mars (I’ve never been to Mars, but I imagined it to like a volcanic mountain, having now googled pictures of mars…..it doesn’t). After snapping the necessary silhouetted pictures of us jumping for joy with the sun rising in the background the group returned to the ranger station grabbed our backpacks and continued on our journey. Now day 17 wasn’t the hardest journey we’d trekked (I died a little on day 5) but after the beautiful start to the day continuing to trek felt like a punishment. A few hours into the trek, muscles in pain, feet blistered, shoulder and sides bruised from my backpack, and tears in my eyes, I wanted my mom to run me a hot bath and promise me I’d never have to walk again EVER. I wanted to quit, but I couldn’t, see I was group leader for the day and one of my closest friends in the group was finding today’s trek quite difficult, she’d motivated me to keep going for 17 days, today I had to return the favor, so I quickly had to stop feeling sorry for myself. Half way into our journey I noticed the tallest tree I’ve ever seen, it was huge. Standing at the bottom of a painfully steep hill. I remembered thinking ‘I can’t do this, it’s too steep’ however, I decided to use this tree as a landmark and after every few steps (I’d silently count to 100) I’d look back at the tree and congratulate myself on getting further and further away from the tree. Soon the tree was out of site and we were setting up camp for the night at Volcan El Hoyo. I remember staring at the most amazing view of the Momotombo volcano and a blue lagoon and telling my friend “I can’t believe we’ve done this for 17 days, there’s literally nothing in life I can’t do now.”. Then I remembered the quote… “I found my heart upon a mountain I did not know I could climb, and I wonder how many other pieces of myself are secreted away in places I judge I cannot go.” -Laurel Bleadon-Maffei See, at the time of doing this trek I wasn’t the fittest, I struggled daily, I often thought it was a pointless journey and I certainly thought there’s no way I could climb that mountain (and there were many mountains) but on day 17 whilst sat at a camp fire discussing our experience of the day I remember feeling invincible, accomplished, content (and also in pain but in light of highlighting the positives I’ll leave that bit out). It’s a feeling that cannot be described in words, but on that special day began my love of travelling, adventures, new cultures, new food, new languages. And a never ending pursuit of contentment. So far my search has taken me to over 30 destinations, travelling with Family, Friends or solo. So…Hi I’m Suwen (Sue), Social Worker extraordinaire by day, travel addict by night. My hopes is to use this platform to encourage others to venture outside Their comfort zone and experience all this beautiful world has to offer. Maybe, like me, they'll find Their heart on a mountain.