Phase 1 of our grand adventure was, itself, an incredible adventure. If our entire trip were only what we just completed, then the trip would already be an incredible, life changing, worthwhile thing. The fact that it’s only a piece of it, and we have plenty more to go, leaves us feeling so fortunate and excited.

By The Numbers

We spent just a shade over 4 months on phase 1, leaving Raleigh, NC on January 15, 2018, and returning on May 21, 2018. We spent more than a fair amount of money. What all happened in between? Well, we:

• Visited 8 countries (not including the US)
• Went to 7 foreign capital cities (only missed Brasilia)
• Stayed in 39 different hotels or AirBnbs
• Stayed at 3 camp sites
• Took 24 flights
• Missed 0 flights!
• Flew 12 different airlines (including a hilarious 8-flight stretch of a different carrier each time)
• Flew a distance of over 18,000 miles
• Bused more than 1,800 miles
• Walked more than 541 miles!
• Took boats for 161 miles (this was all across the Rio de la Plata)
• Took trains for about 40 miles, not including public transit
• Rode 11 different public transit systems (subways, BRT, city buses, light rail, teleférico)
• Spoke two languages other than English
• Spent 126 days out of the country
• Toured wineries on only five total days (ahem, mothers!)

How Can You Travel All The Time?!

We don’t, really. Our actual travel days–a bus or a plane to a new city, changing hotels–we keep light, tending to not do any other tourism those days. The days we’re not traveling, we really just live: Erika and I quickly developed a weird ability to instantly make wherever we were staying home. We’d spread out all of our stuff, we’d cook, we’d watch Netflix, we got comfortable sleeping no matter how uncomfortable the bed was. The travel days felt like travel; everything else just felt like living at home.

We were also very lucky–but, smart in how we handled ourselves, as well–on our trip, which limited, ah, inconveniences. Because of that we never:

• Left anything behind in a hotel room, bus, plane, etc (still can’t believe the tent made it home with us!)
• Got robbed
• Vomited!

We did lose a couple things through a laundry service in La Paz (grumble), but that’s it.

Don’t you Fight?

Not as much as you’d think! Not as much as we’d have thought either, I’d say. We certainly didn’t expect to fight a lot, but we knew it’d be a change, being around each other 24/7. We’ve learned how to find our own space, even when we’re lying right next to each other. And, generally, we’re on the same page with things. We want to do and see the same kind of things, we have similar comfort levels with travel methods and hotels.

Another important thing is we both contribute to planning the next steps. And I don’t know how we figure it out, because we don’t really talk about it, but somehow we divide the planning and it all comes together. I figure out flights while she finds a place to stay. She plans our attack of the Uyuni salt flats while I figure out everywhere we have to go and stay to get to Machu Picchu. It’s seamless.

But… yeah, we still fight!

But Didn’t You Feel Unsafe in ______?!

No!!!

Mostly no. South America is incredibly comfortable and safe. There’s usually nothing scarier than your usual mid-to-large city in America. Even less so, I think. Except Yellow Fever. Get your vaccine before going to Brazil!

I admit, I was a bit nervous starting in Colombia. I think I still held onto some old misconceptions, and expected Colombia to be grittier. In reality it couldn’t have been much more pleasant and comfortable (okay, maybe a little less humidity in Cartagena, but that’s about it).

There is no where that we went that I wouldn’t heartily recommend anyone and everyone visit.

What Else Did You Notice?

Various fun and interesting things (I think anyway)

Heavy Metal

It seems South Americans have quite a love affair with 70s and 80s American and British music. Especially heavy metal and hair metal. People everywhere were wearing–and T-shirt stores everywhere were selling–shirts of Slayer, and Black Sabbath, and Iron Maiden, and Motörhead, and Pantera, and Anthrax. Guns N Roses could be heard in dozens of restaurants. Scorpions would blare out of shop fronts. Hell, even Queensrÿche (Queensrÿche!) was on the radio in taxis for God’s sake, and I’m not even talking about Silent Lucidity. It was universal, and it was weird!

“I love Motörhead,” our driver in Uyuni said as he… turned on Motörhead. “They’re my favorite.”

Platform Shoes

Argentine women love them! We got to Buenos Aires and everyone was on platforms. Both women and men in Argentina seemed to dress very nicely and fashionably. Brazilians are also very fashion forward.

Uruguayans in Montevideo seemed very buttoned up; they could use a casual Friday.

Spanish

I learned a shit ton of Spanish on this trip (and a tiny bit of Portuguese too). It helped a lot that I was with Erika–not only was she able to teach me words, but because of her, we were able to conduct far more interactions with others in Spanish only. That helped a lot. Knowing French decently helped too.

I’d always known ‘strawberry’ was ‘fresa’, and in Colombia it was. And then wasn’t again until Peru. Everywhere else it was ‘frutilla;’ what the hell is a frutilla?

Chileans are just straight up unintelligible. Are you people speaking Spanish down there? It’s like hearing an Irishman speak English.

Americans

There aren’t any. We really don’t seem to travel to South America, outside of say Machu Picchu. We’d do all these English language free walking tours, and almost every time we’d be the only Americans there. Canadians, Britons, Germans, Swedes, Dutch, French, Australians, Belgians, Danes, Norwegians, Romanians, even Russians. Get out and travel, people!

Because of this, people really didn’t know what to make of us when they met us. They’d try to guess where we’re from, and never guessed the US. They guessed England, France, Germany. Most frequently, they guessed Brazil. I guess it’s my fucked up, broken Spanish and Erika’s messed up Honduran accent?

Privilege

Erika and I talk about this together a lot, but we recognize, and are somewhat embarrassed by, the fact that we are extraordinarily privileged to do this. We made good money so we could easily save for this once the idea took hold. We’re healthy. We’re able to feel confident in our employability afterwards. We really weren’t taking huge risks in doing this, and that’s because we’re just hugely lucky.

We met a guy along the way who was also doing some extended traveling, taking a pause from ‘real life,’ like us. And something he said really rubbed us the wrong way and stuck with us.

“Anybody can do this!” he enthused, meaning dropping everything and traveling. “Just make a plan and make it happen!”

No, anybody can’t. Most of the people we meet in the cities and towns we visit have never been able to travel beyond the area they live in, much less the world over. This guy is incredibly lucky to be able to do this, and so are we.

It infuses each day we have with an intense appreciation for what we’re seeing and experiencing, and a desire to give back in whatever ways we can in the future.

What’s Next?

After two weeks back home in the United States, next was off to Phase 2 of our adventure: Africa! We had a long flight ahead of us to Namibia. We hope you’ll come back soon to read about it!