Three years ago, Kyle and I decided we'd start saving to travel.  We didn't quite know how or where, but we knew we wanted it, and wanted it way more than anything else we could spend our money on. 

Two years later we had sold our cars and our furniture, stored some things in Dad's basement, and we set out for adventure.  Full of travel lust, last January we wrote Why I Travel.

Since then, we've accomplished what we set out to cover: traveling from Mexico to Argentina.  We've traveled around 18,000 miles through 14 countries.  We slept in 114 different beds, wonderfully bedbug free.  We mainly traveled by bus (195 of those), although we flew over the Darian Gap between Panama and Colombia and to meet up with family (4 planes).  We also took 36 boats and countless taxis, although foot and bike are our favorite ways to get around.  We did all that, and managed not to get robbed.

We also volunteered 1,068 hours; we each read over 20 books; and we uploaded over 6,000 photos from our trip.  Nearly 15,000 people have visited our website in the past year, with over 45,000 pageviews.  A post of how much money it's all cost will come soon.

The numbers are interesting, but certainly not the highlights.  We've met so many wonderful people, smiled, and cried tears of joy and frustration.  Here are some thoughts about our year of travel, and if we've missed any questions you'd like answers to, don't hesitate to ask.


1.  How have you changed from a year of travel?

The thing I feel the most is a new appreciation of time.  This past year, we've lived time rich and "money poor" (I put it in quotes, because even with a $66/day budget, we live well enough).  My old life was more money rich and time poor, with time constraints and schedules.  I love the feeling of time passing-by people watching in a plaza or just walking around a town.  Of having the time to talk with someone in a shop or turning down a street just because you can.  I also stop and smell the roses, frequently.

I also thirst to be in nature.  I've always been outdoorsy for a city girl, but more than ever I want to hike that mountain in a distance and get dirty on the trail.  I'm always happiest outdoors with the sun shining down on me.
 
2.  What did you learn about Kyle?

Wow, quite a bit.  We were together a little over 2 years before we got married, and married 3 months before we traveled, and with all the time we've spent together this past year, I always joke it feels more like 4 years.  In a good way of course.  I used to appreciate his nuances, but now I know them even more.  I've figured out that I know he's happy he "sings" along to the bass lines in songs, and I know that joyful expression when he hears a new word in conversation that he'd just learned.  I love that stuff.

There's also no denying we've squabbled about everything you can possibly think of in the past year: which bus to take, what a word means in spanish, where our bag of lost medicine went.  We've learned how to communicate better, out of desire, but really out of necessity.

3.  What was your favorite place?

Two countries I want to go back to the most are Colombia and Mexico, partly because they have my two beach paradises, Playa Zipolite and Parque Tayrona.  It's hard to compete with sleeping in hammocks perched over the Caribbean Ocean. 

Outside of that though Mexico has the best food in Latin America, fun-loving people, great cities, and overall, it's just so colorful.  Colombia is the best travel gem in Latin America, largely because most people just get nervous when they hear about it and they avoid visiting.  In reality, it's largely very safe, and full of friendly people, cultured cities, and beautiful nature.

I have to give a shout out to Leon, Nicaragua, which has fabulous hiking and great locals.  Definitely my favorite place in Central America.

4.  And your least favorite place?

Hmmm...  In general we avoided crappy places and got the heck out of them if we ended up there.  In general border towns and port towns suck because they revolve around stuff moving through and often have much less to offer.  An exception and place I would definitely not go back to is Isla Ometepe on Lake Nicaragua.  I might have liked it better if it didn't give me a stomach bug.

5.  What was your favorite experience(s)?

After a year of bus jumping and bed hopping, it's hard to narrow it down to favorites.  Most of all I feel lucky to have lived my dream of traveling like this.  It's one thing to read history or see photos in a book, but there's no competing with standing in front of thousands year old ruins or amongst nearly formed volcanoes.

6.  What would do differently?

Not too much, but I'd have spent a little less time in Central America and more time in South America.  We spent 8 months in CA and 4 in SA - mainly because we were in El Salvador 3 months volunteering.  Otherwise, we tried to keep as loose of an itinerary as possible, and I wouldn't change much.

7.  What advice would you share to travelers doing a similar trip?

Less is more.  In general, people pack too tight of itineraries.  We meet a lot of people that say they wish they had more time places, regardless of whether they're traveling for 3 weeks or 3 months.  If you have a week, go to one or two places and enjoy them.  Less destinations means you spend less of your time traveling and have more time to appreciate the depth of the places you visit and more time to take it all in.

I'll also pass along a few websites we frequent when considering places to stay: www.hosteltrail.com and www.hostelworld.com, because we've figured out that were you stay heavily influences your impression of a place.

And I'll close with one last piece of travel advice: write.  It may not be great, but it doesn't have to be, it's about recording your ideas and reflecting on what you experience.  If you don't mind the connection to technology, I highly recommend blogging - keeping our blog has been very rewarding.  It's connected us with people world-wide, and met our two top goals:
      1. keeping in touch with the people we care about
      2. connecting a wide audience with the world, as we see it.

I have no idea what the wife has said, so sorry for any repeat answers.

1.  How have you changed from a year of travel?

I think that I've become a little more relaxed, which is necessary in a world where nothing is on time.  I think I am also more confident when I see challenges ahead, where as before I might have complained about it.  We've had a lot of challenges in our travels and gotten through them intact.  You just have to try as hard as you can and if it doesn't work out, so be it.

I also think I am addicted to being around Bessie.  While we do get tired of eachother sometimes, it's nice to share everything with her.  I mean, we seriously use the same deodorant now.
 
2.  What did you learn about Bessie?

She has to pee a lot.  Like, all the time. 

She loses sunglasses like change in a couch.  I think we're on pair number 5.

She's also really good with people.  A lot of times, someone will say something to us in blazing fast slurred Spanish and she can laugh and give a good response.  Neither of us have any idea what the person said, but I end up just standing there looking like a deer in the headlights.  She also has a knack for extracting information from people that I would never get, like why they have kids from 3 different fathers.  I still don't know how she does it.

She also likes to shop but hardly ever for herself.  It's always "(So-and-so) would really like this".  On the same note, she won't leave a museum without going to the museum store.  She never buys anything, but just likes to look.

I'm sure there are a bunch of little things that I can't think of and are just engrained in me at this point.
 
3.  What was your favorite place?

This is a question that a lot of people want to know the answer to and I don't have one.  I can't choose.  I think every place is different and interesting for its own reasons and is deeply influenced by our state of mind.  Not to mention, we've been to a lot of places and it would hurt my head to try to compare them all.  Just wouldn't be fair to all those locations.

4.  And your least favorite place?

The only one that sticks out with me now is Uyuni, Bolivia.  The surrounding area is awesome, but the town itself is terrible and only exists for the tourists.  It's dusty, desolate, and really uninteresting.  Most border towns are pretty awful, too, but that's to be expected.  Overall, though, I can see merits to any of the places we visited.  They're all interesting in their own way.

5.  What was your favorite experience(s)?

Ummm...geez that's another hard one.  The trip from Uyuni, Bolivia to Chile was pretty cool.  The 2 day hike near Leon, Nicaragua is also a highlight.  From a personal level, it was really special to meet up with "Wolf" in Costa Rica, whom my uncle met more than 30 years ago during his travels in the same region. 

I think an over arching experience for me has been learning Spanish and being able to communicate effectively with people has been a rewarding experience.  I would suggest going to another country and learning another language to anyone.  It's a great window into culture.

6.  What would do differently?

Not much, really.  I think maybe giving more time to South America would be better as it is massive, but I'm glad that we got to know Mexico and Central America pretty well.  I know it may sound funny, but I would still go slower.  I mean, we could easily spend 1 year in Mexico alone.  Plus, moving around is pretty stressful.

7.  What advice would you share to travelers doing a similar trip?

Like I mentioned above, I would just go slow.  Realize that you will not be able to see anything, so don't bother trying to.  Some of the best days are had just by walking around and living your life without trying to do all of the tourist stuff.  You'd be surprised how much you can learn/do by not having an itenerary.

Also, choose hotels/hostels wisely.  A good hotel (not necessarily expensive) can change your perspective on where you are for the good or bad.  We like to choose friendly, helpful places.  We've also found having a nice view helps the experience.  The box room with no windows is cheaper, but it kind of sucks sometimes.