Who are you?
Bessie and Kyle here, inseparable married vagabonds. We left our jobs and life in Chicago to discover the world. Why use money for sensible things like a condo or a car when you can live from a backpack anywhere in the world?
We recognize life is short; we both love traveling; and we don’t want to put it off until some distant time. The basic gist is that we quit our jobs, sold our stuff, and took off: one-way tickets in hand. We spent a year in Latin America, and now we're living in South Korea teaching English.
Why do you blog?
Sharing our experiences has been an awesome part of traveling. It keeps us connected to our friends and family, in the best way possible, but it's also shared our trip with tons of people around the world that are curious in new things or globetrotters themselves. Some 15,000 unique visitors hit our site the first year, and we've heard from people all over the globe. Sharing our opportunity to travel was a big hope, and mission accomplished.
Tell me more about your path.
We started traveling in January 2008 and meandered a year through Central and South America. We went overland from Mexico to Panama, flew into northern Colombia, and went overland to Argentina. Here are maps of our path in Central America and South America.
We returned to Chicago in March 2009, only to re-pack and leave again. One year of adventure wasn't enough, and so we're living in South Korea. Our one-year English teaching contracts end in April 2010, and after that, the wind will carry us to our next adventure.
How did you decide to teach English in South Korea?
We'd originally thought we'd stay in Argentina or somewhere in Latin America, and we tried, but we found a lot of competition for low paying jobs, and we needed some income to keep going (a post about that decision). It's relatively easy to get a job teaching English in South Korea, and it has great perks - a post to come. We've also dreamed of having a SE Asian leg to our trip, and is a great launch pad.
How did you plan your year through Central and South America?
In general, we tried to throw the itinerary out with yesterday's map. We’re striving to be vagabonds of sorts - really experiencing local culture and letting the wind carry us a bit towards the things that really pull us. We've been been inspired by Rolf Potts’ book Vagabonding. An overview: getting to know the places we go and being flexible to explore the things that interest you, not just the “sights”. He defines vagabonding as “a deliberate way of living that makes the freedom to travel possible.”
How did you pay for your travels in Latin America?
Traveling can be very inexpensive despite what people might think, especially through developing countries. We budgeted $66/day for both of us, and we stayed in that budget, except for flying home. Read our post "What has 6 months of traveling cost us?"
What have been your favorite places so far?
There have been a lot of amazing places we've visited, but these cities we found the "Most Livable" and could easily live in.
- San Cristobál de las Casas, México - (Bessie loves VW Beetles)
- Guanajuato, México
- León, Nicaragua
- a mix between Bogotá & Medellín, Colombia
What do you want to get out of traveling?
Traveling like this is really a dream come true. We'd hoped bring the world to people, and inspire others to travel. Our vision for our travel:
- Spending lots of time together (insert aww)
- Improve the worlds’ view of Americans. (it's up there with achieving world peace, but we can try.)
- Impactful volunteer experiences
- We want to see the world, and experience firsthand how others live. Which leads to the next one…
- We want to share our experiences with others and make the world a smaller place. In hopes of making it a better, more aware and just world.
How did you decide to take off traveling?
We've both caught the travel bug years ago. Then the first time we met, we realized we shard a deep appreciation for life and a love for travel. And within the first few hours of meeting, Kyle asked Bessie to go to Puerto Rico with him. That first trip together was the big test of knowing we were travel compatible, turned out marriage compatible. As soon as we got back from Puerto Rico, we started a 2 year saving plan for a big trip and set early 2008 as our departure date.
Bessie, would you travel like this without Kyle?
I don’t think either of us would be planning this trip exactly the way we are without the other. However, as a female I think would feel less comfortable moving around so much by myself, at least at the onset, but I could see myself abroad volunteering, pursuing jobs, etc.
Kyle, would you travel like this without Bessie?
Not like this, no, but I would probably find some other sort of outlet to travel, whether it be through work, volunteering, Peace Corps, etc. Barring that, I would have probably continued to travel the world at 2-3 week intervals like I was doing before.
Why Central America first?
Bessie studied in Costa Rica in college, and studied Hispanic Studies with a concentration in Latin America, so basically she really digs it. She loves speaking Spanish – because it’s like opening a whole new world of being able to communicate with some 330 million people. (Some sources say this is more than people that natively speak English, which is about 320 million people.) Kyle went along with it because he’s spent most his time in Asia, and after spending a few weeks in Belize and Guatemala, he really wanted to go back to see more and learn Spanish.
What did you pack for backpacking in Latin America?
The saying "Less is More" applies here. Here's a video from before we left, although we cut down on the road.
- Bags: Bessie's got a hiking pack, Kyle down-sized to a day-pack and duffel.
- Miscellaneous: first aid kit, Buck knife, sleeping bag sheet, quick dry travel towels, small flashlights, iodine tablets, compass, backpack waterproof cover, backpack mesh lock, and sewing kit. Mostly from REI. Books, guidebooks, notebooks, more books.
- Technology stuff: Mac iBook, digital camera, flashdrive. Read our post Flashpacking, what?
- Clothes: hiking shoes, chaco sandals, light weight convertible pants, 1 pair jeans, super cool raincoats, t-shirts long & short, north face fleece, smartwool socks, CoolMax BuffWear, and bathing suit.
How did you update your website in Latin America?
We use our Mac for writing, photo storage, and video making. 2 out of 3 times our hostel has wireless (Super Rad!), otherwise, we use a flashdrive to move content to a computer at an internet café. We store all our photos on Flickr, all our videos on YouTube, and back-up our computer on dvd every few months to mail to mom.
What do your friends and family think?
Overall, people are really excited for us. We hear a lot of "living vicariously" and "so great to do it while you're young". Before we left we did hear: "if you get kidnapped, don't give them my address" and a good friend may harm us if we’re not back in Chicago in a few years. No doubt that blogging really helps share our experiences and keep us connected.
Travel books we like:
Vagabonding: An Uncommon Guide to the Art of Long-Term World Travel - Rolf Potts
One Year Off by David Elliot Cohen - 2 Parents and their 3 kids travel the world for a year
Sex Lives of Cannibals by J. Maarten Troost - living 2 years on a lone Pacific Island
Don't Touch Monkey by Ayun Halliday - hilarious tales of trouble on the road
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - 1 year of self-exploration through travel
Honeymoon with My Brother by Franz Wisner - humorous story of two brothers traveling around the world
