These past few months have absolutely flown by! Our free time has slowly changed from talking and dreaming about our trip, to researching, note taking, building, and buying for our trip.
So here's the low down... This past June, Chris asked me if I wanted to travel around the world this year. With my track record of quitting my job and traveling, he sorta knew what the answer would be! He then proceeded to tell me this intricate plan of buying a 4-runner and driving it to Argentina. "WHAT" At this point I had never heard of the PanAmerican Highway, and knew close to nothing about Overlanding. Chris told me a few more details of his plan, and I started digging into the Internet for info on this sort of thing (mind you, Chris has never done this, he hadn't read a single blog or been on a single overlanding website). Well, turns out other people do this! There are resources and an entire community of people connected through their travels on the PanAm!! Imagine now Chris's amazement when I show him blogs of people doing exactly what he has been conjuring up in his own head for years... 1- he is surprised and his curiosity has him up all night reading through the entirety of these blogs & 2- he is amazed again at my sheer Internet genius blog finding capabilities & 3- he is stoked to have people out there willing to share their experiences and information with fellow travelers. (Shout out to all you PanAm bloggers out there!). I, on the other hand, am still shaking my head at him cause I can't fathom not looking this crap up, yet still shocked at how innovative and resourceful he is without all the "trendy" ways of accessing info these days! And, now you see why I'm traveling with this guy! :)
In the mean time, Chris found the 4-runner (affectionately called Lola) back in the fall, and we have been slowly modifying it to suit our needs. more to come on our new home soon, renovations are almost complete. We have also been researching quite a bit, but I use that word loosely cause we only research things we HAVE to know. We know what we need to bring, how to cross borders, ect, but as far as planning every detail of the trip... No way! We have the first week or so planned, then we have a rough plan for the rest of Mexico, and then the rest we will figure out on the way. The "research" of reading travel guides, blogs, ect is more of a way to get us familiar with the places and make a very rugged list of places we may want to pass through. The rest we will take day by day... Even if we never actually know the day of the week or date or time! :)
I'm still a bit freaked out by the fact that at 30, I am willingly choosing to move into a car! But then I remember that it's a heck of a lot more space, stuff, and freedom then my previous backpacking experiences. I am uber excited to ditch the hostels and public transportation, and explore the rugged, beautiful, new-to-me places of Mexico, Central America, and South America.
So, friends, family, travel addicts, and travel blog readers- Please join us on our journey... and by that I mean live vicariously, get inspired, give us advice and tips, support us or hate us cause you're jealous (this is what I do when I indulge in travel blogs at least), or even come visit us on the road!
