One Year and Fourteen Countries Later
A year ago, Tom and I sat huddled under a mosquito net in Colombia desperately taking in the air conditioning of our hostel. After hours of travel from Colorado, we had finally settled into the premiere destination in South America— the first day to a year of upcoming travel. With brave faces and a great deal of trust we left everything back home in waiting so that we could fulfill our hopeful wishes to live nomadically.
I’ve never felt so unsettled in my life. I sat anxiously scribbling in the first page of my moleskin journal trying to tame the vicious negativity circling in my head. I could tell that Tom was feeling it too. What the hell were we doing? There was a silent anxiety between us after the adrenaline and excitement of arriving wore off. It was evening and turning in early we decided to set some goals for the trip, to make a bucket list.
The first line of that bucket list is written Make It A Year.
It’s written rather cautiously and I accidentally wrote is instead of it, which meant that I had to cross part of the sentence out to write it again. It’s a silly grammatical mistake, but it feels like I wasn’t even sure that this first line of the list was something that we could one day cross out. We were beginning the journey with half the budget we imagined, feeling vulnerable and it felt rather silly to start writing all these wild dreams into a list when I couldn’t convince myself that it was real.
It wasn’t until a few weeks later, somewhere between bungee jumping in Colombia and getting robbed in Mancora, Peru, that I understood the magnitude of a year long trip. It was going to be an unpredictable amusement ride that would simultaneously terrify me and thrill me. The next year wasn’t something that we could entirely prepare for and one thing we discovered was that no one was going to hand it to us.
We’ve had weeks full of excitement and some days riddled with difficulty. We’ve done our best to make it look easy, a seamless journey cross-continental, but the truth is that it’s hard work to travel. We’ve been sick, we’ve been broke, we’ve been covered in bug bites, robbed and thrown from a bus over the course of a year, but we’ve also uncovered a life time of beauty just by taking a chance. We climbed a 15,000 foot pass and stood at the same height as the frozen peaks in Huaraz. We kayaked under thousand year old limestone formations in Thailand that I dared to imagine only existed in Hollywood films. I’ve seen wild life free of cages far beyond the zoo’s of back home. We’ve watched the sun plunge into the horizon of the Altantic, Pacific, and Indian ocean and we’ve seen it rise over lakes, rivers, and skyscrapers. We even set aside our grubby backpacking clothes for a day to put on a fancy white dress and handmade suit to live out our fairytale wedding along the caldera of the Aegean Sea in Greece.
It’s hard to wrap up what’s been a whole year of our life, full of ups and downs strung across a wide geographical plain, but we reflect with awe and pure delight. The two of us some how made it happen against all doubts we had on that first day. We’re looking back on the last 365 days of travel, through 14 countries, four continents, and 24,368 pictures. We’re amazed by the pages of the journal that are filled with lists and stories of travelers along the way. We’re grinning while re-reading the names of travelers we’ve complied since that first day and how a handful of them we’ve seen again somewhere far across the globe. It’s unreal to watch videos of these two dreamers and try to contextualize that it’s actually us. It is real and traveling is still very much our everyday reality. We reflect today in high hopes that the road will continue and that we’ll keep filling our passports as well as our hearts.
The Incredible Countries That We've Seen In A Year
(In the order in which we visited)
Colombia
Barichara, Colombia
Ecuador
Banos, Ecuador
Peru
Arequipa, Peru
Chile
Valparaiso, Chile
New Zealand
Wanaka, New Zealand
Japan
Tokyo, Japan
South Korea
Seoul, South Korea
Vietnam
Sapa, Vietnam
Cambodia
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
England
London, England
France
Paris, France
Italy
Matera, Italy
Greece
Santorini, Greece
Thailand
Ao Nang, Thailand
The Bucket List
Make it a year
Travel as much as possible by bus
We took private Spanish classes in Barrichara, Colombia and had an amazing time living with the locals.
Traveling by bus has been an incredible way to see the countryside, and definitely an efficient way to get around which helped us travel farther on our money.
Volunteer:
We volunteered at a hostel in Paracus, Peru which allowed for an exciting two weeks of of living like a local and forming some incredible friendships.
Adventure All Over Ecuador:
We headed straight to the adventure capital of Ecuador, Banos, but our time was pretty short. We did hike Pailon Del Diablo which was incredible and we bathed in the Baños de la Virgen, the thermal springs situated underneath a waterfall.
Climb Machu Picchu
An incredible experience that we got to share with two of our best friends from Colorado who traveled to Peru for Tom's birthday.
Learn To Dance
We had the amazing opportunity to Salsa dance at a barbecue with our friends in Barrichara, Colombia. I've never felt so goofy and free in my life.
Rent A Moped
We road in the pouring rain in Sapa, Vietnam and explored all over Da Nang as well.
Yoga
We had a rough time in Mancora, Peru as we were robbed point blank early in the morning, but some of our greatest memories came from yoga on that very same beach. We met in incredible individual named Francisco who through years of dedication was the most zen person we’ve ever come across. Every morning, afternoon, and evening he did yoga on the beach and humbly invited us to join. I’ve never felt so relaxed as I was when he explained the practice, focus, and extensions of yoga.
Accept Invitations from the locals
We’ve adopted a form of being yes people which led us to meeting some unbelievable people. We found Sapa, Vietnam and it’s one of our favorite places in the world. We stayed at a homestay in Sapa where we helped cook dinner and experienced life in the wetlands with a local family for one week.
Drink Coffee In Every Country
We had a lot of fun exploring in New Zealand, but Mt. Roy was definitely a highlight. We also hiked the Santa Cruz trek in Huaraz, Machu Picchu, and the Colca Canyon; all located in Peru.
We’ve enjoyed coffee in every country and we even had the opportunity to work in a coffee shop in New Zealand. We’ve seen the whole process of coffee, from the growth to the extraction. We feel in love with the perfection of the light roast of Colombian coffee and we savored the experience of the Vietnamese Cafe sua da.
Bungee Jump
We jumped 70 meters in San Gil Colombia conquering our fear of heights.
Stargaze
We sought out the perfect night sky in San Pedro de Atacoma Chile, but we also embraced the clear skies in New Zealand.
Watch The Sunrise
The most memorable sunrise I think had to have been driving the historic Haast highway in New Zealand while the sun illuminated the peaks and slowly took over the lakes along the highway. It was so peaceful.
Be Naked In Nature
We felt quite invincible after we climbed the Santa Cruz trek and so arriving at the lagoon below we felt that a proper skinny dip was in order. Stripping down we put our feet in and both recoiled in shock of the cold. We still danced a bit, naked and far beyond civilization and felt free.
Squid Kebab in Japan
Favorite Food That We’ve Had
Rose: Toss up between the amazingly fresh sushi in Tokyo and the build your own Bánh xèo in Vietnam.
Tom: The Colombian empanadas & fresh sushi in Japan.
Favorite Beach That We’ve Been To
Rose: Ao Nang’s beach beyond the Monkey hill.
Tom: Hoi An in Vietnam had the best water and we had the most fun. It was cool to witness how the beach was full of tourists during the heat of the day and the see the immediate take over by the locals when the sun went down.
Most Memorable Adventure We’ve Had
Rose: There’s so many to just narrow it down. Even kayaking in the ocean when everything went terribly wrong was an amazing adventure. Bungee jumping, camping, biking through the coffee fields, Angkor Wat— all incredible. But my mind always falls back to the dune buggies in Huacachina with Dillon and Torpy. We were such kids and I don’t think that the smile left my face that whole day.
Tom: There's so many moments to pick just one. Climbing the ancient ruins of Angkor Thom in Cambodia, lunging 70 meters and touching the water while bungee jumping, even riding scooters in the rain in Vietnam, all of it was an experience. But if I were to interpret this question as a photographer, my answer lies somewhere between Japan and Vietnam— really all of Asia. I just couldn't put my camera down because everywhere I turned there was something new and beautiful. Everything was so different from what I've known or had the opportunity to shoot in my everyday life.
Angkor Wat
Most Terrifying Experience
Rose: Well naturally having a gun pointed at us was pretty traumatizing, but I think more scary than that was when we touched down in New Zealand with no plan, no money, and no job. I think we both felt like our trip could have ended in Auckland. That feeling of failure was awful, but we didn’t let it overtake us and instead we found work and really uncovered how much we both wanted to keep traveling.
Tom: Getting robbed at gun point in Mancora.
What You Miss The Most
Rose: Laundry. More specifically having a dryer and access to clean clothes all the time. I don’t mind so much being dirty, I think I lost the will to care about germs somewhere between the parasite in Aguas Calientes and the Peruvian dentist that didn’t use any gloves, but I miss that feeling of fresh clothes, soft and warm, just out of the dryer.
Tom: Always Taco Bell.