6 Months of Travel in Latin America

Ecuador to Peru Border Crossing

On August 27, 2009 we boarded a plane to Guatemala City, Guatemala, the beginning of our year long round the world journey. As of today we have been on the road for 180 days, half our planned trip. Below is a summary of interesting statistics and experiences from our travels through Central and South America.

Aracely Posing With An Alpaca in Bolivia

Distance Traveled

We’ve traveled an estimated total of 8,734 miles through 10 different countries.  We maintain a Google map which tracks the roads we’ve traveled and although it’s not 100% accurate, it’s a good indicator of the total distance we have covered. As you can imagine it at times feels like a life time on the road. The cheap flights we got to a few places made the distance seem less. It is however, the time on the road that helps you get a feel for the place and gives you time to reflect on your travels so far.

Floating Steps of the Moray Inca Ruins in Peru

Lodging

In the past six months we’ve stayed at 53 different hostels and learned they are not all the same.  There is a wide range of hostels offering different levels of comfort and service and not always at the same price or a fair price.  We feel we’ve become good judges on what makes a good hostel versus a bad one and often consider being hostel consultants.  That’s only half a joke.

Grand Plaza at the Tikal Mayan Ruins in Guatemala

Transportation

We have traveled on 79 different individual buses.  In Central America buses are dirt cheap, but uncomfortable; typically old American school buses.  In South America transportation is definitely more comfortable, with the option of bus cama (bed seats), but it comes at a price, especially in Chile.

Inca Ruins at Sacsayhuaman in Cusco, Peru

Documenting Our Travels

We currently have 2,500 pictures saved on our laptop and estimate that we have taken over 7,000 pictures in total since we delete the not so great ones.  Of these, only 819 have made it to our on-line galleries.

Miguel

Jason has filmed over 39 hours of video.  Creating and uploading our HD Videos has proven to be a very time consuming and difficult task.  It is challenging to find a non-intermittent internet connections for uploading 2GB files.  Therefore, we still launching videos from our first country, Guatemala.

We’ve published 69 blog posts and 10 travel videos.

Celebrating Christmas With Aracely's Family & Peter & Scotty

Experiences

One of the most rewarding parts of our trip so far is that we have built great relationships along the way and now have friends (and free places to stay) in England, Wales, Holland, Norway, Guatemala, and Colombia.

Catching a Ride in South America

Traveling in this way brings us many new experiences.  We’ve had the opportunity to learn about different cultures, peoples, see amazing sights, do fun and exciting activities and get a new perspective of the world.  It all hasn’t been wonderful, however.

Sailing in the Islands of San Blas Panama

Interacting with children who don’t go to school because they have to work all day, witnessing the pollution problem due to lack of resources (or maybe poor investment in infrastructure) in this area of the world, and seeing the drastic gap in the distribution of wealth has all been very eye opening.

Off the Coast of Cartagena, Colombia

These experiences make us reflect about the things that are important in our lives.  We now have different expectations and standards than before.  During our journey we have lived in very basic accommodations including hostels and guest houses, yet we remember how picky we once were during our apartment search in Hoboken, NJ.  We’ve taken local transportation throughout the 8,700+ miles we’ve traveled.  While living in the U.S. we couldn’t imagine not having a car even in a state that boasts great public transportation.  It’s interesting to see how we’ve grown both individually and as a couple.

We are really looking  forward to the next 6 months of our journey as experienced backpackers.