My husband Ian and I took off on May 21 from Chicago and landed later that day in Lima, Peru, kicking off our year long journey around the globe. Since then, we’ve been to five different countries, walked through cities and mountains and deserts, and haven’t killed each other yet. To honor this two month mark, I wanted to note some of the things we’ve observed, loved, and miss at this point in our journey.
Countries we’ve been to on the trip: Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Spain. We have loved our time in all of them.
Observations, milestones, things we like and miss, little stories, etc.:
I miss big ass coffees. Starbucks and Tim Hortons are usually to be found in larger cities, and from what I’ve found tend to be the only ones to deal out the big coffees. But everywhere else, you’re getting a dixie cup of some pretty strong espresso. You can get some milk to water it down.
Various instant coffees exist where you just sprinkle some magically dissolving coffee grounds into hot water and boom—you have some actually decent tasting coffee. I want to send some of this home.
We’ve found coffee to be less essential than back home, and don’t actually go to seek it out in the morning unless we are going to be sitting in a cafe writing / working. There have been weeks where I haven’t had any, which is INSANE compared to our consumption back home. We attribute it to our brains always being excited and busy with our ever-changing environments.
Cigarettes are still very much a thing, and it seems like the majority of people smoke in Spain. Vaping is not.
Spain has changed in the last decade. It seems like there’s been a lot of time and money put into tourism, such as some of the stores, restaurants, and refurbishments that certain ‘hot-spots’ seem to have undergone. Of course 10 more years have passed on the construction of La Sagrada Familia, which was more impressive and expensive than I remember.
I usually spend my vacations, holidays, weekends unwillingly counting down the hours until it all ends. I can’t do that quite yet, and it’s been great for my psyche. I have tiiimmmeee.
It’s been great for my mind and body. Both feel a lot healthier, and I think that has something to do with sleep, exercise, constant mental stimulation, and a lot less stress.
My Spanish has actually come in handy, and people actually understand me for the most part (sometimes they definitely don’t and we just stare at each other helplessly). It helped us get out of a troubling Bolivian Visa predicament when I became besties with the Bolivian consulate. It got us some money back when a restaurant in Madrid tried to screw us. It got us into salt pools that we were initially being told were closed.
I read my first book in Spanish that I wasn’t forced to read in class—because finding books in English was more of a struggle than I’d thought. It was a beach-read YA novel so I think it actually helped me get a grip on some of the lingo because there was so much dialogue between teenagers.
I don’t mind living out of my backpack like I thought I would. It’s kind of nice never having to really think about what I’m wearing because I just don’t have a lot of options, and they are always the same. There’s something freeing about not having a bunch of stuff to keep track of and organize.
You realize just how long a day is and everything you can fit into it. At home, I felt like I never had time.
I miss buying things without really thinking about a strict budget.
I miss Mexican food. Finding really spicy anything can be a challenge.
I feel more creative. I’ve been journaling again and taking pictures and snapshots of not only things I think are beautiful but that are disturbing and idea inducing. I’ve been writing down ideas for art projects and things I want to work on, and started sketching.
I realize that there are things that I miss about America that you don’t think about, mostly just the mental comfort of knowing how everything works or at least being able to clearly understand their answers when you ask—like this is the kind of restaurant that you pay at the counter, or you pay before, or you pay at your table with the waiter. That this road sign means you can drive down this street on weekends, but it becomes a one way on Mondays and don’t park here on Thursdays.
I realize that a lot of things that trip me up revolve around food and transportation.
I miss my baby Mika.
I miss being able to paint.
I like that I’ve been getting the urge to paint.
I realize that there are a lot of really giving, awesome people who have given us donations for our trip that I never expected.
When you’re traveling from place to place you realize how massive the world is and how you just don’t really matter a whole lot. Which, ironically makes me feel more at peace with my small place in it.
Life doesn’t have to be dictated by one decision you made and you have to stick with it forever. Learn from it. Change it. Have fun.
I’m amazed at the problems some people can create for themselves. How entitled and babyish people can be, the things that they can find to complain about. Like, I’m going to give Machu Picchu a one star because they haven’t set up wifi yet (this was an actual review I read).
Instagram runs the world in many ways and it’s kind of scary. Pictures can really convince people of a place, or change their mind about it.
You don’t always get what you pay for—some of the best places we’ve been are free or low cost.
Every Spanish-speaking country has a good place to make out we’ve seen. Even if it’s behind a dumpster. Or in front of a key landmark so that hundreds of people now have pictures of you and your significant other sucking face.
Sex is less of a hush hush and more of an open thing, especially in Spain—no matter how you identify. From stores to clubs and advertisements, it’s not a big of a deal—it just is.
Boobs are out for swimming at the community pools, beaches, for breastfeeding, and again—it’s not a big deal, it’s just how it is.
Spanish is hard when the slang in each country changes.
People aren’t overly friendly when they don’t know you. But when they do, it’s kissing and hand holding.
There are more tourists in 2019 than 2009. The lines are longer (or you simply having to book days in advance), and the prices are higher.
Researching a trip you’re going on is key, but be aware that there’s probably going to be a lot of misinformation as things are changing so quickly to cope with the floods of tourism.
Despacito remains everywhere, in all forms. Accordian. Flutes. Clarinets.
Kids stay out late with their parents. Or, parents stay out late with their friends and family and their kids by default are out with them.
Streaming trashy American TV is way more difficult than I feel it should be and is in some cases impossible without a VPN. But also, Homeland is on non-U.S. Netflix and has been pretty entertaining thus far.
Lines make people insane, and some people cannot believe that they have to wait in them.
Small children are tools to be used to skip lines.
If you don’t like anything about a city or a country, and I mean you can’t find a single thing you enjoy or admire about an entire region, you are spoiled and not a good traveler. (Ian and I went down a rabbit hole with this at a bar one night when someone asked if we liked a particular city.) Madrid, San Francisco, Dublin, Lima—these places are huge and there’s something that each can offer you, even if you don’t love everything about it.
For whatever reason places at home seemed so unattainable like New Orleans or Yellowstone so we’ve never gone. But now, those places seem like a piece of cake compared to what we are doing now—and I’m excited to plan adventures to them.
Coldplay was everywhere in 2009, Ed Sheeran is everywhere in 2019.
Doing laundry at a laundromat is pretty normal in older cities…therefore they are usually in great condition and not bad places to spend your time in.
Ian has the travel writing work ethic.
We covered our South American countries in pretty quick succession—spending just over a month total on the continent. We could easily spend the better part of a year traveling just in South America, it just has so much to see and offer. I plan to be back in the future to see and experience other countries, as well as check out the Amazon and Patagonia. Before leaving the U.S., we spent the last couple of months in a near constant state of chaos, from admin stuff such as selling the house and figuring out insurance to making the rounds with our friends and family, there wasn’t a lot of down time. South America was a different kind of chaos—we were moving a lot, spending two to three nights in a place on average, then moving on. There was always a bus or car or plane to catch. Ian has addressed it in other posts, but when you sit down and try to map out a year of travel, you start with a long list of everything you want to see and do and then you have to start chopping. It’s just not going to be possible financially, and mentally it’ll get rough if you are never stopping to rest. We knew South America was going to be a sprint, and that’s why we had a month of Spain on deck, to slow down a bit and take a breath.
I’d spent the summer in Spain 10 years ago through a study abroad program and I fell in love with the country—I was hoping Ian would too. Now that we’ve been here a month and are gearing up to take off to Dublin tomorrow morning, I can confidently say that Ian is now a huge fan as well. There was a lot of walking, driving, hiking and site seeing, but there was also more time to lay on the beach or by a pool, sit in a park or cafe, and also get some Netflix time in at night. I could spend much longer here, I still haven’t seen everything I’d like to and would love to get up to northern Spain / southern France.
This is all to say, things are going really well! So, the stage has been set for where we’re at and how we got here. Be sure to check out all of the details on specific cities and countries we’ve visited!