Enjoy the trip

(First published in Issue 2, October 2020) We are Diego, Roana, and our dog Zed. We left Blumenau in Santa Catarina, Brazil, in January 2017 on board our classic '90s VW Bus, which we transformed into our home, with the objective of getting to know the Americas. So far we passed through 17 countries and covered a distance of 56,000 kilometers. The countries were Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico, and the United States.

There are many challenges for those who live on the road, but with a lot of work and joy dedicated to embracing this life, we are able to face them daily. We have already made many dreams come true by living this lifestyle. We are heading for another one right now: arriving in Alaska and getting to experience the Aurora Borealis. Little by little, we travel day by day to experience it all. The road teaches us a lot every day: It is very intense with a lot of emotions; you meet many people, cultures, and customs that leave their marks, you experience rich foods and charming places. A lot has changed within us. We have learned a new language. We communicate very well in Spanish, but English is still a very big challenge. Each day we learn new words, and we can manage with the language... at least we are not starving!

We live looking for a balance between our mind and our body. We have more time to take care of ourselves, we do physical activities, we eat well and healthy, and we learn many new things every day. All this has made our life much lighter, without the exaggerated stress of everyday life. Now, life at our pace is much more peaceful. Of course, we don’t live in a bed of roses every day, but we learn to be calm in the storm when the world has turned upside-down.

We like to get to know the essence of each country, talk to the locals, and learn more about their stories. Nature is also impressive. We can’t even believe that we get to visit so many incredible places. We live a crazy mixture of feelings every day. There were tons of new experiences along the way. We have already walked through glaciers, climbed snowy mountains, and seen ruins of all kinds. We got to visit two of the 7 wonders of the world. We have walked to Machu Picchu, climbed volcanoes, and walked 32 km in just 1 day on the trail. We have seen an active volcano erupting and throwing lava.

We also saw condors, whales, guanacos, llamas, foxes, and many other animals. We got to reach the Pacific Ocean and also the Caribbean, and we embraced countless sunsets along the way. We crossed from Colombia to Panama with our van in a container. We entered caves, swam in Mexican cenotes, and swam with bioluminescent phytoplankton. We crossed the Andes mountain range, traveled along the Carretera Austral, and went down the road of death. We walked infinite kilometers through the largest salt flats in the world and crossed deserts and many other things.

We are happy to share our story with you! We're sure you'll like it.