You're Doing What?!

As you can imagine, we've heard that from a lot of people when they first listen to what our travel plans are. When we say we are going to travel South America they usually think the average trip length, maybe a bit more, like two weeks. NOT FIVE MONTHS! Yep, that is exactly what we are doing. The three of us (Seth, Mat, and I) will be not only driving, but living out of a Jeep Wrangler for the next five months starting June first. First, we will drive from our home state of Wisconsin to the tippy top of Alaska in the Arctic Circle, called Dead Horse in Prudhoe Bay. From there we will drive down the west coast of the U.S. into Mexico, where we will follow the Pan-American Highway through Central America.

This long stretch of road we will be following is called the Pan-American Highway and is the worlds longest highway. There is no true single route through the U.S., just highways that will connect to the main route later, but once we hit Mexico on our way down from Alaska we will be traveling on the true Pan-American highway. It will take us through all of the countries in Central America (Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama, Belize, and El Salvador). From there we will be jumping over the Darien Gap between Panama and Columbia where the drug cartels have taken over and is super unsafe to travel for first timers like us. Then, we will continue on down into South America where we will visit Columbia, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Ecuador. We haven't decided yet if we will got to Suriname or Guyana, because we don't plan on driving through the middle of the rainforest in Brazil just to get to Rio. My vote is to take a different route.

We originally wanted to travel Europe in the same way, but decided that the cost of shipping our Jeep was too much, and the route would have been too hectic due to restraints of how long we could stay in certain countries. Hence, the Pan-American Highway! This was all originally Seth's idea and Mat and I joined in. It works out perfectly with Seth moving back home, and before Mat and I move out to California. We quickly renovated our house with the help of some amazing family and friends, sold it, and quit our jobs! We wanted to do something many people never get to do in life, and that is TRAVEL! Except ours might be on an obnoxiously large scale..

Throughout our travels I will be posting about the daily life of the trip. Anything from where we are, who we meet, and things we see will all be included. And, as many of you may wonder, yes, I will be posting pictures! How could a photography major not take zillions of photos on this once-in-a-lifetime trip?! I will post this onto my Facebook whenever I make any updates and feel free to leave comments/questions below the posts. Follow along with us as I update along the ride!