525,600 minutes. How do you measure a year in a life?
Some people said we were crazy. Some people said we were awesome. Some people said we’d be back within 3 months, some people said we’d never return. “It’s my dream to do that” some people said, while others shook their head unable to understand. We just didn’t know what to think, and when we stepped into Mexico last year we were about as prepared as we could have been for a journey that’s impossible to prepare for…
525,600 minutes. How do we describe a year on the road?
There’s the bad: countless nights in nondescript hotel rooms, countless hours in transit on an overcrowded, smelly, sweaty bus, countless times we’ve said no to a hotel tout or aggressive street vendor and the numerous times we have to ask a question to get the “real” answer. And there’s the good: countless heartwarming conversations with locals who welcome us into their homes, invite us for a drink or intercede on our behalf to make sure we get the real price. Countless times we’ve received a genuine smile and hello, been told to enjoy a country, been given a phone number should we need anything or been directed to the right location despite our awful map or poor command of the language. How can we sum up these experiences and tell you what a year on the road is like? It’s incredible, it’s awful, it’s amazing, it’s hard. It’s everything we thought it would be and nothing at all like we expected. We’ve learned that the world is a great big place, and to quote many travelers we meet, the world is “same, same, but different.”
So after a year how do we feel? Are we tired, happy, ready to come home or looking forward to pressing on?
We’re all those emotions and more. Ask us at any moment and you can get any one of a thousand answers. Most importantly though, we’re thankful. Thankful each morning that we’re able to travel and spend such a long time getting to know the rest of the world. Thankful that we’ve made it this far and appreciative of all the experiences- the good, the bad and the ugly, that this trip has given us. Thankful of the people we’ve met and the places we’ve been. Our mantra is the day we wake up and stop appreciating the world around us is the day we decide to go home. Today is not that day and I’m not sure when that day will be. Whenever it is though, we have no regrets. We’re happy that we took this chance, happy that we’ve done this trip, happy with the experiences we’ve had.
525,600 minutes. How can you measure a year in a life?
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