Our time in the USA quickly came to an end and yesterday we began our trek through South America. While we spent most of the time being stuffed with delicious food (there goes the weight we lost from Central America), we also spent an inordinate amount of time at outdoor equipment stores like REI.  In fact we went to two different REI’s in the Atlanta area.  After four months of use a lot of our equipment had either failed or begun to fail on us so it was time to exchange and resupply.  We’ve added a number of gear reviews to the website if you are interested and as always you can get an up to date list of our …

I know we were supposed to give you Part 2 about how we made this trip a reality, but somewhere between our last day of work, packing up and moving, and saying good bye, Part 2 got pushed back a few days.  We promise, part 2 is on its way.
We’re finally off!  Last night was our official going away party in DC.  I’m not really sure how to describe how it felt to have so many people help send us off.  It was incredible to have everyone (ok our DC people) there and I will admit their enthusiasm was contageous.   As the night grew on, the feeling, at least for me, became more somber as one friend after another …

The declining economy and enticing post-holiday clearance sales have us spending too much money on clothing and gear for the trip. Case in point – last weekend we went to REI’s winter clearance sale. Bought two softshell technical jackets, 3 pairs of wicking undies (in cute colors!), 2 SIGG aluminum water bottles and steri-pen attachments. The total? Around $200! The savings? Around $200! That was definitely exciting, I mean who doesn’t love to save money?
Besides purchasing fun gear and clothes, we’ve also begun packing up our apartment. The question is what can’t we live without? What is irreplaceable to us? As we packed up the first load to send to my parents in Philadelphia I …