A fellow traveler once told us a story of wetting herself on an Indian train for fear of losing her seat and all her belongings. Another traveler recounted a tale of two horrendous days on a bus, stopping the driver ever hour to relieve himself. He was later diagnosed with cholera.
This is that type of story, the type that takes time to be able to tell; to see the humor in what was both extremely dangerous and embarrassing all at the same time. This is the kind of thing that happens to all of us on the road, the memories we loathe and relish at the same time, but can almost never ever talk about. It has …

People back in the States often ask us how we communicate and if we carry a cell phone. When we say yes, many people ask us what plan we’re on or if we have a satellite phone. The truth of the matter is that the way cell phone plans, phones, and companies operate in the US is different than in the rest of the world….and in the rest of the world, thankfully, it is much easier to travel internationally with a cell phone.
We carry a basic cell phone that has a SIM card slot. In the US, this type of phone is used by AT&T and T-Mobile. There is a SIM card and that card basically …

We installed the Linux Ubuntu operating system on our eeePC Netbook just before we departed for Africa. Somewhere around the start of our time in South America our computer, then using MS Windows, developed insomnia where it would wake up from its stand by, or sleep status while closed, inside its case, tucked away in my backpack. Fire was an obvious concern, but we were more worried the computer would fry itself on the inside. Add that to a couchsurf in Argentina where a self-proclaimed ‘Linux Geek’ pointed out that all the applications we were using (since they were all free) ran natively inside Linux.
We took the plunge. Backed up everything. Formatted the hard drive. Erased all our precious …

It’s 1pm and I’m sitting in Danny’s parents kitchen looking out at the backyard. The air conditioning is on, the fridge is fully stocked, the bathrooms have ultra-soft toilet paper,and the toilets are guaranteed to flush. These may sound totally normal to you, but these small conveniences don’t really exist in my world. Every few days we pick ourselves up and move to a new location. Sometimes the electricity doesn’t work for hours, sometimes the water will go out all day, often there isn’t a shred of toilet paper to be found in a public bathroom. Travel is all very exiting, but after 16 months we needed a vacation from our travels.
Vacation means freedom from something: work, duty or responsibility. …