#VUELTAMERICA

Roadtrip through the Pan-American Highway

Riding along the strip of desert hung between Phoenix and San Diego, in the dry heat, a dream sparked. Out our window stretched the long gated border, painting a dark line in the sand. Our eyes kept following the line and where does it lead. Inspired by the stories of the road, of those looking past the walls and beyond borders, we envisioned embarking on that long trek and connecting a continent. We vowed that one day, we would take that road, the ultimate trip along the Pan-American highway from the US to the Patagonia. Top to tip.

The Pan-American Highway is a vast network of roads branching all over the continent, connecting the Americas. The highway passes many diverse climates and ecological landscapes, from dense jungles, to arid deserts, bonding these diverse countries together through blood and history.

But that is what inspired us most. The combination of our lives in the US, our hispanic heritage, our passion for Latin America, our spirit of adventure, and our love for each other is what gives us courage to take the leap. To pause our office lives, grab each other’s hand, to jump into the sun, meet our estranged “hermanos”,  visit their communities and feel the greater extent of what Latin America is, and the life experiences it can give us.

So we came up with a plan. Save for 20 months. Pack our things, get a van and travel west, from Cincinnati to California. Ride the west coast past San Diego, into the Baja peninsula. Continue crossing through Mexico. Follow the highway until Panama, where we will take a cargo boat to Colombia (only part of the highway not connected by land). Then resume to the west side of Los Andes to Santiago, Chile. Continue south, skirting the mountain roads, crossing borders with Argentina until reaching Tierra de Fuego. Then we will finish in Buenos Aires before flying back to the US. At this point we would have traveled over 17,000 miles, 16 countries for over 250 days. We plan to takeoff in the fall, October 2017.

“Its a trek of a lifetime, filled with countless wonders and rich cultures, stretching along one single path, connecting our life to theirs.”

Aided by a network of friends, we spent the past year preparing for this trip, developing a plan of this magnitude, while still making it affordable, sensible and safe. We acknowledged the risks that may lie along the way. What will happened to our careers, our savings, our things… will it be safe? What if we run into cartels, bandits or militia??? We hear all the stories of the challenges of daily life from the immigrants coming to the US. So conceivably there is a lot we could lose. But how much more could we gain? We are ready to take that chance, cross those barriers and be part of something bigger than ourselves. Its a trek of a lifetime, filled with countless wonders and rich cultures, stretching along one single path, connecting our life to theirs. There is no journey more worthy. We want to take ‘una vuelta’ (In Spanish, ‘vuelta’ means a turn, a spin, a round, or a lap.) across the Americas. Follow us and join us along this journey, Vueltamerica.