OurBiggerPicture

For the first time in 25 months, the little digital compass readout on our rearview mirror (a mirror rendered otherwise useless with our huge camper in the truck bed) shows an N instead of an S. We are heading north. Yet getting back into the rig after hitting our goal of Ushuaia, and then Antarctica, feels a little anticlimactic. I don’t have the energy to psyche myself up for the long drives anymore, and John isn’t as enthusiastic for them either. We’ve been in mostly cold

The road out of Chile was rough and bumpy. For hours we drove on washboard roads, snaking up through the mountains and then back down to the pampas toward the border of Argentina. We didn't see another car the entire drive. A few hours in we stopped to air down the tires and I picked my way through the grass to pee. I looked up as the herd of cows grazing close by all picked up their heads and stopped to stare. I said Hi. It hit me then that this was my new normal - bathroom

Patagonia. The land of the explorer, the outlaw, the exiled – people drawn to the sheer enormity of its physical space. This is where the rivers run turquoise and lakes are so clear you can see right to the bottom. Where condors fly overhead and wild guanacos join you for breakfast. It is also where the wind blows incessantly. Patagonia is one of the crown jewels of our journey and we were excited to finally get here. Patagonia covers about 260,000 square miles in size—roughl

I started this blog post writing about penguins. And eventually it will be about penguins. I have gone back and forth on writing about this here. But this week I woke to news so disheartening, so...disturbing, I have to deal with the emotions that are clouding my days now as we sit in one of the most remote places on earth. I woke to the news of the election, and as if I were a watching some “end of the world” movie - the evil villain had actually won. I don't recognize the c

We didn’t start out on this long drive just to end it in BA. We are going to Ushuaia, to the end of the world, and it’s time to make some pr

Sometimes I feel like we are on the run from the law. Like we’re fugitives. We move locations every couple of days making us hard to track down. A stash of U.S currency is hidden in the bowels of our truck, and every few weeks we find little bits of some other country’s currency in pockets, wallets, or behind seat cushions. No one in their right mind would hang out in some of the towns we sleep in so they are perfect cover. Endless police checkpoints make us sit up, expecting

After the incredibly beautiful moonscape that was the Salar de Uyuni, we were off to our next destination (or planet) depending on how you viewed the landscape – the Lagunas Route through the Eduardo Avaroa Preserva. The next several days were for me (as was the Salar) a highly anticipated mini adventure. During the years leading up to our 2014 departure from Marin, I read many blogs and lived vicariously through those travellers. I would follow their travels and make notes o

The Southwest corner of Bolivia is a harsh and intimidating landscape. The Uyuni Salt Flat in Bolivia and the Southwest circuit (also known as the Lagunas Route) are on almost every Overlander’s bucket list. We tackled the Salar first. The largest salt flat on earth, the “Salar de Uyuni” spans more than 4,000 square miles at an altitude of 12,000 feet. It is an other worldly place - vast, austere, like being on the moon. This beautiful moonscape is where temperatures can swin

The route to Cusco takes us up over 15,000 feet through the Peruvian Andes, where small villages of herders occasionally dot the landscape. It seems an inhospitable place to live, so far up in the sky. But we begin to see green, not just brown, and we are finally in the mountains. Here we also finally see the rare vicuña, a wild South American camelid that lives in the high alpine areas of the Andes. Their long necks, gentle eyes and downy coats instantly draw me in. We drive

The scenery changes as soon as we cross into Peru. The trees give way to brown sand and desolate terrain. For miles and miles, our eyes see brown. Tiny brown houses made from mud and brick dot the landscape and make up the towns. The sand blows across the highway and dunes rise up along its sides. A favorite documentary of many overlanders is The Long Way Down. For us, the coast of Peru is the The Long Way Brown. We are driving the length of this country along the coast, and