OurBiggerPicture

We’ve been back in the U.S for over 2 months now. Finding the discipline to finish this blog has been difficult. Taking myself back in time to our road life requires putting myself in a different headspace from where I am now. It requires writing about the past while the present clouds my thoughts. I’m still catching up so it won’t be until the next blog post that I explore our reentry. Time is catching up to me faster now, that’s for certain. As I reflect on our last few wee

We left sunny Pucón and headed an hour north to the city of Temuco to visit a Mapuche community. The Mapuche are Chile's largest indigenous minority, making up about 10% of the population. And, the Araucania region is home to 50% of the Mapuche population. They are the first and only indigenous nation on this continent whose sovereignty was legally recognized, but they have exhausted generations trying to keep it that way. The disparity between the greater Chilean society and

After weeks of research and copious emails to various shipping brokers, we finally found an agent in Chile that could help us get LoJo back home. The wheels were in motion for an early February ship date to Oakland out of Valparaiso. I found great flights on frequent flier miles to California and booked them. So that’s it. We are heading home. The realization that the trip was coming to end leaves us a little sad but excited. The end definitely feels bitter sweet and we don't

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

After the Perito Moreno Glacier we headed southwest, back toward Chile - and yet another border crossing. Our destination was the Torres del Paine National Park, a must see on the Patagonian circuit. We entered Chile at the Cerro Castillo border crossing and saw the road signs change to “Ruta del Fin Del Mundo” – End of the World Route. Ushuaia, where the road ends, is now only a 10 hour drive. We are almost there! Torres del Paine National Park is known for its granite pill

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

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