Emma is a writer, traveler, and teacher. She co-runs this blog and is currently traveling in her VW Bus “Big Emma” from Alaska to Argentina. She loves everything colorful and occasionally licks a rock. She doesn’t believe in mustard.
After getting caught in a flash flood, we decided to put this leg of our Panamerican adventures on hold. Shipping Big Emma back home forced us not only to deal with cleaning up the situation, but also with the larger implications of the events that had taken over: we were going home.
We were completely unsuspecting when we woke up in the middle of the night in rural Belize, surrounded by water. We spend the next half hour stranded between intense chaos and incredible clarity, in a flash flood brought all our plans to a standstill.
Traveling like we do teaches you to change your perspective. Things that were once important don’t always stay that way; other things take their place. Changing your perspective, however, is what makes every day of travel an adventure.
Belize was the most culturally diverse country we had visited. What language should we use to greet someone, and what were our choices in the first place?
You can listen to all the tales you like, but you will never know what a place is like until you experience it for yourself. We spent six months traversing Mexico and now I can say with certainty: I did not feel unsafe.
Starting this week, we will be resuming our usual publishing schedule. Check in with us on Thursdays for more stories about Mexico and Belize, and every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for new Big Emma Diaries.
Traveling like we do, there is always a soundtrack playing in the background. Occasionally made of music, it is also the sounds of the streets, the people, the atmosphere that make a place come alive. Sounds continue to define a place long after you are gone, and are part of what makes every day an adventure.
You might have noticed that we don’t make videos anymore. Why is that? What was our motivation to make videos in the first place, and what has changed since we’ve been on the road?
Vanlife is a popular form of alternative living. And yet, more often than not, vanlifers appear to take on rather classic gender roles. What is the typical gender-role division in vanlife, and why is it so predictable?
We needed to replace an essential part of our car: our alternator. But where would we get the parts in southern Mexico?