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.
This week, we finally head to Mexico. What will it be like? Turn on the headlights with us and take a look at our expectations – from culture to language to safety to Internet – and how our trip will change when we enter Latin America.
A defining characteristic of our trip is the slow pace we have chosen to get from Alaska to Argentina. Although many overlanders finish the trip in much shorter amounts of time, we prefer to take it slow and enjoy the ride.
Do we speak Spanish? As we get closer and closer to Central America, this question becomes ever more important. How do we plan on learning, and why is it so important to us in the first place?
For the past two weeks, we’ve been on vacation with my parents in Florida. We’ve spent these weeks primarily relaxing, and it feels very different from our usual vanlife. Despite what one may see on Instagram, vanlife is anything but a vacation.
In case you haven’t seen it yet, check out this new short video, made by two absolutely amazing filmmaker friends of ours. Like us, they fell in love with Big Emma and just had to put her on camera.
When I was in my tweens, I used to spend hours playing Tetris. What I never knew was that this skill would be vital living in a van. With a tiny home, good organization is the key to staying sane.
Instead of becoming a teacher, I decided to move into my van and travel. Was this an irresponsible decision, was I failing to fulfill my obligation to make society better somehow? Or does traveling contribute too, just in a more unconventional way? A discussion on social responsibility.
Nature is everywhere, surrounding us, affecting us, all the time. Living in our Bus, we can’t escape it’s incessant, magnificent pull. It is both a gift and a curse living in such close proximity to nature – but a gift it truly is.
How could we have been so naive, so careless? The biggest breakdown in our history, due to a simple, avoidable mistake. What do we do now?
Travel is not about the miles. It is about growing as people, experiencing things you would never have been able to had you stayed at home, meeting people who are different from you. This week is our first official ‘vanniversary’ – we have been on the road for six months. In that time, we have come over 15,000 miles, and spanned the line from north to south on one very large continent.