Our long, amazing journey comes to an end

  Mazatlan, Pacific Coast, Mexico
Friday, May 8, 2009

What is there to say
After the ride of our lives
There's no place like home

MADE IT!! Back safe (and kinda tan!) in the USA

That's right, we made it.  After 247 days on the road, nearly 100 cities in 14 countries, innumerable buses and a whole lotta hostels, we completed our journey through Latin America.  We had a wonderful final week in Mazatlan soaking in the sun and sea with Eli's folks.  After passing the swine flu test at the Mazatlan airport we hugged Jim and Chris goodbye and boarded our flight back to the USA.  Surreal, mind-boggling, amazing.  We can't believe it was 8 months ago that we were clinging to each other on the flight to Chile, hurtling toward the unknown.


Since arriving in Seattle to the open arms (and available bedroom) of Bron's parents, we've been fielding a lot of questions about the trip.  So as our final blog we offer you this, the FAQ now that the trip is over.  Enjoy!

Q:  What was your favorite part? 

This is the hardest question we get, as all the experiences were amazing and memorable in their own way.  But if we had to name some highlights we'd say:
Bron:  Dirk-Peter's farm in Paraguay, the Bolivian salt flats tour, and Ecuador.  And Bogota was my favorite capital city.  Also Argentina rocks.  Ooh and I love Uruguay.  Man, this is hard!
Eli:  The Bolivian salt flats tour, Colombia, and Nicaragua.
Bron: Ooh, yeah, and Nicaragua was awesome...

Q: Any big surprises?

E: I was amazed how nice the buses were in Argentina.  And how few mosquitos there are in the Andes.  And that there are glaciers on the equator!  Wha' happened?!
B: Wine in Argentina is $3 a bottle for a quality red!!  Surprise!  But seriously, I did not expect to meet as many people or make as many friends as we made along the way.  Awesome people!  Great friends!  It was a real joy to travel for little pockets of time with interesting, like-minded folks that hopefully we will see again in some other corner of the world.

Q:  Was 8 months a good amount of time to travel?  Too long?  Too short?

B and E:  For us it was perfect.  We didn't feel rushed, we saw just about everything we hoped to see, and by the end we were satisfied and ready (excited!) to come home.  And the month in Mazatlan made for a perfect transition.

Q:  How did you do as far as packing?  Overpacked?  Underpacked?

B and E: We can honestly say on this point...WE NAILED IT!  We had about exactly everything we needed in our compact little backpacks, and still had a bit of room for books and extras picked up along the way.  We brought some random things that ended up being essential (head lamps, a laundry bag (thanks Ceci and Tom!), calculator, duct tape) and only one thing that we ended up not really using (a sleeping sheet).  And it took about exactly 8 months for our small supply of clothes to wear completely through.

Q:  What did you miss the most while on the road?

B: Swimming, iced coffee, big fresh salads, and days without packing.
E: Playing basketball, microbreweries, drinking water from a tap, and deli turkey.

Q:  Did you get sick of each other?
B and E: Not really! There were, naturally, some annoying moments and some exhausted whining, but we genuinely enjoyed each others' company for 8 months.  We're very lucky.  It turns out we make a good team.

Q:  How many photos did you take?

B:  Waaaaay too many.  Too many to count.  Rough estimate?  Somewhere around (over) 20,000. 

Q:  What now?

B and E:  We are staying with Bron's parents (thank you!) in Seattle, looking for jobs (anyone have any leads?) and adjusting to normal life again.  Bronwen has about 30 years of photo editing ahead of her on this body of work.  Eli is hunting for a regular pickup hoops game.  Bron has 3 triathlons lined up this summer.  Eli has a list of projects he has been assigned around the house (we might as well be useful while we live here, right?).  Generally we aim to become gainfully employed (again, if you have any leads...) and get into the swing of things here in Seattle.  Exciting!

Fiesta! Jerome celebrates a successful journey!

Final Thoughts:  Sigh.  They say, and it can be true, that this is a small world.  But the bigger truth is that its an enormous, wide, wild, crazy wonderful world filled with more sights and sensations, more beauty both natural and human-made than one person can imagine.  The sheer diversity of landscapes, cultures, people, energy, transportation, fashion, food etc. that we experienced on this journey is astounding.  And that's just in Latin America!  We learned things about ourselves and each other (Bron likes to hike!  Eli fears crazy bus drivers! ) and about the world on this trip that will impact us for the rest of our lives.  It really surpassed our expectations.  We highly recommend it.  Throw caution to the wind, get out there and see some stuff!

Finally, we want to sincerely thank you all for following along on this adventure.  Thanks for all your comments on the blog and all your support and well wishes!  We felt a lot less alone knowing you were sharing this journey with us.  We love you and miss you all, and hope to see you soon somewhere in this beautiful world!

Olas Altas

Cathedral, Mazatlán

Mod architecture, Casa Lucila

Wear and tear (if Eli's pants could talk...)

Fresh whole fish for dinner!

Oceanview from Icebox Hill

On Stone Island, enjoying our last day of vacation

Cleared for takeoff by Mexican health officials