Skip to main content

What’s Next?

I’ve been home from my scooter trip for a month now, and by far the most common question I’ve heard anyone ask is “What’s next?”  It’s a question that has consumed me for months, and needless to say, it’s not easy to answer.

My plan for the next adventure is a bit more ambitious. If you’ve been following me, you know that I have two driving reasons behind my recent adventures: the first is to help people in need through charitable donations while the second is to inspire “normal” people to look up from their daily routine and see the amazing beauty of the people and world around us, to realize that we’re all the same and enjoying that is as (or more) important than focusing on our own small bubbles of existence.

With this in mind, I want to embark on what I feel will be one of the most unique adventures of its kind – and I want you to come with me.  Not to experience it through my eyes, but to actually journey with me and share a second perspective while having a vacation experience that will hopefully drive a small wedge into your reality, shifting your perspective (while being mind-bendingly awesome).

In February, 2011, I plan to fly into Lima, Peru and purchase a brand new Honda Motokar Ultra Abierta.  I will then drive this mototaxi down to Ushuaia in the Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of South America before driving it back up the east coast in a grand loop towards Colombia and eventually up through Mexico with the goal of traveling through every land locked country in South America and (if possible) bringing it back to the USA.

During this trip, which I expect to take six or more months and cover tens of thousands of miles, I will often travel on remote roads in very commerce-poor areas of South America.  I will bring with me duffel bags of clothes to pass out to people in remote villages who often live in the same clothes for months (without fancy synthetics like I use), and I hope to pair with a strong South American charity to visit their operations “on the ground” in various areas and share these with you back home to help inspire donations.

I expect to spend a lot of time living off my own wits, eating whatever food is available, scavenging for repairs, navigating roads where even the locals think I’m crazy, freezing at nights in sub zero temperatures at over 10,000 feet, boiling nearly to death in the jungle, meeting all sorts of amazing people, and generally having a fantastic time – and I want you to quite literally join me.

4128261101_96bf58d9a0_b4128239403_5923ec1160_b4128272311_48c117ce31_b
As I travel through South America, I hope to convince people back home to fly out and visit with me on the trip (up to two people at a time). For a week or two (or more, if you’re up for it), we’ll work together to navigate the “real” South America. You’ll find yourself well outside your comfort zone, but not alone and hopefully not afraid. You can make the most of your own experience – if you want to drive, you’ll drive (if you don’t, it’s okay, you can ride in back until you’re ready). If you want to take point in conversations with the locals, try out your Spanish, order mystery food, or see if you can talk your way through a police checkpoint, we’ll make it happen. You’ll likely even get a chance to change a flat tire or fix a chain on the side of a dirt road miles away from anywhere.

Most importantly, you’ll get to have an incredible experience which will stick with you for the rest of your life, all while broadening your horizons and opening yourself and your friends up to the world at large.  Best of all, you can have this experience for simply the cost of visas, airfare, and expenses while you’re down in South America – I won’t charge you a penny.

Instead, I hope that every person who comes on this adventure vacation with me will raise at least $500 for the charity we work with, and I’ll expect each person to bring a duffle bag of used (or new) clothes down with them. You’ll also have to write for my blog and help with photos and videos to document the experience. A small price to pay, no?

You get to help those less fortunate, adventure travel through South America, pick up stories to last a lifetime, see life off the beaten path and outside your comfort zone – and you get a dedicated chauffeur, logistical planner, and translator for no extra charge? Makes you want to go get a new passport right now, doesn’t it?

Stay tuned for more information over the coming weeks as I keep putting it all together. If you know of a great charity that focuses on smaller villages in South America, I’d love to hear about it (bonus if you can put me in touch directly). If you really seriously think you have the guts to join me on this adventure, I’d like to hear that, too. Finally, I’m going to need a bunch of new gear for this trip as much of my current stuff has been destroyed by the abuse I’ve put it through over the last year – I’ll be posting a list soon, but am open to sponsors for this trip (gear is usually my highest expense other than airfare).

While I put this all together, I’ll be hanging out in DC spending some much needed time with my friends who I have barely seen this year. I’m even discussing picking up some very short term contract work in order to add a little money to the pot, since I’ve already exhausted most of my life savings. Here’s to a couple months of taking daily showers and having a bed to sleep in every night!

Comments

Balaji said…
Is it Feb 2011 or Feb 2010?

Popular posts from this blog

Patagonia Beckons

Today I begin what may become one of the most difficult tests of long term mental and physical endurance and strength I have ever undertaken: for most of its remaining 2500km through Patagonia, Ruta 40 is considered one of the most desolate highways in the world. Over half of the remaining road is gravel, sand, and dirt. The number of towns listed on a map once I pass Perito Moreno can be counted on one hand, and there are many stretches of hundreds of miles without provisions, fuel, or places to stay.

5 Things that Suck about Traveling Solo

I find it telling that it seems a majority of the interesting travel blogs I run across are written by solo travelers, most often women. I think there’s a reason why we write more than people who travel with friends or in groups and that it’s pretty self evident: it’s an outlet for our loneliness. In the last year and a half, the vast majority of my time has been spent away from home, alone. As I write this, it’s been over a month since I’ve conversed with anyone in my native language, and I can remember every single conversation in English for the month before that. The truth is, I don’t think I could have done this without the internet – without a blog to share my thoughts, without Facebook to see what my friends are up to, without the occasional e-mail to provide a façade of normalcy… without these things I’d likely have driven myself insane with my internal dialogue. Now, I grant, there’s a reason I travel alone and I do love it, but lately it seems all I run across in the blogosp

Gear Review: Sea to Summit Big River Dry Sacks

In the past couple months on the road I think I’ve spent more time riding my scooter through rain than I have in the dry – this is clearly reflected in the fact that as time has gone by I’ve invested more and more money in things to keep my stuff dry, since wet gear sucks. One of my favorite purchases for this trip is the pair of Sea to Summit Big River Dry Sacks I picked up just before leaving, in 13L and 20L sizes. They cost me around $20 each and are one of the best pieces of gear I’ve purchased in years – extremely durable, effective, and simple to use.