(and happy other holidays!)

Right at this very moment we’re at the edge of the Ecuadorian Amazonas enjoying larger than life butterflies and trying to stay away from the smaller than imaginable biting flies. But life is good!

It’s been a busy year for us! Since December 31, 2017 we’ve driven 14,658 miles / 23,590 kilometers and explored 3 new countries (Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador).

This year we have:

- Swam with sea turtles, sea lions, and other crazy wildlife in the Galápagos Islands

A very handsome land iguana

Nazca boobie

Ryan getting a boobie fly-by

- Hiked up a volcano to the thin air of 16,732 feet / 5100 meters

- Surfed the legendary breaks of the Peruvian coast

- Flew the vomit comet to see the legendary Nazca lines

It's aquatic plant!

Before we all started vomiting on the tiny plane

Colibri

- Explored the ancient Inca ruins of the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

- Had otherworldly experiences driving and camping on the Salt Flats of Uyuni, Bolivia

We were not the first Americans here

Roci glowing on the salt flats

Aye aye Captain

one of the flattest spots on earth

- Tried our hand at tangoing in Buenos Aires

- Got our passports stamped at the Southern most city in the world, Ushuaia

El Fin del Mundo

- Hiked the beautiful peaks of Fitz Roy and Torres del Paine

- Drove Chile’s amazing Carretera Austral

- Strapped on crampons for Argentina’s Perito Moreno Glacier

Camille making a horrible joke about climate change

- Volunteered at a monkey rescue in Ecuador

- Enjoyed Bolivia’s high altitude lakes on the Altiplano

- Swum in natural thermal baths in Bolivia’s Sajama National Park

El Nevado Sajama -- 🌋 or 🍨?

- Sand boarded the dunes of Huacachina in Southern Peru

- Plumbed the depths of a silver mine in Potosí, Bolivia

- Wildcamped in Argentina’s beautiful deserts

cactus <3

- And most importantly, continued to meet amazing people from all over the world!

We’ve also done a lot of work on our rolling home — life on the road means you are eternally maintaining the parts that move. We’re always making improvements and fixing sweet Rocinante’s mechanical, electrical, and emotional bits.

Parked on the Peninsula Valdez

Our Spanish education also continues slowly — the intermediate plateau is real and we’re trying to push ourselves over this hump to the next level.

As always, we’re always astounded by the friendliness and hospitality of everyone we meet as we continue slowly making our way North. And we’re loving the changes in the food and availability of the most amazing fruit as we’ve crossed the Equator (sorry Argentina). Our first ceviche in Peru was a revelation! We’ve been buying fresh fish to make it ourselves and also learned how to properly machete a coconut. For Thanksgiving we grilled three whole big fish and shared it with all of our new friends at the campground from around the world. Our coconut, papaya, and mango consumption has finally reached an acceptable level (high, it should be high).

Our 2018 tracks!

What is next??

• We’re looking forward to a visit from Camille’s parents in Colombia — we’ll learn to salsa and turn Ryan’s two left feet into a more matched pair (🤞), and eat all the tropical fruit.
• We’re almost done with our adventures in South America! We only have one country left to visit (Colombia!) before we put Rocinante on a big ol’ ship and send Roci to Veracruz, Mexico
• What will we do when we return to North America? EAT ALL THE TACOS 🌮! Then we’ll dip in to Guatemala and Belize before cruising along the Mexican coast to Baja California. Eventually, we’ll drive right through those steel slats (and hopefully leave a big damn hole) back into the United States
• We’re working on some new projects! Camille’s got some creative things in the works that’ll be available soon at Porfa.co (including a little art book about overlanding).

We finally got to swim in the warm ocean!

Here’s to a great 2019! See you out there!

💛,

Camille & Ryan & Rocinante