We went on this trip for the experiences, ALL the experiences. We have shared some of our adventures on the blog but only a fraction of what we do ever makes it into prose. The truth is that we are not always out on the go hiking to a glacier or running around town trying to take in every museum. We know that our bodies cannot withstand constant on-the-go activity, and mentally we will wear out if we try to hit every site in every town.
Yes, we have some incredible times on the road and have been able to have some wonderful new experiences. However, long term travel is not all volcanos and waterfalls. Many days are far less dramatic than our pictures and blog would lend one to believe. Regardless, each day is an opportunity to encounter new people and explore new cultures, which to us is often far more rewarding:
- Laundry days are wonderful. It is funny how excited we are when we can take all our clothes to the local lavandaria and they will wash and fold them all for $5.
- Seeing the owner of a restaurant we previously ate at on the street and stopping to have a conversation.
- Riding with a group of school kids in a 1950′s bus to get to a hike
- Sitting in a cafe working on the Internet and sipping a beer
- Walking through a residential neighborhood and chatting with people on the street to practice our Spanish and meet someone new
- Shopping for our own food in the grocery store and coming home and trying out a new local dish.
Each activity is rather mundane but is a part of this wonderful trip we are enjoying. The key is to take a few minutes to realize the new experiences being had and how even the “small things” can be interesting. We remind ourselves everyday that this is our life and slowing down to enjoy it is as important as ever.
What daily experiences make you smile?
About Warren
I am in total agreement to everything you’ve said! At first I felt guilty about taking days to do nothing but go to a cafe to have a drink and people watch or maybe watch some TV. I felt like I’m on this huge trip, in this strange country, I should be out seeing something new everyday. That was, until I realized, this isn’t a trip. This is my life. And in my life, I take off days. I take days where I don’t get out of bed until noon because, well, I feel like it.
Plus, when you travel for as long as us, it’s next to impossible to fill every single day with “tourist” things, or with hikes or whatnow. It gets tiring.
Keep up the good work you guys. As always, an inspiration.
Corey
Corey,
Great to hear from you. It sounds like you have settled into your trip and are enjoying your new life. You are absolutely correct that this is our new life so some days we all just need to relax and enjoy reading or sitting in the cafe.
We are loving following along from afar on your journey and appreciate you stopping in on ours.
Yeah, I’ve been creeping in on your journey as well, keeping an eye on where you are in the hopes that we’ll run into each other in person.
You make me blush too! Thanks for saying you’re loving following my journey. I know my writing is not anywhere near the eloquence of yours, so it definitely makes me feel happy to hear you enjoy it! Thanks.
PS. try to find yourself some maracuya sour. It’s even better than a regular pisco sour.
Hi guys! Glad to hear you occasionally fit rest in too!
We get this whole post, travel like happiness is made up of the mundane and the mountaintop experience and everything in between. We finally got on Facebook, by the way so we look forward to connecting with you guys there, too! 
Gena, I love your point on happiness. It is the totality of moments that makes you happy, not just skipping from high point to high point. I love this concept.
We are now friends on FB so looking forward to learning more about you guys. Enjoy the sun over there!
Spot on! After awhile of traveling, you come to appreciate the idle days as something rare and special. Nowadays, being able to sleep in as late as I want is my personal daily indulgence.
But to be honest, it’s nice that I haven’t actually washed my own laundry in over two years!
Connie, you are absolutely right that sleeping in without guilt has been very nice. The first couple months I was trying to get up early each day in order to fill up as much as a can. Now I have reached a point that sleeping a bit later and enjoying time in the morning with Betsy over coffee is wonderful.
I agree with you, having laundry done is the best!
It is so nice to be reminded about the most wonderful things of long term travel. Well put as well. One reason why we are excited about our long term travel is because some of our best memories of ‘vacations’ are when we are sitting at a cafe or stopping at a park to just chill. When you are on vacation you feel guilty for those moments because you only 5 days some place and you want to fit in as much as possible. I hope that we get to lounge at a cafe on the internet and enjoy our new country just as you have. I love Betsy’s picture.
Paz
Great points Paz. This was always one of the “discussions” Betsy and I would have on a vacation. I always wanted to go-go-go since we had such limited time and I felt guilty taking time to nap or read. Now that we are on the road for a few years I have been able to change my perspective and realize that down-time is ok. Of course, it took a couple months to come to my senses.
I look forward to reading about your time in your new country and I am sure there will be many days enjoying the cafes.
I love that picture of Betsy! Great to hear all the little details of your life on the road…we miss sharing those things with you
Thank you for the compliment. This picture is from a tiny bus “station” in Zumba, Ecuador. We spent 4+ hours here so there was plenty of time for a photo shoot.
We miss sharing new memories with you guys as well. Though, you could always meet us in Montevideo in a few months…
I totally agree- its the one thing I really miss when we’re trying to cram as much as possible into a two week vacation. While I can’t disagree with having one’s laundry done, I’ve had some pretty fun experiences while doing my own laundry with the locals and the travellers. We had a great conversation with a family from Australia at a laundry in Florence, and a great memory is the time my 3 year old and I spent the evening doing laundry in Captain Cook and he spent his time chasing geckos with the local kids.
Michelle, thank you for sharing. We have yet to visit a laundry mat here in South America since the prices for doing everything we own is so cheap (never more than $5). But we are looking forward to the experience as we move to more expensive locations. I love your perspective and taking every advantage to meet new people and create new memories.
“Sitting in a cafe working on the Internet and sipping a beer”
Heck, that is half the reason we are even doing this trip…it is moments like these, or people watching in a cafe, or just walking through the local markets where you really get a flavour of the environment you are in.
Great post guys - talk soon…
I am delighted to know it is not just us. We seem to have moved happy hour up a bit on this trip and have enjoyed just relaxing in a cafe or bar with a beer and stories. While we don’t stay out late, we rarely miss a good happy hour on this trip.
Love hearing from you guys and look forward to chatting very soon.
WAIT… so its not all RAINBOWS & BUTTERFLIES??? I’m joking I know it’s not. Thankfully I have been reading blogs like yours that have more than prepared me for my RTW trip. I think at this point I am way over prepared but its a good thing. Now on my days off I feel guilty for not doing anything. The reason I don’t do anything is because if I do something it most likely will cost me $$$ and that is $$$ that can be used for my travels.
Each day our choice is always rainbows OR butterflies. So far, we seem to be enjoying more butterflies and I’m not sure what that says about our choices. Either way, the downtime is much needed and also helpful on the budget while you are on the road. There is always something fun around the corner and sometimes we need to say no to save the money for something else. The good news is all the hard work you are doing now is really going to pay in in just a few short weeks.
Oh, those little experiences sound wonderful- that’s where real life happens, you know? The volcanos and waterfalls are fantastic but just as fantastic as experiencing life slowly, gathering job out of small things (laundry!) and taking time to appreciate it all. I’m really enjoying following your journey.
Kim, we are completely in synch and excited to follow along as you guys gear up for your own adventure in less than a year now. Enjoy all the moments with friends as you all countdown as these are the things we think about the most while we are on the road.
It may not be all about volcanoes and waterfalls - but what about BEACHES?? Haha! That is the little moment that gives me joy everyday, looking out our window at the Caribbean sea. It makes sitting in front of the computer for 10 hours somehow okay. =)
Totally get what you say though, and I do feel guilty when I take a down day and am not out exploring. So many people refer to this as a “vacation” because they see only the ups - they don’t recognize how hard it can be or that we need rest just like everyone else.
Great post!
I knew we would find something that would prove we are not twins, it just took a few months. We are not really beach people. We love to listen to the waves, but experience beaches from under a great deal of shade and typically off the sand. We know this makes us odd, but we have accepted each other for this fact and are working through the pain.
You are absolutely right that sitting in front of the computer can be challenging but as long as it is only occasionally and I am not sitting in a corporate office I can handle it.
Yes, those are just the kind of experiences you remember, and are blessed to have when you make time to travel more than a week at a time and stay in one place and get to know the area. We love grocery shopping and cafe watching. One of our favorite experiences when we stayed in a private home in London (a swap), was going to Quiz Night at a pub with the teenage grandsons of our exchange partners. It was fun to make friends with people in the neighborhood.
Angela, sounds like a fabulous night in London. We are not sure if the budget will allow us to stay in London for any length of time but I long to enjoy a few pints while we chat with locals about futbol and politics. Sounds like a perfect way to spend an evening.
Exactly!!! What I am currently missing so much about being on the road is the daily interactions with the locals….I remember when we were in Lovina, Bali and we may have been the ONLY tourists in town overnight, much less for 5nights, and our days were filled w/ really nothing for the most part (except the one sunrise boat trip out to see the dolphins…our original reason for coming)but we really felt like we connected with the people, eating at a different restaurant each night to help them all, having locals wave and stop to say hi, hearing “JEMMM, JEMM” down the street (my husbands name is Jim and NO ONE can pronounce Rhonda but Jim goes well in almost any language!) We too, had so many highlights and really unforgettable moments in our trip but it’s those days that we miss the most now that we’re at home. Can not wait to get back on the road again…if only to try to figure out how the laundry lady knows which clothes are ours when all the little plastic bags look alike:)
Hmmmm, Lovina, Bali sounds like a place we have to add to our list of places to see. We are thinking of island hopping west after South America and this sounds like a good place to spend some time after reading you story. Between the locals and seeing dolphins I think we are sold.
Let us know when you are back on the road and where you want to meet. We’d love to spend some time swapping stories. I promise to practice saying Rhonda over and over to ensure I get it right;)
haha… I think you are a smart guy Warren and can get my name right!
Funny you mention meeting up because I was just thinking the other day how fun it would be to meet somewhere fantastic…especially since we never got to meet you in Seattle because we had to miss the meet/plan/go
You would absolutely love Lovina.. I do wish we’d taken the time to go to some of the other Indonesia islands too. So many places to see and I want to see them all!(BTW..the water is bathwater warm and after we spent time with the dolphins we just dropped over the edge to snorkel…fantastic!)
Enjoy you two.
It can be very rewarding just staying in one place for a while instead of the typical rush-rush-rush you tend to want to do (which can also get very tiring after a while). The longer you stay in a place the more you get to know how things really are outside of the touristy waterfalls and volcanoes. And sometimes it’s the mundane experiences you have that make the trip more special.
After reading your website I see you are absolutely an expert here. I am delighted you stopped by and commented and I now have a wonderful new blog to follow to learn all about Chile. We are heading there in about a month and looking forward to learning everything we can from your experiences.
Thank you for stopping by and lending your thoughts to us.
When we were last in Indonesia we spent the first couple of weeks there just non-stop tourism. Finally we just got worn out and enjoyed nice relaxing peaceful days around the neighborhood, meeting people, eating local food and just taking it easy. What a great time that was.
Matt, great to hear from you. Peaceful days around the neighborhood sounds perfect, especially when you get the time to meet some locals and enjoy their food as well.
You guys are about to start living the dream of full-time immersion in another culture and I am excited to hear about all the daily experiences.
This is a very nice blog post about the feeling of long-term travelers. My wife and I have been traveling (and blogging) since June, but we almost never mention the down time of travel — which seems to be more and more lately. We even have a reoccuring joke to say we are “waterfalled out.” Though I doubt I will ever get volcanoed out.
Good luck with your journey wherever it leads.