30, The End

We’re back. Both in the sense that we’ve finished our trip but also bad news for you we’re back writing another blog. And there you were enjoying the peace and quiet. But this is it, our closing summary, so if you do take any pleasure in reading our ramblings then enjoy this while it lasts!








It’s been over 7 weeks since we landed back and we’ve been pretty busy. We’ve filed taxes, bought car insurance, gotten phone plans... but let’s talk about more interesting stuff. We’ve moved in to an actual building with walls and doors and everything like that. Our generous landlords (also cousins) extremely kindly filled the fridge with food and beer and even helped move all of our stuff out of our storage locker. Why do we have so much stuff?! We did just fine with a small van load of junk, why did we keep all this other crap? We’re sure it will be useful ooonnneeee dddaaaayyyyyyyyy……




We also found a really cool bus Jenjen really said we really should actually really buy and convert into a home to live in. Really she did... or was that Steve’s stupid idea? Life on wheels just seemed to suit us, may as well do it in style.

And then a UK VW camper magazine paid us (a little) to write two articles. Four pages of our words and pictures about our travels through North and Central America were published in the June edition. South America earned six pages and comes out in a couple of weeks for July. How cool is that? And Jenjen is even on the front cover if you squint and stare at the bottom right hand corner.






But I know you don’t care that much about us, it is Westy Rick you’ve been missing. Well, he made it too! From Chile, to Colombia then up to Vancouver his time in the shipping container is over. Unscathed and only a little bit smelly he started up first time and conquered the 6 hour drive from the coast to our physical dwelling without missing a beat. What a champion. We missed him just as you can imagine we might and it feels great to have him back.



Oh and we bought a 1980 Volvo as a winter car. Westy Rick all summer, rusty Scandinavian classic all winter.

Naturally a road trip beckoned and so we made our way up to Whistler reminding ourselves that British Columbia isn’t a bad place to return to in the scheme of things. Unfortunately the sand in the fuel tank situation that caused our only breakdowns in Chile and Argentina came back to haunt as and the fuel pump died leaving us broken down again. In fairness this fuel pump had previously seized, been taken apart twice and used to pump more sandy crap around our fuel system so it is no wonder the lifespan was short. Fortunately Steve bought another spare when in Vancouver so it was a quick filter and fuel pump change and we were on the road again within an hour.





But what did we learnnnnn? How does it feeeeeel to be back? Now is when it gets really hippy gap year preachy preachy….

People are nice. Everywhere. Yes there are bad people out there but they are few and far between. We used what little common sense we have and got by just fine. Sure, lots of people stared at us but it wasn’t threatening, it was just we were extremely odd to them and unusual looking (fair enough right?). And if we needed help, or were looking for something, almost everyone was patient and understanding trying to point us in the right direction despite our terrible Spanish. We know of people who had problems on their trips, things stolen etc, and that is a constant worry but these seem to be most likely to happen in tourist hot spots where a criminal industry is set up to take advantage of the relative wealth of travellers. So we took advantage of our freedom and travelled to the less frequented spots. And now it’s strange being back and not feeling like celebrities anymore, before everyone would smile and wave at us as we drove along but now we have become just…. traffic. People are nice. Well, apart from that yank who wouldn’t do our wheel alignment. Git.

We, and presumably anyone else, can adapt quickly. Crossing into Mexico was a massive shock, everything changed from the driving to the attitudes, the language and the culture. It was a tough week, but we figured it out and it wasn’t long before we were soaking it up. Yes it’s tough to step outside your comfort zone, or two footed leap off a cliff out of your comfort zone in our case, but it’s worth it. Learning how to cope doesn’t take long and then as we travelled further it just got easier and easier. Desert to jungle, hot to cold, low to high, rain to sunshine we saw it all and each change in climate needed a different strategy. And the more you do, the more you want to do and suddenly things that terrified you once are now a walk in the park. Border crossings were once an intimidating mess of buildings, people trying to “help” you (aka extort you) and corrupt border officers trying to rob you. But by the end it was just a case of turning up and figuring it out, no more stress.

We’re even surer than before that we are a perfect match. We made it through 9 months living in a cramped van and no we’re not glad to have time to ourselves while one of us is out the house, we actually we miss each other! We know some of you won’t believe that but it’s true. And we were perfectly happy living with not much, the van didn’t have many luxuries but we didn’t miss anything. Once we got used to the feeling of being sweaty for 5 days without a shower and our noses adjusted it was fine. So our goals remain firmly set not to earn money to buy toys and fancy things, but to earn time for adventure. When you think of a “successful person” you picture someone in an executive job driving a posh car, and yes who doesn’t want lots of money. But we’re more sure than ever that to us success will be focussed around freedom and happiness and not just piles of dosh.

Perception is an ever changing thing, and boy did it change fast for us. It felt normal to be doing what we were doing once we met other travellers, it didn’t seem odd at all to be living in a van. We slept better than we ever have waiting for the sun to wake us up as it shone through the curtains. Every night we noticed the moon, and how it changed as the days went by. We spent a whole week not knowing the clocks had changed until we showed up to meet a friend an hour early. There was no answering to anyone else, just doing what we felt like. It was just as amazing as it sounds, and absolutely addictive.



And then like a fish on a hook, we were on a plane getting dragged back to reality flying in an hour what had taken us a fortnight to cover by ground. The songs on the radio are the same, the adverts playing still annoying and now we have to adjust, we have some serious adjusting to do.

So now we settle in to “normal” life. Jenjen has been back at work for 6 weeks, doing fantastically but not enjoying the early morning alarms. Her colleagues are naturally happy to have her back, and it took no time at all for her nurse superpowers to regain full strength. Steve doesn’t have a job, but plenty to keep him busy. He is expanding on an already running 3D printing business and then will find some part time work. There’s also some TLC that needs sending in Westy Rick’s direction.

Lots of people think the hardest part of doing a trip like this is the saving, or learning the language or any of the other challenges. And then many believe that the hardest thing was actually taking that first step and leaving.

They are all wrong, the hardest part was stopping.