Chile is a long, narrow country bordered by the Andes Mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is known for its spectacular mountains, lakes, fjords, and the driest desert in the world. We are excited to explore the country outside of the huge capital city, Santiago. For the past year, we have stayed in big cities and now we want to experience more natural areas. We won’t be able to visit all regions of the…
Two weeks ago, we arrived in Santiago, Chile anxious to explore the city. However, we were surprised to find a city scarred by political unrest, demonstrations, and uneasily waiting until April when a national vote on whether to change the constitution will be held. The October Uprising Although Chile is called the political and economic leader of Latin America, economic inequality has reached an all-time high. The current unrest is caused by protests last October. Over a million Chileans demonstrated…
Lucha Libre What defines Mexico? Some things that come to mind immediately are Tequila, Mezcal, soccer, tacos and Mariachi music. However, there is a popular sport in Mexico that also defines the culture and that is Lucha Libre. It is literally translated as “free fight” but in Mexico, it means “wrestling”. We are not fans of wrestling, but our son who was visiting us in Mexico City had been a fan of wrestling when he was a child. We thought…
Sunday is an amazing day to be in Mexico City. Everyone is out and about — sitting in parks, eating with family, and generally enjoying the day. It’s a great day for people watching and strolling through the Zócalo. The Plaza de la Constitución, known as the Zócalo, is Mexico City’s most well-known landmark and plaza. Zócalo means ‘base’. In its early years (around the year 1629), there were plans to build a large monument in the center (base) of…
Some people may disagree about whether the following post is an appropriate subject for a travel blog. Although we have strong political opinions, we never blog about our views. We stick to non-controversial posts about our travels in Mexico and South America. However, we were angry to learn about a U.S. war atrocity involving Central and South American countries during WW ll. We will leave it up to you, readers, to decide whether to read further…. Japanese Americans were transported…
An amazing phenomenon takes place in Mexico every year and we were fortunate enough to witness it–the annual migration of North America’s monarch butterfly from the U.S. and Canada to the mountainous, cool forests of Mexico. We visited the Reserva de la Biósfera Santuario Mariposa (The Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve), located in a beautiful forest two hours from Mexico City. We reached the colony of butterflies after an hour and a half steep uphill trek and 2,000 feet climb from…
After 6 weeks in the United States, we’re back on the road. First stop: Mexico City. We arrived on the 28th of December without a hitch. We’re getting better at shuffling through long lines and crowds. At the start of our adventure 15 months ago, we each had two suitcases and a backpack for our laptops. Later, we reduced the number of suitcases to three total and during our stay in the states, we discarded more items. We are now…
After 14 months of travel in South America and Mexico, we headed home for the holidays. We were looking forward to six weeks in the U.S., from mid-November to the end of December. We were excited to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with family and friends and to experience the comforts of home. Although we met many interesting travelers in 2019, it was nice to come back to people who have known us for 5, 10, or 15 years. People who…
When I wrote this, we were in an apartment in Minneapolis watching snow fall slowly outside our window. It was December and we were back in our hometown after 14 months of full-time travel. We were looking forward to leaving the U.S. again in a few weeks to travel for another year. Coming home was bittersweet; nice to be back in the U.S., to speak English, to see our family and friends but already we were missing traveling together through…
After 13 months, 4 countries, 12 cities and 16 different apartments, we have returned home to the United States to spend time with our family and friends over the upcoming holidays. We felt bittersweet leaving South America and Mexico but are excited to see our family and friends. For the next 8 weeks, we will be traveling in the U.S. before we begin year two of Never2late4adventure. We arrived in Miami last week and drove to Nokomis, FL to spend…