June 10th 2024 – Quito, Ecuador

One year ago today Katrine and I left Denmark and our daily life behind.
Time to take stock.

We are currently south of the equator in Ecuador and have ridden +40.000 kilometers to get here. It has been a great adventure full of memorable and unexpected experiences. The changing scenery has often been spectacular and stunningly beautiful. We have met many lovely and interesting people. Some of them have become our friends.

Visa regulations limited our time in the US and Canada to 6 months. There was much we wanted to see and do, so we did a lot of riding during that period. In the end the weather pushed us south about the same time as our visas ran out.
Mexico was up next. They granted us a 6 months visa. Together with a milder climate it allowed us to slow down and smell the roses. We appreciated the change of pace.
After 3 months we had traversed the country and crossed into Guatemala.
The weather became an issue again in Central America. The heat was brutal and dictated our itinerary as we traversed El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. There was much we didn’t see or do simply because we couldn’t stand the heat.
In Panama City both the bikes and us got on a plane and jumped across The Darien Gap to Bogota in Colombia. We were greeted by The Andes and much more manageable temperatures. We spent a month in Colombia, mostly in the mountains, before the urge to explore beyond the horizon drew us to Ecuador.

We try not to plan too far ahead and let the journey unfold as we go. In practice it means that we usually don’t make plans for a country ahead of our arrival. Once we have crossed into a new country we find a place to stay for a few days and spend the time figuring out the lay of the land, putting pins on the map and creating a rough route.

The month-long stay in Costa Rica where the issues with Katrine’s bike were resolved combined with the excitement of having reached South America, have put Katrine and me in a good place. I don’t think we have ever felt more comfortable during the journey than we do now. We are eager to explore and any anxiety we had initially are long gone.

Living as nomads without the trappings of a home and ordinary daily routines have distilled many aspects of life and put them into perspective. I have become more conscious than ever about what is important to me. The same goes for Karine.

This journey has confirmed to me the importance of always speaking my mind to the people I love, follow my heart in important matters, be honest (to myself at least) and maintain my integrity – even (perhaps especially) when it is not easy or convenient. The result is a life with few regrets and no unresolved issues in my wake.
To truly enjoy a journey like this I believe it’s very important to move towards something rather than away from something – to be on a quest rather than on the run. It goes for life in general as well.

Prior to this trip Katrine had expressed concern about what being together 24/7 would do to our relationship. As a result of my odd working hours with 24 hour shifts we were used to having time apart and she knew it was something I appreciated. It has never been important to her in the same way to be without my company from time to time.
Luckily it has turned out to be a non issue. Even though we are together most of the time, we are good at giving each other privacy and space to do our own things.
Like every other relationship ours has its ups and downs but if anything, the journey has brought us closer together and made us stronger as a couple. We both feel that sharing the journey enhances the experience.

We enjoy the journey more than ever, but have gradually come to realize that this is not something we want to do indefinitely even if we had the means.
The price for the freedom we experience is that we don’t belong anywhere and always are guests passing through. I don’t think it’s healthy in the long run to be adrift like that. The importance of belonging, having close relationships and people depending on you is well documented. We had all that prior to departure and look forward to eventually building a new home and being an integrated part of our close friends and family’s life again.
However, for now the wanderlust still overshadows the desire to settle down.

Finally a short note about the finances.

We don’t travel on a budget as such but we have a limited amount of money. As a result we try not to spend more than we have to. It would be nice to run out of wanderlust before we run out of money.
The reduced budget compared to our previous (shorter) travels frustrated me a bit in the beginning of the journey. I’ve since come to realize that keeping the expenses down adds more to the journey than it subtracts. It encourages us to live more like the natives and less like the average foreigner. It gives us a more genuine impression of the areas we pass through and especially during longer stays we notice how it has a positive effect on the locals’ perception of us.

I like numbers and have been keeping track of our spendings.
Total expenses for the first year amounted to 299.300 Dkr/US$ 43.672.
That is 820 Dkr/US$ 120 per day.