We’re outta town. That’s right, we quit our jobs, signed our lovely Brooklyn apartment over to a subletter and left. But let’s start from the beginning…

In October 2010 we went to Ecuador for a two-week vacation. While in Otavalo staying at Eric’s cousin’s house (thanks Peter and Sarah!) we met this couple. They had walked away from big tech jobs, sold all their worldly possessions (including a house and car) and were traveling the world with just a backpack each for four years. We were intrigued.

About a year later, we got married. We had saved up to make it happen. We were excited to be starting our life together but, as time went on, some aspects weren’t all pie in the sky. Both of us felt a bit stagnant at work and were facing big personal questions about whether or not we were ready to make some moves. We wanted to buy a house some day. We wanted to have kids some day. But in the immediate future, we kind of felt like taking off and discovering something new. By doing something, anything, other than what we were currently doing, we could gain a little perspective–find challenges outside of the nine-to-five and, hopefully, thrive both together and individually. Then, a conversation sort of like this happened:

Wow, if we keep saving like this, we could buy a house or something. 
Yeah but that would require a LOT more years of saving.
We could quit our jobs and travel like those married with luggage people instead.
Seriously?
Yeah?
Yeah!

About a zillion trips to REI later, we’ve got our one backpack each and flights booked to Ecuador, where we’ll start, again, at Peter and Sarah’s house in Otavalo. From there we’ll visit Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Uruguay and fly home from Argentina, documenting as much as we can right here. We’re hoping to find mountains, beaches, cities, towns, interesting people, scrumptious food, and maybe a life plan along the way. You can count on seeing most of that right here in photos and a map of where we’ve been. We hope you’ll keep in touch with us, especially if you know someone with a couch we can surf in South America.

Here’s where we are right now:
(Eric’s parents’ house)