The Accidental Explorer

LIMA, PERU  – Greetings from Lima, capitol of Peru.  I have been on the road for about five months now, and I’m starting to get emails from people saying “Hey, I thought you were only going to be gone for six months!  What’s the plan?”

Well, it seems that somewhere along the line the plan changed.  The Accidental Explorer is funny that way.  Traveling around South America has been an incredible experience, but I’ve only sampled a small piece of the pie.  I’m not sure exactly when, but at some point I made the decision that I would try to visit every country in South, Central, and North America before returning home.

Oh, yeah.  And I plan to do it all without flying.

What?!?!  Am I nuts?  Probably.  But here’s the thing – to me, flying is cheating.  You jump from point A to point B and except for a brief view out the window, you never experience the space in between.  You never meet the people, see the little villages, or experience the struggles of local travel.  I don’t want to just visit the Americas, I want to know the Americas, and I can’t do that if I hop from one point to another.

By my count, this adds up to 23 countries, and it will obviously take more than six months.  Hey, this is what accidental exploring is all about…

Remains of Francisco Pizarro – Cathedral, Lima