The Long Road Home

We have been back in the U.S. for six months now!? Wow.

First we stayed in Tennessee and Boston visiting Laura’s family for a while, and then to Texas to visit with Javi’s family for another while. So, it obviously didn’t feel like we “settled” for a long time. We were still traveling basically.

We were going back and forth deciding what to do, and even thought seriously about moving to Texas. But we made the decision to go back to California in December, so we drove from Austin to San Francisco, where we spent some time visiting with friends and thinking about finding a place to live long term. Laura was working remotely for her old law firm during this transition time, so we had been gratefully staying afloat. Eventually Laura decided to move into the “budding” cannabis law field, and has been thoroughly enjoying it. Javier has taken a few independent mapping jobs here and there and is carefully crafting his vision for future endeavors.

Our dreams of someday living in Spain and having more adventures is still alive and well, and hopefully we can make that happen at some point. But for now, it’s California. It’s good to be back, but much different than before.

It’s been a funny time. We are missing our travels but glad to be done. It was awesome spending so much time with our families, and especially our nieces and nephews. But we were also yearning for stability and routine after moving around for so damn long. It was truly a loooong road home. We weren’t even sure what home meant anymore. Luckily, we eventually found a cozy and lovely little place two blocks from the beach and are loving that domestic life.

Despite being happy to be settled again, we have been having tons of fun showing people our pictures and thinking about all our adventures over the last two years. During our travels, we kept a log of so many things – favorite memories, weird moments, food, lessons, books, coincidences, and just general superlatives about the best and worst things we experienced. We wanted to share some of those in this post. First we will share the states and countries we visited, along with “phases” of the trip as we think of it. Plus a list of road trips we took, long and short (we love walking and biking but road trips are near and dear to our heart). Then a list of superlatives. For some superlatives, we couldn’t just pick one place or country so we have two. Some took a lot of thought and others were super easy. And keep in mind these are for our personal experiences on the road, not generalizations about any country or experience. 

U.S. States (21 & D.C.)

  • California
  • Hawaii
  • Arizona
  • New Mexico
  • Texas
  • Louisiana
  • Mississippi
  • Alabama
  • Tennessee
  • Georgia
  • Florida
  • South Carolina
  • North Carolina
  • Virginia
  •  Maryland
  • Washington D.C.
  • Delaware
  • Pennsylvania
  • Massachusetts
  • New York
  • Connecticut
  • Rhode Island

Countries (14)

  • U.S.
  • Spain
  • England
  • Scotland
  • Ireland
  • Greece
  • Albania
  • Montenegro
  • Croatia
  • Italy
  • Morocco
  • Chile
  • Ecuador
  • Mexico

Phases

  • Hawaii
    • 3 weeks in Kauai and Maui
    • Highlights – Visit with Laura’s parents, taking on the Kalalau Trail, driving the Road to Hana (and beyond), camping at sea level one night and over 7,000 feet the next!
    • Notable Places – Kalalau Beach, Haleakala National Park
  • U.S. Road Trip
    • 6 months in 20 states
    • Highlights – Family and friend time, Florida beaches, visiting old stomping grounds, camping in the truck, Javi turned 40
    • Notable Places – Poverty Point World Heritage Site, Six National Parks/Seashores (Bandolier, Everglades, Fort Pickens, Cape Hatteras, Assateague, Shenandoah)
  • Spain 1.0
    • 2 months in Barcelona, Basque country, and walking the Camino de Santiago
    • Highlights – being back in Spain, nights in San Sebastian, finally finishing the Camino, learning a lot about human evolution
    • Notable Places – Cueva El Castillo, St Jean Pied de Port, Burgos, basically everywhere in Spain
  • British Isles
    • 1 month in England/Scotland/Ireland
    • Highlights – staying in a penthouse in London after the Camino, hiking 3 days on the West Highland Way in Scotland, visiting ancient stone circles along the southwest coast of Ireland and in England, attending the 2017 Crop Circle expo in Pewsey and walking around in a crop circle, visiting old friends
    • Notable Places – Shoreditch, Stonehenge, Beara Peninsula, Fort William, Edinburgh
  • Greece
    • 10 days in Athens & Crete
    • Highlights – Visiting ancient Greek ruins, hanging with our friends at the beach, overnight ferry rides, enjoying Chania more than expected, running around Athens buying bike tour gear
    • Notable Places – the Acropolis, Elafonísi & Balos beaches
  • Bike Tour
    • 2 months in Albania, Montenegro, Croatia & Italy
    • Highlights – everything about this phase basically, the food in Albania, the random castles and walled cities, the long coastal downhills, getting attacked by sheep dogs on the first day, pitching tents behind Albanian beach bars, eating our fanciest meal at a farm-to-table in Italy and camping there afterwards, Game of Thrones tour, meeting cool people and seeing friends
    • Notable Places – Gjipe beach, Bay of Kotor, Dalmatian Islands, Rome & Tuscany
  • Morocco
    • 1 month everywhere from Tangier to the Sahara
    • Highlights – the delicious food everywhere, visiting so many places, easy travel, totally new culture, taking an alcohol break, beautiful colors and patterns, daily call to prayer, dromedary rides
    • Notable Places – Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, Erg Chigaga, Fez & Essaouira
  • Spain 2.0
    • 3 weeks in Andalucia
    • Highlights – driving around to all the beautiful places, seeing an old friend of Javi’s who also happens to be a local food guide, getting tattoos in Granada, not wanting to leave
    • Notable Places – Sevilla and Ronda
  •  Chile
    • 4 month road trip from Puerto Río Tranquilo to Pan de Azúcar National Park and everything in between
    • Highlights – Crazy process of buying and selling a car in Chile, Christmas in Pichilemu, driving the Carretera Austral, wild camping in the Atacama Desert under a full moon, walking on a glacier, Festival Nomade & Kompaz Festival
    • Notable Places – Manquemapu, Chiloé, Raúl Marín Balmaceda, Bahia Inglesa
  • Ecuador
    • 3 months
    • Highlights – visiting an old friend of Laura’s and his wife in Olon, deciding to stay in Olon for two months, getting scuba certified, visits to the Andes foothills, the Amazon, & Galapagos, seeing so many monkeys and turtles
    • Notable Places – highlands, Laguna Grande in Cuyabeno, Kicker Rock and Tortuga Bay in the Galapagos
  • Mexico
    • 6 weeks in San Luis Potosi, Vallarta, & CDMX
    • Highlights – family time in Javi’s birthplace, La Huasteca adventures, going back to San Pancho, Laura’s family joining us in CDMX
    • Notable Places – San Miguel, Micos, Teotihuacan, Mexican Anthropology Museum

Road Trips

  • Road to Hana in Maui – 2 days in rented car
  • U.S. road trip in 20 states – 6 months in our truck, 14,000 miles!
  • Spain 1.0 road trip from San Sebastian to Bilbao & Cueva de El Castillo  – 1 day in rented car
  • Irish road trip around central and southwest Ireland – 1 week in rented car (on the left side of the road)
  • English road trip to Stonehenge, Avebury, and a crop circle – 1 day in rented car (also on “wrong” side)
  • Crete road trip to Elafonissi and Balos beaches – 1 day in rented car (“correct” side)
  • Spain 2.0 road trip around Andalucia – 2 days in rented car
  • Chilean road trip from Puerto Río Tranquilo to Pan de Azúcar National Park and everything in between – 4 months in “Condorito” (we miss you old friend)
  • Mexican road trip through La Huasteca – 1 week in a rented car

We would always recommend adding a road trip into a vacation if there’s time, even if just for one day. It is so awesome having the freedom to explore in a car, to get outside of a city or a hotel compound, and (in our humble opinion) always worth the hassle and cost.

Now without further ado, here are some of the best/not best of the world travel part of Jalamundo.

Longest Stay – Chile

Shortest Stay – Montenegro

Highest Point – Quito at 9,350′

Lowest Point – Getting bitten by bed-bugs for the third time

Best Food – Morocco & Mexico

Best Coffee – Spain

Most Expensive – England (London)

Least Expensive – Ecuador & Albania

Best Natural Landscapes – Chile

Best Wildlife – Ecuador

Best Culture – Italy & Mexico

Best Coastline – Croatia

Best Parties – Chile

Best Drinking – England & Italy

Worst Drinking – Morocco

Most Beautiful People – Greece

Most Surprising – Albania

Friendliest People – Ireland

Best Beaches – Greece

Most Mystical – Ireland

Most Active Day – Scotland (West Highland Way 20 mile hike)

Most Active Overall – Spain & Albania

Coldest Moments – Spain (southern Spain in December)

Hottest Moments – Spain (meseta on the Camino del Santiago)

Most Foreign Culture – Morocco

Best Unexpected Discovery – Montenegro (Kotor)

Worst Roads – Chile

Most Touristy – Croatia & Italy

Wettest – Scotland

Driest – Sahara & Atacama

Best Hospitality – Ireland

Most Liveable – Spain

And there it is folks! That’s all she wrote! This trip was life-affirming, partnership-strengthening, empowering, challenging, easy, wild, ridiculous, expensive (but not that expensive), wine- and beer-soaked, but healthy in a weird way, and FUN. AS. HELL! We can’t imagine not having taken the leap of faith down this path. And now we are back in a home, and grateful.

Of course we have so many more memories and stories but we’ll keep those handy for later. We will probably continue to document our travels on the blog here and there, especially when we move to Spain . . .  someday.  😉

Please don’t ever hesitate to ask us travel questions, we (i.e. Laura) would love to help with ideas and plans for trips!

Thank you for reading!

BUEN CAMINO,

L&J