Slow Across The World

Day 412

As it is our last full day, I thought you might like some stats 🤣

🇦🇷 Countries 9
🚌 Distance by bus 27,511km (70% of earths circumference)
⏰ Longest day travelled Elqui Valley to Arica, Chile 29hrs
📃Border crossings 13 (+ 4 unofficial)
📉Cheapest meal 64p (for 2)
📈Most expensive meal £116 (for 2)
🏔️ Highest point climbed to 5,300masl
👣 Most elevation on foot in 1 day 1,460m (twice the height of Snowdon)
🚗 Most elevation in a vehicle in 1 day 5049m
🥾 Recorded hiking distance 345km
😮Most stunning view - Llao Llao Bariloche Argentinian, Pico Austria Bolivia and Lagona Churup, Peru
🛏️ Beds slept in 115
💪🏼Volunteer days 120
🚤 Boat rides 18
🚿 Longest time without a shower 6 days

Finances
Daily average £55.03
Accomodation 37%
Transport 17%
Groceries 14%
Sightseeing 11%
Restaurants 11%
Flights (just 1 internal and home) 5%
Other 5%

We were aiming for £58 per day, based on our rental income, but that wasn’t always the full amount due to necessary costs at the house. We have literally spent every penny we had.
Only additional costs were our flights here and travel insurance.

It’s been an adventure for sure!

Our South American adventure is coming to its end. These past 14months have been filled with epic highs and serious lows. Each and every moment has formed an experience of a life time. Before this trip I hadn’t been out of the UK for more than 2 weeks. I knew it would either make me or break me. There were some occasions I felt close to breaking BUT I’ve always found the inner strength to push through the uncomfortable. Living proof that we can do ANYTHING we put our mind to. With love, thanks and gratitude to everyone we met along the way #slowacrosstheworld #travel #adventure #justdoit #southamerica

Day 411
True to our word, today was all about eating and drinking, with the surprise added bonus of having a fun evening with new friends!!

Lunch was a bloody brilliant explosion on all scenes!! We were in the Japanese quarter of the city, where at the weekends stalls line a tiny street with fantastic freshly cooked Japanese street food. I was in utter heaven, not knowing where to look first. My favourite spots were finding sneaky places to watch the back stage prep. The queues for the popular stalls were long, and well worth the 20 minutes waiting. Each of them had mega limited choices, basically protein or vegetable option - they did something great and that’s what you got. Tasty, fast, fresh and cheap - what’s not to love.

The festival from yesterday was also running tonight, it’s literally on our doorstep, so we simply had to go back.

But tonight was even better as we spent the evening chatting and drinking with a motley crew from Canada, USA, Colombia and Brazil - all so fun, welcoming and great company. We’ve not had many social evenings, and this was just perfect!!

Day 410
We are BACK!!!
Our 10 days on Ilhabela were just what we needed to really breathe into all of the past 400 days experiences.
After 2 days exploring in glorious sunshine it turned grey, overcast, with a mixture of drizzle and heavy rain, all day every day for the rest of our time, until we left this morning when the sun was shining again. I believe that was natures way of saying “Stay still. Be still and let feelings flood through you”.

We’ve both had some “break through” moments and will be heading home with ideas, thoughts and aspirations to pursue.

We are back in São Paulo, and have saved a few pennies over the past week, and are planning to spend all our remaining budget on eating and drinking. It’s not a huge amount, so still being cautious- beers and meat at a festival 3mins from our apartment, hanging with the locals.

Can’t believe we’ve just 2 nights to go 🎉 and 😔

Day 400
The observant ones may have noticed two things -
1) yesterday I didn’t post
2) this is not the normal time for the daily update

That’s because changes are happening.

When I started this page, 13+ months ago, it was to share our adventures and to let family and friends know we were alive and happy (and of course for you to see some incredible sights). Over time we gained some fellow travel followers looking for inspiration, advice and to connect.

Honesty, vulnerability and openness have been in every single post.

We are in our last 2 weeks.
We have slowed right down.
We are reflecting and absorbing everything about the trip.
We are thinking about plans for our future.

I am going to stop the daily updates, so that we can fully focus on us and the truly emotional part of this journey. I’ve never sugar coated anything in my posts or made up stuff for likes or followers. You’ve always got the full and authentic me.

Right now, the full and authentic me is filled with so many thoughts, emotions, insights, worries and ideas - that they can’t be summarised into a few paragraphs and lovely pictures at the end of each day. They are also super personal and raw, so posting currently feels like a huge pressure that I need to remove.

This isn’t the last post you’ll see - but it’s the last for a now.

Thank you for being on this adventure with us. If you fancy saying anything in the comments, don’t be shy, I enjoy hearing your thoughts and thinking about other perspectives.

** Edit ** having just watched Bridgerton S4 E7 I feel a bit like Lady Whistledown

Day 398
Today I needed purpose.

Without purpose my mind has a tendency to spiral, which I don’t like.

Let’s go for I hike I said. It’s only about 500m of gain, we’ve done far more than that. What I didn’t consider were three very important factors into the equation 1) the gain was over a relatively short distance 2) it’s super humid here 3) we haven’t been proper hiking for a couple of weeks. Within a very short space of time sweat was running in rivers down my back.

We missed a couple of significant turnings and ended up making our own new route, which included a river crossing. I adore the Atlantic Forest, it’s filled with so much wildlife - amazing butterflies and huge spiders. Views and experiences like this are worth the sweat.

And to finish the day with another beautiful sunset.

Day 397
Reflecting is hard.
I think I need my brain to slow down before I can do it effectively.

I do know I’m a different person. Not sure exactly how, but I do feel different.

To start with -
I have more faith in myself.
I am getting more confident about knowing what I can achieve with the ability to say so.
And to say when something is beyond my capabilities, without feeling shame.
I ask for help more often and have the confidence to rely on others.
I know that the world, and all it has to offer, has a wider scope than simply living day to day within a safe and familiar place.
I now believe that my inherent nature is admired by “strangers”.
I have more resilience than I thought.
Materialistic processions are really not important to me - I kind of knew this, but it’s been confirmed.
People are naturally kind and helpful, especially when we project vulnerability - people want to help.
Being brave and vulnerable brings countless rewards.

There is more to come, lots more (lucky you)

Day 396
Brazil is the country that keeps on giving stunning beach after stunning beach 🏖️🏖️🏖️🏖️ unfortunately today they were simply as “drive by” but appreciated, none the less.

2 busses and a passenger ferry to Ilhabela, to explore ……… you’ve guessed it, more beaches.

We’re here for 11 days, we thought that we should wind the pace down in preparation for heading home in just 19 days. Give ourselves the time and space to really digest and reflect on the adventure.

Our apartment has a veranda with a beautiful view across the water to the main land.

Food shopping complete, including mangoes (4 for £1.80) and fresh passion fruit (more expensive, 3 huge ones for £2.15) can’t wait for the fresh juice in the morning. I’m certainly going to miss all the amazingly cheap tasty produce.

Day 395
Duvet day.
Nothing more to say.
What have you been up to?

Stolen picture because we don’t have a duvet, just a sheet.

This was yesterday afternoon (Thursday) in Paraty, we were there on Tuesday morning!!

There has been a lot of rain in the region, worst affected areas are about 400km north and in land.

Rest assured we’ve not seen or experienced anything like this!! We are safe, I promise.

Thankful of our route and timings.

The weather is also set to improve, it’s not getting any worse, so that too is a blessing.

Foi desesperadora a enchente na cidade de Paraty, vizinha à cidade de Ubatuba, do lado norte, nesta tarde de quinta feira dia 26 de fevereiro de 2026. Evite viajar para esta região neste momento e nesta noite. Amanhã pela manhã traremos mais vídeos e informações atualizadas da rodovia. Siga a TV Ubatuba e fique mais pertinho do paraíso. Whats 12 99107-6564

Day 394
Choices!!
Every day we make dozens, if not hundreds of choices. Most are meaningless - raisins or honey in my porridge, bright pink or muted pink tshirt, wash my hair or not, and so on.

Some people make choices that I don’t understand. For instance, today we walked to the ‘South beaches’. The first we found was undoubtedly very pretty, it was rammed with hundreds of people sat on plastic chairs, surrounded by food vendors, with hard and debris covered sand.

We walked 3mins up and over the hill to the neighbouring bay. 15 people (max), soft golden sand, spectacular waves and surfers living their best lives.

For us it was blatantly obvious which was the ‘best’. But does that make all the other people wrong? of course not - simply a different mind set, approach and perspective.

Not all my decisions in life have been as black and white as this, with such simple outcomes. I’ve made mistakes, the impacts I always carry as my burden. I continue to learn and will always remain curious about other peoples perspective.

What I can say is, I know how to pick a good beach.

Day 393
Today, for the first time on this trip my body failed me.

For the past few weeks, or maybe months, I have developed a pain in my right shoulder and upper arm. It’s gone from occasional niggles, to pain at some point every day.
Not constant.
Not debilitating.
But there.
When I shower, when a get something from a shelf, when I put my backpack on, and when I do up the clips on my bra - this horrible, pulling ache through my muscles.

I’ve always had a secret wish to be able to surf. Nothing fancy or big, just a gentle cruse to the shaw, standing on the board. In all honesty I think I’d be s**t at it and highly unlikely to be able to get up right. BUT I’d like to give it a try.

Here would have been the perfect place to try. The waves were constant, the swell seamed just right and every single one of the people we saw getting lessons did it.

But, I knew I simply couldn’t. My arm doesn’t have the strength and I would be in pain just trying.

I’ve been asked many times why I’m doing this trip right now. The sadness and feelings of failure I felt today highlights that we must do what we can, when we can. As we get older our mind and body starts to fail us. I don’t want to fail myself.

What it’s also shown is that I need to take more care of my body. I don’t exercise, I don’t stretch, I don’t really do anything. I’m not unfit but I am inflexible and that makes me feel old.

This is going to change.

And maybe one day, I’ll try surfing.