Day 0

Most travel stories start at the beginning. Not this one.

This story started long before in my dreams.

A long time ago, back when the animals spoke and I was a child, I would stare at nature shows and travel documentaries on TV. Truth be told, I never imagined I'd be able to see any of those lands or experience of those things but they intrigued me endlessly...

What did those foods taste like? What were the smells? What does snow feel like?

Small things that, for a kid that grew up in an island in the middle of the Atlantic, seemed entirely from a different planet.

Growing up I discovered the joys of traveling and seeing different places. A seed was sown.

Small revelations seemed to appear at every corner. Snow was wet. Who knew? Curry is spicy, how about that? People love their children everywhere... So many novelties, so many new possibilities.

But that is not when the story starts. It starts in adulthood.

Life takes many turns and, for those who dare, leads to places we never imagined we would be. My life has certainly taken many turns but it was not until I met A that the idea of traveling around the world appeared.

She told me that she had secretly dreamed to traveling around the world and that she was decided to do it. That was the beginning of this story. The inception.

Inspired by this brave person, I began to think that such a thing can really be done. That people can and do take time to simply live and experience the beauty of the world. That maybe I can do it too.

On another one of life's turns, we both found ourselves with the means and the opportunity to reach for the dream and, though it certainly scared us, we decided to go for it.

Secretly we planned for months to make sure we understand what we are getting ourselves into. Where are our tolerance levels for risk? Where do each of us want to go? How do we negotiate our not always converging traveling styles and interests? How will each of us manage our finances and how much will this thing cost? Where can we even go during an pandemic?

It seemed like to discover the mysteries of the world we needed to be able to answer a million questions about ourselves first. That to reach the road to discovery we had to go through a journey of discovery of our own.

Day 1 was when we started the trip but it is far from the beginning for either of us.

For me, it started at day 0. The day I believed I could.