Justin and Silver Al

Preface | USA | Mexico | Guatemala | El Salvador | Honduras | Nicaragua | Costa Rica | Panama | Colombia | Ecuador | Peru | Chile | Argentina | Afterword | Tips

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Preface

This website details a road-trip from Kittery, Maine to Ushuaia, Argentina.

In December 2007, during a transitional time in my life, the urge to live in the moment overrode the instinct to play life's long game wisely and I bought a used car, packed some things in it and began to drive South.

My name is Justin and my new/old car is Silver Al – a 2001 VW Golf. That's Al as in 'Althea' named after a song that has long been a dear personal anthem. Al and I are just getting to know one another but I am already crushing on her pretty hard. I’ve got the butterflies in my stomach to prove it. Admittedly this is a pretty big first date to spring on her, but I'm a disaster at courting. Like me, Silver Al has a passion for travel -she can already claim nearly 170,000 miles and I've backpacked around over 70 different countries- and we seem to like the same music which I've learned is crucial. She rocks her own style, with a cute hatchback, airbags torn out from some previous accident, a couple perfect tats in the perfect places inked by rocks and tree branches and ...a stray bullet?. What’s more, she's a two door as opposed to the uppity four door model, which, you know, means she's down to earth -spent a little time on both sides of the tracks as have I. This is important because on the road ahead, high maintenance won’t readily be an option. So I'm just gonna treat her like the precious shooting star that she is and hope our relationship goes the distance. Time will tell and I’ll keep you posted.

At the time of my departure I had thought that for most of this journey I would be traveling alone. My brother, Bret, was to join me as far as Guatemala City, where he would fly out of on the 11th of January. However, 2 days into the trip and the day before we crossed into Mexico, I received a phone call from an old friend, Eli, who asked if he couldn't come along. While Eli didn't commit right off the bat as to how far he might go, he ended up going the distance.

Eli, Bret and I are all from the smallish town of Warner, NH.  Bret and I are from Joppa Road West and Eli is from Joppa Road East.  While you can hike or cross country ski between the two Joppas, you can't actually drive between them....not in any sort of a regular car, anyway. I'm 33..hope to turn 34 when the sun hits Aquarius.

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WARNING:
 
This web site was composed by the seat of my pants, often on obsolete computers in dismal conditions. It is riddled with every sort of imperfection.  Where it lacks in information, I would like to hope it makes up for in fun.  Our little roving band are far from your perfect role models, but we have big hearts and know how to use them. 
 
Also on some of the audio links you may happen upon the occasional outburst of coarse language or other vulgarity. Furthermore I can tend to be pretty un-photogenic and my recorded voice can often be repelling. I'm not too concerned about such first world problems, but either way, consider yourself warned.
 
And so with that, if you are still inclined, please take a peek.
 

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You can send me e-mail at:

justold@hotmail.com