Oliver, our nine-year-old boy, recounts in his own words his difficult experience with altitude sickness while crossing into Bolivia.

Here are ten common luxuries you would think were universal living in the States, that in South America are rare or practically unheard of.

A child battles altitude sickness as we arrive at the Argentine-Bolivian border bridge without a visa. This is a story about the lowest point of our gap year.

We recently came to the end of a day of exploring southern Chile and said to one another, “That was the perfect travel day.” Here’s what made it so wonderful.

We make a late-night grub run to a 200-year-old historic establishment.

This is a story about how a simple bureaucratic formality can snowball into a saga of false steps, bad options, and some high stakes cajoling.

Oliver recounts an adventure packed hike up a river that almost ends in disaster. This is a story told from an eight-year-old point of view.

With months to go in our first “gap year” country, Brazil, we must learn afresh how to be competent adults. It has not always been a smooth process.

Matt loses his wallet, Finley has an asthma attack, and Liuan forgets her pillow, all on the first week of our family sabbatical.

Enjoy our first dispatch on the road. Here I talk about wrapping up our home life and doing a bit of domestic travel before flying to a new continent.