How We Nearly Failed to Extend Our Tourist Visa in Brazil
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.
An Adventure in the River
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.
Learning How to Manage Life in Rural Brazil
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.
A Lost Wallet, an Asthma Attack, and a Forgotten Pillow
Matt loses his wallet, Finley has an asthma attack, and Liuan forgets her pillow, all on the first week of our family sabbatical.
Purgatory: Our First Two Weeks of Prep and Travel
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.
Perils of the “Perfect” Itinerary: 3 Flights and a Train
A stressful four-leg journey —including planes and trains, amidst a smoking volcano and an airline strike — teaches me lessons about booking better itineraries.
No More Train Tickets: Winging it to Western China
A honeymoon getaway turns into a saga when train tickets to Guilin are sold out. We buy bus tickets from a shady vendor. It turns out to be quite the ride.
When You’re the First Tourist in a Remote Chinese Village
An excursion off the beaten path lands us in a village with no tourist services where we find a local family to stay with. Will tourism change the village?
Biking Through Tuscan Villages With Borrowed Bikes and Dog
On a day trip through small villages on Monte Pisano in rural Tuscany, we discover that in the Italian countryside, dogs eat free.
