From Mexico to the end of the world we have managed to:

• share ridiculously small spaces and not kill each other (5 weeks, 4 adults, 120 square feet and a cold shower
• listen to the most amazing music mixes including Jolene and Dreadlock Holiday
• ship cars from Central America to South America and have them arrive to the right port
• deal with inane border bureaucracy smoothly
• work the system to find the best accommodation deals
• stumble through language issues with the locals (between 4 of us we managed)
• survive unsafe handling of fireworks
• sample as many wines as possible in South America
• create the best website about driving the Americas
• whine about what we miss from home
• handle long blamming drives
• laugh through every crazy and funny bit of it!

These two have made our trip all the more special and saying goodbye (only for now) was pretty sad but all of us know we will meet up again soon…Carnaval 2011 we hope!

Some delightful pics of our amigos we like to call “Los Rubios” (the blonde ones).

Who the hell is Vesper?

After 2 weeks of computers, brain-storming, banana smoothies, scrapping ideas, coding (or learning code), writing and fireworks we have started www.drivetheamericas.com. We hope to encourage those who have driven, those who are driving and those who plan to drive to post up helpful tips, ideas, suggestions and anything else that would help a curious driver get on their way to driving the Pan-American Highway.

We have launched the site and hope that those of you out there who are looking for answers stop by and that those of you already on the road do too (we are looking for driving information for South America).

Our work environment was pretty ideal and provided the comfort we needed to really dig into this project so we owe Mango Rosa a big thank you. In between work bouts we found time to relax, read and plan for more upcoming travels.

I think I need to mention how amazing this team is…Tom brought his design prowess to the table, Kristin wrote tons of great content and also began her career as a coder and Chris, resident web-ninja, has been patient with all of us as we learn more about building a site–his enthusiasm definitely is a force to be reckoned with. We are really happy with the start of the site and aim to continue providing helpful and insightful information as well as a place for roadtrippers to connect.

And, of course, a website isn’t complete without a launch party…for those of you who were invited and couldn’t make it you missed out on a good time…drinks, laughs and cul de sacs.

When we were in Puerto Escondido I happened to stumble across a blog about another couple driving to South America from the US. Curious to see how they were finding it I decided to send an email and oddly enough it turned out that Chris and Kristin happened to be in Puerto Ecsondido at the same time. We met for drinks and, as they say, the rest is history.

Since then we have met up a few times and are already cooking us some interesting ideas together. I highly recommend checking out their site, The Darien Plan, and their really cool car (at times when Marlin is acting up we both find ourselves admiring “Cabello”). It is full of great info and some really well-edited videos (we are jealous Kristin!)