We’re off to New York City today!

Last Updated on October 9, 2024

If you are subscribed to our monthly newsletter then you already know this, but…we are on our way to New York City!

Oops, we did it again!

Instead of staying in South America and traveling up through Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia, we have changed our plans dramatically and are headed to New York instead.

This isn’t the first time that we completely broke our travel plans. Back in March 2011 we were traveling through Central America with plans to continue on to South America, and ended up flying to Germany from Panama for a housesit in the Bavarian Alps. That changed our plans entirely, and we spent the spring traveling through Europe (including our first ever cruise), then housesat in Canada before heading out on our mega New York City to New Orleans road trip. From there we went on to South East Asia and back again. In fact, it took us one and a half years after that to finally make it to South America, and here we are, leaving again, even though we have only been through Chile, Argentina and Uruguay so far.

So, why are we leaving so soon?

One reason to take this break is that we are just plain tired. Since leaving our housesit in Santiago, we have traveled non-stop for three months. Our travels through Chile happened mostly in February, which is the highest of high seasons. Not only were hostels and hotels super expensive, they were often booked weeks in advance, leaving us with overpriced, subpar accommodation choices and no place to rest for more than a few days. As we continued through Argentina’s Lake District to Patagonia and Tierra Del Fuego, we were faced with a second challenge – terribly slow internet connections. These are not the best conditions if you run a business online, and as such we have also been working in these subpar situations.

We also need the sleep.

We moved too fast – we slept in 31 beds plus six night buses over the last 90 days. This makes an average of three days in each place we visited.

Overstimulation happens

We are thankful every day that our lives can have so much action that fitting in time to work is a challenge, but we have so much to do, we need the break.

Honestly, these three South American countries are more incredible than we ever imagined, but there are only so many amazing sights you can take in before you can no longer process the experiences.

In the last 90 days, we have toured glaciers, climbed mountains, stopped off in sleepy beach towns, visited bustling cities, explored indigenous villages, seen some of the biggest waterfalls of the world, cycled through vineyards, rented a car to road-trip through some of Argentina’s most beautiful scenery in the Quebrada de Humahuaca, played on the breathtaking salt flats and hiked, drove and climbed through the world’s driest desert in Northern Chile. We saw exotic animals, some we had never even heard of before, on a daily basis like guanacos, llamas, alpacas and vicuñas and emus, plus more foxes, horses, goats and more loving stray dogs begging us for a home than we could handle.

Becoming locals in New York

We were actually thinking about taking a break in Bolivia and renting an apartment in Sucre for a while when an unexpected housesitting inquiry landed right in our inbox earlier this month, asking if we would be able to care for a cat and a condo for six to eight weeks in NYC this summer.

It took all of a day to decide to accept the offer. Living in New York City has always been a dream, and to live rent-free in New York was more than we could have hoped for. We have been to the Big Apple twice as tourists, for short stints filled with sightseeing and soaking up as much as possible in a few days. Now it’s time to find farmer’s markets and cute coffee shops, explore new neighborhoods and understand New York life in a very real way.

To be honest, the two of us nomads are craving routine, too. We want healthy food and to be able to work out on a regular basis. Meals in the past few months have consisted of toast or super duper processed white rolls with jam and dulce de leche for breakfast and empanadas for lunch and or dinner. We want real yogurt and fruit, cereal with leading ingredients other than sugar, and more veggies in a salad than tomato, lettuce, carrots and, if we’re lucky, beets. Then there is the luxury of having our own toilet to sit on without worrying about it, and that of having a consistently hot shower any time day or night.

Controlling our destiny (return flights)

This time around, we were determined not to let 1.5 years pass without returning to South America, so we booked return tickets from Santiago, returning in mid-October with plans to resume our path up through Bolivia at that time.

What does this mean for the blog?

The break is actually also good for GlobetrotterGirls.com, since we haven’t even had time to tell you about our adventures in Patagonia, or northern Argentina, or about how we hitchhiked to the End of the World or how we (almost) got robbed in Uruguay – twice! There are tons of exciting stories to tell, but we need the break to catch up on putting posts together about all of them.

Although we tend to write chronologically, we will most likely be sprinkling in tales from New York, too. Then again, you don’t have to wait to read these stories…you could hang out with us instead!

Come celebrate with us!

We are starting our time in New York with a bang – our third travelversary is next Tuesday, April 30and if you are in New York, we would love to meet you – so get in touch to join our (little) party!

NYC Tips, please

For those of you who know New York well, we would love your recommendations for restaurants, bars, art galleries, off-the-beaten-path attractions and other things we might not know about but should – especially in Brooklyn and outside of Manhattan.

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Life lately and upcoming travels: August 2014 Edition Life lately and upcoming travels: October 2014 Edition Ice, Ice Baby: The amazing Perito Moreno Glacier | Patagonia, Argentina Traveling in India: A Truly Life Changing Experience