Megan Lyles :: New York City

Monday, December 4, 2006

Well, we're back in New York City and living a life that is same-same but different. Michael and I live in the same apartment we had before we left but we're engaged now, and our book collections are comingled. (Which for me is huge. Your milage may vary.) But the differences are mainly internal, subtle even to us and still being discovered.

On the outside, Michael has given up his day job and is fully freelance, spending his afternoons at home editing photos and watching Tyra. Given that my writing has earned me exactly two checks thus far, I personally feel more comfortable with the steady income that a day job provides. But I made it clear to my temp agency that I am not looking for permanent work - I need to be able to run back to Bolivia, for example, and follow up on the Inti Wara Yassi story.

It was an amazing trip. Imagine waking up every morning and thinking, "yup - this is where I want to be. This is what I want to be doing. I worked hard for this and now I'm being rewarded." I need to somehow capture that in my home life, to find work that doesn't involve living for two days out of seven. I don't want to answer "How are you?" with a day of the week on a predictable scale from "Eh, you know. It's Monday." to "Great! TGIF!" That goal is going to require a lot of work. But I have a lot of material to build upon, and so far work has gotten me everything else I've wanted out of life.

By the time we came home, I was ready to be here. But at the same time, a year was not enough to see everything, not even a little bit of everything. Granted, we only really spent ten and a half months outside the country, but even the additional six weeks would not have been enough. We breezed through Costa Rica, Panama, northern Peru, and Uruguay, entirely skipped Belize, Venezuela, Suriname, Guyana, French Guiana, Brazil (except for our two-night technicality) and Chile. And of course we never made it down to Antartica.

I'm not at all sorry we did the trip the way we did. We had an incredible time and saw a lot. I just wanted to reflect a bit on how incredibly vast and diverse Latin America is. I don't think I'd change much if I had it to do over again, but it has to be noted that we would have been in a much better position to do some thorough exploring if we had limited ourselves to South America. We spent two months in Mexico alone, and still didn't see it all.

You can check out my "stats at a glance" page for more details if you're into that kind of thing, but I'm going to share some tidbits. We spent 409 hours on the bus, not counting the 26 hours delayed by a protest. Our total time spent traveling, including all modes of transportation and the protest delays, and time spent on the sailboat even when we weren't moving: 680.75 hours.

Let me put that another way: if we had been able to break the travel into 9 to 5, 5 day a week chunks, like an average job, that's over four months of straight travel from A to B. Should we have flown, in order to spend more time staying put? No way. The busses and boats were some of the best parts of the experience. But, man. Four months? That makes me sit back and think. Even smooshed together in regular non-work time, that's 28 solid days of traveling. More than the average American's yearly vacation, just sitting on a bus.

Writing a blog was an interesting experience. I never thought I'd build up as large an audience as I did, or get as much response. The response has been mostly good, some odd, a bit bad, but all interesting and ultimately useful. I got a lot of e-mails and I tried to answer them all. If I didn't answer yours, it's probably because I accidentally deleted it as spam. I get a lot of spam, some of it with legitimate-seeming subjects like "question" or "hi megan." Feel free to give it another shot if you want.

And I learned that blogs are hard work. Erik Trinidad of The Global Trip says his blog was more work than a full-time job. Okay, I didn't put that much work into mine - as you well know, I certainly didn't post punctually every day the way he did - but I still spent over an hour on each regular-length entry and another hour editing and uploading photos. And then so many entries went over the "suggested length" and of course those took even longer.

So. Am I going to write a book about the trip? Yes. I'm going to write a book. Whether or not it gets published is another question entirely. But I'll give it a shot. Why not? I have an idea for an angle and I'll probably learn a lot in the writing process. The best way to become a better writer is to write. And if the manuscript seems worthwhile, I'll submit it around. If nothing else, it will be a neat thing for the grandchildren to read. I also have enough material for dozens of personal essays and destination pieces.

The blog itself is now over. This is the last entry. My friend Zack, who writes an official Major League Baseball blog said, "So you had all these people following your life and now you're just going to kick them out?" Well... yes, I am. My everyday life just isn't interesting enough to make a good blog. Y'all would end up drifting away; it's more dignified this way. I may in the future put up an epilogue if there is some late-breaking trip-related news like, say, it turns out I have intestinal parasites, but otherwise this is it. (And yes, I'm a little sad about that.)

To wrap up, I want to thank everyone who has been a part of this trip. People we met along the way, local and foreign, those we'll keep in touch with and those we won't. People who read the blog and commented or sent e-mails. People who read but didn't comment. (I know you're out there because I follow the Wiford Brimley school of blogging - I check my stats and check 'em often.) Speaking of stats, I need to also thank my web designer/webmaster, Shinji Kuwayama of Kuwayama Design, who has always been right there when I needed help finding the any key.

Thanks are also due Toni, who was such a shining star of an apartment subletter that we never once had to think of Apt. 11 except to look forward to coming home. And thanks to Ben and Hiromi, who hosted us in San Francisco, Brad and Gina and the Walkers, who hosted us in L.A. (Sorry guys, nobody's ever heard of Orange), and Chris (Smitty) and Heidi, who hosted us in Atlanta and drove us back to Charlotte.

It occurred to me recently how much Michael and I were really asking of our families when we sprung this trip on them. Even though a lot of the places we went are safer than home, there is an extra element of worry when someone you care about goes off to some other country, some other time zone, some place that you can't picture in your mind, and you know you won't see them for a whole year.

So let me say the most heartfelt thank you to our families for putting up with this crazy scheme with so much grace. And especially to Michael's sister Mary, who took care of our cat Max as well as we would, if not better (he now has a myspace page, which makes him officially hipper than me).

Most of all I have to thank my traveling companion, Michael. I've traveled with people before and it's not always an easy thing, but we made it work. And most of the credit for that goes to him. So thank you Michael, for your patience, your relaxed attitude, your sense of humor and your strength which enhanced the trip immeasurably and for your excellent photos, which enhanced the blog immeasurably. It's been a real team effort. I'm so happy to be traveling with you always.

This has been the most amazing year of my life. Thank you for reading.

Questions and comments welcome.

31 comments so far | Post a comment

Tuesday, December 5, 2006 | diane said...
Megan, I have enjoyed reading your blog. I stumbled upon it pretty early on and read while stuck in my cubicle at work in NYC. I am currently in the process of adopting a little girl from Central America. It is a long and terrible wait and your blog helped me pass the time and made me feel a little closer to her as you gave me a tour of Latin America. For that, I thank you. The writing was interesting and entertaining and all in all I felt it was really well done. Many Congrats and Best of Everything for the Future. Diane

Tuesday, December 5, 2006 | sara said...
Well, I will buy the book! well done and I will miss reading this at work. I learned a lot about travelling in Latin America from you, and I'll definitely buy the book when it comes out! Have you ever been to Africa? I'm going for the first time in 2.5 weeks - yay!

Tuesday, December 5, 2006 | Molly said...
you two are an inspiration in more ways than one... we really have to get together sometime very soon...

Tuesday, December 5, 2006 | Terence said...
Boo for the conclusion! However, hopefully someday we'll meet up for that coke.

Tuesday, December 5, 2006 | Belly said...
I'm sad. I'm glad you guys are getting married, but why does the trip have to be over? I command you to go someplace else immediately. You could elope for a year, and have adventures in India or Malaysia! Wacky adventures! It'll be fun! Huh? Huh? Aww...crap.

Wednesday, December 6, 2006 | Daryl said...
Having lived in Filadelfia, Paraguay, I thoroughly enjoyed your interesting and humorous travels. It brought back many memories. Also: I noticed on several of the U.S. pages someone had inserted a lot of spam and viagra links. FYI.

Thursday, December 7, 2006 | Megan said...
Diane - Thank you so much! I'm glad I was able to distract you during your wait. I hope your daughter comes home to you soon.

Sara - Africa? Not yet, but I'd love to one day. I hope you will be blogging about it... now I'm the one in a cube and I need something to do! Have a great time!

Molly - Saturday!!

Terence - Best place to buy someone a Coke is NYC...

Belly - I'm sad too. And it's going to be a while before we can go anywhere again. I had hoped for something in February but now I'm looking at my finances and thinking "hmmm... maybe not." But there will be a honeymoon trip, possibly to India and SE Asia.

Daryl - Thanks! Filadelfia really woke us up from a little travel stupor. Nice place. Thanks for the heads-up on the spam too. I shut those pages down and will begin the process of removing them one by one... spam is even more annoying than college kids from Colorado hotlinking to photos to decorate their insipid myspace pages.

Sunday, December 10, 2006 | Billieboy said...
Thanks very, very much, from an old traveller, kids; for a great travel story with great pictures. I'm going to have to find something else to read of a weekend from now on. I've looked forward to the next bit every day on and off, (off, when the sun was shining and the garden waiting for me; on, when it was raining or I was trying to dodge the hedge clipping or lawn mowing!). I hope that you do get your, 'Brownstone in the Village', it's one of the better parts of NYC, as I remember it from 1967. The Missus and I used to talk about a detached villa with a two car garage, we ended up with a terrace house, half a detached house, two bungalows and three cars, but still no garage! We do have half a soccer pitch for a garden, with sunken patio and big garden shed, two lawn mowers, trees everywhere and plenty of cold beer and wine to enjoy the pensions with! Thank you both, for the enjoment over the last months.

Sunday, December 10, 2006 | funchilde said...
wow. my heart is breaking just a little bit. Megan, there is so much I want to thank you for. Your spirit, your humor, your talent, your generosity (sharing your journey) and your inspiration. Just as a human being you are phenomenal, but as a woman of color myself, I can't tell you how proud I am to have been inspired by your journey. I wish you and Michael all the best as you transition back into your NYC life, and I hope I can treat you guys to a coke one day too. Many hugs, blessings and thanks.

Sunday, December 10, 2006 | Dave C. said...
I'll miss reading your wonderful blog and seeing the beautiful photos! Good luck with your writing and photography careers, Megan and Michael! Happy Holidays to all!

Sunday, December 10, 2006 | Michael Simon said...
Hey Dave C, I was hoping you could reveal how you found the blogs...

Monday, December 11, 2006 | Jessica said...
OMG I'm so happy for your engagement. Congrats on everything.

Monday, December 11, 2006 | Dave C. said...
I've read several Latin America-related blogs in recent years, as I've been interested in the region since I started learning Spanish in 1971. This is the most memorable of these blogs I've read so far!

Tuesday, December 12, 2006 | Megan said...
Billieboy - Thank you for reading! I think your "weekends, maybe" method was probably the best for avoiding being overly affected by my tardiness of posting, so kudos for that plan! Your garden sounds fabulous... better than a garage... and very encouraging to us as we start out!

Dia - Wow, that is all so sweet of you to say. It was tough sometimes to put some things out there, to write one whole thing that anyone and everyone could read and know about me, so it's a really good to hear that at least one person was inspired by it. But you know, I followed your blog too and found myself amazed by your spirit and sometimes thought my trip would have been “more” if I was as open and outgoing as you. (At the very least, I would have loved to go talk to the few brown travelers I saw!!) But I guess we’re all different and we all take different trips. Mine was great, yours sounded great too… I can’t wait to read about Semester at Sea. That really sounds like it’s going to be amazing.

Dave – Thank you! You really hung in there, didn’t you? Happy holidays to you too! Btw, Michael meant he wants to know how it is that you discovered our blogs – we are so curious about you… you’re by far our most enigmatic comentator…

Jessica – Thanks! I’m happy too… can’t stop smiling all the time and gazing at my ring…

Tuesday, December 12, 2006 | Dave C. said...
It's been so long, I can't remember the exact place I found a link to your blog, but it was probably on someone else's blog's list of links to other blogs (which have links to other blogs, and so on).

Wednesday, December 13, 2006 | Cecili said...
Congrats Megan! When will you be back to visit on the West coast? I know what you mean on the book collections. Blake and I still have ours mostly separate after almost 15 yrs. (You can wear my clothes, but that's my book) Thanks for taking us with you. What a great adventure! Much love to ya' and kisses to Michael.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006 | Megan said...
Thanks, Cecili! I don't know about CA... probably not for a while. You should come to NYC! Anyway, I'm glad someone understands about the books!

Friday, December 29, 2006 | Emily said...
Congrats! I have recommended your site to many of my friends and travelers that I've ran into along my trip through Central America. I haven't written you in awhile(3months) but I left off in Esteli, Nicaragua. I talked to a couple of Nixon's shoeshine friends but they said he was at home. He has a new job fixing these little toy cars in the park that other kids were riding around. They said that they would tell him hi from you. I was touched by your story about him and like you, I'm not sure what to do about the kids down here in those situations. Every now and again though, one of them just gets to me and I want to help in some big way, although I'm still unsure what true help looks like. I'll try again when I go back to Esteli next Spring. Maybe I'll have a happy report for you. It would be good to find out if he was in school. Thanks for your inspiration and entertainment! You are a great writer and I wish you the very best!

Friday, January 5, 2007 | Megan said...
Hey Emily, thanks so much for the kind words and thank you for following up on Nixon. I remember your comment and have been wondering if you would find him and how he's doing. It's good to hear about his new job... of course I would be happier to hear he's in school, but I'm glad he's doing good things. (We totally remember those toy cars too - they looked like so much fun!) Michael and I actually think about him quite a lot... we often fall into these conversations remembering this or that person we met on the trip and Nixon's name always comes up. I wish I knew the best thing to do. If you find him in the spring, please let me know. Will you be down there for a while? I would be happy to coordinate something with you if you have any ideas.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007 | sara said...
Hi Megan! The africa trip was fantastic. You should go! I backpacked from Joburg to Zanzibar. photos are on my blog, www.schirmyvida.blogspot.com

Monday, January 22, 2007 | Erwin Butts said...
did you guys spot any fofys in Argentina??

Friday, January 26, 2007 | Ernesto said...
Es ironico que este blog este nominado como mejor Blog Latinoamericano y no hace uso de las lenguas de la region..... muy mal. Y luego hablan del boom latino.... aunque se nota que has viajado lo cual es importante :)

Friday, January 26, 2007 | Megan said...
sara - ooh, I just saw this. I glanced at your blog and am excited to read the rest. I'm so glad you enjoyed it... I'm dying to go to Africa.

Erwin - several spottings of the blue-eyed Empanada Fofy...

Ernesto - No creo que es ironico que un blog se escriba en inglés se ha nominado por una competencia de un sitio de inglés! Casi todos de los blogs en este competencia se escriben en inglés, el incluir los blogs sobre Europa, el Oriente Medio, y Asia. No te preocupes, no espero ganar una competencia que origina en Latinoamerica! :-) Gozamos Latinoamerica mucho, y si puedo hablar Espanol mejor, habría escrito en ambas idiomas! (Para escribir esto mensaje, necesité mucho tiempo con mi diccionario, y ya estoy seguro hay muchas errores.)

Pero, aqui pueden mirar fotos asombrosas de la region de Miguelito sin cualquier idioma…

Whew... I don't even want to know how many mistakes I just made!

Monday, February 12, 2007 | Pennie said...
Hi Megan. I ran across your blog via CrazyAuntPurl mentioning the blog awards? or something to that effect. Anywho! I have to say...I have enjoyed reading about your and Michael's trip so much! And of course the photos (go Michael!). Just had to drop you a line and say "thank you" for being so open and honest and most importantly, for sharing an entire year of your life with the world. I feel as though I was there with you...so, thanks for the ride! Oh! and congrats on your engagement! God bless you both. I pray you have a life full of happiness. Pennie

Thursday, February 15, 2007 | Christopher Hethrington said...
Hey Megan, Just in case anyone is interested in staying at Hostel Miramar when they are in San Cristobal de las Casas, I have included a link to their web page below. I'm sure Manuel and Frida will appreciate any recommendations; I was in contact with them recently and they seem to be doing well. Thanks, Chris Hostel Miramar: San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas Mexico http://www.self-propelled.org/sites/accom/hostelmiramar

Monday, March 12, 2007 | travelina said...
I wish your blog wasn't over, I've enjoyed it so much! Congrats for getting nominated for a Bloggie.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007 | Andrew said...
Hi Megan. I love your blog. I've travelled to many of the places you've been to and I'm going to enjoy reading about your experiences there. I'm also planning another trip to Argentina and Bolivia, and I'm going to write a blog and I hope afterwards to write a book too (it's always been a goal of mine). Your blog is a great inspiration to me.

Wednesday, April 4, 2007 | Ahmed Shaikh said...
Just stumbled across your site from an LP Thorn Tree link. Wonderful photos! You have an eye for this stuff (or are those your companion's pics?). I'm eagerly awaiting the book.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007 | Trula said...
Hi Megan, I was thinking about your travel blog and wondering what you were up to. I enjoyed reading about your travels. Are you and Michael married now, any new travel plans for 2008?

Thursday, January 17, 2008 | sara said...
Megan - not sure if you ever check these comments anymore now that your trip is long in the past. I just went to Guatemala/Nicaragua for three weeks. I picked up a lot of great advice from your website - such as how to operate the hot water in the shower, the hotel san francisco in San Pedro and Little corn island. I had never heard of little corn island until your blog, and it was one of the highlights of my trip. I'm a big old copycat. Anyhow, thanks again for the entertainment! When are you and Michael going to travel again?

Thursday, May 15, 2008 | Karen said...
Hi Megan, I (similar to the last commenter) wonder if you still look at this.. Two years ago we went to Ecuador after having read your every word (we opted not to go on the train/bus, recuerdas?).. Now as we plan a trip for El Salvador, I just rediscovered your link (via google).. and remember what a fantastic writer you are- THANKS!! and I wish we knew where you are going next? or if you have written a book..(I LOVE the part about the peace corp kids in El Salvador.. actually, all of your writing is great- thanks again)_

New York City - Conclusion