One year. Two backpacks. Every continent between.
-In 1998, we quit our jobs, packed our bags, and set out to see the world. These are the stories from 365 days on the road -- from Angel Falls to Angkor Wat, the Pyramids to Petra, and everywhere in between.
-365 days. 40 countries. One story.
+A journey that began with a question: What if we just... went?
-May 2006
-It has been 6 years since Karen and I took a year off to travel and built the original WorldWander web site. One day I checked the access logs and was surprised to see the amount of traffic we get. It was time for a refresh so I ported everything over to a Wiki which will make it easier for Karen and I to edit and make changes.
+ +In 2000, Karen and I took a year off to travel the world and built the original WorldWander website. One day I checked the access logs and was surprised to see the amount of traffic we still get. These pages hold the stories we wrote along the way — dispatches from bus stations at 4 AM, journal entries scribbled in candlelit restaurants, and reflections penned beneath unfamiliar constellations.
+What started as a sabbatical became the defining adventure of our lives. We packed two backpacks, sold the car, quit our jobs, and stepped onto a plane bound for Venezuela. The plan was loose: head south through South America, cross to Asia, wind through the Middle East, and finish in Europe. The reality was infinitely more unpredictable, more beautiful, and more transformative than anything we could have planned.
+What follows is the full, unabridged story of that year — every missed bus, every jaw-dropping vista, every $2 meal that tasted better than anything back home. Scroll on, and come along for the ride.
+What started as a dream over dinner became a year-long odyssey across six continents. From the waterfalls of Venezuela where a proposal was made, to the floating islands of Lake Titicaca; from sleeping in fairy caves in Cappadocia to tracking the Big Five in South Africa -- every day brought something we never could have planned.
- -We traveled by bus, boat, train, tuk-tuk, camel, canoe, sampan, and our own two feet. We slept in five-star hotels and fraternity-house hostels. We ate at TGIF Fridays in Buenos Aires and from boiling kettles at Chilean fish markets. We learned that Yerba Mate explains everything about Argentine culture, that Chile closes after March 15, and that the secret to a successful restaurant in Chile is Saturday morning cartoons.
- -These pages hold the stories -- the real, unfiltered, sometimes hilarious accounts of two people figuring it out as they went. We hope you enjoy reading them as much as we enjoyed living them.
+ +Scroll to trace our path around the world
+Click any destination to read the full story
+ -117 photographs from around the world
+ - - -Two people, one year, and a world of stories
-WorldWander is the travel journal of Scooter and Karen, a couple from Boca Raton, Florida who decided to take a year off from their careers to travel the world starting in February 1998.
-Armed with guidebooks, backpacks, frequent flyer miles, and a healthy dose of stubbornness, they traveled through South America, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Europe -- learning as they went that the best travel stories come from the plans that fall apart.
-Along the way, Scooter proposed to Karen in front of Hacha Falls in Venezuela's Canaima National Park ("Karen was surprised to hear those words come out of my mouth and she was quick to respond with a very happy YES"), they survived overnight buses in Paraguay, navigated Egyptian customs with pencil-marked boarding passes, and discovered that the key to happiness might just be Yerba Mate.
-The original WorldWander site was built during the trip itself, updated from internet cafes and borrowed phone lines around the world. This archive preserves those stories -- raw, funny, and full of the wonder that comes from seeing the world for the first time.
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