INTRODUCTION

“Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.”

― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

Hey, I’m CJ 🙂 Yes my name is just two CAPITAL letters and NO…it does not stand for anything. I was recently kicked out of Switzerland, the place I called home for two years as I pursued a dream of playing professional soccer and formally getting a Masters degree in order to legally obtain a visa. Before all this, I attended Vanderbilt University, became an au pair in Switzerland, taught English in Thailand, backpacked S.E. Asia, coached soccer at Earlham College, and trained Jiu Jitsu…ran marathons….drank lots of coffee…and dreamed of traveling long term yet again.

This trip is vastly different than many of my other adventures. First and foremost it has little to no set plans besides a flight to Cancun January 13, 2020. Secondly, the idea is to bike through Central and South America. Lastly, Instead of carrying a swiss army knife I have resorted to bringing a true Swiss as the “body guard”, in reality I am still debating which would have been cheaper. The knife came with a guarantee…Kevin on the other hand, well he hopefully is more multifunctional (and if not I am sure I will write about it in a future post, so keep checking back). At least we will find out which is the sharpest tool in the shed.

Kevin is an original Swiss who loves biking and when I say biking I mean it loosely because he is not thrilled to rack up kilometers on a bicycle seat. He prefers to “shred” downhill at unreasonable speeds while taking a lift back up the mountain because, “I am not pedaling up hill because that is why motors, cable cars, and shuttle buses were invented.” -KS