“I’ll travel more when I’m older” is something I hear often, and I’ve never understood it. Why can’t you travel now and then again when you’re older? I believe there’s one way to really understand another culture - and that’s immersing yourself in it. Having an understanding of how other people live can be very beneficial to your growth as a human. For myself, I want to experience as many cultures as possible throughout every stage of my life.
I’m grateful because I’ve seen most of the United States. As a child I took multiple cross country trips, and I’ve always considered myself an explorer. Now as an adult, my work has taken me all over the United States. That said - I’m ready for a new adventure. That’s why my girlfriend Emily and I are planning a month long backpacking trip in Puerto Rico!
Planning this excursion has been interesting, as I have a mobility disability. Puerto Rico may not be an official state in the US but it follows the same ADA laws as all 50 states. This doesn’t mean much though, because the ADA isn’t regulated in the United States and is not followed by many businesses now. This has created issues with planning. We have ideas of where we want to go and what we want to do, but our ability to plan is limited until we get there and see what the accessibility situation is. As such, this is going to be a go-with-the-flow type of adventure. What we do know is: getting around cities should be relatively straightforward as we have a system for dealing with curbs, steps, and stairs, and I can crawl through tight spaces pretty well. However, what is completely unknown is how we’ll get to more remote locations. It’s clear we’re going to need extra guides, horses, maybe 4 wheelers? But - finding them now hasn’t been easy.
Life has never been easy for me, but that’s okay! I thrive in uncomfortable situations, and problem solving is something Emily and I are highly skilled with. We’re both excited to work as a team and the travel we’ve done together so far has been a blast and we’ve figured out how to deal with some tricky situations already. We’re excited for you to follow our journey! You’re going to get to see and read about our experiences, how we overcome barriers, and you’ll meet all the friends we’ll make along the way.
Follow our journey
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