This is a series of posts where we share our backpacking adventure. Starting in the USA, we went all the way down to Brazil, trying to stay on a budget and getting to know a little bit of every city we passed through.

It all started when still in Brazil, Daniel and I came up with the idea of crossing the USA through land, coast to coast, round trip. We had some landmarks we wanted to visit, but nothing really planned. We’d go from east coast to west coast through the northern part of the country and back to the east coast through the south. Kind of doing a counterclockwise circle on the map. And once back in New York, we’d take a flight back to Brazil.

Our main goal was to experience the culture, costumes and traditions of the country, not just the tourist spots. And since we were on a budget, we couldn’t afford to go on tours or stay in nice hotels. Relying on public transportation, hostels, some hitchhiking and couch surfing, we were hoping to save money. Our tools to explore were basically the internet (when available) and the connections we’d make with people we met.

However, once we went from New York to Los Angeles, we realized that the method we were using to travel saved us enough money to stretch our trip further than the USA. We did some research online and realized it was possible to go back to Brazil through land, crossing all the countries in between, but we still had no clue of how much we’d spend, how long it would take to get there, or if we could even go all the way through land. We researched the most affordable and safest routes to take, also considering the places we wanted to visit, and decided to cross our first border, to Mexico. Our back up plan was basically having an emergency fund with just enough money to buy a flight ticket back to Brazil.

Daniel and I had been traveling together in the USA before, once taking a bike ride through New York City, and later on a trip to Washington D.C. But we never experienced anything like backpacking or hitchhiking before.

Start reading about this once-in-a-lifetime trip on the link below:
United States: Long Beach, NY