On October 27th, 2018 the two woman Her Odyssey team of Bethany Hughes and Lauren Reed, completed crossing South America. In 730 days they walked and paddled 12,913 km (8,024 mi) across six countries; Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. This completes the South American portion of their five-year endeavor to travel the length of the Americas by non motorized means connecting the story of the land and its inhabitants.
They divided the crossing of the continent into three portions. In November 2015, the two women began walking north from Ushuaia, Argentina. They became the first people to walk the length of the Greater Patagonian Trail, a long-distance route network across the southern Andes. In the second and third seasons, they followed the Qhapaq Ñan, the Inca Empire’s road system, remains of which run from central Argentina to southern Colombia. In this third and final stretch of the continent, they completed the Qhapaq Ñan and integrated paddling 500 km of the Marañón River, the ‘Grand Canyon of the Amazon’ across northern Peru. Colombia was crossed primarily following the Pan-American Highway due to safety concerns.
Besides its core mission of traversing the length of the Americas and connecting stories of the land and its inhabitants, one of Her Odyssey’s values is to promote understanding and appreciation for natural resources and systems. Bethany and Lauren write about their trail experiences here, use what they learn to produce teacher resources in the form of mini lessons, contribute scientific data to Adventure Scientists and trail data to various mapping projects.
Over the next few months the team are pausing to rest, recover, and plan. Next season is set to begin February 2019, when they take to the Caribbean in brand new Trak 2.0 kayaks with Richard, a guide friend, to paddle the first section of Central America. Switching modes of transportation enables the team to tell the story of the Americas from the mountains to the seas.
Thank you all for joining the journey and those of you who are subscribed can still look forward to a couple more posts wrapping up the route and experiences of this season.
How to get involved:
-Contribute and join the journey with monthly support on Patreon.
-Make a 1 time gift via PaPal to itineranthughes@gmail.com
(All proceeds go to the ongoing execution of the project and 10% are given back to communities along the journey)
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Comments (9)
Congratulations ladies! You two are truly remarkable. I will be waiting impatiently for your continued adventure. Thank you for being out there and telling your story.
Thank you so much, Jane!!! Followers like yourself give us reason to keep going when things feel dismal.
Oh My Gosh !! I am sooooo proud of the two of you, as you should be of yourselves. ENJOY your respite.
Thank you so very much! We could not have done it without the support of many people.
So enjoy your story…have been reading with interest every post from the beginning..you gals are amazing and a inspiration !
Fidgit, very belated congrats to you both on the success of this stage of your incredible adventure! Neon, hi, you probably don’t remember me but we met once or twice on the PCT in 2010. Anyway, sorry I’ve been a bit overwhelmed by…let’s call it life…and not paying as much attention as I should have to your inspiring journey. I miss the long-distance “lifestyle” (ha) so much, but you’ve kinda taken it to extremes! I will pay more attention from now on; have subscribed at last.
Been editing and re-editing some shots from our brief time together with old friends in Upstate NY in early 2013 – getting very nostalgic indeed. Stay safe, y’all & consider these profoundly sincere good wishes a kind of psychic Trail Magic. When my finances improve a little, I’d love to help with something more tangible!
GOAT, Brisbane, Australia
Goat! We talk about you often! To my memory you are the least successful trail quitter I know because, for as many times as you said you were done, you stayed on a majority of the time.
Stoked to see you back in blog land because I’ve always loved your photography and EXTRA excited to have you subscribed!
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