FINDING FITZ ROY

14,000+ miles. 
18 countries. 
One Lone Rucksack. 

Check Out the Adventure

 


Driven by Curiosity. Fueled by Adventure.

Lone Rucksack documents explorer Dani Bradford— a dirtbag solo adventurer and storyteller. In 2015, Dani completed a 4,500 mile+ cycling journey through 15 countries from Portugal to the Republic of Georgia. Her most recent project, #FindingFitzRoy, documents her motorcycle journey down the Americas— from Washington, DC to Patagonia. Learn more about Dani here. 

 

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How Safe is Medellín?

Just two decades ago, Colombia’s city of eternal spring made international headlines for all the wrong reasons. Notorious narco boss Pablo Escobar was wreaking havoc on his home city in a violent cartel war that left devastating carnage in its wake, causing the northern metropolis to plummet to the bottom of everyone’s visit list.Twenty years later, and Medellín is making the news again – but for all the right reasons.

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Introducing Medellín

Nestled in a lush green valley that’s framed by the Andes Mountains, vibrant Medellin is Colombia’s second biggest city and the hip and happening capital of the Antioquia Department. Rising like a phoenix from the ashes of a somewhat gritty past (we don’t need to mention the infamous Voldemort of the drug scene do we?) there’s a good reason why all the cool cats of travel are now descending on this upcoming hotspot.

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“The stars we are given. The constellations we make. That is to say, stars exist in the cosmos, but constellations are the imaginary lines we draw between them, the readings we give the sky, the stories we tell.”⁣ ― Rebecca Solnit⁣ ⁣ Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and all the way back again. It took three days to get to this flight from the coast in Ecuador, crossing borders and cramming my luggage into tiny mototaxis, but seeing the lights of Lima spread below the moon heading home to Medellín made it all worth it. “Create. Not for the money. Not for the fame. Not for the recognition. But for the pure joy of creating something and sharing it.” ⁣ ―Ernest Barbaric⁣ ⁣ The alapacas surrounded the hammocks, desperate for the tiny bowls of feed we carried down to the garden. @misadventures_of_sarah
“The key to being a warrior is not to be afraid of who you are.” ―Tom Spanbauer “Nothing is lost. . .Everything is transformed.” ― Michael Ende
“Leave the door open for the unknown, the door into the dark. That’s where the most important things come from, where you yourself came from, and where you will go.” ― Rebecca Solnit “Don't waste your energy trying to change opinions ... Do your thing, and don't care if they like it.”⁣ ― Tina Fey ⁣ ⁣ @misadventures_of_sarah and I prepared for an epic backpacking weekend in Copacaba at Lake Titicaca. Two flat bus tires later, and a bout of food poisoning, we arrived in the dark in a town square as it started to rain. Luckily, we had a plan B. And when the sun came out the next day we were lounging in hammocks surrounded by alpacas. #antidirtbagging
“Anyone who isn't embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn't learning enough.”⁣ ― Alain de Botton⁣ ⁣ All geared up in the van headed to the start of mountain biking in Bolivia. Oreos stuffed in pockets for easy accessibility, rain gear, knee and elbow pads— lista por todo. “There’s something about arriving in new cities, wandering empty streets with no destination. I will never lose the love for the arriving, but I'm born to leave.” ― Charlotte Eriksson
“You're under no obligation to be who people think you are. Change, grow, rearrange yourself. Free and beautiful things always bloom and spark with no holding back.”⁣ ― Charlotte Eriksson⁣ ⁣ Laughing on the death road while riding hard and getting soaked in waterfalls and eating oreos and spending time with other amazing humans in the spectacular mountains in Bolivia, arriving at the end of the road completely covered in dust. We drank beers as the light faded and kittens played at our feet and I remembered something small but important— despite who we think we are and what we think we should be doing at any given moment adventure is out there— it’s always out there waiting to embrace us. “It is easy to see the glow but hard to recognize the awakening of silence.”⁣ ― Dejan Stojanovic⁣ ⁣ When you desperately need a shower while chilling at a cafe basking in the afternoon sun at Lake Titicaca, and your friend @misadventures_of_sarah takes a photo because you ‘look cool’. #thankyoufriend
“For many years, I have been moved by the blue at the far edge of what can be seen, that color of horizons, of remote mountain ranges, of anything far away. The color of that distance is the color of an emotion, the color of solitude and of desire, the color of there seen from here, the color of where you are not. And the color of where you can never go.”⁣ ― Rebecca Solnit⁣ ⁣ The softest of blues rimming the mountains in the distance, the edges of dry earth crumbling at the ends of the canyon, the air dry and always, always, waiting. @misadventures_of_sarah “Dreams, after all, are insubstantial things, like mist itself.” ―Stephen King
“Getting lost was not a matter of geography so much as identity, a passionate desire, even an urgent need, to become no one and anyone, to shake off the shackles that remind you who you are, who others think you are.”⁣ ― Rebecca Solnit⁣ ⁣ Canyon exploring. Dust all over the pants. Toothy grin all day long. @long_rode_home “I am messy. I’m not trying to be an example. I am not trying to be perfect. I am not trying to say I have all the answers. I am not trying to say I’m right. I am just trying—trying to support what I believe in, trying to do some good in this world, trying to make some noise with my writing while also being myself.”⁣ ― Roxane Gay⁣ ⁣ My office is usually a corner of whatever AirBNB I’m staying in. Here in La Paz, most afternoons I’m crouched in the corner of this sofa by the window, feathers strewn around on the floor from the sofa cushions, empty coffee mugs, camera equipment and cables, wrapped in a down blanket tapping on the keys of my laptop like a crazed, burrowing rodent.
“We're all building our world, right now, in real time. Let's build it better.”⁣ ―Lindy West⁣ ⁣ Venturing outside La Paz to explore the Valle de La Luna, and spotting some viscacha along the way— a chinchilla-type rodent native to South America. @misadventures_of_sarah “If you have women who will only come if they know there is a good road, I don't want them. I want women who will come if there is no road at all.”⁣ ―David Livingstone⁣ ⁣ It’s incredible to me how places are settled over time, falling into the cracks of the earth, spreading out through the valleys like water filling the lowest points, then rising. Overlooking La Paz fills me with such hope, that it’s fundamentally human to change and build and shape, and just by being part of the city itself, standing there surrounded by its energy, I too, am rising.

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