Justine and Stephane's Nomadic Adventure of the Spirit - Lucky or crazy?

While strolling through the central plaza Christelle stopped to take a photo of this vehicle. It obviously has a story and with the French license plates it did not arrive by land. After a couple of shots we circled around and met Justine (28) and Stephane (30) who are 13 months into their exploration of South America. They lived in the French Alps region of France very close to the Swiss border and many of their friends were following the standard modus operandi path to happiness: acquire education, get job, meet and marry spouse, purchase house, have kids, buy things and look forward to decades of work followed by a hopefully comfy retirement and death. Justine and Stephane decided to do something different.

 Some of the inspiration for their trip must have come from Justine’s parents who did a similar trip 35 years ago with a Citroen 2CV or Deux Chevaux, the French equivalent of the Volkswagen Bug. These days it is not rare to see people like Justine and Stephane exploring South America in a mini RV, but back in 1977 the local people’s jaws must have dropped and eyes bugged out when Justine’s parents were tooling around. To save money for the trip, Justine and Stephane made sacrifices by renting a small apartment and working hard. They considered purchasing a vehicle in the U.S. and driving south, but the cost to ship the vehicle around the Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia was almost the same as the cost to ship it from France to Buenos Aires. They decided to purchase a vehicle in France to ensure they could prepare it exactly as they wanted and chose a 1987 Toyota Land Cruiser that was already modified into a mini RV complete with stove, fridge, bed, outdoor hand held shower. After a couple of months of hard work that included a lot of cleaning, they felt good about their home-on-wheels. They were able to use the overhead storage cases that Justine’s parents had saved from their trip in the 70's and had a special sticker made for the side of the vehicle that says “Les Zoomeurs”-The Zoomers. Their website is www.leszoomeurs.com and you will find a lot of useful info if you are planning a similar trip.

  The journey across the ocean took 28 days then they traveled through Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia the south of Brazil (Iguacu Falls and Pantanal) and Peru before arriving in Ecuador. Somewhere in Argentina after a long, steep climb the engine overheated and, from what Peter could deduce from Stephane’s description, shortly thereafter threw a rod (which means broke a connecting rod and punched a hole in the side of the engine block which spewed oil everywhere and destroyed the engine). The Zoomers’ adventure came to a screeching halt and they found themselves in a small town with 1 mechanic. It took 2 months and the parts were hard to source but the guy got it done. The Zoomers spent most of that time still living in the back of their vehicle at the shop. It cost over $5000 and not only did the engine blow up but so did their budget. Regardless, they resumed their journey exploring a lot of nature and learning about different cultures and their histories.

   Continuing with the tradition we started in Durango, Sunday is still French toast day. So, of course we invited Justine and Stephane over for French toast (called “lost bread” in France). We began to learn more about their adventure and we just instantly liked these two and admired the guts needed to take on this kind of journey. We offered for them to park the RV in our yard and spend the night at our place and they accepted. The common thread between us all, which is not uncommon these days, is leaving what we know in order to explore the unknown. A person who does this could be defined loosely as a contrarian-one who rejects popular opinion. Stephane said that slowly over the 13 months this trip has brought about a change of the spirit. It did not happen right away but took time to occur. 

 Peter and Christelle have found during their time in Vilcabamba that most people just want one-way conversations where they do most of the talking and we are the listeners. Our conversations with Justine and Stephane were multi directional. They made direct eye contact and really listened to what we were saying. And they made a big effort to speak English even though it was the weakest of the 3 languages that were spoken. They said after 13 months of speaking Spanish they were losing their English. 

  Most people close to them said they were either “crazy” or “lucky” for what they were doing but not that they were creating their life experience. Around the dying campfire of wet bamboo that night Stephane confessed that he and Justine do not know how to explain to their families and friends not only the changes that have been happening within themselves spiritually, but also their desire to remain in South America somewhere and start a new life with children.

   The following day Justine and Stephane had the pleasure of watching the Monday morning school ceremony of recent news notices and the singing of both the national and school anthems. We regressed back to our home and enjoyed food and conversation together. Justine and Stephane ended up hearing about our life story and politely listened. We were late for dropping off the “desayuno escolar” (school snack) and had no plans for lunch so we did some internet business at the cafe then ate out at “The Juice Factory” with the kids. 

   Later that afternoon the Zoomers packed up and headed north. Justine’s parents had met and become close friends with a family that presently lives in Quito, the capital of Ecuador, and Justine and Stephane were invited to stay with this family before heading to Colombia, Venezuela and lastly Brazil. It was not until later that evening that we realize that Justine’s fleece was still at our home. We would email them the following day to get their friends’ shipping address in Quito. The next morning as we were about to enter the lavanderia some taxi driver was honking at us repeatedly from behind. We turned around to discover it was Justine and Stephane. When they realized the fleece was missing they spent the night parked at the zoo. We told them they could have come back over and spent the night at our place again and then nobody spoke as we were all doing a silent dance around the truth. Did they want to be alone? Did they feel that it might be an imposition? Maybe the independent nomad types just want to move on.

   Food was in order. The Zoomers bought a bunch of pains au chocolat from the French bakery (Peter and Stephane went back for seconds) and we had coffee at the cafe. Peter mentioned to Stephane on the second trip back from the bakery that he could not see how Stephane and Justine could go back to France and try to resume their old lives (even though they both love their families and friends) and Stephane agreed. To Peter, trying to re-enter their old lives conjures up images of mucking through wet cement, floundering in quicksand or simply running headlong into a brick wall. A close friend of Peter’s would call this endeavor mingling with the “dark humor of the spirit.”

   So again we said our goodbyes. Mixed in with all the thank yous was the unspoken thanks of the recognition and understanding of each other’s journey. At times it was almost as if when Justine and Stephane spoke that they were talking about our current life experience. We also heard comments from people close to us that contained the words “crazy” or “lucky”. Similarly, we do not know how to explain what we are doing or where we are heading. We live life by the day rather than the minute with no long term plan for the future and almost all of our activities are centered around family life. We are not trying to “figure out our lives”.

   Nature, teeming with wildlife, is spirit and travel stirs the soul. Justine and Stephane are traveling around South America through all of the countries, immersing themselves in the beauty of nature that is on offer, visiting ruins of ancient societies and learning about their cultures. How could they not be effecting a change of the spirit? What a mega-dose of a healing tonic for the soul. How could an adventure as such not bring about a deep, profound, lifelong change in a person?

   We know we are doing the right thing in our lives, also. We said we would use our kids as barometers and they would help us make decisions. The first morning while strolling through the central plaza of Vilcabamba, Louis remarked that it felt like home. We found our rental within the hour while some extranjeros here have commented that it can take several months. Ours is in an ideal location within walking distance to town in a very tranquil setting. We also are effecting our own “change of the spirit.”

   The changes in the behavior of our kids has been overwhelmingly positive. And we live a simple life almost completely unplugged compared to our previous daily life experience in Durango. We have no TV, Internet service, cell phones, radio or car and it is all by choice. Our simple home is a 2br with the living room converted into a third bedroom, so the kids spend a lot of time outdoors. Nature is the great equalizer and balancer and most of the family dynamic and daily life stress we experienced back in Durango has dissolved. We walk everywhere and it is wonderful.

   We have ideas for the future and are letting life guide us and it is a great way to live. We thank life for allowing our path to cross with Justine and Stephane’s.