About YIAB

In 2013, we had an idea

to travel the world in a van. Dream big or stay home, here we are today with our backpacks, discovering the beauty of America from South to North and later going down to Asia.

Taking action in 2016

Kuba finished his bachelors and while he procrastinated during revision for his last exams, he bought cheap plane tickets to Rio de Janeiro. After a great summer in Czech, we left Prague in October ‘16 after a solid go away party. We didn’t realise we were leaving for so long until we arrived in Brazil. It took us a couple of weeks to get used to being constantly on the go, but now we love it!

The plan

The big plan is to spend 6months in South America, 2months in North America and around 4months in Asia. So far, we’ve been to Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, it’s already been 2 months! Next, we are going to Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. Our plans change everyday, so who knows where we go next. You can see where we currently are on our map.

Travel

We travel on a low budget, with no sponsors and only the things we really need, packed in our backpacks.

Sleep

We sleep in a tent, in the wild nature, behind gas stations, in people’s gardens and occassionally in campsites. In cities, we stay in cheap hostels. So far, we were lucky to meet good people who let us stay at their homes and helped us to get around (many thanks to all of you who gave us a ride).

Eat

We buy most of our food from the supermarket and cook it ourselves on a DIY camping stove made from beer cans.

Of course, we also want to taste the local cuisine so every now and then, we treat ourselves with a good meal in a small town restaurant, fresh bread from bakeries, street food or some ice cream, good coffee or fresh juice.

Move

We find that transport is cumbersome in South America. There isn’t a great infrastructure of public transportation (no trains) and you have to get around in rather expensive buses or planes.

The distances are huge and the prices are higher than back home (transport is almost 50% of our costs), so we try to save money by hitchhiking, which is much longer but also more fun than taking buses - we get to chat with locals in Spanish and quite often, these rides end up being an unexpected adventure! We travel by walking, hitchhiking, buses, ferries, planes. We got a ride from a taxi driver, church charity, public bus, farmers, couples, a few truck drivers…

What’s in our backpacks

We travel light and decided to take only the things we really need. We didn’t buy expensive electronics and only brought what we already owned. That saved us a lot of cash in the beginning and if we lose something we won’t be so sad… For more information about our gear, look gear.

Money

No sponsors. At first, we wanted to get sponsorship because we thought we had very little money for such a trip. We decided to give it a shot and live cheap to fit our budget. We travel from money we made by working in Europe and if we run out of money, we’d simply work away or go back home, that’s the worst thing that can happen.

We realised sponsors would be a burden and foremost, this is a trip for ourselves, our families and families. Corporations don’t need to be everywhere, seeing the world is a good purpose… Our true sponsors are the people who have helped us during our trip. See them all here!

Thank you!

Our families and friends, Pavel Slováček, Monika and Oriana from Pirenopolis, Míša and Rafael from Caraguatuba, Ivan Zábojník from Pousada Rio Bracuhy, Gustavo and Rafaela from Rio, Horacio from Montevideo, Mathias from Buenos Aires, Francina and Pablo from Junín, Jeff from San Rafael, Hudson Lemon, Natalie April, the Simpkins Family and many many more!

Who’s behind this project

We are two czech boys from Prague who decided to travel for one year. Jakub is a fresh Bristol graduate, pretty happy when with his backpack and discovering something somewhere. Simon has recently opened up a bar in Prague with his friends - he’s always happy to grab beer and meet with new people.

Kuba

I am 22 years old, love to be outdoors and hang out with people. I really enjoy biking the forest trails or down the roads, hiking in the mountains, running or snowboarding / cross-country skiing in wintertime. I had the opportunity to learn foreign languages and spend time abroad during my studies so I was comfortable with meeting new people and be in foreign environments. I want to discover new things, see the world instead of sitting at home and that’s where my passion for travel comes from. I think it’s important to travel because it allows you to self-develop and grow. There are also some important things I want and need to do in my life. Travelling the world was one of them, so I worked a lot during last year, successfully graduated from uni and broke up with my girlfriend to finally make my dream true. There’s more about me on my personal site. Cheers, Kuba