Michelle TupySome of you will know me as the Blog and ePublising Manager at Clever Streak, most of you won’t know me at all because I do the majority of my work silently and without fuss sitting behind my computer.

It’s one of those magical processes that Clever Streak has – Anne speak to the clients, she and the writers do the work and I make sure that it all appears online to the client’s specifications.

And just let me say for the record, I love my job.  It gives me so much freedom to do what I enjoy doing best.  What is that, you might ask.  The answer is travel; I have a passion for exploring the world to see what adventures my family and I can find.  Like the time we went on a camping adventure in Saskatchewan, now that was fun.

Michelle Tupy, And Off We WentSince working for Anne I have lived in Melbourne, Australia; Swift Current, Saskatchewan; and Cusco, Peru which is where we are now.  And thanks to Anne, and her seemingly unending patience, she is letting me roam the world and continue to do my work – that’s not a perk that everyone can claim they are given.

Come March we are driving from Cusco, Peru all the way to Niagara Falls, Canada and for this journey, I am stepping out from behind the ghostwriting shadows.  I am looking to write about our travel adventures, highlighting world schooling as an education option and focussing on the subject of meaningful travel.  We aren’t a family who tend to travel in 5 star luxury, we like going to a place and living there, immersing ourselves in the culture and lifestyle a destination has to offer.

On this journey we have partnered with a non-profit organisation called Globe Drop  that provide meaningful travel opportunities connecting travellers with other non-profits and social welfare establishments.  Travellers can log onto the website, see what an organisation requires in their particular country or destination and donate direct to the cause.  We are looking at connecting with many organisations as we go, and hopefully visit more than a few along the way, as well as raising awareness to the great job they do.

The adventure of a lifetime, right?  We couldn’t agree more.  And we are super excited.  Our vehicle of choice is a second-hand VW Kombi we picked up in Peru and hopefully it will make it the whole way.  If not, we will create a plan B, but we don’t like to think too far ahead.  The old Volkswagen van epitomises adventure and fun, and we plan to have a whole lot of that along the way.

So as of now we are planning, planning, planning.  Our first port of call is in the jungles of Peru, a town called Puerto Maldonado and we are looking forward to it. From there we will travel through the diverse landscapes that Peru has to offer – through the mountains to Lake Titicaca then across the desert to an oasis of calm in Huacachina before we head to Lima and then down to Chile.  From there we will hit Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil and Bolivia moving on up to Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador (in no particular order).  And then it’s up to Central America, into the United States and then back into Canada.  We aren’t planning our exact route as we want to leave ourselves open to situations which are presented to us, so for now we have Point A and Point Z – we just need to fill in the blanks en-route.

If you would like to learn more and follow along with our journey, you can pre-order my book, And Off We Went, through our current fundraising campaign.  Those who do will receive exclusive behind the scenes access to our trip by email, an offer only created for those who pre-order.

So if you live in South America, Central America or North America – keep any eye out for us.  You never know we just might be heading in your direction.