do I have to murder my kids to travel?

Having spent more than 2.5 years of my life roaming the planet with a backpack, my last trip lasting 18 months, I thought I was a veteran world traveler.

But I’m NOTHING compared to this one dude from Argentina.

You see, Herman Zapp, and his wife Candelaria, had two dreams:

• To travel.

• To have a family.

So, all the way back in 2000, they decided to make a six-month trip around the American continent and then get back home to procreate.

Through a chance event, they managed to acquire a broken 1928 Graham-Paige (a now almost 100-year-old car) just three months before leaving.

They got it fixed and then drove it north with about $4000 that they had saved.

Their plan was to travel all the way from Argentina to Alaska.

Unfortunately, though, after six months they were nowhere near Alaska. What’s more, their $4000 had only lasted them until Ecuador.

Now, from my own travel experience, I know that long-term travel can be quite cheap. You really don’t need much, especially if you’re in a developing country.

Still, you need something. And they knew that too.

So they had to come up with some way to earn money.

But as it turns out, the economy in Ecuador was in deep trouble in the early 2000s, with the monthly average salary being somewhere around $60.

So getting a real job there and saving some money wasn’t really a solution to continue their trip.

They had to come up with some source of income while being ON the road.

So Herman had the great idea of buying some watercolors and paper and to convince his wife to draw photorealistic birds.

Unfortunately, this didn’t quite work out either because she was a horrible artist, at least in the beginning.

But people still bought some of her paintings. And they soon came up with other ideas, like writing a little booklet and selling copies on the road (this was before the online self-publishing boom).

In the end, they made enough to keep going. And you know what? They’re still going!

Yes, that’s right. They’ve been traveling for 22 years now. What’s more, during their ongoing trip they’ve had four children, each born in a different country.

They never got back home to raise a family.

They combined their two dreams: traveling + having kids.

And as it turns out, they’re not the only family of non-rich long-term world-traveling nomads. There are lots more.

When I learned of this, it was an eye-opening revelation. Sometimes it seems like we may have incompatible dreams.

But are they really? Do we reeeeally have to choose? Are you sure there’s no way to make more than one dream come true?

Well, I guess it depends on your dreams.

But even if you don’t succeed and—despite trying—can’t make any of your dreams come true, you should remember this one quote from Herman:

¿Y quién está más loco? ¿El que va por sus sueños o el que no?

And who is crazier? The one who goes after their dreams or the one who doesn’t?

I don’t know about you, but I really want to be the crazy one who tries and not the crazy one who gives up before even starting!

Now, as inspiring as all this is, I know that to pursue your dreams you need some freedom. And the one thing that’s probably restricting your freedom more than anything else are your obligations. But I’ve got some thoughts on this. Check out this week’s comic below if you want to know more :)

By the way, the Zapp family has a YouTube channel. So check them out if you want to hear their story from them (their videos are in Spanish, though).

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Comics (and some thoughts) I’ve published recently:

• Wanna Live? Then Rid Yourself of Those Damn Obligations!

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David B. Clear (cartoonist/writer) @davidbclear

The ultimate productivity hack is to have fun. If you're having a blast working, you need nothing else.

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Thanks for reading!

— David