A mere three days away from the release of our soon-to-be critically-acclaimed cookbook, Forks in the Road: Recipes from Overlanding the Pan-American Highway, we feel it's our duty to provide you with a glimpse of the trials, tribulations, tantrums and alcohol-fueled late-night sessions that brought it into being.

What's the best way to test the relationship of the ones you love? Long-term travel. What's the best way to ensure you never want to see each other again? Travel long-term while simultaneously attempting to write, photograph and publish a cookbook.

We drove 25,000 miles through 13 countries while taking 2,780 pictures and writing more than 90 recipes spanning 210 pages and 45,000 words to make this happen. It was quite possibly the most difficult, delicious and time-consuming thing we did on this trip. And it was totally worth it. We hope you enjoy our efforts and a laugh at our expense.

April 7, Florianopolis
April 25, Santos
Cookbooks Sent to Publisher: 1!!!
World-Famous Beaches Walked On: 2
Pounds of Crap Given Away: 50
Types of Meat Eaten Off a Sword: 12

Well, this is it. The last trip update from South America. In a mere week we'll be flying home. Jared to start interviewing for work, and Jess and Kobus to meet Blue several weeks later in Texas. Before we return to the grind we'll have one last adventure as Team Life Remotely in Flagstaff, Arizona where we'll be attending Overland Expo to hang out with the cool kids and promote our new cookbook.

But I get ahead of myself. We've spent the last three weeks hopping along Brazil's spectacular beaches. After spending 10 days in a rental house in Florianopolis to wrap up work on the book, we head north to Rio de Janeiro for three nights of sightseeing before backtracking to Santos, our final destination in Latin America.

Start: April 3, Iguazu Falls, Argentina
Finish: April 6, Florianopolis, Brazil
Countries to Date: 17
Border Crossings to Date: 23
Portuguese Words We Know: 3

We are nearing the end my friends. According to our original plans we should have ended two months ago, but the lure of Brazil proved too strong to overcome. Never fear we have at least a month left on the books, and although Brazil is our last stop on our 19-month tour of Latin America, you haven't seen the last of us.

Before experiencing our final border crossing, we have one place left to visit in Argentina. Iguazu Falls is a long drive out of the way, adding three 8+ hour road days to our schedule, but by all accounts people say it's a worthy detour. We brace ourselves for mobs of tourists, but are much looking forward to catching a glimpse of a spectacle that makes Niagara Falls look like a leaky backyard sprinkler.