Thank you so much for the wonderful reply! All of this seems to be fantastic advice, and I’ll definitely check out hitchwiki. After living in student residence for a year, I thought I had living cheaply down to an art - but the idea of subsisting for a year on 1.6k alone is pretty damn good. If you dont mind one more question, how necessary is it to know the local language? Would knowing the hundred most common words in spanish - plus english and a polite attitude - be enough to traverse spanish South America?

That all sounds like a series of brillaint adventures! I have recently gotten a bit of an itch to explore the world (perhaps even just within Canada), but I don’t have the money to do it by air - I’ve began considering buying an old motorcycle or even using a pedal cycle for a journey around North (and perhaps later on South) America during the summer months. But I’ve never truly considered hitchhiking - is it still safe and viable in this era, and in America? And in general, how hard is it to live out of a large backpack?

Hey, cool, thanks! The more I know

If other instances can be pinged (I dont know how this website works) then I would appreciate being added as well. It’s well past time that I continue this voyage.

Amen