It came to me that, to truly feel part of a place, you must submerge yourself in its waters. Especially its rivers, the veins coursing through the body of land. These are sacred moments, offerings, baptisms. Cold, naked, vulnerable, open, alive, refreshed, renewed. You absorb the cold, beautiful blood and it takes you in. You will never dry it off completely. It is in you, a part of you. Neither of you will ever be the same again.

Shortly after this, at the end of North and Central America, the miles behind me passed before my eyes. I knew I had traveled 11,289 miles, but couldn’t imagine there were 13,807 more to go.