A Brief History of Everlater

While backpacking across South and Central America from January to July 2008, Nate and I developed the idea for everlater. Three simple events highlighted traveler needs we felt were not currently being served by established websites and we realized it was our civil duty to the world (and could be quite a bit of fun) to improve the traveler experience.

Event 1) The missed meet up in Colombia:

After traveling up the West coast of South America, Nate and I arrived in Cartagena, Colombia, a spectacular colonial city on the Caribbean with rich history, sweltering heat, stunning beaches and bougainvillea filled balconies. Only after checking our email did we realize that our dear friend Sam, who we met in Buenos Aires Argentina, and spent nine days camping in Northern Patagonia with us, had also been in Cartagena just a few days before we arrived. It shocked us that we had not kept in touch well enough to know where she was, and were dismayed we had missed her by just a few days. There has to be a better way to keep in touch with people we met while traveling?

Event 2) The attempt to summit 21,000 foot Volcan Chimborazo:

Nate and I arrived in Ecuador after hiking through Patagonia and Peru and wanted to tackle some of the insanely tall mountains just outside of Quito. Lacking technical gear but not ambition we set out to find a guide. After finding a great guide we were dismayed by the flat fixed cost. Where could we find some people to join our summit attempt to reduce the cost and where could we find similar adventurers who we could ask whether or not we should get our hopes up of reaching the goal?

Event 3) The epic sail from South to Central America:

The Darien Gap separates South and Central America and remains one of the few truly remote and uninhabited (only terrorists, outlaws and jaguars - amazing combination, I know) places on the planet, travelers wishing to connect between the two continents must either fly (boring!), cross the Gap with a guide on foot (too risky?!) or sail the beautiful Caribbean waters while spearfishing and island hopping (duh!). After the obvious decision, we set sail for six days. While “at sea” and with time to ponder the situations which put us on this amazing little sailboat in the middle of the Caribbean, we realized we had been so intently exploring South America we had not kept up our faithful duty of telling our amazing adventure story to friends and family. We had to be better at sharing our experiences but were unsatisfied with simple blogs and mass emails, isn’t there a better way to share your travel experience?

We are developing everlater based on these unsatisfied traveler needs. Now, you may wonder how we ended up in South and Central America in the first place, well hold your horses, that story is soon to come.