Unlost: The Buddha and the Bee

That was the plan.

Cory Mortensen had just ridden his bicycle from Minnesota to California. Adventure over. Time to return home, go back to work, and resume the life he'd temporarily left behind.

Instead, he left his bicycle at his cousin's house, quit his job, and hitchhiked south along the Pacific Coast Highway.

Destination unknown.

Mexico seemed like a reasonable place to begin.

From there, one bus led to another, one border led to the next, and one questionable decision inevitably created another. He slept on beaches, crossed into Guatemala by boat, wandered among Mayan ruins, endured forty-hour bus rides, paraglided over the mountains of Venezuela, volunteered in Ecuador, followed ancient trails through Peru, mountain biked Bolivia's infamous Road of Death, played with dynamite in Potosí, and trekked into the wilds of Patagonia with a man he barely knew.

There were questionable border crossings, suicide showers, machetes, volcanoes, five-dollar tattoos, strange foods, cheap rooms, cheaper wine, extraordinary people, and more than a few moments when going home probably would have been the sensible thing to do.

He kept going.

South through Mexico.

South through Central America.

South through South America.

Until, seven months after leaving home, there wasn't much south left.

He was in Antarctica.

Running a marathon.

Funny, curious, irreverent, and occasionally reckless, UNLOST is more than a story about wandering through Latin America. It's about what happens when you remove the destination, throw away the schedule, and discover that not knowing where you're going isn't necessarily the same thing as being lost.

Sometimes the best answer to Where are you going? is simply:

I'll know when I get there.

The second book in The Buddha and the Bee series, UNLOST continues Cory Mortensen's unconventional journey around the world-but stands completely on its own. No passport, itinerary, or previous reading required.