Mai Gonzalez

Six months. One backpack. A continent crossed by bus. Buses and Backpacks is a travel memoir about moving slowly through South America-by overnight buses, shared kitchens, and conversations that don't always land in the right language. Along the way, Mai González navigates the quiet realities of long-term travel: exhaustion and awe, cultural missteps, unexpected kindness, and the strange intimacy of being welcomed into other people's lives. This isn't a checklist of highlights or a race between landmarks.
It's a story about learning to stay, to listen, and to feel at home in places that were never meant to be permanent. Warm, honest, and reflective, Buses and Backpacks is a memoir for anyone who's ever believed that travel is less about where you go-and more about how you move through the world.