Buses and Backpacks

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.