In 2018, 18-year-old Iliana Holguín Teodorescu started out in Colombia with nothing but her backpack, determined to hitchhike to Chilean Patagonia.

These days, people like having things nailed down. The unexpected, not so much. We live, we travel, and even adventure with certainties and forethought, leaving luck and chance by the side of the road. Now me, I've found luck a charming traveling companion, trailing countless encounters and all kinds of questioning in its wake. As for the "where" and "how," just know it all takes place in trucks and cars, riding shotgun with drivers who picked me up in their South American countries along a route exactly 9,356 kilometers long.