They even slept in airports just to make their flights on time.

The two-year postponement allowed for better budget planning which allowed them to get great deals on their hotels. The friends traveled with their own small entourage composed of a physician and photographer who helped document all their destinations through their blogs and various social media accounts. The trip started with a plane ride to Argentina on January 11, when they would get on a 60-person boat to cross the Drake Passage in order to reach the least visited continent and walk with penguins.įrom there, the adventure took them to Easter Island to see “the mystical island, full of beauty at every turn,” along with the namesake statue heads or Moai. The first destination brought the best friends to Antarctica to see the penguins. “By postponing until 2023, we will be able to include the Antarctica trip that was in our original itinerary,” the two grandmothers said, who met each other 23 years ago during a medical mission to Zambia the two women told CNN. It would take nearly two more years for Hazelip, a doctor, and Hamby, a photographer, to start their journey as COVID-related travel restrictions affected their trips to most of their planned destinations. “So wouldn’t it be fun to go around the world in 80 days when we are 80 years old?” “Ellie, we both love to travel, our health is good, we travel well together,” Hazelip said according to the “Around the World at 80” blog. The adventure began as an idea in 2020 when the two friends were working their respective jobs in Hamby’s kitchen one evening and Hazelip came up with the outrageous idea of traveling for as many days as their ages. Sandy Hazelip and Ellie Hamby, both 81, recently returned home after the 2-and-a-half-month trip that started in Antarctica and took them to a World Wonder, the North Pole, and all the way Down Under. Two octogenarian best friends from Texas went on an adventure of a lifetime, traveling around the world in 80 days. I’ve been on 84 vacations for free - here’s the secret for doing it The ‘must-do’ trips everyone should take before they die

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The journey around the world in 80 days