We Traveled to All 7 Wonders of the World

Oh my gosh, my toes feel so funny right now.

I was not expecting to be this emotional, wondering how we ended up here. So are we. Let's go back in time and retrace our steps.

Good morning from the Cusco airport. If you missed our last video, we just spent 48 hours living with locals on Lake Titicaca. And today we are traveling from Cusco to Lima to Sao Paulo and finally to Rio de Janeiro to visit the Christ the Redeemer statue, which is the last of the seven world wonders that we have yet to see with our own eyes. But we are going to be doing way more than just seeing it. We have been given special permission, like very rare, very special permission to climb up inside the statue. Do not push me. So stick around to the end of the video to share this once in a lifetime experience with us. But first, as we travel to Rio, I want to take you on a little trip down memory lane and share the story of this nine year journey that has led to us visiting all seven wonders of the world.

If you're new here, we're Karen and Nate. In 2016, we left to travel the world full time. What was supposed to be a one year trip turned into over seven years of full time travel and a journey that's taken us to all seven continents in over 100 countries. But somehow in all of our travels, we've missed Brazil and that changes today.

All right, so let's talk wonders of the world. First thing to understand is that there are actually multiple lists. There are the ancient wonders of the world, most of which don't exist anymore. They're the natural wonders of the world. And a bunch of different organizations have come up with their own list. But if you Google enough, there's one list that consistently pops up and it seems like the Internet agrees that the current seven wonders of the world include the following.

So you have the Great Wall of China and obviously China, The Colosseum in Italy, the Taj Mahal in India, Petra in Jordan, Christo Redeemer in Brazil, Machu Picchu in Peru, and chicken pizza, I mean, Chichen Itza in Mexico. My goal with this video today is to not only tell you story visiting all seven wonders of the world, but we also want to give you a little history about each one so that you leave this video knowing a little bit more about the world. Unfortunately, we are not Johnny Harris. We don't have a full blown research team and animation team behind us. But we're going to do our best to keep the history short and interesting.

So Our story of traveling to all the wonders of the world actually begins well before this YouTube channel. Back in 2013, we got married and our first big international trip that we had ever taken together was to Thailand. And on the way home from Thailand, Thailand, we had a 12 hour layover in Beijing and we hired a random lady off the Internet to pick us up at the airport and take us to the Great Wall.

The Great Wall of China is the oldest of the seven wonders on this list. With its original construction dating back to 700 B.C. the Great Wall of China as we know it today is actually numerous walls that were built over the course of 2000 years by different emperors of unified China. The best preserved and most extensive section of the wall is over 5,000 thousand miles long. And it was built by the Ming Dynasty as a fortification system to protect against Mongolian invasion.

The crazy thing about our visit is after we left the airport and got on the highway, they actually shut the entire highway down behind us because of bad weather. So once we got there, we were the only ones there. We pretty much had the entire Great Wall of China all to ourselves. I honestly think we were too early in our travels to truly appreciate what an incredible opportunity this was.

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So our second wonder of the world was still pre YouTube. For our second anniversary, I planned a surprise trip to Cancun. But this was not your typical Cancun beach vacation at a resort. We did not have the money for that at that point in our lives. Are we going the right way? No, don't go there. It says alarm will sound. So instead we rented a cheap Airbnb in this little yellow car, which we drove to Chichen Itza. There's really not much more to the story. We did the typical tour and took some cheesy photos.

Chichen Itza was one of the world's largest ancient Mayan cities. No one knows exactly when it was built, but researchers estimate it was constructed sometime between 500 AD and 1200 AD. The reason we know so little about it is because it was actually lost to the jungle for hundreds of years. And it was only rediscovered around 150 years ago.

Ah, there it is.

The most interesting part of that story was actually when we were leaving Chichen Itza. Ended up having to bribe a police officer because I forgot the little insurance paper that I was supposed to have for the car. I'd left it in the hotel and he was threatening to take me to jail. At that point, we had only left the US A few times. So bribing a police officer in Mexico just felt like one of the craziest things I'd ever done.

And we stayed in the lounge too long, as usual.

All straight home for the next four and a half hours.

No way.

Okay, so I don't want to take away from the wonders of the world story, but I feel like I need to address this. We were not planning on flying in seats this nice, but a couple days ago, I received an email that said, do you want to bid to upgrade to business class? So I bid $300 to upgrade both of us to business class. Business class. And last night I got an email that said, your bid has been accepted. I did no research on what latam business class was like, but this is pretty incredible. This is the first time I've ever had a marble countertop on an airplane remote for the tv, fully lay, flat seat, and tons of legroom. There's even bedding if I want to sleep.

So Machu Picchu was our third wonder of the world, and it was the first one that we visited while having a YouTube channel. And this was a really special trip for me because it was the first time that my par and joined us on a trip when we were traveling full time. We spent a week trekking through the Sacred Valley. We stayed in these crazy pods on the side of a cliff, and the trip culminated in a visit to Machu Picchu. Honestly, the weather was pretty horrible that day, and we just got glimpses of Machu Picchu through the clouds. That's Machu Picchu. I feel like we've been super lucky with our other experiences at the different wonders. So this will probably go down as the worst experience. But with that said, Peru is In my top 10 list of favorite countries. And Machu Picchu itself is incredible. We just visited on the wrong thing.

Machu Picchu is known as the lost city of the Incas. The Incas were one of the largest empires in South America before the arrival of the Spaniards. Once again, historians are doing their best to fill in the blanks. Because Machu Picchu was only rediscovered in 1911 by a guy named Hiram Bingham, it's still a complete mystery as to how the Incas could build such an impressive city out of these giant stones that fit perfectly together. But it's believed that it was built around 1438.

So we first visited the Colosseum in Rome in the summer of 2017. And as you can imagine, during peak tourist season at one of Europe's largest tourist attractions, it was completely Packed. The way to get in was three hours. But it's the Roman Colosseum. It's worth fighting through the crowds to see it with your own eyes and imagine the history that's taken place there throughout the years.

I was surprised to learn that the Colosseum is actually this second oldest wonder on this list. It was built during the peak of the Roman Empire in 80 AD and it's still the largest freestanding amphitheater in the world. Historians believe it could hold an estimated 50 to 80,000 people. And I think most people know that it was most popularly used for gladiator battles. But what you might not know is that they actually used to flood the Colosseum and hold mock sea battles.

So we've actually had the opportunity to visit the Roman Colosseum twice now. Italy was the first place we visited in 2021 once the started to open up again after the pandemic, just crying and eating carbonara. And we figured this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the Roman Coliseum without the crowds. And Instead of the three hour wait that we had back in 2017, a weekend, three minutes, just as we had hoped, we had the place pretty much all to ourselves.

Gracias. Thank you. In 2018, we traveled to India. India for the Holi Festival. But no trip to India would be complete without a visit to the Taj Mahal. We had this grand idea that we were going to wake up early, be the first ones there, have it all to ourselves at sunrise. But apparently everyone else had the same idea. After waking up in the middle of the night, getting to the Tika's office in the dark, we were still joined by hundreds of our closest friends for sunrise at the Taj Mahal. Even with all the people, the Taj Mahal is truly magical. But I think the most memorable part of that day for me was all the families who asked Kara to take a photo holding their baby. Give back to baby.

The Taj Mahal was built in 1632 by Emperor Shah Jahan. At first glance, many people think that it's a mosque, but it's actually a tomb that he built for his favorite wife after she died during childbirth. The building process took 12 years and it's estimated that over a thousand elephants and 22,000 people were used during the construction. When you're standing there in person, it's hard to believe that something so beautiful and ornate was created without modern technology over 500 years ago.

So anytime we've had the opportunity to visit a wonder of the world, we have always treated it like A once in a lifetime experience. But somehow we've had the opportunity to visit the Taj Mahal three times. We got invited back again in 2019 by a phone company to shoot a commercial, which for us at the time was a massive deal and they wanted us to film the Taj Mahal with the phone. So we went back. And then last year we had the opportunity to ride the train that was on the top of our bucket list, which was the Maharajas Express. And of course, over our seven day journey, we stopped at the Taj Mahal again. So I can confidently say, no matter how many times you visit the Taj Mahal, it never gets old.

Hello. Sorry for the interruption. Just let me say a quick thank you to the sponsor of today's video, AG1, who I love so dearly. Quick story time. Back in 2016, when we first left to travel full time, my diet was terrible. It's still not perfect, but it was really bad fit. Four years later, 2020 happened which forced Nate and I to come back to the us, slow down a little bit and live more like normal people who go to the grocery store every week and make our own food. And I kid you not, that is when I first made the connection that what I put in my body has a direct impact on how I feel and just my overall health. I know, crazy. And that is when I started prioritizing my health for the first time, which led me to discovering AG1. I convinced Nate to try it with me for one month and we instantly fell in love. I can honestly say it has been a part of our daily routine for three years now.

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Open up.

Thanks.

Last flight.

It's almost midnight, but we Made it.

Last but not least, we visited our sixth wonder of the world in 2019. The treasury is the iconic building that Petra is known for. But there is so much more to this complex.

It's believed that the ancient city of Petro was established around 300 AD. It was built by the Nabataeans, who carved palaces, temples and tombs in the soft sandstone cliffs. The Nabataeans gained their wealth from owning trade routes and collecting taxes from caravans passing through. The story goes that an earthquake in 555 AD caused the city's demise. Petra was actually a secret to the Western world until about 200 years ago.

There was actually a huge rainstorm the day we visited that made our experience extra special. It happened at the very end of the day, so most of the people left, and we continued on the hike to the monastery. And once we got there, we pretty much had the place all to ourselves. But what was extra special was the hike out, because the monastery sits at the very end of the Petra complex. And so as we hiked out, it was just us and the Bedouins who live there. I'm actually realizing now that we've managed to have half of these world Wonders all to ourselves. The snowstorm allowed us to be the only ones at the Great Wall. Covid drastically reduced the amount of people who were at the Coliseum. And then the rainstorm gave us Petro all to ourselves. After reliving all of these experiences today, I'm feeling more grateful than ever for the specific experiences that we've had at each World Wonder. But I think tomorrow is going to be the coolest of all. But it's well past midnight and we have to get up very early. See you in the morning.

I cannot believe what we get to do this morning. I woke up multiple times last night thinking about it. We do a lot of exciting stuff, so there are a few nights that I can't sleep, but last night was one of them.

We are up super early this morning because we are actually going to climb the statue before it opens at 8am to cause as little disruption as possible. You know, two people climbing up into a world wonder. Good morning.

Christ the Redeemer is by far the newest of the seven world Wonders. The statue's construction was completed less than a hundred years ago in 1931. The story goes that it was originally proposed to place a monument on top of the mountain honoring Princess Isabel for freeing the slaves. But the princess requested a statue of Jesus instead, because she believed him to be the true redeemer of mankind. And that's how Brazil ended up building the newest wonder of the world. The statue of Statue stands at 98ft tall. And the outstretched arms measure 92ft wide.

Oh, my gosh.

This is insane. Look at that bridge.

Wow.

Unbelievable.

Take a look up.

Oh.

I didn't even see it.

See it.

I don't know where to look.

To have this place alone all to ourselves at sunrise. The weather could not be more perfect like this is. Oh, my gosh. Look at this. Have been fire crash for yourselves.

I've seen a million photos of this spot, and nothing could have prepared me for this. To stand here. And we get to do more than just stand here.

It's hard to decide which way to look. You have the most incredible view of Rio on one side, and then you have the Christ the Redeemer when you turn around and look up. And just to be up here and have it all to ourselves, that is more than enough. But now we get to climb up.

Can you believe we're doing this?

Watch. Sean? Yeah. Please. What?

These are the toes of Christ the Redeemer. Wow. You've ever wondered what it's like to stand at the feet of Jesus and look up? That's it.

What.

Am I dreaming?

Yeah, you are. It's pretty incredible. From far away, it looks like Christ the Redeemer is just made out of concrete. But once you get close, it's made up of this mosaic of triangle soapstones. There has to be hundreds of thousands, if not millions, that make up the outside of Christ the Redeemer. Even just being up here and seeing that, completely empty. So in case anyone was wondering how you actually get inside Christ the Redeemer, there is a small door right at the top of the pedestal. It is just big enough for a person to squeeze through here.

Inside Christ the Redeemer, it's very concrete.

We have to use this just for security reasons, because I'm gonna hit my head on the way. Yeah, yeah.

Safety first.

We're walking in bending like this.

That's gonna happen to me. I lived in a van long enough to know that.

Yeah. All right. Safety first. If you're scared of heights, this might not be the experience for you. These stairs are so thin.

It happened.

So these stairs that we're climbing right now, they obviously weren't built for tourists. The inside of the statue is just for. For maintenance. If Christ Redeemer gets struck by lightning and they need to do some repairs. But we're climbing up the maintenance stairs inside of Christ Redeemer right now.

Inside the Heart. There's like, a capsule with paper with all the names written of the families that worked on the cross section of the Christ. It's pretty amazing to be in here and see how big this heart is when from the outside, you look, and it is tiny, and it has the same soapstone on it. It's on the outside of the statue. This is the last floor. Now I'm gonna show you how you have to do this.

It's easy.

You just come here. This is Carlos, by the way. He's the one that's made all this possible. We are forever indebted to you.

This is the last normal ladder, and we're about to have to start crawling.

Oh, wow. It does get tight, huh? No way.

Wow, that was tight.

Did you just remove the shoulder? Yeah. I feel like I've said this 12 times, but I cannot believe this is happening right now.

Oh, my gosh.

Do not push me.

Okay.

My toes feel so funny right now. This is amazing, Nate. I don't know whether to be terrified or amazed right now. Oh, my gosh. I'm gonna cry. There's people.

Hi.

Okay. Is this that scaring you as much as it's scaring me? I feel like heights normally don't bother me. My feet feel funny.

It's the grand finale of all seven wonders of the world.

Also, all this metal that you see on the shoulder, these are all lightning rods. Carlos was telling us earlier that Christ the Redeemer gets struck by lightning over 100 times a year. I feel like I can't fully enjoy it because I'm half terrified.

Oh, my God.

I love you. Me too. Wow.

All right. You got to get out of this hole. You got to get out of this hole. I think it's because I'm almost out to my knees.

Wow. I like this one way more. I feel way safer here. Look at that. It really gives you perspective of just how huge this is. The head is twice as tall as I am. What a grand finale.

I was not expecting to be this emotional. I mean, who's surprised?

All right. Going out his left shoulder this time.

Sup?

Jesus.

I can hardly believe it's me standing here right now. I just took a selfie with Jesus. No big deal. It's a huge deal.

Thank you for one of the most special experiences of my life. Oh, I'm really happy.

We didn't set out on a quest to visit all seven wonders of the world seven years ago. We saved up money to take a year off and go travel. We never imagined we'd still be traveling today, and we definitely never imagined we'd have the opportunity to be standing here. So before we go, we just want to say a huge thank you to each and every one of you who watch these videos and allow us to live a life better than our wildest dreams.