A couple quit their high-paying corporate jobs to go on an epic 38,000-mile, 16-month road trip

Many people fantasize about quitting the rat race and exploring the world, but few actually have the guts to do it.

Nikki Levi and Jakob Celnik, graduates of the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, quit their well-paying corporate jobs, bought a van, and drove 38,000 miles across the Americas.

Their journey lasted 16 months and took them across Canada and down the West Coast of California, through Central and South America, and down to Ushuaia, Argentina, an area also known as the "end of the earth."

Levi worked at Citigroup in New York as a high-yield credit-research analyst for four years before moving to Apple. Celnik worked at the Blackstone Group, also in New York, for almost three years before moving over to Soros Fund Management.

"While leaving our jobs, we were terrified," Levi told Business Insider.

"How can you leave finance? I mean the money ... that's all there is to live for right?" she joked.

"But in hindsight, we shouldn't have been ... We cannot buy time, so we try to enjoy the time we do have doing the things we love, with the people and animals we love," she said.

Levi, Celnik, and their dog, Leika, set off on the adventure of a lifetime in May 2014. Here's what their journey was like: