(Day 225 on the road) After my stint in the Amazon, I headed to the coast for a while, to the small - but not very pretty - surfer town of Huanchaco (and the awesome nearby pre-Inka ruins of Chan Chan). I ended up staying a few days longer than I had planned, as the road to my next destination - Huaraz, high up in the Andes - was blocked by protesters. So I was stuck for a while waiting for the road to be cleared. I did manage to find a nice room with a view of the sea (plus a nearby hostel with morning yoga classes and a great vegetarian restaurant), but unfortunately my room also overlooked the road running between my hotel and the ocean. Now, the thing about city streets in Peru ... read more

(Day 194 on the road) There are famous places in this world that you read a lot about before you actually visit. Mystical or remote places that capture the imagination, places that are elevated to a higher level in the mind. Places you want to visit for many years, often decades. But once you've arrived, these places sometimes seem rather ordinary and don't quite live up to the high expectations you've set for them. Not so Machu Picchu. Like most people, I had seen the iconic photographs of this ancient Inca site all my life, so I sort of knew what to expect. But when I finally approached Machu Picchu at the Sun Gate, high above the actual ruins, I was still overwhelmed by its sheer beauty. This is one of those places where pictures just ... read more

(Day 152 on the road) If one had secretly beamed me from Colombia into Ecuador, it would have taken me a while to realize that I am in a different country at all. The two neighbours are pretty similar to me as an ignorant foreigner - the language of course, the culture, the food (think fried chicken with rice), the beautiful Andean landscape, the aggressive street dogs, the car alarms going off 143 times day and night, the incredible friendliness of the people. One thing that is different in Ecuador is the proficiency of the English language. A fair number of people here speak either pretty good or at least basic English, which is a very welcome change from Colombia, where literally nobody spoke any English. It might be related to the fact that a whopping ... read more

(Day 86 on the road) Not further accelerating climate change can be hard. Faced with the choice between a 16-hours bus-ride for 20€ or a 50-minute flight for 35€, I admit that I opted for the plane. Thus, leaving Bucaramanga in Central Colombia, I soon found myself in the northern, somewhat shady city of Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast. It felt like being in a different country. For one, compared to the central parts of Colombia, the northern coastal area seemed poorer and less developed. Power cuts were frequent – if there was electricity at all. A number of places I visited relied entirely on diesel generators. Maybe counter-intuitively, prices for most things - especially accommodation & food - were higher (not just in some remote areas, but also in the bigger cities). The culture ... read more

(Day 23 on the road) After a fairly painless flight and a late-night Uber into the city, I arrived in Santo Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. The main reason for coming here was to take a language course for a week to brush up my Spanish, before hitting South America a few weeks later. The school was located in Sosua, on the north coast of the island; and all in all, it was the right decision to start with the course. I did learn a lot, and since my co-students did not always show up for class, I often ended up being the only student. Nice. The next couple of weeks I spent exploring the island - the beautiful Samana peninsula in the north-east, the capital of Santo Domingo, Jaracaboa in the mountainous inland ... read more