Long time no blog! But I have been legitimately busy. I arrived in Uruguay about three weeks ago and decided to first travel around the country, as far and wide as possible. Before that I was writing a travel guide together with a Real Digital Nomad™ (someone who travels and works from a laptop and Read more >
A Quiet Birthday
Pfew… That time of the year is over again! Last week I turned 25 and the day just passed like that. It’s the second time I’m in Buenos Aires, Argentina on my birthday, but it was really different from when I went from 19 to 20 at my guest family. This time year: no celebration, Read more >
Five Years Ago
The past weeks I’ve been very silent on the blog and social media. BUT I HAVE RESURFACED! The last major update from Ushuaia, Argentina, was about quitting smoking and I know you might be thinking I started again, but that’s not the case at all. That’s actually going mighty fine! Five years ago to the Read more >
“The End of the World” – or whatever…
Twelve days ago I had my last ride to Ushuaia, Argentina, also known as “The End of the World” (Argentina’s greatest marketing success!) and smoked my last cigarette upon arrival. Today I leave the place that embraced my – for now – last cigarette butt and hitchhike back to where the sun wants to shine. Read more >
Vlog: Border Crossing Chile to Argentina
In my second vlog I'm hitchhiking across the border from Chile to Argentina over two days time. It requires me to take a (highly subsidized) Chilean ferry across a beautiful lake and deal with immigration and no man's land between the two countries. It's autumn in South America in April and I'm still going further south, into the cold! Patagonia is a beautiful place to hitchhike though and after almost 90 days in Chile, it's time for a little change. Read more >
Chiloé Archipelago
It’s hard to imagine I’ve spent nearly two weeks here, but the time really did fly by island hopping and digital detoxing in the Chiloé Archipelago. It’s a group of islands in the south of Chile that many drivers had spoken of before about how special this place is. Not a single driver was like Read more >
It’s a Vlog! Hitchhiking Southern Chile
I had been playing around with this idea for a while now but here it is: my first vlog! Some fans had showed their interest before in me making a video of a day in the life of a hitchhiker, but I never really went for it until now. It took some nerves to use that 'recording' button for the first time with my face in it, but what's really the difference from taking a photo? That's just besides my complete lack of video editing skills until I tried with the help of Windows Movie Maker and what Youtube provides, with tips from a friend. It took me hours to put this baby together, but I'm sure that if you… Read more >
Blackberries: Autumn is the New Summer
It’s the season of the free blackberries in the south of Chile! Nearly all my hitchhiking spots were surrounded by these bushes. Somehow, nobody else eats them. I wonder why, as it’s tasty, healthy and most importantly completely free. A bush like this in a public area in Europe would have been looted the minute Read more >
South! Por Favor…
“SOUTH” It is the only hitchhiking sign I’ve really needed to travel down Chile. A month ago I was already getting (truck) rides offered to Puerto Montt, but until now I always had to respond with that I wasn’t going that far south, yet. Until now. I’ve actually arrived in Puerto Montt and it wasn’t Read more >
5 Essential Online Security Tips for Vagabonds – Guest Post
I would like to thank Iris for publishing this article. Her blog is a great place to follow her fearless and epic solo adventure and an amazing inspiration for female travelers looking to get over the fear of traveling alone. After reading this I recommend you check out her post on tackling sexual harassment when abroad. For backpackers, hitchhikers, squatters and couch surfers, we spend such a large amount of our time listening to the fear-mongering of others pointing out the dangers and flaws in the way we chose to live, that we’ve successfully, and tactically, learned to tune out security tips and take them with a hefty pinch of salt. However, although on the road our calculated risks pay off and often result in unplanned and unchartered adventure, gambling with our online security is not as productive a move. It goes without saying that most travelers of the modern age rely heavily on the internet. Whether it’s to keep… Read more >
The Circuit of the Seven Lakes, Chile
A cold morning at the lakeside in Chile’s south. It’s part of the awesome “circuit of the seven lakes” and the region is still quite hitchable one week after the Chilean school holidays have ended – something I’ve been looking forward to since arriving here. Some of the villages have been polluted with tourism over Read more >
Earthquake Memorial in Chanco, Chile
After receiving an invitation from a Spanish blog reader living and working in Chile, I decided to make a little detour to visit her in Chanco. She’s an architecture student with her studies on hold to reconstruct buildings damaged by the 2010 earthquake, which happened to be exactly six years ago when I recently hitchhiked Read more >
Santiago de Chile: Achievement Unlocked!
Hello from the road side! Your friendly neighborhood world-wide hitchhiker just arrived in Santiago de Chile, the capital city. To get here I hitchhiked an empty bus/van of sorts and met a guy who lived in Punta Arenas (close-ish to Antarctica and my goal going South) for 15 years. He was planning to just stay Read more >
Reading in La Serena’s Japanese Garden
En route to Santiago de Chile there’s many cities worth a visit, but somehow there seems to be only domestic tourism. One of them is the city of La Serena, which has a sweet Japanese garden, good for book reading and a mandatory relaxation session with ducks, koi fish and some scary looking swans. I’ve Read more >
Trees & Rain Please
The Atacama is a huge desert, yet it only takes a handful of cars to get going to where you need to be! As in entire Chile you can basically only travel North or South, nearly all traffic goes a long distance and it’s easy to find a ride to Chile’s capital city Santiago. But Read more >
Cooking at the Chilean Coast
Who’s up for a cup of mint tea on the beach? I finally found a cheap camp stove with a pretty universal fuel system in a shop that also sells children’s toys and Christmas decoration (!?) and other completely random objects. Of course I went to try it out directly by freecamping on this beach Read more >
Paranal Observatory, Chile: Tour Group Crashing
Today cannot be described as anything else than plain epic. I hitchhiked from Antofagasta to the Paranal Observatory, expecting not to come closer to the Very Large Telescope than security guys, but it is a Saturday today and the tour group was just about to leave. The guy at the gate approached me and I Read more >
Pisagua, Chile: Squatter’s Paradise
Northern Chile has provided me with a lot of fun things to do so far, but one of the most rewarding detours off the main road south has been visiting the hamlet of Pisagua and its abundant former glory. This used to be one of Chile’s biggest ports back in the day, which one can’t Read more >