Vlog: Border Crossing Chile to Argentina

26th April 2016 Iris Veldwijk

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

2nd April 201614th November 2016 Iris Veldwijk

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

31st March 201631st March 2016 Iris Veldwijk

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

17th March 201617th March 2016 Iris Veldwijk

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…

13th March 201613th March 2016 Iris Veldwijk

“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

10th March 201625th October 2016 Jess Signet

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

8th March 20168th March 2016 Iris Veldwijk

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

2nd March 20162nd March 2016 Iris Veldwijk

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!

23rd February 201623rd February 2016 Iris Veldwijk

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 >

la serena book reading japanese garden hitchhiking chile

Reading in La Serena’s Japanese Garden

21st February 201621st February 2016 Iris Veldwijk

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

20th February 201621st February 2016 Iris Veldwijk

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 camp stove camping freecamping wildcamping beach camping chile

Cooking at the Chilean Coast

20th February 201621st February 2016 Iris Veldwijk

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

7th February 20166th April 2017 Iris Veldwijk

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

5th February 20169th February 2016 Iris Veldwijk

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 >

Beach Camping in Northern Chile

30th January 20161st February 2016 Iris Veldwijk

It’s tough to give a summary of the things I’ve done in northern Chile in the past weeks, but it involved a lot of freecamping at beaches and the ruins of ghost mining towns in the Atacama desert region. This beach between Tocopilla and Iquique, found on the amazing app discovery called iOverlander (there’s an Read more >

Chajnantor Observatory, Chile

29th January 20161st February 2016 Iris Veldwijk

In San Pedro de Atacama – the biggest tourist trap in the north of Chile – I managed to get to the entrance of one of the European Southern Observatory sites here in Chile, the ALMA and top secret APEX at 4.800m above sea level on Chajnantor plateau. The observatories are above 5.000m and even Read more >

Termas Polloquere hot springs Chile Arica y Parinacota Iquique

Camping at the Termas Polloquere, Chile

24th January 20161st February 2016 Iris Veldwijk

Sunrise over the Termas Polloquere (free hot springs!) in northern Chile. The sulphuric steam was a little smelly but all in all it made a pretty good bath. I usually don’t take baths twice a day, for obvious reasons.. I’m not sure if freecamping was actually allowed, but nobody really seems to care about what Read more >

Hot Springs in Chile

23rd January 20161st February 2016 Iris Veldwijk

Fresh update from Chile! The past days I’ve been exploring the Arica y Parinacota region from the coast to the mountains while freecamping at hot springs and ruins. Yes, nice warm hot springs, good enough to keep a hitchhiker clean, though smelly of sulphur.. it’s kind of a weird idea to sit down in a Read more >

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