What have I gotten myself into? I flew to Coyhaique today, about 1500km south of Santiago, and as we descended to land, so I descended into a mini panic. After the pilot parked the plane, it continued to get jostled around a bit, and I figured it was the grounds crew with baggage offloaders, stairs, etc. But it wasn’t, it was the wind BLOWING STRONGLY

Phase 2: South America Phase 2 of my sabbatical has only two constraints. First, arrive in Santiago. Check. Then, in mid-May, depart from Lima. Obviously no check yet. But between now and then, total freedom. So what am I planning on doing? Well… The plan The plan is to get kitted out with a full bikepacking rig, get to Villa O’Higgens, the southernmost point on

NZ: Auckland, Tongariro, Wellington, Wairarapa, Rotorua, Coromandel, Bay of Islands Gonna be a long one, sorry! (The order of things, roughly) Auckland We landed in Auckland after having blasted through SE Asia and Australia at a constantly hectic pace, so it was lovely when we met up with Vera’s friends Jo and James and just kinda chilled. Small walk, shopped for dinner, then

I’m sad and I don’t want to work anymore Last week with V Well, to start with, I’m not really sad, just feel the skies darkening as the day V and I split approaches. We’ve had the first two months of our travels together, as planned. The hope is to have another 2+ in July and August, though that is still tbd. Regardless of what

Our Australia leg was two parts, too quickly. First, a couple days visiting friends in Sydney, then a few more days in Port Douglas visiting the Great Barrier Reef and Daintree National Park. Sydney Sydney is great, full stop. It’s like a warmer, cleaner version of San Francisco that has been overrun by surfer bros instead of tech bros. I prefer the surfer vibe. And

Singapore: The Disneyland of SE Asia We took a bus from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore. This time, all highways, all straight lines, so no travel sickness for V. The visual journey was deceptive. You cross a bridge, go through customs, and come out the other side. The road quality doesn’t really change (unlike, say, driving from Germany to Switzerland, where you can see the border

Malaysia Our Malaysian itinerary: Penang/George Town, Cameron Highlands, Kuala Lumpur. I have to admit, Malaysia has never really been on my radar, so though I had heard of Kuala Lumpur, I was basically going in blind. George Town In 1786, a dude from the British East India Company purchased the jungled island of Penang from one of the mainland Sultans, as the locals on the

One of the parts of the trip Vera and I were both most excited about was the jungle trek in Sumatra and the quest to see Orangutans. We had booked a three day, two night trek (with Sumatra Orangutan Explore, can’t recommend them highly enough) starting from Bukit Lawang in northern Sumatra and heading into Gunung Leuser national park. Apart from the traffic which turned

I’m not sure why, but I find myself struggling to write, or even to want to write, about our travels. Not because we’re not enjoying ourselves. On the contrary, we’re loving every minute of it. Rather, I think there are two reasons: first, we’re very much in the moment, and I don’t often feel like stepping away from the moment to then reflect on it