We’ve well and truely finished the Pan-American now. It’s been two month since we sold our van and left Chile. Now we’re on our way to Europe to spend summer there. I thought I’d write a brief summary of the trip with tips for anyone else who might be contemplating undertaking a similar adventure. We … Continue reading Planning the Pan-American (not)
Category: adventure
Escape from Peru
Driving the length of the Pan American isn’t the easiest enterprise but some circumstances just make it really, really hard. We recently had that happen during our time in Peru. It all started when we crossed the border from Ecuador. We’d picked the most remote border crossing possible, high in the mountains and near a … Continue reading Escape from Peru
Ayahuasca, with help from ChatGPT
Last week, while in the Ecuadorian Amazon, I indulged in an Ayahuasca ceremony. It didn't go well, and afterwards I typed up a fairly straightforward account of what happened. I also managed to get my hands on the newly released ChatGPT so I had a try at seeing what it could do with the text … Continue reading Ayahuasca, with help from ChatGPT
From Central to South America
We’re in Cartagena, Colombia and are in the process of shipping our van from Panama City. There’s no way to drive from Panama to Colombia as the Pan American Highway ends at the edge of an impassable jungle region called the Darian Gap. It’s a nasty, largely untouched rainforest used by smugglers, inhabited by native … Continue reading From Central to South America
Should have bought a car
Is the Pan American best done in a van or a car?
El Salvador on a tank of gas
A week in El Salavdor on our Pan American road trip.
Baja in summer in a van
Baja California is that long strip of land running south of San Diego and west of mainland Mexico. Until recently I didn’t really know anything about it. Baja isn’t a place that is mentioned much in the news and it’s not somewhere full of ancient ruins or famous cities. So, we drove across the Mexican … Continue reading Baja in summer in a van
Colorado to Mexico – the ‘cool’ route
Travelling anywhere in summer these days requires a degree of flexibility to dodge extreme weather events that are becoming ever more prevalent. After recovering from Covid in the mountains of Colorado we were faced with a choice of directions to continue. Obviously we needed to head south, towards Mexico but we'd just passed through the … Continue reading Colorado to Mexico – the ‘cool’ route
Struck down by Covid in Colorado
Shortly after buying the van and getting some essential repairs done I started developing some of the usual covid symptoms. A few days and a positive test later we found ourselves having to undertake a real deep dive into the pleasures of van life - self isolating in a foreign country with no support at … Continue reading Struck down by Covid in Colorado
Buying a Home
It’s our one month anniversary of arriving the United States after a three week stint traveling around New Zealand and things have finally settled down enough to write this blog post. Up until now the trip has been one of dealing with issues that could threaten to derail the whole project of traveling the Pan … Continue reading Buying a Home