Author: Alwin Bakker

Choquequirao instead of Machu Picchu
Peru, Recommendations, Travelling

Choquequirao instead of Machu Picchu

We had debated this one for a long time. Luckily we were fortunate enough to have the enormous stretch through the desert along the Peruvian coast to think about it. This stretch wasn’t particularly interesting so plenty of reason to keep our mind occupied otherwise. In the end, we decided to go to Choquequirao instead of Machu Picchu. And we were happy we did. Although we haven’t been to Machu Picchu, which kinda feels like we’ve missed something, but it […]

Peru, Travelling

The dangerous and ugly desert

Crossing the border with Peru changed the landscape massively, from green coloured mountains to a desert in no time. This wasn’t the first border where the landscape changed drastically, from Mexico to Guatemala for example we experienced the exact same change. Just the other way around. Welcome to the dangerous and ugly desert. The Peruvian coast (north of Lima) is not famous for being a highlight of the Pan American highway for most people. It’s a long stretch along the […]

shadows on the road - venezuelan refugee stream
Border Crossings, Colombia, Ecuador, Travelling

The Venezuelan refugee stream

Our overlanding down days faded away in the Colombian mountains. Driving at night it came a little unexpected, when the road suddenly started climbing. Our navigation app Maps.me shows us a lot of information, but not the altitude. What Maps.me also didn’t show us, is that we were following the Venezuelan refugee stream as well.. As soon as we got to higher elevations, we were more in our element in the mountains, the surroundings improved massively and the temperatures dropped. […]

colombian overlanding down days
About Us, Colombia, Grisu, Mechanical Work, Travelling

Overlanding Down Days

When we finally had Grisu back on the road again, we should have been happy. We were, but it also turned out to be a little be a down time. We felt a lot of precious time was wasted and within a few days some sad messages arrived from across the Atlantic. The “anger” of the process of shipping hadn’t been gone by retrieving our vehicle back, unfortunately. So these were definitely our overlanding down days of the trip so […]

How wild camping safety is counter intuitive
Camping, Tips and Tricks, Travelling

How freedom camping safety is counter intuitive

It’s considered unsafe and dangerous in many places or countries, since at night is when things happen that you don’t want to happen. The night still is to many of us, scary. Fear results in more subconscious based decisions, but the secret of freedom camping safety lies in something very counter-intuitive for many people. This won’t apply to people camping in safe areas in generally safe countries, in a National Park in Canada for example. This is about camping in […]

paperwork bureaucracy and a patience test to collect my vehicle in colombia after shipping
Border Crossings, Colombia, Darien Gap, Grisu, Preparations, Tips and Tricks, Travelling

Paperwork, bureaucracy and a patience test

After a lot of back and forth about the shipping options we agreed with Einmalrundum to book the flat rack. We confirmed with the agent (Tea) that we’d been in contact with and we received the instructions on how to proceed. It was a relief having made a decision, but we weren’t completely confident, knowing some horror-stories from fellow overlanders. Not that we would have had many other options, since almost every company or agent we contacted didn’t respond (sufficiently). […]

shipped once around the darien gap with a flat rack
Border Crossings, Colombia, Darien Gap, Grisu, Panama, Preparations, Travelling

“Once-around” the Darien Gap

All the options described before have some larger drawbacks. And for a long time (months) we’ve tried to organise this without these major drawbacks, a bit naive probably. In the end we did ship in a way not described in the previous blog, but some of the drawbacks still applied. We ended up booking a flat-rack, which is essentially a container without walls & roof and therefore not the size restrictions. Reason; We were within the 1cm range of fitting […]

shipped with plan f-
Border Crossings, Colombia, Darien Gap, Grisu, Panama, Preparations, Travelling

Plan F- Across the Darien Gap

The whole Pan American Highway stretches from Alaska to southern Argentina. Most people who are driving it, have their own variation. And this is how it should be, there are too many different routes possible, which is also part of what makes it so amazing. So do we have our own way, basically from British Columbia to Chile, and from there.. who knows.. But regardless of your route, everybody faces one mutual problem, roughly halfway down. The Darien Gap, where […]

travelling through central america
Border Crossings, Camping, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Hospitality, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Travelling

Central America

After we made it to Panama, from where ship to Colombia, time to review. Due to time restrictions, and regulations around pets (Layla), we haven’t been to Belize and El Salvador. In the other countries we stayed 4-5 days each. Travelling through Mexico and Central America was great, where sometimes our expectations were met, but not always. We were most excited about… Guatemala. Definitely our highlight for sure! Here our surroundings became green and mountainous again. We found a nice […]

Grisu parked up for some Nicaraguan action
Camping, Nicaragua, Travelling

Nicaraguan action

It was late in the afternoon, the sun was about to go down, as we drove through Granada near Lake Nicaragua. We were kinda in a hurry as we wanted to take a quick swim in the lake before nightfall. On iOverlander we had found a spot near the water, a spot with private security at the highest level, right next to a military base. We had no clue what kind off Nicaraguan action we were up to for that […]