We've made it out of Bolivia and my engine is running again. It's six weeks later than I had planned but we made it. The original plan had me and my dad travel for a bit more than a week after finishing the rebuild. Because of all the extra drama…

I basically spend the whole month of September in Uyuni getting my van fixed. I only left town three times: I drove out to San Christobal one day thinking the van was fixed, but I had to hurry back quickly because I was using more oil than diesel; I had…

Guess Who's Back in Town! It's Me and the Broken Van! Quick recap! So in the middle of the Salt Flats in Uyuni (Bolivia) 50 km from any road, 80 km from any town, my engine had decided to die. I managed to get my van from the Salt Flats…

August was a month that did not go as planned at all. I flew back to Bolivia from the Netherlands and planned to make it to Chile with only a few stops. Instead my engine died and I ended up being stuck in Uyuni for a large part of the…

So here I am, waking up at the mechanic's shop after my engine blew up in the middle of the salt flats. Latin American workshops are never a pretty sight and this one is no exception. The place is so full of cars that I can barely get out of…

It has been three months since I last wrote a story here. This is not because I had no time or because I no longer cared about updating my story. I've been trying to write this story for weeks, but I had to many excuses not to start and the…

Aiquile After some lazy days in Samaipata I have to head on. Sucre is not that far away but according to my GPS the first 200km will already take me 5 hours. Soon enough the road turns into a big dust bowl. Partially old road, partially road under construction, all…

Travelling wise July was only half a month. On the 16th of July I flew back to the Netherlands for 3.5 weeks of catching up with family and friends. The part I did spend travelling was mostly filled by annoying stuff. The Good Hanging out with people I've met before…

The Netherlands After all the stress in Bolivia and two flights it was great to be back in Europe for a bit more than three weeks. I already got through security and was having breakfast with my parents at the airport by the time I was supposed to land. My…

Cochabamba So it's Saturday morning in La Paz. Yesterday I got my visa extension. The only things left now so I can go back to Europe for a few weeks are getting to Santa Cruz and getting my car import permit extended. The aduana offices are closed for the weekend,…

Still trying to catch up on the web posts. So here is the summary for June 2017. I started near the coast in Huacachina, Peru and ended in Copacabana, just across the border in Bolivia. June was an intense month. I got new records on highest driving, sleeping and hiking;…

Copacabana Now I've finally received my van insurance for the remaining countries of this trip I can head to Bolivia. I thought I was really close to the border but it is still a 2 hour drive. The passport line takes a while because there's only one lady handling all…

Cusco Vincent's visit the last six days was loads of fun, but because it was so short it was pretty tiring.  Today I'm not leaving the campsite. Luckily there are loads of people at the campsite to hang out with. Lucas, Eveline and Nicolas just returned from their awesome sounding…

Cusco After the long adventurous ride from Colca Canyon to my slightly weird hot spring camp spot, it is now time to drive to Cusco before Vincent arrives tomorrow. It's not very far and I left early so I can take some breaks along the road through the Sacred valley.…

Arequipa Last time I just arrived in Arequipa after saying goodbye to the ocean for the next few months. My camp spot is really central and only a 10 minute walk to the central square. It isn't much more than a campsite parking lot and on the other side of…

It's already the end of July and I'm only now writing my summary about May. Luckily I have my travel journal to look at what happened such a long time ago. May started on the coast in northern Peru. After some great mountain time near Huaraz and some lazy time…

Paracas Peninsula Out of Lima, back into the desert for a long long drive. I end up on the Paracas peninsula, a rocky desert blob surrounded by nice ocean. For it being a desert it has a surprising amount of bird life going on. I camp on a cliff next…

Lima time! Even before my trip stared Egbert told me to check with him before getting to Lima. He used to live in Lima for some years and still has some Dutch friends living there. So a few weeks ago I contacted Hans and Yvonne to see if they wanted…

I can't leave the hostel in the mountains above Huaraz without giving half the hostel a ride down to town. Today's drive has quite some height meters I started at 3900 drove down to the valley at 2600m up to Punta Olympica at 4700m down to the next valley at…

The last story ended with me visiting the so manieth adobe ruins in the desert. Enough desert, enough beach, it is time for some real mountains. I'm heading to the Cordilleras Blancas. A mountain range that is only 180km long but has more than 50 peaks of over 5700m. Comparison:…

So that was enough time relaxing on the coast. Time to do something. Let's start with visiting some archaeological sites! There should be some pyramids around Chiclayo. It's pretty long stretch to drive in one day but there is really nothing to see along the way. It is all just…

With April 2017 done time is starting to fly. "Only" 8 more months and 4 more countries left until I'm done. In April I started with a broken van in south Colombia, crossed the equator in Ecuador and ended up at the coast in Peru. The Good The mountains had some…

So even though I had cracked the secret to partially good days in the mountains by getting up early, I had decided to give myself and the van some rest and head down to the coast for some much needed sun and heat. But to get from Cuenca to the…

The day I left Quito was the big experiment day: will the van be OK driving over 4000m, will I be OK sleeping at 3900m and does my new weather plan of doing everything before 2 in the afternoon work? The highest I have been so far with the van…

My time in "scary" country Colombia comes to an end and it is time for my first border crossing of South America. I've heard rumors that sounded too good to be true. No copies, no payments, short queues. Just to be sure I arrived early at the border as always.…

March 2017 makes twelve months, a year on the road. On the 2nd of April 2016 I arrived in New York. Now I'm stuck in southern Colombia with a broken van. This is just my standard month summary post. There will be a larger "one-year-on-the-road" post coming up soon. The…

From sunny San Augustin there are two options to go back across the Andes in the direction of Ecuador. The first option is just follow the road from San Augustin further up the mountains. It's supposed to be in similar condition as the last crossing I did: not optimal but…

Crossing the Andes once again. My first crossing of the Andes went pretty good. There's quite a few interesting things to see back on the other side so I decided to cross once again. This crossing was supposed to be quite a bit harder. More narrow, more steep, more holes.…

So I got out of cold, gray, expensive Bogota as quick as I could. I was going to head in the direction of Medellin which meant I was up for my first Andes crossing. The road went from 2600m to 2900m down to 700m back up to 1700 and finally…

No more Caribbean coasts for me this trip. It is time to head south once again. The first part of the drive from Playa Los Angeles is flat and boring. There isn't much around not even spots to camp. I don't really feel like camping behind a gas station so…

February was a very different month. I spend the first two weeks being more lazy than I’ve been so far on this trip, after that it was time to cross the infamous Darian Gap and I finished with the intense four day Ciudad Perdida hike. The Good The Darian Gap.…

Five minutes out of the harbor in Cartagena and I already have my first challenge of South America: getting out of Cartagena. The roads are very busy especially with scooters that come from all directions. To make life more fun my GPS decides to be crap: it keeps sending me…

After a month of relaxing time comes the most feared part of the trip. The crossing of the infamous Darien Gap. The Panamarican highway stretches all the way from Alaska to the bottom of Argentina. All the way? No not all the way. A small 160 km section between Panama…

2017! A new year of travelling. After 10 months I have now driving enough kilometres to go around the earth once. In January I’m still in Central America I travelled 1 week with my parents and Jasper in Nicaragua. After that it was two weeks in Costa Rica with Maarten…

Papapanama! My first day alone on the road in a about a month and a half and it is time for my favorite hobby: border crossings! The Costa Rica border is pretty straightforward. Just a queue and an exit tax. At the Aduana I ignite a discussion on which country is…

The rain did finally stop in La Fortuna. Maarten and I woke up to a sunny morning and hauled all our wet clothes from the hike yesterday outside to let them dry a bit. We plan to drive some more mountains today in the direction of the Poas volcano. The…

Border crossing! I left the last story at the beautiful beach of Popoyo in Nicaragua. Today Mike, Lyndsay and I are going to cross into Costa Rica. It's still a bit of a drive to the border. We heard Costa Rica is going to be way more expensive so we…

December was a while ago, but I was a bit busy having people visit me. So here is the summary of the last month of 2016 and month number 9 of this trip. I headed from Guatemala to El Salvador with a quick sprint through Honduras I ended in Nicaragua.…

Week two with my parents and Jasper in Nicaragua. We just got to mainland after a very welcome calm ferry tour from Isla Ometepe. Because we went kayaking in the morning everything was a bit later than planned. So when we finally arrived in the volcanic crater of Apoyo it was…

After our border adventure I have one more day with Mike and Lyndsay before we need to head to our Christmas destinations. The city on the way is Leon. One of the nice colonial cities of Nicaragua. The roads from the border to Leon are amazing. Wide, perfect tarmac, no…

Today it is time for a different story. No sightseeing or lazy days. This story is about the more serious and sometimes stressful side of the trip: border crossings. Quite some of you have asked me for posts on the other side of the trip. So this time a full…

So last time I was camping behind a locked gate in a dirty parking lot without toilets on my first night in El Salvador. The van had broken down for a third weekend in a row and I couldn't find the spare parts I needed. It was literally just hanging…

With the van working I headed back to Rio Dulce. It's a good spot for some lazy time and I forgot my chair at the campsite, so two good reasons to head back. The American family is still there and they greet my return with the return of my chair. The…

From Antigua I am going to head north for a one week drive to the Maya ruins in Tikal. The plan is to get to tropical Rio Dulce on the first day. It's a long drive but there isn't much to stop for. I've had enough of mountain driving causing van problems…

And that's month number 8. This would have been the halfway time in my original plans. But with the new plan it's more like one third. This month I took Spanish lessons and watched the sunrise on a volcano. I'm done with the big countries for now. Heading into Guatemala.…

Another chance of trying to kayak ruined. The second day in Pana I wasn't feeling to well and decided to sleep all day. At noon one of the security guys with a shotgun knocked on my van to make sure I was alright (and to collect another day of money). With…

Lucky me, my van didn't get flushed away with the river forming underneath my van. On the way to the Guatemalan border I spend my last Pesos on some diesel. When I got to the Mexican side of the border, I saw two American cars already parked there. Two couples…

So I'm back in San Cristobal again, I really like this city. The first night I go out for dinner with Joel (who still lives here, see last San Cristobal post). We eat Ceviche: raw fish in a lemon sauce. Mine had shrimp, octopus and some white fish in a…

This is the seventh monthly summary I wrote. I can't believe that I've actually been on the road for seven months now. It feels every normal to live in a van and live through new adventures every week. I expected I might get annoyed by it after a while but…

Well that was stressful... In 6 days I flew from Cancun to Brussels, Eindhoven to Munich, Munich to Eindhoven, Brussels to Cuba and Cuba to Cancun. The wedding was good fund and it was great to see everyone again, but I could really use some easy time. To make things…

The second week that Tessa and Egbert joined me had a decent dose of drama. The van had some issues making a 30 minute drive up a mountain take 3 hours; we encountered the first roadblocks (with armed/masked guys); and to finish it nicely I got into my first car…

When I get back to Mexico City from the Netherlands, Tessa and Egbert have already been there for a day. They are joining me for some 2.5 weeks between Mexico City and Cancun. By the the time I was supposed to arrive it's already too late to get to my…

Half a year on the road. This whole month I didn't see anyone I know (until I had to go back to NL for a few days). I had the largest culture shock of the trip going from the US to Mexico where I spend most of the month either…

The ferry terminal is near the historic city center of Mazatlan. I said goodbye to my boat friends and drove to town for lunch. On Baja all towns are small and I would just put the church square in the GPS and park there. Mazatlan is a bit bigger and…

Whoah it's hot! My van feels like an oven, waking up at the perfect white sand/blue water beach. It's not even 8 yet but I have to get out. There's no shower so I'll go for a swim. But even in the shade of my hut it's hot. The only option…

Forget everything I have said before. The trip so far was just a stroll in the park. Adventure starts now. Mexico is different, very different. I drive to the border between San Diego and Tijuana. Huge fences everywhere and signs warning people that guns are illegal in Mexico and you…

And that makes 5! Five months of travelling, six months since I left my job and Switzerland. August was spend completely in the US. I had my first co-traveler, visited loads of friends and had another van breakdown. The Good More friends! So good to see people I know and…

My last week in the US did not go as planned at all. It was hot, it was busy and I couldn't leave the country... But I did end up with some of the best days of the trip so far. I left Stanford with a plan to be out…

My Bay Area time was spend with some nice alternative touristic activities. Who builds IKEA furniture and goes for company visits during their travels? Well I do! The Bay Area was always going to be a busy time for visiting friends and family. I had queued up a decent amount…

Previously on Flinking Around: our travelling friend is driving up the steep and hot hills of Crater Lake, but the van is spewing out black smoke and is sounding like an old rusty coffee grinder... This does not look good.... Will he be able to get the van fixed or…

I really like mountains and I really like the ocean. So how do I drive down from Seattle to San Francisco? Do I follow the coast along the beaches filled with driftwood, big rocks and sea lions or do I drive inland and follow the range of volcanic mountains? I guess…

It took a while to get back to the US from Canada. The queue to the border was 1.5 hours. But when I finally got to the front of the line I got through real quick. I had to explain the border people that I was allowed to keep my…

July is done, Canada is done. I've been on the road for 4 months now and this is the first country I'm not getting back to.That's weird.. Canada is a great country especially the bits up north, empty, great landscapes and heaps of wildlife. If you like nature you should…

The change in landscape was huge after I finished the last bit of the Stewart-Cassiar Highway. Mountains disappeared and forests changed into farmlands. Towns which weren't more than a fuel station and a motel changed into standard North American towns with large stores on the main road. My first stop was…

Cleaning the van from the mud collected at the Dempster Highway was actually quite some fun. Because cars regularly get this dirty around here, every gas station had coin operated pressure cleaners. It took me 10 minutes to get the worst off But at least I could look out of my…

Little did I know that the next week would get me to drive so many extremely scary but extremely awesome roads. Dirt, mud, dust, potholes, washboards, ferries, washouts, rain, fog, 24h sun, steep mountains and many many mosquitoes. I left Tok, Alaska to head back to Canada over the Top…

Another month done. This was a weird month I crossed the border from Canada to Alaska on the first day and spend the rest of the month in Alaska. Except of course those two weeks where I flew back to Europe to fix my visa problem (So happy with my…

That smell in the van? Turns out that wasn't me... Already thought it was a weird smell to come from me. I have many smells, most of them are not very nice but I didn't recognize this one. I have been looking all through the van (in the fridge, cupboards,…

With the visa problem sorted out it was time for high priority todo item number 2. Just before leaving I noticed that my left front tire had basically no profile anymore and even had some of the metal sticking out already. This is weird because the profile on the other…

Being back in Europe for almost two weeks in the middle of a huge trip is very weird. But I really wanted to go to Anne and Alex wedding and I had some paper work/visa problems that needed some attention. It also was a good break where I could think through if…

The van flew up that hill and out of Valdez like a rocket! All the way from 0 to 800m elevation in 4th gear without dropping the speed below a still very respectable 70km/h. No reason to be worried at all. The weather was shitty once again so no stops…

Second month on the trip. It really has become daily life. I'm used to driving a lot and getting a new campsite every day. I'm no longer surprised that I'm actually doing this trip. This is my new life now. This month had some interesting statistics: I have not slept…

In my last post I had just arrived in the Yukon. Yukon has an area 12 times the size of the Netherlands (or Switzerland) but there are only 34000 people. The best part of the Alaskan Highway is in this Territory. The roads go over hills, along lakes and mountains.…

Well I should learn my lessons... Two weeks in a row without an empty day (either driving, visiting a city, hiking or a combination); no dinner yesterday (I normally eat late and I got invited for beers early); a few too many beers/schnapps with the friendly Germans and a night…

Wow! I did not expect that. I threw my last post online and just went to bed. The next morning I checked my phone and I had loads and loads of Whatsapp messages, comments on Facebook and this page. Support from all over the world. Thanks a lot! It really…

Last week has been by far the worst week in all of my travels. All the bad stuff got together to slap me in the face: wind and rain during the day; subzero temperatures during the night; empty/closed campsites; and to finish in style my first mayor van breakdown. This week…

After four days of meeting people in Toronto it was time to head back to the US. I had two choices: either cross in Detroit (the busiest crossing between the US and Canada) on a Monday morning or cross at a much smaller crossing a bit further north on a…

May has started which means I have been on the road for more than a month now. With 31 days this has been my longest trip ever (tied with my Japan/Central Europe combo trip). Still I have at least another 365 days to go. With 3000 km driven this is…

Since you seem to enjoy my stories best when stuff does not go according to plan (based on the web statistics), this story will contain some minor hiccups for your entertainment (you can go directly to the *HICCUP* section if you don't care about the stuff that did not go…

It was time for the first of many border crossings. I decided to go in the morning so that if it would take hours I wouldn't get across too late. But crossing the border was easy. Where are you from?; Where is your car from?; What are you going to…

And so it was time to pick up the van. So many things that could go wrong.... (the van could be damaged, lost, maybe customs thought the bottom wasn't clean enough, maybe I was missing some paperwork, maybe..., maybe...) The shipping company in the US had send me some paperwork and…

Finally a story with some drama and not just fun sightseeing. And as it turns out the plastic mattresses mentioned in the last post would be the least of my worries. So I ask you guys do you want more or less drama stories? More! More! More! (No reference to Dutch…

The stories of Boston are told from a very interesting Airbnb loft where I'm spending my (hopefully) last nights in New York. Something with plastic mattresses, a heater at one million degrees (Celsius of Fahrenheid doesn't matter), cats and turtles. But more on that next time... I just got back…

New York part one went by real quick. No time to write a story (Not a good sign if this already happens after the first few days of the big trip). I'm writing this while I'm in the bus to Boston with snow on the side of the roads (camping…

  I'm writing this from my AirBnB room in Brooklyn. I'm trying to pretend it is only 22:30 while it actually is 04:30 for my poor brain. Luckily it's easy to stay awake because the room next to mine has four extremely loud American girls prepping themselves for their night out. I…

I'm officially living in the Netherlands again.... After six and half years in Switzerland and just before I start my trip, I'm back where I spend most of my life. I have been back quite often, but mostly for shorter times and with a very full schedule. Not this time.…

I've been wanting to go on a year long trip for a very long time. But for some reason (mostly being a student), I never had the money and the time (mostly money). So once I got my first real job I started saving some money for the travel fund.…

My last week in Switzerland Wednesday: I no longer have a bed... My last week in Switzerland I'll be sleeping on my own couch. I already got rid of my wardrobe so my bedroom is now completely empty. I've been selling and giving away a lot of my stuff the…