A five year walk over the seven continents.
Beyond the Páramo I set my tent on the edge of a cliff bordered by pine trees and tall grass. The grass hid me from the road and the trees gave me some protection from the wind. Through the bug net of my tent I could see the massive Andean gorge splitting two mountains. Following […]
The indigenous woman held up a clump of dirt and cocked her arm back. She hissed something in Quichua, the Incan language which sounded most akin to Parseltongue, then raised her arm higher. I didn’t understand, the moment before I was laughing as the herd of sheep approached and Savannah pounced around them as […]
By four-thirty on my third day from Quito I’d walked twenty-seven miles. I’d been searching for a place to set my tent for an hour but nothing cropped up. There weren’t any woods or nooks to hide in. All around me were pastures, each acre marked by a cottage. I paused at an empty […]
With every border crossing I’m amazed at how much difference the laws of men can make. Each country varies greatly, not just in infrastructure, but in mood. Crossing from Colombia into Ecuador felt similar to when I crossed from Honduras to Nicaragua. The biggest difference being the danger in Honduras was known and palpable, while […]
I was roughly a hundred kilometers from Popayán and the landscape was transforming from farms to desert. Gradually the trees turned prickly, and fat cattle were replaced by gaunt horses roaming the dusty earth. Cars were rare. Houses were rectangular blocks of dried clay. In the unbridled heat, I crossed a long yellow bridge above […]
I had a spectacular view; each mountain taller than those in front of it, winding paths arriving at isolated farmhouses, and a clay-colored river cutting through the valley far below. La Plata, the last city I passed through was sixteen miles back. Belén, the next town was some undetermined distance ahead, and beyond that were […]
The hotel’s rusted gate was swung open. To my left a plywood sign hung over an old plastic one. The place didn’t seem like it was open, but I was decidedly finished with the day so it was worth checking out. I stood a little straighter to make myself as presentable as possible as I […]
Before continuing my path to meet my friends in Costa Rica there was one city I wanted to visit. I’d read an article on Granada claiming the city to be ‘The Paris of Central America.’ I doubted the statement, but after seeing pictures knew I had to see for myself. The night before arriving in […]
I had to be near the top. Since nine in the morning I’d been walking uphill. My view had changed from a parched wasteland to semi-green mountains rippling into the distance. There was a steady breeze and it smelled of cows and farming. The air was cooler, but just about anywhere would have been cooler […]