Adventure is our state of mind
Running through a town? What kind of way of exploring a place is that, you may ask. Did I get to see anything at all? Yes, I did. In fact, running through Goiás Velha was exactly what made my visit to this 17th century, colonial town … [Read more...]
In the doorway stands an elderly man. Our eyes meet and I shake his hand. "You are lucky to live in such a beautiful building. What an incredibly tiled façade your home has," I comment. For the past couple of hours I have been strolling through the … [Read more...]
"Why would you want to go to Brasília? It is an ugly city that lacks a soul," is the most common remark I have heard from Brazilians about their capital. Despite these discouraging words I decided to visit the city and judge for myself. My … [Read more...]
"Farinha in your coffee?!" "Oh yes, that's the best breakfast. Much more nutritious than biscuits or white bread, like kids want to eat today. Drink coffee with some grains of manioc in it and you don't need to eat for hours," my host Maria … [Read more...]
I feel as if I am looking at a scene in the cartoon of Jack and the Beanstalk. The tree trunk is a good three meters wide, and as I look up, I see that the tree divides into three immensely thick branches that reach high into the sky, as if they are … [Read more...]
It's Sunday, late afternoon. The weekend vacationers from Manaus have returned home and peace reigns once more over the small tourist town of Novo Airão. As a result I am the only one to go swimming with dolphins – what a stroke of luck. I meet … [Read more...]
The waterfalls of Iguaçu have been credited with all kinds of superlatives: the best, the highest, the largest, the most spectacular, the deepest, the most impressive. They create expectations and because my partner Coen and I like to get what we … [Read more...]
We should have come with a guide, we realized in hindsight. Nobody spoke English. My partner Coen and I had been convinced our taxi driver had understood we wanted to visit a silk factory but when we walked through the doorway we realized we had … [Read more...]
From our apartment I look out over the beach, the mouth of the lagoon, and the ocean. During the morning hours it is quiet: a fisherman may be returning with his catch or somebody is going for a stroll along the shore. Somewhere after 11 am … [Read more...]
I traveled for thirty hours by bus traversing one of the world's largest deserts – the Taklamakan Desert – and got off in the middle of nowhere in a town called Turpan. I was intrigued by the region for two reasons: The extremes of landscape: … [Read more...]
