Months

21

Kilometers

> 69’000

Countries

19

I started my trip in Sao Paulo where I bought a BMW 700 GS and all equipment needed to overland the Americas. Besides enjoying the typical stereotypes of Brazil, I also made the painful experience in dealing with the local bureaucracy. I traveled South to Curitiba to do my first motorcycle inspection before heading further to the breathtaking waterfalls of Foz do Iguazu. I explored the Pantanal of Brazil to meet the mighty Jaguar in the worlds largest wetland and continued my way to Bolivia where I had my first motorcycle crash on a sandy road and life threatening allergic shock in San Ignacio. By coincidence I met the BMW motorcycle club of Cochabamba who invited me to experience the Bolivian Carnival and where I lost (and unbelievably found again) my mobile phone with all my personal data in a local taxi. Exploring the wonderful national park and its mesmerising dinosaur footprints of Toro Toro, I drove to the worlds largest salt desert of Uyuni and made the unique experience of sleeping in a hotel entirely made out of salt. I continued my way to highest located capital in the world, La Paz where I enjoyed one of the finest dinners in one of South Americas best restaurants (including coca butter). I risked my life on the death road to Coroico and visited the floating islands of the indigenous Uros on the worlds highest navigable lake Titikaka. On my way to Cusco I slept at a farmer at the foot of the incredible rainbow mountains and mastered the challenging roads and curves of the mountain range of the Andes (including the adventurous Cañon del Pato & Laguna Paron and other amazingly beautiful places in this part of the world). Along the Pan-American Highway, I chilled in a hostel at the surfers paradise Trujillo, visited the Royal Tombs of Sipan Museum in Chiclayo and watched whales off the coast at Mancora. Traveling further North to Ecuador I visited the amazing Galapagos islands to experience the biological evolution theory of Darwin first hand. I admired the unique wildlife including the cool marine iguanas, snorkelled with white tip reef sharks and experienced the Galapagos Giant Tortoise in their natural environment. After driving the Quilotoa loop, visiting a friend in Ecuador’s capital of Quito and the Amazonian rainforest (at this time I was still scared to visit Colombia) I made my way back to the South to visit the Nazca lines, a group of geoglyphs made 500 BCE in the soil of the desert in Southern Peru. Only with the help of the motorcycle riders from Tucuman of Argentina I managed the complicated border challenge of Arica to explore marvellous Chile with unique places of this world such as the Valle de la luna, San Pedro de Atacama, Piedras Rojas, Lagunas Miscanti y Miñiques, the most beautiful road of the world carretera Austral,  Torres del Paine and KM 0 of the Panamericana on the wonderful island of Chiloe. The trip to the South with the ultimate goal to reach the worlds most Southern city Ushuaia came along with crossing multiple times the borders between Chile and Argentina. This is where I also met amazing friends from Colombia, Chile and Brazil to share some of my best and worst travel experiences including a visit of the worlds best wine regions in Mendoza, the fantastic ice glacier of Perito Moreno, the adventurous routa 40, Bariloche, El Chalten, El Calafate, Parque Pinguino Rey and the capital of Argentina Buenos Aires. I crossed Uruguay in 2 days to enjoy some beach time at Florianopolis in Brazils state of Santa Catarina and left my bike at my friends place Joao and Alice to visit my family for the first time in Germany after a long time (but not before sipping at a Caipirinha at the Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro). Coming back to Brazil I fulfilled one of my dreams and danced the nights away at the worlds most famous Carnival in Recife and Olinda. Traveling along the coast of Brazil I visited many beautiful dream destinations including Canavieras, Itacare, Caraiva, Trancoso, Salvador, Porto de Galinhas, Tibau do Sul, Jericoacoara, Parque Nacional dos Lencois Maranhenses. In Sao Louis I visited a reggae festival before boarding the Amazon star in Belem to experience the boat life on the Amazon river in a hammock together with 300 other passengers, mainly locals from the nearby region. To be continued… 🙂