parque nacional Tayrona, march 3, 2018
Getting to the picturesque beach at Cabo San Juan required some efforts. We woke up at 7:30am, walked to the city center, took a bus to the entrance of the Tayrona park (1 hour), and hiking in the forest for 2.5hrs. It seems that we took a rougher hiking course than what people usually take – it ended up taking almost 4 hours which involved half-crawling below big rocks and frequent jumping from one rock to another. The beach area was very beautiful. Usually any beach...
with Juan Arrieta and Brett, Cartagena, Colombia, February 27, 2018
When Brett and I were people watching inside the campus of Universidad de Cartagena, Juan came to us. He expressed that he wanted to show us around the city center and it took us awhile to understand his genuine and friendly intention. A law student at the University, he is a native of Cartagena. In fact, he told me he had never visited other places other than Cartagena. I appreciate that he took up courage and expressed that he wanted to know about us, especially because...
Darien crew, pollo Broaster caliche, cartagena, Colombia, February 28, 2018
Darien Gap, the impassable roadblock between Panama and Colombia let us get together and enjoy fried chicken today. Alizee and Stevy (left) are from France who started their overlanding journey from Canada. Brett (right top) has ridden his motorbike from Nebraska, US. When we were in Panama, there were two ships to choose from to send our vehicles. Alizee and Stevy chose the “right ship” – theirs arrived in Colombia on time and the rest of other tourists, including myself, were told that ours is delayed...
E2. Interview with Brett Anderson, Casco Viejo, Panama City, Panama, February 24, 2018,
In the very first video that I uploaded, I talked about why I decided to travel. However, I continue to get asked on a regular basis, “Why do you travel?” by people that I meet on the road, and I suspect this will continue throughout my travel, or even after I finish it. I am curious to observe if my reasons for traveling change or evolve over time, and sometime in the future I plan to shoot another video in which I review my motivations. At...
Panama canal, esclusa Miraflores, panama, February 24, 2018
Days ago while driving, I heard an interview of a Panamanian painter from a local radio station. He said, ”people need to know that we are much more than the canal.” Despite this fair claim, most tourists think of the canal when they think about Panama. As today was my last free day here, I decided to check it out. We were lucky – when we arrived, two ships passed by in a row. Watching the coordination between the water level changes and opening of the...
Panamanian meal, La Parada, Panamá city, Panamá, February 23, 2018
These days I’m enjoying days with no plans (well, I’m still working hard to catch up on things that are not about travelling). By chance, my hostel is a bit far from the city center, so I’ve been stuck at the hostel while only making occasional visits to a nearby mini market to buy eggs and onions to make my repetitive but otherwise satisfactory meals. As I was going to the mini market today, one señora suggested me a local restaurant. It turned out that it...
Boquete, Panama, February 17, 2018
Boquete was the second city in Panama where I stayed. This city is another example which proves that itineraries are always subject to change when traveling. In order to get to Panama City on time, I meant to make it to at least Santiago that day, but the city only seemed to have poor quality accommodation options within my budget. And I thought it was important to avoid poorly-lit depressing rooms for two nights in a row. So I decided to even make a detour and...
Vehicle shipping in Panama, @colon, Panama, February 20, 2018
For a night owl like me, having to wake up at 5:30am is something I normally avoid or ignore. But today I had no other option – I needed to load my car into a container at the port in Colon. Darien gap, an infamous jungle between Panama and Colombia, is the only part of the PanAmerican highway that is not passable by land. Worse, there is no ferry connecting this route, so the only remaining option is to ship vehicles via containers, which is an...
This website chronicles Leebong’s journey around the world for 2+ years, for the time being. To find out more, see The Travel & The Why.
To catch me, see Itinerary.
Impressions Series
