Roadtrip USA

A long loop through the American West — where we slept, what we cooked, who we met, and the rock we kept coming back to. Scroll it the way it unfolded.

"What are you two doing over the next half year?" Ian asked, after a weekend of fulfilling conversations, sparkling associations and a lot of fun — finding synchronicities everywhere. Our time in Costa Rica had turned wet, mouldy, moody, grumpy... time to move on. So the question landed straight in the "dunno, wide open to anything" channel.

It ended with the idea of a trip together: fly to the US, get a car, and the four of us — him, his partner and the two of us — drive all the way back down to Costa Rica over about half a year. Hell yeah — part of the Panamericana! And on the way, just out of curiosity, visit communities, places and people living in a regenerative (rather than "only" sustainable) spirit — and maybe find a few friends and like-minded souls along the road. Big wooow. Of course. Let's DO this.

Biggest culture shock of my life: from five months of surfing in Costa Rica to Indianapolis and my first Walmart ever. Lawns, roads, shelves, signs — you name it. But also a LOT of amazing, friendly, inspiring people in beautiful places all over the US. The Grand Canyon is freakin' GRAND, I had to admit. Rio Grande, Taos New Mexico, Sedona, Sequoia — still so much wild spirit around in this vast landscape.

And since I can't travel without a camera, I kept a little video diary for myself: our sleeping places, our waste, cooking four courses on a camper stove, the variety of our food; places we visited, like the legendary Earthships (earthship.com), Joshua Tree National Park, Urban Timber in San Diego (sdurbantimber.com) and many more — each with its own story, partly told in the clips.

After three months we decided to go separate ways again, but we ended our time together in one more place with its own story: the hills of Baja California, on Raul's Rancho La Bellotta. The prototype of a Mexican cowboy, who shifted the prejudiced view of Mexico the Americans had handed us — a view already being un-learned at the infamous Tijuana border crossing... ta-ta-taaaa... which had already left us ashamed of how prejudiced we still are.

An amazing trip in the end — and the ground for enjoying a country my head used to be so full of prejudice about. ;)