After two months in Belgium, Mark, Maya, and I passed through Massachusetts (USA) for another week. To deal with dog Maya’s export paperwork, to visit family and friends, to pick up heaps of gear and parts, and to spend two days at the dentist for me. Something that wasn’t planned before we booked our flights.
Flying from Belgium to the US East Coast
Lots of packages to go through
Belgian chocolate – for gifts and for ourselves
The gang (Mark’s college friends) in Duxbury
The wives of the college friends in Duxbury
Dinner invitation at Lisa and Peter’s place in Newton, New Hampshire
Maya smells treats along our route!
Sometimes, when Maya was a big, good dog, she’d get a treat.
Here is my dental story, which might help some people but bore others to death. You have been warned.
The past
As a child and teenager in Belgium, I was taught to brush my teeth twice a day. After breakfast and before bedtime. My parents were adamant about that schedule and took us to the dentist as needed.
As an adult, I stuck to the twice-a-day brushing and added flossing to my evening routine. In the US, I discovered tongue scrapers, more a breath improvement than a dental one. I learned about teeth cleaning, too. In Belgium, my dentist always remarked how well I brushed my teeth and no plaque was found to remove. When I became a US citizen, I attended yearly cleanings.
My trusted tongue scraper
My MassHealth insurance plan covers dentist visits, but doesn’t offer the greatest selection of dental clinics, so I’ve enrolled and “derolled” as a patient three times in the last decade. Since I didn’t return to the US in 2023, I skipped my annual teeth cleaning, so went without help for two years. Not a good idea!
The present
Mark and I found a new dentist this past summer and he appeared to be a caring, meticulous, and professional one. Mark had his cleaning done – in and out within an hour – and my appointment took place the week before Independence Day. What was supposed to be a routine check-up and cleaning turned out quite differently. Plus, I was leaving to Belgium ten days later.
People who frequently read CNN or who follow me on social media most likely saw the faces of Mark and me pop up in their feed, this past weekend. It made me happy, imagining the smiles, surprise, and recognition during those moments. Some of you subscribed to my blog because of it. Thank you – and welcome!
Lead article on CNN’s home page, this past Saturday
DISCLAIMER: This is a real-life story, nothing more, nothing less. Just like when sharing a previous, relatively scary experience about a car burning out next to us in a remote area of the Baja Peninsula, Mexico, a year ago, I’m not looking for sympathy, concerns, warnings, or criticism. Also, like the previous story, this one has a good ending. Bad things happen everywhere. We are aware of that and realistic about it. In the twenty years of being nomads, this was the very first time we felt unsafe. And we do not blame it on Colombia or its people.
(As always, hover over or click on photos in galleries to read their captions.)
Our route in Colombia thus far
Location of the Gramalotes
The Setting: Gramalote Viejo, Norte de Santander
After spending about a week in Playa de Belen in the department of Norte de Santander, Mark, Maya, and I drove many hours into the mountains, up and over terrible roads consisting of rocks, gravel, bumps, and potholes to reach Gramalote Viejo in time for Christmas. Our friends Sheri and Jeff had already arrived in their truck camper. They drive faster and had less errands to run.
Drive to our Christmas destination
Reflected – and Jeff and Sheri’s camper as well
Potholed road
Rocky approach
We parked by the spooky remains of a church, on cracked pavement with weeds poking through. Next to us sat the ruins of a town square and a dilapidated gazebo we repurposed as our happy hour patio.
Parked in a quiet spot for Christmas and New Year – or so we thought
Church and gazebo in Gramalote Viejo
A peek behind the slanted, still existing church façade revealed old crypts with human bones, most of the cubby holes plundered. Vegetation had taken over the church property and an eerie atmosphere lingered.
Stable enough?
Church interior
Crypts
An eerie scene
Human bones
We had hoped to climb the steps one day, but this never happened.
If you are only interested in the specifics of how to ship a vehicle abroad, check out the post I wrote about that procedure and some tips here. If you’re curious about how this big move of one camper, two adults, and one 60-pound dog played out for us on a personal level, keep reading.
WARNING: This is a very long post. The dates play an important role.
A car carrier passing by our camping spot in Galveston
The plan
Reserve a spot on a cargo ship for the departure date of November 3rd, 2022, for the route Galveston, Texas – Cartagena, Colombia with the German company Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL) via our IVSS agent Martin McGowan.
Book plane tickets from Houston to Cartagena & deal with the other (many) logistics to switch continents.
Prep our camper for transport and drop it off at the port on October 27th (four business days before departure, as we were told is the standard procedure).
Stay at the Galveston beach condo of friends for a week and see Thirsty Bella leave by ship.
View from our friends’ condo in Galveston
Book our first Airbnb for a week in Manga, Cartagena. Hop on a plane on November 7th to arrive in Cartagena on November 8th. The ship with our camper would arrive on November 13th but Thirsty Bella would need a few days to clear customs upon arrival. We hoped to extend our accommodation with a few days (or find somewhere else) if needed.
Visit the walled city of Cartagena during that first week in Colombia, pick up our camper on November 16th the latest, put our home on wheels back together, and start our South American adventure.
The reality
Car carriers of WWL leave approximately once a month. When we decided early October that we could make the ship transport of October 25th and tried to book a slot, it had already been delayed by a week. It would leave on November 3rd. This boat was called the Arc Resolve and we’d been watching its progress online for a little while.
First, we worried about not getting on this boat, because this route was rumored to be popular. After two anxious days of waiting, we received a confirmation for this booking. The planning could begin.
Booking confirmation on the Arc Resolve, scheduled to leave on November 3rd
We reserved refundable and affordable plane tickets from Houston, TX, to Miami, FL, on Southwest Airlines for early afternoon on November 7th and an expensive airport hotel in Miami that was also cancellable. We bought non-refundable plane tickets from Miami to Cartagena on American Airlines for November 8th. We used points/miles for these purchases.
We watched our assigned boat, the Arc Resolve, multiple times a day online – its route, schedule, and progress, which was very slow.
Delay after delay happened and we were stuck in hot and humid Texas, but at least in our RV.
Boat schedule 1
Boat schedule 2
Boat schedule 3
Every day, we stressed about whether we would be able to leave the country on our reserved date.
Every time the Arc Resolve reached a new port on its route around South and Central America, more delays happened. Our departure day (and therefore drop-off day) from Galveston kept being pushed out. We cancelled the condo of our friends. What to do about our flights and accommodation?
Boat schedule 4
Since a lot of logistics and preparations (like an international health certificate and shots for Maya within ten days of travel) had been put into motion already and new tickets would cost twice as much on top of losing the international ones, we decided to stick to plan, leaving Houston on November 7th.
Vet visit with Maya to get her international health certificate and extra shots
Moving a small family of two adults and a dog, their home on wheels, and all their belongings between two continents that are not connected by road is not an easy or straightforward task. I’m planning to post several blogs about the procedures, the execution, and the impact over the coming weeks. To avoid information and sensory overload, I will split some of these topics over two entries, an informative one and a personal one. Today, I will provide facts and tips about how to actually ship your vehicle abroad. The next blog in the series will elaborate on our personal challenges and experiences going this route.
Liesbet, Mark, Maya, and Thirsty Bella
1. Decide on a shipping method: RoRo or container
The two most common ways to ship a vehicle, whether it’s a car, motorcycle, van, or RV, are via a container or a RoRo (Roll-on Roll-off) ship. Less frequent is LoLo, which means being parked on a flat rack of a container ship, at which point, it’s usually cheaper to opt for RoRo. All three fit the category cargo ship. Your choice most likely will boil down to size restrictions.
RoRo ship or car carrier
The safest, most secure, and cheapest way to ship a vehicle is in a standard container. These come in three lengths; 10 feet (~3 meters), 20 feet (~6 meters), and 40 feet (~12 meters). The most cost-effective option when you have a car or low-rise van is to share a 40ft container with someone else. The maximum height of these containers ranges between “standard” height (8.5 feet or 2.59 meters) and “high cube” (9.5 feet or 2.74 meters) and their width is 8ft.
Container ship in Galveston
The dimensions of Thirsty Bella are 21.8ft (6.65m) of length, 8.8ft (2.67m) of width, and a height of 10.5ft (3.20m). We could have potentially separated the truck and the camper to fit in a 40ft container lengthwise, but the camper part would still be too wide. Therefore, we had to ship our vehicle with RoRo, which means it’s not enclosed and locked up. You drop the camper off at a port (Galveston, Texas, in our case) and leave the key of the truck. An employee drives and parks it onto the ship (roll on), and an employee of the arrival port (Cartagena, Colombia, in our case), moves the vehicle on shore (roll off).
Thirsty Bella
2. Decide on a route
There are several routes between the United States and South America. The US has departure ports on the East and West coasts and in Texas. Arrival ports include Colombia, Chili, Ecuador, and Uruguay. You can also ship to/from the east coast of Mexico and Colon, Panama, the shortest distance to Cartagena. As mentioned in a previous post, the Pan-American highway does not connect the countries of Panama and Colombia, due to the notorious and inaccessible Darien Gap, so you have to put your vehicle on a ship if you want to explore South America overland.
I can’t believe it’s approaching the end of October already. Soon enough, another year will have passed in the blink of an eye; a year of dedicated focus on our upcoming adventure in South America. I keep wanting to write about all the camper projects we finished the last few months, but I fail to find the time and energy. We don’t seem to get a break from fixing, researching, moving, planning, preparing, shopping, running from weather, and logistical nightmares. And before I realize it, more months have passed and nobody really knows anymore what we’ve been up to or where we are.
Melting away in 97-degree heat without any shade to park in (Llano, Texas)
Maya tries to cool off in the lukewarm Llano River
Finding trees to park under is important when it is hot out!
A nice camp spot on the beach…
…until the wind picks up, we get sandblasted, sand is stuck everywhere, and we have to move.
Hiding from some of the uncomfortable weather at a condo of friends in Galveston. Note the small difference between the day and nighttime temperatures and the high humidity.
Lots of mosquitoes to kill on stagnant, hot nights
I’ve emailed some friends and family members about our progress, I’ve alluded on social media what’s been up, but I have yet to share the details. Why? Because everything remains unclear. The details, the dates, the reservations, the plans (for this journey, we need some of those) keep changing. The lack of a schedule and the uncertainty keep us on edge, stressed, and sometimes frustrated. Here’s the scoop as we know it today.
Cargo ships move through the channel in Galveston – and are anchored out by the hundreds – constantly.
This post is not about resolutions, goals, plans, or gratitude. It’s not a bucket list (a word that is wrongly and over used in my opinion). It’s about what I have in mind regarding this blog, my online presence, and our upcoming adventures.
But first, I would like to wish everyone a healthy, prosperous, recovering, and adventurous new year. I truly hope that we will turn a leaf in 2022, on many fronts. Have a rewarding and happy one!
Roaming About blog
Like my previous website, It’s Irie, which I maintained from 2007 until 2015 to document our sailing adventures and which is still active, this blog (started in 2015) was initially meant to keep friends and family up to date about our whereabouts and whatabouts. But it turned into so much more than that! Thanks to you, dear reader.
It’s Irie blog
My blog’s main theme is travel related, so I want to get back to those roots. I hope to write more compelling posts – entertaining and informative – with a smaller selection of photos. This will be a work in progress. As always, I’ll update our current location in the sidebar.
While my writing journey has been a big part since I started this blog, it should not take up 25% of the content anymore. I wrote a book, edited it, published it, and promoted it. Not everyone is interested in all those details or experiences. I will still post updates, but not monthly anymore; maybe every other month or quarterly. January is the first time I skipped this tradition since the mid-2016.
The first box of Plunge books arrived in December 2020.
Proud of my first book, posing inside Zesty
Posing with my book in the desert of Arizona in 2021
The expense reports are fun to compose and seem to be well received. They also give me an opportunity to display places, occurrences, and photos that didn’t appear elsewhere, so I’ll keep them.
Income from this blog
Ever since I became a nomad in 2003, I’ve been very good at working for free or for a pittance. Yes, earning money should be fun too, but there has to be a balance. I’ve never placed ads or pop-ups on this blog (and never will as they annoy me as a reader) and only recently added a couple of affiliate Amazon links for my book, which offers pennies when used.
Working at my computer on our sailboat Irie (2007 – 2015)
Working at my computer in our campervan Zesty (2017-2021)
Writing Plunge in our campervan
Most of you have purchased Plungealready, left a review, and/or spread the word. My tremendous gratitude for all this support! I do hope new and future readers of Roaming About will (eventually) buy and read my book as well, so I’m keeping the little “prompts” on the sidebar of the website and bottom of certain post. As mentioned in my writing update blogs, I earn US$3.50 from every book I sell online.
Our hosting and domain fees total about $400 every three years. This month, it’s pay-up time again. We have always fronted this money, but because our living costs keep increasing, I’ve added a little “tip jar” on the sidebar in the form of a donation button. Followers have been encouraging us to put some kind of “support system” in place. Of course, unless on a laptop or with devices in the desktop setting, nobody will probably see the button. Can you find it? We have no need for contributions to a pizza, coffee, or beer fund; we’d just like to cover the cost for keeping this blog alive and maintained. We are also considering writing product reviews (like this solar panel one), being sponsored by companies, or becoming brand ambassadors as we embark on our next epic trip.
My blogging interactions
This blogging hobby, and especially reading (and engaging on) other blogs, is very time consuming. I think it’s safe to say that I follow about 50 bloggers and have been adamant over the years to read most of their posts and leave a comment. Since I’m curious about the host’s reply, I mark the checkbox to receive all comments, resulting in a flood of emails in my inbox. I’ve become pretty effective at deleting the masses and singling out the reply I was waiting for. Still, blogging is taking precious time away from real-life adventures, reading books (my current average is six a year!), writing, and trying to earn money. If I was retired and/or living in a stable home with not much going on, it would be different.
Rest assured, dear blog readers, my Roaming About website remains a priority. I still plan on posting about once a week and I always, always reply to comments (eventually) and react to legitimate emails sent my way.
Rest assured, dear blogging friends, I will keep following along and reading the articles that interest me. When I give your post a “like,” it means that I read it, and – well – liked it! My internet availability might prevent me from interacting much, but know you are still a part of my life.
My social media presence
And, what to do about social media, that other time-sucker? I’m taking a step back from Instagram (after three years of having an account, I gained a “whopping” 338 followers), hope to engage more with Twitter (how long have I been saying that?), and will keep using Facebook as my main “channel.” I also wonder if we shouldn’t try YouTube one day, but that is opening a can of very different, technical, timely, non-stop, and even more time-consuming worms!
Facebook page Liesbet
Facebook page Roaming About
Facebook page SV Irie
Instagram Page Roaming About
Twitter Page Liesbet
LinkedIn page Liesbet
Our lifestyle
If you know us and/or have read Plunge, you will be accustomed to our attitude of not planning much, going with the flow, and being a tad impulsive. As we get older, however, it feels like we need to be better prepared and organized. Gone are the days that we bought a truck camper – or a sailboat – and set out on an international adventure within months. How long have I wanted to take a small camper to South America? Plunge readers might remember…
Ready for new adventures
So, our big incentive is to get this open-ended adventure started in 2022. Of course, a lot depends on the pandemic situation, our choice/change of mobile living quarters, and preparing ourselves, our vehicle, our camper, and our dog for extensive and indefinite travels again. Stay tuned!
Plunge – One Woman’s Pursuit of a Life Less Ordinary
Today is the day. It’s the moment I have been anticipating for a few years. I decided to pick a special date for this special occasion: my 45th birthday.
Mark and I did it! We finalized the work on my travel memoir, Plunge, and it is now available on Amazon as an eBook and paperback. Wider distribution will follow in December.
Plunge blurb:
Tropical waters turn tumultuous in this travel memoir as a free-spirited woman jumps headfirst into a sailing adventure with a new man and his two dogs.
Join Liesbet as she faces a decision that sends her into a whirlwind of love, loss, and living in the moment. When she swaps life as she knows it for an uncertain future on a sailboat, she succumbs to seasickness and a growing desire to be alone.
Guided by impulsiveness and the joys of an alternative lifestyle, she must navigate personal storms, trouble with US immigration, adverse weather conditions, and doubts about her newfound love.
Does Liesbet find happiness? Will the dogs outlast the man? Or is this just another reality check on a dream to live at sea?
To read early impressions of Plunge, have a look here. These 5-star reviews for my writing and my story delight me!
If you are interested in purchasing a copy of Plunge, check out this universal link or go to one of the specific Amazon sites for your country:
To buy Plunge in Australia, click here (I don’t see the paperback yet, but hope that will appear soon).
To buy Plunge in Belgium and the Netherlands, click here (only the eBook is available on this site; for the paperback, please go to the German website).
Thank you for purchasing Plunge and spreading the word.
Happy reading!
My sincere appreciation goes to all of you, my readers and blog followers. You have encouraged me along the way; your enthusiasm and support led to this special day!
Here is where I am celebrating my birthday and the launch of my debut travel memoir in the company of a small bubble of friends…
Socially distanced campers in the desert
Ironwood National Monument in Arizona
Zesty – and all of us – at peace and ready to celebrate
Today, November 15th, 2020, would have been my dear oma‘s 100th birthday. Mark and I planned a trip to Belgium to celebrate that special event. Covid or not, we’d do the effort and make the commitment. Unfortunately, she passed away in the spring of 2017, at age 97. I wrote about my relationship with her here and posted a Dutch poem about her here.
Oma and Liesbet in 2014
I think about my oma a lot. She played an important role in my life – when I was a toddler, a teenager, and, especially, an adult. I often said she was my best friend and savored every chance I had to visit her when in Belgium. My travel memoir, Plunge, is dedicated to her (and one other person). While she wouldn’t have been able to read the book – she didn’t speak English – she would have been immensely proud of her “favorite” grandchild!
It was my intention to launch Plunge today, but that timing was too tight. If Mark, Maya, and I would have remained in “our room above the garage” in Newburyport, Massachusetts, it might have been possible. Working full-time from the road is tricky. But… the next best thing to commemorate my dear oma on the day she would have become a centenarian is by putting Plunge (the eBook anyway; it wasn’t possible for the paperback) on pre-sale.
Yes!!! The digital version of my book is ready for pre-order on Amazon as of today, for the special price of US$4.99. This will go up to US$5.99 on the date of the actual release, which is set for November 28th. On that day – if Amazon cooperates 😊 – both the eBook and the paperback of Plunge will be available. Leaving reviews are possible on Amazon starting that day and on Goodreads any time.
Plunge available for eReaders
Thank you, everyone, for following my journey – on the blog and in the book – and for sharing in the excitement!
We have been perpetual nomads since 2003 – sailing, camping, RVing, house and pet sitting – and are currently roaming about South America in a truck camper with our rescue dog, Maya. As lifetime adventurers, we are self-employed and maintain a tight budget. This blog is about all that – and more – to inspire a life less ordinary. Don’t dream but do! 🙂
