CURRENT MISSION

To live this life to the fullest before I'm old!

ABOUT ME

I was born in the Netherlands and after various travels ended up in New Zealand. The intention was to taste Kiwi life for a year in 2002, instead I ended up staying a decade! This is a long time to be tied to one place and as the cliché goes, it is very true: once you have the travel bug it will never go away. After a few restless years I started travelling again since January 2012, having planned as little as possible because I believe that is the best way to travel.

I was meant to return to my old job in NZ in Feb 2013 but I decided I was not ready to go back to the predictability of a steady life... so quit my job and got a new one, running tours on overland trucks, 4WDs and public transport, during anything between 14 days to 6 months, going all over the place in South America. In 2017 I changed companies and worked on overland trucks throughout South America, Central Asia and Africa.

I spent 2 winterseasons in the French Alps where I worked as a transfer driver, moved back to NZ where I worked as a taxi driver and then I eventually moved to Bonaire where I live since January 2022.

I hope to meet many cool, funny, interesting and inspiring people on the way, both on the road and via CS.

PHILOSOPHY

Live, it is later than you think...
Life is now

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

So far I have hosted parties, people, been to CS meetups, met CSers for lunch/coffee/drinks, helped out CSers find a flat, car, furniture and helped several CSers with an itinerary of things to do within Wellington when I was living there. I have also surfed myself in several South American countries and met up with local people for a meal, language exchange, or a day or night out in several cities.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Have hosted for 1.5 years and really loved it. I have met some pretty amazing and inspiring people so far, and made some great friends that I have remained in regular contact with and even caught up with again on the other side of the world! I really enjoy CS and the type of people that are drawn by it.

Interests

Travelling, socialising, languages, good movies, great books (got any tips?), music, laughing, drinks, sunshine, cooking, eating, writing, crafting, animals, staying fit in fun ways, Facebook (screw the news!), experiencing the world and meeting its extraordinary people.

• animals
• writing
• books
• cooking
• coffee
• yoga
• partying
• drinking
• gardening
• boating
• movies
• traveling
• music
• teaching
• freelancing
• journalism
• languages
• language exchange
• volunteering
• tours
• fluid art
• upcycling old furniture
• dot art

Music, Movies, and Books

Game of Thrones! Trainspotting, One flew over the Cuckoo's nest, the stand, Lord of the rings, Shutter Island, black books, Four lions, Family Guy (the star wars spoofs). MUSIC Fat Freddy's Drop, Salmonella Dub, Intwine, the Cult, Alice in Chains, Double You Bean, Manu Chao, Audioslave, Them Crooked Vultures, samba and salsa music. BOOKS Aleph, Mother tongue, a short history of nearly everything (yeah, yeah, I love Bill Bryson), the gringo Trail, white tiger, the beach, the atlas of languages, her name was Sarah, shadow of the wind, 1000 splendid suns, the Dark Tower series, the snowman, the dome, Tandia, the alchemist.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

The mystique of Ayer's Rock/Uluru in central Australia
the melancholy of the remains of Pompey in Italy
the beauty of Wellington harbour on a sunny day
the fun and creativity of pantomiming & acting in order to be able to communicate with an old local named Papou in Greece (it got easier with the help of a bottle of Ouzo).
The amazing energy that you feel at Iguazu falls and on Machu Picchu
Experiencing the contagious happiness of Surinam people
The sheer beauty of Rio de Janeiro, what an incredible and beautiful city!
The laid-back beauty of the people of Salvador de Bahia, I particularly love Itacaré
The mind-blowingly beautiful Torres del Paine in Chile - you can't stop rubbing your eyes in disbelief at how gorgeous it is there.
Spending 4 days on a public boat on the Amazon river
A ten day silent retreat in a Buddhist monastery
Any Tuesday night in the streets of Salvador de Bahia - the music everywhere, it's incredible!
Volunteering on a donkey sanctuary for six weeks, incredibly hard work but the bond you create with some of the donkeys makes it quite the experience

Teach, Learn, Share

I really want to improve my Portuguese, currently it's best described as Portunhol What I have to offer is excellent English grammatical skills, I am a TEFL qualified English teacher and I am very good at explaining (I am also a qualified editor, proofreader and freelance journalist). Further to that I have been a zumba instructor, I enjoy cooking and I can tell you a lot of things about a lot of places and a lot of stories that go with them :)

What I Can Share with Hosts

Great stories, company, sharing drinks (my favorite pass time), meals, tips and experiences plus all of the above.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bolivia, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, England, Equatorial Guinea, France, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guatemala, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Italy, Jersey, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Luxembourg, Mauritania, Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Scotland, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Spain, Suriname, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vatican City State, Western Sahara

Countries I’ve Lived In

Australia, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, Curaçao, France, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, United Kingdom

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