hitchhiking around the world

Itinerary. Living around the world

This post is also available in: Português

Organisation is not our strength. When we began our travels from London in December 2014, we had a plan but we followed very little of it throughout our trip.

We can’t complain though. Our lack of organisation works on our side since it allows us to be more flexible and feel free to go wherever we want to, at any time we feel like.

We love people and it is the encounters we have along the way that will draw our destiny. If someone gives us an interesting advice, so that’s where we go. If we arrive at a place and we like it, that’s where we stay. We want to understand deeply the places, people and cultures and so we don’t travel on a rush. We like to think we are not traveling around the world but living around the world.

The itinerary we followed goes like that: We left London and went for New Year’s Eve in Rome, Italy (December 2014). After, we spent 10 days in Egypt (January 2015) and then we lived for 6 months in Kenya, volunteering in an orphanage at the countryside (January to June). It was with great sadness that we left the kids from the orphanage behind and carried on our trip through Africa by road: Tanzania (June), Malawi (June), Mozambique (July) and South Africa (July 2015). At Nelson Mandela’s land, we met Tiago’s family and travelled all together in a motorhome for a month.

From there, we followed alone to Iran (August 2015). The plan was to stay for only 15 days but it was impossible not to fall in love with the country and we extend our visa for a month. We, then, travelled by road to Armenia (September) and hitchhiked all the way to Russia, passing through Georgia too (September)! Our hike took us all the way to a forest in Russia close to the Finnish border, then we crossed the biggest country on earth by train in the famous Trans-Siberian (October).

In Vladivostok we took a flight to South Korea (November). From there, we fell in love with Indonesia and went surfing in Bali (December). The visa didn’t allow us to stay longer and after a month we were in Thailand (Dec-Apr 2016).

When making our way back to Brazil, we passed through Malaysia and Germany (April 2016). We stayed in Brazil for 6 months, worked in the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, and then went for the first time as guides on a trip through Russia, Georgia and Armenia (Sep 2016). Afterwards, we went back to our starting point, London (October 2016) and found out about WTM.

At the end of the year, we went for just over a month in Greece (November 2016), one of the most intense projects we have ever made. We volunteered to teach English and photography to refugees in Greece, trying to help them in any way. The idea is to have a documentary about a refugee life as an outcome of this trip, made by themselves, in partnership with ImImmigrant & Drawfugees. We then went back to London for NYE 2016-17, went to Berlin (end of Feb) for our first ITB and moved to Italy right after (March 2017).

We lived in Italy for over one year, where we focused a lot on learning and improving our skills. That was a moment we had very little money and struggle greatly to keep the website alive and the same lifestyle we aimed to have. So much that in September 2017, we had to leave the house and go to leave in an occupation. But also, it was the time when we gave all of our energies into this work. Tiago’s family visited us in August 2017. We did our first slow-travel bike trip, from Parma to Slovenia (September 2017 – about 1 month and half), our first photo exposition “Profession: Travellers” (Apr 2018) and another slow-travel bike trip from Parma all the way to the most southern point of Italy – the heel of the boot (May 2018 – about 2 months). That turned into two web documentaries on our YouTube Channel – access it here.

We left Italy around July 2018 for a short stop in London, where we did our second photo exposition “Profession: Travellers” (August 2018). In the end of August, we went to our first press trip, the World Nomad Games, in Kyrgyzstan (September 2018). After two weeks covering the World Nomad Games 2018, we spent 2 months travelling between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, searching for the nomads of Central Asia. We wanted to find out how traditional nomadism are still a lifestyle of many people. This adventure turned into our first ever book – which you can buy directly with us – as well as a long film to be released soon.

After Kyrgyzstan, we stopped in the United Arab Emirates (October 2018), visited Egypt, Jordan, Israel and Palestine (November 2018) and came to Brazil (December). We stayed in Brazil for 8 months, where we did our third “Profession: Travellers” photo exhibition (Feb 2019), travelled to our capital city (April) and Tiago graduated in film-making documentary (Jun 2019). We left Brazil in the end of July, did a month stop-over in London again (having a lay over in Porto, Portugal) and a visit to Amsterdam (August 2019). Then, joined our second press trip in our career, in Pakistan (Aug 2019). We spent one month in the press trip plus another month travelling on our own. In these two months, we filmed another documentary about the different profiles of women in the country – yet to be finished.

We left Pakistan in the end of September 2019. Our next stop was Dubai, where we visited our beloved friend/family, Nathan and Emma and set our small office in their living room, to finish writing our book about the Nomads of Central Asia.

Just after a month with them, we re-visited the country we love dearly, Iran (October 2019), for the second time. We spend one month travelling around the country to update the information we have on our website about them as well as film our third documentary, Abadan Berzileteh. We hope to have this short film ready soon.

After Iran, we came back to Brazil, end of November 2019, to launch the book we had finished writing in Dubai. We were meant to stay in Brazil for just 3 months. We spent NYE in Rio de Janeiro (19-20), drove all the way to Trancoso and back for the carnival and were ready to take our flight back to London on March 1st 2020. However, the coronavirus outburst didn’t let us travel.

When we realised things were serious, we locked ourselves at house in the south coast of São Paulo. It is at these particular times we realise the privilege we have. When the situation gave the impression that it was going to get better (October 2020), we took our car again and drove north Brazil following the San Francisco River.We first stopped in the countryside of São Paulo for wild camping and beautiful waterfalls, Capitolio in MG, and then followed the river all the way to its mouth, more than 10.000km away. That’s when we filmed our first documentary, Opará.

Around March 2021, we stopped in Trancoso again and spent the whole year working on the film, exhibiting the first version of it on the Trancoso Cinema Festival 2021. We had an excellent early 2022, through Salvador and surroundings of Bahia state.

Then, we went back to our city of São Paulo (March 2022) and left to see the Brazilian wetlands, the Pantanal. Right after, we left in London (May 2022), went for the first time to the Stonehenge festival in June for the summer solstice, and moved to Cardiff, Wales (Jul 2022).

Then, in the end of August 2022, we visited Scotland to experience the Highland Games and visit the Isle of Sky. We left Scotland, went to Italy just to visit our lovely friends from the time we lived together in the occupation and head to Turkey, to see the World Nomad Games 2022. From Turkey, we head straight to Doha, in Qatar (October 2022), where we lived until the end of December.

We spent our NYE (22-23) back in Brazil, in the notorious Universo Paralelo rave, to have an amazing start of year. Then, back to our city São Paulo, we launched our documentary Opará in the cinema! One of our greatest achievements!

In March 2023 we left Brazil to Germany, for the ITB 2023. Then visited Poland and returned to our base in London. Early May we moved back to Italy, this time in Sicily. In June 2023 we took our flight to Australia, where we lived for 4 months, including doing an incredible motorhome trip from Melbourne to Brisbane.

We left Australia to Bali (mid September 2023), where we spent a month in Indonesia – two weeks in Bali and two weeks in Nias. From there, we flew to Georgetown, capital of Penang, in Malaysia to enjoy a full week of the best gastronomy destination in south-east Asia.

Currently, we are in Kuala Lumpur, ready to go to Malacca, then Singapore, Philippines, USA and the Caribbean, to spend Christmas with our beloved friend/family Nathan and Emma!

Tiago e Fernanda watching the sunset in a silhouette.

After

(March 2020) At the moment, everything is obscure because of the coronavirus situation. Nevertheless, our next adventure is probably a two months travelling by bike alongside the Danube River, from its source to the mouth. We have been planning this adventure for a while and look forward to actually be doing it. Then, we still have hopes to attend the World Nomad Games 2020 in Turkey, travel around the country for 2 months and visit Syria and Lebanon after that. Fingers crossed! (well, World Nomad Games 2020 was cancelled due to Corona, but we did attend the very next one that happened, in 2022 in Turkey! We didn’t do the Danube River, but instead we did the San Francisco River in Brazil, where we made our first documentary that went cinema! Syria and Lebanon will hopefully happen in a near future)

We are pretty much well-organised at this moment in life. We will finish our season in South East Asia in the Philippines, then visit the USA and spend end of the year in St Vincent, in the Caribbean. Probably spending January in London (hopefully finding a short contract somewhere in the world) and move to Germany March, staying until the end of July. Then, rush to Central Asia to continue our project about the nomadic people. Hopefully head to Saudi Arabia and the gulf towards the end of 2024, spend end of the year in Brazil and God-knows what’s gonna happen in 2025. Hopefully, we get a contract for the World Cup 2026.

Before

Before starting our travel around the world, we had already been to most of the European countries. We lived in London (Tiago for 8 years and Fernanda for 3) and so we decided to skip Europe this time. We have also been to Peru, Chile, Bolivia, India and Morocco.