Starting from my very first journeys, I made it a habit of keeping a diary where I recorded in a rather telegraphic form the events of the day, the itinerary covered, the noteworthy encounters and the laughable situations. The pads I wrote on were as tiny as possible, so as not to be cumbersome objects in my backpack, and it was usually pocket diaries or small notepads that doubled as travel logbooks.

Writing on miniature pages in a microscopic hand was an exertion for the hand muscles after schooldays endurance in note taking was long lost. Another challenge was the paper, because I sometimes bought this writing material in foreign countries during a trip, as a stock for the upcoming journeys. Of all exotic pages I wrote on (whose place of origin more often than not didn’t match the country I was writing about), I remember Nepalese recycled paper which could have done a better service if the producers had not only considered the good looks of it. No matter what pen I wrote with, the point would always get stuck on the coarse vegetal matter incorporated in the fabric and make me lose the thread.

These notepads accompanied my roaming around the world and were as important to me as taking photos for leaving a trace of my experiences. However, back home, I would store my pads in a drawer and practically leave them there to rot. I never took them out to read, as I was just happy for them to exist and to dream that one day I’d go through them again.

The record was by myself and for myself until the internet appeared and it dawned upon me that it would be a good idea to revise my notes, rewrite and eventually publish them, adding photos. So this is how this site came about and has evolved into a blog form.

Since writing an account is now one of the objectives of my trip, I have become more organised in taking notes and since quite recently I don't do it on a notepad anymore (hand muscles thank), but I record my comments on my phone and spend time after the journey to transcribe, expand and organise the contents.

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