Panama under strict lockdown feels weird !

I spent an extensive amount of time in Panama over the past 6 years, a country that I personally love and a great base to come back to as a digital nomad. The country has constantly one of the best yearly growth out of all the Latin American countries, and every time I come back, I am amazed how fast things change, from new restaurants opening and closing to new sky-scrapers popping everywhere! But this time around, arriving in February 2021, amidst the second lockdown the country had imposed, it totally felt like another country. I just couldn’t believe it. Just the ride from the airport was an adventure. The highway is usually packed with horrible traffic, and this time, not a single car could be seen on one of the main highways called “Corredor Sur”. Arriving near my hotel in a Uber, a cop stopped us at gunpoint, confused as to why we had broken the lockdown, all for us to have to explain […]

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Overnight in Varadero from Havana

Most people who go to Varadero will be in an all-inclusive hotel and arrive straight at Varadero airport. I wasn’t in Cuba to be in this sort of hotel so Varadero was not my first choice of place to be as a base, I had chosen Havana for that. But I still wanted to see it so a 2 day visit was enough. Now that I’ve been, I can honestly say that even if it’s a tourist behemoth, it is a very beautiful beach. Even though it’s super touristy, it was really built on an amazing piece of Beach and the water is one of the clearest and bluest I have ever seen around the world rivaling with the Pacific ocean and even the Red Sea. A two-day trip to Varadero. This time around I wasn’t really into just hanging around all day at a beach and sipping mojitos and piña coladas all day. I had done that in 2002 and quite frankly I wasn’t […]

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World Map of the Friendliest Countries to Travel to… in the Eyes of a Man Who Visited Them All

This Article is part of my series about comparing every country in the world between each other, from the perspective of a man who has traveled all of them, 188/196 to be precise. After creating the most beautiful countries map, the best food in the world map or even the best quality price countries, this article focuses on the most friendly countries to travel to. It must be understood that the context here when I say “friendly to the traveler” is how welcoming a country is to visitors at first sight, and not necessarily about the population in general. I also tried to be objective in my way to rate them, even though it also reflects a little bit my personal experiences. As a traveler with an open mind, I do not care about religion or race, I am an observer of humans in general and human behavior everywhere I go, and this map is meant to be taken as a grain of salt. Nevertheless, […]

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