"I left everything": the Catalan who is going around the world on foot

BarcelonaEnric Luzán is 38 years old and a few months ago he decided to embark on an adventure that would change the course of his life forever. He left everything; his job, his apartment, his family, to go around the world. And with nothing more than his two legs and a backpack on his back. We speak with him via video call as he walks along the side of a Turkish road, near the city of Samsun and close to the Black Sea. Cars pass him by as he explains his route: the journey began in November 2025 in Plaça de Catalunya, Barcelona, and he plans to cross the entire planet on foot in an expedition that will last, approximately, three years.

The route must cover at least 26,232 kilometers across four continents from coast to coast, uninterruptedly. At least these are the rules of the World Runners Association, an association of eight people who have circumnavigated the planet walking or running and which serves as a benchmark for Enric for the feat he is undertaking. But when it comes to creating the route, not everything is so easy. His first intention was to go to Iran. But back in 2025, even though the current war had not yet begun, Enric had to change his itinerary. Asia is an "almost impossible" continent to cross from end to end due to visa problems and weather. Therefore, he decided he would do Europe, Oceania, North America, and South America, and although he does walk through a part of the Asian continent, it does not count as a crossing of the entire continent.

The route, then, began in Barcelona and continued to Turkey, where he is now. After that, Luzan will walk to Georgia and, although he doesn't have it entirely clear, the idea is to fly to Uzbekistan, cross Tajikistan, and try to enter Pakistan via the Karakoram Highway. "Then I will go to Islamabad, on the border with India, and I will walk a bit to Nepal. I will cross it and re-enter India, then Bangladesh, and then I will take a plane, because Myanmar is in a civil war and I cannot walk through there," he recounts.

The itinerary continues to Thailand, where he will walk to Singapore, passing through Malaysia. There he will take another plane to Australia, which he will cross from Darwin to Sydney. Next will be New Zealand and then North America, a place where the route is still to be defined, but which "will surely be from the Pacific to Northern Mexico, passing through the United States," and finally South America. There the walk will begin in Lima, Peru, and he will go down to Chile, in the Andes mountain range, to finish crossing the continent to Buenos Aires.

And to finish? This great adventure will conclude no more and no less than at the Camino de Santiago: "I will take a plane to Santiago de Compostela and walk from Fisterra to Barcelona." A most symbolic ending.

A backpack to survive

"I've been walking for 202 days, I've rested 46, and I've walked 158," he explains at the time of the interview. Most have slept in a camping tent he carries in his backpack. Around six in the morning he starts moving and walks until sunset. The adventures he has already experienced during this first stage of the journey are not few. He narrates them all on social media, where he posts videos daily. He does it with his mobile phone: the backpack he carries on his back includes only what is necessary to survive. A small stove and gas canister, a titanium pot, a camping tent, a sleeping bag, an inflatable mattress, a change of clothes, rain gear, and emergency electronics.

The postcard business

How do you pay for a trip around the world on foot? Mostly with YouTube, which pays Enric for uploading the videos he posts every day explaining his journey. But also with sponsors, and with an interesting initiative: l'Aixeta. Through this platform, people from anywhere can contribute money and receive a postcard in return from wherever Enric is in the world. He already has over 500 people signed up. "I've sent over two thousand in six months," he explains.

Regarding the reason for this whole journey, the origin is the coronavirus pandemic. Enric spent a lot of time on YouTube watching videos, until he found the channel of a guy who had completed a trip around the world on foot in 2017. "I was amazed. I said: 'This is the mother of all adventures. I want to do it.'" But he dismissed it due to the sacrifice it entailed: "It meant leaving everything behind." Until 2024, when he decided to apply for scholarships from the Generalitat for Catalan content creators with the project of walking around the world. After an initial disappointment, he finally achieved it in 2025 and was able to leave with this economic and institutional support.

"I had a job, I had a rented apartment, and a partner. My partner and I broke up for other circumstances, but I left my position at a demolition company in Barcelona as a technician in studies." And when he returns to Catalonia? "I don't want to think about it, but I do think about it." The hours alone allow for a lot.