Week 42: Cusco, Arequipa, Chivay, Cabanaconde, Chala

10/31

Halloween!! Tonight was going to be our last night in Cusco. We were moving to a different hostel but planned on going back to the Point to hang out with our new friends.

After a disattisfying cheap lunch, we wandered more around the city and moved hostels. 

We went shopping for our Halloween costumes after researching and hanging out at our new hostel for a while. 

We ended up buying toilet paper to wrap ourselves up as mummies. 

We bought groceries for dinner as we attempted to make blt, plus cheese and avocado. They worked out well after a little bit of practice. 

Afterwards, since we were planning on getting up early to see some more ruins we took a nap to rest before our long night.

We finally got up and went to our old hostel. Fortunately for us, they had Halloween costumes we could borrow! I picked the ugliest wig and Luke picked a bunch of random things including a Canadian flag as a cape! 

We hung out, met new people, and had late night McDonald’s before losing our friends and going to bed. 
11/1

This next morning, we tried to go early to the Saqsaywaman  (pronounced sexy woman) ruins since we heard that we could get in before they opened at 7. Unfortunately, we got there and we couldn’t get in. We didn’t want to pay the $70 soles each so we went around and viewed them from the outside. 

We ate a pretty good breakfast and made plans for the day. We had a lot to research and do before we left Cusco! 

We decided that we were going to finally do the walking tour and so we did that and learned a lot about the celebrations in October and the beginning of November. 

We ate a wonderful lunch of ceviche and soup for only $8 soles each before we went to book a tour to Rainbow Mountain for only $80 soles each. Afterwards, we ran errands like returning the costumes, picking up groceries like dried fruit for our trip, and packing for our next couple days. 

We went to bed pretty early after a really productive day. We had to be ready by 3:20 in the morning to head to Rainbow mountain as well!

11/2

We got up very lazily around 3:00 in the morning. We finished packing our stuff and then waited for them to come get us!

We loaded up and then headed on a long but beautiful 4 hour drive to breakfast – sleeping a majority of the time. 

After a really nice breakfast of eggs and bread and coffee, we went on another 15 minute drive to the entrance of the trail. We met a very nice Dutch couple who we pretty much walked the whole way with. 

The hike kept getting more and more difficult since we were 1k meters higher than the city and working our way up about another 1k meters.

It took us a really long time to finally get up to the top but the hike was worth it! Every bit of it was beautiful and the end was even more amazing. It was cold and windy and started snowing on us but we got some great views!

Finally, we decided to go back down. After another long and beautiful hike, we made it back to our bus. We were taken to another really great traditional Peruvian lunch of Lomo salteado before another drive back to the city.

We were nervous that we’d be late for our bus, but we showed up with enough time to shower. We were going to have ceviche again but they didn’t have it so we went to the bus station. 

Unfortunately, the bus station was crazy and ran out of chicken so we ended up going to some tiny markets and picking up chicken sandwiches and such for our bus ride to Arequipa.

We spent the rest of the night in the bus.

11/3

We arrived to Arequipa early the next morning and had breakfast of egg sandwiches and coffee. We had to decide where we were going next and were told that Chivay was better than Cabanaconde. We finally found a bus at 9:30 so we hung out until the next bus.

It took us 5 hours to finally get to the next stop, Chivay, a town at the beginning of the Colca canyon! The Colca Canyon is the second deepest canyon in the world, beaten by another Peruvian canyon that’s 200 meters deeper. it’s around five times deeper than the Grand  Canyon.

We found a cheap hostel right away that had wifi and a hot shower so we went to that one. We had lunch at a cheap restaurant for only $5 soles each! Afterwards, we wandered around the city to check out some view points. We went to some miradores and saw a smoking volcano at sunset before it got too cold and we went back. This volcano fully erupted only a few days later and covered most of Colca canyon in ash. We’re pretty sure we were the first ones to see it erupting and would have been famous for the discovery had we known! 

We wanted to go to the hot springs so we went back to the hostel to get dressed. We went to get a tuk tuk but then found out that the hot springs  were closed!

So instead, we went to get some amazing fried chicken and then hung out at the hostel before going to bed early.

11/4

We had to catch the bus by 7 so we woke up early and packed our bags.

We hurried to the bus station but had time to grab a few cups of coffee before we loaded up to head to Cabanaconde for an afternoon!

After a breathtaking bus ride, we finally got there and headed straight to the miradores around the town. We spent a few hours wandering around and taking in the sights as we planned our future traveling trips. While we sat there a condor was circling around and it was truly majestic. 

After heading back, we bought our bus tickets to Arequipa. 

We had amazing pizza for lunch and worked on some Instagram posts before picking up our luggage and loading up on the bus. We spent the rest of the day on the bus before we got to the city.

We found a cheapish, nice hostel close to the main square. 

Once we got checked in, we went to wander a little and find some food. We ate at this place that had different types of peruvian potatoes with all sorts of interesting toppings. We went back to the hostel and did some laundry – it was well needed! After cleaning up and hanging out a little bit more we finally went to bed.

11/5

The next morning, we went sight seeing around the city for a bit after packing our bags and having a delicious breakfast! The city of Arequipa is gorgeous and we couldn’t get enough of the architecture around the place. 

We splurged on a museum ticket ($20 soles each) to the mummy museum and saw the original Incan mummy, Juanita! She is only out a few months of the year so we got really lucky that we saw the most famous one instead of the others that they rotate. 

After the tour of the museum, we decided to check out a French restaurant which had a nice, fancy lunch for only $8 soles a person (drinks included!).

Since we weren’t going to leave until later, we decided to wait for the rest of the city and head back to the hostel for the heat of the afternoon. We hung out for a few hours and charged our phones and relaxed before heading out to a place our hostel owner, Luis, told us about.

We walked for about 30 minutes before we headed to a park overlooking the city. Little did we know, as we showed up we saw all kinds of street vedors and a band was playing! We had perfect timing to catch a little concert in the park. 

We grabbed some beers and some really delicious ribs that were cooking right in front of us as we listened to music and watched the gorgeous sunset fill the sky. 

We shared one last beer as the stars came out and we stuffed our faces with Churros listening to the music before we reluctantly headed back to get our bags and a taxi to the bus station.

We barely made it to catch one of the last busses to Chala! 2 companies only had 1 seat left and the one we took was going to leave in less than 10 minutes! 

We loaded up and got as comfortable  as possible for our night’s sleep.

11/6

I was planning to arrive closer to 5, but we arrived closer to 4 instead. Our plan was to hang by the beach until sunrise to catch a bus to Puerto Inca, a secluded beach a few km away, but it was too early so we snagged a room at the closest hostel for only $30 soles! 

We finally got some sleep before we had to wake up, pack our bags, and find some much needed breakfast.

Once we ate and picked up groceries, we found a cab to Puerto Inca. Puerto Inca is a private hotel located next to two beaches and surrounded by Incan ruins that are in surprisingly good condition. Although the rooms are quite expensive, you can camp for only $8 US a person which includes the pool, hygienic services, the ruins, a table with an umbrella, electricity, and a game room. we were pretty much the only people there camping! 

We set up camp and decided to enjoy the sun and the beach because we thought it might be the last time we were going to be camping on one. 

It was cloudy but we still got slightly sunburnt! 

After a lunch of tuna salad and left overs we decided to wander around the Inca ruins to the right of the beach. We saw a few building with what looked like human bones in it! 

Unfortunately, it was cloudy so we ended up going back and getting firewood for our dinner. We made this delicious tuna pasta that we devoured quickly! Afterwards, we hung out for a bit but got cold then went to bed.

11/7

No wifi meant we had to amuse ourselves for the day. It was definitely more cloudy than usual but we soaked up the warmer weather as much as we could.

We had a pretty lazy day and had fried seafood for lunch from the only restaurant in the area. It was so delicious!

Afterwards, we went to the black sand beach that was just a little further down and then walked to the bigger Inca ruins.

We spent a lot of time walking around them looking at the different structures.

I admit, I dug a little bit because I swore there was a burial ground under our feet. I still swear to it since I found some seashells and fabric. Then I felt guilty and stopped digging but I totally felt like Indiana Jones for a good moment there.

Luke decided to go down and I decided to stay up at the top to see if there was going to be a good sunset. 

Closer to the end of the not so amazing sunset, Luke joined me to snap some final shots. Afterwards, we headed down to play some pool before cooking another dish of quinoa, sauce, avocado, and tuna. Not as good as the night before, but definitely a good meal. 

We hung out for a little more reading our books and hanging out before finally heading to bed.

Over all Peru has had some amazing views like foggy mountains in Cusco, beautiful architecture in Arequipa, massive canyons in Cabanaconde, and desert beaches in Puerto Inca.

Although we didn’t explore as much as usual, we definitely saw a lot of what Southern Peru has to offer and it was breathtaking! We already made plans to come back and see more and do more in this part of the world. Amazing!

Week 39: Salt flats, Sucre, La Paz, Bolivia

10/10

After getting up earlier, we packed up the rest of our things, made coffee, and hurried to finish anything else we needed to do.

The bus came and picked us up for our border crossing before leaving us with our 4×4 and our guide, Luis.we met our newest friends before finally leaving San Pedro de Atacama.

The border crossing was a longer process for us, Americans, then for everyone else and it also didn’t help that they wouldn’t take a slightly, and I mean slightly, torn bills. Fortunately for us, they let us pay in Bolivianos, but unfortunately for us, that meant we didn’t have money for the rest of the tour’s expenses. (It costs $160 USD for a ten year Bolivian Visa for Americans.)

We finally crossed the border after meeting our guide and having breakfast and started our way to Uyuni.

The first stop were the green and white lagoons. It was explained to us that the lagoons each have different minerals like Borax (used for cleaning materials) and salt. Both of them for being so close together were very unique in their colors!

We stopped by Dali’s Desert to see a very interesting landscape that reflected some of the work of the artist. 

Afterwards, we went to the Polques hot springs and enjoyed a nice dip in the warm pool! It was cold outside but the pool was really nice and we warmed up pretty quickly. 

After changing we headed to Geysers Sol de Mañana and spent just a few minutes there since it was smelly and most of us had seen the bigger set of geysers in Atacama. 

We loaded up and headed to the red colored Laguna Colorada which was even more amazing than the pictures show. It’s way larger than the pictures give it credit for and it was filled with flamingos! 

Our sight seeing day was pretty much over and we finally stopped by a little town and stayed in a small hostel. 

They gave us tea to warm us up and then after a while of hanging out we had a very nice dinner! We were all cold and the electricity was only on for 3 hours so we hung out a little bit longer and then went to sleep during the cold night. Unfortunately, many of us couldn’t sleep since it was so cold and dry that it hurt to breathe!

Fortunately the spectacular day overshadowed the bad sleep!

10/11

 The first stop we made was the tree rock. There were random boulders and rocks throughout the desert which was mainly from vocanic eruptions and glaciers. 

These rocks were worn down into interesting shapes and sizes and so we spent a little of the morning climbing on the rocks and taking pictures.

We drove through the Siloli Desert which we were told pretty much only got snow as moisture.

Our next stop were the Lagunas Altiplánicas where we could see 3 different types of flamingos. Almost all the girls had to go to the bathroom, but there was no where to hide or use the bathroom so we ended up making a bigger connection when we held up a scarf as shelter as we rotated using the restroom! 

After that incident we went to a small view of the Ollagüe Volcano. Since it was just a view we didn’t spend too much time there. We also stopped at a rock field that was many many miles wide. Our guide said it was caused by multiple volcanic eruptions. My favorite was the rock shaped like Sid the Sloth.

Our last views of the day was an extra little lagoon that was surrounded by more amazing rocks as well as the Chiguana Salt Flat.

That night we stayed at an amazing salt hostel. We hung out and watched people watch soccer. Luke wasn’t feeling well at all so he took a nap and then took his temperature. It was 101.2 so we only woke him up for the spectacular sunset and for dinner. 

We were going to shower but the girls had cold showers and you had to pay for them so we skipped out. 

Our guide gave us a bottle of wine that we all shared as we heard about the current animosity between Chileans and Bolivians. He also told us he wanted to leave by 4:30 so we quickly hurried to bed. 

This night of sleep was way better than the previous night’s!

10/12

Waking up at 3:50 was a little difficult but we made it on time to watch the sunrise on the salt flats of Uyuni. It was extremely cold so we watched the sun rise and then quickly went back to the car. Then we headed to the Inca Huasi Island that is essentially a mound of cacti in the middle of the salt flats. We spent about an hour wandering around and checking out the views before heading down for an amazing breakfast!

After another 50km drive we finally got to a place where we could take all the cool pictures. We spent a lot of time trying to get them perfect! 

It was another long drive before we saw the first salt hotel and so we stopped there to take some pictures. It was disappointing not to see the American flag in the mix of all the flags they had there.

Afterwards, we arrived in the small town of Colchani. They had a lot of souvenirs available and so we wandered around looking before having a nice lunch.

We packed up and left towards Uyuni, our final stop. We stopped a little at the Train Cemetary before he dropped us off at the agency.

We said our goodbyes to Luis, and the rest of our group went to find bus tickets to our next destinations. Once that was done, we found a place to all grab a beer and wifi before going our separate ways. We made plans to hopefully meet back together in La Paz.

Our newest German friend, Johanna, joined us for this part of the trip so we booked a room at the same hostel and took a bus to Potosí. It was hot, loud, and filled with screaming, singing, and crying children. It also had dogs on board.

This bus ride was definitely not a good first impression of the people here in Bolivia but we hoped to change our minds once we got some food, rest, and a warm bed.

Once we got to Potosi, we were dropped off on the side of the road. We had to cross the street to get to the bus terminal but it looked like everything was closed.

Unfortunately, by the time we got there, there were no busses left to go to Sucre. There were only random people yelling at us and offering their cars to Sucre. At first both Johanna and I were iffy but at the price of $50 Bolivianos we decided that the 3 of us were okay to go with one guy. 

He was nice enough to take us to a good restaurant and let us eat before we continued on our way to Sucre.

The road was very windy and I had a hard time not dozing. After a few hours, he finally dropped us off at our hostel and quickly went to bed!

10/13

We got to see Sucre at night, but it’s completely different in the morning! It really is a beautiful city and all the building are white! We had a measley breakfast and then were invited to go to the 7 waterfalls by another Brazilian girl named Cathleen. Luke and I were getting ready but had to have a little discussion before we were ready. 

We spent half the morning looking for transportation to the 7 waterfalls and after getting a price of $200 Bob we decided to see about going the next day.

Luke had heard about the Dinobus to the dinosaur footprints and museum in Sucre and fortunately we had perfect timing. 

The bus showed up a few minutes later and after checking the prices, grabbing some snacks, and waiting for the girls to stop by an ATM we were on our way to the dinosaur museum!

We were on the first floor of the bus and they played a BBC show about dinorsaurs which switched from Spanish to English every once in a while. It was great to get a ride there and back plus TV for only $30 BOB (less than $5 US). 

When we got there, Luke had to borrow shoes since he couldn’t wear flip-flops down to the footprints. We spent a wonderful time at this museum looking at fossils, sculptures, information, and one of the biggest reserves of dinosaur footprints on the planet. I felt like a kid again!

Afterwards, we decided to stop by a Chifa & Thai place that had a meal for only $19 Bob that included fried wontons, soup, a big meal of your choice, and a small dessert! It also helped that it was soooo delicious (the quinoa was excellent) and that it had the fastest wifi we’ve had in a long while. 

Afterwards, we were really exhausted and then started to feel awful. My head was splitting (worst headache I’ve had in years) and Luke wasn’t doing too hot either. 

We skipped the meeting with the girls to go watch the sunset to rest. We only left to get more water and some pizza. We ate a tiny bit and drank a lot of water, popped some pain meds, and went to sleep early. 

10/14

We woke up completely symptom free and very refreshed. We packed even more water since we were at such high elevation and left with the girls to see the waterfalls after yet another sad breakfast.  

We finally found a bus that would drop us off close to the 7 waterfalls, but we still had to walk down an unknown and slightly treacherous trail all the way down. One of our group fell and he hurt his feet pretty badly but we pushed forward. We finally get to the “river” and see that it’s pretty much empty! 

We decided to continue forward and finally found the refreshing pools and waterfalls.

Luke and the girls went to go swimming in another area up a ways while me and our Dutch friend stayed behind with a group of Bolivian students having a cookout.

We got free food! Unfortunately, Cathleen fell into the water with her entire bag and got everything wet! Once we all met up we decided to go back. One wew ere in the center of the city we split up and Luke and I had lunch at the same restaurant from before. We also bought bus tickets for that night to head to La Paz. We headed back to the hostel, hung out, and then headed to watch the sunset at the Mirador a few blocks away. 

It was a nice sunset. We grabbed burgers on our way back, grabbed a taxi, and finally loaded up on the full bed, all nighter bus to La Paz.

10/15

After a long night of bus rides through curvy roads, we finally get to La Paz around 7:30 (12 hours!). We decided to have breakfast at the station before heading to our newest hostel. After eating a lot, we finally get a taxi to our hostel.After waiting until around 10, we finally get checked in early to our 3 bed dorm.

After settling in and taking a small nap, we decided to go around the city a bit. After a bit of nagging, we stopped by the supermarket to pick up some much needed contact solution, pain medicine, personal hygiene supplies, etc. Then, we visited the market place, the witches’ market filled with dead llamas, and a few other streets. We also finally got both of our hair cut and Luke’s beard shaved for about $10 total. 

Luke bought me some earrings (super cute) and booked his tour to do Death Road by bike. Obviously, I would’ve died so we decided to split ways on Monday. 

We went back to the hostel and hung out for a little before heading to the market down the street to pick up groceries for dinner. 

We picked up fried chicken on the way back. I made homemade mac and cheese with the friend chicken. We hung out on the wifi before going to bed. Luke went to bed earlier than I did since I was loaded up on caffeine. I went to bed a few hours later.

10/16

This morning, we slept in just a little bit. We spent most of the morning alone. I did some reading and journaling and Luke did some research on the rest of our trip.

After lunch at a Chinese place where Luke finally got some searched out trout, we decided to stop by a market Luke had read about. 

It. Was. Massive.

You could find literally anything you needed there like car parts, clothes, food, cell phones, baby carriages, and more!

After wandering a few hours, we decided to go to a Lucha Libre show. It was really funny after I got used to the humour of the show and we spent the next few hours there!

It was reallllyy cold by the time we left so we hurried to the telerifico down to the center and walked back. 

We weren’t hungry when we got back so we decided to hang out just a little bit longer. I tried warming up my mac and cheese #fail. So afterwards, Luke wandered the city and I picked up some cheeseburgers. 

We ate our burgers and watched Nacho Libre and then soon went to bed since Luke had to be up early for his adventure!

9/19

After an early morning to pack up our bags and campsite, we headed to the bus station to grab some breakfast and check on our AirBnb in Santiago.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t check it since there was no WiFi available anywhere and we had to load up on the bus.

The bus ride through the Andes was gorgeous! We soaked up the mountains since we were about to leave them for a while.

The border between Chile and Argentina was one of the longest crossings we’ve had in a long while. They didn’t check for drugs, they checked for apples. One of the security guards asked if he could stick a tube in my bag to test the dog and it contained an apple scent! He got it.

After that, we finally spent a few more hours on the bus and made it to Santiago.

We ended up taking a taxi to our apartment, but it took a while since it was the last day of the weeklong celebration of Chile’s independence and the roads were all blocked off. 

After finally making it to our nice little apartment. We took the metro to a new part of the city. Unfortunately for us, literally everything was closed in the area we were in. It felt like an end of the world scene and it was kinda freaky.

We wandered over to another area where we were hoping to go up to the Cerro San Cristobal which has an entire view of the city, but the lines were packed. We decided to skip out on that and headed back to our apartment. 

On the way, we spent a good hour looking for groceries and beer since everything was closed.

We finally found some but also ended up finding a Chinese restaurant that seemed decent priced. 

We watched the sunset from the top of the building and played a Spanish card game since we had mistakenly bought a Spanish card deck earlier that day.

That night, we ended up ordering Chinese food and watching some Family Guy before going to bed.

9/20

We spent most of the morning and some of the afternoon on a walking tour and afterwards we ended up making some amazing friends with the other couple in the tour with us. 

We had lunch with them, tried Pisco sours and some lomo a lo pobre. All of it was delicious and with the company we had the afternoon was perfect!

Afterwards, we split up. We did the same round we did the day before only this time everything was just starting to close! We went by the famous Varga market to see all the fresh fruits and vegetables, stopped by the modern art museum and the classical art museum, and then we finally went up the Cerro San Cristobal to watch another pretty sunset.

It was pretty cold by the time the sun was down so we ended up heading to our apartment. We made quesadillas and soup and then went to bed.

9/21

We got up a little earlier than usual, made breakfast, and tried to see the other bits of Santiago before we left the city.

We stopped by the Pre-Columbian museum which was fantastic and then we went to the fish market to have some food at a restaurant recommended to us. Luke had the fried fish and I had the crab cake (which was more like crab dip). After eating that delicious meal, we finally went back to pick up our bags and headed to the bus station for an over night bus to Puerto Montt. 

9/22

When we got to Puerto Montt the next morning we quickly loaded up on a ferry to Chiloe Island and the city of Ancud. 

We had been hearing about all the amazing seafood in this region so after seeing the town’s museum we stopped by a restaurant and tried Curanto, which was clams, mussels, chicken, beef, pork, and 3 different kinds of potatoes all cooked together in an underground pit, and congrio, which is conger eel and delicious. 

After that, we decided to go find a campsite we read about that over looks the ocean. We hiked up and found one a great campsite for a slightly expensive $6500 pesos each. The view was worth it though. 

We set up and then left again to wander the town. Unfortunately, a lot of things were closed so we ended up heading back after buying groceries and then setting up our fire for our campsite. 

We made tea and sausages, potatoes, and onions and soon went to hide in our tent. It was so cold but we slept nicely in our warm little tent.

9/23

This morning, we decided to wander around the area we were in and stop by to see some of the beaches. We saw a lot of beautiful coastline and some wildlife – which we were hoping were penguins but actually weren’t.

We stopped by the information desk to ask more about the island and got a lot of information on where to go, which busses to take, and which areas were worth travelling to.

After getting all of that, we went back to our campsite and broke down our tent. Then, we grabbed some more seafood for lunch at this really cheap restaurant. It was so delicious! Since we wanted to go to the penguins, we took the bus at 4:00 to the area. It took over an hour for a 15 km ride because the bus took the long way.

When we finally got there, it looked like everything was closed or closing but we got really lucky as usual.

One of the owners of a restaurant had a spare room where she let us stay for only $16k. It had everything we needed included the tour run by her husband to go see the penguins – only at $7k ($10) each!

We quickly got on board since they were loading up pretty much after we dropped off our bags and away we went!

It was a good 30 min tour where we saw a load of different birds like 2 different kinds of penguins, pelicans, ducks, swans of the sea. We even saw one lonely sea lion!

Afterwards, we wandered around that little area and looked for a grocery store or something but everything seemed completely closed. 

Since we still had time before sunset, we decided to hike up to one of the cliffs overlooking the ocean. We were accompanied by a couple dogs and a very curious calf.

It was really cold and the sun didn’t set until about 45 minutes after so we tried to do some yoga to warm up but the dogs kept jumping on Luke!

The sun finally set even though it wasn’t a great sunset, it was still pretty.

We finally went down and hoped to find some food. Fortunately, we found the only restaurant that looked open. 

We got some seafood soup, empanadas, and some wine. After dinner, we went back to our room and hung out for a little before going to bed.

9/24

This next morning, we tried to hike to another beach a few kilometers away, but couldn’t really find the trail. The only road to the beach we wanted to see was an extra 15km out of the way.

We snacked at the mirador over looking that beach and then went back. Fortunately for us, a gentleman was driving to the location we were going so we hopped in and rode the rest of the way down.

Our host gave us free brunch, so we hung out there eating and drinking tea until we were ready to wait for the bus.

There was only one bus heading back that day and there were no busses available the next day, so we were getting pretty nervous that we missed it after waiting an hour for it to show up.

Some of the guys thought it had passed already, but fortunately some other travelers were told a different time – 3:30 vs 2:15.

So we finally got the bus back to town. When we got back, we decided to move on to a different town called Curaco de Velez. 

Luke had read about a campsite where we could stay, but unfortunately it was closed. After asking around, we discovered that there was nothing open since it was low season – not even restaurants.

Fortunately for us, there was a guy that let us stay in his backyard! After walking to his house and setting up our tent, we saw the beginnings of an amazing sunset!

We quickly hurried down to the lake in the town and watched that amazing sunset for a long while. Afterwards, we tried to pick up some groceries and stopped by a coffee shop in hopes of finding food, but had to resort to sandwiches and chips.

We soon went to sleep.

9/25

We woke up to find that our tent was soaked! After packing up early we headed to Achao to see the oldest church on the island. 

We accidentally walked to the wrong one but it was a nice walk! We finally made it to the old church which was very beautiful. Afterwards, we ate at a nice restaurant and had some more fresh seafood before heading to Dacalhue to check out their Sunday fair. There were a lot of neat products and we bought a few souvenirs to send home!

After that, we headed to Castro. We had an Airbnb that we waited for at the bus station but finally gave up and walked to the place at the top of the city.

We finally made it there and figured out we were both at different bus stations! We bought spaghetti and made dinner that night after enjoying some wonderful hot showers and washing some of our clothes. 

We were excited to be in a warm place and hung out there for the rest of the evening.

Week 33: Buenos Aires, Argentina; Montevideo, Uruguay

Monday, 8/29 

We finally get to Buenos Aires and took the Metro to our newest hostel. The reception of this hostel was amazing! We were told about all kinds of tours, things to do, where to go, what to eat, pretty much everything we needed to know! 

It was colder there so we had to bundle up. This first day, we spent some time hanging out in the lobby and then tried matte, which is a South American green tea drink, for the very first time. It was difficult to choke down to say the least. 

Later, after wandering the city a little bit, we ended up meeting a few different people from around the world! We decided to go that night to a suggested drum show so we got our group together, headed towards the show, and spent the whole night watching this amazing band and wandering the streets of Buenos Aires with an outside band and our new friends.

Unfortunately, we didn’t stay out too late because most of us had arrived that morning or afternoon from travelling and we were all tired. 

We headed back, stayed up a little bit more hanging out with more people at the hostel, drank some wine together, then went to bed.

Tuesday, 8/30

Today our little group decided to go on a walking tour at 10:30 in the morning. The tour was slow, but good! We got to see a good chunk of the city and we ended up with our favorite part of the tour at the famous cemetary, Recoletta.

It was our friend Martin’s birthday so after picking up some sushi and pizza for lunch, we separated and decided to meet up that night. I had an urge to make cookies and had the perfect excuse to finally bake! We also had to pick up a battery for my phone since it was constantly dying.

That night, we had a BBQ with the whole hostel. We sat at a family style table, ate soooo many different types of delicious meats, drank wine, and spent the night talking, drinking, and hanging out in our little family room!

After presenting my disastrous cookies and a cake that the girls at the hostel had made, we sang Happy Birthday to our new friend, hung out some more and then went to bed!

Wednesday, 8/31

We woke up pretty late this morning! In the afternoon, some of the group got together and wandered some more around the city.

We went to the MALBA art museum, saw the famous metal flower which is way more beautiful than it sounds (and even opens and closes every morning and night!), had a picnic in the park, then went to the free arts museum – one of my best museum experiences so far! We were shocked to see a flock of parakeets in the park with the pigeons. Apparently they can be found living wild in most countries in the world, even the UK. 

We didn’t get back until it got dark. Luke wasn’t feeling well, but it was the last night of the opera Tosca at the famous theatre.

Luke crashed while my friend Eyþos and I pretty much sprinted to the opera house hoping to snag some last minute tickets.

The seats weren’t the greatest (we had to lean over the rail to see anything) BUT it was perfect because they posted subtitles at the top of the stage showing the lyrics.

The show was AMAZING! Mario’s character gave me chills and he had one of the longest standing ovations I’ve ever seen after a song he sang during the show. Ah-mazing.

Afterwards, since we had skipped dinner, we tried to find a restaurant that was open but had no luck.

We finally got back to the hostel, I checked on Luke who had a temperature, and ate left over mac and cheese (homemade this time!), and went to bed. 

Thursday, 9/1

Again, we had a slow start to the morning, enjoying breakfast and each other’s company before some of us decided we wanted to go see the famous yet touristy old town of Buenos Aires (Boca, where the soccer stadium is) – the one you always see pictures of.

We wandered around the area for a little while and visited a really small but neat wax museum. We met up with everyone a few minutes later and then headed back to the hostel.

That night, we hung out, went to a bar together, and spent the entire night playing games and hanging out with our friends.

Friday, 9/2

Luke was up way earlier than I was. We made chicken soup for lunch since I was feeling a bit under the weather.

He wandered around town and we spent a lot of the day and evening at the hostel.

*sarahi was in bed most of the day so I wandered the city! First I stopped at an old church with a double layered organ on the back wall. Someone was playing and it was eery but amazing. Next I went to Puerto Madura, a revitalized old warehouse area along the river. I saw the iconic bridge and went to an old navy boat turned museum. Then I wandered past the sky scrapers to the ecological reserve. It’s not that impressive but I actually saw several new species of birds, animals, and plants. After that I returned to the hostel to check on Sarahi. I went grocery shopping, took all our dirty clothes to the laundromat and then we cooked dinner. Spaghetti I believe. -Luke

Saturday, 9/3

This morning, we checked out and thought to catch the ferry over to Uruguay. Unfortunately, we were way too late for it and had to find another hostel to stay that night since our favorite didn’t have room.

We Ubered out of there and our driver told us that Uber was technically illegal there because of all the taxi drivers. He told us to not mention Uber if we were around taxis since they could fine him like $80,000 pesos and attack him or his car.

It was a warmer day than a lot of the other ones, so Luke and I decided to try and see the Japanese garden, the planetarium and a few other things.

We spent some time at the Japanese garden then headed to the planetarium! Luke got a candy that looked dangerous and we hung out at the park for a bit before heading to the planetarium. Unfortunately, we didn’t go inside the planetarium since it was extremely busy and the movie wasn’t until two hours later.

We wandered the city a little more, visited the Palacio de Congresso which was beautiful! 

It was really cold and getting dark so we headed back to the hostel, cooked leftover dinner, and then went to sleep.

Sunday, 9/4

We were up around 6:00 the next morning, spent some time trying to get our taxi to the port, and then finally boarded after waiting a while.

We spent a majority of the morning taking the ferry over and taking a bus the rest of the way to Montevideo. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening around Montevideo, but it was really cold! We took our wanderings in short bursts giving each other time to warm up. We visited the fair that happens on Sundays where I finally bought a sweater and then we spent a few more hours wandering the city and going out to eat.

We went to bed pretty early listening to the other people jam out to music on the first floor.

Week 32: São Paulo, Iguazu Falls area (Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina)

Monday, 8/22

We woke up this morning to a very cold room! We had breakfast with our new friends and then went and wandered the city (Unfortunately, we missed the walking tour!). I wasn’t a fan of São Paulo at all and was happy we left. 

We were going to wander the city even more, but we had a bus to catch at 6pm and we still had to do laundry.

So we started our laundry, went and had some Chinese food, shopped for some things like a warm hat, and then went back to the hostel to charge our phones and pack up our laundry.

We went to the bus station and loaded up for an all night bus to Iguaçu.

Tuesday, 8/23

We arrived pretty early in the morning and we ended up taking a taxi up to our new hostel, El Shaddai.

Our hostel owner was so resourceful! We spent a good 30 minutes talking with her and getting the updates on the city, public transportation, and the surrounding areas.

We went to our new room and then started wandering around the city. We started with some Arabian food.

Since we didn’t have time to go to the falls or to the dam, we decided to go to Paraguay and check out the shopping.

We hopped on a bus over the river and headed to the Mona Lisa shopping center. 

Unfortunately, we aren’t big shoppers and didn’t see the big deal on that shopping mall. If you spend your money on lots of nice brand name items, this may be the place for you! It had a lot of beautiful things, but it didn’t seem like it was discounted as much as we had hoped. Because of high import taxes in Argentina and Brazil, residents can cross into Paraguay for cheaper shopping. As Americans the prices seemed no different than malls at home. However, non luxury items on the streets of Paraguay are extremely cheap. 

After some time there, we decided to wander around the outside where all the local shopping tents were. We got some money exchanged, grabbed a beer and walked about. Luke ended up getting his beard shaved again and a nice new haircut. 

Afterwards, we decided to head back. Luke found some amazing place that offered a buffet of soup so we ended up going there!

It was so great to have some warm soup on a cold night so we ate a lot and then headed back to the hostel. 

We spent a lot of time wandering the cities that day and we went to bed happy!
Wednesday, 8/24

This next day was the day that we went to the falls on the Brazilian side!

It took us a while to get there since we took the bus but we ended up getting there with plenty of time. 

It was so beautiful! We spent all morning and afternoon wandering the little trails, pushing our way past the crowds, feeling the power of the falls, and running away from the Coati. They were little critters like raccoons and they kept stealing peoples food including some left over chicken bones Luke and I had on our plate left over from lunch! They literally climbed onto the table where we were sitting and tried to steal food from right under our noses. 

Afterwards, we decided to leave and head back. We decided we weren’t done adventuring and we stopped by the zoo on our way back! It was a small free zoo and it was a pleasant little walk back on the way back to our hostel. We went and picked up groceries then headed back to the hostel.

We were still hungry so we decided to stop by the Arabian place again for some more snacks. Then we went back to the hostel to hang out by the pool and rest after wandering around the city just a little bit more!

Thursday, 8/25

Today was our last day in Brazil and we decided to go see the Buddhist temple and the dam.

It took us a while to get to the temple since it was a bus ride and a mile walk from where we got off, but it was totally worth it.

It was serene and filled with statues. It also had a great view overlooking a few of the cities! We spent a good amount of time there looking at the statues and wandering the grounds.

Afterwards, we walked back to the bus station and rode the rest of the way to the dam.

We bought the Panoramic tour and spent the day learning about the dam and taking a bus all the way around the area. It was beautiful and sooo massive. After a few hours, we went back to the bus sto and headed back to town.

That night, we picked up some beer and had a small beer tasting to ourselves while playing some card games and then went to sleep after enjoying the space at the hostel.

Friday, 8/26

Today, we packed up and headed to Argentina. Unfortunately, we missed our stop and then our bus broke down so we spent quite a bit of time getting our passports stamped and through the borders. We did meet some new people and spoke to them for a while before finally headed to Puerto Iguaçu. We headed to our new hostel and settled down before we left and wandered again around the town. Since we were in Argentina, we ended up picking up some super cheap wine (about $3 US), some cheese, and crackers. 

We headed to the 3 points where all the countries meet and watched the sunset while having our little picnic. It was a short and sweet sunset! We headed back to our hostel and hung out but then decided to go get dinner later that night.

We went out to this amazing restaurant that had an amazing meat platter! We ate that, some fries, and this amazing bread and sauce that night.

We finally went to bed later that night after a great day.

Saturday, 8/27

Today, we decided to finally see the falls in Argentina. I had heard that this side was better, and I have to agree!

If you don’t have time to see both I suggest the Argentinian side mainly because they have many trails through the grounds and over the waterfalls. We spent pretty much the entire day there! 

We took the tour boat ride that day as well and it was like a roller coaster! We got soaked and it was awesome!

After that entire day, we finally went back to our hostel and cooked dinner. 

Then we decided the night shouldn’t be over and ended up going to the Icebar which was amazing!

It is a bar that is -10 degrees and they serve you drinks in an ice glass. They also give you these huge massive coats and we posed with the ice sculptures.

You are only allowed to be in there for about 30 minutes but it was okay because it was freezing in there! 

We were finally exhausted and went to bed.

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Sunday, 8/28

Luke was still sleeping when I got up, but I ended up getting up for the sunrise which was beautiful!

We didn’t do much except for get bus tickets, eat, and then run to the station because we were running late! We bought tickets from Iguazu to Buenos Aires, a 17 hour bus ride. The tickets were only around $70 USD per person and we had fully reclining seats! It was a great bus ride! They gave us dinner and even a glass of whiskey! We watched movies and read and hung out before going to sleep. 

Week 31: Paraty, Ilha Grande, Angra dos Reis

Monday, 8/15

After a long night of travel from Rio, we slept in just a little bit before heading to breakfast and going around the city of Paraty. We didn’t really plan on spending a lot of time in this city so we did as much as we could.

We wandered around the older part of the city then went back to the hostel. Our hostel owner was actually a great resources. We didn’t know what we were going to do that afternoon but he ended up helping us by telling us about some trails and some places we could swim. 

After a quick lunch of microwave lasagna, we caught the next bus on the town and followed it until we saw a few signs of the places we wanted to see. 

One of them was ponte do Tarzan where you could jump off a massive boulder and the other area was Toboga Falls where you could slide down a big slab of rock like a water slide. 

We ended up hiking down a random trail first to see a pretty little area with a stream and a few little ponds of water. Then we headed towards the water slide. It was too cold for me to slide down (I admit, I was a little freaked out too), but Luke went right on down a few times! It looked amazing!

After soaking up the sun and reading a little, we decided to move on to the Ponte do Tarzan. 

There, Luke climbed up a really flimsy ladder and then, after a few minutes to gather his courage, he jumped! I was super freaked out for his safety but he made it alive and well and full of adrenaline. He’s obviously way braver than I am.

We decided to hang there a little bit longer before heading back to the hostel.

There was a walking tour we were trying to catch but both of us were hungry and craving moqueca (fish stew with peppers and onions in a tomato and coconut broth).

We ate at a restaurant serving some delicious moqueca and then tried to catch the walking tour but ended up missing it.

We were both exhausted by that point and decided to go back to the hostel to take a nap. That night, our hostel owner invited Luke to play soccer with a few other people from the surrounding hostels at 10:00.

We went, he played, and we went home after midnight. We crashed completely exhausted!

Tuesday, 8/16

We woke up the next morning super early to go see the sunrise.

It was gorgeous! We spent the morning together, but then split up because I was exhausted and Luke wanted to stay up for beach yoga and reading. So I went back to bed and then he came back and we had breakfast together.

After breakfast, we left to catch the ferry to Ihla Grande after wandering in Angra dos Reis for a while and grocery shopping there since islands are usually more expensive than the mainland. 

We finally made it to the island after a 2 hour ferry ride. It was soooo pretty!

Our host from AirBnb, Claudio, met us at the docks and led us to his home. We was a wonderful source of information and a wonderful host. We stayed in a room in the upper part of his home. 

After walking around the town, we went back, cooked some chicken for dinner, watched a movie together and then went to sleep preparing for a great day. 

Wednesday, 8/17

We woke up, cooked breakfast, and then prepared for a long 5 hour hike. 

Then, Claudio mentioned a boat that would take us most of the way to the beaches where we were planning on walking for only $120 reals round trip for both, so we decided to be lazy and do that instead.

So we loaded up on that boat and headed to the beach!

There were 3 beaches in that area and we spent a little time at each one and spent some time hiking in between. We’ve also been making a habit of eating tuna and crackers or bread for lunch!

Each beach had beautiful waters but they were all pretty diverse! They had different waves, rocks, views, etc.

It was a great day and later that afternoon we headed back to the house to cook dinner. 

We ended up making more delicious dinner and hanging out before getting ready for bed.

This place had a glorious shower with really hot water and I reaaalllyyy enjoyed finally having some truly hot water.

We then went to bed.

Thursday, 8/18

This day we took it pretty easy since it was supposed to be a really rainy day. We left for a little to go hiking around the town and walked to an aqueduct, the ruins of the prison that used to be there, and a few beaches in the area. 

Then when we were heading back, the big rain clouds started heading toward us. We stopped at this house which had a few options for dinner and ordered them as they started raining. Luke got the fish and I got the beef.

After getting some free herbs from the sweet lady at the house restaurant, we walked back in the rain to our house and enjoyed a delicious lunch. 

After that, we tried to watch a movie together and made some homemade popcorn! We fell asleep early since we were going to be hiking and camping the next day and it was raining pretty hard.

Friday, 8/19

Today, we packed up our bags and separated the unneccessary items into another pile which we would leave at the hostel. 
After a good breakfast, we left and started our 18km hike. It was a pretty easy road until we got to the next little town on the island. We spent some time looking at all the beautiful flowers and some monkeys and listening to the birds of the area. 

We were trying to beat the time they told us of 6-8 hours total for the hike. We made the first bit in 2.5hrs. Then, we stopped by the beach in Dois Rios. It was soo beautiful and we enjoyed a wonderful lunch break filled with more tuna and oranges. 

After hanging out on that beach, we finally continued on and tried to pick up some toilet paper on the way (we had a translation problem and ended up having to buy paper towels ). 

Then, the little pretty road ended and the jungle trail began. 

On a worse day, this trail would have taken twice as long. It was smooth at the beginning, but it gradually got worse. The jungle is always trying to overtake the path. Trees are blocking the way, there are roots trying to trip you all the time, slippery ups and downs, little creeks, etc.

But it was beautiful. It brought to our minds the wonderful mystical things like fairies and centaurs and all those things that people would never find in a forest as dense and beautiful as this. We spent a lot of time talking about weird creatures and looking for any wildlife – which we did see! We saw monkeys, armadillos, birds, and more. We even heard something massive a few yards from us even though we couldn’t see it – we decided it had hooves, was big, and had to be a centaur!

After another 2.5hrs of pushing the speed pretty hard, we finally made it to Parnaioca. It was soo beautiful! 

The trail ended pretty much right at the beach and at a very pretty campground. We were planning on camping without paying for a place, but unfortunately, the national park had more strict rules and we could not camp on the beach. Luckily it was only $50 reals ($15 USD) for a campsite which was practically on the beach. We only saw a few people on the beach the whole time we were there. Our campsite was empty and there are only five houses of natives on the entire beach. There is no road, only the walking trail and apparently no regular boat transportation to the beach so we truly had paradise all to ourselves. We were exhausted after arriving and spent some time relaxing on the beach after setting up our tent. For dinner we used a rustic kitchen and cooked an amazing dinner of sausage, peppers, onions, and squash sautéed together, with some slightly squished bread. Maybe the exhaustion and hunger helped but it tasted world class. After dinner we quickly succumbed to sleep in our cozy backpacking tent borrowed from Mr. Paulson. 

Saturday, 8/20

The next day we hoped for a boat to come by that we could bribe into taking us back to the other side of the island. But when no boat came we decided to pack up our things and prepare for a hike back. We ate breakfast of bread and fruit and did some beach yoga and read until we could procrastinate no longer. We started back down the long trail but were soon caught in a rainstorm. A family of monkeys gave us a show during a rain free break. Finally we reached dois rios where we drank a well earned beer and ate some tuna, bread, crackers and fruit for lunch at a covered table. After a nice break we continued hiking up the steepest part of the trail, which was luckily a better trail as it began to truly pour rain. We were very much ready to be done hiking by the time we reached the end of the trail. That night we cooked the rest of the food we had waiting in the fridge, took much needed showers, and relaxed. 

It should be noted that our backpacks and boots became completely soaked with sweat and rain on this hike and did not dry out for days. Once they did dry they still smelt awful and caused us a lot of headaches. 

Sunday, 8/21

The next morning we talked to some Brazilians who were staying in our Airbnb. We learned a lot about Claudio’s Buddhist/yoga world views and finally packed our bags, ate a large breakfast, and headed to the dock where we caught a ferry back to the mainland. We were sad to leave but hoped for better weather. We hoped to travel a long distance that day and so once we arrived we hurriedly hiked to the bus station where we waited two hours for the next bus to São Paulo. We had a nice lunch and bought groceries before getting on the bus. It took 8 hours and was late by the time we arrived. We made friends on the bus and decided to travel to a hostel together. We took the subway directly from the bus station and after a transfer we attempted to walk to our hostel. As my boots were soaked I was wearing flip flops and we sadly found the weather very cold and rainy. Eventually after a very cold hike we reached our hostel and were soon fast asleep. 

It was a fantastic week and we were happy to get out of big city Rio to enjoy some remote hiking and camping! 

*this post was partially written by both Sarahi and Luke, sorry if it’s confusing! 

Week 29 Summary: Rio de Janeiro

Monday, 8/1

Obviously, another beach day close to the beach volleyball stadium!

To be honest, we didn’t really do much here except hanging out at the hostel with a few of our friends and hang out at the beach. We have been making a habit of cooking our meals and after that we read a little, hung out a little more, then went to bed.

Tuesday, 8/2

For breakfast we went to the restaurant right outside of the hostel and called an Uber to take us to Christ the Redeemer. 

Uber is definitely the way to go in Rio. For about a 45 minute ride the bill was only $17 R (which is around $6).

Our goal was to hike up and exercise that day so we ended up hiking partially up the hill to Christ the Redeemer. Unfortunately, we didn’t get great direction because the next thing we know, we get pulled over by a few of the police at the park saying that we weren’t allowed to hike up that specific road – I still couldn’t tell you which road we were supposed to take. 

Fortunately, they decided to give us a ride all the way up! So much for exercising!

When we finally got up it was $24R to get inside.

The views were incredible. It was a nice day albeit windy. The statue itself is beautiful and it was nice that you can see it all around the city. We could see the entire city from that view and we had fun picking out the places we’ve been, stayed, or walked.

Afterwards, we hiked all the way down through the National Park that Christ the Redeemer.  The hike itself was actually really difficult. I felt sorry for those few brave souls that decided to walk all the way up and down. It was slick, steep, and long.

It ended in a beautiful place though. It was the Lage Park (including the British House building during the Olympics) and there was a nice little pond, a miniature aquarium, and some beautiful grounds where we spent some time. 

Afterwards, we went to the grocery store and cooked dinner again before going to bed.

Wednesday, 8/3

We spent half the morning packing and hanging out at the hostel before we Ubered to our new apartment on the other side of the city. We pooled with a few guys who were headed to the soccer game and then finally to our new apartment.

They were literally plugging in the kitchen sink when we got there and to be honest I thought I was going to be okay with the arrangements but was not. 

That’s the whole thing about hostels and Airbnb. You are rolling a weighted dice, but sometimes it just doesn’t roll your way. Luckily, our host did as much as she could to correct the situation and we got a few free nights out of the deal. We ended up sting there all evening trying to figure out the area, arrangements, and how to get to our Olympic events.

Thursday, 8/4
Today, we went to the beach again for a little, but when we got back to the apartment Luke had a fever. We had some sandwiches and snacks and he rested.

We hung out the rest of the evening reading, sleeping, and updating our social media.

Friday, 8/5

After some needed rest yesterday, we went to the beach again today and hung out at our favorite Uruguayan sandwich shop. We spent all morning and some of the afternoon soaking up the wonderful winter sun.

That night we decided to go out to Lapas which was a bus and a subway ride over we saw a few wonderful buildings along with a massive aqueduct before we wandered around the area.

It was a wonderful busy area with a lot of places to eat. It was a little pricey but it is the area where people go out to have a great time!

We ended up settling at a restaurant near the aqueduct to have pizza and some beer to watch the opening ceremonies.

After that we finally went back to bed.

Saturday, 8/6

Yay! We got to attend one of the first Olympic games which is one of my favorite things – archery.

We watched a few of the teams compete and we got to really enjoy the diversity of the teams there.

Afterwards we had an entire beautiful day ahead of us.

Since we didn’t want to go back to the apartment and be lazy, we decided to go to the park near the huge Maracana stadium. We couldn’t go in but we tried to admire it from the outside!

Anyway, the park was amazing. It was a HUGE park with amazing greenery. It also had a zoo which provided an amazing assortment of rare birds, monkeys, etc.  Not a huge fan of caged creators but if you want to see an assortment of animals – this is the place to go. We were worm out by the time we were 2/3rds of the way done. We defintely forced ourselves to finish it and a peacock even gave us a show of its beautiful feathers! Luke spoke to so many animals! It was so funny!

Not only did it have a zoo but it also had a museum which was a great place to be. It had amazing fossils and ancient history and really too much to see to describe here. I fell in love with this whole area. We spent the whole afternoon here before we headed back to the apartment – grabbing Subway on the way home. 

Sunday, 8/7

We spent the day wandering the area and getting to our soccer games!

The amazing thing about the Olympic tickets here is that they include more than one competition. We got to watch both Portugal vs Honduras and Argentina vs an African country. Everyone cheered for the African country because Brazilians do not like Argentinians. It took pretty much all day but we had no problem with that. 

We spent much of the night trying to wait for a bus to get us back to our apartment and then went to sleep!

I just stowed away a few packets of ketchup.

I think that Luke thought I was kidding when I said I wanted to take them with me. It’s not like I obsess over ketchup, but sometimes you just need it – especially in Brazil – where, apparently, there is no ketchup.

Here’s the thing. I consider myself a planner. I like knowing what’s going on with my life whether it’s lunch, my weekend, or what movie I’m going to watch tonight. It’s nice knowing that when I order french fries, that it comes with the all American condiment that is ketchup. It’s hard for me to keep my happy mood when my plans fail. Actually, it’s one way I can get irritable.

But that’s not what this trip is about is it? I had no plans for this trip other than making sure that I survive, get to know the cultures, and not having plans that may fail.

What I didn’t plan for was chaos- trash everywhere, graffiti everywhere, flies constantly attacking me, ants crawling in my bed, lack of air conditioning, and don’t even get me started on the driving.

It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that I can’t see an order or reason to things. I don’t get why there is no fly paper, or why people don’t put their trash in trash cans, or why every wall is covered in random signatures (thought I do have to say that some of the art is spectacular).

I don’t understand why there are no lines in the road and why you turn right when you’re in the furthest left lane.

I don’t understand why I’m looking at a potentially beautiful pier, walkway, or bridge covered in trash and graffiti.

I don’t understand why I don’t get ketchup with my french fries.

So what am I doing here? I definitely asked to live in a completely different although chaotic world when I signed up for this trip.

What I’m starting to discover is that there is beauty in the middle of chaos and that order isn’t always beautiful.

Life isn’t black and white, it’s full of color. It’s a wonderful and beautiful thing and someday, maybe, just maybe, I’ll learn to each fries without ketchup.

I hope you’ll join us as we discover a continuously changing world. We have an insta @roamwith.me and I would urge you to check out our pages and pictures as we travel.

-S

It’s been 5 days and it’s finally starting to sink in that I’ll be adventuring for a year! It seems surreal, but my sore calves and my sunburn definitely convince me that this isn’t a dream.

These last few days have been amazing and full of its ups and downs already.
We’ve hung out on a beach, were relocated to a new place (totally worth it), met a few new amazing people, played with puppies, hiked…. a whole lot, and a whole lot more!

As some of you may know, my writing abilities are essentially non-existant. As you’re reading my first blog post, I think it’s fair to warn you that you won’t be reading a well manicured essay with a point at the end. You’ll be reading a reflection of my thought processes and pretty much any thoughts that I feel you should know.

Firstly, I will tell you that this trip is completely possible for almost anyone. If you plan, prepare, and jump, you can be just like us on this adventure of a lifetime.

Secondly, you’ll never be ready. Ever. You’ll never have everything ready; your bag won’t be perfectly packed; you won’t have all the supplies you need; and you won’t have all of the necessary information. That’s the beautiful part! These trips are supposed to get you out of your comfort zone. I can tell you I’ve already been through the fire a few times and it’s only been 5 days! My say, do it anyway even though people think you’re insane 😂:)

Lastly, puppies are awesome. They’re always cute wherever you are. Rule of life: always play with puppies if you have a chance. It’s totally worth it.

  
I’m keeping this one short, but you’ll surely hear from me soon as we move on to the next part of the island!

Don’t forget to check out our insta @roamwith.me
Luke takes amazing pictures!

Also, don’t forget to check out the destinations page for location specific information! Some of our pictures are posted in the photo gallery. We have a long ways to go, but I hope you’ll join us!