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Adventure Brazil Colombia Guide Outdoor Peru Solo Travel South America Tours Travel

Ten Days in the Amazon on a Budget: Part 1

Part of the reason I chose to do an extended trip through South America was because I couldn’t choose where to visit first on a short vacation: Machu Picchu, Rio de Janeiro, Patagonia, or the Amazon. So naturally, I decided to do them all, plus a bunch of other awesome things in between.

As part of my budget adventure, I planned on taking the three-night slow boat through the Amazon from Leticia, Colombia to Manaus, Brazil because this would only cost me $75 with all meals included, as opposed to the $700+ to fly internationally from Colombia to Brazil (more on this coming soon, stay tuned!). So naturally, it made sense to fit my Amazon experience in during my time in Leticia or Manaus.

(Aside from the cost breakdown at the end, this post is all about the two-day tour I took from Leticia. More info about the other seven days in Leticia, Manaus, and the three-night boat journey coming soon.)

My initial search for Amazon tours brought up a ton of options from Manaus. But they also seemed a bit expensive, and seeing as Manaus is a city of nearly two million, I thought it might be an odd place to go off the grid and spend some time in the secluded depths of the Amazon. Luckily when I arrived in the small tri-border town of Leticia, I met three other solo travelers who wanted to do a tour from there. Since there were four of us it ended up being about 1/3 the price that I was budgeting for one from Manaus, at 240,000 COP (roughly $100 USD). Sold.

We chose the two-day, one-night Javari tour from La Jaganga Hostel, and it was everything I wanted in a quick trip to the rainforest. We considered the three-day, two-night trip, but it really didn’t seem to offer many more activities than the two-day.

The trip took us on the Javari River which separates Peru and Brazil. The idea of an organized Amazon tour was really off-putting to me at first, but it’s pretty much the only option unless you want to end up lost in the Amazon by yourself. Luckily, this didn’t feel like a tour at all. Instead it was just us four and our guide, Francisco, and it felt like we were hanging out with a friend who was just showing us around. We didn’t see another tourist until we were heading back to Leticia on day two.

Francisco
The man, Francisco, and his machete after chopping down some tree branches that once stood in our way

Here’s how our two days went:

DAY 1

We left the hostel around 8:30am in a ten-minute taxi ride to the port across the border in Tabatinga, Brazil, where we met with Francisco. With his round belly and beaming, gummy smile, we all instantly loved him. The five of us jumped in the wooden, canopied boat as Francisco turned in three different directions, pointing out Peru, Brazil, and Colombia. After crossing over to Peru for a quick, yet crucial beer run, we took a leisurely boat ride alongside pink and grey dolphins, brown water, and lush green trees.

Amazon Crew
L to R: Max the German, Josh the Aussie, Francisco the Colombian guide, and Susannah the Colombian

Canoeing through the Amazon

The perfect companion for an Amazon boat ride: rum

About three hours into the ride, we passed a house and waved at the kids as we zoomed past. Next thing we knew, Francisco was turning the boat around to take us for a visit. We climbed the stairs to the wide-open room that hovered over the water on stilts. The family of about nine kids and four adults sat inside, grating and cooking yucca, and spoke Portuguese despite being on the Peruvian side. The kids were in charge of peeling and cutting up the yucca before handing it off to the women to press through a machine and then grating it by hand. Then the man cooked it in a giant pan over a fire, and us gringos ate it by the handful. 

House on the Amazon

Making grated yucca

Cooking the yucca

After our afternoon snack, we continued down the river to another house which was one of only a couple that we passed during the whole 3-4 hour boat ride. Like the last, this house was also on stilts. Since it’s rainy season and the forest is flooded we weren’t able to find dry land to hang up the hammocks, so we stayed the night in this house. It was basically two separate “houses” joined by a short outdoor walkway. One was a fantastic, huge kitchen complete with hammocks, a portable cooktop, a wooden table and bench seats. The other was two stories high, and the main sleeping quarters. The top floor appeared to be for the family, and us guests were split up into rooms: boys in one, girls in the other. Each room had two mosquito-net covered beds and mesh windows that looked right out at the river. The three bathrooms each had a refreshing shower that used rainwater from a tub on the roof, and for the most part you felt like you were showering outside. Quite honestly, it was kind of like a wilderness dream house.

An inside shot of the main sleeping area of the house we stayed in. The downstairs had several different rooms and three bathrooms which you can see into there in the back.

My bed

The kitchen
The ginormous kitchen and baby Victoria who was very curious about my camera

Kitchen

View from the front door of the house. The room in the back is the kitchen area.
Neighbors
I think the family owned this house too, right next door

I unloaded my bag in the room and went for a quick swim because I couldn’t resist playing with the most adorable puppy ever who was climbing on some scraps of wood in front of the house. The water was only about thigh-high, a further reminder that the flooded area around the house is actually dry land during the dry season. Totally unimaginable.

Puppy
Baby puppy! The family pet was walking around on some floating boards trying to figure out how to get back up to the house. I just HAD to jump in the water and play with him!

The family prepared us food which was surprisingly phenomenal. I thought it would be a lot of bland rice and beans like most tours, but again, this was nothing like a normal tour. We had yucca, potatoes and beans, lentils, arepas, pork chops, eggs, fish, piranha, pasta, cucumber and onion salad, carambola juice, camu camu juice, spaghetti, and a few other things I didn’t really recognize but loved the taste. It was like eating at an old friend’s mom’s house; they fed us well and there was a ton food every time we sat down.

Dinner plate #1

Dinner plate #2

The family was so friendly. Apparently they live in town, but they built this house as their kind of getaway house, and to host tourists for an extra income. My only regret is that I didn’t speak more Spanish or Portuguese so that I could’ve conversed with them more like the two in our group who were fluent in Spanish.

After we ate, we set out on the boat again to visit a wildlife conservation area, which looked just like another house on stilts in the middle of the rainforest. When we pulled up in the boat two monkeys immediately ran aboard, climbing on our heads, curling up in our laps, and almost instantly finding and devouring the bag of camu camu berries we’d just picked. The whole time we wandered the property, the monkeys followed us around curiously, hanging from the trees while snacking on fruit and watching our every move.

Pepe, the rambunctious monkey

Monkey Business

Monkey
My flash accidentally went off (seriously, I never use a flash) and this monkey jumped and ran after me while screaming. Scariest moment in the Amazon so far.

Then we got the chance to play with an anaconda that was contained in a wooden shack. Snakes don’t scare me, so I wasn’t so much worried about it biting or choking me as I was about not being strong enough to lift it or take it off without dropping it to the ground and pissing it off. Turns out, with a little help, it wasn’t as heavy as I’d thought and I managed to get a photo with it.

Anaconda
Nevermind the snake, look at this guy’s adorable smile.
Prehistoric Turtle
I think this was called a Mata Mata Turtle, some sort of prehistoric turtle that’s only found in the Amazon region

En español, we learned a bit about the gigantic nearly-extinct arapaima fish and some pretty awesome looking turtles, when suddenly we heard this loud, barreling train-like noise, and looked over to see a wall of rain pouring down about a half mile away and a rainbow forming right in front of us. With my camera and lenses in my hand, two of us sought shelter under the house along with a dog and her pups, a few chickens, and a little girl, while everyone else went up into the house. 

Rainbow

After the brief rainstorm, the sky cleared and we headed to a lagoon to watch the sun set while pink dolphins swam around us. It was definitely one of those “holy shit I’m in the Amazon Rainforest” moments, where my dreams as a third grader were finally fulfilled. Now if only I could figure out a way to see dinosaurs and make it to outer space, third grade Kim would be so jealous.

Amazon Sunset

Sunset on the Amazon

We went back to a delicious candlelight dinner when I realized, and revealed, that this was my first candlelight dinner ever. I think everyone laughed at me. Afterwards, Max and I headed out on a canoe to search for some of the nocturnal animals of the Amazon with the neighbor. This guy had a flashlight that could easily illuminate trees fifty feet away as he searched for the different creatures of the night. It was all kinds of awesome just paddling around this wide open lagoon under the light from a nearly full moon and hundreds of stars. We floated around to the choir of jungle animals as our guide pointed out the different sounds of monkeys, tree rats, frogs, and other Amazonian creatures.

Every so often he’d spot a pair of red eyes and paddle closer. Before I knew it he was pulling small caimans into the boat, letting us hold them before throwing them back in the water. They seemed to freeze up as soon as you touched them, and when we threw them back in the water they swayed their body back and forth like they were still in shock before disappearing.

We also saw a snake swimming through the water, a wide-eyed owl perched on a branch only a few feet away, a tarantula clinging to the side of a tree, and I nearly bashed my face into a bat that was hanging on the side of a branch before it got startled and flew away. It was a truly amazing experience that I couldn’t believe the other two had missed out on by going to bed early.

When we got back, Francisco was partying down with some cachaça caipirinhas he’d mixed up. I tried one but it was a bit too sweet for me, and since I was the only non-Spanish speaker still in the room, I got ready for bed and retired for the night by 10pm.

DAY 2

It started getting light out at the absurd hour of 430AM and the family started stirring about just as early. I looked out the window to see grey skies and decided there wouldn’t be a great sunrise so I went back to sleep.

At a slightly more reasonable hour (about 7AM) I finally got up and showered. After another delicious breakfast, we set out in a canoe to go piranha fishing, which was probably the most hilarious experience of the entire two days. Five of us piled into what probably should’ve been a three-person canoe, without life jackets, and set out again with the neighbor guy. The water was about an inch from spilling into the boat and flooding us out, as we cautiously turned our way into the jungle. Every slight move tipped us to the side as I regretted bringing my SLR on board, so I shoved it in my waterproof bag for safe keeping. After about a half hour we ended up in a pretty strong current, which had us bashing into branches, careening straight for a tree. Josh, the Aussie in our group who was paddling in the front, looked for direction on which way to go but the tide carried us much quicker than the guide could direct us. We crashed right into the tree as Josh calmly stood up, quietly mumbled some profanities, and jumped into the water without even rocking the boat. I knew something had happened, but the slow rate at which he calculated his next move and jumped out without capsizing us was rather impressive. Just as quickly, I realized that he’d just ran right into a swarm of wasps when I saw at least a hundred of them flying around a grey nest. Both Josh and the paddle were being pushed downstream with the current and we kind of just sat there watching as the guide backed us up away from the wasps. Josh eventually climbed back on board with stings all over his face and neck, and I held off on making fun of him until later in the evening.

About an hour and a half after setting out, we dropped our poles (sticks with fishing line and a hook tied on, baited with fish) into the water right in the middle of some shrubbery. Almost immediately I could feel the piranhas biting, but the first few times I pulled the hook up those bitches robbed me of my bait. 

Now you should know that I’m a fairly poor sport. I’m fiercely competitive when it comes to dumb shit. I learned early on that I suck at sports and it’s a waste of energy to get pissed because I suck at soccer, basketball, kickball, running, etc. I just do what I can and have fun. But when it comes to things like bowling, beer pong, Mario Kart, tejo, and apparently fishing, I get livid when things don’t go my way. I focus intently and the only words to leave my mouth are usually curse words. So you can imagine the scene as we all sat quietly in a canoe while the piranhas stole my limited bait right off my hook.

Then the guide caught one.

Then Josh caught one.

Then I got pissed. 

Using that anger, on the next nibble I yanked the hook right from the water and voila—a piranha! I shouted a few obscenities, took some pictures, and to add insult to injury to the piranha, the bait was still in tact when we took it off the hook. I dropped the line back down into the water and felt another bite. Again, I pulled a second piranha up less than 20 seconds later, with the same piece of bait. Talk about killing two fish with one piece of bait, suckersss! 

Lunch! My first piranha catch

 

I was on a roll. At this point, Josh had also caught two and stopped for a smoke, Susannah had given up a long time ago, and I put another piece of bait on my hook. We only had a couple of pieces of bait left, and after my adrenaline wore off I realized what a dick I was for baiting up again when Max had yet to catch a fish and was still trying. After another piranha robbed me of that piece, I reluctantly put the pole down and decided to chill out and let Max try to wrangle one in with the last pieces of bait. He didn’t, by the way.

The ride back to the house wasn’t nearly as dramatic as the ride in, as the guide took the helm and guided us through a calmer area full of giant Amazon water lilies. We returned for our last delicious lunch which also included the freshly prepared piranha. They don’t have much meat on their bones, but piranha meat is delicious. It’s not fishy at all, just super juicy and tender.

Amazon Water Lilies
The giant Amazon water lilies are lined with spikes underneath to ward off predators, and can support around 20kg, if not more
Fish lunch
I took this pic through the green mesh screen of the girls preparing our fish right in the river. If I spoke their language I would’ve offered to help.
Sorry not sorry, piranhas. Thanks for being delicious.

Around 2pm we packed up and left the house for another leisurely ride back to Leticia. We saw toucans and tons of other colorful birds flying in the sky, sloths slowly climbing amongst the leaves, huge towering ceiba kapok trees, and all in all completely different scenery as we cut through the jungle.

I don’t really know what’s going on here, but we were trying to take an interesting selfie.

We made it back to Leticia around sunset, as James Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” BLARED from the Peruvian border. Definitely a weird choice considering how little English music I’ve heard down here, but it gave us a good laugh.

Should you do it?

Duh, that goes without saying. Visiting the Amazon was one of the coolest experiences I’ve had so far, and I barely scratched the surface. It was a fantastic two days and I really think we saw and did a lot. If you do the same tour during the dry season you’ll probably have more options to hike through the rainforest, sleep in hammocks outdoors, and possibly see even more wildlife. But we definitely got to see much more than I thought we would, and I can’t recommend this experience enough. I would love to go back during the dry season and do a longer trip, but come on, $100 for two days of transportation, food, lodging, and activities? Totally worth it. It’s worth noting that the more people you have, the cheaper it is. And if you need a translator you will pay even more, so it helps to have at least one person in your group be fluent in both Spanish and your native language.

Pricing breakdown for ten days in the Amazon region:
Flight from Bogotá to Leticia: $112 (though one guy I met said he booked one for $40, I have no idea how)
Three nights at La Jangada Hostel in Leticia: $30
Two-day, one-night tour: $100
Three-night boat from Leticia to Manaus: $75 (more on this adventure coming soon!)
Two nights in Manaus: $21 (I redeemed hotel points for a free stay, just had to pay taxes. But you can find a hostel for just as cheap.)

Grand total: $338, averaging about $33.80 per day, plus a little extra for food in Leticia and Manaus.

Categories
Living Abroad Solo Travel South America Travel

I Just Bought My First One-Way Ticket

I’ve been in Ohio for eight days. Most of the time I’ve been sitting on the couch in my pajamas watching TV and playing with the dogs, but today I finally made a move towards my “what’s next.”

After months and months of figuring out destinations, routes, and budgets, today I purchased a one-way ticket to Cartagena, Colombia. I’ll be welcoming 2015 by devouring empanadas and salsa dancing my way through the walled city. Then a few days later I’ll hop on a bus and head off to another part of Colombia for a few nights before packing up and moving on to another spot. For at least a few months.

As of December 30th I’ll be backpacking my way around South America indefinitely (basically until I run out of money, get sick of roughing it, or complete my grand tour, whichever comes first). I’m going to leave most of the trip unplanned and completely open to spontaneity, but I’ll be following a rough path:

through Colombia, eventually making my way down to Brazil in time for Carnaval, then down through Argentina where I’m hoping to spend a few weeks in/around Buenos Aires before reaching Patagonia, then up through Chile and Bolivia before making it to Machu Picchu, and finally finishing up in Ecuador.

Aside from living in a cozy flat in London for three months, the longest trip I’ve ever taken has only been about two weeks, so this is a completely new experience for me. But since I wasn’t quite ready to make the commitment of moving to the West Coast just yet (mostly the whole getting a car thing), I figured it’s time to go live the life that my inner wannabe Latina has always wanted to live. Plus I’ve felt so liberated since selling nearly everything I own a few weeks ago, I kind of can’t wait to live with nothing more than what I can carry on my back for a while.

During this trip I’m going to focus more on my travel writing, perhaps even writing a book—but more on that in the next month or so. In the meantime, any suggestions on where to stay, what to eat, who to meet, or what to see while I’m down there, leave in the comments!

Categories
New York Travel

It’s official: I’m leaving New York

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on here. As you know, the past year has had me questioning the next step in my life—with my career, my travels, and Just Visiting. After some serious soul searching, drinking, and location scouting, I finally uncovered the only “before I turn 30” path that felt right. So I began putting a plan in motion to become a location-independent freelance writer. But I also decided to continue to pursue the current plan of living in NYC and working in advertising. I figured whichever one just “works out” on its own is the route I will follow.

But before I dive into my future, let me talk a bit about the past.

This past spring I could sense things were shifting at my job. There were tense conversations, layoffs, rumors, and team shifts that gave me the distinct feeling that I was on my way out. Not only that, but my workload had changed tremendously and I was no longer doing anything that I was proud of. It was depressing to spend so much time and energy working on projects that seemed so trivial. I began to despise work.

Over the summer, things remained weird. And I remained miserable. So I updated my portfolio and LinkedIn. I responded to recruiters. I didn’t turn down a single opportunity that came my way—and oddly enough they were pouring in. I had conversations with about 15 ad agencies in New York and California. I got offers, some offering $10,000 more than my current income, and perks like regular trips to Los Angeles. But none of them felt right, or like I’d be any happier than where I was currently working. I didn’t want to leave my job for the sake of leaving, I wanted to leave to make the right move forward.

At the same time I also began searching for freelance projects and planning this adventure into travel writing by kicking off with a big trip. But three major freelance projects fell through, leaving me a bit hopeless.

So far both routes were a dead end, but I kept moving forward with both.

I spent August tying up loose ends and paying off old bills so that I could save every penny towards my adventure. I continued to interview for shitty jobs and continued to long more and more for pursuing my passion. I pushed my lease from Aug 31 to Oct so that I could have two more months to save before moving in with my parents during the holidays, and leaving on a one-way ticket at the first of the year.

Then two weeks ago I finally landed a freelance gig to last through the end of the year. To me it was a sign that freelance just might be the right direction. So I knew it was time to kick my ass into high gear and start acting on my plans of leaving New York. I spent Sunday taking pictures of the things I wanted to sell and getting moving quotes from NYC to Ohio on October 31st. Then I started questioning whether or not this was the right decision—to give it all up after eight years of busting my ass to get it. My apartment truly felt like home. I’d finally developed some close friendships and local neighborhood hangouts that I love. I realized maybe it wasn’t New York that sucked, it was just my job. Life was good aside from work.

I started second guessing my decision. For the first time in my life I was actually scared of going after what I wanted. I was up until 4am on Sunday, mind racing, confused as hell, and hoping and wishing for some sort of sign to point me in the right direction and make this easy.


Apt

Then on Monday, I lost my job. Me and a handful of others were laid off without notice.

Sure it caught me a little off guard, but my first concern was that I would no longer be able to afford my dream plan. But I quickly realized that I’m only 46 short days shy of my planned move-out date anyway, and I’ve already begun doing small things to prepare for this. I was actually ahead of the game.

In true problem-solving manner, I immediately started to think about different ways I could save money, and the first thing that I thought of was breaking my lease a month early. I emailed my landlord and within an hour of being laid off, my apartment was on the market. I was taking pictures and sending over for the listing, and scheduling viewing times for the next day.

So here I sit, after roughly 30 hours of being unemployed. As of 645pm my apartment has been rented for October 1st, and I’m moving out of my beloved city in a week and a half. It’s crazy soon, and crazy fast, but this is exactly what I needed. I needed things to just happen so that I could react and get things done without thinking. Gone are the sentimental feelings of leaving this city and selling off all of my belongings. Instead they’re replaced by the excitement of refocusing my life, my attitude, and my direction. I feel more free than I’ve ever felt in my life, and everything just feels right. I couldn’t be happier.

I don’t know where I will end up in the next year, but I can tell you that the journey is going to be amazing. I’m not going to reveal too many details about what’s next until I book a flight, but I’ve taken this as the biggest kick in the ass sign I could have received, and definitely the ultimate ending to my summer-long quest.

I’ve left it to fate and it’s never been more clear: go pursue what you truly love; you can always come back.

Categories
Europe Food + Drinks Travel

MY BIG FAT GREEK VACATION

Move over Mexican food. There’s a new first place contender for my gluttonous fat girl heart.

With its economy deep, deep in the shitter, I wasn’t really sure what to expect while I was in Greece. So I split my time between the ruins of Athens and the relaxing beaches of Crete. Both provided two starkly different views of Greece, but they also had two fantastic things in common: amazing hospitality and even better food. Seriously, not only was every single thing I put in my mouth worthy of a full-on addiction, the people putting these things on my plate wanted nothing more than to make sure I tasted everything, loved it, and ate some more.

I arrived in Athens right after an underwhelming couple of days in Italy. Maybe I went to the wrong places, but Rome just felt too busy, dirty, and touristy for me (though to be fair, the ruins around the Colosseum were beyond awesome). And frankly, I’d had similarly equal (if not better) Italian food in Little Italy. So on the drive from the airport to the hotel I was worried that the run-down streets of Athens would leave me feeling the same way. It felt old, dirty, and every surface was newly adorned with layers of graffiti. For a minute I thought about turning back to the airport to skip Athens all together and head to the islands.

Then we got to our hotel, the Herodion, and suddenly all was right in the world.

Considering the pocket change we paid, the hotel made me feel like a baller. Located at the base of the ultra-touristy Acropolis, it was just outside of the seemingly cash-strapped city streets and just a few blocks from the restaurants and shops of the Pláka. Aside from it being cheap enough for my travel partner Marcus and I to each have our own room, there was a rooftop garden just waiting for us to sip cocktails in the jacuzzi while looking out at the Parthenon. But I must say, once we finally made it up there I cracked open a Mythos and it kind of sucked. Reminded me a bit of Busch Light. Stick to food, Greece.

Our first evening in Athens we walked uphill to the Parthenon. It was closed for the evening, so naturally we went for the next best thing: food. Along some winding road down the hill we stopped into a restaurant that we couldn’t even read the name of,  and the food absolutely blew my mind. It was my first taste of Greek food, and I only wish I would’ve been more hungry. But like a true fatty I went straight for the cheese appetizers. Two of them to be exact. Pan fried kefalotyri cheese for €4,50 and feta saganaki drizzled with honey for €6. Holy mind-blowing shit it was delicious.

The next morning I was introduced to my first of many deliciously satisfying all-you-can-eat breakfast buffets in Greece. I ate about six plates, which held me over until dinner when we stopped at Plakiotissa. Marcus ordered the always delicious moussaka, and I got stuffed peppers. It’s weird that this place has such bad reviews on TripAdvisor, because we both thought it was pretty damn tasty. Not as amazing as the first place we went, but still a solid, satisfying meal. We both scarfed down our meals until we were uncomfortably full, and when we thought we could eat no more, our new waiter friend brought us out free dessert. If this was a typical tourist-friendly Greek restaurant, I can’t even imagine how good the local spots were.

Ten extra pounds of Kim proved that I fell in love with food all over again in Athens. But it got even better.

I stayed at two different hotels in Crete, the first had buffet meals that were easy enough to sneak into without paying (woops). So of course I did that and sampled everything I could get my hands on. I know, how often do you get amazing food at a buffet though, right? Apparently all the time in Greece.



The salads. The stuffed grape leaves. The flaky phyllo layered with spinach and feta. The better-than-Italian pasta. The galaktoboureko. The lamb. The galatopita. I don’t even know what I was piling on my plate most of the time, but I do know that I never tried a single thing in Greece that I didn’t like. I went to several restaurants in Crete and ordered main dishes of things I’d sampled at the buffet, only to be even more wowed, but I know I’ve only barely scraped the surface of awesome Greek food.

It took all of my power not to throw out all of my clothes and fill my luggage with olive oil, spices, cheese, and whatever else I could fit in there from the airport marketplace. But I figured a cookbook would last much longer than any sort of actual food that’d surely be gone before my plane even made it back to the States, so I picked one up and decided I could make some of this stuff back in New York.

Have I yet? No. From what I can tell, cooking Greek food is super intimidating. But I’m up for the challenge if anyone wants to come over for dinner! I sure as hell can’t cook all that food just for one person.

Moral of the story, Greece has some incredible food. So when life gives a beautiful country financial lemons, travel there and make lemonade in the form of delicious meals and cheap accommodations. Just make sure to keep some cardio in your plan.

Categories
Solo Travel Travel

WHERE IN THE WORLD AM I GOING NEXT?

Sometimes I amaze myself with my process behind booking a trip. Sometimes I plan the hell out of it. Sometimes the planning overwhelms me to the point where I actually get bored with that destination so I randomly go somewhere else at the last minute.

Booking this latest trip was no different.

Lately I’ve been keeping things pretty low-key, only doing a couple of brief domestic trips here and there. I had some bills to catch up on, a new apartment to enjoy, and a scuba certification to complete. But I knew that as soon as 2014 hit I was going to be hopping on a plane.

I welcomed the new year with five rollover vacation days I had to use up in Q1. So since I have a huge, almost sexual obsession with volcanoes, Central America shot to the top of my list. I researched, and researched, and researched, yet nothing felt quite right. Sure I wanted to do it all—exploring rain forests at Arenal, swimming in Lake Atitlan, volcano boarding at Cerro Negro, hiking on Ometepe. But I was also being teased to test out my new diving skills in Belize or Honduras. With the extensive travel time and distances involved trying to squeeze that much activity into a long week, it was proving difficult or more expensive than it seemed worth. Plus I wasn’t ready to settle on “just the rainforest experience” or “just the diving.” So after weeks of endless searching and the February 7th departure date looming closer, I scrapped that whole plan and went all in on another in a matter of hours.

I’m going to the Galápagos Islands from March 28 – April 7.

HELL. FUCKING. YES.

I pushed the date back a bit for several reasons, but mostly just to give myself a little more time to get my shit together and make sure this trip is as awesome as it should be. But on Sunday morning when the idea came to mind, I instantly knew this was where I was going. Further research only solidified this. It has everything I want—volcano hiking (albeit, no lava, but that’s another trip in the works), nice beaches, awesome scuba diving, and an extra bonus: cliff diving. Plus, AWESOME WILDLIFE! Sea lions, blue footed boobies, penguins, flamingos, giant tortoise, iguanas, hammerhead sharks, etc. etc. etc.! And despite what you’re probably thinking, it’s actually very affordable. But more on that later.

So yeah, 72 days until I’m in paradise, wrestling a giant tortoise and diving with sea lions. I’m only half kidding there.

 

Categories
Travel

MY TEN WANTS FOR 2014 AND BEYOND

We’re seven days into the new year, and I’ve been sitting idle on the obligatory “New Year’s Resolution” post that most bloggers have posted days—if not weeks—ago.

This year I spent the holidays in the Florida Keys with my parents. Since I worked so many hours during those last few months of 2013, I used that week and a half break in Florida to truly shut down and recharge. Aside from completing my scuba open water certification (more on that puke-ridden catastrophe later), I just enjoyed the warm weather and laid-back family time. I woke up every morning to the sun rising over the Atlantic Ocean right outside my bedroom window. I enjoyed leisurely breakfasts while staring out at dolphins instead of an office computer. I took my time getting ready to do absolutely nothing. I laid on the beach, laid on the couch, and laid back in the passenger seat while island hopping with my mom. And with the sun still setting around 530PM, I found it hard to stay up past 9pm every single night.

It was the most relaxing vacation I’ve had in years, and I loved it.

Bahia Honda State Park

Now it’s the first full week back to the cold (but thankfully not as cold as my hometown where the wind chill hit -41 today) reality of New York, and trying to figure out life. And now that it’s 2014, rather than have a single resolution I’ve got so many plans and goals that I’m struggling to figure out where to begin. Seriously, it’s like being too ambitious is a disability. When my to-do list gets too overwhelming, I end up watching shitty movies and New Girl reruns and saying to hell with everything else.

So why not procrastinate even more by writing a blog post about them? Maybe this way if I put this list out there I’ll feel obligated to finish it all before 2015.

I apologize for the selfishness (kind of, sort of, not really). This isn’t even a list of resolutions you can make for yourself. Hell I’m not even going to call this a list of resolutions, because it’s simply nothing more than a bunch of “I wants.” (Don’t I sound like a bratty little kid in a toy store?)

MY TEN WANTS FOR 2014 AND BEYOND (in no particular order)

– I want to stop writing solely for my blog and start pitching articles to editors. Hopefully I can land some pieces I’m proud of in some legitimate publications.

– In order to do that, I want to complete my MatadorU travel writing course so that I know how to properly pitch a story. Only nine more chapters to go, so that should only take a couple of months.

– I want to network more and be more engaged with other writers and people who love to travel.

– I want to improve my photography—from snapping photos, to editing, posting, and storing them on my hard drive efficiently.

– I want to finish reading the stack of books I have piled next to my bed.

– I want to maximize my credit card rewards and flyer miles and travel to a lot of far away places. I have 27 vacation days this year, I want to make them count.

– I want to make sure that my five use-em-or-lose-em rollover vacation days don’t go to waste at the end of March.

– I want to begin the transition from full-time office worker to location-independent freelance writer.

– I want to start writing my first novel, so that by the time I’m finally good at it I might actually still be young-ish.

– I want to figure out my next step and move out of New York, but I have no idea where to go. There are so many long and short term plans I’m considering that I can’t decide which are actually feasible. I always thought by now some new opportunity would have pulled me kicking and screaming out of New York. But instead I’m faced with determining my own fate and getting the hell out before this city turns me into a cynical asshole.

I’ve got about twenty more “wants,” but enough about me already. I can only hope that 2014 is a year of growth and change for me. Even making a dent in this list isn’t going to be easy or quick. But hopefully with a little bit of planning, I’ll knock most of these things out to make way for an even better 2015.

Do you have any “wants” for 2014? New Years is the perfect time to be a little selfish, and if I had to make a suggestion, I’d say make sure you do something fulfilling just for you. Take a class, learn a new skill, become certified in something. Maybe there’s even somewhere you’ve always wanted to go, so why not go, even if you have to go alone?

Whatever it is, write it down, set a plan, and do it.

Good luck, and happy 2014!