Upcoming Travels

Soooo it's good to be back! It's been over 2 years since I wrote in this blog and time to remedy that. A lot has happened, of course, over the past 2 years - I've gotten engaged and am getting married in less than 6 months to a wonderful woman; I've continued to travel extensively and since my trip to Colombia, I've also gone to Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, and Puerto Rico. I also traveled to central Mexico and explored Seattle, New York, and Chicago, and been to Naples, FL a few times.

But...the traveling never stops, and a few more trips are in the works!

Coming this March, my brother and I will be flying to Austin, TX for 5 days of exploring what claims to be the coolest city in America. We'll be staying at the Firehouse Hostel right off of 6th Street downtown, and the hostel organizes pub crawls and even has its own popular bar on location. We plan on renting bikes and exploring the extensive park system, renting a car and going to Pace Bend Park for some cliff jumping, and eating a lot of tacos.

In July, Holly and I will be (most likely) going to Grand Cayman following our wedding. A family friend of hers has offered to let us stay in their beachfront home for a week as a wedding gift, so we'll be taking them up on it. Holly loves scuba diving, and learned on Grand Cayman. I failed in my attempt in Costa Rica to get certified - and though I'm pretty leery of getting intense pain in my ears again from pressurization, I've promised her I'd try again. I did get down to 40-50 feet for about a half hour on the dive before I panicked, so I do know I can do it - scuba is amazing and I've love to be able to make it happen. So, assuming that works out, we'll be doing several dives around the islands. In addition, Grand Cayman looks like it has some of the most beautiful beaches and waters on earth, so I'm looking forward to lounging on the beach and sipping beers and cocktails. Other than diving, and maybe renting bikes, I think this will be a pretty relaxed vacation.

Our "official" honeymoon is booked for the end of November. We'll be going to the Dominican Republic, and staying on the north coast near Cabarete. Holly's mom is an RCI member and as a wedding gift is letting us have a week at any RCI resort. We'll be staying at Coconut Palms - one of the few non- all-inclusives on the island. This was what we wanted, since we plan on getting out and doing a lot of exploring. Cabarete is famous for surfing and kite surfing, and though kite surfing looks like it would take a lot of time, I think we'll rent boards and I'll try surfing for the 2nd time in my life, and Holly for the first. We're using a honeymoon registry, and have also asked guests to pay for massages, mountain biking, zip lining, and dinner on the beach, as well as one night at an eco-lodge in the mountains south of Cabarete and two nights at a hostel in the jungle near Las Terrenenas. We'll be renting a car and exploring a lot of the island, and I am looking forward to an incredible trip!

The last trip we have semi-concrete plans for is Southeast Asia next January or February. Thailand is the most visited country on earth...but that's for a reason. Researching the country, it's incredible how many beautiful and interesting places there are across the nation. Though I don't want to spend all of our time there (2 or so weeks), we eaaasily could. I'm hoping we combine some time there with Cambodia. An ideal itinerary would include Angkor Wat and Sihanoukville/Koh Rong in Cambodia and Krabi in Thailand. We'd also probably fly into Bangkok and out of Phnom Penh, so we'd have some time to check out each of those cities, too. There is a lot that I know we'd love to see in both Laos and Vietnam as well, but the concentration of sites in Thailand and Cambodia is hard to pass up. If Vang Vieng was still the tubing mecca it was before the Lao government shut the riverside bars down, I'd vote for a few days there, but since it's not quite the spectacle it once was, I think that we're looking at more of an island/coastline vacation with Angkor/Siem Reap thrown in out of absolute necessity! Other possibilities for the trip, depending on what strikes our interest, include Krabi, Ko Phi Phi, Ko Lipe, Ko Chang, Kampot, or one of the national parks in southern Thailand. So many options...


Other trips I'd like to take in the not-too-distant future:
- Morocco, Spain, and Portugal
- Australia/New Zealand
- Tanzania
- Poland, Hungary, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia
- Greece, Turkey
- Israel, Jordan
- Peru, Bolivia
- Vancouver and skiing Whistler
- Hawaii
- Albania, Montenegro, Macedonia
- Sweden and Norway
- Oaxaca
- Cuba
- Japan
- Vietnam and Laos

Ok, so that's a lot, and it's going to to take a long time to get to them all, but you've got to start somewhere...

Anyway, I'm glad to be back on here again, and am looking forward to more updates to come!

Bucket List

OK, so I've probably written versions of this at several points during my life, but they've all been lost due to crashed computers, missing notebooks, and the like, so here goes nothing. Those I've already ticked off will have a description next to them.

1. Travel to 100 countries (been to 19, with 3 more to come in next few months) and all 7 continents
2. Visit all 50 states (missing: AK, HI, OR, MT, NM, LA, MS, AL, DE, NJ, CT, RI, MA)
3. Go skydiving (summer 2012)
4. Go on a safari
5. Climb the Eiffel Tower (twice, 2001 and 2008)
6. Learn the play the guitar
7. Write a book
8. Go SCUBA diving on the Great Barrier Reef
9. Have a happy family
10. Have a career I enjoy
11. Work for Disney (2003)
12. See the Grand Canyon 
13. Go to the Olympics
14. Go to a World Cup
15. Bachelor party in Las Vegas (2010)
16. Be fluent in 3 languages (working on Spanish)
17. Visit Galapagos Islands
18. See the Colosseum and Sistine Chapel (2001)
19. Explore the streets and canals of Venice  (2001)
20. Backpack Europe (2008)
21. Run a marathon
22. Hike a volcano (Pacaya, Guatemala, 2012)
23. Learn to surf (Sayulita, Mexico, 2010)
24. Brew my own beer (Summer 2012)
25. Visit the Greek Islands
26. Explore a souk in Morocco
27. Hike Kilimanjaro
28. Go canyoning (El Salvador 2012)
29. Visit Yellowstone (Summer 2012)
30. Salsa dance in Colombia
31. Hike the Lost City in Colombia
32. Visit Lake Ometepe 
33. Go ziplining in Costa Rica
33. Visit a concentration camp site (Dachau, Germany, 2008)
34. Go to tennis Grand Slam tournaments (US Open, French Open)
35. Visit Zanzibar, Tanzania
36. Go on a winery biking tour in Argentina
37. Sugarloaf Mountain, Rio de Janeiro
38. Amazon boat cruise
39. Pyramids of Egypt
40. Explore the cellar bars of eastern Europe (Prague, 2008)
41. Take a bullet train in Japan
42. Drink beer at the Hofbrauhaus, Munich (2001 and 2008)
43. Explore old Cartagena, Colombia
44. Stonehenge (2001)
45. Ring of Kerry/Cliffs of Moher, Ireland (2009) 
46. Visit Lake Titicaca, Bolivia 
47. See Angel Falls, Venezuela 
48. Eat and sightsee in Chicago (2012) 
49. Go pub crawling in Dublin (2009) 
50. Angkor Wat, Cambodia
51. Hike the Great Wall of China
52.  See apes in the wild in Uganda
53. Explore Mayan ruins in Mexico (Tulum and Coba, 2011)
54. Island hop in the Caribbean
55. Go skiing in Switzerland/Austria
56. Go on a fjord cruise in Norway
57. Bike Guanzgzhou Province in China
58. Explore the night markets in Seoul, South Korea
59. Raft Class IV/V rapids
60. Experience Carnival in Caribbean or South America
61. Skeleton Coast in Namibia
62. Hike to Everest Base Camp
63. Hike Roraima, Venezuela
64. Explore the former Yugoslav republics
65. Go to an electronic music festival
66. See U2 and Jimmy Buffett in concert
67. Hike Machu Picchu
68. Volunteer at an orphanage
69. Volunteer for Habitat for Humanity
70. Cross the Sahara
71. See Teotihuacan, Mexico (2011) 
72. Go to the top of Burj Dubai
73. Become excellent at photography
74. See the Packers at the Super Bowl
75. Ski Whistler/Blackcomb
76. Go caving
77. Explore cenotes in the Yucatan (2011)
78. See Jerusalem
79. Hike Cinque Terre, Italy
80. Go zorbing
81. Visit the National Mall/US Capitol (1995)
82. Visit Istanbul and Cappadocia, Turkey
83. Tour breweries in Belgium
84. See the beaches of Normandy and Mt Ste Michelle, France
85. Explore the Balearic Islands, Spain
86. See where Lord of the Rings was filmed in New Zealand
87. Have a Subaru with a bike/ski/kayak rack
88. Learn to take care of the cabin and shack
89. Shoot and gut a deer
90. Explore the Boundary Waters
91. See the sights of London (2001)
92. Visit Chiang Mai and the southern beaches of Thailand
93. Halong Bay, Vietnam 
94. Cape Town and Table Mountain, South Africa
95. Stay in a beach hut on a South Pacific island
96. Trace my roots in Ireland and Poland
97. Go castle trekking in Romania/eastern Europe
98. See Yemen and Oman
99. Host and go CouchSurfing
100. Bike the World's Most Dangerous Road, Bolivia 
 
 

Colombia Dreaming

Sort of like California dreaming, but with more emphasis on coffee and avoiding the FARC and less on overpaid celebrities and earthquakes. The two month countdown has commenced until I fly from Minneapolis -> Cartagena and the excitement is palpable. Here are a few of the things I'm looking forward to experiencing in this off the beaten path destination:

1. Explore inside the city walls of Cartagena's Old Town.

One of the oldest cities in the Americas, Cartagena was founded in 1533 and its city walls still stand, enclosing what looks like a beautiful (usually termed "romantic", little use I'll have of that while there!) old town on the city's peninsula. The Spanish founded the city - though its location had been inhabited by indigenous people for centuries prior - and erected the walls to keep out invading Englishmen (read: pirates). Cartagena was Spain's main link to the goldfields of South America, and as such ships departing Cartagena were perfect pirate fodder. The city, however, could not be overrun by the English owing to the perfect construction of the city walls, and so gold could be stored within the city until an armada was able to safely scurry the gold across the Atlantic. Anyway, stoked to ramble around the city and beach and snap lots of pictures. 

2. Taganga

Just past the bustling city of Santa Marta, further up along the Caribbean coast, sits the small fishing/beach village of Taganga. It's apparently a backpacker haven, though according to Hostelworld's hostel reviews, none of its lodgings are especially good, so I may stay at one ranked highly in Santa Marta. The plan at this point is to do my SCUBA certification dive there, and spend a day in the water making like a fish. Of course, that will require me to find the time in the States to do the proper coursework beforehand, which I am sorely in need of scheduling on one of my off weekends.




 The diving is not world class, but the water is certainly clear enough for what I'll be attempting




Sort of reminds me of my ex's parents winter home location in Chacala, Mexico along the Pacific Coast - mountains right up to the curvature of a small bay dotted with fishing boats, though Chacala was completely off the beaten path of backpackers and independent travelers and hopefully remains so today!

3. Exploring Tayrona National Park

About an hour taxi ride from Santa Marta is this wondrous looking place, full of beautiful coves and beaches with hammocks galore. 

 

The adventure is partly in getting there. After taking the taxi to the drop-off point, you have to catch a bus to the first beach, then start walking...and after about 3-4 hours of hiking, you reach beachfront lodging.

 

The park is also full of howler and titi monkeys, lizards, snakes, thousands of types of bird, and other wildlife. I'm especially looking forward to having a chance to seeing monkeys in the wild!

4. San Gil

After my time along the Caribbean coast, my plan is to take an overnight bus from Santa Marta to San Gil, deep in the mountains of central Colombia. San Gil is known as the adventure capital of Colombia, and is chock-full of highly rated hostels that will help you plan and book adventurous outing in the area. Some of these include:

 

Caving, with underground rivers and waterfalls to explore. One of the tours even claims that at one point, everyone turns their lights out and under pitch darkness, a blind jump into an underground grotto is an option. Plus, underground waterfalls. Sounds fun.

 

Rafting. San Gil has access to class 3-4 rapids, which I've never attempted before but certainly plan to!

 

Paragliding. Never done this, either, but if the weather conditions cooperate, I think I'll give it a go!

 
Mountain biking. Never really done this, like this, either. Bring you to the top of the mountain and let you bike down a thousand meters or so of elevation. I'm in!

 

Swimming in waterfall pools/absailing. There are a lot of waterfalls in the area, some perfect for swimming in their pools, and one which gives you the option to rappel down the waterfall, like the guy in red.

 

Exploring Parque Gallineral. The central park in San Gil is a nature preserve full of hanging vines and gushing streams, beer vendors and snack shops, and is a definite must.

 

Eat hormigas. Chocolate covered ants are a specialty in this part of Colombia, so when in Rome...

 

Barichara. A perfectly preserved colonial town set in the mountains just outside San Gil, the entire city has been declared a historic site by the Colombian government. 

5. Bogota

 

The 3rd largest city in South America, and 5th largest on the American continent, Bogota was not too long ago a pretty unsafe and unpopular destination for tourists of any sort. That's changed a lot in the past 10 years, and now offers up such delights as the Museo del Oro (Gold Museum), described as a must-see; Andres des Carnes, a steakhouse-cum-nightclub that every blog seems to rave about; and a few quaint cobblestone neighborhoods ripe for rambling. I'm excited to compare Bogota to Mexico City, my other experience in a Latin American megacity. 

Afghanistan

AFGHANISTAN...

It may be first alphabetically among the world's nations, but it certainly does not rank first among the countries you'd be most inclined to visit. And for the foreseeable future, you're probably not going to want to risk life and limb to journey to a bombed-out nation. But, hopefully someday the Taliban's presence will be a distant memory and the country will be much more accessible and inviting to visitors. Because, like every Central Asian nation, it is home to some amazing natural scenery. The spot that caught my attention, however, was completely man-made (and subsequently destroyed).

 
Bamiyan and the outline of one of its destroyed Buddhas

Up until the Taliban got their hands on them and dynamited them due to their status as religious idols, two massive Buddha sculptures stood framing the Bamiyan valley. Even without the statues, the outlines were completely impressive, and the entire area is riddled with monks' tunnels and caves and smaller untouched statues. The area is a UNESCO heritage site, and the Swiss and Japanese governments are coming up with the money to help Afghanistan rebuild both statues. Some day, this will once again be one of the world's wonders, and until that time stands as a stark reminder of the destruction of religious intolerance.

 

Wanderings

In another life, I was a nomad. And at times, in this life as well. Not too many people I know, minus army brats, have moved as often in their lives (whether across the country, or across town) as I have. For one reason or another (flooded apartment, anyone?) I've changed living spaces and places on a yearly basis for the past eleven years. It only makes sense then, I suppose, that travel would rank highly on my list of favorite things to do. So here it is: my I'm-going-to-take-the-world-by-storm blog, a digital photoessay of places I've traveled and others I'm just dying to see.

 
At Yellowstone NP this past summer...with the ubiquitous orange polo

So, without further ado, let's start with one reason to visit every country in the world. Vamos!