Category > Americas

Mar 5, 2013
Nicaragua
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Stuck

Corn Islands, Nicaragua

I’d say I’ve been super lucky so far – throughout the last two years of on-and-off travelling, I never had any notable weather-related problems.

Things seemed to move like clockwork on Saturday: 6:30 ferry back to San Jorge, 8:30 direct bus to Managua, enough time to take the cheap public bus to the airport instead of a taxi, 2:15 flight to Big Corn Island.  Four days in the Caribbean, finally get to relax on the beach, go diving again…right? Continue reading →

Feb 28, 2013
Nicaragua
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Cloud

Ometepe, Nicaragua

Ometepe is considered to be Nicaragua’s crown jewel.  Every time I mentioned to a local that I’d be heading there, their face would just light up.

Conni and I attempted to take an early bus from Granada to Rivas, where the ferries to Ometepe depart from (actually, in San Jorge, a 5 minute taxi ride away from Rivas).  We made our way to the bus station at 9:45 am, and when we asked the “conductor” (not the guy driving, but the guy who goes around the bus collecting fares from everyone) when it’d be leaving, he said “Ahorita!” (“Right now!”) Continue reading →

Feb 25, 2013
Nicaragua
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Beginning

Granada, Nicaragua

The intercity buses in Nicaragua are garishly painted school buses.  Usually they’ll have some sort of Christian message, but then they’ll also have random colours and stickers, ranging from flames to Transformers to Spiderman.

So I rode one of those to Granada (costing me mere cents).  Uncertain where to hop off, I just hopped off…somewhere and started to look for my hostel, the one whose reservation I had abandoned the previous night.  After walking up and down the long street at least 4 times (over 1 hour) and not finding it, I found a girl working at the hostel standing right outside of it.  Except not really.  The hostel I had reserved with had closed down, and the new hostel in its place had nothing to do with it.  Oops. Continue reading →

Feb 23, 2013
Nicaragua
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Joy

Managua, Nicaragua

I saw absolutely nothing in this city.  This is really just a story of how I ended up there.

I was sitting next to a Nicaraguan woman on my second flight (Atlanta to Managua), a plane consisting mostly of tourists and volunteers, but few locals.  She was surprised that I speak Spanish.  (Well, my fluency is another matter, but I can more or less carry a long conversation.) Continue reading →

Apr 9, 2012
Ecuador
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Middle

Quito, Ecuador

Finish at the middle.  This is it: my final stop in South America.

I chose to end here because the place has some significance – I wanted to go from the “end of the world” (Fin del Mundo, Ushuaia) by surface transport to the middle of the world (Mitad del Mundo, Quito).  I’ve both exceeded and fallen short of this goal – exceeded, by going to Antarctica; short, by flying back to Punta Arenas, Chile (thus skipping a 12 hour bus ride between Ushuaia and Punta Arenas).  Oh well, close enough, more than enough!  I’ve travelled over 21000 km this trip (excluding the flights to and from Vancouver), over 7000 km of which was by bus.  Including the flights to/from Vancouver, I’ve travelled 40500 km, more than the circumference of the world.

But yet not enough!  It feels a bit like a cruel joke I played on myself – there’s so much more I want to see now.  Colombia, especially – and it’d be lovely to keep on going with Óscar and Silvia.  And after having my heart set on changing my flight, and then not being able to do so affordably, my original goal feels like I’m losing out on something. Continue reading →

Apr 6, 2012
Ecuador
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Jump

Baños, Ecuador

What a weird name.  I’ve made far too many terrible jokes, before even getting here, of “Nosotros vamos a Baños!  Ah mira, baños!  Ya estamos aqui!”

“Baños” means baths.  It also means washrooms.  But this town, Baños de Agua Santa, is so named because of the thermals (hot springs) in the area…I think.  Seeing signs saying “Baños” everywhere in town is certainly confusing when you’re actually looking for a washroom. Continue reading →

Apr 5, 2012
Ecuador
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Taste

Cuenca, Ecuador

The final country, final days, final stretch. I really don’t want this to be over!

I’ll pick up immediately where I left off. I arrived at my hostel in Cuenca and gave some big hugs. Turns out Óscar and Silvia were already waiting for me and had made dinner! So sweet of them. And they’ve been waiting for me two days, having done virtually no sightseeing, opting to wait till I arrived.

I offhandedly mentioned to Óscar that I normally wake up at 6 now, due to a combination of strange factors. This was not the case today. Still, Óscar, thinking that I would be up by 7:30, went out and bought food, then made breakfast. I woke up at 9:30 shocked and extremely thankful for another meal prepared for me. Awwww! Continue reading →

Apr 1, 2012
Chile, Easter Island
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Isolation with company

Easter Island Easter Island

This is the third unplanned detour in my trip (after Antarctica and Rurre), and my second out of South America (Easter Island is part of Oceania, though it belongs to Chile) – coming this late, it meant sacrificing a bit of my original plans (northern Peru), but after seeing an extremely cheap flight from Lima, I just had to take the opportunity. Yes, it’s cheaper, almost half the price to fly internationally to Easter Island than to fly from Chile! I even saw Chileans on my flight.

I met up with Tor and Mikkel in the airport, and we shared our experiences from the last two weeks – I had known in Rurre that they would also head to Easter Island, on the same days that I was considering at the time. (I waited to enter Peru before buying my ticket just 10 days before the flight, a risk that paid off as it was far cheaper.) Seems as though we have a very similar itinerary. Continue reading →

Mar 27, 2012
Peru
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Nos vemos

Lima, Peru

The bus ride from Cusco was 27 hours, mostly comfortable, but uneventful.  We reached the Pacific Ocean again, my first time since my transfer in Antofagasta ages ago!  Seeing the Pacific always brings me a flood of feelings – a few thousand more kilometres up the coast, and it’s home.  Only having two weeks left in the trip…that makes home seem a lot closer.

Silvia and Óscar have been planning to head up through South and Central America to Mexico, and I seriously thought about joining them to Colombia, at least.  I’ve had such a pleasant few days with them (and Marlies and Flo) that I really wanted to just keep going with them!  (Marlies and Flo ended their trip in Lima.)  Knowing that Lima would be my final two days with them, after almost six weeks- half my trip!- of intermittent contact, made me quite depressed.  So I spent the bus doing some Colombia research, resolving to change my flights and work some magic… Continue reading →