Firefly - Making My Way Down the Amazon Trail

I am borrowing the Aussie tradition, and going on a 'walk-about', to follow my passion. Stepping out of the 'rat race' for a life sabbatical, i'm chasing my long-time dream of doing conservation work in the amazon. On a whirlwind tour of South America, I will be volunteering with conservation organizations and animal sanctuaries, while seeking out all the sights, sounds and adventures I can stuff into my psyche along the way!

For more about me or my trip, visit my site at:
www.theamazontrail.com

Thank you Bon Jovi for the amazing words of inspiration:

“It’s my life- It’s now or never. I ain’t gonna live forever. I just wanna live while I’m alive”

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Joined on: October 20th 2005
Last Login: December 21st 2007

Blog Entries: 27
Photos: 913

TB Code: [blogger=8014]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by Firefly, order by Date newest first.

By Firefly
April 4th 2007

Wrappin' It Up-Reunions & Trip Tallies

South America » Ecuador » Quito

Arriving at LAX
Weary after 24 hours of travel, 4 flights & an 8 hour overnight layover in the Miami airport. Trusty Lonely Planet book looking worse for wear too! But I made it. My mom was CERTAIN I would die in SA!... [more]

Well, here we are, wrapping up almost 10 months of the most amazing trip of my life. Thanks so much for sharing it with me & for coming along on all my adventures. I am so sad to be at the end of this wonderful journey, but thankful for the experiences. Here's a tally of it all, and a final parting note at the end. Tallyin' It Up Months On the Road - 10 Countries visited - 10 Number of Food Poisonings - 2 Number of long haul (2 hours or more) buses - 52 Overnight buses taken - 14 Longest [View Full Entry]

By Firefly
March 7th 2007

Soakin' Up The Sun in Cartagena

South America » Colombia » Cartagena

Seaside Cocktail

Sorry folks, a little behind here on the blog. But many of you were bad little subscribers and didnt leave me comments on my last blog anyway. Shame on you. Cartagena, what can i say. Sun, beaches, relaxation, bliss....... This was the R and R i was looking for. As soon as i arrived, aside from the rather militant security at the airport, it was clear how lovely the people were. Friendly, kind, went out of their way to help you. What a relief from the struggle of Brasil. And it was WARM and humid at night and hot during the [View Full Entry]

By Firefly
February 22nd 2007

Beach Bummin´ (well, kindof) to the Holy Grail

South America » Brazil » Amazonas » Manaus

Salvador
I added some more pics of Salvador, because it is such a cute city, and the sun came out the last day!

So when we left our gypsy nomad, she was in search of R and R in the form of gorgeous white sand beaches and cocunut drinks, up the coast of Brazil. Truth is, the majority of the time has been spent in transition. Grrr. my unfavoritist part of traveling. Monster, is that a word? It is now. From Salvador I ventured to Olinda, a recommended stop. There were a few cute happy colored buildings, but a faint copy at best of Salvador, minus the cool vibe. But my hostel had a hammock lounge and a pool, so it was a nice [View Full Entry]

By Firefly
February 6th 2007

Flyin with the birds and Swimming in a sea of Portuguese

South America » Brazil » Rio de Janeiro

Flying High

Hey folks, looks like the subscriber alerts have been suspended from this site for a while. I hope that explains the lack of comments i got on my last blog. If you didn´t see it, go back one blog. Please drop me a comment so I know people are still interested!!! thanks So my plan was to head up the coast of Uruguay to Salto and then cross back over into Argentina on the way to Iguazzu Falls. Plan foiled on the day of travel when i found that hostel availability and bus connections were iffy. So re-grouping on the fly, [View Full Entry]

By Firefly
January 20th 2007

Montevideo, Me Encanta

South America » Uruguay » District of Montevideo » Montevideo

Matte and Beach, Montevideo
SOOOOO uruguay -argentina got their thermos and their matte cup. ready for a day at the beach

Greetings from Uruguay! Tour is over and i am once again wondering the globe solo. Once we left Ushuaia, we only stopped once on the way back up to Buenos Aires. Our driver was in a rush to get home early to a friends wedding, so unfortunately for us, that meant waking us up at 5 am for 15 hour drive days and camping by the side of the road. But by the middle of the first drive day, it warmed up enough in the truck to layer down to short sleeves. And by the second day, we were able to [View Full Entry]

By Firefly
January 1st 2007

It´s The End of the World... And I Feel Fine

South America » Argentina » Tierra del Fuego » Ushuaia

Ushuaia, End of the World

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM USHUAIA, THE SOUTHERNMOST CITY IN THE WORLD!!!! Hope you all had a very happy holiday season. Let's see, how to catch you up on my adventures.... First, I spent a few days in Santiago. a city i LOVED. They have a great subway system- clean and efficient. I found it to be such a sweet sleepy little city with great weather. The first night I met a guy from Colorado who I got along splendidly with. We ended up scouring Santiago, end to end, to find an iPod for me for my long travel days. We [View Full Entry]

By Firefly
December 13th 2006

Happy Holidays!

South America » Chile » Santiago Region » Santiago

Merry Christmas

Happy Holidays from South America! As many of you know, I have been traveling through South America for 6 months now. If you've been following my blog, you have been sharing in all my experiences and following along on my adventures vicariously. Thank you for your readership and wonderful comments. They help me feel connected back home, and I have cherished each and every one. For those of you who wonder, hey, what the heck has Tana been up to this year?, I am including the highlights here. To my blog fan base, enjoy the recap. (Ps, if you are not [View Full Entry]

By Firefly
December 10th 2006

Sucre to Salar and Onto Chile

South America » Bolivia » Potosí Department » Uyuni

Sucre, Bolivia

Great News from Bolivia- MY CAMERA LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!! I got to Sucre, a wonderful civilized, cultured, landscaped city for a bit of a break, signed up for another week of Spanish lessons, and went about asking around for a camera repair man. You would´ve thought i was asking for something that hadn´t been invented yet. But after about 10 shops, I found a young guy who agreed to look at it. $50 lighter, my camera was fixed, sans a few original pieces!!!!! Great news considering my only other lead was a restaurant owner who used to own a camera repair shop but [View Full Entry]

By Firefly
November 22nd 2006

Life In The Monkey Park

South America » Bolivia » Cochabamba Department » Villa Tunari

La Paz

Hello all, and apologies for taking so long to post this. I´ll recap a bit, with La Paz, a city beyond the description of words, so i´ll let the pics do the talking. After a day delay, I took a tiny plane to Rurrenebaque, in the Bolivian jungle for a 3 day tour of the pampas. Highlights included crocodile spotting by canoe at night, pirahna fishing, and swimming with pink river dolpins (along with the pirahna and the crocs!). Got to see capybaras in the wild, which was so cool, after seeing them in cages at Amazoonico. Got ravaged by mosquitos [View Full Entry]

By Firefly
November 5th 2006

Back in the Jungle

South America » Bolivia » Cochabamba Department » Villa Tunari

Hey folks, just a quick update to my awesome fan base! I am at Inta Wari Yassi, an animal sanctuary in the Bolivian jungle. I got my wish and am working with monkeys- cappuchins, to be exact. As usual, the animals are great, it´s the humans that i am having trouble relating to. maybe i should´ve been born another species? We all stay at different hostals, and my first hostal was much more like a refugee camp for prisoner´s of war than a hotel, so i upgraded to another. We aren´t allowed to bring a camera for the first week, so [View Full Entry]

TravelBlog » Firefly

Firefly | Making My Way Down the Amazon Trail | Travel Blog

Firefly - Making My Way Down the Amazon Trail

Blogs & Travel Journals

Wrappin' It Up-Reunions & Trip Tallies

Soakin' Up The Sun in Cartagena

Beach Bummin´ (well, kindof) to the Holy Grail

Flyin with the birds and Swimming in a sea of Portuguese

Montevideo, Me Encanta

It´s The End of the World... And I Feel Fine

Happy Holidays!

Sucre to Salar and Onto Chile

Life In The Monkey Park

Back in the Jungle