We heard about two islands to go to both with 1 place to stay on them. No stores. Definitely not my ideal combination. We heard that our other option had really increased prices since our guidebook was published. So, we decided to go with Boca Brava. It is one of those places that is a whole lot more affordable to get to if you have a larger group. The bus to get to the turnoff towards the island is all of $1.45. After that, the taxi to get to the dock is $15, and then the boat to get to the [View Full Entry]

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No sooner had we stepped ashore on the Caribbean then we realized just how much money was in the country. There, waiting to take travelers to Panama City, were 4 Toyota SUV/ pickups that could not have been more than two years old. One had a snorkel on it. This helped explain why it cost $25 pp. Well, almost. It turned out that they were a place short, so Jorin was stuck riding in the back of a pickup (it did have a canopy). However, with the humidity and heat, Justin ended up switching with him half way through. We had [View Full Entry]

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Our hostel told us about a boat sailing to Panama a few days past when we had wanted to leave. But, they said it would be a bigger boat, more comfortable, so we thought we would take a look. It had an Austrian Captain. I was wondering what that would be like. I didn't have to wait long to find out. We were not on the dingy more than 30 seconds before his engine died, swiftly eliciting the F bomb. Once he restarted, we made it about 15 more seconds before hitting a mooring line, after which he went off and [View Full Entry]

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After a few days in Cartagena, we were ready to go to a slower paced part of the country and take it easy for a while. The problem with Cartagena is that while it is on the coast, it's beaches are kind of nasty and that leaves one with just a lot of hot and humid town without the chance to really cool off. Enter Taganga, a beach village about 4 hours East along the coast. The first thing I noticed about Taganga was that it seemed to have more Israelis than Israel. Seriously, signs are in Hebrew. We went to [View Full Entry]

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Stepping off the plane, I was reminded by my experience stepping off my flight in Hawaii a few years ago. With a twist though, I believe I thought, "was Hawaii this hot and humid?". For the first time this trip, we had AC in our hostel. It was a very nice thing to have. Sleeping would be difficult without it. When I checked the weather forecast, I was reading a 'feels like 103'. Prime walking around weather. But, walk around we did. Cartagena is a city that is mostly very normal and uninteresting, except for a truly fantastic old city that [View Full Entry]

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Upon landing, we were greeted by classic Colombian weather, a thunderstorm with decent downpour of rain, lightning, nice and laud thunder. While at baggage claim, I was approached by Matthias, a German guy who had just finished his one year of social service (he had done it in Ecuador). He wanted to share the cost of a cab. Fine with me, always happy to cut costs. We were being met at the airport by the tourguide former co-worker of Justin's coworker's friend. I think I was looking at 5 degrees of separation, you know, almost family. Margarita the tourguide met us [View Full Entry]

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The 'I am Legend' of South America. This city is decently safe by day, but everyone swears by how dangerous it is at night. It was only fitting that when we arrived, the movie some fellow travelers were watching was 'I am Legend', a movie about zombies that come out at night, but a city that is perfectly safe during the day. Our guidebook mentioned how dangerous everything was, "take a taxi at night, even for trips as short as a few blocks", other travelers in Peru mentioned that it was best to only venture out during the day, and our [View Full Entry]

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So states the Lonely Planet guidebook. Cuenca is one of those places that does not seem to be overloaded with tourist sites (which is a generous way of saying it is kind of boring) but is a great place to stopover if you happen to be going north to Quito. It is quiet, safe, has it's fair share of expat hangouts and is not short of travelers, but does not feel that touristy. I came away with the impression that I was witnessing the locals going about their business and enjoying life along with Ecuadorians. We stayed at the Hostel Macondo, [View Full Entry]

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We decided to take the luxury bus option for getting to Trujillo from Lima, an 8 hour busride. I had my doubts as to how nice this bus was going to be, but it was a solid 8 hours, so I was game to give it a go. I t was the nicest bus ride of my life. Great recline on the seats, which were configured in a 2-1 configuration on the top deck (two level bus). Cruz Del Sur lived up to the reputation. They had a meal service, drink service, and had pillows and blankets. They showed western movies [View Full Entry]

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Compared to what we had heard about Lima, our experience was very nice. We didn't end up in the trunk of any cars or separated from our most valuable possessions either. This may have had a lot to do with our collective decision to take recommended taxis (taxi green is the best from the airport). This was made more affordable by the addition of a temporary 3rd traveling companion, Rea. She is from the Philippines, just 17 years old, and is traveling Latin America by herself after spending a year studying Spanish in Bolivia. We were on the same bus getting [View Full Entry]

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