Back to civilization again, unfortunately. We had an amazing trip to the most amazing beach I have ever seen or could have imagined. Tayrona is a national park located on the north Caribbean coast. We took a bus into Santa Marta and found a connecting bus to Tayrona on Monday afternoon. Since we heard that food prices are outrageous (quite true) we brought some standard backpacker diet staples of doughy white bread, peanut butter, granola and beef jerky. All the Aussies and Kiwis give us crap until they try it in all of its deliciousness. You´re welcome, Sean. After an hour or so hike that we dominated if I might say so myself, we came to the first beach of the park, but it wasn´t good for swimming and my Colombian stalker recommended another one farther ... read more

All I can say is wow. Yesterday started off so innocent, with a stroll through the old city. Great colonial buildings and some nice little museums and cafes. The Aussies turned out to be insane...fun to hang out with for a while, but their never ending quest to find rock got old. I wound up meeting a group of Americans from Colorado and before I knew it 10 turned to 12 turned to 4.... yikes. Feel like I´m in college again! When we finally left the bar at 4, there was an insane downpour that flooded all the streets and we returned to the hostel to find an inch of water inside. Our room was on the 2nd floor but leaked like crazy and the power went out so we didnt even have a fan. Ugh. ... read more

I can't begin to speak of the recent changes in my life. Being unemployed is very new to me and a little nervewracking, but I suppose it won't be hard to get used to once my feet hit the Caribbean sand. Though I am almost packed and will be embarking on my journey in less than 24 hours, I think I am still a bit in shock mode. I think excitement is still my #1 emotion, though I definitenly go through times of apprehension and panic. Thankfully these are few and far between. For all of those wondering, no, I haven't gone crazy and I'm not trying to rebel against anything. I got bit by the travel bug as a young child (thanks Dad & Mom!) and I hope I will never get that out of ... read more

Just wanted to let you know we're home safely in Lauderdale. Hopefully we'll be on the road shortly. ... read more

Hi everybody. Well, if you haven´t realized it yet, we´re doing fine. The hurricane hit the Nicaragua-Honduras border which is inhabited by small tribes people so it was probably the best place to hit in terms of population size. The islands were clear out of the way by the time we made it to the brewery (go figure) but it was great there anyway. The first day we went to the falls which was so spectacular that we went back later on the second day. Earlier in the morning on the second day we toured the Lago de Yojoa via rowboat which was very tranquil (aside from one of our boatmates geting sick over the side and Mike´s 30ft plunge into the water off one of the climbing points). All in all we had a great ... read more