Tirandentes hadn’t made it onto our original itinerary. Not because it wasn’t worth visiting, but because we couldn’t determine a route that didn’t have us backtracking between Petropolis, Belo Horizonte (Brazil’s 3rd largest city), Tirandentes and Ouro Preto before making…
Petropolis: a Summer Retreat for Cariocas
After camping in Paraty, we were all excited to move in for three nights to a spacious three bedroom apartment in Petropolis. About two hours north of Rio, Petropolis has long been a summer escape for wealthier Cariocas (people from…
On the Road Again- Brazil
Sao Paulo After nearly three years, we were on the road, or rather, in the air. With flights from Vancouver grounded a few days before our flight due to the winter storms, which had now moved towards Montreal, Cheryl and…
Mexican Memories Part II-Guadalajara and Tequila
WELCOME TO THE BIG CITY: GUADALAJARA Arriving at the new bus station in Guadalajara after the laundry fiasco in Barra de Navidad, we jumped in a cab and headed to the fancy hostel I had stayed in when I spent…
Re-learning to Surf in Coffee Bay
From Durban, I got an early morning bus to Umtata, where I waited with some others who had arrived off the Baz Bus backpacker bus for the shuttle to arrive from the hostel I was staying in Coffee Bay. Coffee…
Back to South Africa: Johannesburg and Durban
After months of wearing the same three shirts and one pair of jeans, most of my clothes had either disintegrated (my hiking pants), gotten stitched up so many times they literally disappeared from the bus (my hiking boots) or were…
Mountains of Lushoto and an Epic Journey to Mafia Island
As we had booked a big bus taking us all the way to Tanga, Tanzania, from Diani beach, the border crossing from Kenya into Tanzania was pretty easy, with the bus staff helping us get in the right queues for…
Diani Beach- The Nicest Beach on the Kenyan Coast, Apparently.
With Marieke still feeling the effects of a stomach bug she had in Mombasa, we decided to grab a Bolt taxi to the pier, to walk on the ferry to get across the water to the southern Kenya coast. Our…
Super Bowl Monday Morning in Mombasa
Guest post by Jonathan Baggs There’s a lot of heartbreak in the lives of most team sports fans. The goal of any team’s season is to win a championship. Anything less is a disappointment and the closer a team gets…