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…
Mexican Memories Part I – Sayulita to Barra De Navidad
Guest post by Jonathan BaggsMemories from our 2018 trip through Mexico Bus Adventures After a fun first stop in Sayulita, Marieke, Steph and I got on a morning bus to the Puerto Vallarta bus station, where we’d catch another bus…
Steph’s 2019/2020 Trip Recap: Pre Covid-19 Backpacking
Like everything else in the world, my trip was disrupted by COVID-19. On the grand scale of things, of course, it does not matter. I was lucky to make it home safe, before air travel and borders shut down. People…
Getting Home Amidst a Pandemic
When you don’t have a lot of need for communication, being in a remote place can be great. You can unwind, disconnect, relax. But when a pandemic is occurring, information is changing by the hour, and you’re trying to look…
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…
Serious island time on Zanzibar
And just like that, Marieke and Jon were heading back to Canada and I was on my own again! I checked out of the guesthouse in Dar Es Salaam and made my way up to the main road, where I…
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…