My Adventures and Travels

 No trip to Raja Ampat is complete without visiting the picturesque Fam Islands. Pictures don't do them justice, but here are a bunch of pictures anyway! First we went to the main Fam Islands hike. It was short and steep and breathtaking in more ways than one!  See the islands on the left of the 100000 rupiah note? They should look familiar! We also hiked up to the Star Lagoon. This was a much steeper scramble, not recommended for the unsteady, the flip-flop wearers, or those with a fear of heights. 

I will come right out and say it: I was prepared to dislike Bogota. I'd read that it is huge, dirty, dangerous, and rainy. The first was true-Bogota is enormous! And certainly the last is normally true, but I had great weather. However, it turned out that I really liked Bogota. This had a lot to do with the fact that I stayed with a good friend I worked with last year, and she and her husband showed me around the city. I think finding my way around otherwise would have been overwhelming! With 2-4 of us going to many sites, taking a taxi was quite affordable so I didn't have much experience with public transit. We saw many different highlights: Plaza de Bolivar What would any South American city be without its huge plaza, after all? Paloquemao Market - a popular, huge market selling everything. Fruits, vegetables, housewares, meat (including whole dead animals!), flowers, and more. It was very colorful and fun to look at the foreign fruits they sell. ...

Although Colombia is famous for its beaches, the beaches right around Cartagena are nothing special. I had heard that Playa Blanca was a great day trip or getaway, though so Beau and I went to check it out. After waiting a million hours in the blazing sun we were off on a boat. Some people did a longer boat tour to many places, but we got off at Playa Blanca right away instead. Getting a place to stay was no problem. You can just walk along the beach asking for prices and to see the accommodations. After checking out a few, we picked this little hut. Here's the view. The main activities here are: sitting/lying/reading on the beach, walking along the beach, getting fancy drinks on the beach, and eating and sleeping. There were people going on Jet-ski rides and riding on inflatable things behind boats, and our little hut guy would have loaned us a kayak as well. That's pretty much it! We had a great time, but were pretty glad we only opted to stay one night instead of two...

The last organized tour deal I did was for a half day of rafting and a half day of hiking. It was so much fun! It was very close to the area of my first hike. We got bused (vanned?) from Mendoza to the "base" area in the mountains. Then we got all outfitted down to the sexy moon boots for rafting. Just like rafting in CO, they use old school buses to get you to the start point. Then they give you the unnerving "what to do if you fall out" speech (I hate that part). Luckily there was a guide that spoke English so I was with him, along with 2 Aussies, a couple of Australians, and I think an American guy. Here we are "before:" There were enough rapids to make it a pretty exciting raft trip. Obviously, our guide (back) wasn't too worried, although we were paddling our little hearts out! And the "after" shot! Don't judge. I'd been rafting all morning and then wearing a hat. Of COURSE my hair is a disaster!  Af...

One cool thing about Mendoza is that even though it's in a valley, it has all these mountains around it. So, there are lots of tours and outdoor activities you can do.I looked around at the tourist agencies in town to find a hike in the nearby Andes mountains. Several had minimum people requirements or multiple activities. All I wanted was a ride to somewhere I could hike! But the closest "package" I could find included rappeling. So I figured, what the heck. Why not try it out.  Here is some of the hiking. It was easy, not too steep at all. Lots of times crossing back and forth over this little stream.  A little waterfall on the way up.  The guides went up ahead to set up the ropes and equipment for rappeling. We left all our stuff at the bottom, and scrambled up to the top (it was a bit more gradual on the left). Then...time to rappel! I was one of the last ones to go. It is kind of unnerving, backing off a cliff backwards! It was okay but I didn't lov...

OK, fine. Mendoza isn't really part of Patagonia. Get over it, it was part of the same trip! Perfection. After all this running around, hiking, exploring, kayaking, and bus ride after bus ride, I was ready to stay in one place for awhile, so I booked a whole week in Mendoza. It was really nice to be in one place that long. I didn't feel like I had to pack every day with every activity and experience I could fit in, and I could afford to have some lazy days-yet I still did a ton of stuff. It was a perfect last leg of five weeks traveling. I was there long enough, and was busy enough, that I'll need several posts to cover it all. My first activity in Mendoza was the most obvious: a bike and wine tour! The hostel I stayed at arranged tours and this one included 3 wineries (tour and tasting) and short bike rides in between. The first vineyard, Tapiz, was the most extensive, giving lots of information about the whole process. Here is vineyard ...