All you need is Ecuador

All you need is Ecuador is the tourism motto posted all over the country.  It is true. The jury is still out, but I think it is my new favourite country.  Being the first time in South America I was completely surprised by the brand new airports, bus stations, highways and general ease of travel. Ecuador has it together.  Their ability to positively use tourism as a way to manage national parks and to protect the Amazon basin, Galapagos Islands, and other natural areas is second to none.  We should all take a page out of their book.

Quito and Cuenca are worth a visit and they offer lots of parks as well as funky places to stay and a variety of restaurants.  But they are cities and Ecuador has so much to offer from an outdoors perspective that is where we concentrated our time. In fact, one of our three days in Cuenca we spent in nearby Cajas National Park hiking to a peak at 4267m.  Both cities are really high in elevation!

The two highlights of our time for me was a four day foray into the Amazon Basin (Cuyabeno Natl Park) and a visit to the Galapagos Islands; seeing so much life - much of it creepy and crawly. In Cuyabeno we spent days in the river canoes looking for life in the river and on land and then hiking through the jungle at day and night finding all sorts of unique and unusual insects, spiders (as big as your face), snakes  (such as enormous anacondas) and bugs; not to forget the stampeding herd of wild pigs and many types of monkeys. This was not for the feint of heart.  We'd get back to our open cabana and hunker into our mosquito net covered beds hoping they'd keep out the insects we had so longingly searched for all day!

The Galapagos Islands were absolutely stunning.  I had no idea! I knew it would be amazing, but until we were there I didn't realise how much the islands team with life in and out of the water.  We were lucky to find a last minute deal for the seven of us on a small Catamaran, Solitario Jorge, which made our cruise through the islands really personal and flexible.  The other five guests on our trip were lots of fun and truly added to our experience. We snorkeled 2 - 3 times a day and hiked at least once a day.   I could go on about everything we saw, but the pictures should be up soon and you can see for yourself.

Mattias can also add to his list of surfing destinations - Galapagos, as we all had a beach day at the incredible surfing and swimming beach Tortuga Bay yesterday. He is now with the Cosbeys heading to Banos, the adventure capital, and is sure to have some fun times and a nice break from his parents for a week.  Bernie and I head to a job fair in the USA and then I am off to spend time with Mima in England (yay GB's) and Paris while Bernie joins the Cosbeys and Mattias in Chile and they'll head out for what should be a fantastic Patagonia experience.

It has been a while!

Well this year is screaming by and without many updates to the blog!  There is so much to do and see and at the same time we are spending a lot of time on logistics that we didn't five years ago. With Mima in France and connecting with her daily and now traveling with our good buddies the Cosbeys, we are finding it hard to find time to write.

Travel in Nicaragua was incredible.  Definitely on the developing country list, but pretty easy to figure out. We lived with a wonderful homestay family in the sleepy fishing village of Gigante Bay while taking three weeks of Spanish classes and surfing ( well Bernie and Mattias surfed....). It was really nice to slow the pace and really get to know what daily life in Nicaragua is like.  We made some wonderful friends and had a chance to use our brains to learn something new. Though our Spanish isn't anywhere close to perfect, it certainly helped us to  manoeuvre our way through the rest of our time in Nicaragua.  From Gigante Bay we had a day in Granada checking out the colonial city and moved on to Little Corn Island on the Caribbean Sea.  Getting there is an event, but once on the island life slows right down.  We all took our diving certification and had some incredible dives.

We finished our time in Nicaragua in the old capital of Leon and were lucky to be there during a huge festival.  Lots of people, noise, events, and chaos made the few days exciting.  We decided the festival was a strange mix of Hallowe'en meets Christmas. It rounded out our Nicaraguan adventure nicely.

The people in Nicaragua were so kind and friendly.  This is a country I am really glad we spent six weeks in  and am glad we didn't try to visit other central American counties in the time as it would have significantly impacted our ability to see how much diversity Nicaragua has to offer.

Pie de Gigante, Nicaragua

Pie de Gigante - Brochure by Mattias (photos by Mattias and Bernie)
*** click on the brochure above to view a larger image***

I Sat On A Rock

I sat on some rocks. But I would say they were a little bit above average rocks, and few of them somewhat high above the ground. Some would say that these rocks are so incredibly awesome that they should be on postcards, and some people actually DO put photos of these rocks on post cards.

I guess that now you have actually spent the time to read this far into my silly little blog post, maybe I should tell you about my experience sitting (and sometimes standing) on said rocks. My personal favourite rock that I sat on was named Preikestoln after a viking ship that had lead many successfully attacks on other viking villages. A truly devastating ship in its time. Just kidding, it actually has a boring translation which is literally means pulpit rock because it sticks out of the cliff like a pulpit in a church. Not many people hike all the way up to this rock,  just enough that even in the off season you will never be the only one on the rock, and in the summer it is so crowded that people will even line up for a turn standing on the rock.

As I said before, it is my was my favourite rock, mainly because how unlike any other rock in the world, the surface is almost completely square and flat. The views from the rock were also incredible, you could see for miles down the fjord. It even overlooked some incredible mountain farms. Though I can’t say the hike getting to Preikestoln was anything spectacular, It was actually quite a dull hike. The trail was super trashed even though it was rebuilt by Nepalese Sherpas in 2014 and you would see people’s garbage lying around every now and then. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t terrible, lots of the parts of the trail were kind of fun, there were some boardwalks over large marshes and massive bedrock flats near the top. Over all there hiking part could have been better but the actual rock that you get to sit on is truly incredible.

Let Go of Perfect

So now that we are at it again - traveling the world and taking in whatever each day provides, there is finally some time to reflect. It seems strange in a way to talk about reflecting as we are only a month  into our travels so far, but there is a lot that we learned on our last great adventure five years ago that fortunately we don't have to relearn.

Probably the most important lesson is to let go of perfect. Of course, there is a lot of perfect - the perfect sunset, meal, or rich interaction with someone from the other side of the world ... But these moments can't be forced and trying to do so usually results in disappointment, sometimes because we all have different ideas of what perfect is, but usually because the perfect in traveling comes from the unknown and the unexpected. So the best approach to achieve perfect is to not pursue it - just let the magic happen... whenever, whatever and wherever, or perhaps even not at all. We learned that lesson early in our last RTW trip and it served us well then and it continues to serve us well now. Taking away the pursuit of perfection removes the blinders and, surprisingly, allows us to achieve it.

Now there may exist in a guidebook somewhere that 'to achieve perfection in Sweden one must picnic along some out of the way nature reserve and then wander off to meet some relaxing milk cows off in the pasture. Have one member of your group volunteer to say hello and when said cows do not respond, be sure to honour them with a flowing arm dance'. It might say that, but it's doubtful, largely because I doubt anyone else would define the perfect moment in this way (though we all thought it was pretty funny) and the cows had a memorable day (for at least a minute). But you can't manufacture moments like this - how do you teach the cows to stay put? - cows milk production might drop, farmers would get pissed and the odd tourist would likely take it too far and start twerking all across the Swedish countryside. So the guidebooks and travel writers stick to the predicable - "eat here, drive there, lie in hammock, drink this, take pictures at sunset/rise here..." and flocks of tourists and travelers will try to recreate those perfect moments, and most will believe they will have done so (and that's ok too) But for us, we'll rely on good old spontaneity, adventure and letting the perfect moments just happen ... or not.

 - Bernie

Time Flies

Well September is over and we have done a whirlwind tour of places in Europe we have never been before! ( a few exceptions, but mostly new to us all).  We are now further north and continuing to head that way. The days are definitely shorter and it is cold at night. Though we have been lucky to have lots of warm sun during the day and have been able to get in some camping.  Most campgrounds are now closed but if possible we will see what we can squeeze in.

This year is a different year from our last.  The logistics are a bit wild as we ensure we can connect with Mima on her holidays and she gets lots of them (great for us). Because she is 12, most airlines won't allow her on international flights unaccompanied or at all alone.  So we are doing lots of back and forth and going via Cannes to pick her up or drop her off. Good thing Easy Jet has stupid crazy deals on flights! (we found one flight for thirty Euros one way Amsterdam to Nice).

I am looking forward to the next two weeks as we head in to Norway. We will spend most of our time in smaller more rural areas getting in some hiking and outdoor experiences. Then in mid October we will connect with Mima in Amsterdam and slowly work our way back to Cannes with her.

So much to do and see!

I have created a map showing in red where we have been and in blue our tentative October plan.  Hopefully it loads and you can have a look!

First Day of School

So the first day of school has been great, started off as a long sleep in and a relaxing morning with fresh fruit for breakfast.

 We decided to go kick a ball around at a field that we had noticed yesterday when dropping my sister off, we got up there and a local coach started asking me if I wanted to play for his team. In our broken French and his broken English we found out that there is a game tonight at 5pm. I was so exited to play with some locals on a beautiful field. After talking to the manager some more we realized you cant actually just play one game because of insurance. So that sucks. We had fun anyways just goofing around on the field. Lunch time came and we went to a sea side,  delicious greek restaurant.

I quite like my school so far and am looking forward to the rest of the year!!