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Fred Lalonde
Fred Lalonde

Fred Lalonde

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  • Fred LalondeTanzaniaResenär

    Parting Thoughts

    21 augusti 2019, Tyskland ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    While I sit on the plane heading home, I have too much time to think. Here are some thougts.

    Tanzanians remind me a lot of Ugandans. They are so friendly and welcoming, and all say hello with authentic joy. They are slightly more organized, or financially stable I guess... Transportation makes a little more sense, although still chaotic. I mean, they have toilet paper everywhere that you can flush! That's luxury! Everything aimed to tourist is more expensive, even more then Kenya. But everything local - like the food and the cheaper guest houses are real cheap! You can eat a full meal for 3,000TZS (1.30$USD) and have a coke for 40 cents USD. We could easily find a room for 25,000TZS (11$USD). And public transport costs pennies compared to back home. My 11 hour air conditioned bus ride from Arusha to Dar Es Salaam was 14$USD. But what I take home from Tanzania really is the smiles of the people.

    As for my anxious self, which I haven't spoken much about, here goes.

    This is social anxiety at play. When I checked in to my flights, I asked the agent if I had isle seats. She said "yes for the first flight, probably for the second, and the third one I can't check because it's another airline". So I'm safe for the first flight. I got to my first layover in Addis Ababa airport, and I made it a challenge for myself not to confirm with an agent that I had an isle seat, and to just trust that I did. 10 minutes before boarding when I saw the gate fill up with people, I cracked. The agent confirmed it was an isle seat. My palpitations slowly resolved. Once I got to my seat, the guy sitting in the middle arrived and asked "you wouldn't by any chance mind taking the middle seat?" signaling to his broad shoulders (gym dude).

    Now I have two ways this could go - my usual 'would never want to cause any conflict or make anyone else uncomfortable' self and give my seat away. Or take the few seconds of discomfort to refuse and not feel suffocated for the next 6 hours. I took the few seconds and responded "sorry, I'm claustrophobic, that's why I always make sure I have an isle seat". That's the easier response. He didn't debate, didn't make me feel guilty, and we joked around that I was small enough for him to be comfortable in the middle.

    If I really wanted to be honest, I'd tell him I'm not claustrophobic by definition - I'm not afraid of tight spaces at all. I'm afraid of the absolutely terrifying moment where I have to go to the washroom and wake him up. Or if I nugde him too often while trying to eat. Or if I'm sitting with my legs out too far that I'm in his space. Or that I'm moving too much for him to rest peacefully. Or maybe my arm is taking too much of the arm rest. See, I can avoid a lot of these by sitting in the isle seat. I point my legs towards the isle so I can spread comfortably (I know, super lady like ;)). I can get up as I please. I can stick my elbows out all I want into the isle. But I assumed claustrophobia was the simplest way to go.

    I found myself thinking about my anxiety during this trip, but in an interesting way. I was able to identify tendencies that I usually have when I'm feeling anxious, and it turns out I've been doing really well! It might be that this trip is only 2 weeks, something that I find easy. It might be that I changed my medication and maybe its working for me. It might be that Jack knows me so incredibly well that she can now help in moments where I would feel anxious before I even have to say anything. Who knows. But this is what I've observed - I haven't been checking multiple times a day that my passport is still in its usual place. I haven't been looking at my calendar at least twice a day to confirm how many days I have left (to make sure I don't miss my flight). I haven't checked my flight status other then the morning of when I tried to check in. I didn't panic when the online world wouldn't let me check in. I didn't count my money over and over again to make sure I didn't go starving in a town that likely had an atm anyways. I didn't check my account everyday to make sure I still had enough money in case something happened or that I didn't get hacked. I have however needed my medication to sleep, although I doubt that will ever change, insomnia should be considered a talent. I have worried about my family at home, and what I could be doing to help them instead of being so far away. I have missed all of them, but I think that's most people when they travel and not just me. Hey, I even ate everyday! And kept everything down! And that's a big deal!

    All in all, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw how easy I found traveling in Tanzania was. Granted, I had the practice of Uganda and Kenya which were somewhat similar, but I still feel I can toot my own horn here! Yay for sertraline! Or rather yay for me!    Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeTanzaniaResenär

    Arusha

    19 augusti 2019, Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 19 °C

    Arriving from the Ngorongoro crater a little later then hoped, it was dusk, we made a plan to go looking for accommodation where there were the most people around (as to not isolate ourselves). Thankfully our drop off was a few blocks away from a very lively market and so we made our way towards it. The very first room we visited at Cayote Guest house was actually quite nice, with a renovated washroom and king-size bed. Of course, we negotiated - instead of 30,000TZS for the night, we got two nights for 50,000TZS.

    This is now my last day touring Tanzania. I'm sad to not continue with Jack both because I'm sure she will have an amazing adventure in the west, and because there's a part of me that thinks I should be there to keep her safe. Trust me, I'm aware she can manage herself. Heck, she takes care of me most of the time, but there will always be a protector in me that feels the need to keep an eye on her. I'm also happy to return home to my family and friends. I loved my time in Tanzania, but I feel Iike 2 weeks was close to perfect - not too long to make me feel anxious, not too long to make me miss general comforts, but long enough to make me want to return and hug my family and have a beer with fellow Canadians. It can be tiring to always have to put on a pleasant, polite face as to not offend anyone (when you don't have the ability to communicate your intentions, you have to show them by being friendly, always).

    Our only goal for today, well at least mine, is to but my ticket for the bus to Dar Es Salaam tomorrow. It's an all day bus, and since my flight leaves the next day, I don't want to risk not having any seats for me. Despite Jack knowing very well that they would never run out of seats, she supported me in this goal.

    We set out onto town in the morning with the expectation of being followed by every tout in town. We had rwsd and heard about the relentless touts in Arusha, wanting to sell you just about anything, to the point where they follow you around town. Surprinsgly - this wasn't our experience at all! I think Jack and I have just gotten very good at our clear messaging. Anyone that approaches us we say "we're ok, thank you" no matter what they say. Sometimes it's "nice tattoos" or "are you a masai?" (pointing to my gauged ears). But these are simply to break the ice into a longer conversation leading to being our tour guide or showing us around town or something. So consistantly, and politely, we'd simply say no thank you to any man approaching us. Soon enough, almost like word got around town that we weren't interested, no one bothered us. A firm answer, and off they went. Easy enough.

    We walked around town to find the public parks, as Jack enjoys doing in every city. Arusha was odd though - it had a beautiful wooded area with a raven going along but it was entirely inaccessible with dense forests. And it had a really well maintained public park that closed, roped off. So we settled on getting some WiFi time in and sat at a coffee shop. This is when Jack asked me to trouble shoot her "polarsteps" app and instead I deleted all her drafts... Oops.

    We also found the German clock tower everyone talks about in the books, meh. Then off we went to buy my bus ticket because Jack is an awesome partner and knew I was thinking about it non stop. This part was easy, looked online for reviews, found that Dar Express was reliable. Went to their ticket office (becuase again, never buy anything from a tout or resaler - save the middle man fees!), and bought a ticket. Easy done it.

    Not being huge fans of Arusha, not really seeing its charm, we decided to get creative and paid for a boda boda driver to take us towards Mount Meru where we hoping to hike to the Themi Waterfalls. This driver had no clue what he got himself into, and neither did we. It was quite the steep climb up the the restaurant where the trail started, and clearly this guy didn't do hills very often.

    Once we arrived, we secretly used the restaurants washroom because I read somewhere that they charged money to explore their grounds. After a little sneaking around, we made our way down the little dirt road passed tiny mud house and gardens / fields to a tree plantation where according to "maps.me" when needed to cross. As we starting walking two young men came chasing us down. According to them, we had to pay to continue towards the falls, and we were on the wrong path. Now, we knew we were on the right path. And I did read online it was 10,000TZS to pass, but we thought we'd get away with it since we didn't need or want a guide. Unfortunately these boys were insistant that we needed to follow them to the office to get a "special permit" that was 10$USD, not shillings! Frustrated, we turned around, not to follow the boys but to make our own way back and talk things out. We decided to drop by this "office" to see if the prices quoted were correct, and if there was room for negotiation since we didn't want nor need a guide.

    There was not. Plain and simple. We had to pay 10$ each and have a guide take us the whole 20-30 minute walk over to the falls. This sounded ridiculous to us. 20 minutes of walking, followed by someone who doesn't speak English, who likely won't add to the experience, and who will only make Jack and I on guard for being followed by someone. So what do we do? Decided to walk back to the restaurant and sneak onto their grounds to see the smaller, yet closer waterfall. This also failed. Yes, 10$ per person to see a waterfall that was basically 20 steps away.

    Oddly enough, we still made the best of our afternoon! We decided to walk back to town, through the tiny village. We got to their "downtown", basically 2 restaurants, a shop and a sports bar, and decided this was the perfect place to settled in for our second beer of the day! We dropped by one restaurant, who didn't have beer. They pointed us to the second restaurant, who pointed us towards the unidentified building with a few young adults sitting outside. Perfect! We walk up, enter, there's a bar, a magical young lady shows up from outside, serves us a beer, and we grabbed our plastic chair and brought it outside to sit with the rest of the gang! We basically chatted amungst ourselves until Baba Charles came to chat, funny man.

    Anywho, we eventually decided to head back and hire a boda boda driver to assist us in getting to our hotel room in time to pee! (beer... You know...). This time, it was luxury! We each had our own boda boda! Only two people per bike, how comfy! Jack decided this was her chance to practice the side saddle on a bike like most local women do. I was terrified she'd fall but she says it's quite comfortable!

    Our hotel being conveniently close to the market meant we could safely go out after dark to grab some local grub! We had the power of lots of people arond us, and the random older gentleman with gauged ears (likely an actual masai) who welcomed us home everytime and who waved off the few touts hanging around. I think he liked me - the white masai.

    Last minute, Jack decided to change her plans. It's dark, it's evening, but she decides she wants to go to Mwanza in the morning (also an all day bus). So we head to the central bus station, blocks from our hotel, and start checking prices and times out. Once again, you have to ignore the crowd of men surrounding you and yelling out destinations as if they knew where you were headed. We walked into 3 different ticketing booths, for Jack to decide on the third one because the man had a nice smile. While she was busy booking her ticket, I had my own interesting interaction.

    An older man who was sitting in the corner of the office stood to come see me. He had a look of amazement, was studying me and goes "yellow Masai?" To which I answer "yes! I'm a yellow Masai!" We continued this exchange for a good minute, as he kept this look of amazement, and repeating "yellow Masai?" I started thinking he honestly thought I was a Masai so I said "well, I'm not a Masai, but you can make me one". He asked if people at home (Canada) looked like yellow Masai too. I said no. So he asked if they look like me. I said no, I look different. To which he answered "different! So all eyes on you then? You must be famous!" This was one of my favorite interactions in any trips, ever. From now on, call me Yellow Masai.    Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeTanzaniaResenär

    Tanzania = Safaris

    18 augusti 2019, Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    I don't know if it's the pressure from everyone around us asking if we would do a safari while in Tanzania, or if it was our own wishes, but here we are, sitting comfortably in a 8 seat land rover with oversized sliding windows and a pop top. Leaving at "8am" means leaving the hotel around 830am then going to the parking lot of a supermarket and waiting there another 45 minutes. Once everyone was on board - 2 Swedish girls, one Germain and one American, on we went to Tarangire National Park. We park of course is gorgeous, beautiful dry planes and awesome baobab trees a little everywhere. I particularly enjoyed the baobabs because they made me think of my awesome niece who's first birthday theme was Le Petit Prince. We saw plenty of elephants doing what elephants do, tons of wilderbeast and Thomson gazelles and ostriches which I peeticularily enjoy. Huge fluffy flightless birds who think hiding their heads makes them invisible. I love the simplicity.
    We did see a few lions - some lions under a tree, some in the middle of open grass. To be honest, the scenery, the trees, the way the animals coexist in what seems like perfect balance, it's was magical, but it wasn't about the animals themselves.
    The next day seemed to leave the same impression. The Ngorongoro National Park is inside an massive crater of a sunken volcano said to have been as tall as Kilimanjaro when it was still standing. In this crater where animals do not escape, again the coexistence of wilderbeast, gazelles, buffalos, and others was amazing to watch. The nature was gorgeous - mostly dry with patches of green lands, different ecosystems existing in one crater.

    Jack and I both felt similarly - did we enjoy the experience? Of course! Would we do another safari? I don't think so. At least not soon. As I said - I loved both parks, but not for its animal spotting, and I feel no need to sit all day in a vehicle looking for whatever animal is around and then parking along side 5-6 other vehicles, sometimes more, to stare from a distance. I'm glad I was glad. I'm happy to have done it. It was worth the 320$USD, but I think I'm done with safaris. Let the animals be, and exist as they should - not bothered by a hundred vehicles driving slowly by them as even more tourists snap photos of what has already been photographed in thousands of ways. Just my thoughts.

    Our night between the two days was spent in a "safari lodge". As usual, east Africans (and many others) have difficulty saying no to tourists. They clearly over sold their grounds and were trying to figure out where to put who and were scrambling to find extra tents and rolled up mattresses. When we suggested putting us in their last set up tent, the one employee was saying it was too small for us. Jack and I looked - a double bed, one blanket. Perfect! So we subtly said something along the lines of "oh don't worry, we are small, we travel together all the time, the one bed is no problem". To which the staff was only happy to not have to find another tent for us. It was absolute luxury! A set military tent, high ceiling, light switch over us, two comfy pillows. Perfection.

    Also - this random accommodation had a local dance and acrobatic group come perform for tips at the end. They were ridiculously entertaining, and both Jack and I kept cringing at how close the ceiling was to their heads when they were in the air, held up with sheer balance... We could picture all the injuries that could come from this happening on cement flooring... Thankfully we did not have to enter nurse mode - we simply enjoyed the entertainment!    Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeTanzaniaResenär

    Moshi, Where's Kili ?

    16 augusti 2019, Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Our only goal today is to book a safari for tomorrow and see Mount Kilimanjaro. Unfortunately, our lingering around town, stopping for a nice coffee, checking out the parks, was not enough to clear the clouds. Everyone we spoke with told us 5pm is the best time to see it. So we continued lingering. We started scoping out safaris by going into the many, many tourist agencies. Obviously here, many of them are offering Kilimanjaro hikes, which no thank you! We visited a total of 3 different offices to try and book a 2 day safari to Ngorongoro NP and Tarangire NP. They started at 450$ USD each. Jack and I couldn't fathom spending that amount of money for essentially just a driver, food and a tent to sleep in. The next company quoted 600$ to which we laughed and left thanking them for their time. The third and last place was with a hostel, can't remember which, but the lady was super nice, she was hilarious, and had an English that seemed like it north American English, which made me wonder if she lived elsewhere before settling in Moshi. She told us the very bottom price for this safari was 180$/day. So 360$ for what we wanted. We agreed to the price and she started calling the sister companies to see if they had a group leaving in the morning, as this was the price to join a group, not a solo safari. The company she called laughed and asked if it was the 2 girls going around shopping at different companies, to which she said yes, so they refused the 180$ offer. They wouldn't budge from the 400$. To her suggestion, we decided to go to Arusha tonight and hope to find an agency with a group leaving the next morning.

    Once closer to 5pm, we made our way to the top floor of a hotel down the street from ours for a better of Kili. Unfortunately, she stayed behind the clouds all day, and now I get to say I've been to Moshi Tanzania and I've never seen Kilimanjaro... The waiter of the rooftop bar asked us how our day was, to which we replied "it was ok, but we couldn't find a group for a safari tomorrow, so now we'll go to Arusha to find one". He replied "I know someone in Arusha, I can call them". Within 10 minutes we had our safari booked for 160$/day, so 320$USD total, and he reserved a room for us in the hotel he works in for 25,000TZS for the night - that's as cheap as it gets for Arusha! We were pumped! All we had to do was bus to Arusha, walk 10 minutes to the hotel, and everything was settled. That rooftop beer turned out to be super productive!    Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeTanzaniaResenär

    Mtae to Moshi

    15 augusti 2019, Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    After waking up at 6am to watch the sun rise - me from bed and Jack from a cold bench outside, we wanted to make our way to Moshi to get a glimpse of mount Kilimanjaro.
    Jack and I carried our bags from Lushoto to Mtae, hoping to continue on to Moshi without having to backtrack. Yet everyone we spoke to along the way has told us the only road that will take you to the "highway" for Moshi is back through Lushoto. Jack would not have it. She was determined not to go back over our steps. So we took a walk, basically more hiking, to the "downtown" of Mtae. It was one street with a mosque and bus ticket office which was closed. The walk though was beautiful - going along the mountain top ridge, gorgeous views from both sides.
    Of course, Boda Boda drivers were quick to tell us there would be no bus today (we knew otherwise), and so they tried to sell us a motorcycle ride back to Lushoto. So we took the opportunity to bargain for Mnazi, a town were we hoped to get a bus to Mkomazi where we could then get a bus on the main road to Moshi. This may sound like many steps, but it's pretty normal for Africa. You basically get on any bus until you're done going that direction, get off, walk to the next direction and grab the next bus.

    We got on the Boda Boda for 15,000TZS (6.50$USD) total - both Jack and I with both our bags on one motorcycle. Again - so thankful for a small bag! To say it was a steep downhill is an understatement. It was what once was likely a much better road, gravel bumpy and twisty road with at times what seemed like worse then 45 degree descents. I started out nevous, and ended terrified, but we made it! There were so many turns that could have gone so much worse. 12 kms took an hour and a half. This is one of those experiences that once its done, you can think back and say "that was really cool", but I likely would have chosen a safer route had I had a better idea of what to expect. But gorgeous views all along the way, friendly driver, and the town we were dropped in was one of my favorites in all of east Africa! Mnazi clearly is not often visited by us Muzungus. It has one main road. A few shops. A few local eateries. Not too many people, all of which were staring at us, kids yelling "muzungu!" in an authentic surprise to see us. We sat down and had a drink at the shop who's only advertisement was "cold drinks". The older gentleman had some limited English, and we chatted while 5-6 kids gathered around to play my fish game on my phone.

    We walked around town, not much to do, no traffic at all, so we decided to make our way to the Y junction just outside of it to see if traffic would be bypassing the town. After sitting down and reading our books at an intersection were not a single vehicle passed, we understood that if we wanted to get to Moshi today, we'd have to buy private transport. Boda Boda it is!

    We walked over to the man with a motorcycle, assumed he was for hire (which he was) and bargained for Mkomazi. Again, 15,000TZS for an other hour and a half ride! That's 3 hours in one day on a dusty motorcycle, holding our backpacks, with whoever was in the back's bum banging against the metal bars normally used to tie cargo. This time though, no hill, just a decent conditioned dirt road. Once at the main road, it took no more then 10 minutes for a big bus to pass, and a nice man from the town waved it down for us. At this point, we were running very low on cash, having paid for our hike cash and now our 2 transports. We actually had to negotiate the big bus price since we had nothing left on us. All worked out great, and once in Moshi, after a long and dusty day, we checked out a few places and settled on a dorm of 4 beds for 6$USD each per night, which we of course negotiated to 25,000TZS just to have a round number. A warm shower well deserved!    Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeTanzaniaResenär

    Hiking the Usambara Mountains

    14 augusti 2019, Tanzania ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Waking up for your body needing to continue its symphony creation is never a good sign before starting a multi day hike, but I was determined to not let it stop me! We made sure to have both our water bottles full, disinfecting our tap water with our Steripen, and I finished most of a bottle during breakfast alone (and obviously filled it again before leaving). This is where we meet our now best friend and chameleon enchanter, Rogers. I have a terrible memory, so I might be forgetting someone, but I can honeslty say Rogers has been my favorite guide of all times. He's funny, has great English, young at heart and played with all the kids and said a warm hello to everyone we passed.. He could answer any question we had and was a master of chameleon spotting! We started counting the chameleons along the way, joking that he would need to reimburse us the hike if we don't see 50. We got to 21! And last was just as amazing as the first - bright, colorful and changing before your eyes. Amazing creature.

    We spent the day walking through villages, up and down littles trails and ending with a walk on the main road going through the national forest. The sun was shining, birds chirping, everyone we passed was happy to say hello to us, the kids were excited to see us (but not in an annoying teasing way, just genuine excitement to say hello). It was absolutely wonderful.

    But then we sat down for lunch. Jack and Rogers made some fresh guacamole which we ate with chapati, it was so so good. But I had to go the washroom. Now if we were in the forest, I likely wouldn't have had an issue. But we were in town. And my shyness wouldn't let me ask for a washroom for fear the local villagers would dislike the symphony I would create for them. So I said nothing, and kept hydrating. Once we stood to continue our walk, it's like havind had that break allowed my body to realize it didn't want to continue. I became weaker, tired, my back was hurting from my backup, the uphill road ahead seemed impossible...

    After seeing me struggle with my bag, Rogers noticed I wasn't doing as well as the morning. He insisted on taking my backpack but I of course, being proud, refused. That didn't last long, and within a few minutes of the offer Rogers had his bag on his back and mine in his front. I managed to convince both Jack and him that it was just back pain. That I was doing great without the bag... The longer we walked, the weaker I felt. I grew quite. Jack noticed. She knows me a little too well at this point. But she also knew we had no choice but to finish the walk, so I under played it, says I was just tired from the day's hike, and we continued in silence. When we finally arrived to our destination village Lukozi, where a car was waiting to bring us to our accommodation, I wanted nothing but to lay down. I sat in the car while Jack and Rogers explored the town.

    When Jack got into the car, she asked for a full update, knowing I wasn't telling her the truth. I had full body aches, my back was spasming, I felt faint despite having drank more then 2L of water, and damit I needed a washroom! Once we got to our room (with private washroom thank god), I had the biggest master piece yet! Full orchestra. Then I layed in bed. Shivering. Aching. Yes, I had a fever. One heck of a fever. And as a tourist, diarrhea might be normal. Vomiting might be normal. But a fever - you don't want. Jack did her nurse / partner thing and fed me Tylenol and refilled my water bottle. I napped for 2 hours. And by nap I mean laid shivering in bed, not able to find a comfortable position.

    I got up for diner time, knowing that if I wanted to hike tomorrow, I needed to eat, which I did. Nausea was not a problem. I ate a full plate, no problem. My fever hadn't broke all the way when I started shivering again. I couldn't stop my teeth from clamering, and I wasn't due for more Tylenol yet. I left the table feeling worse then earlier, and went back to bed. Jack came in to 'evaluate me'. No rash. No nausea. No headache. Just diarrhea and a wicked fever that wasn't going away with Tylenol. That leaves a few possibilities, most likely (or hopefully) viral, and yes, potentially malaria. So as nurses, we made the decision to treat what we could - I took Cipro hoping the diarrhea was simply travelers diarrhea. And we decided to wait out the fever, took a second dose of Tylenol early (don't worry, I didn't exceed my 4g per day) and tried to rest. It was a long, shivery night.

    Cipro turned out to be our best decision ever! I woke up feeling weak, but no fever, and for the first time I didn't have to run to the washroom!! I can honestly say that was the sickest I've ever felt while traveling (or in general), but magically the fever never came back! I continued a much smaller, string cortet in my washroom visits, but so much more controlled! Modern medicine.

    Jack admitted to me in the morning that she was quite worried for malaria... She was already planning in her mind our return to a larger city in preparation for medical treatment. Jack here - I don't recommend reading the health section of Loney Planet when you're loved one is feverish. The concern that fever was indicating something serious, when in the middle of a mountain village, is a hard place to be. Back to Fred: It's amazing to think that something so easy for us to take, so much better after a single dose of Cipro, is inaccessible for so many people in this world. I'm not usually one to over treat, so for me to say I took 8 pills this morning is funny and ridiculous! I started my morning swallowing 3 pills for my morning dose of sertraline (yay anxiety!), 2 Tylenol, 2 naprosyn and 1 cipro! Fyew!

    Without my agreement but with my gratefulness, Jack reorganized our bags. And by that I mean she basically put all of our things in my 30L bag, took it and left me with her mostly empty 20L bag. By the end of day, we were both tired from the hike, but healthy! I hydrated, ate breakfast and lunch, I'm amazed of how well I'm doing! The hike was beautiful, through villages and fields and chatting with everyone along the way.

    We stayed in a convent the second night, and I didn't burst into flames, yay! Had ourselves a much needed hot shower and relaxed until diner was served buffet style with other hikers.

    The 3rd and final day started off similarly with hiking through villages, but ended with a walk through a forests where we saw our first and only colobus monkey! I love me a good monkey!

    For some reasons, the kids have learnt how to give high fives here - but they all seem to have the goal of the strongest high five! My hand hurt after a few of them. 'Props' was even worse. They'd wind-up before, and go fo a full punch. We sat for a water and banana break and were instantly surrounded by about 8 kids starting at us. My earrings have been the biggest attention draw so far. To distract them from us, I decided to give them my phone with this toddler game I have called Sensory Baby Fish. All you have to do is touch the screen and you feed the fish, the phone vibrates. I have it on my phone for my little buddy Noah. These kids were skepticle at first, but ended up loving it! They were all pushing to get a chance to touch the screen. Cute to see.

    Rogers is a man of many talents - he also is an artist, sells paintings during the low season, and he sings. We started singing random songs together and Jack decided he needed to be introduced to ABBA. Here we are, belting out to Mamma Mia while Rogers held the phone to his ear to actually hear the song. We got some Aerosmith in - I Don't Want to Miss A Thing. I sounded beautiful in these mountains, I tell ya.

    Lunch in a village, we said goodbye to all the other hikers we had met on the way and off we went to our final destination - Magumba Viewpoint Inn. This is the most randomly luxurious room! We got the best room in this place and it was included in our hike! Huge round windows in our room overlooking the viewpoint. All the Usambara mountains bellow us, clear skies... Gorgeous way to end a hike. There's even WiFi! We did some much needed laundry and relaxed, enjoying the view, still so so thankful of how well I'm doing. I stopped the cipro after 3 doses because I was doing much better, and this left us with 3 cipros which should cover another round of tourista.

    This 3 day hike was informative, fun, challenging at times, and rewarding. It's not often I speak only good things of a hike, but this was great. I highly recommend Rogers - if anyone is reading this hoping to head to Tanzania, call him up!
    Tel. 0677 844 568.    Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeTanzaniaResenär

    Onto to Lushoto

    11 augusti 2019, Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    As much as we hoped this wouldn't be a full travel day, it was. To make our way to Lushoto, we had to bus back to Tanga, then to Lushoto stopping in Muheza and Segera, and transferring onto a dalla dalla from Mombo. Local transportation here stops whenever someone wants to get on or off, which makes for slow moving progress.

    Our goal was to arrive in Lushoto in time to book a hike through the Usambara mountains for the morning, but we arrived much later then hoped. Still - anything is possible as a Muzungu. We got out of our transport in Lushoto and started looking for accommodation as it was getting dark. Within a few minute we were sitting inside a tourist office talking about prices for the hike. The man insisted on accompanying us to find a room for the night, which we usually resist but this time we needed him to hook us up with a hike so we didn't mind.
    25,000TZS for the room, including breakfast. And we negotiated for 50$/day/person (from 65$/day) for a 3 day hike, ending in Mtae.

    During the negotiations, we walked out saying we wanted to get food, really wanting to see what other companies had to offer. But instead, we found out it was market day and we ended up walking around the local market for half an hour, starved and not speaking to any other tour operators... Maybe not the most productive use of our time, but I love markets! We bought a sweater for the mountains since it's colder and paid the amazing local price of 2,500TZS (1.44$CAD). After this useless and wonderful experience, we returned to our tour guy to book everything. So it's 6.30pm and we booked a private guide who will feed us and bring us to housing for 3 days, leaving the next morning at 8am. Tanzania is making this too easy.

    We finally got to eating - it is now 630pm, and all we've had is chapati and banana in the morning, I bought a plain white cake piece and some oranges from the bus window, and that's it. So we sat with the locals and had ourselves some street food. It's the first time we took 2 plates! So far, we've shared the one plate and it's been enough, but this time we hungry! And then of course, like most tourists are familiar with, I ended up spending the night creating symphonies in the washroom, not looking forward to the risk of dehydration tomorrow. Yay for me!    Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeTanzaniaResenär

    Pangani.

    10 augusti 2019, Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Our bus to Pangani took 2 hours and was 2500 shillings. Same as usual - look for the name on the front of the bus, pay the lady with the tickets. There were actually 4 other tourists who hoped on just before leaving, and they each had 65 litre bags. To put that in perspective - Jack has a 20L bag and mine is 30L. To be honest - my first trip backpacking was in South East Asia and I had a 55L+10; never again! There's even things in my bag now that I'm not using much - like the headlamp which we always bring in case the power goes out, or a bluff which I haven't touched, but for the most part everything has a use and place. There's no way anyone can tell me that they've used everything inside their full 65L bags.

    Side story - Jack stuck her head out the window to buy bananas, and on her way back her earing caught in the latch. She turns to me and calmy says "I think I just ripped my earring off". To which I don't react, assuming she was exaggerating. See, Jack usually just needs space when she hurts herself, you don't talk to her, don't touch her, she takes a minute and recovers. Only this time, she turned to me again and said "no really, I think I just pulled my earring out" as she calmly searches for her Kleenex to whipe the blood pooling in her ear. Now this wasn't any piercing, this was her "conch", the cartilage in the deeper ear crevace. She successfully pulled the bead from the front of the ear half way between skin and cartilage. Unfortunately for her, the back of the earing is fixed and bigger, so there's only one way to fix this - push it back in. The girl never said a word, yet it took me two tries to push it in, underestimating the strength I would need to succeed. We both heard a chilling "pop" when the bead made it way out. Then the blood came, and Tanzanians quietly looking at our experiment... She's a true champ.

    This time, Pangani is small enough of a town for us to be able to walk in rather then catch another dalla dalla. I'm already in love. The streets are all gravel, there's quite a few shops along the main road but all small house front shops. No supermarkets, no box store, just little shops with side walk restaurants. We walked in front of Safarri Lodge, checked out the rooms, and chose the third option as it was furtherest away from the bar. Private washroom again! Except... no toilet seat. You win some, you lose some. 30,000TZS for the night, but we bargained two nights for 50,000TZS. Great central location, this one I would recommend!

    It's hard to describe why I like Pangani so much... it's more of a feeling. It's small. Everyone says "mambo" (hello) in a sincere way, most of them yell out "kariboo" (you're welcome). We walked along the river front which is their pier, sat and had a drink in the shade watching everyday life... It was great.

    Our first night in we walked to the end of town (maybe 20 minutes - small town remember!) and crossed onto the ocean side for the beach. This beautiful, deep and long strip of sand welcoming the waves... Pure peace. We ate at a restaurant lining the beach - a restaurant that we were desperate to find after again failing at finding food as mentioned previously. When a fish with a head attached showed on our plate, I went straight to work, fishing the meat out for Jack and I to enjoy (get it, get it, fishing the meat out!?). Jack being a vegetarian does really well when traveling, eating mostly anything as to make sure she gets enough protein. The only thing she has trouble with is touching the bones - too real. So I get the meat out of the fish, or off the chicken bones. No problem.

    It was at this restaurant that we met HotHot. He's the guy you want to talk to about tours. He's a bit of a fixer - can make anything happen for the right price. Unfortunately, when there's only 2 of you and you want to go out on a boat, you gotta pay the whole boat! We became interested in going out to Mizawe Island Marine Park for it's snorkeling and beaching. After a good chat with him, we decided to bite the bullet - 128$ (100$ is the minimum for the boat and 14$ each for the marine park fees) to rent the boat, captain and assistant for the day. And since food wasn't included - we knew we had to be prepared ahead of time! We spent the rest of the night walking around town, gathering breakfast and lunch items - a few fruits, some fried bread for breakfast and some chapati for lunch. Boy have I missed chapati!

    By 8.30am we were sitting in a boat fit for 10, on our way to a beautiful beach and nice snorkeling. Neither of us knew what to expect, we hadn't seen photos, hadn't heard anyone talk about it... It was an hour and half lovely boat ride in the ocean to a patch of sand. And only that. Not a single tree or grass, just a patch of beautiful white side with washed up pieces of coral. Maybe 3 minutes to walked the circumference. It was absolutely perfect. When we first approached, our captain anchored in maybe 200 feet from the sand for us to snorkel. He said it was low tide, so the best time to do it.

    It was some of the best snorkeling I've ever seen! Tons of gorgeous fish, colorful, a few needle nose fish that I happen to love, the fish with the eye scar in Finding Nemo, a bright white and black striped water snake, bright blue star fishes... It was great. Followed by an hour and a half of burning on a strip of beach and loving it! We finished the day just lazing around town, checking out local businesses and enjoying some chicken and fries at a sidewalk eatery. Simple, relaxing, great day.    Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeTanzaniaResenär

    Tanga we go!

    8 augusti 2019, Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    As neither Jack nor I are planners, we decided last night that we would make our way north and then inland - passing by Tanga, Lushoto then onto Mtae. Or something like that. So we put our alarm on for bright early 7am, and walked out of Safarri Inn towards the DART rapid bus stop, where there was actually a map of the routes! I honestly think it's the first time I see a map of public transport in Africa! We eventually pushed our way onto an incredibly full bus towards the main bus terminal north of town. Having navigated buses in East Africa before, we were ready for the attack. And as we expected, we were crowded by men shouting different locations at us, even before entering the station, all hoping to score commission for assisting us to our bus. One guy kept yelling "Kilimanjaro" which made me laugh - it's not a destination, it's a mountain, and I guess he's unaware of my hatred for climbing mountains.

    Once in the station (an outdoor parking lot of buses) we took a second in the middle of this crowd to look around and find the bus with our destination written on it. Yes, it can be that simple. Bus stops can get overwhelming for tourists because of the touts, but it's as simple as taking a minute to look around, find the bus with the name of your destination, and then finding the person standing at it's door holding the receipt book. Then you stand next to them, and wait for someone else to buy a ticket. Because yes, even they can up the price on you. And once someone else has bought a ticket, you get yours and demand the same price. And just like that, we were headed for Tanga.

    Jack edit here- It may be easy, but it's a skill which took us some time to learn. Let's be honest, the first few weeks in East Africa last time was a learning curve. We now do know what to do and Fred and I even seamlessly will alternate who's walking in front, to be able to adjust if one is looking annoyed or if a bag is being grabbed (which they only do to convince you onto their bus). Despite the times I might get impatient, I still have a true love for the culture and life it brings. Anyway, back to Fred.

    Lonely Planet says it's a 5 hour bus ride. I don't know where they got that, since Google driving instructions says 6 hours and it took 7 hours. The only thing on my mind at that point, was food!

    But of course, the bus station was outside of town, which meant we needed to jump on a Dalla Dalla (like a matatu, or minibus) into town. And Jack being who she is decided to flag down the one that was leaving because it was full, because god forbid we'd have to wait 10 minutes for the next one to fill up and leave. So here we are, holding our bags with one hand, trying to stand in a mini bus, bent at the waist because the ceiling as at about 5 feet, and holding on to the side rails because your body is no longer over the top of your feet with all the people pilling in. Good times. Thankfully, the ride was short.

    We walked around town to find accommodation and landed on New Coffee Tree Motel. It was even rougher then the last place, but had running water, private washroom with shower and a double bed for 30,000TZS (13$US). We later found out that the street and people noise was ridiculous, and we both barely slept. This one we'd both not recommend.

    Tanga itself is a cute town! For being the 3rd largest city in Tanzania, it's actually quite small, 273,000 in population. It was laid back, easy to walk around, and felt super safe. Everyone saying hi as we walked by, or Mambo! In the morning we visited old Germain cemeteries and bomas (ie. 'German fortified compound' from their colonial days). We went into a museum which Lonely Planet said was free, it was not. But at this point, we were surrounded by about 10 students on a "field study" here from a bachelor's degree in tourism, all looking forward to walking us through the museum. So of course, as good, cheap travelers do, we negotiated the price. Only this time - it wasn't by lying! We asked for a student discount! And considering both Jack and I are going back to school in September, total honesty! Half price!

    By the end of the tour, it felt like they should have paid us, but I wasn't going to try that one... Each student wanted a chance to practice their English and what they had learnt, so we went from room to room, and got full explanations of every single photo lining the walls. I'm not exaggerating when I say I got a full description of at least 50 photos. And I say I, because Jack had to excuse herself half way through to go dry heave and almost pass out from not having eaten yet and standing in the heat. Who had it worse? Jack passed out, pale as can be? Or me, having to listen to all they had to say about sisal plants...?

    Once she gained a bit of color, we walked out to buy some fruit and hunt for food. Only - we really haven't mastered that part yet. Restaurants come to life from 5.30pm to 7pm. Before or after that, finding food is hard! Well, for two muzungus it is. We walked quite a while without finding any meals being served, so we bought yogourt and ice cream at a corner store and oranges which are everywhere here! That was the extent of our food intake before we made our way back out of town to the bus station to make our way to Pangani.

    Granted, there wasn't tons to do in Tanga, but I really enjoyed it. The vibe of the place was great, friendly, we saw only 2 other tourists which made us quite happy, there's plenty of beautifully maintained parks, and there's a massive market around the central bus station that was lively and great.    Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeTanzaniaResenär

    We've arrived!

    7 augusti 2019, Tanzania ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Arriving in Dar Es Salaam was an instant flash back to 3 years ago when we traveled Kenya and Uganda. The people lining up at the airport exit, the men following you to offer their taxi services, the heat, all hits you at once. Except this time - I knew what to expect. I didn't find it overwhelming in the least bit, I thought it was a welcoming! Funny how for some reason, men think that after offering the same service for a tenth time, we'll finally realise that you know what, maybe I do need a taxi!
    Instead of having to negociate, and not having mastered the currency or prices of anything yet, we opted to Uber. Yes, Tanzania has Uber. We used the airport WiFi and 2 minutes later we were sitting comfortably in a car, without having to argue about pricing, heading to the hotel we booked on our layover in Addis Ababa. The people walking the streets, men carrying large loads, women with baskets on their head, fruit vendors everywhere, car and tire repair shops lining the streets... we were definitely back in Eastern Africa.

    Having been flying for two and a half days now, and starved from scarce plane feeds, this afternoon / evening was a relatively simply one. We napped, of course. And our alarm 1.5 hours later turned into a 2.5 hour nap... We then walked around town, mostly looking for food yet unknowingly hitting almost every tourist stop along the way. We saw the main ferry ticketing office to Zanzibar, the waterfront (which was mostly used by fish merchants, so not your typical nice beach), walked by a massive parlement building which was all blocked off from view, and passed a few really pretty mosques. We even crossed the National Museum without knowing it, which had great art and trincklet vendors outside their doors.

    Our basic trick to finding good and cheap food is spotting the gathering of colourful plastic chairs and locals eating... I guess it's not so much a trick as common sense, but when you want to avoid pricey restaurants, this is how you do it! We proceeded to open random pots, and point to what we wanted. 7,000TZS (4$CAD) for fish, coconut rice, fried plantain, 2 meat skewers and a Coca cola.

    Total spendings of the day - including our room at Safarri Inn, Uber and meal - 40$CAD.

    FYI - Safarri Inn was actually mentioned in Lonely Planet, which we only found out after booking it on booking.com for being the cheapest, yet central option. Basic rooms, granted - moldy doors and cold water showers, but private room and washroom for 23$USD, I'd recommend. Jack's impression - according to East African standard - it's perfect, clean, well located and private washroom. But if you're coming from Zanzibar where I suspect the accommodation is cool looking hostels, then you might consider this rougher.    Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeCentral AsiaResenär

    Tajikistan, an Overview

    15 augusti 2018, Tadzjikistan ⋅ ☀️ 36 °C

    Seeing the wifi was close to non existent in this country, blogs were mostly kept for myself. But I have some general thoughts to share, so here goes :

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    Tajikistan. The name alone sounds intimidating to me. For half my life, Americans have been at war with a "stan", and I've been taught to beware - big words like Taliban and ISIS come up with mention of the "stans" when in North America. And despite being somewhat well traveled, countries of more conservative Islamic culture and Muslim faith are mostly unknown to me.

    Central Asia has never been on my list of top destinations. Truth be told - I didn't even know there was a country called Tajikistan until my partner announced she was going. But Tajikistan it was. In my mind, I started shaping it to be this big intimidating monster of the unknown. One that I thought my gender ambiguity, tattoos and gauged ears would make of me a target of some kind. Or at the very least, invite negative reactions.

    Because I hyped this trip up so much in my mind as something I should be intimidated by, it took me a few days to really open up and fully enjoy this adventure.

    In all honestly - I've never crossed more generous, polite, genuinely nice people. My partner, who is not new to conservative Islamic countries, had told me stories of the generosity that is part of the muslim faith and culture, but it took me being here physically to really understand it.

    Everyone I cross, everyone, says "Salam" while placing their hand over their heart. A genuine hello, not the usual yelling of "hello" in a mocking tone by children I'm so used to hearing in many other counties. Everyday we are invited at least once into someone's home for tea, if not multiple times. But a tea invitation isn't just that - within minutes of sitting in someone's home, a buffet of plates are served with candies, nuts, dried fruits, whatever foods they have to offer you. And if you happen to be passing around meal time, they will gladly serve you a plate of whatever they've cooked without you asking for anything. And the bread. Boy do they like bread here, breaking of these huge pieces of bread and placing them in front of you, expecting you to finish it all. And they insist that you keep eating - as if hunger has no end. Being full just isn't an option.

    Their generosity is seen in so many other ways - our transport van (taxi-ish) from Khurog to Qurgonteppa (which ended up being 14.5 hours long) had to change a flat/deflated tire five times while on the road - and every single time another car passed by, it stopped and their driver would come out to help change the tire. And the people in this other car, usually also paying customers of a transport van, quietly waited while their driver helped our driver with the tire. Every single time.

    We were invited to a wedding celebration and the 2 men who spoke decent English (out of likely over 100 guests) came by to introduce themselves, explain the festivities around us, and make sure we had enough tea and food around us to enjoy this wedding.

    We were toured around Istaravshan by car by two bankers, showing us their favorite sites, walking around the newly constructed citadel, all with the soul purpose of encouraging tourism for their city.

    I've never felt more welcomed as a tourist. It's sad to say that my instinct when someone invites me into their home, or wants to lead me somewhere, is to be guarded, and assume there will be some kind of catch. A charge at the end? A scheme? Something. This instinct comes from the many countries that I've traveled and that do, unfortunately, see tourist as an opportunity for their own personal benefit. Tajik people have changed that for me. I don't have to be on my toes when I'm being offered something, they see me as a guest in their country and want to be the best hosts (as someone has explained to me along the way). And this has been the exact impression left on me - I was hosted throughout my stay in Tajikistan, and it was lovely.

    And yes - my look does attract the usual longer stares... Stares that are often filled with confusion. But these stares end up being more from curiosity - at first trying to figure out my gender, often followed by conversations amongst themselves about what they've concluded on my gender, quickly followed by "how can a women have such short hair? Or tattoos? Or ears like that?". None of which actually made me feel judge. Most people would end their starring with pointing to their ears and giving a thumbs up, as if to say they like my gauges.

    North American culture has taught us that staring isn't polite, that we should avoid prolonged eye contact with strangers. I'm quick to look to the ground when around strangers. But one is quickly reminded that many cultures around the world do not see staring as a faux pas. It just isn't a thing. And lengthy, eye to eye contact, and head to toe scanning, is perfectly acceptable. Looking like me simply means you have to accept the staring and try to understand it as a study of the unknown, not a judgment. After all, I'm in their country to do the same - study an unknown culture.    Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeCentral AsiaResenär

    Istaravshan

    14 augusti 2018, Tadzjikistan ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Istaravshan. It only took 6 hours to travel 150kms to get here, but we made it! Our amazing ability to pick out vehicles for transport continues, as I sat on the middle console of an SUV facing backwards, Jack on the back seat with 3 other men, with 2 women and 3 children in the trunk. After 2 hours, Jack and I switched, her bum fitting a little easier between the two front seats - what a champ! Oddly enough, this felt pretty normal, I was back in East Africa for a moment. What wasn't so great - this vehicle's motor was over heating on just about any incline (remember - we are in a country 95% covered by mountains) and wouldn't start unless pushed forward. We were driving at around 15-20 km/hour for around 3 hours. We stopped about 5 times to open up the hood and poor water on the motor to cool it down, only to then play the game of pushing the car forward to start and having the four men pushing jump back in while not stopping the motor. Our shared taxi from Veshab to Ishtavarshan was 70tjs each, 30tjs for Veshab to Ayni and 40tjs for Ayni to Ishtavarshan. That was figured out with the other passengers after the driver wanted to charge us 200tjs of course. Taxi drivers have been the only people to over charge us - I guess I can give them points for trying. Minibuses, markets, shops - all seem to be charging us actual prices, but not taxis. Trick is - never ask the price, just get in like you know already, and ask the passengers next to you.

    Sadbarg Hotel offered us a double room for 100tjs total, no shower. Yes - hotel rooms come without showers and a shared toilet down the hall. Cheapy-cheapy! Location was perfect, right across from the main square which gets pretty lively at night with families and kids running around... You can see the citadel lit up from the square - quite the view.

    Walking through old town brought us to the first mosque; Hazreh-I-Shah. Jack being so well traveled had the great idea to bring along a head covering for mosque visiting - my trusty bluff! With my head sock on, we explored a beautiful mosque - mostly new extensions to an older, smaller mosque with a beautifully decorated minaret. All the ceilings had detailed colorful paintings, definitely worth a quick visit.

    We then ventured off further into old town towards the Havzi-Sangin mosque. We were greeted by a man (who seemed to be a random local, who first decided to face-time with his friend in Russia showing our faces on his call (quite common this filming of us from a foot away thing), then made another phone call to a lovely older man who showed up to unlock the doors to the mosque and lead us inside for a visit. Again - beautiful paintings on the ceilings, but rather bland walls and dusty cardboard boxes for a floor. I assumed they were renovating. The lovely man then took out a paper book and asked us to sign it - I always find these books funny. Who writes a negative comment in a book which is only seen by tourist who are already visiting the same mosque?

    Next step - Kok-Gumbez, or Sultan Medresa. Yards away from our destination a man (Aziz) pulled up in his car, asked where we were from (classic), following by asking if he could accompany us to the Medresa. He then parks his car and walks us over. We knew the way, not to worry, but it was clear he was excited to practice a bit of English. So off we went to visit the Medresa - it had a very impressive tiled fromt entrance which in my eyes showed a lot of character, but in Jack's eyes showed a bit of wear and tear... The best part of the Medresa : the older gentleman out front with his bird for "bird fighting" in a cloth bag, pined to his shirt, and close to his heart. He said having the bird against his heart made it stronger. He then explored my tattoos and gave me multiple thumbs up. I had never made the connection - but after seeing a bird tattoo on one arm, and an arrow on the other - he asked me if it was a bow and arrow to hunt the bird. I didn't realise I had a theme to my tattoos until today!

    Aziz, not being done practicing his English, offered us a tour of the city in his car. How can we say no? He seems lovely. Tajik people are lovely. All good! So into his car we go, drop by the bank he works in to pick up his friend who has a similar level of English and who was also keen on chatting, and off to another mosque we go! This one was closed and there was no magical bearded man to unlock it. Bust.

    We head to the citadel instead - Mugtepe. I'm so glad we had a car - the walk uphill would have killed my already beaten legs - still paying the price of the Aloudin - Artush hike. On the drive over, we had fun comparing family traditions from Tajikistan to Canada's. Jack said she lived with her boyfriend and was not married - their first thought was how come she didn't live with her parents if she wasn't married? We explained how this was normal in Canada. We introduced the idea of unwed couples having children, and Rohman (Aziz's friend) couldn't fathom the idea of sex outside of marriage. He was 27 years old and single, poor guy. When I explained that I had one married brother without children, two married sisters with children and one unwed sister with a child - his world was rocked. Good thing I kept my life out of that conversation. They shared what we already knew from readings, they live with their parents until married, and usually the wife moves in with the husband and his family, or at least close to his family. The only way they can go on a date of sorts is if they've already declared their love for one another and are likely to marry. Yikes.

    Our guide book mentioned reconstructed gates of an old citadel, but it failed to mention the current massive reconstruction of a full circular citadel with an amphitheater inside. The building itself was beautiful - although likely no where near the look of the original. Carved wood all over the amphitheater, well kept gardens, and of course a cold drink vendor. We got to enjoy amazing views of the city before we were dropped back off at our hotel. Jack did her usual offering of her Facebook account, knowing full well that she would never accept their friend request, not wanting to out us as a couple while in this country. And I did my usual avoiding of the conversation or denying I had Facebook. I loved my afternoon with these two polite, genuinely nice men who simply wanted to improve the experience of these two travelers. My favorite quote of Aziz's : "Tajikistan... Tajiks... not much money, but big hearts".

    In truth - this town was actually a little hard for me. At the suggestion of the men, we walked over to the "big flag pole" where we were promised love music and a lively local croud, which there was. There was also a lot of teenage boys, who without wanting to generalize too much, have always been my toughest croud. It is the first time in 3 weeks I have truly felt judge. I could see and hear the people around me speak of me, laugh, point, tap their friend so they can join in the fun of looking at this odd creature. I've been asked my gender more often in this one night then the rest of my time in this country. And usually I can justify the stares as a curiosity, sensing no judgment from those who ask, but this was different. It didn't come from curiosity, it came from mockery. I was not welcomed here, and I knew it. Sorry, bitter paragraph for a difficult night.

    This evening left me feeling a little underwhelmed by Istaravshan. Yes, there's beautiful mosques, beautiful town squares, nice citadel, nice bankers... But my experience was tainted. Jack having the more objective opinion says it was a great city, with few tourists, that she would recommend. Also, even I will admit, it had a great and lively bazaar!    Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeCentral AsiaResenär

    Veshab

    12 augusti 2018, Tadzjikistan ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    Such a tiny little town you weren't even on our trusty Maps.me. Both our guide books (Central Asia Lonely Planet and Tajikistan Bradt) had a single little paragraph on Veshab, but just enough to entice us.

    These few lines in the guide book said Veshab was 47km away from Ayni, the central transport hub. Who knew 47km meant 2 hours! I guess we should have known, having seen the road conditions on the Pamir Highway, but silly us - we thought this would be a quick little jump over to a small town before finishing our journey in 2 larger cities. FYI - we paid 50 sumoni each for this ride, which I actually think was slightly over priced, which translate to roughly 6.90$CAD, for 2 hours of a ridiculously bumpy ride (confirmed by hotel owner - this ride should have cost 15-30 sumoni,ouch!).

    After we communicated to our taxi driver that we want to be dropped off at the tea house (using "chai" as the Tajik word for tea, followed by putting our hands together to form some kind of roof), we were brought to "downtown" Veshab - which consisted of one closed tea house, a single shop, and then houses. All along the mountains were these picturesque mud houses, surrounded by greenery, with the sounds of a spring making it's way through town. Green is always a welcomed sight in Tajikistan, considering how dry and rocky their mountains usually are.

    As our guide book only had two suggestions for sleep - either a home stay (usually organized from the tourist agencies in larger cities, which we obviously didn't do) or staying in the back of the tea room (which is apparently closed), we needed to improvise so we wandered into the shop and hoped for the best. We asked the man and young boy behind the counter "Mex-ma-hona?" (guesthouse) in our best Tajik with our hands in the air as if to say "where?". They both nod their heads no. We ask again. The nod no. We aimlessly point towards the town then laid our heads on our hands asking where in town can we sleep? And they point to the closed tea room across the street. We may have needed to organize this ahead of time. But low and behold! Another man pops in and says "hotel?" "Yes!" "yes, yes, here" he replies. Wait a minute - your two side kicks sent us away, and you're saying this is a hotel? Sure enough, he signals us over to a side gate, we follow in, he shows us 2 large rooms, one of which was mostly empty except for the usual pile of floor mattresses in the corner, and the other of which had a ridiculously elaborate buffet of food laid out. After we agreed on a price, which was 15$USD for both of us, for two nights, he invited us to sit at the buffet table.

    There were at least 20 plates laid out in front of us; fruits, nuts, candy, mini chocolate bars, even bottles of pop. He brought out bread and tea, and as we filled ourselves up with everything in front of us (big mistake), his wife brings in a potato and beef dish with a full bowl of their soured milk / yogourt thing. Do these people not know how little I usually eat!? Wanting to be polite, I forced myself to eat almost to the point of being sick, and when I signaled I was done - I was told to keep eating.

    The lovely wife of the hotel and shop keeper asked us if we wanted to go see some dancing (basically pointing to us, pointing to her eyes, then shaking her hands like dancers here do). We could hear some music from where we were sitting but didn't know why. So naturally, we followed, despite being exhausted from a long day of transport and hiking (2.5 hours of hiking in the morning, 6 hours of transport), likely not looking or smelling our best.

    A short walk brought us to a wedding celebration which seemed like the entire town was in attendence. We quickly saw the segration of men and women, and stuck with our hotel lady who stood in the crowd of women surrounding a grassy patch of land which I can only imagine will become the dance floor. That is until a women popped by and grabbed Jack and I by the arm and motioned to follow her. A quick look at our hotel lady for the approval to follow and we were whisked away to a table of seated women. A VIP table it seemed (which we were later told the tables were for out of town guests with invitations). Of course we were served bread and tea and later a full plate of food despite my many attempts to say we quite litteraly just ate at the hotel. So again, I make an effort to eat out of politeness, almost starting to resent this forceful eating.

    After a few speeches, the music starts, and dancers emerge from the crowds. Women at one end, men at the other. It's refreshing to see that not all men (seemingly heterosexual considering the strong Muslim beliefs) in the world act like it would be the death of them to show affection to one another, and dance together. Two men approached us with an introduction that sounded like "hello. How are you? I speak English if you need help". It was clear they both wanted to practice their English, which we welcomed. They helped us understand why the bride and groom, who were in a booth like elevated box, were continuously bowing up and down for what seemed like an hour - they were showing respect to their family members by doing so. They looked so incredibly bored compared to the rest of the crowd now either dancing or joyfully looking at the people dancing. One of the English speaking men, who runs a guesthouse in town through a tourist agency, even decided to take the microphone and say a speech on our behalf, in English, thanking the 2 Canadians for attending these festivities and welcoming us to their town. I both felt nauseous from the amount of people looking at me (social anxiety to the max at this point), and felt warmed that he would go to such lengths to make us feel welcomed. It was an amazing experience and one that, despite our dirty clothes, was memorable.

    The next day in Veshab consisted of walking through residential alleyways, constantly saying "Salam" with a hand on our heart to everyone who passed, we were guided around town at first by one of the shop keeper's boys - brought into his school, shown a poster with "English speaking countries" which included Canada (only 5 were displayed, which surprised me that Canada was part of it), he mostly would yell out English words that he remembered from school which we would then try to figure out considering the poor pronunciation.

    This being a relax day, we spent an hour in our room expecting to quietly read our books but I ended up spending this hour with this same boy, his friend, and their English learning school book reading English words, with me trying to show them correct pronunciations while miming the word so they know what it means. It was a tough game of charades and English class mixed together.

    All in all, small town with lots of character. A must stop in Tajikistan, if you ask me.    Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeGuatemalaResenär

    Acatenango

    19 april 2018, Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    We started asking the different outfitters about the Acatenango hike for Jack. First one - 129$ US, but they don't leave until Saturday (we are Tuesday at this point). Next one - 89$, also only leaves Saturday. Better price, not better timing.

    Finally we stumble upon Wicho and Charlie - a hostel which offers its own hike. 450Q, so 62$ and they offered free breakfast the departure morning, which the others did not! Now I know price shouldn't mean everything considering this is a big hike with lots of equipment needed, but we did read a couple reviews and they seemed just as well reputed as the others. Bonus - their Basecamp was already set up, so we didn't have to carry a tent like the other outfitters, score! In comes cute girl - telling me I'll regret not doing it, that it's easier then people make it seem, that if she can do it, I can do it... I didn't want to give in, considering I've regretted every hike I've ever done, but she spoke my language : "10 minutes into it, I wanted to turn around. I said fuck this. I tried to come up with an illness that would allow me to turn back. But I pushed through and it was so worth it". Sounds about right. So I signed up, and hired a porter named Balthazar to carry my backpack for me. I had a borrowed winter jack, hat, gloves and 6L of water in the bag! It weighed a tone! Lol. I loved that man, best 200Q I've ever spent.

    Side note - we met this little Asian lady when hiking in the Maritimes on our last road trip - when we were walking up an incline (it wasn't crazy long) she was telling us about the power of meditation - she just looked at her feet and counted every step up to 10, starting over and over again. That allowed her to get into a trance like state and she could hike any mountain. She partially outran us and I gave her around 70 years old.

    So her wisdom was utilized - on the day of the hike, I just stared at my feet, and kept putting one foot in front of the other. Kept my mind blank, unlike my usual thoughts of "fuck this, this is shit, I'm turning back". With Balthazar by my side, I actually did pretty good! Granted, it helped everyone around me was slowed down by their bags, including Jack who was carrying my 30L bag, with 2L of water, this borrowed whitish winter jacket and a few extra layers of clothing. That energy bunny though was unstoppable, encouraged me throughout, was always first in the pack, first to want to keep going, it was both impressive and annoying. :)

    The average hiking time is 5 hours - we did in 4! They likely say 5 hours to make you feel proud when you arrive early, but who cares, 4 hours bitches! Balthazar did great - this 5 foot tall beer belly middle age man never broke a sweat, was barely ever winded. Says he does the mountain twice a week. Just ridiculous.

    Got to the top - popped open my Coca Cola can I bought as my reward (well that Balthazar brought) and ate my awesome chocolate brownie (food supplied by hostel). Perfect reward for 4 hours of almost torture. Trick is - we aren't at the rim yet - just at basecamp. There's another hour and a half to go, but I won't have to worry about that until tomorrow.

    As the sun set, the cold set. Slap on extra layers, zip up my gorgeous baby blue puffy jacket I borrowed, and sit close to the fire while the crazy energy bunny decided she didn't have enough and did the Fuego hike - an added 3 hour hike up the active volcano connected to ours for a closer look at the lava. Jokes on her - the clouds set in for the exact same time she was on this extra hike - she only got to see the lava once back at basecamp. I felt so bad for her, yet so happy with my decision not to go! Jack here: I loved all of it! Super proud of Freddie and myself for kicking ass. Even the Fuego hike was worth it!

    Wake up at 3.45am they say. Walk up for sunrise they say. After a sleepless night, mostly kept awake by the cold and the rumbling of the volcano next door, 3.45am was no fun. But up we went to the summit - the worst 1.5 hour yet, steep uphill on volcanic rock on which every second step you slip back one. It was so insulting to work that hard to being your foot up for the next step only to loose progress because of the rocks. Shitty hour and a half. I started getting into my usual negative head space, so to try and get out of it I started using my one hiking stick with both hands singing over and over again in my mind "row, row, row your boat". It actually helped. Fyi - only 3 out of 6 of us did the summit hike, so extra points for me!

    I'll let the photos speak for themselves as far as the view for camp and the summit. Final conclusion: Regret 2/10. Glad I did it.    Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeGuatemalaResenär

    Antigua

    17 april 2018, Guatemala ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

    Antigua, the town everyone loves for it's European style beauty. Meh.
    It was a very pretty town, but not for its colonial features, but rather for its multi-colored walls, gorgeous surrounding mountains and volcanoes, and beautifully maintained central park. Every town has it's central plaza - usually with a government building on one end, and a church on another. This one was no different, but there was always life, kids playing around, ladies selling usually relatively useless trinkets, and men sitting around chatting. It was slightly more challenging to find inexpensive food since this is such a touristic town - everything was geared towards the international patron - Chinese and Italian food of plenty but not much cheap Guatemalan food.

    Being the original capital of Guatemala, it did have some amazing older buildings, mostly churches, from the 16th century - partially or mostly destroyed by earthquakes in the 17th century. Or something along those lines. Anywho - beautiful ruins of churches, with amazing carvings and massive pillars.

    We walked up to a view point Cerro de la Cruz. I was winded and tired when we reached the top, which for me confirmed I wasn't doing a volcano hike with Jack. If I can barely breath after 20 minutes of stairs, there's no way I'm doing a 5 hour hike! How I changed my mind you asked? A cute girl at the hostel convinced me... Lol

    Antigua seems like the town you go to when you've spent a long time travelling and you need a break from it all, and you sit and enjoy a nice latte or glass of wine. We haven't been traveling very long so this wasn't needed.    Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeGuatemalaResenär

    Guatemala City

    16 april 2018, Guatemala ⋅ 🌬 18 °C

    Coming back from Livingston, we took an afternoon bus from Puerto Barrios to Guatemala city, arriving after dark so we made our way directly to the hostel we had booked 2 blocks away from the bus station. I don't venture off in the dark. Jack here: Fred was also a deer, ironically their Mayan birth symbol as well. Their eyes scurrying around, ears perked to the absolute worst case scenario despite it being totally fiiiine. Back to Freddie we go.

    We spent the next day enjoying Guatemala city before making our way to La Antigua. A free walking tour was advertised, so obviously we did that! Met our lovely guide in the central plaza after walking down 6th Avenue (Paseo de la Sexta). We basically just walked around the historical part of the city, Zona 4, which was everything you'd expect from a city - pigeon square and all. Learned about the Civil War. The city had a "protesting" vibe to it with tons of posters denouncing the government for its corruption, speaking against violence against women, Jack had a blast reading all the signs and graffiti. The people watching in Parque Central - pigeon square - was at it's finest!

    We finished off our walking tour in the central market, eating a local meal we couldn't quite recognize and definitely couldn't pronounce.

    As in most big cities, the difference between the rich and the poor became blatantly obvious. Beautiful massive buildings with amazing stone carving next to people who you wonder when was their last decent meal.

    Jack again: I like cities and this one didn't disappoint! Most traveller's skip it, which is sad. It was great to be in a Guatemalan city not particularly geared towards me or tourism but just being itself. As mentioned, the protest vibes helped!    Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeGuatemalaResenär

    Livingston

    15 april 2018, Guatemala ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    Where the Garifuna people live. Jack here: The Garifuna are afro-carribean people who came from West Africa and St. Vincent, survived shipwrecks before establishing themselves/being relocated to Roatan(Honduras) and Livingston(Guatemala). Totally different people with a different culture, language, skin color and obviously different vibe. Back to Freddie: It was interesting to walk through the town from one end to another, going completely rural into the residential area and seeing how segregated the Mayan and Garifuna people were. According to one lovely Garifuna man we met, the business and the money is owned by the Mayans and the Garifuna people are mostly on the outskirts of town. Much more of a Caribbean vibe the what we've seen in the rest of Guatemala!Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeGuatemalaResenär

    Jungle Bliss

    14 april 2018, Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Our first stay in a reserved room! We actually booked something ahead of arriving, and that's because we're going to the middle of no where. No town. No second option in case it's full. Just this one, secluded, beautiful place along Rio Tatin, a branch off the Rio Dulce. Wooden furniture, hammocks galore, clear water to swim in, and trails to walk the jungle. What more could we ask for?

    We splurged for a private room for 2 days. And by that, I mean hostel beds were 60Q each, so total 120Q whereas the room was 130Q. Tough call. The usual cold shared cold shower, but after a day in this heat and humidity, the cold shower is always welcomed!

    Water side hammocks for a nap (considering the not-so-amazing sleep from the night before) motivated us to go for a hike. I should get paid by maps.me considering how much I promote it, but it allowed us to hike to the Tiger Caves without a guide and without getting lost! Thought the caves were gated and locked (one way to assure people pay for a guide to go), the walk was full jungle, thick vegetation, river and creeks everywhere, and gorgeous. Hot as heck, humid as heck, but gorgeous. I failed at my goal to see a toucan, but I'll keep trying!

    Today was a kayak trip on the Rio. And by that, I mean we rowed very casually for an hour and a half, exploring mangroves and relatively large houses along the waterfront. We've actually been impressed by the money Guatemala seems to have... This is not to be condescending in any way, but from the moment we arrived we've been impressed by their organization - buses leave on time, luxury buses are actually nice, there's provided toilet paper everyone! People who've traveled this end of the world know that sometimes toilet paper is hard to come by, so you bring your own. I have yet to use mine! Gas stations with flushing toilets and provided toilet paper. Impressed. All this to say there's some impressive mansions on the Rio - assumedly vacation homes for some locals.

    Fill in the rest of our day with lounging on the deck, or in a hammock, reading a book or blogging to catch up on previous days (sorry for the triple upload!).

    Even diner was great family-style diner, where for a set price you share a bunch of dishes. Vegetarian options for Jack and everything!

    No need to go on for hours, look at the photos. I'm feeling relax, had myself a vacation for 2 days while traveling, and onwards we go!    Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeGuatemalaResenär

    One Long Bridge, One Long Night

    13 april 2018, Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Our wonderful tourist shuttle bus dropped us in front of the Backpackers Inn in Rio Dulce. The dilemma - break our rule about staying in the first place we check out, or look elsewhere which will likely be more expensive? From everything we've read, these dorm beds were as cheap as it gets. We continued our stress-free streak and stayed in their 16 bed dorm (thankfully, we only had 2 roommates), and said no thank-you when we were offered sheets and pillow for an extra 15Q. If we're only paying 30Q for the bed, why would we add 50% to the price? Thinking back on it, 2,50$CAD for sheets and a pillow shouldn't have made us hesitate so long.

    Why the title you ask? Well, we thought the hostel was on the same side of the bridge as the ferry we needed to grab in morning (knowing the centre of town was on the other side), but we were wrong. We crossed the bridge 3 times. 1.1 km long, curved bridge which means uphill for half of it. One long bridge.

    Crossing the bridge for the first time was to head for the Cascadas Caliente! Hot waterfall in Finca El Paradiso. Jack finally gets a taste for her "collectivo", the beloved mini vans over packed with people. We went to the street corner our travel guide suggested, and spoke to the man standing outside a minivan. And by spoke, I mean we said "cascadas caliente?" to which he replied by pointing to the empty and unattended van across the street. One thing we've learned about this trusty transportation method - it leaves when it's full, and not before. This empty van isn't giving us hope. Little did we know, within 5 minutes a man would emerge from the corner yelling a destination we don't understand, people started piling into the van, and he walked to us and asked "Finca El Paradiso?". Sometimes, being white and clearly foreign helps, because yes, yes we are going to Finca El Paradiso. Please show us the way. Which he did. To the same van. Success!

    Absolutely amazing experience. 45 minutes in a minivan and we're dropped by the side of the road, where a farmer stands from his bench and signals us over. He then asks for 15Q per person, the entrance fee. Sure. Then said something in Spanish, of which I understood "caminare" and "quince minutes" or something along those lines. Don't worry - my Spanish is improving by the day! My interpretation - follow this path for 15 minutes to your destination. Done.
    On this path, we meet farmer number 2, who introduces himself and does this one arm side hug to both Jack and I, sweaty cheeks touching, ever so slightly awkward. But nice guy... Finally, we meet farmer number 3, who says (at least what I interpreted) that his job was to watch our stuff while we go swimming. You got it!

    Off we go in this clear, cold water. Swim up to the waterfall, sulphur smells increasing by the inch, and touch this incredibly hot - can barely get under - waterfall. The feeling of your body being in cold water yet hot water falling on your head was surreal. I haven't seen too many sites as cool as this one. Just a few local families enjoying the same beautiful nature setting. We stayed 2 hours taking it all in, and as we start leaving a tourist group arrived - 15 of them. Our timing was perfect!

    As we wait for the collectivo back to town, a lovely gentleman called Roberto was generous enough to stop and give us a ride back to town. Now some of you might say it isn't safe to hitch hike in Guatemala, to you I say - I wasn't hitch hiking, my thumb wasn't out, he's just a really nice guy! Jack just hopped in the car that stopped near us and I followed. Also, how can a guy who looked for his Barry Manilow music because it was in English, be bad? We all sang "... Copa, Copa Cabana!" together.

    We then proceeded to have the worse sleep ever - sheetless, music blaring from the restaurant and from the other side of the bridge, and massive truck engines roaring when trying to make it up the bridge over top of us. But, 30Q!    Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeGuatemalaResenär

    Tikal

    11 april 2018, Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    The "can't miss" Mayan ruins, Tikal. We're not usually the types to do the big name attractions while travelling - Jack skipped Angkor Wat in Cambodia for Pete's sake! But we decided to make Tikal the exception since neither Jack or I had ever seen Mayan history. Thankfully it wasn't overcrowded at all! A quick 70Q (12$CAD) each for transportation there and back (an hour away from Flores, where most people base themselves) but no guide. Fear not, thanks to our trusty travel guide and my maps.me GPS - we could make our own guided tour, reading about the different sites from our book, confirming we're at the right one with my phone.

    Side note - shout out to the app maps.me, free maps that I download before every new country onto my phone - my GPS can follow me incredibly well throughout the country. I can even look things up like hotels or ATMs with no internet needed. I've been amazed at how much details, including trails, the app has. You literally can't get lost, which makes me incredibly happy, where as Jack finds it 'too safe' or 'no fun'.

    What to say about the site itself? It's huge. So many pyramids, so tall, so many stairs to climb up for view points - all of which are worth it (which means a lot coming for me!) Just the walk from settlement to settlement was absolutely beautiful jungle-esk trails, birds chirping all around. Google photos - there aren't too many words to describe massive rock pyramids built 1300 years ago hidden away in the jungle... My take away from Tikal though is I'm not climbing the big volcano, no way!

    As every super touristy spot overcharges for food, we were good backpackers and brought ourselves lunch! We were hoping to grab fresh tortillas but since Flores is a bubble for tourists, there are no street sellers to buy tortillas from. So we grab the toasts from our breakfast, peanut butter and bananas. Open-faced banana-peanut-butter sandwich, winner!

    Once back in Flores, the heat of the day called us to the water! A quick swim with the locals is always a good experience. I call my swimming time "the jaw dropper". I'd love to say it's because I look so good in a bathing suit, but no. I still often pass as male, so when I dip in a body of water, even with a t-shirt on since it seemed like the right thing to do (all locals were fully dressed in the water), my shirt tends to kling to my chest and down the jaws go. I tend to avoid eye contact with anyone around me at all cost, but Jack gets the full effect.

    Backpacker tip #? - eat dinner next to the place everyone tells you to go! Locals and tourists alike were telling us to go to Skybar for a drink - it's 2 floors up, great view on the water. We went to the restaurant behind it, 3 floors up, with the same great view and food half the price. We could see Skybar was full of tourist from where we were quietly sitting, alone in a nature-friendly balcony, petting the family dog.

    To end the day - I'll be real with you all about a moment of disagreement that comes up every once in a while between Jack and I. She likes the challenge of finding the cheapest way of doing anything. It's both a question of budget, and being closer to the locals. I agree, for the most part. But when everyone on the island can sell you a bus ticket to Rio Dulce, our next destination, for 100Q (17$CAD) I'm not going to look for hours for another solution. Jack on the other hand will spend 20 minutes on her phone during drinks on a lovely patio, then another 15 minutes once back in our room to figure out where the local buses leave from (not on Flores, somewhere in Santa Elena which is right then and there at least a 30 minute walk) and how we get there. I on the other hand, can appreciate that we are both successful adults, and we can afford the few extra dollars of convenience. In case you're wondering, I won. So we booked our Shuttle Bus to Rio Dulce.    Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeGuatemalaResenär

    Nap Time

    10 april 2018, Guatemala ⋅ ⛅ 37 °C

    Success! At least for the most part. Landed in Guatemala city around 6.40pm, made our way to 3 ATM machines in the airport - none worked. Used our little US cash to get the taxi to drop us at the Linea Dorado bus station, because apparently public transportation, especially after dark, is a no-no. Used a credit card to purchase our bus tickets leaving for 9pm. Again, no ATMs to be found, not that I felt very good about looking for one. Guate is known for it's pickpocketers and purse-snatchers, so having no cash on us was A-OK with me!

    Took a mini walk 2 blocks down from the bus station and randomly stumbled upon a street filled with vendors! Found a guy that accepted our 2USD and he made us our first of likely many tortillas. The bus ride itself was thankfully entirely uneventful. Mostly consisted of me bitterly watching Jack sleep like a baby. I'm am still amazed, to this day, at her sleeping abilities.

    The thing with night buses - we arrived at 5.45am. Not much open at 5.45am. Not much at all. We got to Santa Elena which was what we booked for our bus, and the driver started going down the isle yelling "Flores! Flores!". Having to wake up (well Jack at least) and gather our things at 5.45am on a random side street only for the two white girls to get out of the bus alerted our spidey senses! Thankfully a white dude joined us in wanting to continue to Flores, and there was a lovely tourist van waiting for us to get in. Turns out it was included in the price of the ticket to get us to Flores, a little island, but the big bus couldn't go on the bridge. Apparently sometimes you can trust the people! The sun was out, so we set out to explore Flores at 6am!

    Within 1.5 hours we had circled the island and made our way into it's town Centre. Turns out - planning a full day to explores Flores was not needed. Flores is a miniature island, connected to Santa Elena by a bridge / causeway. Santa Elena is a huge town and yet our travel book (and a friend's wise advice) says there's nothing interesting there, all traveller's stay on Flores. Which is hilarious if you look at a map. Flores is tiny! Not even a kilometer in diameter. But beautiful colors everywhere, every building has it's own unique look, people have been very welcoming and nice. There's water all around us (obviously, it's an island) with beautiful green hills on the mainland. It's just very clearly a construction made for tourists. Considering how pretty it is, I'm ok with that!

    Tired from the long journey over, and hungry, we set our eyes for breakfast and a bed. I ate more then half! I call that a success for a second meal somewhere strange! See that's the thing with central America - the countries tend to be very similar, so this all seems familiar. I don't feel entirely lost. So I get to eat!

    Find a bed that will allow us to check in at 8am - check. Nap - check for Jack. I again watched her sleep bitterly - with what seemed to be palpitations but would likely kill. Maybe this isn't as familiar as I thought.

    After a well deserved 2.5 hour nap (we're on vacation!) we set out to wonder around town. And then found ourselves on a boat taxi heading to San Miguel. Then hiking to a view point were I was winded and sweaty by the end. Then wondered around trails to make our way back. Then boat taxi back - which this time around was half the price of our way over. Trick - always get on a boat with locals. Don't ask the price. Look at what others hand over and either give the same, or if you can't tell hand a bill over and put your hand out expending change. This way you look like you know what it should cost, even though you have no clue.

    Our Steripen's first day out! We filled our water bottle in the sink at the hotel. Steripen'ed it. Finished the bottle along our hike, found a random hose spraying into the street. Filled our water bottle again and Steripen'ed it. We'll see by tomorrow if any of this is a good idea, but so far I feel like it's my best purchase yet!

    I sign off, while I enjoy a Frappuccino - like a grown up with money! Jack is justifying our lavish spending as a birthday gift for herself - I think we can afford the 4$ drink!

    Oh ya, it's Jack's birthday. Woop Woop!    Läs mer

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  • Fred LalondeGuatemalaResenär
    2

    Packing like a Champ

    9 april 2018, Förenta staterna ⋅ ☀️ 2 °C

    I wasn't planning on blogging this trip, especially since it's just a two-and-a-half weeker, but then I read someone else's blog about how to pack for a trip and I was motivated. In her advice, amongst others, she said she brought 12 pairs of underwear. 12. Backpacking. The entire concept behind backpacking is being self sufficient and clever about what to bring, pieces that have multiple purposes. I have 3 pairs of underwear - 2 of which I like and rotate between everyday, one of which is likely to stay in my bag until the very last day when I give up on laundry and wear them for my return. Side note - why is it called a pair of underwear if it's just one piece?

    I have with me my brand new, never been broken into Lowe Alpine Z Duo 30. 30L of beautiful, sleek black organization. Although truth be told - I don't know if it's actually less then 30L or if Jack's 20L bag is actually bigger then that, but my things fit quite snug in my bag, and fit in the exact same "snug-ness" in Jack's bag. Who knows.

    Before every trip, I pack everything I want to bring with me inside the bag, to make sure it all fits, and then I remove what I'll be wearing on the flight. That way I'm 100% sure everything will fit along the way. Pleasures of a small bag - no overhead compartment is too small, no mini bus is too packed, I can keep it with me on any transportation instead of paying the fee to stick it underneath or on top, and it's light enough to carry with me during the day if we don't plan on returning to the same accommodation at night (which is always because for some reason, Jack likes to 'switch it up' everyday).

    Packing list (for warm weather, where we plan on hiking) - keeping in mind, my clothing is mostly men's, so this list is more user friendly for the masculine folk, I'll include a list of Jack's packing after :

    Sexy backpack (30L)
    Pacsafe day bag (with my anxiety, this is my security blanket, definitely not a must, but gives me peace of mind - it has these theft proof features like you can't cut through the fabric and zippers clip shut)

    Clothing:
    3 shirts - one long sleeve for cooler days, 2 short sleeve t-shirts (quick dry, antimicrobial to stop them smells)
    2 sports bras (one which looks decent as a swim top)
    3 underwear (quick dry, antimicrobial)
    1 pant (quick dry again, always important to dry overnight)
    1 pair of shorts (you know it, quick dry)
    2 pairs of socks (antimicrobial is most important, it's impressive how long they won't smell)
    1 pair of hiking shoes
    1 pair of walking sandals
    1 belt (my weight fluctuates everyday when traveling, mostly since I can't eat for my first few days, yay anxiety)
    1 thin sweater (since it will be mostly warm weather)
    1 rain jacket
    1 bathing suit bottom (shorts for me)
    1 bluff (that round neck scarf thing - useful for neck sun protection during hikes, can be shaped into a hat if cold, and classic sweat rag)
    1 sarong (my towel, my pillow cover, my added bus padding, my beach cover, anything!)

    All of my clothing fits in 2 packing cubes. Packing cubes are a must - keeps everything organized and compact. So when it's colder I can wear my long sleeve t-shirt, my sweater and my rain jacket while using my bluff as a tuque. Layers.

    Cosmetic bag includes all mini travel size bottles - shampoo (my short hair can live without conditioner for a few weeks), soap bar in a soap box, sunscreen, hair jel, toothbrush and paste, pill bottle of mixed pharmacy, razor, tweezers, and a 'mini' first aid kit which basically consists of 2 band-aids and polysporin (my nursing friends would be ashamed).

    I have a 'laundry baggy' which has a laundry soap bar (not liquid), a travel clothe line, a universal sink plug and I threw in a couple hydration tablets in case Jack decides to get food poisoning again.

    Odds and ends :
    Baseball cap
    Headlamp
    Water bottle
    Steripen (our new baby - look it up, this thing sounds awesome - with our water bottle, we should be able to sterilize any tap water abroad and therefore avoid buying bottled water)
    3-way plug splitter (if fighting for a plug in a dorm - I can split one 3 ways)
    Pack of MiniEggs - a must.

    In the day bag:
    Camera (I used to have a DSLR but found it too heavy and big, I now have a Sony a6000)
    Tablet (mostly used for airport entertainment)
    Cellphone
    Wallet (obviously)
    Pens (literally only for immigration cards)
    Phone and tablet chargers

    That's it, that's all. Never bring an 'in case', never over think it, everything is washable and dries overnight. Always keep up with laundry - washing underwear and a t-shirt every night takes 4 minutes and allows you to carry a much smaller load. You just have to get used to seeing each in the same outfits on repeat.

    Jack's variations - she's in a 20L Osprey Tempest backpack. Her packing cubes are higher quality then mines which allows her to really keep her clothing compact and organized. As for clothing - she has a summer dress, 1 pant, 1 tank top, 1 undershirt, and 1 t shirt, and has a dress shirt to throw on top of her tank top or undershirt. Obvious all quick dry, mostly antimicrobial. 2 socks, 2 underwear. She keeps her makeup to bare minimum - mascara, eye shadow and lipstick. She has hiking boots, they're huge when comparing to my hiking shoes but with the volcanoes she plans on hiking - apparently necessary. And believe it or not - they fit inside her bag, none of this tied to the outside and flopping around non sense. Her 'day bag' is a miniature purse the size of the travel book. Oh ya - she has the travel book. And an eye mask - princess needs her darkness to sleep.

    That sums it up. That's advice from two very light packers. And when I cross other traveller's with 50-60L bags, my shoulders hurt for them. You take away the movability when you add all that weight and size.

    Have fun travelling! I'll let you know how Guatemala goes! Booked the tickets Friday, left Monday, don't have our first night booked because we're hoping to arrive at 645pm as scheduled, and head straight to the bus station for an overnight bus to Flores. We'll see how that goes!    Läs mer

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