Our Journey

Yes‚ we’re home. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was around the world in 365 days.

We wandered around the desert metropolis of Dubai and played in what could be the world’s best water park; we saw the ancient ruins of Petra, spent a night in the desert, rode camels, shared a sheesha with a rescue team, floated in the Dead Sea, dove in the Red, all in Jordan; we ate Turkish delight, saw the peaks of Cappodocia, descended into the world’s largest underground city, saw the eternal flames of Mount Olimpos, played backgammon, cruised the Mediterranean, surveyed the calcium-white ridges of Pamukkale, and explored Ephesus in Turkey; we hopped from island to island, partied on Ios, soaked up the sun, rented and crashed a scooter on Santorini, and saw the Parthenon in Greece; we saw indestructible bunkers, a Dodge Caravan with Alberta licence plates, a Yahoo! fast food chain, a hideous pyramid dedicated to the former communist leader with a nightclub called ‘The Mummy’, and the castles of Albania; we wandered the streets of the old town of Kotor, swam in the pristine waters around Sveti Stefan, in the newest country in the world, Montenegro; walked around the walls of Dubrovnik; rented a boat and did our own island hopping around Korcula, saw two of the most gorgeous water features on the face of this planet‚ Krka and Plitvice, and ate awful airport food in Croatia; saw The Lion King, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Hyde Park, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Tower of London, Brick Lane, rode the London Underground and The London Eye and got rained on, in London; I drank Guinness from the source and went on a pub crawl of the the smallest bar, the largest bar, the oldest bar, the bar with the highest number of beers available, and the bar with the most floors (it was getting dubious at this point) with Chelsea and Eoin, saw the cliffs of Moher, absorbed the history of Derry, walked on the Giant’s Causeway, and took in the Fringe Festival with Debbie in Edinburgh‚ all in Ireland and the UK (Scotland). Read the rest of this entry »

We spent the last week of our trip in sweet, sweet civilization with my brother and his family at their home in Orlando, Florida, USA.

And yes, one of the first things I did was have a Starbucks coffee. I know, I’ve sold out to our North American culture… our delicious, coffee-driven culture, but if there is one thing I’ve learned having been around the world, there are a lot of great things about North America and, in many ways, we are very lucky to live here. Read the rest of this entry »

Last time we left you we had just crossed the border into Brazil at Foz do Iguaçu to take in a second helping of the gorgeous Iguazu Falls. That night, we hopped on an overnight bus that would take us to the massive city of Sao Paulo—a semi-cama bus (think airplane-style reclining seats), with no meals, no wine, no late night champagne, and no movies, all at a higher cost than the most luxurious bus we took in Argentina. Next time you get into a ‘my bus system is better than your bus system’ fight, side with Argentina. Seriously, we got into a few on our travels. It happens. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, we are back in Canada! Can you believe that a year went by so fast? I certainly can’t. Over the next week or two we are going to have a series of posts with lots of statistics about our trip – including the $64,000 question. This post is the third of three posts about daily costs around the world. This post includes: Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand and several countries in South America. It doesn’t include Australia because of the nature of the family vacation we took there. If you need some help understanding this post, please see my Expenses: Europe and the Middle East post! If you are looking for info about Africa, click here.
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As a preamble to this post, I’ll have you all know that I wanted to write another joint post – since the last one was so well received. When I mentioned this to Jon, he said “No problem. I love wine, I love beef, and thusly I love Argentina. End post.” And I’m pretty sure ‘thusly’ isn’t a word. While this captures most of our 18 days in Argentina, I thought I might give you a somewhat more thorough summary of the time we spent in the country.

As Jon’s one sentence post clearly conveys, some of the highlights in Argentina were indeed the food and the wine. In fact the most notable experiences in our first 9 days in the country were related to food and drink. One of the first things I think about when I heard the word “Argentina” is steak. It is seriously amazing. We think it is because the cows are happy and they are grass fed. Happy cows make tasty meat. Read the rest of this entry »

[A] It seems as though we have fallen behind on the blog again, Argentina has been a whirlwind of good food and good wine and somehow blogging about Bolivia fell by the wayside. No need to worry, however, we are both back to keep you entertained—just be warned that the good wine may have influenced Jon’s writing style for this post.

After crossing into Bolivia we arrived in Copacabana (not the Copacabana of Barry Manilow fame, that is coming a few weeks) and were surprised to discover we had to pay an ‘entry tax’ to even get into the city. This was irritating since we were mostly there to head out to Isla de Sol. This is [J] an island. An island of the sun. We went there to see where the sun was born, but Allison was too tired to make it, so we gave up and decided to not see where the sun was born and had a beer instead. Sure, a beer isn’t so bad, but how often do you get to see where the sun was born? Only this one time, and we didn’t make it. And I’m sure not going back there—I don’t want to pay the 20 cent Copacabana entry fee again. [A] In my defence, we had probably already walked 20 kms that day and were still a few kms away from the hostel when we decided to turn around. The rock where the sun was born was probably another 2kms away, adding at least 4 more kms to our already long day… and the sun was going down. Read the rest of this entry »

Though I know most of you are waiting (somewhat) patiently for our Bolivia post, we thought it was important to interrupt the order of our blog temporarily for some travel advice. How to access your money in Argentina. Though we have been loving most parts of Argentina since we arrived 30 hours ago, one aspect has been hampering our fun. We couldn’t take out more than 320 pesos ($110 CAD) from an ATM at a time. With, with a hefty bank fee of $3 to $5 dollars a transaction, this was going to make Argentina notably more expensive than anticipated. To make matters even worse, we could only get this money with Jon’s PC Financial card (on the PLUS network). Any attempt to take out money on my BMO card (on the CIRRUS) network was met with “you have a balance of $0,” though I actually do have money in there. So, a bit of creative Googling found us an answer to this problem that I hope will help fellow travellers in the future. Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, so “Peru was full of highlights”, “some of the most amazing sights that we have seen in our 307 days on the road”, etc. etc., but there is another side to Peru—a darker, frustrating side.

What Allison failed to mention about the Amazon Basin is that everything there wants to either kill you or make you want to itch, a lot. Want to go for a relaxing swim to counter the oppressing daytime heat? Watch out for piranhas. Leisurely stroll through the jungle? Beware of the tree that shoots fire ants when you brush up against it. Relaxing in a hammock? Just be careful of the wasps the size of birds. And don’t think you’re safe in pants, the mosquitos can sting you through them. Yeah, the Amazon is just a barrel of fun—and I won’t even detail how much this experience will cost you. Oh, by the way, you will probably get robbed when you’re taking your stroll through the jungle. Read the rest of this entry »

Peru offered some amazing sights, food and incidentals. The physical highlights in Peru were the Amazon Basin, Huacachina, the Nazca Lines, Colca Canyon, Cusco, the Inca Trail, Machu Picchu, and the floating islands at Puno. A food highlight was the amazing ceviche available all over but only really edible near the coast. Peru also offers amazing fresh fruit juices and Pisco Sours, a tasty drink made out of grape brandy, lemon juice and egg white. The cama busses, where the seats recline almost 180 degrees, were an overnight treat. And we lucked out with our Inca Trail weather, despite the rainy season we had only rain two of the three nights and 20 minutes one morning while walking. Read the rest of this entry »

Well, what do they have in common you ask? Easter Island!!

Big Heads: This is the reason that most visitors go to Easter Island. These archeological attractions are famous worldwide.

Body Paint: We were lucky enough to be there during the annual two-week Tapati Festival, and we got painted from head to toe and paraded around the town!

Beautiful Beach: Though not blessed with many beaches, Easter Island has one of the best beaches that I have ever seen!

It’s great! And did you know that the reason it is called Easter Island is because it was “discovered” on Easter Sunday? In the local language it is called Rapa Nui. Read the rest of this entry »