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Providencia, Colombia
In the faint morning light, I unclipped from the tether in the cockpit and removed my lifevest. I crept down into the cabin, seeing the boys both fast asleep. I had taken a three hour shift, instead of the usual two, because Josh had been up all night adjusting sails through changing conditions. He needed…
Setting Sail
The learning curve on a sailboat seems to be quite rapid. When Captain says “let’s furl the yankee,” or “we’re gonna come up on the halyard,” the scattered shuffling through ropes with that look of sincere confusion only gets you so far. On a boat, it’s either learn or be useless, sink or swim. A…
Catching a different wave
I wasn’t sure who I was supposed to talk to, but I knew his name started with J. Emma had told me about a person–named…something or other…starting with a J–who she’d met at Rio Coco. She said he has been sailing around the Caribbean, and he’d given her some advice about how to find a…
Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras
The sun rises just after five and peeks through my window. Slowly opening my eyes, I become aware of the fan’s breeze on my legs and the sound of the roosters outside my window. I sit up, ever so slowly, avoiding sudden movements. Tactfully and with precision, I peel back the curtain of my window…
My summer, on the halfshell
Well, this is awkward. Been a while. I said I’d write. I didn’t write. Didn’t call…eh.. It wasn’t that my summer was boring and there was nothing exciting to blog about; nor was it that I was so busy doing awesome things that I just couldn’t find the time. Those would be what we call…
I see France!
It’s gettin’ real. We were eating breakfast on the roof of my seven story hotel in Mandalay, my friends from Holland and I, when my tea cup started rattling on its saucer. The tea was spilling over the rim of the cup, and I wasn’t touching it. I looked at it curiously, at first, but…
I see London…
Wow. There are so many people speaking English. There are so many people that look like me. There is order to the traffic. The shops aren’t filthy and there are no flies. It’s cold. * My ability to form complex thoughts was temporarily debilitated as I arrived in London Heathrow airport…
Sri Lanka to Europe, in search of delicious food
So before I left, I made a point to rub it in all of my friends’ and family members faces that I would be eating delicious “authentic” Asian food for months. La dee da. But at that point, I knew nothing of what real Asian food is, nor did I take into account the fact that plain…
Chiang Mai
Alex and I left Luang Prabang together and headed to Chiang Mai, Thailand, via a series of buses that took 24 hours. Waiting for our bus with Leif in Luang Prabang, we got a (nervous) laugh out of the discovery that our bus had absolutely no tread on it’s ancient tires. Safety is hardly a…
Lovely Luang Prabang
I thought I was in love with Saigon, but it seems I didn’t know what I was looking for. I found a place that truly has all I’ve ever wanted. It’s official: Luang Prabang has taken my heart. Beautiful sunsets, cheap–amazing–food, and lovely markets and buildings: it’s the best. I left Kate in Vang Vieng,…
Vang Vieng, but without the tubes
Laos is incredible. It’s my favorite place yet, only surpassing Hsipaw, Myanmar by a fraction. But I’m typing this and realizing I am hyper-focused on something else, which is preventing me from writing about Laos. So let me get this out of the way, first. OK, so the US is known around the world for…
Laotian Paradise
They say that in Laos, you can expect your pulse rate to drop significantly, and remain at steady, slow, resting pace for the duration of your stay in the country. I don’t know how the next couple of weeks will go, but it feels already that my pace has changed from constant fight or flight…
No Tuk-Tuk, lady!
Well, after the sadness in Phnom Phen, my experience in Cambodia turned to madness. As in the anger type of madness, not the insanity kind of madness. Well, maybe a bit of both, I guess. But first, I’ll say I was thrilled to meet back up with Kate…remember, Kate from Borneo? The one who got…
The guilty American
I’ll warn you. The first half of this post is pink and fluffy. The second half is not. I will separate the two with ” * ” so you can decide if you want to read an angry American coming to terms with our imperialist foreign policy, or not….
Saigon, Vietnam
I’m entirely too tired to write anything substantial, but it should be noted that Saigon has rekindled my love for traveling after the Philippines rained heavily on this one-woman parade. I arrived in Vietnam at 2 in the morning, met a guy in the airport from the North Pole, slept outside in the company of…
Divemaster Dadian
I finished. I’m a Divemaster, Emergency First Response Instructor and Provider, Rescue Diver, and Nitrox certified….and I survived to tell the tale. As a right of passage into the “Darkside,” also known as the realm of PADI professionals, this is what my night was like last night. Considering I had to snorkel-beer-bong 3 beers after…
Life on Boracay
Things have mellowed out since my little episode a couple weeks ago. My oh my, has it been crazy, though. I apologize (mostly to you, mom) for not writing in ages. Time has been flying as each day seems shorter and shorter under the heaps of dive physics readings pile up. The life of a…
Trouble with Jellies
Finally: I can breathe fresh air as my lips begin forming a smile and my eyebrows slowly loosen their squeeze on my forehead. I am sitting on the balcony of my little apartment on Boracay Island, in the Philippines, looking out at the full moon behind a palm tree and the crisply outlined white clouds…
Phnom Phen, Cambodia
It’s hard to put into words exactly how I felt in Phnom Phen, Cambodia. After only two days in the city, I needed to leave. Not because of the incessantly badgering tuk-tuk drivers, or the unbearable heat. I needed to leave because my heart was becoming too heavy. Another day and it would have sank away, I’m sure. Cambodia…
Worst Airline Ever: Cebu Pacific Air
There. I was hoping the title of this post would be catchy enough so that people Googling CebuAir Pacific would come up with my site and be spared the horrible experience of doing business with them. It is now my mission in life to alert travelers around the world to NEVER, under any circumstances, fly…