Wedded Bliss

I have been absent, but busy.

I got married.

 

Went to New York City on my honeymoon. 

And ate lots of Gluten-Free deliciousness.

And loved it!!!

Ya Mon!

There's something about Jamaica that makes white people say "ya mon" all the time and it's just awful. Jamaicans can say it, but if you're white, it's really not necessary.

We had a great time in Jamaica. It wasn't unbearably hot, but it was hot and humid. It wasn't TOO sunny but sunny enough. We had delicious rum creams and ate some alright food. We laid out on the beach, went swimming and drank at a swim up bar, watched crabs running around the beach, and had a few impromptu photo shoots. Here are a few photos to demonstrate.

Rum Creams!

We walked into the room and this was on our bed one night!

A little airport nap!

South America: Part 1 of 25

Just kidding, I'm not going to tell you every story that happened in South America, all the stories will come out in good time.

I'll give you some Final Thoughts if you will, a la Jerry Springer.

• Bathrooms in South America suck. You have to pay, they rarely have toilet seats, no toilet paper, sometimes they flush, no soap, and sometimes a sink. Fun fun fun. Oh and you can't flush anything ever.
• There are very few cars that aren't taxis or buses. Taxis drive around and honk at every person walking down the street to see if they want a taxi. So 25 taxis on a road at any given time, and maybe 20-50 people walking make for a lot of honking.
• It's really really really cold when the sun goes down, especially at the higher altitudes. Hostels don't have heating, normally have a huge open area in the middle where they chose not /couldn't afford to put a roof over, and showers are normally cold, so all that mixed with drinking lots of cold beer makes me COLD. I would sit in my hostel drinking with every piece of clothing I owned on. (But I would never sacrifice the beer for tea or something... no drinking is too important.)
• People are generally friendly. If I asked them a question, they would tell me the answer even if they didn't know it. So I did a lot of walking back and forth sometimes.
  
• Bus companies, on the other hand, sometimes not so friendly. They generally blatantly lied to my face, so unless I was going on a more expensive bus from a very well known tourist company, I came to expect the opposite of what I was told.
• Beer is cheap.
• Food is also very cheap, but not that great. In Mancora, Peru, the greatest place on earth, the food was incredible, fresh seafood, delicious Mexican (I know, kind of weird) and all cheap and accompanied by even cheaper beer. Other than that, a great meal was rare.
• Vendors and taxi drivers are very persistent. It's sometimes hard to say no to vendors if you're actually looking to buy something and they are trying to sell you something more. Sometimes it all happened so quickly that I'd end up with two of something or a drink as well or a calculator or a bathroom scale when all I wanted was a snickers bar. Taxi drivers were easy to say no to. I definitely told off my fare share of drivers when they'd ask me if I wanted a taxi as I was getting off a bus after a LONG night. They would say "come on, how come you don't want a taxi" and then I'd swear at them. Ooops.
• Every town and city seems to have some kind of attraction. It's strange. You can see everything in South America. I saw cars decorated with flowers be blessed by a priest and 36 man-made-out-of-reed islands floating on lake titicaca.
  (And people STILL live on these islands!)
• Men hiss at you instead of whistling at you. And lots and lots of hissing occurs. Arequipa was the worst, though it may have been because I wore a tank top during the day there instead of two sweaters and a scarf.

That's about it for now, I'll think of some more soon.

I kind of forgot to blog

I´m not sure why but I totally forgot to blog on this trip.

Thanks for the birthday wishes! I spent it on a bus watching ¨she´s the man¨ and some movie about what to do with the jewish people in the concentration camps during WW2.

The earthquake was crazy. But I am fine.

Peru was really cool. Bolivia is also very cool. I´m in La Paz in a rut because it´s fun here but I think I should do more thank get drunk at Toga parties and walk around the markets. I will do something soon.

I´m loving traveling and could definitely see myself doing it a lot more. I am so tempted to just travel for a long time and work along the way. Not this trip, but sometime. It´s so much fun. Traveling alone is a different experience but it´s cool that I don´t have to make decision based on anyone else´s ideas. The bad side? I stay in La Paz and get drunk instead of seeing things.

I have posted lots of pictures on facebook so if you have it go check them out.

I´m blog when I get home, I promise.

Speed Bump

So I'm NOT in Peru.

I am in Fort Lauderdale. At the Days Inn. I think technically I'm in Hollywood or something, but I thought that was in California. Anyway, I'm in Florida, not Peru.

I was having amazing luck yesterday. I made it on the flight from Toronto to Orlando by the skin on my teeth... Three people got stuff in customs so I got one of their seats. Had they made it (they were travelling together as well) I would have been stuck for a day in Toronto.

I get to Orlando where I'm supposed to sleep in the airport because the flights were full going from Orlando to Fort Lauderdale to Lima, but I decided to meander to the Spirit Airlines desk and see if there was space. And lo, there was. I handed in my pass, got a boarding pass for Fort Lauderdale AND Lima, paid the fare, checked my bag, went through security and waited to board. The rest of the people board, I am in the midst of being handed my boarding pass for the flight and someone says "HEY WAIT! You can't fly to Lima. There is a restriction for standby passengers until August 27th". I almost threw up, punched the guy and swore really loudly all at the same time. Luckily I did none of those, and calmly asked "WHAT????"

I won't get into the whole next bit of the story and all the details, but yes, apparently 10 people overlooked this teensy tiny travel embargo, messed up my entire trip, and I was stuck in Orlando with nowhere to go.

Blah blah blah I cried a bunch and then figured out what to do. I would fly standby to Fort Lauderdale and then buy a ticket to Lima from there because there was a seat sale. But wait, that flight already left today, and Monday's flight is sold out so I had to buy for Tuesday.

So I'm in Fort Lauderdale. At the Days Inn. (Thanks Papa and Kevin and Mum). Until Tomorrow at 5, when my flight leaves for Lima. On Spirit Airlines, aka the spawn of the Devil. (I don't really mean that. But right now I do.)

(And yes, I made sure I could get HOME on Spirit travelling stand by, and I was guaranteed that it would be possible, and if for some reason it's not, I'm calling the President of Spirit Airlines or even of the United States and telling him to GET ME HOME. And give me more room in my seat because man, they're uncomfortable. And free snacks. Yeah, snacks)

But hey, I'll have a great story to tell. Cause wow that's funny. Can you see how hard I'm laughing. So hard. Oh wait. I'm not laughing. Not at all.

I guess things can only get better. Right? RIGHT???

I'm actually going to South America

I can't believe it's here. I'm leaving so soon. I'm a little nervous, but very excited. I don't know what else to say really, but I'm excited, I'm going to have loads of fun, and just do everything I can.

I'll hopefully be able to give a few updates when I'm gone so you can stay up to date on what I'm doing. Maybe I'll be able to put a few pictures too.

Have a good month!

Ear*

It's hot in Calgary. It's getting a little more bearable, but when I have air conditioning in my hotel rooms on the road and then have to come back to the sauna that is my bedroom, it's tough to sleep. I like the sun, don't get me wrong, but it's getting pretty apparent to me that I should not live in a place where it's hot all the time. In the winter, I bitch and complain about the cold, and in the summer, I bitch and complain about the heat, but at least I get both. If I lived in a hot place all the time, I think I'd slowly melt.

I'm leaving, once again, to work four more days, then I'm home for one day, then I'm back on the road for four more. THEN, it's two days to get myself into gear and then off to South America (with a brief stop in Ontario)!!! It's getting closer and closer! I still don't feel ready, but oh well, what can I do really. If anyone has any last minute tips, I'm all ears. I'm trying to figure out if it's worth taking ridiculously long bus rides and save a bit of cash, or take short little flights that cost way more. I'm thinking that I'll do a little bit of both, but it's a matter of deciding when to do which one. I'll have to play it by ear.

I had a nice but short little visit with Kristen when she made her way back from Paris. She seemed to have had fun! I can't wait until I can go to Europe and have all sorts of europy fun.

I'm watching some kind of real world inferno show, and it's ridiculous. I can't even explain how, but it is. My ears are hurting from listening to stupid people talk about stupid things. Change the channel? Never. It's too addicting.

The time has come to pack up my suitcase and get ready to go. Blech. I wish I could have one more sleep in my own bed!

*I seem to have said "ear" more than normal in this post. I thought I would bring that to everyone's attention.

EAR!