Introducing The Budget-Minded Traveler

I realize that most of you might be aware of it by now, but I want to officially announce the launch of my latest project: The Budget-Minded Traveler. It is an informational website and blog designed to inspire and equip others to travel abroad, on a budget. I was inspired to put it together after an exciting, brain-filling, 2-hour meeting with a recent acquaintance and fellow entrepreneur here in Bozeman. (Check out Think Entrepreneurship).

The day after that meeting I left for a week of travel in Nicaragua and then a week on the east coast which gave me nothing but time to research, brainstorm and bounce ideas off of people. While I was still in Vermont I bought the domain name, and I started creating the website right after we got home. That was three weeks ago. Obviously the site will be an ongoing project, and I will be happily adding content to it every week. There is so much information in my head that I will be writing about in the blog and other pages as the weeks go on, and I am hoping that one day it will become a source of income for me via affiliate marketing and also a home base to sell my BOOK! Yes, it is coming, hopefully this year. Whew!

Anyway I'd appreciate it if you guys would check out the website and perhaps subscribe (via RSS) to my blog and help me get the word out by recommending it to people you know who might be travelers, or aspiring travelers. I always appreciate feedback and would love to know what you think about it. So,  thanks in advance, here it is! The Budget-Minded Traveler

Vermont & Boston: Family!!!... (& some other awesome stuff)

A NOTE ABOUT FAMILY

Wow. I really had no idea how great our trip to Vermont and Boston would be. I guess there is something about my family that I should explain that might help you understand how amazing it was. Picture Daryl and I, growing up in Tahoe (California), with our entire extended family back east in Vermont. Our family has always just been the four of us. We have less than ten family members in Vermont, and we would see grandparents and cousins every couple of years growing up. There were no family reunions, no big family celebrations of any kind, and actually since my brother and I started traveling abroad, we haven't even made it out east to visit (I know, sad).

That being said, Gump (my grandfather on my dad's side (name coined by Daryl when he was probably two)) remarried several years ago to a quite amazing woman who decided to organize a "family get-together" while we were in VT. People literally came out of the woodworks for this! (Not everyone lives in VT). We actually met members of the Nourse family whom we had never met before, not to mention that we saw people we hadn't seen in over 10 years. My grandpa's brother and his kids and their kids were there, plus some of Pat's (step-grandma) kids, and the fact that Daryl and Nate and I, and even my mom had come from the West coast, made it a huge bummer that my dad hadn't also planned to come. But how were we to know we would be having the first family reunion to speak of on the Nourse side of the family? Even my grandparents on my mom's side were there. Everyone was there, in the same place.

I know a lot of you have big families and are used to tons of family members, but this is NOT the Nourse family. I feel like I'm struggling to describe feeling like I've discovered "long lost" family members at this point in my life. I only wish we had gotten to know them a long time ago. I have always longed to have more family members, I've even sought out "cousins" of my grandma in England. And I claim my German sister (Lydia) and her family as my German family, and my host family in Costa Rica as my Costa Rican family. That's all well and good, but there is definitely a difference when family's last name is also Nourse.

When I am with Nate and his family, it is so amazing to see how everyone loves to get together and they all get along so well and you can just feel how happy people are to be in the presence of family. I have loved becoming part of this, but I have always wondered what it would be like to have a whole bunch of people around me who are (in a way) just like me, we are all family, from the same place (to an extent). It was the first time I ever felt like I was in that position, with my family. Even with people I'd never met, I felt so comfortable with them; they are awesome people! There were a whopping 19 of us (that's inCREDible) in the same house, getting to know each other. Well, the West coasters were getting to know the East coasters at least.

What a treat that was. The whole point of this trip was to visit with family, and we definitely succeeded.  I can't wait to go back and visit them all again.

NOW ON TO EVERYTHING ELSE

Ten, the number of breweries we visited. Yeah, seriously. We went to the first one and a girl there told us about the Vermont Brewery Challenge, well, guess we had a plan for the trip now (we succeeded, we all get t-shirts). There were a couple of good ones (Otter Creek in Middlebury was by far my favorite, and it was the first one...), but overall I think we all agreed that the beers out West are oh so much tastier.

We also had to go to the Ben & Jerry's Factory, as Daryl and I hadn't been there since we were at least in high school. The free taste of the day was something like Triple Caramel Chunk, oh my goodness. If it ever comes out, I will be participating in the consumption. We spent some time walking around Burlington too, somewhere I've been many many times in my life, but never as an adult. What a fun and pretty town that is. The walking street reminded me of Europe, I loved it.

Tribute to our old Ben & Jerry's photos 

Our grandparents on my mom's side live in Bridport, on Lake Champlain, which is where we stayed. It is just 20 minutes from Middlebury, where my other grandparents live. We got to golf with Gump (well, I drove the cart while the guys golfed), and we got to have a couple of multi-grandparent meals together. We even took out my grandparents' canoe on Lake Champlain for a bit. Vermont is beautiful, the Green Mountain State, and smells of cows. Really badly in some places... It was so great to go back there and relive some memories and visit with family, we must not wait so long to get back next time...

Boston! We got to spend two days in Boston with a friend of mine and Daryl's from high school (shout out to Terry!) We ate overpriced (but delicious) Italian food, visited the Samuel Adams Brewery and Doyle's (fist pump), a famous old bar. We spent some time in Copley Square at the finish of the marathon. The memorial area was big, and growing by the day. After being in Boston and coming into contact with some locals, whoa, you messed with the wrong city. Have you ever met a Bostonian? Anyway, the highlight of our time in Boston was, of course, the RED SOX GAME! Or as Nate would say, the TWINS GAME! Yes, the Twins were in town, we got our tickets waaaay ahead of time and had awesome seats just behind the fence in right field. There was actually a Red Sox home run that was caught by a guy just in front of us. I even made it on TV :) The Red Sox beat the Twins 6-5 in the 10th, it was a very exciting game to attend in person, and so exciting to be at Fenway again.

Happy Birthday Nate!

Daryl way left, Terry, and... Nate was getting a beer ;)

Don't worry, they hadn't updated the score yet...

 It was a perfect grand finale to a wonderful trip!

Volcanoes and Cigars

Our group of six girls spent a total of four nights in San Juan del Sur, which is so far south that you can actually see Costa Rica from the beach. This was bittersweet for me, so close, yet still so far. After a few days of fun in the sun, we departed San Juan and made the trek over to Ometepe, an island in Lake Nicaragua. Lake Nicaragua is huge and the only source in the world of freshwater (bull) sharks. We didn't encounter any, thank goodness. Instead of a nice smooth ferry ride out to Ometepe, we lucked out and got a tiny old passenger boat with crappy old bus seats on a lower deck just above the water line. The boat was just big enough to not capsize in the huge lake waves, but just small enough to never quite be sure that we wouldn't. That hour-long boat ride was an experience in itself. Unfortunately Jolee and Sabrina did not make it to Ometepe with one piece of dry clothing, luckily the rest of us sat on the other side. Right next to me a guy was pumping (we think) water from an even lower deck (or somewhere) up to our deck, and then promptly dumping the buckets of water all over the floor at our feet. This still doesn't make sense to me, but at least we had been smart enough to pick our bags up off the floor first.

Anyway, we made it to Ometepe, woozy and in need of something to calm our seasick stomachs, why not a Toña? (The local beer). We could hardly make it up the street amongst the taxistas demanding that we choose one of them to take us to our destination. While all we wanted to do was eat and have a beer in peace, no fewer than 4 taxistas accompanied us to our restaurant of choice and hounded us even while we ate. I think I felt this more than the other girls, as they had figured out that I speak Spanish. Sometimes I just want to be left alone! That's when I taught all the girls how to say "Leave me alone" in Spanish, "Déjeme en paz!" 

Xalli is a new hotel along the beach of Santo Domingo on Ometepe, and I think we lucked out being able to book them just the day before, because my guess is this place won't be unknown for long. It was a beautiful location, nice, separated rooms right up from the beach, and the volcano we planned to hike the next day was right down the road. We had a lovely stay there, although we did have a (rather large) spider incident which resulted in a room change and two girls heading back to Granada first thing in the morning. Phobias are very real, people. 

The remaining four of us hiked Volcán Maderas the next day as planned, what an amazing day that was. It was steep and technical, in some places very muddy and slippery, and somehow we did the entire thing in just over 6 hours, when they say to plan 6-9 hours for the whole hike. A total of 8,000 ft elevation gain and loss in 6 hours. We may be some hike-loving girls from Montana, but coming off of lazy season we certainly felt a little out of shape for this hike (some of us more than others ;) The majority of the hike was through thick cloud forest, complete with howler monkeys, lots of them. When we were talking about the highlights of the hike at the end of the day, we noted the sounds of the jungle (the howler monkeys and the locusts which were in full electronic-sounding effect), and we also agreed that the conversation amongst all of us was a highlight. Maybe this is just typical of girls, but we chatted the whole way up and down and really just enjoyed each others' company, as simple as that sounds, it was really nice. The lowlights would be the "high point" which was no more than a small clearing in the path at the top, with no view, and the oranges that the hotel had prepared for us, having cut off almost all of the rind and making them nearly impossible to peel apart (seriously, Jolin had to help me get mine open and she was struggling, and she is a cross-fit girl!) Anyway, the day was a complete success, we got to eat our lunches at the lake near the top which was gorgeous and the air was even chilly (no we did not go in, they said it has quicksand-like mud, yikes!) And we all had a great sense of accomplishment (and exhaustion) while we toasted our Flor de Caña (rum) back at the hotel.

At the high point

Last day with the group, exploring Granada

It was a quick trip out to Ometepe, the sole purpose being to climb the volcano, so we rejoined the other girls in Granada the next day, which was some of the girls' last day, so we all went out to a delicious dinner together and said our goodbyes. I'll tell you two things here: 

1) There is something indescribable about traveling with friends, even if it is just for a week. Memories made in a foreign place just seem extra special to me, and I think all of us felt like if we tried to stay for another week, it just wouldn't compare to the week we just had, so it was even more special to end it on a high note, after a just-about-perfect week of vacation.

2) There is nothing like going home to Bozeman, Montana. 

Before I went home though, I had a matter of business to do in Nicaragua. During the same week that Jolee approached me with the opportunity of joining the girls for this trip, a translation client of mine in Bozeman also contacted me with some new projects for translation. His client lives in Nicaragua and manufactures cigars. Do you see where this is going? :) Sabrina got to join me for a day trip up to Estelí, Nicaragua where we met with this client, toured his cigar factory, and brought home literally more cigars than I really know what to do with (If you are in Bozeman and want one, let me know). I think the best part about it was that I had spoken with this man on the phone, written many emails, even translated a few documents into Spanish for him, and when we met him in Estelí the first thing he said to me was, "You're not Nicaraguan? I thought you were Nicaraguan!" Being mistaken for native, as I have said many times before, is simply the greatest compliment I can ever receive as a student of language. It definitely made my day and encouraged me all over again in my language endeavors. The ironic thing is, I mistakenly took him for Nicaraguan too, as he is, in fact, Costa Rican :) 

Our day trip to Estelí was one of many highlights of this trip, and I'm so grateful to have been able to travel with 5 amazing girlfriends to my favorite corner of the world. The fact that Bozeman produces such people is just one more amazing thing that blows me away about where I live. 

As I write this, I am yet again on a plane, to the east coast of the USA this time to visit my extended family; I haven't been out this way in over 10 years. (Basically since I started traveling abroad). I'm traveling with my two favorite travel buddies, my husband and my brother, and because of that, I know there will be fun stories to share in the upcoming week. On our list of people to visit is Ben & Jerry, Samuel Adams, and Jacoby Ellsbury (and the rest of the Red Sox… oh and the MN Twins I suppose ;) Cheers!

Bienvenidas a Nicaragua!

I am having the privilege of traveling to one of my favorite corners of the world with not one, not two, not even three, but 5 amazing girlfriends from Bozeman. My friends Jolee and JoLin decided to make a trip to Nicaragua, and we kept adding on until there was a total of 6 girls going.

So now we are here, down in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua enjoying the 90 degree weather while its freezing back home. Yesterday was one of the most perfect days, we all went sailing to an isolated beach on a catamaran. Rum drinks and beer were unlimited, fresh fruit was passed around, and we even had several dolphins come swim with boat, right in front of us. Not to mention the ceviche, guacamole and salsa, free time to swim or hang on the boat, and smooth sailing back to port during sunset. It was incredible, and that's an understatement.

Today we visited a nearby beach- Playa Hermosa where some of the girls had a go at surfing and the rest of us held down the beach. A little ceviche, a few monkeys later, and a ride home, we are enjoying the sunset from our balcony. You could say we are completely enjoying ourselves and the company of our friends. La vida es buena..

Indonesia!

"What about Indonesia!!??" Yes, we spent nearly half of our honeymoon in Indonesia, so I'm finally answering that question. Indonesia, a far, far away land, approximately 8,700 miles from Montana, is the farthest we've ever been from home. The fact that it took us about 50 hours to get home from the far reaches of Indonesia is proof enough.

For those of you who aren't quite sure what or where Indonesia is, it's a country made up of an archipelago (a chain of islands) in Southeast Asia/Oceania. Surprisingly, it has over 17,000 islands and is the 4th most populous country in the world. It's capital is Jakarta. We were nowhere near there. We went first to the island of Bali, which I think would be considered a province. You may know Bali if you have read Eat, Pray, Love, it's the love section. Appropriate for a honeymoon, no? Before we went, when I thought of Bali, I imagined palm trees, rice paddies, beautiful beaches, really good coffee, and perhaps a lot of tourists. I wasn't so far off with how my mind made up Bali, however I left out a lot of what does make up Bali: third world impoverished, underdeveloped land, oh, and the coffee is terr- ahem, mostly instant.

When we arrived from Singapore the sun had just gone down, which meant we couldn't see much of anything on the way to our hotel. Our driver's name was Wayan, which I thought really funny since in Eat, Pray, Love she said it seemed everyone's name in Bali was Wayan, both male and female. Turns out it has something to do with which class you are in, and there are a few other names that are also quite popular, as in, almost every other person is named one of these names. Anyway, we made our way to Balangan Beach (southern Bali). Our first hotel was quite nice, a beautiful little enclosed garden with villas and a cute little pool. The place itself was amazing, but when we woke up in the morning we found we couldn't see the ocean, and there was pretty much nothing around us. We did venture out to the beach nearby, but it had really rough waves, which I guess was appropriate because the only thing there was a surf school, and a restaurant where we had lunch over the water. Outside of our little paradise, I was wondering where the rest of the paradise of Bali was. During our stay in Balangan we had an amazing seafood BBQ, and began to test the Balinese cuisine. We tried to venture out on a moto but knew almost immediately that we would get lost in the winding, unmarked streets. Fail. We decided to only stay there a couple nights before we headed out.

Nona's Bali, Balangan Beach

Our next destination would prove to be very entertaining: Ubud, the rice paddy center of Bali. The ride to Ubud was so interesting in itself. We hired a driver to take us there, and either he was out to impress or just felt like talking, because we got an entire history lesson on the development, religion, culture, and trades of Bali. It was fascinating, and since we weren't about to spend any time in museums, it was great to learn something about where we were. Bali is somewhat of a sad case. The tourism industry is quite a catch 22. Bali is severely underdeveloped in most of the country and cannot keep up with how their tourism industry is booming in recent years. Prices for the locals are sky high, there is horrible traffic, construction, etc. The workers have to pay about 75% of their income in taxes to the government. I immediately felt like part of the problem, however the locals insist that they are thankful for tourists, because that's how they are making money. This economic phenomenon is only happening on Bali, apparently the rest of Indonesia hasn't caught on to this extent of tourism.

Coffee tasting on the way to Ubud, here we tried Luwak Coffee, which is super expensive- guess how it's made? A mongoose eats the coffee beans and poops them out, then they use those beans to make coffee. Yep.

Back to Ubud. I liked this town a lot. It was bustling, full of tourists, shopping, restaurants from all over the world, and, of course, rice paddies. After spending some isolated days down south, it was nice to be back in civilization where we could shop and eat! We stayed in an awesome place right in the middle, yet still quiet and set back from everything, situated around a rice paddy. We had our own little villa, a nice big pool, and breakfast by a creek every day. We ended up staying 3 nights in Ubud. We exercised our bargaining skills at the markets, went to the spa twice for massages, ate some really good food, and explored the Monkey Forest, those little guys are such scavengers! We spent an afternoon exploring the rice paddies,  which are seemingly endless, and eventually got caught in a rain storm out there. We warmed up with some real coffee at Starbucks, I love Starbucks abroad, it's true. We were so disappointed with the coffee in Indonesia it was sad. Here we were thinking, the land of Sumatra! (It literally is). We were so wrong. Instant, instant, instant. Asians love instant coffee. So sad.

Nick's Pension, our home for three days

Rice paddies for days

Entering the Sacred Monkey Forest!

After Ubud, we decided to head to Lombok (the next island/province east from Bali). We got there by "fast" boat, which broke down for about 30-40 minutes. There goes our 1-hour trip, good thing we paid for the "fast" boat. If there weren't a big black storm coming and had we not been stuck out in rather big waves on the ocean, fearing a whale tipping us over (we saw one a ways off), I might not have minded so much, but that was not the case. I think that helped our decision to stay in the NICEST place on Gili Trawangan once we got there. Gili T is one of three small islands just off the western coast of Lombok. Our place was called Vila Ombak. It had multiple pools with swim up bars, and ours (the one closest to our room) had a little waterfall too. We were just across the street from the beach, lined with chairs and umbrellas, with a view of Lombok. It was a beautiful place to spend three days. Nate went diving twice, saw sea turtles, sharks, you know, the usual (eeek!), and I happily lounged by the pool and read two books. It was the most relaxing time of our honeymoon and I loved every minute of it. We ate lots of fresh seafood, and even got to have beer other than Bintang (Indonesian beer- tastes like Heineken- yuck!) The weirdest thing about the island was the salt water, everywhere. There were no fresh water taps. Even our bathroom sink was salt water (quite a surprise on our toothbrushes the first time). The shower was an outdoor shower, but you just can't really feel clean with salt water, so we took advantage of the afternoon rainstorms ;)

Swim up bar fun

Yes, this really exists.

I think Gili T was my favorite stop on our honeymoon, because of where we stayed and how relaxing it was. We were ready to leave after three days though. So we took another "fast" boat (these are supposed to be one-hour trips) that pulled into Lombok for almost an hour and then broke down for about 15 minutes in the middle of the ocean again. I really don't want to know what the slow boat is like. We headed back to Bali and made our way down to Jimbaran Bay. I have already mentioned that there is a lot of poverty and underdevelopment in Bali, and I learned something else in Jimbaran Bay. This place is famous for dinner, because its huge bay faces the sunset and is lined with restaurants right on the water. What we didn't know is that you're not supposed to stay in Jimbaran Bay, you just go there for dinner from whatever beach you are staying at nearby. Jimbaran Bay was a great example of what is so weird about Bali. Bali has pockets of tourism, and outside of those pockets, you are smack in the middle of 3rd world Indonesia. It is so strange. It seems there are only a few places you should go as a tourist (and apparently, some of them have a time of day). Jimbaran Bay during the day was definitely NOT where we wanted to be. We made the most of our one night there and had an amazing dinner on the beach, complete with choosing our fresh seafood, watching the amazing sunset, and enjoying a Balinese dance. Then it was time to get out of there. Everyone had warned us against staying in Kuta, because it is a "super touristy trashy place." However, that's exactly where we decided to go after Jimbaran and it was exactly what we wanted. It was our last night in Bali, so we stayed at a nice place with a nice pool, right next to some great shopping (we still had souvenir shopping to do), and there was a really cool boardwalk along the ocean where we had dinner. We started calling Kuta "Balifornia" which should give you an idea of what it was like, while just down the street it felt like 3rd world Latin America. Strange. Obviously I have nothing against 3rd world Latin America, but there was just something weird about Bali, and since we were on our honeymoon, we wanted to spoil ourselves!

Amazing Jimbaran Bay sunset dinner on the beach!

Drinks on the boardwalk in Kuta, in a pool! 

We were able to to that in Kuta, and we enjoyed one last good sleep in a bed before making the long trip back to the US. We started at 9:30am on Jan 24th with a flight from Bali to Bangkok. One more night in Bangkok, well not quite. We had about 10 hours. This was actually a really fun layover. We went straight to Rambuttri Village and Khao San Road, left our backpacks at a hostel we had visited previously (when you walk in like you own the place, no one questions you, they didn't even charge us ;) We strolled the streets of Bangkok again, enjoying a couple more Thai dishes, foot massages, and the best people watching possibly anywhere in the world- Khao San Road. We posted up at two street bars to pass the time, which works wonderfully. The second bar was actually a converted VW bus, with psychedelic paint and a soccer game on TV. Oh Bangkok.

We flew out of Bangkok at about 1am and by this time it was Friday, January 25th, to Seoul, South Korea for another 10 hour layover. Unfortunately, there is no sleeping involved in overnight flights for this girl, however, we pulled it together and jumped on a city tour of Seoul within an hour of arriving. Before I say anything else, I must say, we failed to check the weather in Seoul before leaving the US. We had no idea that it would be normal winter weather there, normal as in Montana normal, as in it was 10 degrees outside (Fahrenheit) and there was still snow to be seen. We had just been at the beach for 3 weeks! We were not prepared, and that is an understatement. Luckily the tour company provided us with big thick jackets to borrow. A bus took us from the airport to a few points of interest around the city. One was the Tower of Seoul. It sorta looks like a mini Eiffel Tower with some sort of antenna purpose. In my flip flops, I could only manage to stay outside for a few minutes at a time, and we kept having to go in and literally hold my poor feet to warm them up, no I didn't have any sort of close-toed shoe. Nate did, and he gave me his socks, which I rocked with my flippys. I was already wearing two scarves I had purchased for friends in Bali, and leggings, a skirt, and both long sleeved layers that I had. It wasn't nearly enough for 10 degrees. The view was gorgeous, Seoul is a HUGE city, but there are snowy mountains and trees, skiing must be near, it was really pretty. Our next stop was more in the center, a shopping street where I bought a hat, another scarf and some awesome ear muffs (which Nate wore). We almost bought shoes and gloves, but instead went to Starbucks to warm up. We tried some fried dough sugary peanuty thing too which was really yummy. The little stand on the street had a bit of a line, that's when you know something is good! That's really all we saw in town, and when we returned to the airport we were more than excited to find an area of "rest and relax" with lazy boys and some Bruce Willis movie on. HORIZONTAL!!!! We got to lay down, but of course I couldn't sleep. It was a nice relax though.

Seoul (well, part of it)

Inside Starbucks warming up in our awesome outfits!

 Our flight didn't leave Seoul until about 7pm or so (on the 25th), and by this time we could hardly keep ourselves functioning. I think I watched 4 movies on the 10 hr flight back to Seattle. Somehow when we arrived, it was like 11am on Friday the 25th. How does that even happen? We were about to live the same day over again. We had yet another 10 hour layover in Seattle. At least we got to see Amanda and Kevin and hang out with them for the afternoon/evening. When we finally made it home to Bozeman at 11pm, it was still Friday the 25th. It had been about 50 hours since we left Bali, and we could not WAIT to sleep, I think we slept until noon the next day, with our puppy in our arms. Nothing beats your own comfy bed with a cuddly 100 lb puppy.

I know this is long already, but I still have some thoughts to share. I loved our honeymoon, the travel was easy, we didn't have any major problems, hardly even any minor ones, it was hot and beautiful and new, but in the end, I definitely didn't get the "Southeast Asia Bug" that I'd been warned about. I think I'm too in love with Latin America to let somewhere else take its place. Southeast Asia is very similar to the tropics of Latin America, but with different food and culture of course. I much prefer Latin America. And it's much more accessible for us in the US. I'm glad we experienced Southeast Asia (finally), but we probably won't go back for a while.

Okay, one more thing I have to add for fellow football fans. Remember the Green Bay cab in Bangkok? Well, when we landed in Bangkok again on the way home, we decided to let the color of our cab once again determine the ending of a football game, this time the Superbowl. I was thrilled to pieces when it came and low and behold, it was RED. I just knew the 49ers would win! (By the way this was a week before the Superbowl). Well, as you can imagine, I was SuperBummed when the Ravens pulled off the win. Then I thought back to the cab, and realized I had read it all wrong. You see, the bottom half of the cab was red, the top half was blue. When you put them together...

Alright, signing off for now, but as you may remember, I vowed to make up for lost travel of 2012 in 2013, so I'll be back in just over a month to tell you about NICARAGUA! That's right :)

Honeymoon Part II: Singapore

Or Singapoh, as the locals call it. Okay, two things. One, I've never heard of anyone visiting Singapore while on their honeymoon. Two, I've never heard of anyone staying with friends while on their honeymoon. We did both, and I think it was possibly the best opportunity we'll ever have to visit this country, and we are both glad we did. Thanks to the Timms (Jesse, Jessi, and Olive), we had a nice place to stay and even a great tour guide (thanks brother Joe!).

Singapore is a city-state (which means it's an independent country). First impressions, it was big and clean, the landscaping was perfectly manicured along the freeways, and it didn't smell bad (remember we had just come from Thailand). It had skyscrapers in every direction and looked liked a big city you'd find in the States. When we walked around from the Timm residence, we meandered through the streets with little Olive (their 18-month old little girl), barefoot and keeping up with us. It seemed really relaxed, and obviously clean enough to let your 18-month old just go barefoot. When I asked Jesse if he ever felt unsafe, he laughed at me and said the locals are probably more scared of him than anything else. When the height of the average male is 5'7", I understood what he meant.

When you want to try real Singaporean food, you find yourself a hawker center. It's set up like a mini state fair (under a covered structure), actually now that I think about it, sort of like a crowded food court. You go from vendor to vendor, ordering all kinds of food that you can't pronounce, and telling them your table number. Then you go sit and wait for it all to be delivered. We let Jesse do the ordering which was fantastic, I felt like Andrew Zimmern (Bizarre Foods) with a local guide, otherwise we would have been clueless as to what to order. The spread was quite delicious, including grilled stingray, meat sticks, spicy meat stuffed pastry things (if I just said the name you'd have no idea what I was talking about, and I can't remember any of the names anyway), spinach stir fry, some noodle dish with egg and meat, chicken wings, and probably more. Nate tried sugar cane drink, I had beer. We shared this meal with the Timms and yet another friend from Waconia, Minnesota, Simon, who is also living in Singapore these days. The odds of 4 Waconia High School grads in Singapore all at the same time is basically non-existent, so we took pictures to prove it happened.

Left to right- Derek (a friend of the Timms), Simon, Jesse, me, Nate, Jessi, Olive,  Emily (Joe's gf), and Joe

This hawker center meal was the cheapest thing we did, because Singapore is EXPENSIVE. Let me give you an idea of just how expensive it is: a pint of Ben & Jerry's? $15! A 24-pack of beer? Upwards of $60 (and that's the cheap stuff). This is why we took up our friends' offer of staying with them!

The city itself is pretty cool. The mix of people was so interesting. It wasn't abnormal at all to see business men speaking perfect American English on their cell phones. It's a very international place, in fact, 42% of Singapore's residents are foreigners, including all of our friends. There seems to be a bit of animosity between the locals and foreigners because of this (awkward). We visited China Town, Little India (where I had my first Indian food ever and LOVED it), the downtown area along the river with boats and brightly colored buildings (kinda reminded me of Disneyland, a deserted Disneyland). Along the river walk we stopped for a Singapore Sling (had to), and wow that drink is dangerously delicious!

Singapore Sling on the river walk with Marina Bay Sands in background.

A visit to Singapore isn't complete without visiting the Merlion at the river. Yes, mer-lion, as in mer (meaning the sea) and lion. The Merlion definitely did not disappoint, we had a little too much fun with the photos.

This group of Malaysian men all photo bombed us at once!

Finally, we had to visit the Marina Bay Sands. You may have heard of this building, it looks like three big towers with a thin boat sitting across the top of it. It sits at the end of Singapore, so you can look out onto the sea where all the big cargo ships are hanging out, or you can turn around and see basically to Malaysia, all of Singapore spread out before you. There is a bar up top and also an infinity pool, for the craziest of the crazies. I don't think I would keep my lunch if I actually sat in it. Maybe this will give you an idea- it is 57 floors up (which feels more like 100), set on the world's largest public cantilevered platform, which OVERHANGS the north tower by 220 feet! As in, infinity pool, if you fell off the edge you'd fall into Singapore (not really, it's very safe, but that doesn't make me feel better). Needless to say, Nate took all the photos from up here :)

The Marina Bay Sands was actually an exhilarating end to our 3-day visit to Singapore, and the last thing we did before heading to the airport... for BALI!

To be continued...

Chasing the Sun- Thailand

I will never again have to say that I've never been to Asia! Our honeymoon journey to Southeast Asia began January 4th. We spent a night in Seattle with our dear friends Amanda and Kevin, then followed the daylight for an unusually long time to Korea and finally arrived in Bangkok, the night of the 6th. One thing I have to add here: for our fellow NFL fans, we had no knowledge of how the playoff games had gone that day, so we decided to let the color of our taxi determine whether the Packers or the Vikings had won their game. There are many colors of taxis in Bangkok, and, low and behold, our taxi was literally yellow and green. No joke. We found out the next day that indeed, the Packers had prevailed. Sad day for Minnesotans, but, back to Thailand.

Until now, Asia was a land I had never experienced. My first impression of Bangkok was that it reminded me a lot of Latin America, and I suppose that comes from the similarities of third world "architecture," bustling big cities, and the occasional smell of sewer. Although I must say, Thailand takes the cake for worst rancid smells I've ever experienced (and all too often) walking down the street. Bangkok is a huge, sprawling city. Honestly, we came for the beaches and only spent a day in Bangkok to recover from our flight, so we went straight to Kao San Road (a popular tourist area), also proving to be a most interesting place to be introduced to Thailand. We got amazing foot massages, and then survived a fish spa (tiny sucker fish "cleaning" your feet, it was almost more than I could handle!) We would return here for a half day layover at the end of our trip, and I personally think that was enough time in Bangkok.

We have officially graduated from overnight buses, so we hopped a short flight to Krabi to stay a few days in Ao Nang. This was a fun little beach town just a long-tail boat ride away from Railay Beach, one of the most renowned beaches in Thailand, and quite beautiful with its white sand and crazy cliffs surrounding. We actually saw some slack-liners just having a ball up in those crazy cliffs, apparently this area is world-renowned for crazy climbers too! We happily enjoyed the area from the ground, indulging in foot massages, fresh fruit juices, and dinner on the beach of course.

One of the highlights of our week in Thailand was the kayaking tour we took the next day. I used to think mangroves were slightly boring. But THIS mangrove forest that we kayaked through was incredible. Actually we started kayaking through some beautiful ocean canyons that led into a mangrove forest. It was so narrow that we had to go single file, making tight turns. Much to our surprise, part of this forest was inhabited by monkeys, one of which actually jumped on the kayak in front of us. They were close enough to touch! This made for a much more exciting and unique experience than we had expected. To top off the day, we rode an elephant named Khamun, our elephant driver's name was Khamun too, so I'm not sure the poor animal had a name of its own. After the quite amazing morning we had kayaking, the elephants turned out to be the boring part. They are big, slow, and do what they want, regardless of where you might want to go. We meandered through a river and foraged around a rubber tree forest for a bit, and that was pretty much it. It was exciting, but only good for about half an hour or so. We can now say we've ridden an elephant in Thailand, check!

After a few days in Ao Nang we hopped a ferry to Kho Phi Phi Don, one of Thailand's many many islands along its west coast. Kho Phi Phi (pee-pee) is sort of a crazy place. Upon arrival, we were swarmed with companies wanting to help us find accommodations. Each company has walls and walls of photos of all the different places to stay, and the entire place was buzzing like the stock market floor. You want bungalow? A/C or fan? This beach or that beach? Cheap or no cheap? Ok I call, no not available you take this place? This one! Is room with view. No, is room with no view, no view available. So we ended up on the other beach in a room with "no view." Whew. We ended up thankful to be on the opposite end of the other beach because it turns out this island likes to party, and since it's so small you can hear the bass everywhere. You have to see a picture of this island to understand how small and awesome it is.

We arrived by ferry on the left side, and our hotel was at the end of the beach, just out of view, on the right side. You walk everywhere, there are no cars on this island. Apparently it was devastated during the 2004 tsunami, but you wouldn't know it today, beautiful and bustling as ever. Our little beach at the end of the bay was so beautiful and calm, like a pool, but waaaaay better. We really just relaxed here, ate on the beach (it's kinda hard not to), and arranged for a snorkeling tour the next day.

It turned out to be more of a boat tour to Kho Phi Phi Leh (the smaller of the two islands) and also home to the famous beach from "The Beach," the Leonardo DiCaprio movie. We made a few stops to swim and snorkel, although after being stung several times by nearly invisible jellyfish, I was done. I still thoroughly enjoyed the scenery and long-tail boat ride though. I'm glad someone told us to watch "The Beach" before we went, because we were at least able to understand why we had to pay an extra $3 just to be on that beach, which is now a national park. As Nate said, "Only in Hollywood can they create a national park in Thailand.." The unreal (as in, I really thought they did some photoshopping in the movie) beach is in fact called Maya Bay, and it is very real. It was quite unbelievable. Save for the hundreds of people on shore of this rather small bay, it was one of the most beautiful beaches I had ever seen. I loved the row of long-tail boats that lined the shore as well, it made for such a beautiful and colorful scene. We spent about an hour on shore, and I loved every minute of it. Leonardo DiCaprio himself would have made it better but... I mean I was with my amazingly handsome husband so it was perfect ;)

After Phi Phi, we ferried to Phuket, just for a night, in order to get our flight out to Singapore in the morning. During our quick stay we happened upon a bustling weekend market in Nai Yang Beach, what a treat for the senses! Nate had one last pad thai, whipped up in under a minute from a man with a cart and a wok, they seem to abound in Thailand. Gangnam Style blared from some speakers somewhere, and there seemed to be everything you could need at this market from household goods to DVDs to spices to dinner. We stopped for a beer at what you could hardly call a "corner store," basically a concrete stall with a fridge, and met a man named Lui. He was overly excited to practice English, and taught us about the Thai motto of "nai nai" (no idea if I spelled that right) anyway it means "take it easy." You have a wife and 4 children at home? Nai nai! You have to put the chickens to bed? Nai nai! Have another beer, you see something you like, you take, nai nai! For him it was all nai nai. Needless to say it was an exciting and unexpected end to our week in Thailand. And in the morning, we were on our way to Singapore!

Wanderlust Strikes Again

There's just no holding it at bay, no conforming to a "normal" life (what is normal anyway?), and no guilt when it takes over my life time and time again. In fact, the word that best describes what I'm feeling at the moment is "freedom." Such is the life of a person who will forever be happily infected by the travel bug (among other things).

I can explain. I have decided to end my employment at the law office. It's a decision fitting for me, as the legal field is simply not where my passions live or thrive. It was a great learning experience, a wonderful step away from the service industry, and it opened several doors of opportunity through which I have entered and am still working on entering.

So. I'm celebrating by heading to southeast Asia with my hubby for our long-overdue honeymoon in just 3 days! 2012 has been a very different year for me, it was incredibly busy and most of all lacked any international travel, something that I have not lacked since... ... the year 2000. Seriously. January 4th of 2012 I started my job at the law firm. January 4th of 2013 I will be getting on a plane with my favorite travel buddy, Asia-bound and not looking back for 3 weeks. Now THAT is starting the year out on the right foot.

I have a couple of opportunities work-wise that I'm excited to begin exploring when I get back, and I will be starting up my Spanish classes again in February. I am looking forward to discovering what this change will bring, and I think a new year is the perfect time to make it happen.

I am definitely ready for the new year. Don't get me wrong, there were some great things that came out of spending an entire year stateside (I try my hardest to stay positive). I checked several things off my bucket list in 2012: I got married! I started a business! I ran a marathon! At least I had a productive year stateside. I mentioned my lack of international travel in 2012, but not to worry, as I plan to heartily make up for it in 2013 ;)

Lucky 13, bring it on.

BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!!!

It was the morning of Wednesday, November 30, also known as my 27th birthday. I woke up and went to feed the dog (first thing I always do), but in his dish there was a little paper scroll rolled up and tied with a red ribbon. On the outside it read "Happy Birthday" and on the inside I found a clue in the form of a short poem, sending me on a scavenger hunt! Perfect for me! I love scavenger hunts. So Nate followed me around the house, inside and outside in the snow to the truck and back, as I continued to find each clue, accompanied by a gift, there were 9 of them total, and really great gifts too! The last one came with a sweet card that ended with "Now for the last scroll" but there wasn't a clue this time. So I turned around and there was Nate, who began to tell me all the things a girl wants to hear, and then proceeded to pull the last scroll out of his back pocket, this time held together not by a ribbon, but a beautiful ring, and on the outside it read "Will you marry me?" and he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. I  managed to get out a "HECK YES!" in between tears, and that is how my 27th year began!

We are SO excited and so thankful for everyone's support about our decision. The planning is definitely under way, and we hope to get married next summer here in Bozeman. This most likely will have a grounding influence on any travel plans for the upcoming year, but we have reached a point in our lives where that might just be a small sacrifice in comparison to getting married! We are very much looking forward to this next adventure, right here in a place that we love so much.

The rest of Peru and an early birthday celebration!

Our last day in Cusco was definitely a nice rest, meandering through the markets, getting massages ($9 for an hour, full body- not bad!) eating, and planning our route that would eventually get us back to Lima. Peru is big, much bigger than the small central american countries I´m used to, which unfortunately meant we would need to take not one but two overnight buses. From the minute we left Cusco we were on the go go go. And I take it back, we did end up seeing the Frenchies again- twice actually, once at the bus station on the way out of Cusco, and once more in a most random place. The first overnight bus was almost, not quite, but almost Sabrina´s bus horror story from her trip to Peru come to life for us. There actually were cockroaches on the floor by my broken seat, so we moved across the aisle next to the only window which we fought our fellow passengers to keep open all night to try to get rid of the stink and muggyness. I took two benadryl, and had I not, I wouldn´t have slept a wink. Needless to say we paid more for the nicer bus the next time.

Arequipa is the gateway to Colca Canyon, the 2nd deepest canyon in the world, they say. I´m thankful for tours sometimes, because it takes so much planning stress off my shoulders, and after a long night on a bus the best thing we could have possibly seen in the morning when we arrived at the bus station was a sign with our names on it, ready to take us where we needed to go. Actually the sign read "Jakeline, Nathan, Barry" or was it "Danny" that time? They never could get Daryl's name right. He started going by Darío because it was easier.

Colca was kind of a whirlwind trip with lots of driving time but it suited us since we were still tired from hiking so much and not having slept well. At one point we stopped at a pass that we decided was over 16,000 ft, after a lot of confusing math. There were volcanoes in every direction, and it was a natural habitat for Vicuñas, one of the 4 types of llamas, the others being llamas, alpacas, and .... something else. We learned how to distinguish between them and what they were useful for, including fir, packing, and of course eating. We also got to try some alpaca in Chivay, where we stayed the night, and it was quite delicious. The cuy (guinea pig) on the other hand, had too many little bones to make it worth eating, otherwise I´d say it tasted like chicken. It´s a delicacy here. We hit up the hot springs in Chivay and enjoyed watching a folkloric dance during dinner before heading for some much needed sleep. This would be the only of the surrounding 3 nights that we would spend in a bed rather than a bus. Our tour drove us along the rim of the canyon, stopping in tiny villages, one of which had domesticated some birds of prey, and Nate got to hold an eagle of some sort on his arm. Mom, you would´ve geeked. The climax of the canyon tour is stopping at "Cruz del Condor" which is a point on the edge of the canyon where people gather to watch the condors ride the thermal waves up out of the canyon in the morning. We saw a few from far away, even in my zoom lense they looked like butterflies, but luckily one gave us a great grand finale. It rose up directly in front of us and over our heads. It did strike us as a bit strange that we were so excited to see giant ugly vultures, but they really were an impressive size, and I got some great photos. Their wingspan can be up to 3 meters wide, but with virtually no claws to speak of they cannot be birds of prey. They find something dead and circle it for up to 5 days to make sure it is dead before they go in for their feast. Yuck. But apparently we had great luck to see 4 condors, as many people come and go without seeing any at all.

We spent a rather nice afternoon in Arequipa (the "White City") we only saw a couple white buildings, but the center plaza was really nice and we enjoyed pizza and beer on a terrace while the sun set. Our overnight bus experience this time was much better with Cruz del Sur bus line, they even fed us and gave us pillows and blankets. The difference between the two bus rides was like sleeping in an awful dorm to graduating to a private room, so much better. We woke up in Ica this time, where we planned on getting a ride to the desert and doing some sandboarding, then heading to Paracas on the coast to find a hotel. Lucky for us a man seemed to read our thoughts and presented us with a tour option with exactly what we wanted, included sightseeing in Paracas and a good deal at a nice hotel. DONE. We spent that day at a desert oasis called Huacachina (wakacheena), where we sat by the pool, ate, and admired the sand dunes surrounding us. The dune-buggy/sandboarding tour was at 4pm since it's too hot to go during the day. I decided I'm just not the right person to recount the stories of our crazy adventures sometimes, because they seem to frighten me a lot more than they do the guys. So I will tell you that it was actually kind of terrifying, zooming over giant sand dunes not quite knowing how steep the drop will be on the other side, plus we were in the back which mean getting thrown around and losing my stomach with every bump. Sandboarding proved much more intimidating than my experience in Brazil, bigger, steeper, and for some reason more difficult. The boards are crap, but I just can't do the sideways thing, and I was too scared to go face first on my stomach, so it was kind of a fail for me. Daryl was good at it, Nate is fearless so he just tried everything. Walked away with some whiplash unfortunately but bottom line is we all walked away. Watched the sunset over the dunes before heading back and on to Paracas.

Being on the coast, we began, and haven't stopped really, eating ceviche and fresh seafood every day. We did a boat tour of Islas Ballestas, breeding ground for Peruvian Boobys, sea lions, even Humbolt Penguins! Those guys were cute. We also did a tour of the nearby desert reserve where somewhere there was a salt mine. The roads were all made of salt rather than paved, we tasted it, definitely salt! I like how resourceful they are around here. Mind you this is where the desert meets the sea, so we ended up having lunch in a tiny place with just a couple restaurants surrounding a small fishing harbor. After a delicious seafood meal we actually ran into the Frenchies again, most random. Two nights in Paracas ended our tour of Peru, and we headed back to Lima.

Daryl went straight to the airport to catch his flight, and Nate and I went to our friend Carlos' house. We lunched with friends of ours who worked at Alpine Meadows with us and are now staying with our friend Ximena again. Yesterday was such a fun day! We went to the beach, ate piles of ceviche, this was about the time that I decided it was my birthday. I spent my birthday on a beach in Costa Rica last year, and this year it will be spent in the cold of Montana, so why not start celebrating early? We had a birthday brownie on the beach, then went home to take hot showers! My second of the trip. We made tequeños, somewhat of a mix of cultures- little wontons stuffed with caprese makings, fried, and then dipped in guacamole- yum! Definitely bringing that one home. Then we went out to a nice part of Lima overlooking the ocean and had dessert- hot chocolate, oreo cheesecake and tiramisu. They told the waiters it was my birthday and I got a candle and they sang to me in Spanglish! It was definitely a fun birthday. Lima has been more fun that I expected and it's been really great to stay with friends and experience it as a guest rather than a tourist. Tomorrow night is our last night and then we will be back Stateside!

In the end, Peru really was different than I expected. I've had more coca cola and candy bars in the last two weeks than in the last 2 years. I've been reminded of some things I really enjoy and take for granted- hot water, toilet seats, toilet paper, the comfort and privacy of my home, non-humid climates. Just to name a few. Peru is a place that I don't think I really need to come back to, but I'm so glad I was able to experience it with my favorite travel buddies! Until next time...

Machu Picchu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who? What? I don´t even know where to start! Amazed, tired, excited, dirty, sunburned, sweaty, relaxed, sore, bruised, challenged, and completely awed. These are just some of the feelings that come to mind in the whilrwind of the last week, 4 days especially. But I suppose I should start from the beginning...

After arriving in Lima late Saturday night, our friend Ximena picked us up and took us to dinner, a Peruvian meal of beef heart skewers and potatoes, just don´t think about it, it tasted good! We stayed with her family for the night before heading out on a flight to Cusco Sunday morning. Cusco is nothing like I thought it´d be. I always imagined a small, cute, highland town surrounded by big green mountains, or something like that; it´s hard to recall what you imagined something to be like after you´ve seen it in person. Instead it´s a big brown city, surrounded by brown mountains. The center is typical- a plaza surrounded by tour operators and restaurants, it´s the only pretty part of town, and it´s about a 10 minute walk from our hostel. We spent the first few days exploring Cusco´s center, drinking coca tea, adjusting to the altitude, and making plans for Machu Picchu of course, which was in itself exhausting having to deal with all the tour companies hounding us all over the plaza.

Halloween was surprisingly fun! We had all but forgotten about it, but the kids didn´t let us. After the first couple groups of children swarmed us in the square with little plastic pumpkin buckets saying "Halloween!" and holding up their bucket with such hope to be rewarded, we decided we needed to buy some candy! The swarms of children and people in general in the main plaza that night was really amazing, it was shoulder to shoulder, kids in costumes running everywhere screaming "Halloween!" and candy literally flying through the air only to be chased by mobs with squeals and no concern for passing cars. Needless to say as soon as the children discovered we had candy, our stash was quickly depleted. Even after we left the plaza and went to dinner, the kids would come running into the restaurant hopeful to find someone with candy. Crazy. Entertaining.

We settled on a tour company that would take us on the Inka Jungle Trail- 4 days, 3 nights. First day consisted of mountain biking down one of the steepest, windiest, highest, most dangerous roads we could have probably biked down (don´t worry, Mom, obviously we´re fine!). We spent hours climbing up and up in the van, the picture of this road will amaze you, it was scary! Plus it was raining and oh, foggy to the point of ZERO visibility, but these guys were pros, and we kept on. Our company was 3 Frenchies, 2 Italians, and 2 Argentinians, so many languages to practice! Anyway we screamed down the other side of this mountain in the rain and mud, we were immediately soaked and covered in mud, but this really added to the experience and I don´t think it would have been as exhilarating without it. We fondly called it the Tour de Peru! Success. We stayed in Santa Maria that night, in a hostel, this was not a camping trek, and after the mud we were happy for that! Not that we could count on hot showers anywhere... but at least it meant warmth. We literally hosed each other off (fully clothed mind you) when we got down, and we were all smiles! There was no real common language between us since the Italians didn´t speak English, although they spoke some Spanish, so we had fun with that. Daryl and Nate and I sat with them for a couple hours that evening speaking ONLY Spanish, it was so fun! At least for me it was, I think their heads were about to explode by the time we finished, but it was a great lesson. Rules were if we spoke English we had to buy the next beer. Mealtime in Peru means soup and a main dish, usually some form of meat, rice, and papas fritas. Yummy.

The Argentinians were on a different tour so they left us there and we continued just the 8 of us with our guide, this time on foot. We hiked from Santa Maria all the way to Machu Picchu. That´s a long way. The second day we just hiked to Santa Teresa, and I understood why it was called the Inka Jungle Trail, we literally took an Inca Trail through the jungle. Why it didn´t occur to me that it would be hot in the jungle, I´m not sure, but we were basically soaked with sweat the whole time. There was a section of the trail that was so high up, on the edge of the mountain skirting the river, it dropped off on our left side, millions of feet straight down the the river. I was nearly petrified, had to rely heavily on the guys to get me through that part, I´m sure they took lots of photos that I´ll be embarrassed by later, but man, that wasn´t that funny to me. Yikes. Crazy Incas. The Chaski, messengers, used to cover the ground on these trails to deliver news between Cusco and Machu Picchu in just 5 hours. FIVE HOURS. Took us 2 days. In the jungle we saw monkeys, captive on leashes, but monkeys no less, cute little ones. We played with on named Jairo on one of our rest stops. We had our faces painted with an orange color from seeds of a plant that the Incas used to use to paint their faces. The indigenous used it to color textiles, and man that stuff was hard to get off. We all seemed to glow orange for the rest of that day. It rained a bit on us in the jungle but not too bad, and we crossed a small crazy bridge over a raging river, I just love that stuff. NOT. We rode a little cable car trolley hanging thingy over the river at one point too, and then finally got to the hot springs in Santa Teresa, nice! Only an hour more hike to our hostal that night.

Our French friends were funny, they were disgusted at the sight of my eating eggs and toast together, sandwhich style. They said "In France this is not possible!" But somehow my dipping buttered bread in my coffee was "very French" and they approved of that. They also wanted to know why all Americans have such white teeth. We said it´s because we eat eggs and bread together:) Unfortunately the Italians both ended up getting really sick and by the time we arrived in Aguas Calientes the next day after a long day of hiking, we didn´t see them again. We checked out the hot springs in AC as well, not so great, but relaxing at least, and our hotel had hot water! But what was the point of showering after hot springs, so I didn´t get to feel it. Aguas Calientes was such a cool town, built in the deep of a canyon between tall green mountains (imagine Machu Picchu) there were crazy tall green mountains everywhere. The river ran right through town and there were several pedestrian bridges. I don´t know why nobody ever mentioned to me how cool that town was, in all the stories I´d heard nobody said so, but I really liked it, it felt almost Italian, small narrow pedestrian streets all built on a hill. Anyway it was early to bed that night, because our next day started at 4AM!

I think the entire hotel was awake to hike Machu Picchu that morning, with all the noise you´d never guess it was 4am. We started off with the Frenchies at about 4:20, just with what we needed for the day. We were there when the bridge opened at 4:50 to start the ascent up to Machu Picchu. The reason for waking up early and hiking is to beat the buses, so you can be one of the first people inside when they open the gates at 6:00. They say it takes an hour to hike up to the gate. Somehow the 3 of us did it in 30 minutes! We were literally the first people to arrive at the gate, so we waited and dried off- once again, SO HOT and humib climbing 1800 steps straight up. The road the buses take has like 900 switch backs, the stairs we took cut straight up the middle. So 1800 steps, I don´t know, maybe 2000 ft in 30 minutes? Yes we did. And our reward??? I WAS THE VERY FIRST PERSON INSIDE AT 6AM!!!!!!!!!!!!!  As the first person to get up to the spot with the famous view, I couldn´t help but geek out, like an excited skier hooting and hollering through an awesome podwer run, I was hollering at Machu Picchu!!!! What a feeling!!!! I wish we would´ve thought to take video of that, ha. It was a little bit foggy but it just made it look mystical, and every minute was getting clearer and clearer and eventually we had sunny skies all day, literally the best day of weather we have had yet in Peru! What a day for it, as they had told us it rained the entire day before and that it´s the same every day. NOPE! Not for us!!!!!! We had a two hour tour after taking some initial photos, and then parted with the group. Daryl sketched, we explored everything, I have never been so interested in ruins. I just couldn´t believe we were actually there! I still can´t. It was really everything I hope for and more. So cool. We left at about 1:30pm, we had been there since 6 so it was plenty of time. We got to explore more of Aguas Calientes before catching our train out at 7pm with the Frenchies, and then we didn´t see them again either.

Come full circle, we are back in Cusco now, and I don´t know how I managed to squeeze in a blog this long when we really need to be trying to make plans to get to Arequipa tonight. We decided to change our plans, Puno (Lake Titicaca) has horrible reviews from other travelers, and I´d much rather go from the Bolivian side, which is another trip in itself, so we are going to head to Colca Canyon for the next few days to see some condors, hike some more, and probably hit up some more hot springs. Not sure when I´ll get to update next, sorry it´s so much at once, we have like a million photos already too, I think between the 3 of us we took 5 or 600 just yesterday. Yeah. So hasta luego, off to enjoy one last day in Cusco!
J

The Unreachable Horizon, on the agenda!

We are finally going to Peru! After having planned to go twice now and both plans falling through, I'm counting on the third time being a charm. Nate and Daryl and I fly out Saturday, our first stop will be Cusco and the Sacred Valley, of course including a trek to Machu Picchu... I'll try to post while we're there but this will be a short trip, only 2 1/2 weeks so either way news and photos will be coming soon!
J

The Day Has FINALLY Come!

I have done it, I have adopted a dog!! Many years of wishing, yearning, and borrowing everyone else's dogs are finally over. I would like to introduce Rami, a 3-year-old German Shepherd/Lab (and I'm pretty sure Chow) mix. He's an 85 pound bundle of snuggles with a long, beautifully colored coat, and he came from the animal shelter in Livingston (about 25 miles from here). I'm still in my "7-day trail period" but unless something really goes wrong, I can't see letting go of this guy anytime soon. He was left at the shelter because his family couldn't provide what he needed. After reading his notes and seeing that he was left inside for 10-12 hours per day, it is obvious to see "what he needed" and as I am looking for a hiking and running partner, we should be perfect for each other. His notes also said he is a bit "needy," I am understanding this to be his love for affection, am I not the perfect person to handle this!? I just brought him home yesterday after meeting and putting him on hold on Friday and thinking about him all weekend, I could hardly wait until the shelter opened back up to go get him! I already left him at home alone for a few hours today while I went to work, and much to my amazement, he didn't get into anything, chew anything up, or make a mess of any kind on the floor! Impressive! He is good with commands and seems like he'll be really great off-leash, though I have yet to try that. Rami is an arabic name, and it means "loving" which seems very fitting for him. Words can't describe my excitement! I have posted photos --->

I can't wait for you all to meet him!
J

Live The Life You Love, Love The Life You Live

Jackie Nourse, settling down? Wait it gets better, Jackie Nourse, signing a YEAR lease? Yes, that is correct. We have made the commitment to stay in Bozeman at least through next summer if not longer (this WAS, after all, supposed to be a more permanent move…) so yes, a year lease is now what I have gotten myself into. Never in my life have I signed a year-long lease, nor have I lived in one place for a year since I moved out of my parents' house. That was 9 years ago. It is time. It does NOT mean that I'm done traveling, what it DOES mean is that I have a place to call home that doesn't include a storage unit! It means that I have a dresser and can unpack my suitcase and backpack that I packed back in September! It means I don't have to worry about moving again in 6 months, and best of all, it means I can get a dog! And guess what else? It means I'm living ALONE for the first time ever, and absolutely loving it so far.

Let me go back a couple steps. It took one U-Haul trailer and two days (a night couch-surfing with new friends in Twin Falls, ID) for us to make our final leg of this seemingly-endless road trip up to Bozeman. We bounced around between our friend Megan's house and Daryl's house for the first couple weeks until we landed a house-sitting gig for our friend Jolee for 3 weeks which really worked out perfectly. The day after we arrived in Bozeman I applied for a serving job at one of my favorite restaurants downtown and immediately could tell I would get hired there, so I stopped looking. I started the next week and was suddenly slapped across the face with a culture shock I haven't felt in a long time. Working so much (training was very time-consuming) was a huge depressant to follow 7 months of traveling, and not at all what I really wanted to be doing, so I really had to set my mind ahead and focus on just finishing training and getting through those first two weeks of work combined with frantic house-searching which led to one stressed out girl. Then one day a "super cute 1Bdr apt" appeared on Craigslist (it's dog-eat-dog in Bozeman, you HAVE to be first to respond here, it's crazy) so I responded as quickly as possible. Guess what, the landlord's name is Jacquie, and she saw my name and decided she couldn't pass me up, and it just so happens that I had to work the next day so I made her meet me before, told her I was serious and I wanted it, and she put up a "rented" sign and left right then and there! So much for checking references! I didn't care I was stoked, AND it was my last day of training and I knew everything was about to turn around for the better, which it did. I'm now working 4 easy shifts per week, which is pretty much part-time: PERFECT. 

It took me right to the end of our house-sitting to get a bed and get everything out of storage and into my new place so that I could start sleeping there. I am still slowly getting more furniture and making it more live-able. I will post photos soon, but I can tell you it's the top level of a house, nice open floor plan living room/kitchen area with a hallway going back to the bathroom and bedroom, it's very spacious! I have windows on all sides and can see the Bridgers, and I'm only a block away from the dog park! It's about a 7 minute bike ride to where I work downtown, I have yet to drive there. It's exciting to have an address. If you want it, call or email me! 

Nate also got a place the same day I got mine. He's living with another guy and they have yet to find another roommate, in a house about 10-15 blocks from mine. He is right on the trail system and right down the street from our old house where I lived with Daryl in 2004, a nice location. He has started working and is in Billings as I write this, on his first 5-day work trip. They have already started catching and surveying fish, and he is happy to eat, sleep, and work with fish right now. 

Softball season has started, soccer season starts in a couple weeks, and running season is also going well! So far I've registered for the 10-mile Jim Bridger Trail Run in June, the Missoula Half Marathon in July, and I'm in the lottery to run the Ridge (THE Ridge) 20 mile crazy run again this year, yes, I just might be doing it again in August. I find out in a couple weeks. And if all goes well, I might sign up for the first annual Bozeman Marathon this September as well. It's exhilarating to be a runner here, this scenery is far too beautiful to not soak up in such a natural way. So, overall, I'm still super excited about life here, will hopefully be getting a dog soon, and have many things still to look forward to which is definitely important for someone with my wanderlust. I saw an old friend the other day who has moved away from Bozeman to California and we were fondly discussing how much we love this place, and I summed it up with these words "I like who I am here…" So true.