My First Dive Trip

In 2008 I went on my first scuba diving trip after taking a semester-long class as my last gym credit, and it was everything that I had hoped it would be (minus an encounter with some fire coral…). We had been learning all semester in one of my university’s pools, and the experience is a bit different once you get in the open water!

My class road tripped from North Carolina down to the Key West in the Florida Keys, where we stayed for 3 days and went on 3 separate dives. None of us were certified beyond our open water certificates so we never ventured into any wreck diving or beyond 40ft in depth, but it was still magical all the same! Scuba diving might initially seem unnatural or difficult, but in actuality it is one of the safest recreational activities around provided you follow the simple safety protocols. Really it can be boiled down to one golden rule: DO NOT HOLD YOUR BREATH!

The wildlife in the Keys is amazing, we saw live corals that covered the entire spectrum of the rainbow, and fish that were not scared of divers at all and would approach each of us with curiosity. Heck, I even got charged by a Barracuda at one point! Seeing a sleek 6ft underwater missile with sharp teeth hurtling towards you is an experience I will not soon forget! Another one of my favorite experiences on the trip was lazing around with my back to the ocean floor and watching my respirator’s bubbles head towards the surface, which is a surreal experience once you realize you have been doing it for a couple minutes straight… underwater! Scuba diving is safe and very simple to get into, and I think anyone that has thought about it should give it a shot.

My Trip to Key West

Key West is an island at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. The island is about 4 miles (6.4 km) long and 2 miles (3.2 km) wide. In the late 1950s many of the large salt ponds on the eastern side were filled in, nearly doubling the original land mass of the island.

My family and I went there for a vacation. It wasn’t quite what we were expecting. We thought it would be this sort of empty place that would also be cheap. While beautiful and cool, it wasn’t what I thought it would be. It wasn’t that cheap and it was more crowded than I thought. We ended up spending a week there. We drove down from Orlando. We had booked a orlando vacation package and when that was over we decided to travel around more of Florida. So we rented a car and drove around. We got all the way down to Key West and after our booked week there, we drove back to Orlando. Frankly, we like that place the best. I know it can be cheesy but we like the theme parks and so do our little nieces and nephews.

Buenos Aires Revisited

Buenos Aires is a city of night owls. There are parties every night of the week, and there are more than 10,000 bars and restaurants in Argentina’s capital. I have grown out of the mega-club experience in my old age, and these days I tend to stick to dive bars with more local flavor. With that in mind, these are the best of the best if you are looking for a dive bar in Buenos Aires.

• La Puerta Roja, in the neighborhood of San Telmo, is a speakeasy in every sense of the word. There are no signs marking the entrance of the bar beyond a giant red door, and the interior is simple: a bar, some tables and stools, and a second room with a pool table. Their daily happy hour from 6-10 is 2×1, and they have Antares on tap, which is by far the best microbrew available in Buenos Aires. The bar is owned and operated by a trio of guys: one American, one Argentine, and one Kiwi. All three are incredibly warm and friendly, and La Puerta Roja quickly became my neighborhood dive when I was living in San Telmo.

To top off the incredible vibe they have going, the guys serve excellent pub food. Burgers, hand-cut fries, pizza, and the usual Argentine suspects of empanadas, pasta, etc… with one major exception: they sell the ONLY meatball sub in Buenos Aires.

• Another great venue is Gibraltar, an English pub smack dab in the middle of San Telmo. They serve all manner of English (read: good!) brews, and have decent pub fare to boot. It is populated by both expats and locals; and they have a pool room in back for smokers. If you want to meet travelers and locals having a good time, Gibraltar is a great spot to do it.

Airport Sleeping

Last year I slept in an airport. No, I was not a bum at that time, I just had no hostel options to speak of. To be honest, it was probably a better place to sleep than some of the hostels I have stayed in during my day. Rome also seemed to have a nicely appointed airport, complete with rugs and seats close enough together to prop my legs up. Ended up there with one of my good friends while waiting for a flight the next day.

Our dinner that night consisted of the last fries that Burger King had made an hour ago, and two things that might once have been hamburgers. At that point though, we would have eaten about anything. It was the very tail end of my trip to Italy, and after 8 days of seeing as much as humanly possible I was ready to just take a break and get back home to Spain.

Rome was probably the most amazing city we saw during our time there, the sheer amount of history that city has is unbelievable. I could have spent the entire 8 days in Rome and not seen half of what it had to offer. I have started to look into teaching English in Italy in the future, just so I could make it back at some point.

Visiting Bolivia

I am in the midst of planning my final trip in South America around the time of June and July that will be a sort of whirlwind tour through Argentina, Chile, Peru, and possibly Bolivia. I am somewhat of a nerd about planning trips like these, and I really enjoy putting together the perfect itinerary. I have been scrimping and saving for the last couple of months for this mega-trip, and I will be putting it into effect very soon.

I have been knocking out smaller trips to shave times off of my itinerary lately, like kayaking in the Tigre area of the Rio de La Plata. It was the perfect sort of getaway for a day out on the water, the area is incredibly peaceful compared to the hustle and bustle of Buenos Aires’ millions. As much as I love living in a huge city right now, sometimes it is very good to get away to a place where I can actually hear myself think. I suppose it does not help that I live in a hostel.

I am also going to Salta in the coming weeks, which should be another very peaceful place. Lots of outdoor activities, including the salt flats. I will enjoy reenacting all those fast car commercials that are shot on the flats. Hit up the salt flats, do some hiking, maybe some rafting, who knows? I have quite a bit of choice available to me while I am there. I really am going to have to become a travel agent or work in the travel industry sometime soon, I cannot help myself when I get excited about this stuff. If these trips end up anything like my European bike tour they will be amazing.

Paris

Paris gets a bad rap from my American friends. I have heard all of the stories about rude Parisians, the dog shit, the pretentiousness of the whole city, blah blah blah. Now granted, I have not spent a particularly significant amount of time in the city, but I have been there twice now and have found the city to be just as wonderful as its people. I love walking in Paris, eating in Paris, visiting the museums- I would happily go back, and would recommend that my friends go as well.

I am somewhat of an art geek, so getting to see the Louvre and all of the amazing architecture of Paris was one of the highlights of both my stops in the city. The Louvre is worthy of an entire trip on its own, since its one of the largest museums in the world. I will say this though, the Mona Lisa is not all that it is cracked up to be. It loses some of its luster when it is behind bulletproof glass, and gets constantly barraged by camera flashes so your eyes are left burning after looking at it. Some of the sculptures live up to their full billing though, like the Winged Victory of Samathrace or the Venus de Milo. It was one of the coolest things I did on my first Europe trip, getting to see the subjects I had studied in the pages of my art history book in full living color.

On top of the great art we had amazing food on our trip. Everything they say about French cuisine, especially the bread and pastries, is true. I could eat those baguettes all day if given the chance. It is no wonder I came away from Paris about 5 pounds heavier after spending only a week there.

Travel Blogs

I’ve been reading a lot of travel blogs lately and there seems to be a lot of good ones out there. Ones that are way, way, way better than mine. These ones have lots of pictures and video and long posts with lots of comments. Very good blogs. They make me look at mine and go ehhh. So I think I need to spruce up this site some more. I changed the layout to what you see now. It took me a little while to figure that out. I’m not the best at this blogging thing. Plus, I had to find one that looked nice. Now, in the future, I am going to try to learn how to upload photos so I can add some of my photos into this site to make it all pretty. You aren’t going to read if it’s a boring old site. I was trying to think of another good story to tell but after reading all of these websites, I don’t feel like any of my travel stories are any good so I decided that for today, I will leave you some other great travel blogs.

Vagabondish- This multi author blog is pretty good. It seems to be one of the most popular travel blogs around and is always on everyone’s blog roll. I really like it but I wish they would update more. It’s not so much personal stories as it is travel tips, advice, and philosophy.

Everything Everywhere- A guy named Gary runs this blog and he has been traveling since March 2007. All I can say is wow. His photos are amazing too.

Uncornered Market- This is a blog by this couple who just started traveling again. I don’t know what they do for a living to afford such long trips but good for them. They are currently in Central America and their writing is very good.

Lives of Wander- Another couple blog, this website is by Theresa and Jeff. They set out in October of 2007 and are still going strong. They are currently in South America. Theresa used to be a writer so you know the writing is very good. Moreover, they put up a lot of cool photos. I’m a big fan of their website.

There are so many good websites out there I can’t name them all but these are the four that I read all the time. There are more but I am hooked on these. I think because they are traveling right now and I can live vicariously through them as I am not traveling right now and stuck at home.

Breaking Down in OZ

Ok, so here we go with my first travel story: I was with some friends in Australia and we were driving through the outback. We were going up the middle from Alice Springs to Darwin. It’s hot in desert and very boring. You really don’t see anyone- only the occasional car or bus. So we are driving along when all of a sudden our car makes some weird noise! BANG!! Then the engine starts steaming. We pull over and realize uh oh! So we get out and let the engine cool off for a bit and open up the hood. Well, our fan belt has collapsed and went into the grill. It wasn’t going to work anymore. The car was dead. It needed to be fixed. So here we are in the middle of the desert with only a little food and water and a broken car. I really felt I was like in that horror movie where this guy kills all those backpackers. Our cellphones didn’t get any reception there either. Basically, we were stuck. All we could do was wait for a car to come by and stop and help us. So we waited. And waited. And waited. Three hours passed before someone came by and helped us out. He drove our friend to the next town who then came back a few hours later with a tow truck. We finally made it to the town and waited for the car to get fixed but it was no fun being stuck in the outback.

Long Overdue First Post

Wow! I had all these intentions of writing the blog but I have not written anything since my first post. I got kind of busy and totally forgot about this! I’m going to make a better effort for this so I can get some readers and actually enjoy this whole blogging experience. I still want to do it. See what the whole fuss is about and meet some other travelers.

So I am going to kick it off with why I love travel. I love travel because of the people. I travel a lot by myself. This is mostly because I like it not because I don’t have any friends. In fact I have a lot of friends….thanks in part to traveling alone. When you travel solo, you have to make friends. It’s do or die. If you don’t make an effort to meet people you will find that you are going to be alone all the time. You have to get over yourself and just start walking up to people and say hello. It’s scary thing to do and despite doing it lots and lots of time, I still get nervous but it always works out. Because travelers are all in the same boat. They don’t know anyone else so they also want to make friends. It gives you a chance to make friends right away because no one wants to be alone. Plus, you don’t carry any of the baggage you had while you were at home. No one knows you and you can be anyone you want to be. You won’t get judged. Everyone is just looking to have a good time. When I travel, I meet lots of people. Some of they are friend’s simply for that day but most of the time, they become friends for life. We may live all over the world but that doesn’t make our friendship any less.