Update: Sydney Living 6 weeks Deep

So I have been really bad about updating everyone on how my life is going here in Sydney. In all fairness I haven't really done a ton of exciting stuff. It took me about a month to find a job and then another week to get started so most days have consisted of me sitting around the house and job searching (It's hard trying not to spend what money I have saved). Of course I have gone out drinking on the weekends but that isn't very news worthy.  Anyways, so I have officially started working at an event center as part of the waitstaff. It's casual work so I never know what my schedule is going to be like each week, which kind of stinks but I get paid really well. I am hoping to find a second job that is also casual so between the two I can work about 35 hrs a week.

A couple weeks ago I went to the Tower Eye and saw some amazing views of the city at night. I guess I didn't realize how massive the city actually was.

Also, after my first few days at my new job, I discovered I was allergic to my new work shoes! AHH I had cankles! It was actually really itchy and burned like a mofo for a few days, but I exchanged the shoes and after a few days my elephantiasis went away.

My body seriously hates me....

This past Sunday I was able to enjoy the beautiful weather at the Royal National Park. We walked along some cliffs next to the water, chilled on a beach and drank some Corona's. It was an amazing day, maybe one of the best I have had here so far. The water was beautiful shades of blue and green and the sun was shining with only a few clouds in the sky. 

It felt good to be outside, enjoying the beautiful landscape that Australia has to offer.

I can't wait to have more opportunities to explore this amazing country. 

So that pretty much sums up my first 6 weeks here in Sydney. Now that I have a job and am settled in to life here, hopefully I will have the opportunity to explore new and amazing places around Sydney and beyond. Peace and love until next time.

Backpacking Central America // Top 10

I decided this week to rewind to last summer when I went to Belize, Guatemala, and El Salvador with my old roommate from college.  I haven’t been travelling much these past few months because I have been saving for my big move to Australia! So I haven’t had many interesting things to post on here.

So this is just going to be a kind of free for all of information that I think might be useful for anyone travelling to these areas.  Before we arrived our only set plans were to fly into Belize City and fly out of Guatemala City, that’s it. We didn’t want to make any set plans so we could just go wherever, whenever and stay as long as we felt like it.  When we landed in Belize City we didn’t know where we would be staying that night. We just picked the cheapest taxi ride and went that direction.

Belize Top 5

5.  Dirty McNasty’s Hostel in Caye Caulker. This hostel only really sticks out in my mind because I got a really bad sun burn and they came in for the save with air conditioned rooms. I might have had a touch of sun poisoning so the A/C was my savior. It also had a really cool vibe and served free rum punch each night so all the guests could hang out.

4.  Private Cave Tour in Belmopan.  We stayed in this great hostel called the Hummingbird Guest Lodge that included free meals! The owner asked if we wanted to see a cave, so he took us on our own private tour of some cave he knew about and then dropped us off at the blue hole national park where there is a sink hole you can swim in. Naturally we were fed fruit and beer for lunch, and the owner was super friendly and I glad we had a chance to be shown around by a local.

3.  Iguana Project in San Ignacio. It was a little further of a walk than we had anticipated from our hostel in the main part of town, but it was definitely worth it! The Iguana Project is part of a hotel, but they take you in small groups down to where they take care of the Iguanas.  After a brief introduction they take you inside the cages and you get to feed the adult Iguanas. The guide will pick up the iguanas and place them on you so they can crawl around and eat the leaves.  Then you are moved over into the baby section.  They are so cute and tiny you can hold them in the palm of your hand! But once again they throw them all over you so you are covered in baby iguanas. It was so much fun!

2.  Tsunami Adventures in Caye Caulker. We went snorkeling through this company and it was amazing! We saw a manatee, turtles, stingrays, and Nurse Sharks. If getting up close and personal with all those amazing sea creatures isn’t enough, they also take you around the island and give you food and rum punch. Important: NO MATTER WHO YOU SNORKEL THROUGH, WEAR A T-SHIRT BECAUSE YOU WILL GET BURNT! (A rash guard shirt/drifit shirt works best) I learned that lesson the hard way.  I thought I was doing a great job reapplying the sunscreen every time I got back on the boat. The only problem with this method was that my skin wasn’t dry when I applied it and I would be jumping back in the water for more snorkeling before it had a chance to soak in. I am pretty positive I had a little sun poisoning.

1.  Actun Tunichil Muknal (ATM) Tour from San Ignacio.  I honestly can’t remember what tour company we went through for the ATM tour because there were so many places we walked into for pricing (Unhelpful I know).  It was about an hour and a half drive from San Ignacio to the site where we began our tour. We had an amazing tour guide who had all sorts of information about rocks, caves, water, vegetation, and even the types of animals/insects living inside the cave.  The best part about his cave tour other than the great information was all the climbing around we did and there were actual skeletons still in the cave that you could see up close! It was amazing and creepy at the same time.  The fact that they leave everything the way they found it makes it a living museum and you get this cool yet eerie effect. I wish I had pictures or video to share but that is one strict rule they have on tour. No Camera’s! (If you google the cave, you can see some pictures and get an idea because people used to be able to take in camera’s).

Guatemala Top 5

5.  Semuc Champey Tour from Lanquin. We took a half-day tour through our hostel (El Muro) where we hiked up to see Semuc Champey, went tubing, and had the opportunity to jump off a bridge… (This was one of those moments you could finally answer your mothers favorite question, “If your friend jumped off a bridge would you follow?”)  The main reason this is ranked so low on my list is because the day before we celebrated my birthday so we had to struggle through with massive hangovers.  We didn’t realize we had to hike straight up hill for 45 minutes or that we would have to climb up a waterfall inside a cave.  It was definitely a very adventurous tour that we were just not mentally prepared for (also I thought I was going to go into liver failure or something dramatic because I felt so sick).  Also, another issue we had with the tour was that there were just too many people, we felt like cattle being herded through the cave and the tour guides could be pushy.  Overall, it was fun but there were many times I thought I might die. Moral of the story: Don’t do this tour hung over or if you are afraid of heights.

4. Los AmgiosHostel in Flores. I don’t know what it was about this hostel that I loved so much but it was one of my favorites for the whole trip.  They had a restaurant and a bar inside and you could book all sorts of tours.  We had a great time socializing with friends we had met along the way and they even had this crazy sound proof room that you could drink in at night so the neighbors wouldn't be disturbed.  Also, the small island of Flores was cute and had a few fun things to do during the day.

3.  Tikal Tour from Flores. There are many different times the tours take place and a lot of people pick the sunrise tour.  We decided against it because many travelers told us it was so foggy in the mornings to actually see the sunrise. We opted for the 9am tour so we could still be out there before it gets too hot. It was an amazing tour with intelligent guides.  Even though we were out there at 11am it had already begun to get hot, like up in the 90s. Once the guided tour was over you could stay as long as you wanted because there were shuttles taking people back to Flores every 45 min. It is a great place to explore and you can even climb up some of the temples for an amazing view!

2.  Volcano Pacaya. You have to do it! There are no words to describe the beautiful views from the top. Also at the top there is an area where you can roast marshmallows over hotspots (I think even my sneakers melted a little).  I could go on forever but this post is already too long, so just take my word for it and hike this bad boy.

1. Antigua. Everything about this city makes it my number one pick for this list. From the beautiful old architecture to the nightlife, there is nothing disappointing about Antigua.  There is something for everyone in this quaint old town.  There are history museums so you can learn about the culture, you can hike a hill for the perfect overlook of the whole town, there is even shopping to be done.  I have not yet mastered the art of haggling but this town was a great place to practice, I bought a ton of amazing stuff to take back to my family.  Did I mention the nightlife? You would think this small town would be sleepy on a Wednesday night but instead they had ladies night at some of the bars and it seemed like it was the place to be.  There are tons of places to eat, drink, and dance to every genre of music. It didn’t hurt that I ran into my friend from Ireland (good lord the Irish really know how to throw them back).  If you can only visit one or two places in Guatemala, Antigua should be at the top of your list.

Epic Snow Day

So I was going to post about New Orleans this week but instead I have decided to share a video of the fun I had playing in the snow this weekend. I returned home from New Orleans and it snowed another couple inches on top of the snow we already had, I was bored, so this happened... So here it is, a video of me being a grown child after it snowed... Deal with it.

I will post about New Orleans next week in a two part vlog where I will be reviewing and commenting on everything I did while I was down there. Along with some advice, tips, tricks, etc. that I learned along the way.