Monthly Archives: March 2014

Australia

Posted on by under Australia

So for the last 2 weeks or so we’ve been staying at Matt and Annabel’s house in Torquay, Australia. Since we started the trip in January, we’ve been really looking forward to this leg. After being in South America for about 2 months we were ready for a familiar language and some familiar faces. M and A have really been spoiling us here. There house is inviting and feeling comfortable has come extremely easy. Matt wakes us up every morning at sunrise to go surf. I’ve surfed everyday since I’ve been here. Sometimes twice. They live right down the street from Bells beach and Winkipop so the waves in this region have been pretty much endless. We’ve had swell the whole time as well so naturally I’ve been in heaven. Surfed a place called Grinders and felt like I was in Patagonia again. Matt and his buddy Donald took me down a goat trail that had a vertical decent down about 100-150ft. It was for sure the most treacherous entry to a surf spot I’ve encountered but well worth the risk for some hollow little peaks. Since we’ve been in Oz we’ve been planning the next leg to Bali and just hanging with M and A and their insanely adorable 5 month old little girl Lola. We’ll be here for another week and then off to Bali. It seems we keep running into this feeling like we could spend lots and lots of time in certain places. Australia is no different. I know it may sound crazy considering the duration of the trip Caro and I are on, but sometimes it feels like we don’t have enough time. There’s something to be said about feeling comfortable in certain countries. You can’t help but imagine yourself in the towns you visit like you actually live there. You start asking yourself, could I live here? Oz is a beautiful country. In certain ways there are undeniable similarities to the states which makes it even more appealing and more user friendly for lack of a better phrase. Just like we felt like we could spend 6 months or more in Patagonia is the same way we feel about oz.

We went camping along the Great Ocean Road for Matt, Annabel and Lola’s first family camp out. I personally felt stoked to be a part of that even though their dog Hercules kept everybody but Lola up all night, but nonetheless we had a great time. Checked out the 12 Apostles along the coast. We ventured into Melbourne or pronounced, “Melbin” for a night on our way to Matt’s aunt and uncles house in Venus bay. Matts dad built the house and it’s pretty awesome. We surfed a place called channel where Matt made some new friends. (Beware of the large bald human on a longboard that likes to take off on every wave.) After Venus bay we went down the road another hour or two and stayed at matts parents house. They were out of town so we had the place to ourselves and it’s pretty much removed from everything. Hand built by his dad and out in the bush on about 220 acres of land. We did a little hike and a cliff jump into a lake/ watering hole.

Our time in Oz was exactly what we needed. Matt took his holiday during our stay so it kinda felt like we were all on vacation. It’s amazing how fast time flys when your having a good time. We wish we could have stayed longer but something tells me we’ll be back sooner rather then later. ( oh, and congratulations to Matt and Annabel’s engagement!!!!!) all the best for you two!!


UAE/ Al Ain/ Dubai/ Wave Pool/ Snowboarding/ High Rises/ Where am I?

Posted on by under United Arab of Emirates

The title of this post pretty much describes the feeling you have when you’re in the United Arab of Emirates. For those of you who don’t know where that is, it’s probably because everybody usually just says Dubai. And for those of you who still don’t know where that is, the UAE borders Saudi Arabia and Oman. The UAE is roughly the size of the state of Maine in the United States, and if you don’t know where that is, you’re a lost cause and you should find a map. For the UAE being the size it is, it definitely packs a punch. Not to mention a couple world records. Like, the record for the most nationalities washing hands at the same time. That’s for real and the number is 72. I just found that fact and it’s really not important but what I’m really talking about is the worlds tallest man made structure/ building in the world. Or the worlds biggest shopping mall. As of right now they’re claiming to also have the worlds biggest indoor ski resort. (We went there, it’s massive, I believe it) and my personal favorite….some would not say it’s the best but I disagree. The best wave pool in the world!!! They have some other records but I think these are the most appealing to us. We arrived late into Dubai and pretty much went straight to bed. I caught a vicious belly bug in Buenos Aires and was recovering from the 18 hour flight from BA then to Brazil, then Dubai. It may have been the worst flight I’ve ever had. No joke, I spent most of the flight in the bathroom. The next day we checked out the aquarium in the Dubai mall. Then we took a local bus to Al Ain almost 2 hours to stay with Caro’s childhood neighbor from Germany. Britta and Asif and their three boys live near the wadi adventure park which hosts the world renowned wave pool. Staying with them was really a treat for us after traveling so much the 2 days prior, not to mention the last 2 months. The next morning Britta drove us to wadi and we met up with Alice and Daniel from Tasmania. We had met them in santiago, chile and we booked the same surf session together. The park is literally in the middle of the desert. Super nice facility! We checked in and then walked into the wave pool area. Needless to say I felt like a kid. I might have been frothing a little bit and may have been in disbelief I was even there. It’s unreal! Everything I had expected. They can make rights, they can make lefts, walls with sections. You just tell them at the beginning of the session what you want and they pump it out for you. I could go on and on about the wave itself and the dynamics of the pool but I will do everybody a favor and get on with the post. Let me just say though that I want one in my future backyard and I would definitely go back. I’m completely serious too. We spent one more night with Britta and Asif and then headed back to Dubai to snowboard the indoor park. Haha, I realize how crazy this sounds and am still trying to mentally comprehend surfing and snowboarding in the UAE. So, yeah, we went snowboarding at the mall of emirates. How was it might you ask? Absolutely freezing!!! It’s a legit run. Just as we found ourselves a bit in awe surfing the wave pool was about the same feeling we found ourselves in again at the snow park. It’s almost as if you’re not really doing it. Like, it goes against the laws of physics and reality. It’s 85-90 degrees outside and we’re snowboarding. All in all we had a great time in the UAE. It was interesting to see all the money and growth of Dubai. We actually missed out seeing some stuff and maybe have underestimated the country a little bit. We have a chance to go back there in June so we’ll see what happens.

Buenos Aires

Posted on by under Argentina

Buenos aires –
Hum, what can I say? This massive city has something but after 4 days there I am still not quite sure what…. Oh wait…. Let me think…Yes I do :

1. Hangovers
2. Amazing Steaks
3. Tango ( only for tourist, it doesn’t seem like any other porteños do this regularly)
4. Hangovers
5. Insane nightlife
6. Ice cream
7. Legit classic guitarists
8. One more time for good measure – hangovers

To give you guys a bit of a background- we came from a town that has maybe 1000 people, at the end of the world, in a national park, with maybe, and this is a big maybe, one bar.
We had been in Patagonia for 3 weeks hiking and doing all things outdoors and from here we flew to Buenos Aires (or BA).
We got in fairly late, 11pm and made it to our hostel at 12. As we walk in, we felt we were walking into a club more than a hostel. Strobe/black lights, music thumping so loud you couldn’t help but to start fist pumping, a boat load of sloppy drunk people and huge time table on the wall with every nights weekly activities( by activities I mean pre-party location and the destined club with what kind of music) !
Yes, this was our first true and official party hostel and it was grand!!!
Surprisingly enough our room was amazing and quite. The only problem was (but really wasn’t ), wifi was only available on the ground floor where the party went off every night and where breakfast was served every morning.

We were happy to also find out that two other couples that we met on our way down to Patagonia on the Navimag ferry were also in BA during our stay. We were glad to meet up with them and enjoyed a couple more great experiences. It was so nice to see some familiar faces.
Hopefully we will be meeting up with them again along the way.

We did eat some great food and had some awesome evenings, but all in all I don’t think we really have gotten a good idea of what BA is about. I think we are both still torn if we would return back, I suppose we should give it another go and approach it a bit differently, but for now, we are done with 6am bed times and are looking forward to head back into nature again.

This is Rex now….. I just want to add that the photos are from this super colorful area called boca and that was from our walking tour. The others are from out on the town and pretty much random at best.