Financial Independence, Travel and Family
Things don’t really change when you leave home and travel around the world. Especially relationships. We’ve brought some personal baggage on the trip with us (particularly, Rob doesn’t agree with everything I come up with. And particularly, I’m kind of extreme at times.) We also have a bit to say about the perfect backpack.
We left Nafplio and headed to the coast where we stayed in a little town called Marathopoli. One of our first adventures was to the city of Ancient Messene about 60 km North of Kalamata. Ancient Messene was built on the ruins of Ithome around 369BC.
Continue reading “Bloukrans Bridge – The World’s Highest Bungee Bridge Jump”
Planning our trip around the world we asked the kids for input into what they may want to see. Hannah immediately suggested a trek in the Amazon jungle. Her thoughts conjured up machete hacking through mosquito infested jungles in the dense heat of the Amazon River and finding lost peoples and ferocious wildlife. Okay, so we weren’t as adventurous as all that. But we still had an amazing time …
Continue reading “The Amazon Adventure – Birds, Bugs and Buses”
Quito is a popular destination for tourists as it is the jumping off point for the Galapagos Islands and for travels deeper into South America. There is a big mix of all types of tourists – heavy on the backpackers but also mainstream tourists as well. With a population over 2 million it is a sprawling warren of houses of all different types. We enjoyed the well paved highway from the airport to the Holiday Inn which only cost $25USD. A similar ride in Canada would be about three times the price.
Designated a UNESCO world heritage site in 1978, the city of Quito is situated in the mountains 2850m above sea level and is very picturesque. With a total of eight days in the city we wandered about the old city and some of the more affluent parts. We always felt safe and only when we were out late at night to get our ride to the Amazon did we notice the seedier side of life.
We were bums as mentioned in previous posts as we did not make it to the equator museum or the Galapagos … next time.
Who wouldn’t want to see an ancient Inca temple? We know Machu Picchu from popularity but what is it really?
We left Cordoba in the early afternoon and flew direct to Iguazu Falls. Colleen chose the destination as it is one of the three great Water Falls in the World: Victoria Falls, Iguazu Falls and Niagara Falls. Two words: Bucket List!
Continue reading “Iguazu National Park – An Amazing Experience”
Well, Boston was our first budget buster location. Though we knew that going in. It came in at a whopping $426 Canadian per day. And that is hacked.
Admittedly it was for a family of five. But if we continue our around the world travel at this pace we’d tap in at a total trip budget of just under $156,000! Let’s add some more exclamation marks there!!! That’s just not an option. Continue reading “So, How Much is this Round the World Trip Going to Cost?”
Finally, after months of planning and years of waiting, we are starting our world travel adventure. We leave in just two days. Gah!
Writing this first post has been on my long list of things to do. And now it’s one of too many things on a crazy growing last-minute list. I can’t wait to leave so that everything I didn’t do will be too late to bother.
I tried to be flexible and just wing a large part of this trip but I just couldn’t do it. So, quite a bit of accommodations, flights and cruises for this trip are already booked. This may come back to bite us in the butt, but… I sleep better at night when I have plan.
So here it is!