Last week, I had a guest post by my favorite gardener and partner in crime, thesoybean. We’ve decided to create a weekly or biweekly guest post. And so, I present you with Gardening With the Soybean, in which my lovely twin documents her Portland gardening escapades. I was getting pretty antsy about starting my garden so we went to Drake’s 7 Dees this weekend. I always prefer a…
Morocco is one of the most fascinating countries I visited on my round the world trip. It’s chaotic and calm and urban and desolate. You can find such different places and vibes in Morocco. Here are 11 reasons to visit Morocco as your next trip! Reasons to Visit Morocco Moroccan architecture It seems that everywhere you look in the Imperial cities of Fes, Meknes, Rabat and Marrakech, you…
Like a lot of Oregonians, I’ve had gardening on the mind lately. As Michelle Obama is busy reviving the victory garden, I’ve decided to share a guest post by my favorite gardener. While she’s not a professional gardener, or the First Lady, her thumb is quite a few shades greener than mine.*********************************************************************************** The weather has me thinking about (flower) gardening. I’ve been musing over the Better Homes and…
I’m finally done with #18, and I feel like I’ve just finished the sixth grade. Brilliant! When I first attempted this project in 2007, I had only completed North America, South America, and Europe. I dedicated a little more time to the project in 2008, by actually visiting some of the countries. ;) In all seriousness though, after you’ve been to a region and have been using your…
After another day spent lounging around the beach in Manuel Antonio, we took the evening bus back to San Jose. Manuel Antonio was the perfect ending to Costa Rica. There’s nothing like laying around the beach for a few days that makes you want to go home and find a job and be a productive member of society… or maybe that’s just me? After a lazy morning in…
I don’t remember who’s idea it was to leave at 5:30 am, but when you’re within six hours of paradise… chock it up to desperate times. On the way to Quepos we stopped to walk over the bridge of the Rio Tarcoles, and take pictures of all the crocodiles. These are totally going to be fueling my nightmares in the future. *Shudder* We arrived in Quepos around lunchtime,…
We traveled from Arenal to Monteverde on Monday. It was supposed to be a combination of van and horseback riding, but apparently the horses being used weren’t looking too sharp (after reading in the Lonely Planet, this seems to be a hot topic in the area, but a good opportunity for travelers to support locals who treat their animals right). So we went horsebackriding in Monteverde instead. My…
Rafting day! After a quick breakfast, our rafting van arrived. We drove out to the Rio Toros, which is a class III / IV river and divided into groups. I was a little nervous, as my last rafting experience was with a less than professional company in Panama. After a brief intro and explanation on what we need to do, we hopped in the rafts and practiced a…
The journey back to Las Horquetas from Rara Avis, was not as pleasant as the trip up. It rained all night and poured all day. A few of us opted to hike out to El Plastico and then get on the tractor there. Since we were hiking in the rainforest, we ended up staying dryer than everyone on the tractor! However, since we were the last on the…
Yesterday, we left Tortuguero towards the Braulio Carrillo National Park. We arrived in Las Horquetas in the early afternoon. After leaving our backpacks and finding rubber boots in the correct sizes, we put our daypacks in garbage bags and climbed on the the back of the tractor cart that would be taking us the 9 miles (3 hour) journey up to the lodge. After 2 hours on the…
This morning we headed to Tortuguero, the turtle area of Costa Rica. First, we took a van to Limon and then a boat ride through the rivers and canals all the way up to Tortuguero. Today’s adventure was mainly our transportation… and crocodiles. After the standard wildlife spotting of monkeys, sloths, herons, caymens, and crocodiles our boat got stuck in the shallow water. So although we could see…
I signed up to go on a rain forest hike this morning. Originally, I was going to rent a bike and just ride to the beach, but I decided to go with the group and then hit the beach in the afternoon. The hike was alright, I’m not a huge fan of Golden spider and Eyelash Viper hunting, but the views from one of the lookouts was super…