A beach bum's blog

Continued  As said before Banos was a whole adventure theme park city hidden between the Andes. This small touristy town had more waterfalls than all the waterfalls combined  that I have seen in my lifetime - Maybe that is the pun behind the town's name (In Spanish Baños literally translates to bathrooms) . There was a water fall just couple of blocks away from our hostel which was very much visible from the hostel Hammocks.   Started the next morning with Zip lining, And so I wore my flip flops as I headed out thinking it would be like any other Zipline I have done in the past. Below are the list of activities included in the zipline         1. Hike half a mile to reach the top of the mountain.         2. Zipline in superman position for 850 meter @100km/hr  above a natural river gorge.         3. Walk across the river on a rope bridge for 200 mts.         4. Climb on the rock...

    After a wonderful trip to Belize I was hell bent to go farther South to experience Latin America. What better occasion to fly outside the country tadaaaannn "Birthday" :)  Determined not to stay in the country for my birthday the planning phase started. To simply explain how our travel plan evolved see the changes in steps below which took place over two months before travel 1. Ecuador & Peru.                                   2. Ecuador & Bolivia.                                   3. Colombia & Peru (at this stage I arrange all my documents,drove 5 hours and got my Peruvian visa approved...

Continued    On our last night in Caye Caulker, we got in touch with a flight agency "Tsunami Adventures" (Little did we know that it was pun intended) to check if they can arrange a flyby for us over the famous "Belize Blue hole" the next day morning before we take our ferry back to the mainland. The next morning, they picked us up from Yuma's hostel on a golf cart and then drove us to a landing strip in the middle of the island.   The journey started with us sitting in a really old 4 seat Cessna flight, speeding down the runway with the door next to the pilot wide open! Yes the pilot felt hot as the air conditioning wasn't working and the easy fix solution was to keep the door open until we took off. He was kickass cool pilot and no complaints about that, just made me gulp down some air down my throat as we had never seen anything like that before. As we took off the doors were shut and a small window was opened to ensure airflow and so started the r...

After a long dry spell of not travelling, I was desperate to get out and put my feet into a beach. My good friend  (after hearing my Philippines stories - bragging rights I say) had just planned a volunteering trip to Belize but it was during the first week of my new job and I did what was expected out of me :P Off I went to Belize the second day of my new job. Fast forward, The journey started in Belize city, roamed around aimlessly receiving weird looks from fake branded shop owners (Samsonic, Sub-Away, 4ever 21) whiling away our time to catch our ferry from Belize city to first stop of the trip - Caye Caulker. We were welcomed by a beautiful sunset, crystal clear water, a cheap backpacker's hostel (Yuma's hostel) and beer . For a minute I was wondering if I had taken a wrong flight to South East Asia.                   Oh yeah we had swing seat on dining tables :) - Yuma's Hostel Further exploring the island in...

(Continued from here ) So day 3 was quite normal compared to the adventures the previous two days. I took MRT to the other end of the Lantau island to visit a Buddhist monastery located there. Sounds simple, right? Except that to reach there, one has to take a cable car (The Ngong Ping), which does not look as simple as it sounds. The 5.7 km cable ride looks straight down to the rolling mountainous grasslands and the sea. I have had very few experiences that could rival the sensation of floating and this was one for sure. Staring at the valley thousands of feet below and the only thing that’s preventing you from falling are a couple of cables. Adding to the drama was the foggy and windy weather. Across the sea and into the mountains Hong Kong International airport on the left  Into the clouds After a 25 min ride, we got to see a beautiful Buddhist monastery with a big Buddha statue at the top. It is a calm and peaceful environment with a sma...