Journal
We spent the last eight days of our trip exploring the colorful and eclectic Chilean cities of Valparaiso and Santiago, where we indulged in the most expensive wine we could find at the grocery store, ate ice cream every day, and picked up some new skills in the kitchen from a hands-on cooking class! We made the most of our last stops, and you can read all about it!
Getting out of Argentina proved to be just as difficult for us as getting in, but the long wait at the border was totally worth it for the beauty and splendor that is the famous W Trek in Torres Del Paine National Park. Read the day-by-day play-by-play of our five day, 47 mile trek through this incredible landscape!
We spent New Year's Eve in the middle of the gorgeous Patagonian wilderness while on a four day horseback riding excursion with Estancia Nibepo Aike. Hands down, this is our favorite experience from our entire trip, and one of the best we've had in our lives. Read on to see how we kissed 2015 goodbye!
Celebrating Christmas with dozens of people popping sparkling at midnight, hiking on the beautiful Perito Moreno Glacier, and trekking to the iconic Fitz Roy Mountains are just a few of the memorable experiences we had in El Calafate and El Chalten! Read on for more!
My parents, Mo and Ric, joined us for a week in Buenos Aires! Read about all of the fantastic wine we drank, the excellent tours we went on, the fun cooking class we took, and our new friend that we made - the Libyan Ambassador to Argentina!
Northern Argentina showed us giant cacti, Incan ruins, a huge waterfall, delicious wine, incredible empanadas, and lots of red meat! We started of our exploration of Argentina with Tilcara, Salta, Cafayate, Mendoza, and Iguazu Falls!
To recover from our trek to Machu Picchu, we relaxed in the "White City" of Arequipa, Peru, before crossing the border into Northern Chile where we explored the mystical land of San Pedro de Atacama. This is what South American sightseeing is all about!
Trekking to Machu Picchu and exploring the ancient Incan site was one of the pillars of our whole trip. From the moment we decided to travel we knew we had to see it in person. Read about our exploration of Cusco, and the challenges we faced on our five day Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu in this weeks' post!
In Huaraz, we got our first taste of group backpacking, complete with a dining tent, a chef, and a team of donkeys to carry everything! On Jake's 30th birthday in Lima, he discovered a deep love of tres leches cake and ceviche! Read on to see the highs and lows of the Santa Cruz Trek and the various neighborhoods of Peru's capital city.
Thanks to an untrustworthy travel agent named Stalin (maybe that should have been a sign...) our trip through the gorgeous Galapagos Islands was a bit more complicated than we had hoped for, but we still loved exploring the white sandy beaches, jumping into the bright blue water, and snorkeling with sea lions and penguins!
Mainland Ecuador sure wasn't what we were hoping for - with all of the safety horror stories we'd heard, we were happy to move on pretty quickly. But at least we got in some challenging hikes - one around the old Quilatoa caldera, and the other through Cajas National Park where we found ourselves scaling rock walls and hoping we didn't fall into the icy lake below!
Horses, hiking, caffeine, and explosive drinking games - Hello Coffee Country! We spent six nights in the small town of Salento where we learned how to play Tejo and Noelle had her least favorite horseback riding experience ever. Read all about that and our pit stop in Bogota on today's post!
After a small hiccup that almost kept us from getting on our plane in Los Angeles, we kicked off our South American adventure in Colombia with Cartagena and Medellin! Read all about what happened at LAX, how we dealt with a broken AC in our sweltering room in Cartagena, and how much we loved the former "Most Dangerous City in the World."
In a whirlwind decision at Urth Cafe in Tokyo, we decided to change our flights to Colombia so that we could head to San Marino for four days in order to celebrate Noelle's grandpa's 90th birthday with the whole Abbott family! Think only young folks can throw a raging party? Well, you can ask the cops what they thought of Gubba's fiesta! And, bonus, while we were home we also got to meet three month old Ava Noelle, first born to Noelle's Matron of Honor, Abby. Read all about our perfect vacation from our vacation!
We continued our journey through Japan by moving north. In the capital city of Tokyo, we had the best beef we've ever eaten. In Sapporo, we had the best sushi of our entire lives. With two amazing meals like those, what could be tastier? You'll have to read the post to see what earned the top spot for our favorite, most delicious meals EVER. Japan won us over by means of our stomachs, and we want to share every morsel with you!
We finished our Asian Adventure with three weeks in Japan, starting with Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto. We had no idea when we landed in Osaka that we were about to explore our favorite country on the whole trip! The food, the people, the architectural and natural beauty - Japan is truly amazing! In this post, read about the first half of our time in Japan, including a very special lunch with a family friend who I haven't seen in over 20 years!
Been wondering where we are? We'll be posting again soon!
My high school friend, and founder of life and business coaching company Reina + Co, Reina Pomeroy, interviewed me for a special series she's publishing on her company's blog. In the series, Reina shows the similarities between our decision to travel the world and entrepreneurship.
In Hong Kong, we chowed down on dim sum almost every day, found out just how spicy Dan Dan noodles really can be (spoiler alert: REALLY REALLY SPICY), and even got to spend a day with our hosts from Warsaw, Nelly and Lukasz!
During our five days in Cambodia, we explored the many temples of Angkor, ate mystery meat at a Khmer BBQ joint with our British buddies, Charlotte and James, grilled up some crocodile for dinner, tasted as much ice cream as we could find, and enjoyed how nice, polite, and calm the Cambodian people are.
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