The Ultimate Jet Setter

So I last minute decided to go on an adventure activity today called Canon De La Vieja. Not to be confused with Rincon De La Vieja which is where the volcano is and that tour usually consists of a hike, seeing the volcano and a waterfall.  Canon De La Vieja on the other hand is a lot more active and includes activities such as abseiling, rock climbing, zip lining, tubing and horse riding for $130/£100 and includes lunch. They pick you up from your hotel at 8:30am and drop you back at around 6pm. It's just over an hours drive to Canon De La Vieja. There were 7 of us in total doing the activities. 5 Canadians and 2 English.  We got our equipment for the first activity which was zip lining. The instructor's English wasn't that great which I feel like it should be in a job such as a zip line instructor. I also don't think that enough coaching/instruction was given before we went off. If it was my first time zip lining these guys wouldn't have made me feel at ease.  The ...

So I woke up pretty early today (6am) and decided to do the unthinkable. Go R-U-N-N-I-N-G. On the B E A C H. I know, I'm that annoying person the exercises while they're on holiday. Ew. In my defence this was the first and probably last time I have done this. It was 6am so it was probably the coldest it was ever going to get while the sun was still up. I only ran for 20 minutes but actually felt good about how much I would proceed to eat that day with zero guilt. Just kidding, I feel no guilt even when I haven't exercised. But it was a good deed for the day from me to me.  I was researching other beaches in Costa Rica as Tamarindo beach is huge and beautiful but the sand isn't as white as others, the sea it's that clear and once you're in the sea it's a bit rocky which is surprising and not totally safe (for a scaredy cat like me). I googled around and found Playa Conchal which was about 30 minutes away and was described as a beautiful white sandy beach with...

So I woke up at about 8 this morning and decided to go on a little walk on the beach before breakfast. Then headed out to embark on a few hours of ziplining. I booked it through one of the many tour operators outside my hotel, in this case Iguana Surf (iguanasurf.net) for $44/£34 for 11 zip lines. I'm sure there are cheaper places but the guys at this place seemed nice enough that I didn't want to/be bothered to look anywhere else ha.  So I got picked up at 10:15 and we had to pick up some other people that were doing the zip line too. We were picking them up from a rental property which was a gated community. The company picking them up needed authorisation so the security guard would let us in. About 20 minutes later we finally got authorisation and picked up the perfect 2.4 American family. A boy and a girl and 2 pretty cool parents.  We got to the zip line place and got kitted out before we drove about 10 minutes into the wilderness. I had only zip lined once before across...

So my day started at 2:30am, I woke up and quickly got ready to leave my hostel at 3am. I arrived at the airport at 3:15am and after check in waited to board my flight at 5:25am. It was about an hour flight to Bogota and so I took this time to sleep. Once I arrived at Bogota I had to go through immigration again to get my following flight to San Jose, Costa Rica at 8am then had a 3rd and final flight to catch to the Costa Rican coast, Tamarindo.  I flew Sansa Air and their check in desk is located outside of the airport in a location about 5 minutes walk  away. My backpack was pretty heavy and a nice man offered to carry it for me to the check in desk. After check in I waited until 12:15 for my flight. I knew this plane was going to be small but it definitely defied my expectations. This was essentially a mini bus in the sky, I couldn't stand up straight and had to bend down to get to my dear, there were probably 12 seats in the whole aircraft and I could see the cockpit from ...

I woke up early today as I was heading to Isla Baru for the day. Isla Baru is also called Playa Blanca. They are the same place but with 2 names for some reason.  I arranged to get a mini bus from my hostel to Isla Baru which takes an hour and cost £14 return. The bus goes there at 8:30am & 11am and returns at 11am and 3pm. You can come back whenever you want whether that's the same day or a few days later. The price will be the same.  We arrived at just after 9:30am and the beach was quite quiet at this point. There are several restaurants and sun loungers along the beach to choose from. I walked along until I found my spot. It was £8 for my sun lounger, an hour later the beach was packed. More tourist buses and boats had arrived delivering more people. I found that a lot of people were tourists just not English speaking ones. There were a lot of tourists from Argentina, Chile and Brazil. There was also a plethora of vendors selling food, drinks, jewellery, mas...

So after a day in Bogota I decided it was time to experience some South American heat for a few days so I headed to Cartagena. A coastal city in the north of Colombia.  A quick one hour flight with Avianca and I had arrived to 30 degree heat and an island life feel. I embraced the heat after stepping off the airport and got a taxi to my hostel, Mamallena on Calle Media Luna located in the Getsemini area. I dumped my stuff, said hi to a couple of girls from the US that were staying in my room, got a map and headed off exploring.   There is a walled city in Cartagena which I headed to. Inside the walled city there are several vendors selling water, street food and ice creams. The buildings are old and colourful, there's several taxis buzzing around in addition to the odd horse and carriage. There are also loads of plazas in the walled city, restaurants, hotels and a few museums.  I meandered for a few hours along the old streets, stopping for lunch to refuel. A...

Today I headed to Medellin for the day. This was a last minute addition to my trip hence the flying visit. I flew LATAM from Bogotá and was scheduled to leave at 6am which turned out to be 6:45am as my flight was delayed. We took off then there was a refuelling issue so flew back to Bogotá. Finally arrived in Medellin at 9:30am instead of 7am. It amazes me how there can be a refuelling issue on a one hour flight.  I then got a taxi to La Aurora which is a pretty high point the city with pretty cool views. The taxi ride was about 45 minutes and you can immediately notice the beautiful valleys, mountains and greenery Medellin has to offer. The weather is much better at 28 degrees which I very much appreciated. I don't think I'd ever taken so many videos in one car journey before.  Medellin first impressions, stunning and breathtaking. Can I just live here forever please?! At Aurora station there's a cable car that takes you to San Javier metro station. The metro is 65p per jo...

So a few months ago I decided that 2017 was going to be be South America Year. With that in mind late last year I did some research on South American countries, prices, flights, what there was to see and do and decided to travel to Colombia and Costa Rica over the Easter Bank Holiday.  I flew Avianca from London direct to Bogota. They are a Colombian airline and the only airline that flies direct from London to Bogota. The airline was clean and modern and the flight was fine albeit long at 11.5 hours somehow reduced to 10.5 hours in the end.  After landing I headed to my hostel, Masaya Hostel located in the Candelaria area of Bogota. I stayed in a private room which worked out to be £12 a night, shared rooms will be cheaper. I had a few hours sleep then headed over to my walking tour meeting point outside the Museo De Oro (Gold Museum) at 10am. The walking tour was 3 hours long, unfortunately the weather was not on our side and it was raining for the whole of the tour. Our tou...