*clears throat in an attempt to subtly gain attention without calling any to the fact that she in no way deserves it*
Wow, so if I thought 19 months without updating was bad the last time, what am I to make of the 29 that have passed since then? Twenty-nine!!! And I don't even have the excuse that I had last time of having spent my time updating my travel blog. I haven't touched that one in nearly just as long! Yikes.
Well... okay, how about starting where I left off... assuming, of course, that I remember what's happened since then! (It's the old age you know? I just can't keep things straight anymore...). Spent the remainder of 2013 and much of the early part of 2014 re-acquainting myself with Toronto, re-settling into the bosom of my family (read as: house sitting for my parents and working 3-4 jobs :P), hanging out with friends, and getting back into circus and dance shape after my travel time off. All-in-all it was a pretty excellent time and I really enjoyed being home and seeing everyone. Managed to do the CN Tower climb, check out a bunch of shows (including Once), and some incredible ballets (particularly Being and Nothingness and Innovation). I had a particular blast with one of my jobs which involved leading dessert tours around Toronto and also survived Toronto's apocalyptic Ice Storm of 2013 before running off on another adventure - this one around the southern end of South America.
Beginning in Santiago, Chile, I headed south through Patagonia, hitting up the Pucon region, Peurto Mont and Punta Varas on my way down around the tip to Punta Arenas and Torres del Paine (stunning!) for some amazing treks. From there, it was up through the Argentinian side of Patagonia via Fitzroy (such good treks!), El Calafate (OMG Perito Moreno Glacier), the thousands of painted hands in Ceuvas de los Manos, a short dip back into Chile for the Marble Caves and Caratera Austral (o.m.g. just... wow.), and the penguins of Punta Tombo (all too awesome for words) to visit the family in Beunos Aires (yay!). From there, I pressed on northward through Uruguay (beaches!) and up the coast of Brazil (with a brief stop in Florianopolis!) to meet up with Paolo in Rio/Ilha Grande (so. much. fun.) before heading back inland to the Pantanal (animals! and tasty piranha and cayman!) and down to Iguazu/Iguacu Fall (Omg. Amazing. Just incredible). From there it was across Paraguay (<3! Also amazing!) where I was adopted by an incredible family in Conception and got to stay on their farm before heading up through the Chaco Dessrt (very cool!) and a crazy "middle of the night wait here by the side of the dirt road for the mail bus" border crossing into Boliva at Santa Cruz. Got to visit the Ruins at Samaipata from there before heading to Cochambaba to hitch a ride down to Parque National Torotoro to see the DINOSAURS (or rather, their footprints) - seriously, this may be one of my favourite places of all time. From there, it was up (and I do mean up!) to La Paz, Tiwanaku and Lake Titicaca (<3). Then, rather than doing the sane thing and catching a ride, I rode a bicycle down death road, decending 2000m along a dirt trail witch sheer cliffs and drops lining the sides (because, why not?), before catching an arguably even more terrifying night bus down the remainder of the way into the Amazon. After exploring the Amazon and Pampas, it was back up to La Paz and onward to Sucre and Potosi (with it's death trap of a silver mine) before heading toward the Salar de Uyuni (SOOO Amazing) on a semi-insane journey that involved running one of Bolivia's infamous strike blockades and almost getting stuck in the desert. From there, it was back into Chile via San Pedro and the Atacama Desert (Actually one of the most incredible places on the planet), where I crazily decided I would explore by bike - necessitating multiple 50-80km days through the sand (Amazing, but not necessarily recommended!). Next was back down south via stops at the Calama Copper mine (Biggest open-pit copper mine in the world!) and Antofagasta on route to Val Paraiso for some chill vibes/circus time (teaching circus for free room & board? Yes please!). From there it was back to Santiago for some more cousin time (OMG, does our family ever breed true!) and SKIING :D! Before hoping on my flight out to Easter Island/Rapa Nui (So. Cool. If ridiculously expensive) for a crazy solo camping/biking trip around the Island before heading back to the mainland and home!
Still, even with all my adventuring, I made it back in plenty of time to do my duties at both Nal's and Langan's weddings and to soak up the remainder of the summer tour guiding, picking up some market research work, circusing and dancing in T.O before having to buckle down (well, sort of) and head back to - that's right, you guessed it - school!
Strangely enough, at some point during my travels (while living internetless and hiking in Toro toro, naturally) I decided that I did, in fact, want to attend the Master (yes, another one :P ) of Disaster and Emergency Management Program I'd applied to before running off - and which I had turned down the offer to only a few days earlier... whoops. Happily, they hadn't really processed my rejection yet, so I was able to change my mind once back in civilization and re-connected a few days later without the loss of my funding package *phew*. Hilariously, however, the online pre-program started while I was living in a tent on Rapa Nui, requiring me to do some interesting work-arounds.
Had a great school year meeting some absolutely excellent people, continuing to lead tours, hanging out with friends and family, circusing, dancing and just generally being in Toronto. The program wasn't super difficult, but the people very much made it worth it, and I really enjoyed myself overall. I also managed to catch a few more excellent ballets (Carousel!) and saw Cirque's Kurious (Loved it! So good! That straps act! Wow!). Although the program was meant to last 18 months starting from September, I began to get antsy to hit the road again almost even before it had started, so I decided to double up on courses and get everything done ASAP. Fortunately, by the end of June, I was done my Internship (BCM and Corporate Security at one of the big banks, not my usual cup of tea, but experience worth having) and ready to pack it all up.
After a few weeks holiday, I was once again off, this time to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where I am currently still sitting as I type this. I've been here nearly 8 months now teaching English at one of the universities and I absolutely love it. I've been getting some travelling in too :). I met up with Winnie and Ollie across the border in Almaty on their way through to China when I first arrived, and then I ran off to South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland (incredible, all of them!) for a month over x-mas to visit Laurianne, Saachi and Lorhren. Am off to Kazakhstan for another short trip next week, and then planning some more trips over the summer. Plan at the moment is to make a brief visit home and then stick around here for another year (yay!), before heading off on another long 6-8 month overland journey. Hopefully it all works out for the best :).
I think that's all for now!
Lots of love!
Wow, so if I thought 19 months without updating was bad the last time, what am I to make of the 29 that have passed since then? Twenty-nine!!! And I don't even have the excuse that I had last time of having spent my time updating my travel blog. I haven't touched that one in nearly just as long! Yikes.
Well... okay, how about starting where I left off... assuming, of course, that I remember what's happened since then! (It's the old age you know? I just can't keep things straight anymore...). Spent the remainder of 2013 and much of the early part of 2014 re-acquainting myself with Toronto, re-settling into the bosom of my family (read as: house sitting for my parents and working 3-4 jobs :P), hanging out with friends, and getting back into circus and dance shape after my travel time off. All-in-all it was a pretty excellent time and I really enjoyed being home and seeing everyone. Managed to do the CN Tower climb, check out a bunch of shows (including Once), and some incredible ballets (particularly Being and Nothingness and Innovation). I had a particular blast with one of my jobs which involved leading dessert tours around Toronto and also survived Toronto's apocalyptic Ice Storm of 2013 before running off on another adventure - this one around the southern end of South America.
Beginning in Santiago, Chile, I headed south through Patagonia, hitting up the Pucon region, Peurto Mont and Punta Varas on my way down around the tip to Punta Arenas and Torres del Paine (stunning!) for some amazing treks. From there, it was up through the Argentinian side of Patagonia via Fitzroy (such good treks!), El Calafate (OMG Perito Moreno Glacier), the thousands of painted hands in Ceuvas de los Manos, a short dip back into Chile for the Marble Caves and Caratera Austral (o.m.g. just... wow.), and the penguins of Punta Tombo (all too awesome for words) to visit the family in Beunos Aires (yay!). From there, I pressed on northward through Uruguay (beaches!) and up the coast of Brazil (with a brief stop in Florianopolis!) to meet up with Paolo in Rio/Ilha Grande (so. much. fun.) before heading back inland to the Pantanal (animals! and tasty piranha and cayman!) and down to Iguazu/Iguacu Fall (Omg. Amazing. Just incredible). From there it was across Paraguay (<3! Also amazing!) where I was adopted by an incredible family in Conception and got to stay on their farm before heading up through the Chaco Dessrt (very cool!) and a crazy "middle of the night wait here by the side of the dirt road for the mail bus" border crossing into Boliva at Santa Cruz. Got to visit the Ruins at Samaipata from there before heading to Cochambaba to hitch a ride down to Parque National Torotoro to see the DINOSAURS (or rather, their footprints) - seriously, this may be one of my favourite places of all time. From there, it was up (and I do mean up!) to La Paz, Tiwanaku and Lake Titicaca (<3). Then, rather than doing the sane thing and catching a ride, I rode a bicycle down death road, decending 2000m along a dirt trail witch sheer cliffs and drops lining the sides (because, why not?), before catching an arguably even more terrifying night bus down the remainder of the way into the Amazon. After exploring the Amazon and Pampas, it was back up to La Paz and onward to Sucre and Potosi (with it's death trap of a silver mine) before heading toward the Salar de Uyuni (SOOO Amazing) on a semi-insane journey that involved running one of Bolivia's infamous strike blockades and almost getting stuck in the desert. From there, it was back into Chile via San Pedro and the Atacama Desert (Actually one of the most incredible places on the planet), where I crazily decided I would explore by bike - necessitating multiple 50-80km days through the sand (Amazing, but not necessarily recommended!). Next was back down south via stops at the Calama Copper mine (Biggest open-pit copper mine in the world!) and Antofagasta on route to Val Paraiso for some chill vibes/circus time (teaching circus for free room & board? Yes please!). From there it was back to Santiago for some more cousin time (OMG, does our family ever breed true!) and SKIING :D! Before hoping on my flight out to Easter Island/Rapa Nui (So. Cool. If ridiculously expensive) for a crazy solo camping/biking trip around the Island before heading back to the mainland and home!
Still, even with all my adventuring, I made it back in plenty of time to do my duties at both Nal's and Langan's weddings and to soak up the remainder of the summer tour guiding, picking up some market research work, circusing and dancing in T.O before having to buckle down (well, sort of) and head back to - that's right, you guessed it - school!
Strangely enough, at some point during my travels (while living internetless and hiking in Toro toro, naturally) I decided that I did, in fact, want to attend the Master (yes, another one :P ) of Disaster and Emergency Management Program I'd applied to before running off - and which I had turned down the offer to only a few days earlier... whoops. Happily, they hadn't really processed my rejection yet, so I was able to change my mind once back in civilization and re-connected a few days later without the loss of my funding package *phew*. Hilariously, however, the online pre-program started while I was living in a tent on Rapa Nui, requiring me to do some interesting work-arounds.
Had a great school year meeting some absolutely excellent people, continuing to lead tours, hanging out with friends and family, circusing, dancing and just generally being in Toronto. The program wasn't super difficult, but the people very much made it worth it, and I really enjoyed myself overall. I also managed to catch a few more excellent ballets (Carousel!) and saw Cirque's Kurious (Loved it! So good! That straps act! Wow!). Although the program was meant to last 18 months starting from September, I began to get antsy to hit the road again almost even before it had started, so I decided to double up on courses and get everything done ASAP. Fortunately, by the end of June, I was done my Internship (BCM and Corporate Security at one of the big banks, not my usual cup of tea, but experience worth having) and ready to pack it all up.
After a few weeks holiday, I was once again off, this time to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, where I am currently still sitting as I type this. I've been here nearly 8 months now teaching English at one of the universities and I absolutely love it. I've been getting some travelling in too :). I met up with Winnie and Ollie across the border in Almaty on their way through to China when I first arrived, and then I ran off to South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland (incredible, all of them!) for a month over x-mas to visit Laurianne, Saachi and Lorhren. Am off to Kazakhstan for another short trip next week, and then planning some more trips over the summer. Plan at the moment is to make a brief visit home and then stick around here for another year (yay!), before heading off on another long 6-8 month overland journey. Hopefully it all works out for the best :).
I think that's all for now!
Lots of love!