For this year’s long weekend, Emmy and I chose Atlanta! She’s wanted to go for ages to see the whale sharks. Atlanta, fun fact, has the largest aquarium in the world.
I’ve also seen whale sharks in at the aquarium in Osaka and know that they are awe-inspiring and amazing. It’s on my bucket list to swim with them in the wild some day. Obviously, when we got to Atlanta, that was the first stop on the itinerary! A few other highlights included penguins getting the zoomies and alligators holding dog chew toys so that they can exercise their jaw muscles, which, incidentally, is the first time I’ve ever thought an alligator was cute.
We also went to the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park, run by the National Park Service, which was very cool. They had a great museum on his life and legacy, and then we could see his birthplace, his tomb, and the church where he made a number of important speeches. My parents have done the National Park passport stamp program for decades and they’re very jealous that I got my first stamp in the Southeast region before they did.
The next day, we rented a car and went out to Stone Mountain. This was an interesting experience – it’s a massive Confederate monument, and they do have the Confederate flag flying in multiple places around there. Like any true Northerner, I feel a little uncomfortable to see that flown so proudly. Emmy and I hiked up to the top of Stone Mountain, which had beautiful views from the top. The hike itself wasn’t too bad but it had a couple VERY steep parts which were nerve wracking to come back down. Then we found a place to park and wander around next to the lake.
On our way back to the city, we stopped in the town of Stone Mountain for lunch and a visit to the Miniature Chair Museum. This is a museum run by a cute old lady who really loves collecting miniature chairs, and holds the world record for the largest collection of miniature chairs, which…. yeah, fair, she has a lot. Not sure how competitive that one is.
The next day we headed to the Botanical Garden, another one of Emmy’s favorite things to do! She’s the plant expert and I’m the one who’s killed multiple succulents (or, to quote a meme I saw recently, did the plants just not have what it takes to thrive in a fast-paced environment….). The gardens were incredible, very extensive with these cool plant sculptures (pictured above). They also have a fun children’s section that we accidentally wandered into that seems like it would be great if you were traveling with kids.
All in all, we had a great time in Atlanta. I love these weekends because we pick places that I wouldn’t necessarily prioritize to explore on my own. Also, Georgia was a new state for me! I can’t wait to see what we pick for 2023.
After Panama, I flew on to Costa Rica and joined my cousin and her husband for a road trip! The flight up was a wild experience. I flew to San Jose first, but I was meeting them in Liberia. As it turns out, the San Jose airport has two different buildings – one for international flights and one for domestic flights. I walked across the parking lot only to find out I was far too early for my other flight. I couldn’t check in or go through security until it was much closer, so I trekked back across the parking lot to figure out food.
When I went back to check in, though. The employee handed me a laminated orange card that just said “Liberia 1 Boarding Pass.” I went through security to find about 3 gates, one small shop, and no screens or information telling me where to go to board my flight. I got more and more nervous as it got closer and there was still no news, until finally, about ten minutes before my flight, they announced about eight names including mine. I handed them my laminated card and followed them to the tiniest plane I’ve ever been on. It was a short jaunt, and we never even got high enough to get out of cell service – I was receiving texts and emails the entire time I was in the air. And the views were incredible!
We started in the La Fortuna area, which is close to the Arenal Volcano. It is absolutely gorgeous in that region! I was also very excited because we were staying in an Airbnb that looked like a treehouse, and we had a great little patio where we could drink and play cards after dinner. We started with a hike around the lava flow from the eruption in 1968, which probably would’ve had cooler views if it hadn’t been extremely foggy. The next day, we spent our morning at the local hot springs, which was a warm river off the side of the main road and was full of local families. Afterwards, we headed to the La Fortuna waterfall! I was delighted to find you could swim in it, although the water was quite chilly.
From there, we headed to Monteverde! We did hanging bridges the first day, which was a very cool walk through the tops of the rainforest. The next day, though, was my personal highlight. We went ziplining! This was my first time ziplining, and it was so much fun. I was kind of nervous, because I don’t like the feeling of falling, but it wasn’t that at all. (Granted, I did experience that later when I did the final swing at the zipline park, and I thought I was going to die, but I made it!) Instead, it was soaring through the trees, sometimes even over the birds. There was even a section where they strapped you in face down to go across the zipline Superman-style. It was such a cool way to experience the rainforest.
Our final stop was Tamarindo! We spent most of it at the beach, which was stunning, and I got very sunburned in classic fashion. It seemed like this was a great area for surfing, if that was a thing I knew how to do.
Overall, Costa Rica was amazing. Road tripping was a great way to experience it, as it gave us tons of flexibility to do exactly what we wanted. The natural beauty and wildlife experiences were some of the coolest I’ve had – there were animals that we saw that I didn’t even know existed until we tried to figure out what they were. I would definitely recommend a visit!
It’s pretty much impossible to imagine a place more idyllic than the San Blas Islands in Panama. We had one weekend in Panama where we could get out of the city and do something cool, and as soon as I read about these Islands, I knew that’s what I wanted to do. They’re an archipelago on the Caribbean side of Panama, and they’re in a semi-autonomous region that’s run by indigenous people of Panama.
We did a two night tour, so San Blas Dreams handled the logistics for us! They picked us up from our Airbnb in Panama City and drove us all the way across the skinny part of Panama. The first bit was on the highway, but then we turned off onto a smaller road and that was a wild time. I slept through it on the way out (since our pick up had been at the crack of dawn) and so got to experience it for the first time on the return, but Colin assured me the hills felt just as harrowing on the way out. I know it was all very well organized, because as soon as we got to the port, they knew what boat we should get on and where we should get off and which one was our tiny hut on the beach, but that organization was not communicated to us. We had expected there to be more international tourists, but somehow we were the only ones on our island that didn’t speak Spanish – it seemed like most of the people there were local to Panama and visiting for a weekend beach retreat. We had no idea of what the plans were or where/when we were supposed to be anywhere, so it was a whole weekend of going with the flow!
That first day was so relaxing. We swam in the ocean, wandered all around our island, read, tanned (or sunburned, in my case), and drank rum straight from the bottle. I had read somewhere that there would be a tour to another island. When no one mentioned it to us at lunch, or dinner, or even breakfast the next morning, we assumed it wasn’t happening. We joined a family to play some volleyball.
It was at that point that someone from the island came over and spoke in Spanish to the woman who had invited us to play volleyball. She turned to us and said, “your boat for the tour is here,” which was a surprise to us! We had to race across the island, change into our swimsuits, and try to pack everything we would need for the day, which…. we did a terrible job at. We didn’t bring money or anything.
The tour was fun, though! They took us to a couple of the other islands, and while I would have liked a little more free time on our own island, it was cool to see starfish in the wild and snorkel near a shipwreck.
For anyone who is considering a visit, do know that it is remote. There is not a lot of development on the islands, which is amazing and cool and makes you feel a little like you’re in Robinson Crusoe. Our hut on the beach was the “fancy” kind that had its own bathroom and even then it was very basic. Which I would say is part of the fun, but we definitely saw people who did not look prepared. I had a fantastic time, and would absolutely recommend it, but please do your research!
When Colin and I told our coworkers we were going to spend a couple weeks in Panama this January, one of them asked what Panama was known for, “besides hats and the canal.”
While that is definitely their brand as a country, I loved our visit to Panama City! It was absolutely gorgeous. The photo at the top of this post was the view from our Airbnb at sunset, with no editing or filters or anything.
Mostly what we did was walk along the ocean to get coffee in the mornings, and then we would pick an area to explore and find a restaurant for dinner as we wandered around. We drank a lot of sangria and spent time in the parks with the locals, where you’d see people playing basketball or soccer late into the night. I think that’s something the United States is really missing in most areas – outdoor public spaces. Salt Lake has started doing summer weekend nights where they’ll shut down main street and have outdoor seating for restaurants, which is a great start, but we need more of that all the time. It’s so pleasant being in countries that have figured that out and being able to spend time just out in the community!
We also went into the historic district, which felt a lot more like the places where I’ve spent time in Latin America thus far. Sort of a Havana-vibe. It’s a small part of the city, though. The majority of it looks super modern and is full of skyscrapers.
Of course, the non negotiable activity for me was seeing the Panama Canal, because we couldn’t come all the way down here and not see it! It’s about half an hour outside of the city, so we took an Uber there and back. Interestingly, this was the only place that actually felt “touristy” while we were in Panama. We also went to the San Blas Islands (which will be a separate post) and even then there were hardly any foreigners, but the canal museum had a bunch of tour groups. We watched a few boats pass all the way through the locks and marveled at the engineering. Thinking about when they built this, and how many ships pass through it per day, it was really an astounding feat!
“Would it be crazy to spend Thanksgiving in Dublin this year?”
I mean, a little? It was an idea I had while I was planning travel with my friend Alan, who lives in Ireland. We’d worked together for a few years but never met in person, and with my company still on full-time remote work, I’ve been trying to maximize this unprecedented flexibility since I know we’ll be back to hybrid work eventually. My family has never cared about Thanksgiving as a holiday, since it’s just my parents and I and we can do a family dinner any weekend when flights aren’t 4x as expensive as normal.
Colin decided to join me and we booked an Airbnb for a week in Dublin. We had three days of working remotely from Dublin and meeting our colleagues who work in Ireland, which was so fun after so many months of Zoom. We had a team dinner and a couple great nights at the pub, and a few days to properly explore the city! Obviously we went to the Jameson distillery and did a whiskey tasting. We saw the amazing library at Trinity College, walked along the river, and drank lots of Guinness (which, for the record, is SO much better in Ireland? I won’t even drink it in the US). Alan brought us to a comedy show. It was fantastic.
On Thanksgiving, we headed out to Howth. It’s an easy day trip from Dublin, only about half an hour on the train. We got fish and chips (or in my case, just chips) and did the cliff walk. Fun fact, Colin had not read the itinerary I had sent him or the links about the cliff walk, so he didn’t expect it to be a multi-hour endeavor and discovered that in real time. The views were stunning!
The next day, we went up to Belfast! I do not pretend to be an expert on the Troubles, but I had always wanted to learn more about the history of Northern Ireland. Beyond what you can learn in Derry Girls, that is. I signed us up for a black cab tour, where they take you to the various neighborhoods and talk about the history of Belfast. I was stunned to see how many murals there were around the city. I think I was expecting it to sort of be like the Berlin Wall, where there are some peace-related paintings in one area, but here there were memorials to the dead all over the place. On street corners, in neighborhoods, in alleys. The picture of us there is next to one of the peace walls. It was a really interesting experience. We also went to the Titanic Museum, which was an excellent museum and definitely worth a visit.
On Saturday, since Alan was also off work, he drove us out to the Cliffs of Moher! It was an adventure getting out there, as the drive goes through some very narrow roads, and it’s disconcerting being on the other side of the road. The cliffs were so beautiful. I also hadn’t realized that was where they filmed the exterior shots of the cave in the sixth Harry Potter movie, so that was cool. We had dinner in Galway, which had a ton of people visiting for the Christmas markets and was wildly busy. It was great to get into the countryside a bit more. Next time I visit Ireland I will definitely want to explore more beyond Dublin, but it was such a fun Thanksgiving week!
My parents and I were originally planning on Yosemite this year, but with the wildfires, it seemed like that wasn’t an advisable destination. Instead, we went to Lake Tahoe and Redwoods, which was an area of California I hadn’t been to before and it was absolutely gorgeous!
One of the things I was most excited for in this region was the Donner Party Memorial. The Donner Party is one of those things I learned about as a child and have always been irrationally fascinated by. There’s a state park outside of Truckee, California with a few hiking trails, a monument, and a small museum about the incident. There wasn’t a lot to see, but it was a fun excursion. I thought it was a particularly bold choice to include cookbooks in the gift shop.
Our next stop was Redwood National Park, which was incredible! They are the tallest trees on Earth, and there’s something so magical about being dwarfed by nature. We did a few of the short hikes and then did a scenic drive through the park. I would highly recommend a visit. The time of year we went was perfect, too, since it was the fall and the leaves of many of the other trees had changed to a stunning golden color.
The drive between Redwoods and Tahoe was beautiful. We went on some of the smaller highways and through the mountains. We tried to go to Lassen Volcanic National Park as well, but it was pretty snowy and most of the park was closed down from both the weather and the wildfires. It was crazy to go from the beach to a snowy mountain road within a day of driving.
One of the more sobering parts of the trip was coming across areas that had just recently gone through wildfires. Wildfires are a harsh reality of living in the Western US, but I’ve been so fortunate to be relatively unaffected by them myself. We went through communities that were still dealing with the fallout and trying to clean up, like the one pictured above.
Our final destination was Lake Tahoe! My mom had always wanted to stay in the Ritz Carleton there, so we had a ~fancy~ end to the trip as we headed up into the ski resort where it’s located and treated ourselves to a spa day. The whole area around the lake is beautiful, and I understand why it’s such a popular vacation destination. Overall, a great family vacation to a region I’ve wanted to explore for a while!
I’ve wanted to go to Iceland for ages. It was starting to get popular while I was on study abroad, and living in Scandinavia made me particularly aware of it. So when Sam and I were looking for travel options for a week long trip, it was one of the first places that came to mind!
We drove the Ring Road in a week. Several people I talked to said that was too fast, which is dumb. Could I have spent more time there doing tours? Of course, it would have been fun. But it was super doable in a week, and no one day was too much driving. It’s such a small country compared to the United States. I don’t think we had a day over about 4 or 5 hours of driving, and it still felt like a relaxed experience.
We flew into Reykjavik and had a day of exploring and trying to recover from jet lag. I didn’t sleep well on the plane and spent the morning exhausted, but I still felt like we got a good initial sense of the city. It felt rather similar to Copenhagen, with nice pedestrian streets in the city center.
The next day was the Golden Circle and driving down to Vik! The Golden Circle is a famous tourist trail of attractions near Reykjavik, including Gulfoss, Thingvellir National Park, and Geysir, which is where the word geyser comes from. Around Geysir it started pouring rain. We lucked out overall on weather, but every so often we would get caught in a freak storm. Iceland is very unpredictable when it comes to weather. The locals often say if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes.
We also visited Kerid Crater, which was a beautiful walk, and Seljalandsfoss, which is my favorite of the waterfalls we saw in Iceland! The trail goes behind the waterfall, which is a magical experience. From there, we made our way down to Vik on the southern coast.
Vik is well known for its black sand beaches and proximity to the glaciers! There are tons of things to do in this area, and if we’d had more time, I would have tried to spend more of it in this region. There’s a hike out to an abandoned plane that we passed but didn’t have enough time for, but I guess I’ll just have to come back!
The next day was a major highlight for me – we went hiking on a glacier! It was one of the best travel experiences of my entire life. We met up with our guide and got set up with helmets and crampons and ice axes. I’ll admit, I got concerned when they handed us the axes. This was listed as easy on the tour website, did I get myself in over my head? But no, it was easy to walk on the glacier, and I never felt unsafe. The only advice I have is to really be confident walking in the crampons. Some of the other people on our tour kept walking gingerly, and at that point it was less safe because they weren’t letting the spikes dig into the ice. This particular glacier rests on a volcano. The black veins of ash have helped protect it and mean that it is melting slower than some of the other glaciers in Iceland. Still, it is melting, and they showed us where it used to end a few years ago. Sad to see the results of human activity on such beautiful nature.
We also went to the glacier lagoon a few hours away. While we were there, we got to see seals! But the highlight of that area was called Glass Beach, which is an area where pieces of ice wash up along the beach and it is absolutely beautiful. From there, we headed a little farther east to our Airbnb. As soon as we got past Jokulsarlon Glacier Lagoon, there was a major drop off in the number of tourists! There were not many people out on the east coast, which is a shame, because it is gorgeous.
There weren’t many places to stop or specific sites once we got to the east coast. Instead, it’s just a stunning drive along the coast and through the fjords. We stayed at an Airbnb at a tiny town, where the nearest grocery store was nearly half an hour away, and it looked out over one of the fjords!
One of the strangest quirks about an Icelandic road trip were the one lane bridges. This is something I’d never really encountered before, but the south and east had lots of them. It was fine during the day but a little scary at night – I don’t love going over a bridge not knowing if there’s someone waiting on the other side to collide with me head on.
Our first real stop of the day was Dettifoss, which is decently far off the Ring Road itself. It’s the second most powerful waterfall in Europe, and it was very impressive! It’s part of the Diamond Circle in the north part of Iceland. We went there and to Lake Myvatn, but with more time, I would’ve liked to hit the whole loop. Our destination, though, was Lake Myvatn, which is packed with cool things to see!
We started at the Hverir geothermal area, which was gorgeous and had this orange soil around the geothermal features. We also went up to Viti Crater, which was very windy and very turquoise and we had to drive past a power station to get there. We also hiked up the Hverfjall Cinder Cone, which was a cool look out point. It was also very windy. We were lightly worried about being blown off the edge. The last stop of the day was the Dimmuborgir lava formations, which had a nice path that we could wander through for as long as we wanted. After getting dinner in the area, we drove on to our Airbnb in Laugar so we could get a head start on our next day.
On our next day, we started with our last official waterfall of the trip, Godafoss. Iceland has so many waterfalls that I was pretty selective on what we stopped for – I didn’t want us to get “waterfalled out” so to speak. Godafoss is a horseshoe-shaped waterfall and was definitely worthy of inclusion, the multiple lookout points gave us a great perspective on the landscape. It was still a fairly quick stop and we were on to Akureyri!
Akureyri is the second largest city in Iceland. We started with our COVID tests at a drive-through clinic. This was at an annoying time when the US was requiring COVID tests for all re-entry, but before they restricted it to one day before travel so we were able to do ours a few days in advance. Predictably, getting tested in Iceland was very efficient.
Our travel logistics done, we were able to explore the city, which was super fun. One interesting cultural quirk of Akureyri is their parking system. Most residents have clocks where they set it in the window with the time they parked, and the zones are all based on how many hours you can stay in any one space. As foreigners, we didn’t have a clock, so we just had to write our time on the back of a piece of paper. Sam tried an Icelandic hot dog and we stumbled on some sort of festival for high schoolers where they were all dressed up in team outfits like superheros and Pippi Longstocking.
We couldn’t stay forever, though, because our Airbnb was still about 2 and a half hours away. After a beautiful drive, we found ourselves on a farm. The host told us to be careful on the road, because “it can be sheeps on both sides,” which is our new favorite saying and applies to a surprising number of situations.
On our last full day in Iceland, I’d scheduled one more tour! We had a three hour drive to get to Thingvellir National Park so that we could get to our tour and snorkel in the Silfra Rift. Outside of the glacier tour, this was the other thing I’d been most excited about. The Silfra Rift is the place between the American and European continental plates, and you can swim through it and touch both continents at the same time, which is amazing. Our guide suited us up in a truly comical amount of neoprene, including neoprene lobster-claw-looking gloves, which was good because it was absolutely frigid water. He told us we should try taking a sip of the water and it froze my lips to the point where it was hard to get the snorkel resituated in my mouth. But almost freezing was 100% worth it, because it was gorgeous clear water and I had a magical time swimming through the place where the continents meet.
Overall, I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday trip! The only thing that could’ve made me happier is if we’d seen the Northern Lights – I have terrible luck when it comes to trying to spot them, every time I’ve been somewhere it would be theoretically possible, the sky is overcast. But I guess I’ll just have to travel back above the Arctic Circle, how terrible….
The Galápagos Islands are magical. I’ve known about their existence since biology class in my sophomore year of high school. We talked about evolution and Darwin and the finches, but nothing really prepared me for seeing sea lions lounging on the beach and watching the blue footed booby do its mating dance. The animal encounters were unreal!
We started on San Cristobal. Within twenty minutes of getting out of the airport, we had already seen marine iguanas and sea lions and blue footed boobies on the island. What’s really surprising is how used to people the animals are – it doesn’t phase them at all when you walk by, and most of them are just curious. That baby sea lion in the picture above came over and sniffed my leg as I tried to be as still as humanly possible. It was adorable! All of the Galápagos Islands are considered a national park, and are under strict protections. When we ferried between the islands, we would have our bags checked each time to make sure we weren’t transporting anything organic.
We snorkeled twice on San Cristobal. Once was at a beach, where we got in the water with sea lions. They’re so playful, swimming circles around us and twisting themselves around! It’s hard to believe they even have bones when they swim. They’re incredibly graceful under water, and then they get on land and sort of lumber around. The second time was at Kicker Rock. It’s sort of out in the middle of the ocean. We saw a whole pod of dolphins as we were going out there, which was amazing. Once we arrived, we swam around the rock and through this channel! There were less animals generally at Kicker Rock than other swims we did, but I did have this incredible moment where the sun’s rays were going through the water and I was swimming alongside a school of fish.
Our next island was Santa Cruz, which is known for the giant tortoises. We saw them both in a breeding center and in the wild, which is an incredible experience! The breeding center talked about how they actually raise them there for about the first twenty years of their lives. At that point, their shells haven’t fully hardened yet, and so they’re still vulnerable to predators, so the island takes care of them until they’re old enough to live on their own. We also saw a tortoise mausoleum for Lonesome George, who made headlines for being the last of his kind and being unable to breed and keep his species alive.
I also went kayaking for the first time on Santa Cruz! We went to a lagoon, and saw tortoises and even a ray leaping out of the water. Side note, didn’t know they could do that, and it was somewhat alarming. But kayaking was fun and super relaxing.
Our third and last island was Isabela. This was the source of our best bird encounters! I saw a flamingo in the wild for the first time, and we also went to a nesting site for the blue footed boobies. I even got to see them do their mating dance! It’s amazing to watch. The whole thing is focused on how blue their feet are, and they pick up their feet and shake them at potential mates. One also picked up a stick and started whistling. Their feet really are shockingly blue. It doesn’t look like something that should be possible in nature.
The place we snorkeled here had so many sea turtles, and we got to swim right next to them. We also saw quite a few reef sharks. They’re mostly very shy, and wanted to swim by us very quickly to get to their caves. I did get a video of one though!
We also went hiking into a volcano, the Sierra Negra. Once again I regretted my lack of hiking boots on this trip as I slipped through the mud. But it was so cool to go through the volcanic rock and see all of the rock formations down at the bottom. I got extremely sunburned on this day but it was still a great hike.
I didn’t want to go home at the end of our week there. I just wanted to stay and sit on the beach and watch sea lions sunbathe on rocks, but all good things must come to an end. If you’re going to Ecuador, be sure to visit the Galápagos!
Quito is a much larger city than I’d expected. It’s also as hilly as San Francisco, except it’s at 9,300 feet so going up those hills feels much more exhausting. Still, after Cotopaxi, it was actually a decrease in elevation for me!
I got the chance to explore it for a few days before and after my Galápagos tour, and I had a great time. Becca and I climbed to the top of the Basilica del Voto Nacional, which had some stunning views of the city, and we also went to this amazing chocolate place called Indemini Baez where they showed us the whole process and let us try cacao at various stages in the process. I left with a lighter wallet and a lot of artisanal bars of chocolate, which was a good trade!
We did a fantastic day trip to Papallacta, which are these hot springs up in the mountains. There were hardly any tourists; only locals, which is how you know it’s a good find. Our friends from our Galápagos tour found out about it and let Becca and I tag along, and it was an incredibly relaxing day toward the end of our trip.
We also went to the equator monuments! Yes, I know they’re touristy, and I don’t care. Honestly, I really enjoyed the fact that they had dueling monuments. The one in the picture above is the big fancy one, that the government funded and they spent a lot of money on. And they set it all up there, and then they used GPS to figure out that the equator wasn’t actually there. Oops.
So they created this second monument and museum, which is at the site of the “real” equator, and advertises that in a delightfully passive aggressive manner. They also have experiments where they show you the differences of water going down the drain on each side of the equator and other similar scientific effects. They also have a fairly campy museum about Ecuador and the different regions, and it has what is truly the worst taxidermy I have ever seen.
Quito was an unexpected delight. I was so focused on the other parts of my trip that I overlooked it a bit, but I have some great memories from my time there! There are of course many wonderful parts of Ecuador to visit, but Quito is worth exploring.
As I planned my international travel for the year, I looked for countries that were accepting proof of vaccines without requiring additional testing and where I could do lots of outdoor activities. It led me to Ecuador! This wasn’t initially the first place I was planning to go in South America, but it was absolutely incredible and makes me so excited to explore more of the continent.
I started my trip with four days at the Secret Garden Cotopaxi, which is a beautiful hostel near Cotopaxi National Park. They had amazing reviews online, and after spending time there, I can see why! It’s possible to book it as a shared dorm, but they also have hobbit houses that you can book. That’s what I went with, and the views were absolutely incredible. In the photo above, it’s a bit cloudy, but on a clear day it’s possible to see the full volcano from the bed.
They have a few included activities, like the waterfall hike above (the water was frigid!) and another hike that we didn’t do. Then they help set up other activities, like horseback riding through Cotopaxi National Park and a hike on Cotopaxi. The meals are all included as well and then there’s alcohol for purchase. We played a lot of drunk Uno and sat around the fire and had an amazing time.
Horseback riding was an adventure, mostly because I hadn’t been in over ten years and when our guide asked if we had experience, Brooke and Christine happily said yes. Let’s just say my horse wanted to go faster than I wanted to go for almost the entirety of the outing, but the scenery was absolutely stunning. Throughout the trip, I was impressed time and time again with Ecuador’s commitment to preserving their nature. I never saw a single piece of litter. Cotopaxi National Park was immaculate.
Our next day was our hike on Cotopaxi! We met other people who were hiking all the way to the top, which is a crazy endeavor that requires ice climbing and starting the ascent at midnight, but we just spent a few hours on the mountain. We started at 15,000 feet, which was already a higher elevation than I had ever been at, and hiked up to 16,000. The air was so thin up there. I should’ve brought hiking boots, as my sneakers were entirely inappropriate (especially for the descent), but live and learn. It was some of the coolest views I’ve ever seen. Truly, if you’re in Ecuador, I can’t recommend the Secret Garden Cotopaxi highly enough!
