Author: Mel

Living aboard a sailboat, blogging about the places we visit and the adventures we have. Love hiking, cycling, scuba, animals and adventure.

Iceland Day 1: Water

Yea! We made it to Iceland past midnight and promptly went to duty free to buy booze. That seems to be the first move for anyone, locals included, and we want to follow the local customs! Here’s a recap of Iceland Day 1 for us: a busy day.

Busy Morning

We checked into our hotel, the Base Hotel by the airport, had a few beers at the lounge and went to bed for about 5 hours. This morning, we got up, went back to the airport for a 45 minute bus ride into the Reykjavik bus station, then a taxi to Camp Easy to pick up our ride, and home, for the week!

Waterfalls

Then we hit the road! And today we saw a lot of water! Waterfalls, a hot spring (that was beautiful but could have been hotter), and tons of beautiful views of bodies of water. I think this will be a recurring theme. We also hiked a bit, but we ended quite early because we are tired from too little sleep last night.
Early observations:

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Heading Home: What I will Miss About Colombia

It’s been an experience. For someone who’s never travelled alone until this trip, I’ve done a lot of new things. I’ve also never been happier than when I saw Brian’s taxi arrive at the AirBnB in Cartagena and I knew the alone part was over! Now I am heading home and I don’t know what to even say after this amazing experience in Colombia. Here’s a recap of what I will miss about Colombia. It’s a lot.

Volunteering

The volunteering was really great – and really hard. I have a lot of respect for all teachers, and day care workers and babysitters. And parents. But day care workers? Wow. 26 2 year olds. In 33 degree heat and humidity and no air conditioning. Impressed. Next steps? Knowing I will never be a child care worker but still love to play with kids and having the utmost respect for those who do that every day.

Living in Cartagena

The home stay was also great. Warm and welcoming people and a different world for me. I definitely got to use my limited Spanish. Next steps? Spanish classes or a tutor back in Toronto. I went to a couple of language exchange meet-ups, in Cartagena and Medellin, and will seek those out in Toronto now.

What I Will Miss About Colombia

I will miss:

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Coffee Tasting at Toucan Café Medellin

It’s almost the end of our trip to Colombia, and we had another “Must do” to cross of our list: a coffee tasting! Fortunately, we found a great place to sample and learn more about coffee in Medellin.  Toucan Café and Tours, only a 5 minute walk from our hotel in Poblado, hosts coffee tastings every weekday at 4PM. Here’s our experience at a coffee tasting at Toucan Café.

Coffee Tasting overview

We not only got a coffee tasting from our guide Juan (Not Valdez!), we got a master class in coffee origins, preparation, and the smells and flavors of coffee! We also got lucky and had a private class of just the the 2 of us! Both David, who organizes all the tours offered by the company, and Juan speak perfect English, so it was an easy and fun experience for us from the booking to the class.

After the history of coffee and coffee growing briefing, which Juan adjusted when he heard we had done the coffee farm tour in Manizales, we moved from the classroom to the café.

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