Tag: south america

How to save money during traveling?

These days traveling is almost for everyone. There is something for every budget. Although the smaller the budget the more effort and research it costs. After more than 2 years on the road I got pretty good in finding ways to save and I would love to share it with you guys.

Accommodation

That’s the biggest part of any budget and the most essential part of any journey. Everyone has to sleep somewhere, right?

Airbnb

Airbnb offers the most original and interesting accommodations possible. Sleeping in a castle, trailer, hammock or a tree house. All there, it’s just a matter of money. It’s not a cheap option but many times it’s worth the price and there are possibilities to lower the costs. Here is how:

  • Booking your first trip you get a discount on your first reservation. You can also use a discount send by a friend or partner. Inviting a next person into the Airbnb world get you a discount when that person books her/his first stay.
  • Weekly/monthly discounts. Many places offer a special price for longer stays. Some for a week, some for a month. It can be 10% or even 50%. It all depends on the owner. Some places do not even except stays shorter than a certain amount of days. We saw a place in Kyoto that didn’t accept any reservation under 22 days. We managed to get an apartment on Taiwan with a discount of 45% above 28 days stay. If you want to stay longer it’s worth searching for offers like that.
  • Special offer. The host can send you a special offer. We had few situations when we asked about a room and the host just send us a discount to push us to book. Or when he committed a mistake with our booking and had to switch rooms for us. Other times we saw that some spots had discounts for low season. When we started using airbnb we didn't know that the price can be negotiable, now we know that in some situations we can just ask. We got 10 % off in Malaysia just like that.

Booking.com, hostelworld and knocking at the door

Many of you ask if it’s better to book or just show up. There is no simple answer to that. What we usually do is checking few spots we like and compare the prices on booking, hostel world or any other of those pages. Then we check if the hostel has its own web page with better deals. Since hostels need to pay to booking they sometimes offer better prices at their own web page for people to book directly with them. If not it's worth sending an email and asking for a nice deal especially if you want to stay for a couple of nights. Usually staying longer than 3 nights is good enough to bargain. If it’s dead season, you’re aiming for, you can just pop by at the spot and ask. That’s the best option to get the best offer since if you’re not taking the room, there is a big chance no one else will…

If you're really on a tight budget some hostels allow camping or hanging your own hammock (especially popular in Colombia).

Couch surfing

Although we don’t really like that method, you can also consider staying for free with a local via Couch surfing. Make sure you choose your host carefully. Some stories about CS are quite epic and include harassment or stealing. We saw pretty many listings where guys were only offering a place to sleep for ladies and only in their own bed. Often CS offers not much flexibility, you can stay when the host is there but when she/he goes to work you have to go out as well. You are also expected to be rather social so if you don’t click it’s a bit of a miss to begin with. That I’m not gonna mention that both sides can cancel the agreement any time which can leave you on the street…

 House sitting

The idea behind house sitting is taking care of someone else's house while they are away on vacation. It usually involves taking care of animals as well as just being present at the house. We never tried that option during our journey simply because the countries we traveled to didn't have enough options to make sure that we at least got our fee and hassle back (some web pages require recommendation letters and other paper work). But if you're going to Europe, Australia, Canada or the US it's definitely worth trying. I have done it once in Amsterdam for a friend of a friend and I really liked it. You live like a local and stay in a local neighborhood and you also get a companion, dog or a cat or various 🙂 Some of the most popular web pages that other travelers recommended to us are: Trusted Housesitters and Mind My House

 

Transport

Another big part of any budget is transport. Often it can be the most expensive part of the trip. Flying to Colombia can cost way more than staying there for 2 weeks, especially on a low budget.

Flying is the most expensive mean of transportation and whenever we have to book a flight we make sure we book the best possible option. I always stay alert on deals from Secret flying, fly4free and many polish sites like Mleczne Podroze. From fly4free we got, for example, our flight Paris- Buenos Aires for 380 euros each.

Because I'm still a bit of a planning freak I also check skyscanner, kayak and momondo frequently. We also signed up for many airlines newsletters.

For others transportation we ask locals around about deals for buses or in some countries we bargain. In most Latin American countries that’s what you absolutely need to do. Leave your shame behind and do your best, otherwise you’re gonna get a true “gringo” price (gringo- white foreigner, in some countries the word is used for the white visitors from the US).

Food

The best way to save money on food is to cook as often as possible. To do that we always tried to get a place with a kitchen. We also always tried to use local ingredients rather than the ones we knew and loved from back home. Humble mozarella can be cheap in Europe but in Colombia the price can leave you speechless. So forget what you know and sail away in the supermarket. Reading some food blogs beforehand is not a bad idea. Otherwise you really don't know what you buy and how to prepare it.

Second best is eating locally, in the most crowded places. Giant queues give you a better chance for good food and a reasonable price.

Others

Great way of saving money as well as getting to know the country from the inside is volunteering. You can do that via web pages like workaway (for hostels, farm work, English teacher and pretty much anything), WWOOFing (farm work) or just ask around once there. More about volunteering read our post here.

If you have certain skills you can also exchange them for accommodation, food or excursion. Let’s say you speak Spanish and English, you can translate on a hike and go for free or even get paid. That's what I did on the Ciudad Perdida hike. Same with skills like photography, web design or cooking. Imagination is the limit! The most crucial part is to ask. Those who don’t ask always miss opportunities.

Open post

How to save money for the big dream?

We often get asked how it’s possible that we can travel for so long. Most people just want to hear that we are rich because then they can settle down and explain to themselves that they just can’t do it. That long-term traveling is just for those fortunate few.

It really is just for the fortunate few, but not the rich ones, but those who have the courage to leave everything behind and those who have the persistence to save up OR do whatever it takes.

To those few who have what it takes, a few tips.

So, how to figure out how much you have to save?

That’s the big question. When you search online for travel budgets they really go everywhere from 10 k to 100 k USD per year per person, depending on the style of travel. That’s a massive spread so how could you figure out how much you need?

It’s all about a mindset. Any amount of money is good enough to travel. Really any. But first you need to ask yourself some important questions…

What is your priority? Do you want to explore, visit, and see things?

Or do you need to travel in style, eat in fancy restaurants and sip champagne? If the answer is yes there is no way around it… the costs will be massive. Simple saving won’t cut it so you’d better marry well before you go.

But if you are willing to travel on a budget there will be many possibilities to cut the costs.

But you have to ask yourself: how much are you willing to sacrifice?

Can you sleep in dorms?

Can you volunteer?

Do you have any specific skills that you can trade? Maybe you can take pictures or you can teach English? Or translate?

Are you open to cook or do you want to eat out?

Be honest with yourself. We met a few hardcore people who only ate rice and whatever other people left and volunteered the whole time. Like this you can travel for a very, very long time. But is it fun? Is it what you really want to do?

We approached our journey thinking we wanted to be on a budget but also enjoy. We wanted to eat out every now and then but mostly cook. We didn’t mind sleeping in dorms but we wanted to stay in nice hostels, not in shabby, forgotten places (although that also occurred), we wanted to have adventure but also some peace. Sometimes we even did a bit of luxury, other times we volunteered or traded our skills. Our budget has been very moderate. During the 368 days we stayed in South America we spent 24 938 euro for both of us. You can visit the budget section for the exact costs of each country.

Could it be cheaper? Yes, of course. It could also be more expensive.

But it gives you an idea of how much you need and a mindset you need. If you don’t have that kind of money, you can volunteer more, splurge less, sleep in dorms more often and maybe even camp.

How to save it?

Now that you have an idea of the budget you need and you’re sure you really want to do it. How can you save all that money?

It really is all about the small things. First of all set up a spreadsheet of ALL your spendings during the week. That’s what we did. Track every single penny you spend. At the end of the week, analyze it.

Do you buy lunch at work? It’s cheaper to make sandwiches at home

Do you pay for plastic bags at the supermarket? It saves money to bring your own.

Did you pass by a local café to buy some coffee on the way to work? You can drink one at home before you go.

Did you go out for drinks? You can buy a bottle of wine and invite friends home

Is your rent super expensive because you live in the center? Maybe you can move to the suburbs?

There really isn’t any remedy that will make this money magically appear. It takes those tiny sacrifices to achieve it.

Second thing is to go through your things. Do you really wear that pair of jeans? Do you use that DVD player that you have in the closet? Think about it. Leaving on a big adventure, you won’t take all of that with you. Storage place costs money and it’s useless to store stuff you don’t even use. We sold what we didn’t want anyway and some other things we didn’t want to store. And you know what… Now that we think about it, we wish we sold even more of our stuff.

About us

So many people search for excuses not to try hard enough for their own dreams. So many think that we won a lottery or we were just rich to begin with. Well nope. We also didn’t have absolutely amazing jobs that paid thousands. We just had a mindset of people that don’t spend that much. We worked in Amsterdam but decided to live in Volendam because we were not willing to spend double the price to live in the center of it all. We always repaired our clothes rather than bought new ones.

Don’t get me wrong. We went out with friends, had a few drink, went for weekends away and vacation. We love enjoying life but all in moderation. Especially when we decided to leave everything and travel.

Being Polish I know that it all depends on the country where you live. It’s not the same saving up Polish zloty or euros. But it’s still doable if you really want it. And having a EU passport means you can chose where you want to live. Which we often forget.

Salamina, Colombia

Charming villages of Colombia

Charming, little villages were our absolute favorite in Colombia. There is nothing better than sitting in a little bar with an old man, drinking coffee almost looking at the coffee beans growing on the bushes ahead. So sit down with your cup of coffee and let’s go through the best of the best 🙂

  1. Salamina

This little town has completely stolen our hearts. It’s close enough to Medellin to get there with just one bumpy, bus ride but far enough to get far away from the big city life. There is no traffic, rush or groups of tourists in Salamina. Instead there are lovely cafes, colorful houses and green, mountainous heaven around it. It’s truly a perfect place to just relax, read a book and enjoy nature and good weather. Close by there is a stunning valley of Samaria, (to be) famous for its very high wax palms.

In Salamina we stayed with Martin and Angelica, an extraordinary couple on Airbnb. They are not only very inspiring people who create everything around their house by themselves with love, but they also made us feel at home there 🙂 Not to mention they make the best breakfast ever with fresh juices, arepas (corn pancakes) and eggs.

  1. Filandia

When nearby Salento is attracting all the crowds with its wax palms in Cocora Valley, Filandia stays a wonderful, peaceful treat. You won’t see crowds or overpriced hotels over there. Just peaceful but very colorful town with lovely and a bit curious locals. They will ask you how you like Colombia and why you chose Filandia. It’s it obvious? Not only it’s very colorful and has a lot of character but it has the best surroundings ever! Here you will find waterfalls, ever green forests, endless coffee farms and amazing hikes. Not to mention you will see hummingbirds, toucans and even howler monkeys.

In Filandia we volunteered in a really nice hostel called Bidea which is owned by a lovely Colombian-Basque couple. It’s not only a beautiful, Colombian house but also a great atmosphere that makes it a great place to stay. Don’t forget to visit Helena Adentro for great food and a romantic, charming vibe.

  1. Villa de Leyva

Nothing can compare to the white houses or cobblestone streets of Villa de Leyva. Not to mention the one and only, massive, gorgeous Main Square. Although it’s number one on many lists of towns of Colombia, it’s not busy. Not at all. We were actually really positively surprised. All the little streets were charming, white and really clean, even outside of the center. Little markets on the corners were selling true curiosities like dried bushes of pink pepper! And we will never forget an amazing ice cream place, Santa Lucia. Although we shouldn’t, we went there every day… and every single time it was delicious and the owners were just the most cheerful people on earth.

In Villa de Leyva we stayed in a stunning hostel (Buda Hostel), just outside of the city on a hill. It was a struggle to drag the backpack up there but once there the views made everything ok again. The house itself is wonderful, with lots of terraces and open space, not to mention the huge barbecue and chill out space outside.

  1. Palomino

The town itself is not really that nice, there is no beautiful architecture and it was just build along a busy road which goes just in the middle of it. But… those beaches. If you can’t go to Providencia than that’s the second best. Kilometers of sandy paradise with not too many people. There are quite some charming, boutique hotels out there. The beauty of the place is that there is not much to see, just pure relax 🙂

  1. Santa Elena

Probably the most calm place of them all. Middle of absolute nowhere and so close to Medellin. We stayed there surrounded by green, luscious nature in a trailer made into a house (Airbnb). It was just an unforgettable experience to stay away from everyone and everything in this charming little place where all we could do was to just relax, walk around and enjoy. During the evening when it was getting chiller we could sit on our deck, start a fire and observe all of the weird bugs coming to visit us 🙂 It was our last place to visit before we ended our Latin American adventure and we wish such an end to all of you 🙂

Useful tip!

If you’re going to Colombia and you would like to get to charming, little villages that are not so well known you should visit http://www.pueblospatrimoniodecolombia.co/nuestros-pueblos. There you will find a whole list of tiny towns well worth a visit:) Enjoy!

Casapueblo, Uruguay

Our favorite highlights of south america All created by man

Ok, we- humans destroy a lot, we kill animals and our environment. But sometimes we create. And when we do, it can be pretty incredible. Here is a list of the most impressive human creations in South America

  1. Casa Pueblo in Uruguay

It reminds me a bit of architecture that I saw on Lanzarote from Cesar Manrique: big, white and fascinatingly futuristic. Casa Pueblo was constructed by Carlos Paez Vilaro as a summer house and workshop. It took him 36 years to finish it. The artist passed away already but his family still lives in a part of the house, the rest is a museum and a hotel! It’s truly magical and it’s situated just by the water which makes it even more enchanted. Every evening at sunset they have a nice peaceful tradition of playing one of the poems written by Vilaro and some music. We enjoyed that moment a lot because it was just so relaxing and full of pure, silent joy. It also felt like the white walls were a canvas for the colors of the setting sun. Incredible!

  1. Mechanic flower – Floralis Generica in Buenos Aires, Argentina

It’s an unusual gift from an architect, Eduardo Catalano, for Buenos Aires. The steel flower opens its petals every morning to close them in the evening just like a natural flower would. It looks very fragile and gentle but at the same time it’s actually massive- 23 m high and 18 ton. Since building it in 2002 there were many issues with the mechanism and when we were there the pool underneath it was covered and under maintenance, but even so it was worth seeing it.

  1. Incan Empire- almost everywhere

We didn’t like standing in line to Machu Picchu and the crowds there manage to kill any magic in the place but… it’s not the only one. Incas ruled areas from North Argentina to South Colombia and they created really many cities, left many incredible artifacts and even mummies. All of their constructions were one of a kind and the majority was situated on a slope of a mountain which automatically assures you there is going to be a nice view from each one of them, and a good work out to get there.

  1. Street art- whole South America

Street art was very present in our whole travel really. It all started in Argentina when we arrived in Buenos Aires and we saw murals everywhere. It was just incredible for us that there artists get payed to paint on the buildings and that they get recognition for it. Each of the masterpieces was signed and some even with a web page. The art was not only beautiful but also made us think about so many issues in South America. It was political, cultural and funny, it was everything. The passion in the street art didn’t change all over South America. We saw some incredible masterpieces everywhere, especially in big cities. The bigger the city, the brighter and more daring were the murals.

  1. Wine- Argentina, Uruguay

Both Argentina and Uruguay produce amazing wines. Argentina is already very famous for it. Unfortunately Uruguayan pride- Tannat is not so popular. It’s a shame because it’s definitely one of the most delicious red wines we have ever had, very deep and dry. When it comes to Argentina we were very positively surprised with fresh, white, fruity Torrontes.

 

  1. Textiles- Bolivia, Peru

Especially in Bolivia and Peru we saw a variety of incredible textiles of all kind- ponchos, capes, blankets, carpets and all you could think about. They were all incredibly colorful and they told us a lot about local culture. Many of them were showing funerals, chicha production (corn beer) and other community events. The form and colors were all changing depending on the region and subject.

 

  1. Christmas lights-Colombia

Colombians say it’s a pity that Christmas lasts only one month- December. It really does! On the first of December EVERYONE has to have lights everywhere. The bigger, flashier, brighter the better. In big cities like Bogota, Cali, Medellin they create tiny villages of light. They are truly incredible and surprisingly they don’t have that much to do with Christmas anymore. But it still has the atmosphere of Christmas maybe because of the booze & food stands and the crowds surrounding it. Obviously the weather is far from winter snow and cold.

 

Powerbank

The List
Our Equipment For The RTW

After the decision to leave everything and go travelling comes the most difficult part: what should you take with you? You start reading and buying all this fancy, new stuff but is it really worth it?

We had the same problem, we also didn’t know what to take and we had no idea if what we decided to bring would be handy or not. But now we know… let’s go through our list of handy, useless, and missed stuff

 

Top handy:

  1. Powerbank

We got it as a gift actually and didn’t know that it is such a life saver! We use it all the time. Our powerbank can charge a mobile phone four times and it has a light. It’s also not too scared of water which helps. Check out our powerbank the Sandberg IP54. Powerbank

  1. Backpacks

Without it there is no backpacking. The most important thing is that it’s not too big because when it is you will pack it full before you notice and then you will have to drag way more kilos than necessary! Another feature that is really handy for your big backpack is that it opens like a suitcase as well as from above.

Initially we took two 38 L BACH backpacks and a tiny itsy bitsy BACH. All three of them are still with us and serve us very well. Later on we bought two additional backpacks but about those you will read futher below:)

  1. Washing kit (line, universal sink plug and soap)

Another great gift we got! We didn’t even realize that we wouldn’t be able to just leave our dirty clothes by some laundry place or that in so many places it would be so expensive. It saved us from stinking so many times!Washing/Drying Kit

  1. Shoes

It’s very important to have good ones just because they should be your only ones if you want to travel light. We both trusted Scarpa and never regretted it. They are perfect for hiking, walking around cities and surviving rain. They are also not too ugly. They are our only footwear on the road except for flip-flops.

  1. Sowing kit

When your clothes break (and they will!) you will need it. We used it soooo many times.Sowing Kit

  1. Earplugs

Without those be prepared for many sleepless nights. There is always at least one snorer or drunk in the dorm!

  1. Microfiber towels

They are horrible, they give you this weird feeling that you don’t get dry. Everywhere we could, we tried to use a normal towel but it doesn’t change the fact that the microfiber ones dry way faster than the normal ones and they occupy way less space.

  1. Layered clothing

A key to pack clothes is to bring lots of layers so that you can still use seperate things depending on the weather. We each brought an underlayer, t-shirts, a fleece and a rain jacket. With all these layers we managed to survive in Patagonia in the beginning of the winter.Glaciers, El Calafate, Argentina

  1. Headphones

There is nothing more uncomfortable when the whole hostel hears your skype conversation. Headphones give you privacy and the right to listen to some music and watch a movie when everyone is sleeping

  1. E-reader

I personally love the smell of books, I like holding them, seeing how much I read but… they are heavy. When you want to have many books and some guide books it’s better to invest in an e-reader. P.S. E-books are also cheaper and you save a few trees- that’s what I tell myself to cheer myself up when missing a real book:)

  1. Hard drive

We take pictures almost every day and not every day we have internet to upload them. Besides uploading takes ages. So to have a backup we always have a hard drive.

  1. Universal plug adapter

Unless you are in the middle of a forest and you want to just enjoy the nature without any electronics...

  1. That little something for a special occasion

Every now and then it's amazing to put something on that doesn't have stains and holes. It doesn't have to be fancy but a shirt for a guy or a dress for a girl would be great. Believe me, there are times when you don't want to feel like a hobo!Astrid and Gaston, Lima, Peru

 

Things we missed and bought along the way:

  1. Good camera

Before we were traveling with two pocket size cameras- one underwater as we love diving and one normal compact camera. After some time of taking pictures every single day we missed something better. We had more and more the feeling that we couldn't capture what we were seeing so we went for the real deal and bought our precious Canon... and some lenses:)

  1. Other backpacks

For our camera we needed a separate backpack so we bought an amazing Lowpro one. It's absolutely perfect, it fits not only the camera but also the lenses and it has quite a big space for some food, water and whatever you want. It's also very safe because the openning of the compartment where the camera is, is at the back so when you have it on you can't even see it's a camera backpack.

Except for the camera backpack we also bought just a standard north face day pack. Our itsy bitsy was just really uncomfortable when taking big weight.

Bastimentos, Bocas del Toro, Panama

  1. Laptop

We though we would manage only with our smartphones and an old tablet but no way! To mantain the blog and work on our pictures we bought a very simple and light laptop.Alto Bonito, Salamina, Colombia

Things we took and were useless:

  1. Merino wool socks

So we took two pairs of socks each because we were told that those wouldn’t stink and were unbelievable for hiking. We wore them at home for one week straight and they were great but during the trip they were a total miss, they stunk like normal socks do and they were not as special as you would expect from 20 euros a pair.

  1. Sheets

We read it would be super dirty in hostels and we would need to use our own sheets. That was not true except for the Amazon and The Lost City in Colombia. Except for that they were useless. Although we will give them another chance when going to Asia.

  1. Money belts

Absolutely useless really. We wore them maybe twice and they were extremely uncomfortable, not to mention that after two times they stunk like sweat. We never regretted not wearing them. We never had any unsafe situation and no one ever robbed us. Well maybe except for a dirty pair of panties that got mysteriously stolen from me.

  1. Medication

We were prepared for everything starting from bladder infection to malaria and guess what … we didn’t use most of it and we had to drag it around. We only used diarrhea related stuff and that’s what we’re gonna bring to Asia. If something happens there are pharmacies everywhere.

 

Stuff we missed and will buy

  1. Speaker

When we finally had a private room and wanted to watch a movie we had to wear headphones cuz we couldn’t hear a thing. Going to Asia we will definitely take a speaker to enjoy our private cinema

Not only the Incas- other 4 great civilizations of Peru

Machu Picchu and Incas in general are THE civilization in South America. Everyone talks about them and visits their site. It seems like before them there was nothing. Well there was. And we did not even visit all of it. Here are 4 other great civilizations of Peru.

  1. Kingdom of Chimor

They ruled northern coast of Peru which looks pretty much like a dessert. They created huge mud-brick city called Chan Chan. It’s one of the biggest construction of that kind in the world. Still there was really no one who wanted to see it so we visited it without any queues or crowds. I guess Peruvians think if there are no tourists yon don’t have to protect it so we also didn’t see any guards just an old man selling tickets.

Chan Chan was founded around 850 CE and conquered by the Incas in 1420 CE.

  1. Wari

They ruled extended parts of Peruvian coast. Some say they were the inspiration for the Incas. But little is known about them. Close to Cuzco we managed to see their capital- Pikillaqta which was really impressive and… abandoned. A shame really, because rebuilt, it would be probably as breathtaking as Chan Chan.

Except for their capital, closeby Cusco there is also a Wari gate that was built over and upscaled by the Incas. It’s really weird to see and recognize two civilizations glued together.

Wari ruled parts of Peru between 500 CE and 1000 CE

  1. Chachapoyas

They are also known as Warriors of the Clouds. No wonder as all their sites are situated in the cloud forest of the Amazon where most of the times it’s misty, cloudy and rainy. Chachapoyas probably developed around 750 CE and were later conquered by the Incas. They managed to create sarcophagi on a side of a cliff and caves in cliffs where they had their loved ones buried. They even came to visit their ancestors there… They also built a massive fortress called Kuelap which has more than 400 buildings inside. Not to mention its massive wall.

  1. Moche

They created mud-brick pyramids in the northern coast of Peru (Huaca de la Luna y del Sol). Even though nowadays they don’t look like pyramids really, they have unbelievable wall paintings inside, full of colors, shapes and faces of different creatures.

Moche were in Peru between 100 CE and 800 CE.

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