it’s November 14th which means I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve finished yet another two months on this trip. when I left, I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even sure if I could make it a whole year. when I hit the 1 year mark, I thought for sure I would be going home soon. well, now it’s been 14 months on the road. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m still out here. crazy. surprisingly, traveling just doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really get old. each new country continues to be exciting and incredible in its own way. here I am in south America, the last continent on my trip, and each day is still a new adventure. 14 whole months of nonstop fun.<\/p>\n
it also means that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve spent 14 months writing about my travels in this blog. I started off updating pretty much every day. lately I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been writing a little bit less frequently, but still trying to post as much as I can. it’s funny, sometimes I feel like there are all sorts of people reading my blog… friends, family, and people I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve never met in real life. other times I feel like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m pretty much just writing for myself… which is ok too. but still, if you’re out there and reading, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d love to know. be sure to leave me a comment at the bottom of this post. actually, this will be my last “2 month update” since I am practically positive that I will not be out for longer then two more months.<\/p>\n
in the past, each two months I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve written down a list of all the things I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve done over the last 2 months. last time I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t though since it was my one year anniversary of being on the road and I wanted to write something a bit more interesting that just a long list. anyways, now I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll post both lists….<\/p>\n
in the previous two months: I saw Telepomusik perform at an outdoor festival in st Petersburg; saw the ballet Swan Lake in one of Russia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most famous theaters; hung out w\/ my friend Yan at his house in Prague; went to a church with lots of sculptures made out of bones; got new glasses and lost them; slept in an Ethiopian brothel; saw Ethiopian tribes people with huge 3 inch wide piercings in their lips; hitched rides on Ethiopian cargo trucks; saw a traditional ceremony where people get whipped repeatedly to show devotion; impressed and horrified Ethiopians with my tongue piercing; took a bus through sketchy rebel country where there had been a massacre a few weeks prior; met up with Joey; went on safari in the Serengeti where I saw lions, elephants, giraffes, etc; braved Kenya\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s vast hooker population; saw a leopard, rhino, and more in NgoroNgoro crater; had a rifle waved at me at a hidden compound in the jungle; and chilled out on Zanzibar island.<\/p>\n
in these last two months: I got the worst shave ever by an incompetent barber in Nairobi; I slept in an airport; I was horrified to spend one day back in the USA; I saw several hundred thousand penguins building their nests; I saw a rare species of black and white dolphin; I visited the southernmost city in the world, Ushuaia; I barely survived a crazy hike in Tierra del Fuego Park; I exhausted myself on a 4 day trek in Torres del Paine; I spent 4 hours exploring a gigantic glacier; I saw one of the world’s most impressive waterfalls in Iguazu; I drank lots of Mat\u00c3\u00a8; I learned a little Spanish; I saw countless flamingos, huge salt flats, blood red lakes, and bizarre rock formations near Uyuni; and I saw llama fetuses, dried out frogs, herbs, and potions for sale I the witches market in La Paz.<\/p>\n
not bad for 4 months time, eh?<\/p>\n
one of the most common questions I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m being asked now is: when are you coming back?! I always respond with “when the money runs out”, to which people ask “well, when is that?”. the answer is I dunno. it’s always really hard to tell how long money will last. sometimes I spend way more money than anticipated, sometimes I spend less. it all really depends. currently, the bank account holds $4,000 for the two of us. whenever that account gets down to only 1,000, we turn around and take the next plane\/bus\/whatever to get back home. <\/p>\n
can’t be much longer…<\/p>\n
*v<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
it’s November 14th which means I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve finished yet another two months on this trip. when I left, I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even sure if I could make it a whole year. when I hit the 1 year mark, I thought for sure I would be going home soon. well, now it’s been 14 months on the road. … Continue reading “and here i am”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rtw-trip"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thisisvlad.com\/werd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thisisvlad.com\/werd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thisisvlad.com\/werd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thisisvlad.com\/werd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thisisvlad.com\/werd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.thisisvlad.com\/werd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thisisvlad.com\/werd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thisisvlad.com\/werd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thisisvlad.com\/werd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}