teamchamtravels

[teamchamtravels]

Day 187-192 El Paredon Guatemala 🇬🇹

Feb 5 - 9, 2022

Another several hour shared van ride away (including a ferry!), we traveled to El Paredon, Guatemala. This was a small beach town on the west coast of the country that we REALLY enjoyed (we are beach people, y’all). 

Here in El Paredon, we enjoyed living in a bungalow right on the beach, the beautiful sunsets every evening, and some more rest and relaxation! This area is well known for Sea Turtles as well, so we did a tour here where we got to weave in and out of the nearby mangroves to try and spot some turtles as they came up for air. We did this with a local non-profit called La Choza Chula, which raises funds and does volunteer events for the town.

While we were on this tour we heard about a volunteer event they were putting together which was to paint the local elementary school and clean up their yard. We happily joined and gave a day to give back to the community that hosted us here. We really loved Guatemala and all the people here and it was a small way we could show how much we enjoyed our time here.

After our time in El Paredon, we caught a flight back to California for a few days to meet the newest member of our family, Warren Danaher! (You may notice a gap in time in the blog, so we just wanted to explain!) We stocked up at home for about 12 days and then headed back out for more adventures.

[teamchamtravels]

Day 181-187 Lake Atitlan, Guatemala 

Jan 30 - Feb 5 2022

After Antigua, we took a shared van 3 hours west to San Marcos La Laguna, a small town on the edge of the famous Lake Atitlan. We treated ourselves with some credit card points to stay at Lush, which was a really dreamy spot on the lake. We intended to get some much needed R&R in after our volcano hike. Our hotel had really delicious breakfasts that had a Vegan/Vegetarian theme which we both enjoyed, especially after being in a few meat-centric countries beforehand.

Right next door to Lush was the Cerro Tzankujil Nature Reserve, which had an awesome platform setup to jump into the lake at just about 12 meters high! We had lots of fun jumping into the lake here.

On our to do list here at the lake were two things: Do a Guatemalan cooking class, and dive in the lake! We found a class in the next town over, Santa Cruz, so we hopped on a lancha and enjoyed a several hour cooking class where we made tortillas from scratch with Mole, and several really delicious tamale-style entrees! Our teacher was a local from the town, and the funds for the class directly benefited the community there, which was a huge plus for us.

The next day, we hopped on the Lancha again back to Santa Cruz where the Ati Divers dive shop was located. We did two dives in the lake which was super interesting for us, since we had never dove at altitude before, and never in fresh water! We went to two different dive sites, one of which had thermal vents where you could put your hands in the mud and feel the warmth! The second spot had a bunch of really cool volcanic rock formations which we also enjoyed.

Our last adventures in the lake involved visiting San Pedro across the water, and doing a yoga class, which is a popular thing to do in our town of San Marcos. We enjoyed an afternoon in San Pedro which was a slightly bigger town than we were staying in, and had a cool vibe. For the yoga class, we woke up early the next day and hiked up to the Yoga Forrest which had a class with a wonderful view of the lake. 

On our last day in Atitlan, we had some visitors from our Acatenango Volcano hike! Their plans had changed and it was really great to see them again, it seems we have made some new friends! We’re gonna have to visit them in the UK soon. 

[teamchamtravels]

DAY 177-181 Jan 25-30 Antigua, Guatemala 🇬🇹

We decided to head to Guatemala a bit earlier because of the borders closed in Chile and the extra costs it would add to fly there! So we made it to Antigua which we loved this city so much and ended up having the most memorable volcano adventure! We stayed in a cute bnb outside of town and we spent a few days exploring, there was so much delicious food and healthy food options and amazing coffee we loved it all! We ate tons of delicious tacos and fun drinks like palomas and mezcal. We spent one day learning how to make chocolate from cacao first you heat up the beans then peel and crush them to make cacao paste. With the cacao we made three different drinks cacao tea, Mayan drink and Spanish drink all three were amazing! Lastly we made our own chocolate bars and I made mine with mint and cacao nibs and Sam made his with cayenne and coffee beans. Now for the adventure!!!! When in Guatemala hiking up a volcano is a MUST so of course we did it! The hiking was no joke it was up up up the whole time, we carried our lunch dinner and breakfast as well as all the water and out stuff so it was a bit of weight for sure! The views the entire way were so beautiful and made each step worth it. We were getting closer and closer to the base camp and we were now above the clouds ☁️ me made it to camp and put all our stuff away in the tiny cabin and then had to decide if we would hike to fuego! Well we decided to do it even though we were both so tired from the hike and this hike was even tougher y’all! We had to hike down the current volcano we were on to hike up the fuego volcano several shady ass ladder bridges and finally made it down and now heading up the fuego volcano and our legs feel like jello! The group of people we were with were so awesome and we had so many laughs even when the hiking was hard! We made it to the top of fuego and the sun was setting and it was BREATHTAKING! It was also so so cold up at the top (32 degrees) and we put on all the layers we had brought and watched as the volcano erupt right in front of us! The most amazing experience to witness this was just wowza! Now we had to hike back down and then up to camp and extra added challenge in the dark! We made it back exhausted after 9 hrs of hiking food sounded really good and we had the best hot chocolate of our lives. We didn’t sleep much in our tiny cabin because it was so cold and the volcano erupting was super loud at night but the next morning you had the option to hike up to the top of acatenango volcano and watch the sunrise and Sam was too sleepy but chels went for it. It was a tough uphill and the gravel and rocks made you sink back down with each step but made it to the top and the sunrise was absolutely amazing and you could see fuego erupt here as well. We made our way down the volcano and it was so much fun like skiing down the gravel! We all hiked our way back down the volcano and Sam and I ended with our tradition a Coca Cola! Later that day we had celebration margaritas with some of our new friends from the hike it was wonderful!

[teamchamtravels]

DAY 168-176. JAN 16-24. El Calafate, Argentina 🇦🇷

Another short, but picturesque flight away was El Calafate, another portal town in southern Argentina that has great access to Patagonia. We stayed in the Americas del Sur Hostel which was a little on the expensive side, but was a really incredible atmosphere. The staff there helped us organize several tours, navigate some reservation changes, and gave us lots of tips about how to spend our time there.

The beers and food in town were really good! Still a little heavy on the meat and potatoes side, but we were still able to find a few green things for Chels to eat.

Our first tour was by boat, exploring some of the large glaciers nearby. It was Sam’s first time seeing a glacier, and it was a great way to introduce ourselves to the region. We visited Glacier Spegazzini & Glacier Seco via a large catamaran, and had lunch at a refugio nearby. It was really cool to watch the glacier for a while and see some pretty huge pieces fall, and tons of crackling sounds the whole time. After that we cruised past Glacier Upsala but we weren’t allowed to go very close because it’s super actively melting. Sometimes waves can be several meters tall. We did however get to see some icebergs up close which was also super cool. On return to our hostel we were able to play a guitar for the first time in a while which was really nice too.

Next adventure was the BIG ICE TREK! We headed out to the Perito Moreno glacier (the most famous one in the region) where we spent all day hiking to, on, and around the Perito Moreno glacier. This was one of the coolest experiences we’ve had on the trip so far. We got picked up early in the morning at our hostel, then were taken by bus to the viewpoint of the glacier. We walked along the walkways and got a great idea for how massive the glacier is and seeing it from literally right in front was very much worth it. Afterwards we took a boat to cross the water to the moraine on the side of the glacier. There, we met our guide who took us up the side of the canyon and into the forrest where we picked up our cramp-ons and walked down to the glacier.

Using cramp-ons for the first time was weird but super fun! They were old-school iron ones that fit over your shoes and have large spikes on the bottom to help you with traction on the ice. Our guide took us to a bunch of cool formations: cracks in the ice, super deep drainage holes, glacial rivers, and more! We ended up climbing to the top of one of the peaks and got a great view of the glacier & surrounding mountains from the middle. Then we headed back and had probably the best tour wrap-up of the trip: chocolate and whiskey, with glacial ice™. Sam joked that it would be a great product because the glacial ice is so compacted that it melts much slower than normal ice (what a goof). We bussed back to the hostel tired, but super accomplished.

A few days later, we opted to take a day trip to nearby El Chaltén, which is about a 3 hour bus ride away. It’s a mountain town known for exceptional hiking in and around Patagonia, as well as the famous rock formation: Fitz Roy. We got there, grabbed some empanadas for lunch at a shop in town, and then took the Sendero Fitz Roy to Laguna Capri, where we enjoyed a lunch on the shores, and actually met a family from LA (small world!). Fitz Roy was shy at first, covered up by clouds, but after a while she showed her beautiful self and it was an amazing sight to see. We made our way back, and posted up at a bar/restaurant with some beers while we waited for our return bus back to El Calafate. We had originally planned to spend a few more nights here, but most places were booked up! We would definitely like to return and spend some more time in this awesome little town.

When we got back to El Calafate, we took it easy for the next couple days, enjoyed sunsets, and a few more restaurants in town. Then, we experienced our first major hiccup of the trip. The tour company we were using for the next location in Chile had told us they’d pick us up at our hostel in El Calafate and take us across the border via car. But we learned through the hostel that the land borders were closed and it was only possible to enter to country through Santiago, by air. This would have incurred an unexpected $3000 airline charge in order to take a minimum of 3 flights to get somewhere that was only about 150 miles away. We ended up canceling and changing all our plans to go to Guatemala, but this company still hasn’t refunded us. We’re going to try and get the $1700 we spent for the W trek tour back through our credit card, but we wanted to warn anyone planning to do this to NEVER USE the Cascada Travel company! It’s a total scam.

Thankfully, we were both able to plan and adjust to a new opportunity in Guatemala, which we knew would be an awesome option. We’re still super grateful to be traveling the world, and stuff like this can happen, you just gotta go with the flow. This hiccup didn’t ruin our time in El Calafate which truly embodied our desire to have an awesome Patagonia adventure. We’ll be heading to Chile later in the trip to get back to that trek with a different company, and we can’t wait.

[teamchamtravels]

DAY 164-168. JAN 12-16. Bariloche, Argentina 🇦🇷

After a quick flight from Mendoza to Bariloche, we arrived in a cute little mountain town, known as the northern gateway to Patagonia. We had an airbnb near downtown which ended up being a really great location. When we arrived, we were looking for a brewery nearby, which ended up not being open yet, so we got a delicious lunch at Alto el Fuego.

We were also fixing for some nice ice cream, which we had heard was a staple of the town so we headed out downtown to Rapanui where we had a hyped, but still really good, ice cream cone. The pace of the town was lively at night, but still sleepy at times. In the mornings and day time it was quite a tranquil place.

The next day, we wanted to head into the mountains a bit so we walked from Bariloche to the Cerro Otto gondola (about 5 km along the highway), and stopped for a really yummy burger along the highway. Unfortunately once we got to the gondola, the wind was too much for them to be able to operate safely. Luckily there was a free bus back to town! We ended the night with a box full of empanadas (almost a dozen) and were feeling pretty good.

Bariloche is really known for all the lakes nearby, so we booked a tour to Los siete lagos y San Martin through a nearby hotel. We drove in a little tour bus through a few towns, and past a bunch of really beautiful scenery. The lakes there are so blue and untouched, it was really a special experience. Once we arrived in San Martin, we got a quick lunch, walked around the town for a bit, then headed back to Bariloche. To end the night, we picked up some chocolate and wine and turned in.

Chels had been craving a bike tour this entire trip, which for some reason has eluded us. But this time, we decided to make it happen! We rented some bikes in town, and rode 10 miles to Cerro Campanario, where we hiked a short but VERY steep hill to the top where there was an incredible view of the area. It was another 10 miles back and we were pretty hungry so we stopped for a beer and a snack at the Kunstmann Cerveceria and tried to give our legs a short break! It felt a lot longer on the way back because there was a lot of uphill. In total it ended up being around 25 miles and we were super tired after but we had a great time.

For our last night, we opted for a fancy dinner at Caliu which was amazing. The chef was an Argentinian who trained in Barcelona and it was delicious. We had a great time here in Bariloche.

[teamchamtravels]

DAY 160-164. JAN 8-12. Mendoza, Argentina 🇦🇷

We flew from Buenos Aires to Mendoza without any issues and got to our Airbnb by taking a taxi from the Mendoza airport. Mendoza is known for wine tasting, and that’s exactly what we did!

Through Viator, we found an awesome, 4 winery tour, that included a delicious gourmet lunch. Most of the wineries we went to were on the newer side, and they were super good! We went to the following wineries: Bodega Caleum (they also make pistachios), Finca Decero (great views), Bodega Terrazas de los Andes (where we had wine and the gourmet lunch), and then finally Kaiken wines (which shares a building with Frances Mallman’s restaurant, and was the best explained tasting of the day, as well as had gregorian monk music for their casks).

The next day we headed into the mountains for some whitewater rafting, ziplining, and hot spring chillin! On the Rio Mendoza we had an absolute blast rafting, then we headed into the town nearby for a parilla lunch which was delicious. After eating, we had some time blocked to visit the Termas de Cacheuta, which ended up being way over-crowded and over-hyped. We also did a tiny zip line across the canyon there which was a little underwhelming as well. Oh well! We still had a great day.

We took some much needed chill days for the rest of our time in Mendoza, enjoying local restaurants and breweries in addition to the wine. 4 days was a perfect amount of time here.

[teamchamtravels]

DAY 156- 160. JAN 4 - 8. Falls and BUENOS AIRES 🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷

After seeing the falls from the Brazilian side, we had to see it from the Argentinian side! We grabbed a COVID test in the town, thankfully negative, then got a taxi to the border where we made our first land-based crossing of the trip so far. Another taxi on the other side picked us up and held our bags for the day while we entered the Argentinian side.

The Argentinian side felt a lot like Disneyland to be honest. It was very crowded, we waited in line to enter for about 90 minutes, and once we got in, had to wait again for another tram to get to the trailhead (trail is not entirely accurate. It’s a metal walkway over the river to the edge of the falls), called Garganta de Diablo. It was a pretty short walk, all we could see was other people on the way there. Once the railing cleared and we got a space, it was truly magical. The sheer amount of water coming down, the rainbows everywhere, and the mist on your face is worth the wait! We stayed and watched for a while then headed back.

From Iguazu on the Argentinian side, we caught a flight to Buenos Aires, and arrived late in the night. Thankfully, we learned an awesome pro tip from some other travelers in line at the falls. When in Argentina (at the time of writing), Western Union has an exchange rate that is 2x the rate at the ATM.

We stayed at America del Sur hostel in Buenos Aires which was very nice (we had a dorm room all to ourselves!). It was pretty close to everything, and Uber works really well in the city. We got tons of good food while here, from empanadas, to Choripanes, to cachorritos (hot dogs) to other great, well cooked meat! On our first day, we headed to the Recoleta Cemetary. It may seem a bit morbid, but it was really interesting and incredible to see how grand peoples’ tombs were. There’s a lot of artwork there too.

From there, we saw the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, which had lots of really cool works of art as well, from artists all over the world. Afterwards, we explored some bars near plaza Serrano and then headed to our dinner reservation: La Carniceria! This was a recommendation from Sam’s brother, and it was incredible. We couldn’t even finish all the food, but every bite was amazing. The wine? Top notch.

The next day, we explored the town nearby and walked all the way to Caminito, a little street towards the south of the city. It was also really cool to see!

On our last day in Buenos Aires, we met up with an old friend. In 2016, we went to Peru to see Machu Picchu, and met Sofia there. She grew up in La Plata, which is about 30 minutes outside of Buenos Aires. She picked us up from our Hostel and had us over to her house where we met her partner Juan and her mom! Juan had been barbecuing since early in the morning, and they had prepared everything related to Argentinian food for us to try! He made just about every cut of meat, they had tons of different kinds of wine from Mendoza, and treated us to some Alfajores for dessert (super yummy cookies with dulce de leche). After lunch, we went for a walk to the “Crystal Tree” a tree in town that was super unique (non-native), and had grown really tall and had really beautiful leaves. Then we saw the cathedral of La Plata which reminded us a lot of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. At the end of our tour, Juan inducted us into the Estudiantes de la Plata familia (a local futbol team that he was a fan of) and gifted us an old jersey of his! It was really special to spend some time with them, and it reminded us of how important it is to cherish the connections you make while traveling. A great end to our time in Buenos Aires.

[teamchamtravels]

DAY 150-156. DEC 29-JAN 4. Sao Paolo and Foz do Iguaçu, BRAZIL 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷

When we were doing the White Desert tour of Egypt, we made some Brazilian friends, Ciana and Vitor. They are a couple around our age who live in Sao Paolo and they invited us to visit them! We weren’t originally going to come to this city, but we were happily surprised that it was a great time.

We stayed in O de Casa hostel, which was super fun. It had a bar and kitchen attached, and the staff was really amazing. We explored the city on our own the first day, stopping at Batman Alley to see the beautiful street art, then headed to the MASP museum where we saw lots of modern art that originated in South America.

Our friends and staff at the hostel became our fast friends, and we had a fun time partying it up with them. The next day we did a bit more wandering before it started to pour. It was fun to hang at the hostel while it rained, but that also meant a fair few drinks as well. Around evening time we made our way to Ciana’s apartment near Parque Iberapuera.

We had a blast eating all the amazing food Ciana made for us from her home region of Brazil, called Minas Gerais. It was so great to see them again, we can’t wait for them to visit us in California. These were an amazing couple of humans, and we are so lucky to have met them.

Sao Paolo was a blast, next stop, Iguacu.

Unfortunately for us, we contracted some type of stomach bug in Sao Paolo, and we spent New Year’s Eve sick in a tiny little apartment in the small town of Foz do Iguaçu. It averaged around 99° outside. Thankfully we had decent wifi and air conditioning, but walking to the grocery store in that heat while sick was not fun. Don’t worry we recovered quickly and got to see the Brazilian side of the falls, which was really beautiful and gave us great perspective for seeing the falls closer on the Argentinian side later.

Also in case you wondered, NO, we did not get COVID. We tested negative before crossing the border.

One other hiccup in the trip was the death of Sam’s work laptop. Whodunnit: Chels. But Sam plugged it in across a hallway to charge, so it was 50/50 blame to each of us. She just walked through the charger in the dark. Thankfully we still had our phones so we were able to continue the trip while his work mailed a replacement to Chelsea’s parents at home, for them to pick up in February.

So yeah, the falls? Beautiful. Did we have a great time in Foz do Iguaçu, nah. But definitely go see the falls.

[teamchamtravels]

DAY143-150. DEC 22-29. RIO DE JANEIRO 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷

Christmas in Rio baby! Right as we arrived, we took a cooking class. This is actually a pro-tip from Sam. Whenever you travel, do a cooking class towards the beginning of your trip so that you can practice recreating the dishes along the time of your stay! It helped us perfect our Caipirinhas, Quejo Coalho, Calabesa, and a Moqueqa de Peixe (fish stew). Don’t forget the Farofa and Plantain sides that were really good with the fish! We had a great local teacher who was VERY Brazilian and we loved it. She told us tons about the culture of her country, and about her family and how food is important to them. It was a great experience.

That was on the first night we arrived, we had an Airbnb in Ipanema, which was conveniently located near Gringo Cafe. This was a DELICIOUS American breakfast spot, the owner of which is also named Sam, and is also from Santa Barbara. Small world!

We enjoyed walking around the beaches of Rio, from Ipanema to CopaCabana to Leblon. On Christmas Eve, we went for a traditional Brazilian Rodizio for dinner. It was all you can eat, and it was WAY TOO MUCH food. We were so full afterwards, it reminded us of Thanksgiving where you have to unbutton your pants and remove your belt. Too bad there was no room for sweatpants in our backpacks.

On Christmas Day we had açaí for breakfast and spent our day at the beach, as the Brazilians do. The weather was great, and we had an awesome time. We remade all of the Brazilian dishes we had learned in the class for Christmas dinner. We didn’t quite have the ingredients for the Moqueqa, do we added some salad and deviled eggs to the mix. Merry Christmas y’all!

Next up, we had to see one of the most iconic monuments in the world, Christ the Redeemer. It was real crowded, and super hot outside, but definitely a must-see. We rode up the cable car from Corcovado to see it, which was an easy Uber ride from our Airbnb.

The next day we opted in for a hike: Pedro Bonita. On the way up, we found a hiking friend A SLOTH! We watched it for like 10 minutes and then continued on the way. Shout out to the park worker who let us in early. We had gotten there at 7, but the park didn’t open up till 8. Luckily, this super nice guy let us in early so we had the trail and the views to ourselves. It was pretty special. The view over Rio from the top were unforgettable.

On our last day in Rio, besides some souvenir shopping, we headed to Pan de Azucar mountain on the edge of Copacabana beach. The gondola to the top was truly amazing. We learned it was the oldest one in South America, and something like 3rd oldest in the world. It was extremely windy at the top, like a storm was coming in (Sam predicted it was coming in 5 minutes…but Chels and Kristie had to stop at the beach on the way down at Praia Vermelha). Luckily Sam was slightly wrong, and in 15 minutes a torrential downpour ensued. Luckily we made it relatively dry into an Uber and got back to the Airbnb.

For our last dinner in town, and Kristie & James’ last one in Brazil, we went to Aprazivel Restaurante in the hills of the city. We had hearts of palm, ceviche, and a really interesting Açai guacamole. There were amazing views over the town and the coastline, which we immenesly enjoyed along with our delicious food. We had a fantastic time in Rio, and it was really nice to have some family there for our Christmas abroad.

[teamchamtravels]

DAY 136- 143. DEC. 15-22 BUZIOS, BRAZIL 🇧🇷🇧🇷

We made it to Brazil! That was a long flight! We flew from Zanzibar to Doha to Sao Paolo to Rio, where we met up with Chelsea’s parents after a quick night in an airport hotel. We rented a car and drove from Rio to Buzios first thing.

Some highlights of Buzios were: exploring the downtown area and beach, as well as a little spot called Porto Da Barra where we discovered the best cocktail of the trip so far…the CAIPIRINHA. All you need is some lime, sugar, Cachaça, and ice! Throw in some maracuya (passionfruit) or pineapple to spruce it up…you won’t be disappointed!

Buzios was paradise at its finest. On the first day we were greeted by an incredible rainbow and a killer sunset. We explored several beaches around the town while we spent a week here. Sam & Kristie became caipirinha partners while Chels and her dad went in on the cocos!

At praia do forno, Sam got stung by a jellyfish. There were jellyfish everywhere! At Praia Brava the rain didn’t stop us from jumping into the waves. We had a great time and then got an amazing dinner at the Rocka Beach Lounge. There were great drinks, amazing and affordable lobster, and a must-have dessert. Chels also got her first Kombucha in a while so that was a nice addition.

At Praia do Canto we spent a day drinking Caiprinhas, paddling around on a kayak, and walking up and down the shoreline. It was a short 20 minute walk from where we were staying. Even James went for a dip!

The next beach we hit up was Joao Fernandes, which was SUPER CROWDED, but was a cool place to people watch and every Brazilian beach vendor you could imagine was there. We tried Quejo Coalho, oysters, Chocolates, Açai, giant fish, it was great.

Later on in the week, we took a catamaran tour that included a few snorkeling activities and there were also drinks and dancing, it was really fun. The only setback was when Sam dove off the boat and split his frenum on the top part of his mouth. Blood was everywhere, but he was fine! We were just worried about sharks coming! He didn’t even realize he was bleeding, but once he got up on the boat, everything calmed down and it healed up nicely within a few days.

That didn’t stop us from heading to another beach the next day, called Geriba, where we continued our amazing trend of drinking beer & caipirinhas on the beach. Chels and her mom also snagged some cool dresses from a vendor. We topped off our time at Buzios at Mistico Restaurant, which had a great view of the downtown bay, and the food was delicious.

[teamchamtravels]

DAY 132-135. DEC 11-14. ZANZIBAR 🇹🇿🌴

By the way folks, we are wayyyy behind on this blog so the backfill is gonna miss lots of details. We may add to this later once we’re home, but it’s important for us to be here in the moment to enjoy the trip! Adding to the blogs was taking a fair chunk out of the day so we decided to pull back a bit. Just a reminder that our instagram is almost always up-to-date or at least close!

We arrived in Zanzibar after our incredible safari and we were pleasantly surprised by this beautiful island off the coast of tanzania. We stayed at Nungwi dreams on the northern shore of the island. Although the weather was cloudy, we enjoyed our stay by the pull. It was like a vacation from our vacation, but it was super nice and relaxing. The water was warm & beautiful, not even blue, more turquoise. We got in pretty late at night so pretty much just went to sleep,

There were some amazing adventures here, including a boat ride to Mnemba island, a place that was famous for being able to snorkel and swim with dolphins. We didn’t get super close but were in the water with them at a distance. It was a great place to snorkel, even though our gear wasn’t very functional.

Next adventure was a place called Prison island, which is famous for giant tortoises! We hung out with those big guys, but it made us miss Big Mama a lot. The biggest tortoise we saw was bigger than Chels! He was 150 years old and going strong. We nicknamed him Bubba.

One of the minor hiccups along the way in Zanzibar was all the ATM trips we needed. Due to inflation, the conversion was almost 2300 schillings to the USD, which meant our pockets were FULL of paper (the max denomination was 10,000).

We really loved this beautiful place and would definitely like to come back and stay longer. 3 days was too short!

[teamchamtravels]

DAY 127-131 DEC 6-10 SAFARI TIME in Tanzania 🇹🇿

helllooooo and we are back! Keeping up with this blog has been extremely challenging for us. we will write entries and then they get completely deleted when we try to upload them because of the spotty internet, but we so so much want to have this incredible digital diary of all the amazing things we did and saw soooooo here we go.

For our first day of safari we met our guide Azaria and he was so kind and knowledgeable and went above and beyond for us each day! Sam and I were both so excited for this adventure and we started at lake manyara national park and we saw all the things! Elephants and their babies, zebras, giraffes, olive baboons and silver monkeys. We also got so lucky and saw two lions hanging in the trees far away but still saw them with binoculars! The 4x4 jeep we were in was so cool and the top came up so we could stand and observe from all directions. We had amazing lunches and incredible soup every day which was chelsea’s favorite! After a full day of seeing all the animals made it to our glamping spot which was super cool and slept.

Safari day twoooo heading to ngorongoro conservation area the drive was incredible and we saw the HUGE CRATER that we will later get to go down and explore but for now headed to the Serengeti national park! We had lunch then began our safari search for wildlife and MAN O MAN did we see it y’all! 20 km into the Serengeti we saw a bunch and I mean a bunch of lions NINE of them all huddled up in the shade of a tiny bush we got super close to them in the Jeep and it was amazing to just watch them. We continued on and saw more lions and tons of zebras and even a rhino from far away, some hippos at the end of the first day we spotted a LEOPARD! Unbelievable and so so lucky also the Serengeti is truly magical and everyone should see it! We made it to our home for the next two nights and it was for reals luxury in the middle of the Serengeti this tent room/house was so amazing and the bed was so comfy.

Safari day threeee full day of exploring the Serengeti and we were so excited we saw bulls, and giraffes, and Thompson gazelles, several types of birds including a Kori bastard. we saw more lions and so many zebras. We saw zebras running out of the water a dead hippo, a lion on the hunt for zebra it was all amazing once again the Serengeti doesn’t disappoint. we got to see a herd of elephants, it was so special just to watch them eating and chilling with one another. Then on our way home it began to rain so beautifully, we made it back to our place and had a delicious dinner and amazing sleep. The next day of safari day four was lovely and also kind of sad to be leaving the Serengeti. today we saw warthogs, huge birds and hawks, giraffes tons of water buffaloes and more elephants. We realize that elephants were definitely our favorite animal of all the animals in the Safari. We also saw two lionesses and a baby cub it was so damn cute we also saw two male lions with full mains! we had a wonderful lunch and headed back to ngorongoro national Park. We made it to the Rhino lodge which was so old fashioned and special had candles and a wood-burning stove and we met some friends from Spain and chatted with them before dinner. Then we headed to sleep.

Safari day five! In the early morning we were exploring the Ngorongoro crater which was incredible our guide AZARIA went down down down made our way all the way to the base and we were greeted by a hyena. She was crossing the path slowly so we got moments to see the spots and the whole body fully. Down the road we saw two elephant brothers who were so cute one was crossing his legs being cute and the other was munching on all the plants. Next we saw a babble of baboons and a little baby one too! A few were on the hood of the car and were super curious about us. all the animals in the crater looked healthier then in the Serengeti and that is because there’s more water here and more greenery and more to eat. The next thing we saw was two male lions brothers they looked like the brothers from lion king and we saw a lioness guarding the flesh of a zebra that they had killed earlier. SO COOL! We then were able to get out of the jeep and stopped at a swamp that was extremely large and beautiful and had tea and enjoy the views of hippos and yellow birds it was so nice, then we left and headed to Arusha.

[teamchamtravels]

DAY 123-126, DEC 2-5, Dahab, Egypt 🇪🇬 & Travel day to Tanzania 🇹🇿 Thursday, Dec 2 -> Friday Dec 3 Sorry folks! Not much to write here. We mostly worked and planned these days, for the next 3 countries we are going to.

We did, however, take a break from that to go and learn how to free dive from our new friend Laura. She took us out to “The Islands” which is one of the spots we previously dived. Its south of Dahab near the Laguna and is called the Island because it has a huge coral reef pinnacle out from the coast about 100m that is full of fish and other wildlife. 

It was really amazing to learn some of the basics of free diving (how to breath, etc.) and we both tried it and got almost 5 meters down! Afterwards, we headed back to Dahab to pick up some supplies from the pharmacy and we got lunch at a place called Athanos, where they had delicious pizza and milkshakes (wait, which country are we in?) Then, laura needed to pick up something from the bakery and we headed home to do more work and planning.

Saturday, Dec 4 -> Sunday Dec 5 Travel day! We are so sad to leave Dahab, but the adventure continues, and we are equally as excited for our next location, Tanzania. 

A gnarly travel day awaited us though. We hung out most of the day (again, working and planning). The people who work at the Bridge hotel (Basem and Nadia) are the most amazing folks we’ve met in the accommodation business thus far (except for maybe, our amazing host in the Azores who helped us with our manual transmission rental car). They’ve showered us with free dinners, gifts, and more. The price of our stay here cannot be described with numbers. It’s a place that has become so special to us that we’ve already started planning when we’ll return (after the trip). 

Around 6pm, we hopped in a car to the airport in Sharm el Sheikh, about an hour away. From there, we flew an hour to Cairo, where we had a 3 hour layover until our flight to Addis Ababa in Ethiopia. That flight was about 4 hours long, with another 3 hour layover. Then we flew about 2 and a half hours to Kilimanjaro airport in Tanzania!

The arrival process was very thorough, they checked that we had filled out the special health form and gotten a PCR test prior to our flight. Then, they performed another rapid test once we landed. After that, we got our visa on arrival (we don’t trust the online ones after our Egypt visa failed twice and didn’t refund us the $50 it costed!) for $200 ($100 each). We actually didn’t have cash so we had to run outside the airport twice to get money from an ATM. Finally, after about 90 minutes after landing, we made it to the parking lot where we got a ride to our first accommodation in Egypt, Planet Lodge Arusha (about an hour from the airport). Phew! Made it! We basically collapsed in the room (after a shower, of course), and like zombies, woke up just in time for a quick drink & some cards, dinner, then went back to sleep!

[teamchamtravels]

DAY 121-122 NOV 30-DEC 1, Dahab, Egypt 🇪🇬 Today was our first day not diving, to be honest it felt a little weird! We actually slept in (we’ve been waking up at 7 the last 5 days, and while that may not seem super early to you birds it is for us!) and had a nice breakfast (the breakfast here is so good), and then Sam got some work done while Chels went for a run.

Around 1pm, we hopped in the van for a little excursion! Kamel new of a place north of Dahab (to be left unidentified, it’s a local favorite) where there was amazing slow cooked food, great cocktails, an amazing natural pool, and a view of the red sea all the way out to Saudi Arabia. It took about 90 minutes to reach by car and once we were there we knew were in paradise. We relaxed, drank, swam, and ate the most incredible dinner we’d had in a long time. It was a great time. We also met a new friend named Laura, a Spanish woman who works in Dubai (we may throw in a surprise visit there in between South America and Asia because the international expo is going on now!). She was the one who actually booked everything and was a major delight to be around! On the way home, we parted ways with Laura and Kamel, and headed to Mt. Sinai with our dive buddies Dom and Robyn. Our plan? To hike the mountain in the middle of the night, sleep at the top, and wake up to a beautiful and priceless sunrise.

  Our hike began at 10:30pm, a bit earlier than we’d planned. Normally, people leave around 12 or 1am and arrive there just in time for the sunrise. At least this way, we got to get a few hours of sleep in at the top… or so we thought… We met our Bedouin guide who walked us up the mountain, stopping only at little stalls that had snacks and drinks (we snuck in a hot cup of cocoa on the way). Once we made it to the top (around 12:30am) we rented some mattresses and 1 blanket each for the snooze at the top. The vendor at the top recommended multiple blankets, but we foolishly declined (they weren’t very cheap). Boy, were we wrong. It was FREEZING! The actual air temperature wasn’t that bad, but the wind seemed to go straight through the blanket, and even though we had all of our warm clothes on, it didn’t make a huge difference. Sam was able to get an hour or two of sleep in, but Chels had a pretty hard time.

4 hours later, it was sunrise! It was one of the most beautiful natural things we’d ever seen, and it made the freezing night completely worth it. We enjoyed it for about an hour and then hiked down and hopped in the van where we promptly slept the entire way back to dahab. Adventure for sure! We basically slept the rest of the day, and when we woke up Sam just worked a bit while Chels planned and caught up on a few things.

[teamchamtravels]

DAY 118-120 Nov 27-29 Dahab, Egypt 🇪🇬

Day 118, Nov 27, Saturday

The first sleep-in day for a while! We had a break in the morning since we had finished the basic Open Water Diver course the day before. BUT we were talking to Kamel and we learned that most of the interesting places to dive (at least where we’re going on this trip) require an Advanced Open Water Diver certification, which is done after the Open Water diver course. It wasn’t in our budget initially but we decided it was the right call to get our advanced certification as well. So, in the afternoon we suited up for our first dive of the advanced course at a place called The Islands, which is just south of Dahab near the lagoon. We learned a few more tricks about maintaining our buoyancy, and Kamel adjusted our trim. This was a key element of diving in this location because we literally got to dive and swim in and around these beautiful pinnacle reefs at this spot. We even saw a sea turtle munching on some coral, as well as a baby moray eel! This dive was absolutely exceptional. After the dive, we were invited to a Bedouin dinner with the hotel staff and our dive crew. They drove us up into the mountains for about 15-20 minutes and we had a beautiful slow cooked Bedouin meal of goats, veggies, rice, and salad. It was amazing! We talked and laughed and spent some real quality time with the people around us. They really made us feel like family here. 

Day 119, Nov 28, Sunday

Second day of our advanced course! Today we took a very bumpy boat ride up to Ras Abu Galum where we learned more scuba skills: deep diving & underwater navigation. This stuff was super cool to learn and really showed us some skills we’re going to use in the future! Our exit after our last dive was also very exciting, but not in a good way. As we were walking out of the water we saw a snorkeler in the distance shouting help. Kamel was ahead of us and had already removed his scuba gear (BCD & weights) so we shouted ahead to him (he’s a certified search & rescue diver) and he swam out to recover a woman who had gotten over-exhausted in the water. Turns out she decided to go snorkel on a day with a strong current with no sleep and while inebriated! Thankfully Kamel saved her and treated her for shock at our lounge area (covered her in towels, raised her feet, and had her breath pure oxygen, which we had because it is a treatment for decompression sickness while diving). Besides that fiasco, we had a beautiful day here and just reveled in the fact that we are in such an incredible place. We seriously cherish every moment here, it’s become our favorite place so far on the trip, easily.

Day 120, Nov 29

Last day of our diving course! We got to go out on a boat today to the south of Dahab, and we did two dives: El Shogharat and Gabr-el Bint. The focus for these was drift diving (basically diving in a current where your exit is different than your beginning) and fish identification! Our day on the boat was pure magic, it really adds a whole other level to diving. We had lunch out there and truly enjoyed all of our time. We are so grateful to Kamel and the team at Liquid Adventures for teaching us how to dive and showing us how to appreciate the world in a totally new way. 

[teamchamtravels]

DAY 115-1117 NOV 24-27, Dahab, Egypt 🇪🇬

Ok, so this is a lot of days in one post but we were mostly learning how to Scuba Dive so it won’t be too long!

Day 115, Nov 24, Wednesday

Today was our first day diving! We had been studying in all of our downtime in Luxor and during our travel day (there’s an online E-learning course with all the theoretical information), but today was our first practical learning day. We met our diving crew:

- Kamel: The instructor! He is an Egyptian born and raised in Dahab who has been diving for over 20 years. 

- Robyn: She is an English woman working on her Master Diver certification and has done well over 100 dives. She is assisting Kamel with the course and is an extra buddy for our next member, Dom for when we need to do pair exercises

- Dom: Another Brit! A hilarious and kind person who is doing the course alongside us.

We practiced several skills in the water throughout 2 separate dives for most of the day. Before each dive, Kamel briefs us on exactly what we’re going to do (usually with some delicious Bedouin tea to keep us focused). We learned how to assemble the equipment, do our buddy check prior to entering the water, the hand signals we’d be using underwater, how to ascend and descend safely, and how to actually use the equipment in the water. We also learned what to do in emergencies. It was a very full day, and we were exhausted at the end! We grabbed a few chicken shawarmas for dinner and called it a day.

Day 116, Nov 25, Thursday

Today was more training! We got up bright and early and learned more skills: weight and trim checks, how to maintain buoyancy, using our alternate air sources, and how to drain a flooded mask. We also did more emergency exercises (like what happens when you run out of air, and the procedures to do). It was so amazing learning from Kamel. Also the reefs and fish here are unreal! The water is so clear and there is so much life here.

Day 117, Nov 26, Friday

The last day of our Open Water Diver course! We went down to a different site (the previous two were at a place called the Lighthouse, a place where it’s really mellow and good for beginners) called 3 pools. The skills we practiced here were more advanced, like swimming without a mask, freeflow regulator breathing, and removing/replacing gear underwater. The course was amazing! We really bonded a lot with our group during down time between dives and learned so much. It was also nice today that we got to do some exploration in addition to skills in the dives. Another diver named Emilio had joined us today and he assisted with some of the instruction. He’s a Dutch guy who is absolutely hilarious and awesome. He’s been coming to Dahab for years and we can totally tell why -- this place is uniquely amazing.

[teamchamtravels]

DAY 114, Nov 23 Travel day to Dahab, Egypt 🇪🇬

Today for our last day in Luxor we took the opportunity to sleep in as it was a long travel day ahead! Then we got an Egyptian breakfast from our favorite little spot (we love the foul (beans) and the syrian bread and the fresh cheese!) and got packed up. Getting to the airport was pretty hectic (and more expensive than usual) because the president of Egypt is coming for the big festival in the next 24 hours. Security is WILD. Police are everywhere, the military is everywhere and are armed to the teeth. It is a little freaky but we didn’t end up having any problems. At the airport we went through security about 3 times and Sam ended up losing his multi-tool because it was metal and everyone at the airport is more paranoid than usual. We were pretty surprised though because he’s been traveling with it for 3 months without any issues and it’s the flat and the size of a credit card (NinjaWallet), but we were able to get on the flight with all of our bags this time (Aegean airlines in Greece was always making us check our backpacks). We had a connecting flight in Cairo but the layover was less than an hour, and then we were on our way to Sharm El-Sheikh. Once we landed we were picked up by a driver from our hotel (and we grabbed a quick shawarma to go) and made it to Dahab in about an hour. Our amazing room was all ready for us and it felt good to sleep after our flights!

Some more pics from Karnak and Luxor temple