“The most biologically intense place on Earth.”
National Geographic Magazine

I was scared about travelling to the off the peninsula but I never realised I’d actually be squealing with terror on the journey.

With no roads and access only by boat or foot the Osa Peninsula has maintained its wild jungles, abundant wildlife and natural beauty.

Imagine miles of uninhabited beaches, backed by thick jungle, with scarlet macaws flying overhead and spider monkeys, white-faced capuchin monkeys, squirrel monkeys and howler monkeys rampaging through the trees.

We lived only four hours away from the Osa Peninsula but still the journey there is an adventure in itself.

“Traveling two hours by boat, you will pass through the wild Mangrove Forest of the Sierpe River, and then along the stunning Pacific Coast until you reach this tropical paradise.”
Poor Man’s Paradise

Sounds pleasant doesn’t it? But think again.

The journey boat trip start in Sierpe with a calm cruise down the Sierpe River to the river mouth which is where it starts to get scary.

The passage out of the river into the open sea is notoriously dangerous with big waves, strong currents and no lifeguards to hand if anything goes wrong.

There I was travelling with the Mucho Man, our three kids aged 4, 7 and 10, and my mum aged over 70 having been told by many friends that they wouldn’t risk the boat trip to the Osa Peninsula because it’s too dangerous.

My travel companions aged three to 70 years old

That scared me but I really want to see the Osa Peninsula so we booked a trip, drove to Sierpe and got in the boat.

We all wore lifejackets but still I wondered what I do if the boat capsised or sank. Who would I save? Would I even be able to save myself?

The boat seemed seaworthy, and our captain was experienced so off we cruised and made it through the river mouth into the open sea with no problems. But the worst was yet to come.

We were staying at Poor Man’s Paradise. It’s rustic family owned lodgings with three meals a day included in the price.

Poor Man's Paradise on the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica is a short boat ride from Corcovado National Park

They had organised boat transport for us which was also included in the price with a two night stay but there is no dock at Poor Man’s Paradise, just a beach which drops steeply away to the sea.

So when our boat got close to the beach, instead of slowing down, the captain revved the engines and the air filled with the smell of diesel as we speeded up.

I had no idea what the captain was doing. I thought were going to crash straight into the beach, but magically the boat slid of the water and a short way up the beach before coming to halt without crashing into the jungle.

I squealed the whole time though.

During our stay at Poor Man’s Paradise we went on a fanstastic guided jungle hike, let the waves crash us up and down on the beach and saw a plethora of flora and fauna including the endangered tapir pictured here.

Tapir heaven is taking a siesta in a muddy pool

Described by Wikipedia as:

“a large browsing mammal, similar in shape to a pig, with a short, prehensile snout”, tapirs are actually related to rhinoceros.

I’m so glad I overcame that fear and faced an even greater unknown fear to visit the Osa Peninsula.

Here’s a video of someone else making their beach landing at Poor Man’s Paradise. I can’t hear them squealing but maybe they’d done it before.

Reading by email or in your feedreader? Click here to visit the blog post and watch the video.

Leave a comment, we’d love to hear from you. Have you ever braved a scary journey to get somewhere special?

There are myriad ways to relax but I experienced something extraordinary on my first ever visit to a spa. I was studying at London University at the time and had been busting a gut to cram as much as possible into my head about French language and literature before my final exams.

My four years at university have been focused mainly on travelling or working in pubs, shops, restaurants to fund those travels. I wasn’t a bad student though, so I went to most of the lectures and seminars. I almost always handed in my assignments.

Plus I had an advantage because, while all the french students had spent a compulsory year in France, I’d scored a French boyfriend while I was there so, modesty aside my conversational french was superbe.

But there was a lot of reading and preparation required for the French literature exams which counted for 50% of the results.

So, as my university days came to an end, I spent a lot of time studying, taking notes and generally getting stressed out by the pressure to pass.

My best friend was in the same boat and we decided that the best way for us to succeed in our exams was to make sure we were fully relaxed before they started.

We’d read about this amazing new thing called a flotation tank. This was in the late eighties when flotation tanks were new and spa days in London weren’t as popular as they are now.

It was probably the only flotation tank in London at that time but unfortunately it was in Hampstead Heath which was about an hour and a half away from where we lived.

It was expensive to use the floatation tank too and, being students we didn’t have much money, but we decided to splash out so we made the long trek by bus and underground train to the spa in Hampstead Heath anyway.

Floatation tanks have changed a lot since but then. Some UK spa breaks may have beautiful floatation rooms looking out onto gardens with tanks big enough for several people. You can then choose to leave the windows open or close the shutters and enjoy the experience in the dark.

Other flotation tanks have ceilings dimly lit with miniature lights so you feel as if you’re relaxing under a starry night sky.

But this flotation tank was very small. It was like a shallow rectangular bath tub in a very small room, just a windowless cupboard really.

The idea with floatation tanks is that you lie in the pitch dark to cut yourself from all sensory experiences and external interruptions.

It’s thought that just one hour of floating is equal to four hours of deep sleep which I was much in need of and there were many other advertised benefits that anyone about to sit exams would benefit from such as:

• Intense relaxation;
• Endorphins, the body’s natural pain killer and happy pill, are released;
• Detoxification;
• Increased creativity and imagination;
• Boosted energy levels;
• Balancing the left and right brain;
• Improved concentration;
• Stress relief.

All things we stressed out students were much in need of.

So we took it in turns to step into the lukewarm bath and float on top of the salty water. When I closed the door I was plunged into pitch darkness then, lying back gingerly, my body floated on top of the salt water as you do in the Dead Sea in Israel.

At first it was a strange experience. My body wasn’t used to floating so I kept starting like you do when you’re asleep and dream you’re falling.

The utter darkness and silence was a far cry from London life outside.

But soon I started to feel extremely relaxed and, although I didn’t fall asleep, I went into a strange altered body state. It was like one of those out of the body experiences you read about where I seemed to be floating above my body, watching it spin round and round in the flotation tank. Although that was impossible as the tank was a long rectangle which I couldn’t move around in much.

When the music came on to signal my hour was up I realised that time had been suspended too. I felt as if I’d only been in there for a few moments, not for an hour.

As my body floated the gravity and sensory free experience had rested my body and mind, letting me sink progressively into deeper and deeper relaxation which I was reluctant to leave.

When we left the spa we felt so relaxed we found it hard to walk but we stumbled down onto the underground train and back to our student digs.

Needless to say both me and my friend passed out final exams and graduated with honors that summer.

My first spa visit floated me away to new heights of relaxation and once I tried that it I just kept wanting more.

What’s your favourite way to relax at the spa, at home or while traveling?

This blog post was sponsored by Wahanda.

Costa Rica means the beautiful coast and it lives up to its name. Costa Rica is a long, skinny country bordered by the Caribbean Sea on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other.

Both the Costa Rican coasts have unique scenery and culture. The Caribbean coast has tropical fish and english-speaking people of African descent, while the Pacific Coast has long beaches and Spanish speaking residents.

Wildlife is abundant throughout Costa Rica and especially the Osa Peninsula which is known to be the most biologically diverse place on in the world and that’s a huge calling card.

When we moved from New Zealand to Central America with dreams of seeing two cannons in the wild. We never dreamed that we would have them in our garden every day, often peaking in through the window at me as I took my morning shower.

1. Get your own wheels

It’s hard to get off the beaten track in Costa Rica unless you have your own car You can hire a car or buy one if you’re going to stay longer than a month.

If you’re going to buy a car get one in the capital San Jose. You’ll have more choice and you can pick a car that might not have been roughing it around Costa Rica as much as some vehicles.

The roads are terrible in Costa Rica. In the wet season, which runs from March until November you can expect a lot of washouts and landslides. Yes that’s nine  months of torrential rain,  usually from 4pm to 6am and sometimes all day too. Even in the “dry” season when the roads are good they’re still full of potholes and you might have to cross rivers.

The bad roads cause heavy wear and tear on cars and cars break down a lot in Costa Rica. Car mechanics aren’t that good either (many don’t own their own car) so expect to have car problems. It is part of the Costa Rican experience but it’s worth it. Do your due diligence before you buy a car and keep your fingers crossed.

If you hire a car you shouldn’t have so many problems but either way you will need a four wheel drive vehicle with high clearance.

Our car, a Hyundai Galloper, took a beating in Costa Rica. It also spent a lot of time being fixed. Once the roof rack fell off as we were driving along. I blame the kids for treating it as a jungle gym. Luckily no one was hurt.

2. Don’t book accommodation before you go

You can often find better deals or new accommodation not mentioned in the guidebooks or online once you get to Costa Rica. The best thing to do is ask the locals in shops or walk into accommodation places and ask to see what the rooms and rates are like. If you can’t see what you need then ask someone if they know where you can find it.

When we decided to stay permanently in Costa Rica we rented two cabinas next door to each other in a small, locally owned set up. Three generations of Costa Ricans lived there it was owned by the mother and run mainly by her daughter and son Diego who live there his wife and their son Diegito.

There was a restaurant on site where we ate a lot but the family also let us use their kitchen so I could cook some familiar meals for my kids. We thought it would be quick for us to find a house to rent but that wasn’t the case. We ended up spending three weeks as part of their family which was a great experience for everyone.

The cabinas in a were about 100 meters from a beautiful Uvita beach, the local school where our boys were enrolled was a five-minute walk away and the cabinas were surrounded by a massive shady mango trees. Of course our Spanish improved lots from speaking to the owners and our kids made some local friends.

Eventually we found a house to rent after bumping into some Americans outside a local shop who were leaving  and needed someone to finish their lease for them. Our two other houses were found through word-of-mouth.

The only place where you need to book accommodation in advance is the Osa Peninsular where accommodation is scarce and expensive. Many areas of the Osa Peninsular are only accessible by boat and transport is often included in the accommodation rate or organised by the hotel although I wouldn’t really call Poor Man’s Paradise where we stayed a hotel.

Our daughter Kiara with Diegito and Diegoto with his dad Deigo

Our accommodation in Uvita with four new cabinas in a row. We rented two of them with private bathrooms, hammocks and plenty of shade for around $450 per week.

3. Walk everywhere

Once you’ve got to where you want to be ditch the car and start walking.

You can’t see the wildlife if you’re whizzing by too fast and it’s best noticed and appreciated on foot. I spotted monkeys, sloths and giant morpho blue Morpho butterflies on my morning walks.

Snakes, dolphins and anteaters at the beach.

Toucans, massive lizards and woodpeckers in my garden.

Not to mention hummingbirds, giant crickets and bats in my house. Actually one of the bats ended up in the toilet. Don’t worry, I saved it.

A howler monkey visiting our cabinas in Mal Pais

If you don't find seeing bats or giant stripey cockroaches interesting beware of Costa Rica

4. Avoid touristy places

You want to get out of San Jose as fast as you can and avoid touristy places like  Tamarindo and Jaco which are package holiday destinations.

Manuel Antonio National Park is also popular destination but it’s definitely worth visiting especially if you’re short on time and need to see wildlife urgently. It’s a beautiful spot and we saw a lot of monkeys, sloths and many other creatures there plus it’s a gentle walk so easy for children and even my mum when she visited us.

You can see wildlife almost anywhere in Costa Rica if you take time to spend time in a place and walk around slowly and carefully observing things closely.

Our boys picking their way through the pot holes on the way to school

5. Learn some Spanish

If you learn some Spanish you can shop where the local shop, go where the locals go and hear a lot of amazing stories.

I did spend some time learning Spanish before I moved to Central America, although not as much time as I spent learning to dance the salsa which definitely wasn’t as useful.

We used a Spanish learning course with podcasts that we could listen to and take to Costa Rica along with printouts.

You can listen to podcasts at home before you leave but to learn a language you need to speak to people. I spoke to everyone in Costa Rica: every taxi driver, every hotel owner and everyone I met in a shop.

Most of them were subjected to the same personal questions such as: Have you got a family? Where do you live? or How old are you?

It’s amazing how happy people are to see you trying to learn their language and how helpful they are.

You need a good dictionary to clear up misunderstandings and learn new vocabulary because as long as you keep improving your vocabulary you’ll carry on learning.

My Spanish grammar is very poor but I can understand what people say to me and make myself understood which is the important thing.

If you think understanding Costa Rican spanish is hard try talking to a Costa Rican on the phone. Here I am trying to make sense of something very important... like if my housekeeper can come tomorrow, if the car will ever be fixed or when I'll get water in my house again.

Photo taken by friend and Costa Rica resident Richard Margoluis

Share your tips for seeing the real Costa Rica or any other destination. How do you get off the beaten track when you travel?

Please leave a comment or your feedback we’d love to hear from you.

Imagine a Caribbean island, a one horse town which the horse has wandered away from, a place where life has slowed to a gentle crawl. Here the clear blue seas are filled with exotic fish, the trees heavy with bread fruit and the roads a quagmire of mud so often impassable.

That’s Bocas del Toro in Panama. There’s not much to do in Bocas except learn to surf, hop in a boat to explore other off shore islands or take a cooling swim. But what else would you want to do?

A marks the Bocas del Toro Island travel hot spot

Having just spent 10 years living on a Pacific Island in New Zealand before moving to Central America to find a new home we knew Bocas del Toro wasn’t a place we wanted to settle permanently.

Much as we loved Waiheke Island we’d vowed never to live on an island again. But Bocas del Toro was a special place, a place we might never return to and one we didn’t want to rush through. So we decided to stay for a month.

Traveling With Kids

The traveling Candy kids

The other reason we decided to stay a while in Bocas del Toro was that traveling can be hard work but when you’ve got three kids in tow it’s three times as hard. We traveled with the Candy kids, then aged two, five and eight years old, for about six weeks through Guatemala and Panama  before we needed a break from the grueling schedule of moving on every few days.

I am a homeschooler at heart but in practice I’m not cut out for spending every hour of every day with my children. I’m a hands on mum, I’ve always worked from home and usually work as little as possible so I can spend the majority of time with my kids. But after six weeks of living out of bags, of packing and moving on, of worrying and watching our children closely everywhere we went and of having no dedicated child friendly places to hang out in, we went we were ready to unpack our bags and relax for a while.

You never really get to know a place properly unless you spend more than a few days there and Bocas del Toro was a place we wanted to get to know.

When you visit a place you love and may never return to you should stay there as long as you can so that’s what we did in Bocas del Toro.

Arial view of Bocas Town in Panama

Finding a House to Rent in Bocas del Toro

It wasn’t easy to find the right place to stay for a month even though our wish list only had three things on it. We wanted to find a house:

1. In a neighbourhood where we’d be living cheek to cheek with local people.

2. With a kitchen so we could do our own cooking because the joys of not cooking soon wear thin, especially when you have to pay a restaurant bill for five people three times a day, some of whom refuse to eat it anyway.

3. With at least one separate bedroom so we weren’t all living in the same room because for the last six weeks traveling all five of us had been crammed into one room just about everywhere we stayed.

To find our house I asked hundreds of people on Bocas del Toro Island including expats and locals in hotels,  restaurants, shops and anywhere else I could think of. We left no stone unturned and eventually someone said they knew someone whose brother-in-law might have a house to rent.

So off we went to see our new home which turned out to be the perfect spot.

Our neighbourhood in Bocas del Toro

For rent of around $1,300 a month we hired a small wooden gingerbread cottage with three bedrooms perched over the water with its own deck and dock. Our casa was bright blue and looked out over an inlet to the mangroves on the other side of the water and the airport.

We couldn’t actually see the runway but it was fun to watch the planes taking off and landing; there aren’t that many scheduled flights to Bocas del Toro so the planes coming and going were an event rather than a nuisance.

Best of all we were completely surrounded by locals as there weren’t any other foreigners living in our neighbourhood including the landlord and and his family who lived one meter away from us across the water and quickly became friends.

The Candy kids played with the other kids messing around in a dugout canoe, falling into the water and splashing around. We also spent a lot of time in the hammock on the deck, sometimes arguing about whose turn it was, but often just sitting or hanging there watching what was going by. Maybe a bird, a boat full of bananas or some fishermen coming home with their catch. There was always something going on so we didn’t need a TV.

Mucking around in the water with the locals

Our two year old girl went to a local school and childcare centre in Bocas Town a five minute communal taxi ride from our home. The school was private and fee-paying, but the kids were split evenly between local and foreign kids so she was immersed in the culture and started learning spanish.

The private and local schools weren’t an option for our boys, then aged five and eight, so we hired a backpacker to look after them.

Shanice, a Dutch traveler turned babysitter, who’s now an aspiring actress, came two or three days a week to play with the children and look after them so the Mucho Man and I could have a break and explore Bocas Island together.

Shanice became a firm favourite with the whole family and was quickly nicknamed “the evil babysitter” by our kids even though she was clearly an angel.

So what is there to do on Bocas del Toro?

1. Do nothing. This should always be one of your main goals when traveling and Bocas is the perfect place to do nada. We could happily spend hours wandering around town, hanging out with the locals and chewing the fat with them.

2. Go surfing. Most of the expats who’ve moved to Bocas del Toro love it because the surf is fantastic, the water warm and with few people in it. I learnt to surf in Bocas at the Azucar surf school with the lovely Jessica and Mike who became friends and have a little boy the same age as our little girl.

3. Eat. When you’re travelling it’s always a pleasure  to eat new foods and try different things. We’d often go out to lunch together and the local chicken casserole became a favourite especially at Flip Flops restaurant which overhangs the water. The food in Central America isn’t the best but if you like chicken and rice you’ll be fine. It’s just a question of trying everywhere so you can find out who cooks it best.

There’s a restaurant in Bocas Town called Red Rooster which is like a fast food joint and a great place for us to take the kids for an icecream in the evening while we enjoyed a bit of people watching in the town square. One day we were thoroughly entertained as the staff chased a large rat round the restaurant and tried in vain to catch it

4. Explore the main island of Bocas del Toro and the other nine islands nearby. You can get a taxi or a shared taxi down to the bottom end of the Bocas Island if you want to get away from the “hectic” main town or hop on a water taxi to one of the other island.

Bastimentos Island is the most popular for day trips to Red Frog Beach which is famed for the poisonous red dart frogs. Or see if you can get to Wizard Beach. Apparently it’s only a 30 minute walk but when we went it involved an epic walk over hill and dale through exceedingly deep and sucky mud. It was a crazy thing to do with three kids but I’m glad we did. I think Max’s shoe’s still stuck in the mud there though.

The far end of Bocas del Toro

5. Nightlife. If you like meeting real characters you’ll find plenty of them in Bocas del Toro. Head to any one of a handful of bars or the only nightclub and one of them will approach you soon enough. If you stay too long you’ll end up spending much of your time trying to avoid them.

6. Swim. The beaches aren’t stunning white sand beaches and because of all the rain the sea is often murky but it’s hot so you’ll want to swim from any beach, dock or boat you can find. Look out for dolphins, beautiful giant yellow and blue starfish or tiny iridescent fish that light up the water at night.

Delphino leaping off Bocas del Toro

Travel Memories and Serendipity

The best memories I have got of Bocas del Toro are the many times that we wandered around Bocas Town, the funny, friendly people we met and the strange and silly things that happens to us.

Most of all I loved hanging out at our home away from home with the locals. I developed a slight obsession with the neighbours on the right and spent a lot of time taking photos of their house because there were so many people and animals coming and going.

Taking photos of our neighbour's house was a favourite covert activity

I cherish the friendships we made there, not just with other travelers or people who’ve moved to Bocas, but especially with our landlord and neighbour on the left.

My daughter with a local friend

One day he invited me on a boat trip to visit a house he was building on remote island. Suddenly there were dolphins right in front of the boat and it was one of those moments were you just pick up the camera click the button then, by complete coincidence at that exact moment a dolphin leapt out of the water, dark skin glistening, water spaying off it’s back shimmering like gems.

Travel is about taking a month or so to really spend time somewhere and just hangout doing nothing. It’s about those chance encounters and opportunities that come your way and about making your own luck by being in the right place at the right time.

So if you want to get off the fast track and slow life down head to a real Caribbean Island and rent yourself a house in Bocas del Toro.

Our Home Away From Home in Bocas Del Toro, Panama

Have you ever had a home away from home?

What do you think of this genuine rasta hat I picked up in Zimbabwe?

It came without dreadlocks so it was much more wearable when I bought it but sadly it’s not the kind of thing that looks good on a white woman. I knew that at the time but I just couldn’t resist buying that hat. The red, gold and green stripes set off by black sang out at me.it was bright, zany and a little bit crazy. So much like my life in Zimbabwe.

I loved that hat and even though I never wore it I could never bear to part with it.

I hung onto it for 12 years and when we moved to New Zealand it was tucked safely into one of twenty boxes we shipped over there from the UK.

There it sat unused in a drawer until my first child was born and grew old enough to enjoy dressing up. It was the first item in our fancy dress box, so often tried on but never worn for long.

Until I added the dreadlocks that is, plaited out of some old wool from a second hand shop and hand sewn into the hat.

Once the dreads were in place my rasta hat took on a life of it’s own. No one could resist trying it on and kids went wild for it.

When we moved to Central America I left my rasta man hat behind in New Zealand. I’m not sure where it is now but I’m glad I have the photo and the memories it connects, from my days as a young woman in Zimbabwe to my first experiences of motherhood and life in New Zealand.

Hopefully my Zimbabwean hat found a good home to go to and those rasta man vibrations are still traveling round the world spreading happiness wherever they go.

What’s Photo Faves?

I’m thinking of adding a new series to Get In the Hot Spot featuring a weekly photo and short story to go with it called Photo Faves. Each week or month there’ll be a new theme. What do you think?

Have you got a treasured travel souvenir? Can you share a photo of it?

Link Up So We Can All See It

Tell us about your travel souvenir in the comments or share your fave photo of a travel souvenir on your blog. If you link back here your post will get a link to it at the end of this post so everyone can check it out.

Do people travel because they want to get lost or because they’re lost souls?

In why people love to travel the third reason I mentioned was that people travel “to find themselves”.

The accompanying photo of me in local Indian garb suggests that, even after a decade of traveling I hadn’t found myself yet. I look a bit lost. Suffering from identity confusion maybe. In that photo and in that Kerala village I’m so far from my upbringing as a middle-class English girl it’s almost not funny.

But spending four months in India and dressing up in the local garb from time to time (I hope I didn’t dress that way every day) also showed a measure of confidence. The confidence to  assert that it doesn’t matter where you travel to, what you wear when you get there or how good or bad you look.

You are still you no matter where your travels take you or what tricks your sense of style is playing on you.

I started traveling when I was 18 to get lost, to get away from my roots and parental expectations about how my life would pan out.

I traveled because my parents dissuaded me from following a career in writing but I didn’t know what else to do. The route my parents suggested of secretarial school followed by marrying a well-to-do young man didn’t sound like my cup of tea.

I also wanted to escape because I felt like a bit of a misfit in England.

I wasn’t like most of the other middle-class English girls I was friends with. They were quite happy to stay in the town where they were raised. They had no great desire to see the world, or even to see much outside their local environment, whereas I was driven by an urge to travel wide and far.

That drive and curiosity is a part of my personality that has seen me explore not just the four corners of the earth but also every nook and cranny of the area I’m living in or visiting. If you come for a walk with me I’ll probably try to persuade you to go a bit further:

“Let’s just go round the next corner to see what’s there.”

It’s an endless and fruitless quest because I’ll never travel to or see everywhere but can’t help trying.

Even as a child I knew that I wasn’t destined to live in England permanently and I’ve spent much of my adult life working out where I do want to live. The problem is that there are so many great places to live in that it’s impossible to choose. Why would you anyway if you don’t have to? I’m lucky to have plenty of options open to me so that’s why I’ve been leading a nomadic lifestyle for almost 30 years.

Trying to get a little bit lost in the Lago de Atitlan, Guatemala

How Travel Took Me From Lost to Found

Travel gives us a chance to reinvent ourselves if we’ve lost our way in life as I had when I was younger. Back then I lacked the confidence to follow my dreams in the face of parental disapproval but these days I know that if I don’t follow my dreams and make myself happy no one else will.

Travel allows us to free ourselves from the bonds of family and friends who may have known us all our lives and have certain preconceived ideas about us we’d like to shake off. It allows us to emerge fresh and new from the plane, train or bus a stranger in a strange land who could be anyone and go anywhere.

Travel empowers us because it shows us we can do anything and go anywhere if we dare to try it. By reaching out for adventure and seeking foreign lands we gain a true sense of ourselves, the sense that we can overcome small set backs and even conquer the world.

Travel teaches us that we don’t have to accept the status quo of the people and place where we happen to have been born. We are free to roam the world and find a status quo that suits us better or even create one that is unique to us.

Many times when I’ve been travelling I’ve literally been lost. I have a horrible sense of direction which doesn’t help.

But in the end, no matter where I’ve been and how hard I’ve tried to lose myself in other languages, cultures and scenery, I’ve always ended up finding out a little bit more about  myself through traveling and coming one step closer to knowing that I’m not lost.

I am not a lost soul. Through travel I have finally found myself and gained the confidence to be myself.

But I still want to get lost again from time to time.

Have you ever traveled because you felt a little bit lost? Or traveled because you wanted to find yourself?

It’s not just friends you’ll meet traveling the world. There are a few different travel types to watch out for when you go traveling and a handful of oddballs out there too.

Can you spot some people you’ve met during your travels in this list? Or maybe even yourself?

1. Budget Traveler

If you love travel then you’ll be well used to budget travel. Most of us have a budget to stick to when we’re traveling and it’s usually a small one if you’re young, or if you’ve got kids of your own.

Sometimes the budget might run a bit low at the end of your travels if you overspent at the beginning or underestimated the travel costs. On the odd occasion you might end up running out of money all together or end up in a bit of a pickle with nowhere to stay because all the budget accommodation is fully booked. That happened to me once and I ended up wrapped in kitchen towels for warmth and free sleeping in Munich, Germany during the Oktober Fest. I don’t recommend it.

But apart from such extreme cases being a budget traveler is perfectly normal and nothing to be ashamed off. Just as long as you’re not a tight arse traveler.

2. Tight Arse Traveler

According to the Urban Dictionary a tight arse is “Australian slang for someone who is so careful with money they are like raccoons with acorns.”

The Tight Arse Traveler leaves home with a minute budget. They eek out every centimos and brag that they’ve been living in India spending just 85 rupees a day by eating only rice and fruit.

They are scruffy, dour and malnourished. Like the female German cyclist the Mucho Man and I met who was cycling round New Zealand’s South Island. It poured for an entire week so we were marooned with her at a campsite near Fiordland in torrential rain.

She slept in a tiny tent and spent the days in the communal kitchen trying to warm up and dry off. She told us that to save money she never used campsite washing machines or clothes driers.

She explained that she washed her clothes by hand and put them on wet in the morning then, come evening, they were dry again thanks to her body heat.

Being a human clothes drier didn’t look or sound like much fun to me, so while budget travel is fine make sure you don’t overstep the line and become a tight arse traveler.

3. Gone Local Traveler

These travelers have been in one place or country for over a month. They usually speak a smattering of the language, know a few locals and know their way round. Sometimes they think they own the place and maintain an air of superiority over other travelers.

Gone Local Travelers don local garb or hippy traveler clothes, often involving bright colors and weaving, they picked up on the road. I’ve committed this travel faux pas many times wearing a traditional sinh in Laos most days when I was working in the capital Vientiane teaching English to customs officers.

Lao sinhs are one long piece of dense silk heavily embroidered in a deep stripe across the bottom. The rectangle of material is sewn into a circle then folded over at the waist to create a skirt with the embroidery at the bottom. It not only fits everyone and suits all but assures modesty when cycling or scooting round Vientiane.

That wasn’t an isolated incident either – check out the photo me in local Indian garb in Why do People Love to Travel?

Guilty as charged.

4. Gone Troppo

These travelers have been in one place or country for over six months and it’s sent them a bit batty.

They don’t hang out much in the travel scene any more so you might not run into them too often and even if you do you probably wouldn’t realize they were a traveler and not a local.

When we first arrived in India we were picked up at Delhi Airport by our friend who’d been traveling in India and Pakistan for six months. With dark eyes and Mediterranean skin Pete the Plank as we called him was clad top to toe in a grubby beige Pakistani traditional outfit of baggy trousers and long overshirt which made him almost unrecognizable.

If he hadn’t been staring at me so intensely I mightn’t have recognized him at all.

Looking back I almost wish I hadn’t because Pete was a classic Gone Troppo traveler and not a happy camper either.

Sometimes the fun runs out of travel and when that happens it’s time to move on or go home.

5. Dodgy Traveler

Some people travel to see the world and others to avoid being seen. Some may be traveling to get away from home after scrapes with the law, unpaid taxes or criminal convictions.

Like the British man I met in a bar in Miami who told me he’d spent time inside then wondered why I wasn’t interested in his persistent romantic advances.

Then in Fiji I met a young American traveler staying at a backpacker’s island resort who claimed that he was there to buy a Fijian island then mysteriously had to be evicted from the resort for unpaid accommodation, food and bar bills.

Every female traveler on the island instantly knew he was dodgy because, although he was a bit of a looker, his pick up line of guessing your star sign then wowing you with his tales about buying a Fijian island were so ludicrous they made every woman run a mile.

It’s a shame the locals find it harder to pick up on dodgy travelers though.

6. Hypochondriac Traveler

Spotting yarns spun by dodgy travelers can be fun but hanging out with a hypochondriac traveler isn’t.

They will regale you with detailed accounts of their rashes, back aches and tummy problems, then refuse to drink anything except rehydration salts. They will grill every waiter at length about the contents of their meal then, when it arrives pick at it aimlessly or send it back.

Their bottle of hand desanitiser gets a regular working out as you work out how to escape their clutches.

7. Scheduled Traveler

The Scheduled Traveler has spent months planning their trip. They want to see and do as much as they can in the given time and will not alter their schedule come hell or high water.

No room for spontaneity and a grueling schedule often makes the scheduled traveler grumpy, especially if local transport isn’t as regular as it is in their home country.

8. Party Animal

Party Animals flock in large crowds to party hot spots. They stick together in a group and even if they do get off the long-nights-partying-sleep-all-day cycle, it’s only to go to the beach and start drinking early in the hot sun.

Some destinations have been ruined by party animals like Majorca in Spain which is overrun with British party animals, Bali by Australians and Florida or Mexico by young Americans.

It’s fun to party but it’s tiring and one-dimensional to hang out with party animals all the time.

9. Trust Fund Baby

The trust fund baby is having a lovely time traveling the world with money being no obstacle. Despite being a bit directionless they can be fun to hang out with if you can afford to keep up with them by spending it up large every day and at every meal.

They’ve probably been on all the tours the budget travelers can’t afford and might be studying the local language or art so they have another string to their bow when they go back home to mummy and daddy.

10. Love Sick Traveler

This type of traveler is pining for the girlfriend or boyfriend they left at home. They spend a lot of time emailing or calling them and talk to them as often as possible.

When not talking to their far flung love they are talking about them. Usually wondering what they are up to or wishing they were here. Yawn.

So watch out for these travel types and take time to talk with them when you’re traveling the world.

While they may not end up becoming lifelong travel friends they should give you a few good travel stories and keep your love of travel alive when you get home again.

The diverse people you meet on the road are often the most amazing thing about travel – and even the oddballs make you want to keep on traveling.

Have you met any of these types of traveler while traveling? Or maybe you have another travel type to add?

It’s not just the cold that will take your breath away when you visit Myotsu-ji Temple in rural Japan.

The grand red entrance way leading over a bridge crossing the Matsunaga River heralds something special.

Myotsu-ji Temple  once had 25 buildings but now only a main building and a stately pagoda remain.

Hidden in the mountains and set deep in an ancient forest of Japanese cedar trees, magic lingers in the air where the splendid strength and symmetry of the temple buildings is matched by the giant cypress trees.

This is a spiritual place, even without the snow-capped mini replicas of Buddha people have left in the gardens to make their wishes come true or the four giant statues of Buddha inside the temple that are designated of national cultural importance.

A Buddhist Temple was first established here in 806 and the three storey tower is a national treasure, the only one in Fukui.

Inside the temple photography is banned but mystical Japan awaits.

The black cypress altar is detailed with gold. Gods stand guard on either side and in front red cushions and altar cloths are richly embroidered with gold and festooned with golden hangings adorned with bells and gigantic golden lotus flowers.

Sit down, relax and soak up the magic all around you.

Just don’t forget to breathe.

Travel Tips

Myotsu-ji Temple is in Fukui prefecture on the west coast of Japan, a ten minutes drive from Obama station and an hour from Tsuruga.

For more information about Fukui, including Myotsu-ji Temple along with other cultural or historical sites and accommodation visit Fukui Tourism.

I was honored to be a guest of the Hokuriku-Shinetsu District Transport Bureau. To find out more about Fukui Prefecture or to plan your trip visit the Fukui Tourism Guide website.

You can experience great outdoor adventures in many countries but there are some countries that outdoor enthusiasts and adventurers should definitely travel to.

Top 10 Countries for Outdoor Adventure Travel (In No Particular Order)

1. Australia

The land down under is not only one of our world’s continents but also a country that’s stuffed with activities for any outdoor adventure traveler. In Australia water sports are king. Try surfing, kayaking, windsurfing, jet skiing, speed boating and sailing. There are plenty of surf schools so it’s perfect for new surfers.

No trip to Australia would be complete without visiting the Great Barrier Reef, climb Ayer’s Rock or the Blue Mountains, taking a drive down the Great Ocean Road or heading to Tasmania.

If you want to venture inland try trekking in the Outback, biking, spelunking, hiking, balloon rides and eco-camping. You can take in the aboriginal culture by visiting Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park. There are so many outdoor adventure activities in Australia many travelers make it their second home.

2. Nepal

Nepal is the home to the Himalayas. Featuring the tallest mountain peaks in the world including Mt. Everest, Nepal boasts mountain sports and a rich culture.

Popular adventure travel activities include trekking, mountain biking, rafting and paragliding. Or you might like to try hot air ballooning.  The wildlife is extraordinary with national parks and game reserves that offer 4×4 safaris and elephant rides to see Bengal tigers, rhinos, crocodiles and an array of birds and butterflies.

Treks such as Tamang Heritage Trail, Indigenous Peoples Trail, the Numbur Cheese Circuit and many others will allow you to experience the Nepalese and Tibetan culture.

3. South Africa

Travel to South Africa for safaris where you can spot lions, elephants, zebras, giraffes, cheetahs, and rhinos. The world’s highest bungee jump at an exhilarating 216 meter drop off Bloukrans Bridge brings adventure seekers from around the globe. Then there’s the highest abseil on Table Mountain at 112 meters. There are many other outdoor adventures such as horseback riding, hiking and mountain biking.

If you’re more into water sports try scuba diving, snorkeling, white water rafting, shark diving, fishing, surfing and water ski-ing. There are also boat tours to see right whales and great white sharks.

4. Switzerland

Switzerland is one of the most beautiful countries in the world. You can find every mountain sport imaginable in the Swiss Alps. This country is a mountaineers’ and skiers’ dream. While traveling in Switzerland is expensive, the experiences you have here make it worth while.

This winter sports haven includes but is not limited to ski-ing, snowboarding, tobogganing, ice climbing and ice diving.

The summer also gives travelers a plethora of activities such as hiking, Nordic walking, rafting, spelunking, hang gliding and fishing. With medieval castles galore, Switzerland comes to life with outdoor beauty that adventure travelers love.

5. New Zealand

Deemed one of the most beautiful countries in the world, New Zealand is a fantastic destination for any adventure lover. New Zealand is a small but it has majestic mountains, volcanoes, rivers, and beaches. The coastline offers kayaking, surfing, jet boating, scuba diving, wake boarding and white water rafting.

Drier activities include trekking, climbing, bungee jumping, biking, skydiving and mountaineering. There is also heli-skiing, snowmobiling, snowboarding and ice climbing.

A special treat awaits visitors by way of spelunking or black water rafting through the glowworm-lit caverns and underground rivers of the Waitomo Caves.

New Zealand is also considered one of the world’s best diving spots with places such as The Poor Knights, Bay of Islands, Fiordland and Stewart Island excellent for new or experienced divers.

6. British Columbia

The province of British Columbia in Canada is a hot spot for outdoor adventure and activities. Known as the adventurer’s Eden, British Columbia has spectacular views and multicultural charm.

British Columbia is best known for its winter sports and the energy you get as soon as you exit the plane. With ski-ing, snowboarding, heli-skiing, snowmobiling, and snowshoeing available who wouldn’t want to travel here?

Whistler Blackcomb ski resort hosted the 2010 Olympics along with Vancouver. For an added thrill many skiers can go to the back-country, however, if you plan to do this take an introductory class and carry a beacon.

Winter sports aren’t the only type of outdoor experience you can have. During the summer mountaineering, mountain biking, hiking, horseback riding, backpacking, fishing, white water rafting, camping and heli-tours are popular choices. Whale watching, kayaking, canoeing, fly fishing, sailing, diving and surfing are also options on the coast and in the lakes of the Shuswap.

7. Madagascar

An island that sits off the coast off of Africa’s mainland, Madagascar is full of things to do for outdoor adventure travelers with mountains, rain forests, coral reefs, beaches and unique wildlife. Being an island there are plenty of water sports including surfing, white water rafting, snorkeling, kayaking, sailing and even diving with sharks.

Inland Madagascar offers mountain biking, hang gliding, trekking, climbing, spelunking, camping and much more. Aside from the many activities there is an awesome ecosystem. You can see elephant birds, chameleons, fossa, lemurs and the hissing cockroach or go  whale watching.

8. Norway

Close to the Arctic Circle, Norway is the place to travel to for winter sports. Known for the gorgeous mountains, fjords, and coastline and home to the infamous Vikings, Norway has the perfect outdoor adventure  experiences.

In Norway you can try downhill and cross-country skiing, snowboarding, dog sledding, ice skating, tobogganing, ice fishing, snow kiting, and ice climbing.

In the summer the mountains provide fishing, hunting, rafting, cycling, mountaineering, trekking, and climbing.

Norway’s fjords are perfect for water sports including, but not limited to, sailing, canoeing, diving and kayaking. Nature lovers will enjoy a safari to see reindeer, king crab, musk ox and diverse bird-life. Or go on a whale watching tour or, for the really adventurous try swimming with killer whales.

9. Costa Rica

Costa Rica is an oasis of wildlife. Horseback riding, 4×4 driving, bungee jumping, waterfall rappelling , whitewater rafting, and zip-lining through the rain forest await you.

The base of Arenal volcano is an outdoor playground. You can take a guided evening tour through the rain forest ending with a night-time view of active lava boiling at the top of the volcano. There are tons of water sports and it’s a real treat for surfers with waves of 4 to 10 feet during the wet season and 3 to 8 feet in the dry season.

10. Patagonia

If you like outdoor adventure travel you’ll love Patagonia. From dinosaur discoveries to whale watching, hanging on a traditional ranch to ice climbing, Patagonia has an array of activities to tickle anyone’s fancy.

Patagonia adventure activities include horseback, rock climbing, hiking, ice climbing, ice treks, whale watching, penguin watching, and even a barbecue on a ranch. Also, if it interests you, watching one of the largest glaciers (Glacier Grey) is possible as it moves about two meters per day dropping building size icebergs as it goes. There are many national parks and a series of maintained trails throughout Patagonia to suit all fitness levels.

With so many countries for outdoor adventure lovers to travel to the hardest part is deciding where to go next.

Guest post by Nick Sotos. Nick is a a rock-climber, a hiker and a traveler. His outdoor adventure travel blog has discount coupons like the Rock Creek Coupon and the latest Sierra Trading Post Coupon along with product reviews and outdoor tips and tricks for the adventurous traveler.

What are your favourite countries for outdoor adventure travel?

Life’s complicated isn’t it? But most people at least know what their name is. Sometimes though, I’m not quite sure.

Often when I go to the library or a shop which I have a rewards card for they ask for my name and I tell them. Then they say they can’t find my name so I suggest another name. I get a few strange looks but we get there in the end.

Here’s why I get confused about what my name is.

I was christened Annabel Moffatt. I was named Annabel after my mother’s sister who died aged 13 in a horse-riding accident. Moffatt is my father’s surname.

Moffatt is also the name of a town in Scotland which is a popular place for people to elope because you can get married there when you’re 16.

Before he died my father spent a lot of time researching and creating family our family tree and coincidentally my mother has a direct bloodline back to the Scottish royal family including Robert the Bruce so I like that I have a Scottish surname to go with my Scottish heritage.

But still, that surname Moffatt had a few bad associations for me. Despite being painfully thin as a child the fat part of Moffatt was always a cause for jibes and it’s also easy to emphasize the last syllable and make it sound like fart.

So, as a child, I always had a little fantasy about getting married and changing my name.

Of course I grew up to be a raging feminist but we twist things to suit our own ideals so when I met my future husband Rich Candy (aka the Mucho Man) I was ecstatic. Who wouldn’t want to be called Candy? Also I wouldn’t have to spell out my name any more because everyone knows how to spell candy.

But sadly the Mucho Man didn’t want to marry me.

“It’s nothing personal,” he said. “I just can’t see the point in getting married. I’ve never wanted to get married and I don’t want to get married now.”

15 years went by. We bought and sold our first home together, we had joint bank accounts and we even had three children together who were all blessed with the surname Candy.

So now I was the odd one out in our family with four Candys (Rich and the three kids) and one Moffatt (me) so I worked and worked on the Mucho Man drawing on all my powers of persuasion about how we should get married, my main argument being:

“I want to have the same surname as everyone else in the family.”

This was capped off with:

“I’ve always wanted to get married and if you won’t marry me who will?”

But even that was topped by the greatest draw card of all:

“But if we get married we can have a honeymoon!”

The main reason I wanted to get married as a child was so I could go on a honeymoon. I really didn’t care about who with or give much thought to what my future husband would look like, what his values would be or what we’d have in common.

I was bitten by the travel bug at an early age and getting married seemed like the perfect excuse to have a honeymoon.

Even the Mucho Man was tempted by the idea of a holiday.

The other problem about us getting married was that we have friends and family all over the world so many loved ones might not be able to make a wedding in New Zealand where we lived at the time. So we decided to elope.

After many happy months poring over travel sites and guide books I decided Vanuatu seemed like the perfect place for our wedding. Vanuatu is a series of a remote tropical islands in the South Pacific with a unique culture so we’d be able to have a beautiful beach wedding as well as an adventurous honeymoon off the beaten track in an exotic location. Albeit with our three children in tow so not a traditional honeymoon.

So we were married on the beach at Aore Island Resort just off the remote outer island of Espritu Santo by Reverend Dick (yes, that’s his real name) since, although we are not religious, that was the only option in Vanuatu. I’m not sure anyone had ever got married there before but we had a fun with a local string band, a splendid cake and mocktails for the Candy kids.

Signing the marriage certificate under Reverend Dick's watchful eye.

The long-awaited honeymoon was fantastic. We ventured away from the safe haven of our resort to traditional accommodation at the far end of Espriro Santo. We visited the blue hole, swam at Champagne Beach and visited traditional ni-Vanuatuan villages where people live in grass huts and settle arguments with a spear.

Sadly our kids picked up a terrible tummy bug so it was more of a poopymoon than a honeymoon which was another interesting experience.

Visiting Port Orly on Espritu Santo Island, Vanuatu on a Sunday

Then it was time to come home and start my new life as Annabel Candy.

But everyone in New Zealand knew me as Annabel Moffatt and, since Rich and I worked together on our own business we both wanted to use Moffatt on our company website so we didn’t look like a mom and pop business… even though we were.

Then I told Rich I’d change all my official documents when they ran out but the problem was although I liked Annabel Candy I liked Annabel Moffatt. I still do. So I didn’t want to kill her off.

Plus I couldn’t be bothered to jump through all the hoops required to change my name on two passports, several bank accounts and credit cards in three different countries and two driving licences. So I never did.

I just used Candy most of the time in daily life but all my official documents said Annabel Moffatt.

Then I moved to Australia and started blogging and using Annabel Candy online. I always intended Annabel Candy to be my pen name but it’s impossible to use that just for writing now.

Little by little Annabel Candy became a global brand and eventually I had to change my company website to the name Candy too because no one knew who Annabel Moffatt was.

That felt fine because being the wife of Rich Candy I am entitled to the name.

Then we went to see an Australian lawyer to get our wills updated. He said our marriage in Vanuatu and wedding certificate might not be valid and recommended we get married again.

But that was another unexpected complication in life and we haven’t got married again.

So if I die tomorrow I will die intestate, unsure if I am married or not and confused about what my name is.

But hopefully I am married and life will go on with fewer complications no matter what my name is.

Are there any little complications in your life?

Newly weds Mr. and Mrs. Candy and a local string band in Vanuatu