Why didn’t anyone tell us that there are so many incredible cities in the good ole USA… we could have saved a lot of money on international flights if we just would have toured within the continent for the past 15 months.

Okay, we probably still would have explored another country or two, but really… we have nothing, absolutely nothing, to complain about throughout our time in the States. We loved our one night in NYC, the beaches in Fort Lauderdale are some of the finest on the planet, Santa Monica was the perfect place to tour with Mom (and of course to see Jeopardy!), and between cycling the Golden Gate bridge and drinking Napa Valley wine, we thought we would may never leave San Fransisco….

Portland, Oregon

Oh how I wish the weird, chilled-out city of Portland (aka Portlandia) would hire me so that we can live in your fine city forever. I am serious. If Portland was a woman, Shawna might have some competition.

Okay, maybe that’s going overboard. I would never love a city more than my wife….

(well, unless that city was Portland.)

So what is it? What the hell makes Portland, Oregon the greatest city in America according to the testicular half of Get Up And Globe??!

We actually arrived in Portland, after taking the overnight train from San Francisco. It was around an 18 hour rail ride, but I am a huge fan of train travel, so this actually went by quite quickly.

Upon arriving we headed out Union Station, jumped on the local tram system, and easily navigated ourselves towards the home of Keith and Angela, our incredibly kick ass Couchsurfing hosts for the next three days. There was such an interesting 1990s vibe to this place… I was immediately hooked.

Shawna and I with CSing hosts Keith and Angela! Hangin at a food cart pod!

Beer

Ahhh yes, we are off to a great start, eh? There are so many incredible microbreweries and pubs in Portland, it is nearly impossible to comprehend. Apparently the city ranks 5th in bars/taverns/pubs per capita in the entire country. Thanks to the locally famous McMenamin brothers, they even have an old elementary school and funeral home which they have converted into pubs! From the Alaskan Smoked Porter to Upright’s Supercool IPA, you will never leave Portland thirsty!

Food Trucks

After all the brew, you will eventually get hungry, and with over 500 food trucks/food carts scattered through Portland, you will definitely find something yummy for your tummy. Ethnic food, burgers and fries, desserts, soups, and vegetarian and vegan food carts can be found gathered together on food cart pods. As a sidenote, when Shawna and I were first looking for a Couchsurfing host, nearly every profile we looked at stated that they were vegan. Although we are completely cool with this, rest assured that you can still get a great beef/bison burger in this city if you are carnivorously inclined.

Shawna’s favourite Food Truck

*sigh*, just another sausage party…

Pedal Power

The most bike friendly city in the United States? Undoubtedly! The city is planning to spend a whoppin’ $613 Million on cycling infrastructure in the next 20 years. The goal is to have nearly 1,000 miles of bike paths throughout the city. It’s incredible! Right now 300 miles already exist in the city which make it feel like every street was built wide enough to accommodate a proper bike lane. This was a fun place to pedal!

Portland is so bike-crazy, that they have even organized an annual Naked Cycle, where thousands of participants strip down and gear up for the 12 mile ride through the city.

Street Fairs

Angela and Keith took us to the Belmont Street Fair, which was one of the last festivals/fairs of the season. Live music, great eats, tons to see… and best of all, entry was free!!

Shawna and I limbering up at the Belmont Street Fair

Nice music, but this guy was not the headliner

If you Google the city of Portland, and then zoom out a little, you will see a whole pile of green. If you are a hiker, or a nature-lover of any type, you will love the state parks, mountains, and waterfalls which are essentially in your backyard! While we were in town, we took a beautiful but not-too-tough hike up around Multnomah Falls in Colombia River Gorge, capped off with, of course, a fine Portland lager!

Keith, Shawna, and I

Back in Regina, Shawna and I love nothing more than spending a few hours roaming through our Chapter’s bookstore with a hot coffee on a Saturday afternoon. Well, comparing Chapter’s to Powell’s is like comparing a hot dog to beef tenderloin. I could have camped out in this bookstore (which occupies an entire city block!) for weeks! If you have any appreciation for reading, get your literate ass to Powell’s the next time you are in Portland. And yes, they have a coffee shop attached to, so you don’t even need to leave the building for meals.

Photo courtesy of areadinthelife.blogspot.com

Okay, let’s get this straight… I really don’t even like doughnuts. Okay, no that’s not true… I do like doughnuts…alot! But because I generally like to participate in actions which keep my arteries unclogged, I rarely indulge these days. But if I actually did live in Portland, I fear that my stops to Voodoo Doughnuts would become a daily (at least) event! It was late afternoon on a quiet Sunday when Shawna and I found our way to this landmark, and there was a lineup around the corner to get into this place!?!? Try their Bacon Maple Bar (yes, with real bacon!), the Captain My Captain (vanilla frosting and Cap’n Crunch), the Memphis Mafia (banana chunks, cinnamon sugar, chocolate frosting, peanut butter, and peanuts), or even the tripod shaped, Bavarian cream-filled doughnut aptly named… Cock n Balls (rest assured this doughnut was left unsampled). The best news is Voodoo is only a few blocks away from Powell’s, so hitting both of these must-sees in the same afternoon is easy as pie.

The lineup

A nice light lunch!

You know it’s good if Shawna won’t share!

One hundred thank you’s go out to our awesome Couchsurfing hosts, Angela and Keith. There is no way we would have had the outstanding experiences that we did without them.

Oh they look crazy, but they mean well…

**********************************************************************************************************************

Also, if you are interested be sure to check out Get Up and Globe’s latest string of interviews. Upon returning home, we admit we have really been quite spoiled. We have taken in every second of our fifteen minutes of fame… with interviews on blogs, on TV, radio, and in local magazines we definitely felt like celebrities! You can find them all here!!

Amen Brother!

Portland, Oregon: My Greatest City in America? is a post from: Get Up and Globe

About to cycle over the Golden Gate Bridge

If I chose to live in one of the cities we visited on this adventure San Francisco would be right up there with Amman, Jordan as my top two. We arrived at night in San Fran after a bus ride from LA and immediately noticed how much colder it was! But after we managed to dig out more warm clothes and set out on our way to find our hostel, we quickly noticed all the cool little restaurants, cafes and shops surrounding us.

We stayed at the Pacific Tradewinds Hostel and we would highly recommend this place to anyone looking for budget accommodation in San Fran. A quick warning though…it looks really dingy on the outside when you first arrive at the building. The hostel is located right outside of Chinatown and at first I was ready to ream Skott out for choosing such a dodgy place for us to stay but once we went up the 4 flights of stairs to get to their front desk, we were relieved to find a really cute little common room with great staff and clean bunk beds. The location turned out to be really central to everything as well and we were able to walk everywhere we wanted to go.

So where did we walk to? Here’s what we recommend:

Take a walk all along the Piers.

You can literally walk for hours along the sidewalks and pathways lining the San Fransisco Bay. We recommend starting at the Ferry Building where you can pop in and shop their indoor marketplace for delicious organic fruits and veg, specialty cheeses, coffee shops and more. Find yourself some great eats for a little picnic and then head in the direction of Fisherman’s Wharf (this is a little touristy but still neat to see).

Ferry Building Marketplace

Can’t think of a better place to enjoy fish & chips!

Jammin’ by the Wharf

Walk Yourself Down to a Giants Game

Watching pro baseball is SO much cheaper than hockey or football. If you go online you can grab nosebleed section seats for around $10. Spend the first couple of innings in your seats then scout out something closer to move to when you go for your garlic fries and hot dog. (Yes…I said garlic fries. They are AMAZING).

Make sure the person you’re with eats these too…you’ll have garlic breath after these ones!!! (By the way…why the massive bag? Blankets!! Be prepared for a cold night!)

Our lucky night…a double rainbow!

Walk Back to Fisherman’s Wharf and Rent a Bike to Head over the Golden Gate Bridge

This ride was one of the best bike rides we experienced on the trip. Even if you’ve seen pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge a million times before, it is still thrilling to cross over it on bike. The view is amazing and the misty fog just adds to the adrenalin you’ll feel riding that high over the ocean water.

On the other side of the Golden Gate bridge you can make your way to Sausalito. This beautiful town is full of immaculate, giant houses and a small main street with cute little shops and restaurants. If you’re feeling really gung ho you can continue another 7km or so to Old Mill Park and get a chance to see some ancient redwood trees. It felt like being in a story book!

So exciting!!!

Cycling by the houseboat community outside of Sausalito

Old Mills Park

I wish I could say it’s not what you think..

Our view of Sausalito on the ferry ride home

Walk through Little Italy & Chinatown

Both of these neighbourhoods are quite central and easy and safe to walk through. You can find some excellent restaurants to taste authentic treats like Italian Gelatos and pastas or Chinese dumplings (try the bbq pork). Walking through Chinatown reminded me of our food tour in Bangkok.

Then take a break from walking and GO ON A WINE TOUR!!

It would be a darn shame to be in California and miss out on touring the vineyards of Napa Valley! There are many different ways to enjoy a day of tasting, but we highly recommend Platypus Tours. You’ll take a ferry over from San Fransisco and then jump in their van so no one has to miss out…the driving is taken care of. We toured four vineyards:The David Fulton Vineyard, Ballentine Vineyards, Castillo de Amorosa (which actually is a castle), and Andretti Vineyard. Each of them were unique and different and the wine seemed to just get better as the day went on.

Lovin’ the vines!

You know you’re too rich when you build your own castle out of imported bricks from Europe!

As long as you keep yourself out of the tenderloin district, you really can’t go wrong in San Fran. Ultimately I think the reason I love San Francisco so much is the combination of big city, green spaces and ocean with plenty of ways to explore all of these on foot or on bike (we heard the public transportation is pretty good too). I loved that you can find so many independent stores and restaurants instead of big boxes and chains. And since I’m a Canadian girl, the chilly cold that you get in the morning and evening just makes me feel alive!

You stole my heart San Fransisco!!

If You’re Going To San Francisco…. is a post from: Get Up and Globe

Okay, we admit… we’ve been under cover a little, but there’s been a good reason, we promise!

We actually have been telling our friends and family that after taking Mom to Jeopardy in Los Angeles, we had decided to settle in San Francisco for 5-6 weeks, taking advantage of a brand new housesitting opportunity.

In reality, we were in San Francisco for a mere four days. And then we we spent three days in the weirdly awesome city of Portland, Oregon.

And then…we crossed the border for the very last time, to arrive in Canada!

That’s correct. It’s true – Shawna and Skott were coming home!

Stepping onto home turf!

Our first three nights in Canada were in Vancouver (thanks again for the apartment Suz), before getting a ride to Penticton with Shawna’s uncle. The plan moving forward was to surprise everybody back home as they were pretty much all in the dark… and for the most part we were able to:

We shocked Shawna’s Mom and Dad by arriving unannounced in Vernon, BC

Home for supper…unexpected!!!

We stunned Shawna’s Grandma and Grandpa in Kelowna when we picked them up at the airport.

My parents are still recovering after we “bumped into them” at the Saskatchewan Roughrider game.

Those guys look like Skott and Shawna….wait a minute!!???

But finally the tables were turned on us when Shawna’s sister, the only one who knew we were coming home, actually had family and friends waiting for us in her backyard, leaving both Shawna and I with jaws dropped. We were so excited and unprepared that we forgot to take any pictures!! Double-crossed as we might have been, we loved it!

We thought Carly was the only one who knew we were home…until we arrived and some family and friends were hiding out waiting to surprise us in the backyard!!!

Since we have been home, we cannot believe how awesome everyone has been. Well, actually we can believe it. We are blessed to be surrounded by some of the world’s most amazing beings.

It’s good great to be back!

The obvious next question is “what now”?????

For the moment we’re super excited to catch-up with family and friends. Regina is treating us to some fabulous fall weather so far so we’ll take advantage of it with some walks with friends and some nice long runs in Wascana Park. We don’t get our house back until October 6th so we’re chillin’ with my sister and so far she’s spoiling us with all the cereal we can eat (this was an expensive breakfast item we had to skip during the trip).

Next up we’ll be getting caught up with some blog posts about our trip up the West Coast (now that we don’t have to fib that we’re still in San Fran). Then once we’ve had a few weeks to let it all sink in, we hope to share some deeper thoughts with you on the big questions like how the trip has changed us, what we would do differently if we did it again and any other reflections that come to mind after a glass of wine or two. And of course we will also be sure to provide you with nearly every stat imaginable…

So stay tuned to hear about why Skott would relocate to Portland in a second and why I chose San Fransisco as one of my favourite cities on the globe. And in the meantime…please check out our fifteen seconds of fame. We were very honoured to be invited on to the CTV Morning Show… we felt like rock stars!!

Get Up and Globe with CTV Morning Show Host, Molly Thomas

Our first Canadian dollars in 15 months!! What to spend them on??? Perogies!!!

Home is where the perogies are.

Happy To Be Here… VERY Happy To Be Here is a post from: Get Up and Globe

Today we have a story that begins with, “So we were riding elephants in Thailand…” and ends with Alex Trebek asking Shawna if we funded our RTW travel by selling drugs during a commercial break on Jeopardy!

This is going to get weird.

But I warn you… if you are not a nerdy, trivia-show-loving misfit you might be bored to tears. Save yourself the monotony. Just stop reading now.

For the rest of us…let’s continue…

So yes, it’s true…we WERE riding elephants in Thailand. Way back in the beginning of March, with Shawna’s sister and friend Marissa. This was part of our all-too-short time in Chiang Mai. You already know how much we loved the experience (and if you don’t you can find out), but there was one detail which we never mentioned in the post which has actually proven to be fairly important to the course of our journey.

In addition to meeting the elephants in Chiang Mai, we also met an incredible family of five from the US. Mom, Dad, and their three adult children. I remember thinking how awesome it was that this family was travelling the world together as adults. On top of that they were all just people you were instantly magnetized towards: all very interesting, dynamic people. Questions bounced back and forth between us all: where are you from? What do you do? How long are you away for?

And then they stumped us for a millisecond with the following - What do you miss most about back home?

It is so crazy that the answer to this question would have the impact that it did.

The ‘token answer’ of course is family and friends… but instead, we decided to answer honestly. So we said, “Jeopardy!”

For those of you living in the far reaches of Northern Lapland who may not know, Jeopardy is (North) America’s favourite TV quiz show. And it happens to be one of the few shows that Shawna and I watch religiously when we are at home. So although our answer may have been perceived as a joke by some, we were actually being very serious.

It’s amazing the people you meet while riding elephants in Thailand.

Pardon my french, but “what the ____?”

You’re kidding, right?

I reread the email around forty-seven times, and it said the same thing every time. Unbeknownst to us, we had been riding pachyderms with someone who could get us into a taping of Jeopardy! I couldn’t stop smiling for the next five and a half months.

Of course we told him we would gratefully take him up on his offer. We would have been foolish to pass this opportunity by. There are no bigger fans of Jeopardy out there. Well, except maybe my Mom.

(SCREEECH!!!)

(Skott’s brain freezes. He has an idea.)

What if we could bring Mom down to Los Angeles to see Jeopardy as well??

“Hey Skott, what if you could bring me down to Los Angeles to see Jeopardy as well?”

I figured this might have been bordering on greedy, but I felt it was a special enough circumstance that it was worth trying… and so I did… at this point our friend from Thailand passed us off directly to a few of the fine people at Sony Studios, where Jeopardy is taped.

The next morning I had an email confirming that we did indeed have three tickets to see the taping of three shows on August 29, 2012!

Alex, we are super excited to meet you, but please keep your hands off my mom.

Fast forward to the morning of August 29th, and you have the three of us, in a full on sprint that would have made Usain Bolt proud, drenched in sweat headed down Washington Blvd in Culver City towards Sony Studios. Shawna and Mom spent the morning applying makeup and donning their heels (gotta look smokin’ for Alex, they said). Unfortunately for them, the dreaded combination of me not being able to read a map, and being too damn thrifty to pay for a taxi may have left them looking a little less ‘smokin’ than they were hoping for (you’re welcome, Dad).

Our VIP view of the Jeopardy set

…and then Johnny Gilbert (the ‘big voice’ announcer of Jeopardy) wished Mom an early Happy Birthday during a commercial break…

….and then Shawna had a chance to banter back and forth with Alex Trebek (and yes, he did ask if we funded our travels by selling drugs)…

… and then the Crew Clue wished us a ‘happy honeymoon’ and gave us their autographs…

The Jeopardy Crew Clue!

At this point, there really is nothing else to say. Through three tapings of Jeopardy, the three of us were absolutely in awe of our surroundings and still struggled to grasp how truly lucky we had been to have wound up in our situation. I can honestly tell you that, for me, this was one of the craziest, coolest moments of our journey so far.

And then Jeopardy handed us the cherry on the sundae.

In the last of the three tapings which we were able to see, the third category in the first round of Jeopardy was:

Canadian Capitals

You have to be shitting me.

Edmonton.

Victoria.

Halifax.

and the answer to the $1,000 clue….

I kid you not:

REGINA!

There is no way that this was random. It’s just not possible. Because of Mom’s 60th birthday, and our long and excessively drawn out honeymoon, our little hometown of Regina, SK became an answer on Jeopardy!

At 1:32PM on Wednesday, August 29th, 2012… we were officially the three happiest people on planet Earth.

Be careful Mr. Trebek, I am practicing for your job…

For those of you who happen to watch Jeopardy as well, the shows that we saw being taped will air on December 3rd, 4th, and 5th this year. Let us know if you need to impress your friends for any answers. We will do what we can to help you out.

To our American friends we met in Thailand, and to all of the beautiful souls from Sony Studios (including you Alex) in LA, thank you from the absolute bottom of our hearts for one of the most unique experiences we have had over the past 15 months. It is impossible to thank you enough. You are simply outstanding, and have genuinely made a dream come true!

…and if that doesn’t work, then Pat and Vanna… we are coming for YOU!

Hanging in Hollywood with my starlets after Jeopardy!

I’ll Take ‘Highlights Of My Life’ For $1,000 Please, Alex is a post from: Get Up and Globe

Hanging out on the top of San Antonio

But whether you’re a dancer or not, we feel that Cali, Colombia is a fantastic city to visit in South America. Without further ado, here are our 5 reasons why...

1) The Laid Back, Warm & Friendly Vibe

I think the weather may have an impact on this but in general, Caleños are a real warm and friendly folk. They are pretty quiet during the day but when the cool air of the evening starts to settle in, they can be found getting together at the nearest park, flying kites, enjoying drinks and food and then heading out to dance. We were lucky enough to bond with a few different Caleños…and what we gather is that having a good time is top priority…and they’ll be sure to make sure that you get in on the fun too! Plus it seems that in Cali, every second week there is a fiesta or festival of some sort that scores you a 4 day work week and a good time to check out.

Cheering on the Americana football team with our Colombian friends

August is kite season…we loved seeing people of every age flying kites on Sunday nights on San Antonio hill

We felt like this was Colombian’s version of tobogganing…using plastic crates for a ride down the hill.

2) The Music!!

Every time I got in a cab or walked by a home or popped into a store, I just wanted to dance. The salsa music, the Pacifico (Caribbean-African music) and “folk” music is contagious. It has energy, it’s upbeat and it just seems to keep the pace of life moving with a relaxed and happy vibe that we need more of back home. Here’s is an example:

3) The Dancing

Same as us, most people will fall in love with Cali for the dancing. For those of us from America or Europe, if you think about it, when was the last time you really danced with a partner? We just don’t do that anymore. From what I remember of dancing in the bars or highschool dances, we just bob a little and awkwardly try to get our arms to do something interesting instead of hanging stiff by our sides. But salsa is about a true, seamless partnership between a man who knows how to lead and a woman who looks amazing following that lead and shaking her booty to the beat. Once you see a few locals move so smoothly with the rhythm it’s hard not to want to learn to do the same. There are many schools to choose from as well as dozens of private teachers who are former pros teaching out of their homes. Take your pick and then be sure to get yourself to “Tin Tin Deo’s” on a Thursday night and dance your way through the weekend until the finale at Las Breezas on Monday night (shared taxi…it’s a LONG trip).

Our favourite spot for dancing

4) The Food

Personally, a city must have it going on in the cuisine department in order to really steal my heart. At first glance I didn’t think I was too fond of Colombian food. It was similar to Panamanian fare in the sense that it’s monotonous…tons of rice served with either fried chicken or beef and a miniscule salad topped with mayo. But dig a little deeper and there are great eats to be found. My favourite Colombian dinner (though definitely not healthy…but after a night of dancing it doesn’t matter) were the “arepas con queso” which are fried sweet corn patties with cheese in the middle…and they go hand in hand with chorizo (sausage). For dessert, I loved the “obleas” a tasty dessert found on the hill of San Antonio. A lady at an obleas booth will skillfully spread arequipa (a butterscotch flavoured spread) and crema de leche (they love all sweet-milky flavoured desserts in the this part of the world) on extremely thin rice wafers stamped with smiley faces. They then decorate the inside with peanuts, coconut, sprinkles and queso and stick the two sides together into a delicious dessert sandwich. AMAZING!!! Other items not to be missed are their locally made ice creams in coconut or maracuya (passion fruit), a visit to the local pan (bread) maker for queso croissants and any variety of their jugos con leche (juice milkshakes). Simple but delicious!!

My favourite Sunday night treat!

5) Cafe Tostaky’s Hostel

Skott and I initially intended to stay for one week in Cali but between the challenge of learning salsa and the awesome environment we found at our hostel, Cafe Tostaky’s, one week turned into two and finally we left only to catch our flight back to North America. Cafe Tostaky’s has the perfect blend of a laid back feel, extremely friendly & local staff, and a vibe that makes you feel at home. The owner, Vince’s slogan is “everything is possible here”…they will do everything they can to make you feel at home. You can bring your own drinks in and sit right up at the bar in the cafe, you can practice your salsa in the lounge room and there’s always something to do because there are a few locals that hang out there everyday and make sure you’re in the know of what’s going on.

Skott streaming a Rider game at Cafe Tostaky’s bar

I am 100% confident that if you put these 5 items together…book a room at Cafe Tostaky’s, take salsa lessons (at Swing Latino!!!), enjoy a dinner of arepas con queso and chorizos at San Antonio’s on the San Antonio hill followed by obleas, and hit up Tin Tin Deo’s…you will be unable to disagree with us and quite likely to find yourself unable to tear yourself away from this endearing city. In this case…ENJOY and soak it all up because after 15 months on the road, we vote this one of our top cities in the world!

The fabulous dancers at Swing Latino

We loved how the fans at the soccer game danced the entire way through the match. They loved Cali too!

5 Reasons Why We Just Couldn’t Leave Cali, Colombia is a post from: Get Up and Globe

We came to Cali, Colombia with one purpose in mind, and that was to learn to salsa.

Me and my ‘dancing legs’.

Except I am going to use the word “learn” very loosely. We recognized that as two awkward Caucasians utterly void of rhythm, this was going to be a challenge.

Maybe a more appropriate verb would be ‘struggle’.

Yes, that sounds better. Or at least more accurate.

We We came to Cali, Colombia with one purpose in mind, and that was to struggle to salsa. And we had about two and a half weeks to do it.

As Shawna mentioned last post, Cali, Colombia is known as the “salsa capital of the world”, and this isn’t difficult to believe. People here don’t walk. They dance. If you don’t believe me, check out this professional salsa show we saw last week.

It’s maddening really.

Especially for me, because some days I have enough trouble walking without tripping on a curb or running into a strategically placed lamp post, never mind dancing.

Shawna and Wilbur shaking their booty

And although Shawna doesn’t lack coordination in quite the same way that I do, she will fully admit that her legs were made for cycling not salsa. And on top of that, dancing in public actually terrifies her.

Quite the duo, right?

We took our first lessons from Wilber, who we found online while we were looking for a place to stay in Cali. Wilber was a professional dancer for many years, and now makes his living teaching salsa out of his home. We liked the idea of this, because it was affordable ($20 CDN for a two-hour class) and the lessons would be private. We were going to need all the undivided instructor attention we could get.

Our lessons usually sounded a lot like this:

Wilber: ONE-TWO-THREE-and-FIVE-SIX-SEVEN-GO!

(music starts)

Shawna: Skott, you’re jumping not dancing.

Wilber: Skott, you’re jumping not dancing.

(Skott tries not to jump)

Shawna: Skott, take smaller steps.

Wilber: Skott, take smaller steps.

(Skott tries to take smaller steps)

Shawna: Skott, watch your elbows.

Wilber: Skott, watch your elbows.

(Skott looks around the room for something sharp with which to attack his next critic)

I wonder if Wilber has ever wanted to give students their money back before?

Shawna and I struggled (see, I told you that word would come up again) a lot. We were far from the perfect dancing couple. I was a terrible dancing leader (and that’s just the guy’s role), and she isn’t exactly the world’s finest follower.

Shawna describes our dancing as a battle.

No argument here.

In spite of all of this, after our lessons with Wilber were finished, we had the very basic salsa steps loaded in our repertoire. No spins, no lifts, no turns. But we could dance back and forth or side to side. Sometimes our hips even moved.

We were content, but striving for more.

Thanks for getting us started Wilber!

As difficult as salsa was for both of us, we were absolutely loving it. Like learning Spanish in San Pedro, salsa was completely foreign to us before we left Canada. We were absolute crap salsa dancers, but we were having a blast (most of the time), and so we decided to stay put in Cali a little longer, and seek out another teacher.

This time we we enrolled in the Swing Latino Salsa School. This was the same school that caused our jaws to drop when we saw them perform live the previous week. Classes were substantially more expensive ($50 for a 2-hour private lessons) but our new teacher Edwin, was confident we would feel our pesos were well invested.

And he was right. Over the next five days, we learned a couple of turns, a little fancy footwork, and I even tried to incorporate lifting Shawna onto my shoulder (oh boy, don’t try THAT one at home). He even gave us our first “routine”:

What? Not impressed?

Okay, I admit our finale needs a little practice, but let me put this into context for you. Ever see a basketball player without arms do a layup? Yes, you should find this equally impressive.

Swing Latino was an absolutely amazing school, and Edwin was an incredible teacher. If we were able to stay in Colombia any longer, I have no doubt we would spend every moment in Cali with Edwin. He told us that usually gringos who come to learn salsa say they will stay for a month, and ending up being there for six. We believe you, Edwin!

Teacher and students

Learning to dance together as a couple has been a very interesting experience. It has pushed us to heighten our levels of creativity, trust, and intuition. Just as an example, one of the exercises Edwin had us do, was to dance closely and together while Shawna had her eyes shut tight. This required her to put 100% of her trust in me as I paraded us around the dance studio. As the experiment ended without a twisted ankle or worse, I deemed it a success, and me as completely trustworthy.

Seriously Shawna, loosen up!

And so, with all the salsa lessons under our belt, we headed to our favourite salsa club, Tin Tin Deo for our last evening in Cali. We enjoyed a drink together while we watched some of the talented dancers light the floor on fire. And after a couple of songs, we decided it was time to get out there and see what we could do.

Holding hands in the proper position. The music starts, and so do we. Shawna looks up at me. And I, impressed by my ability to woo her so suddenly gaze into her eyes.

She smiles, and patiently says:

“Skott you’re jumping, not dancing… and seriously, watch your elbows, ok?”

So You Think You Can Dance is a post from: Get Up and Globe

With some of the cast of Cabaret!!!

Without a doubt Cali, Colombia has completely blown us away. As some of you know, we are here learning how to salsa dance…and soon I hope to report that our moves are of the hot & spicy variety to which I’m referring to in this blog. However, we took a night off from trying to get our moves down pat on the dance floor to watch how the professionals get it done…and I think you’ll all feel the heat when you watch a few of these videos.

Cali is known as the salsa capital of the world. It’s a city full of energy and funk…there seems to be a fiesta or holiday every second week and Caleños begin their weekend on a Thursday taking it all the way through until Tuesday when they finally have a small, two day break to recuperate. They say there are over 200 salsatecs throughout the city and at any of these venues you will find even your average Joes moving to the rhythm in ways that those of us from North America (ie. Gringos) could never imagine. We are so “stiff” back home…but for Caleños rhythm just seems to be inherent.

This is how Skott sees himself when he is 60

The night was a late one for us…the first show started at 10pm and the last ended at 2am but it was worth it. I have NEVER seen dancing like this before. The quickest feet…amazing, colourful costumes and an energy that left us on a high well into the next day. Maybe it meant even more to us  because we’ve been taking lessons and learning how difficult the mechanics of salsa truly are…but whether or not you’ve ever had an appreciation for salsa before, I think you’ll have one now!  Take a look..here are some of our favourites:(and bear with us because this is using our little camera).

Things started off in the jungle:

And then they got super cute (the two little kids in the centre are only six-years old!):

Couple in Green #1:

Couple in Green #2:

Group Number:

The Finale:

Are you sweating yet? We can’t even believe it is possible for a person to move their legs this quickly! We loved so much that we will probably check them out again when we head to Bogota next week!

We never would have thought that dancing would have been one of our favourite parts of this RTW trip but for us it is definitely becoming one of the highlights. Way back in January of 2011 when we were concocting this idea we were inspired by a fellow traveler,  Dancing Matt from “Where the Hell is Matt”….he has essentially danced his way around the world. Since that time he’s done a whole new tour, dancing with people from every corner of the earth and we find ourselves appreciating his video even more now. Thanks Matt for always leaving us with a smile and a whole new inspiration for travel!!!

Jairo Varela-His heart has stopped, but his music will live on forever.

And on a final FINAL note – check out our latest interview with A Couple Travelers, a new and inspiring travel couple nearly as pretty as us. Thanks so much for the interview Dave and Vicky!

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One Hot & Spicy Friday Night in Cali, Colombia is a post from: Get Up and Globe

For me, Cartagena, Colombia is one of those cities that is just fun to wander around in without any kind of said destination. We spent our days in the Old City which is great for wandering because the colonial buildings are each so unique and colourful and you can’t really get lost (well, maybe Skott could)because you’ll always end up somewhere along the fortress walls that enclose the Old City…then you just pick a new street to head down into and see what you find next.

Hanging out on the wall of the Old City

I admit I wasn’t exactly sure what to think of traveling in Colombia when we first started looking at this as our next destination. The country doesn’t exactly have the best reputation…but it’s a super interesting history if you are like me and find violence, political strife and all that juicy stuff interesting. When we were coming here, I knew that the safety situation had improved but I wasn’t really sure why. My understanding now is that big changes happened beginning in 2002, when a new President, Álvaro Uribe, came into power and reigned for 8 years with a hardline against the narco groups. You still have to be fairly careful here, mostly because there are a lot of people that are very hard-up and probably wouldn’t harm you but would definitely take a run at getting you to fork over your camera and cash. But we had no problems and would completely recommend this city as a great start to your adventures in South America.

There were lots of cute little shops, cafes and bars to check out but sometimes the best eats were found right on the street. Vendors had all kinds of yummy tropical fruits cut up and ready for snacking…my favourites always being the juicy pineapple and the mangoes. Someone in BC really needs to figure out how we can grow these back home!! Other tasty finds were the super sweet mixtures of coconut or other dried sweet fruits dunked in sticky syrups. And one of the flavours that seems to be really popular here is dulce de leche-you can find all kinds of varieties in all kinds of colours to satisfy your sweet tooth. I tend to make it my mission to give all of these a try. We also found an excellent food stand right by the Juan Valdez Cafe, in front of the University, where all the students were lunching on super cheap sandwiches that were like pizza pockets made of plantains or corn dough with beans, pulled bbq beef, queso and a couple different sauces loaded on it.

Cold coconut water for sale

My favourite fruit ladies

The watermelon guys outside our hostel

A very tired sweets lady waits for the last few customers to trickle in

When we were ready to get out of the heat we seemed to always stumble into the Juan Valdez Cafe (remember the commercials with the mustached Colombian coffee grower and his donkey..I get very excited about these things). At night we enjoyed the Donde Fidel Bar where you can choose from beer or a bottle of rum and people watch on the corner of the Bolivar square while they pipe out awesome Colombian salsa tunes. It’s strange that this little place is right under the Hard Rock Cafe because it has enough character to make it feel more like a little hole in the wall find..the walls are plastered with black and white photos of musicians and dancers and the place fills up with a really good mix of locals and tourists.

The thing that stands out most in our minds about Cartagena was all of the colours…from the buildings to the fruit ladies in their colourful African dresses, to the dancers in the main square and the colourful street foods…it had all the cha-cha-cha I had imagined!

Entrance to the Old City

Caught in the act!!

I don’t think I’ll be visiting the dentist while we’re here

Skott takes note…

Out and about

By the way, we stayed at the Media Luna Hostel and it was great location with a good atmosphere. It had a main court area to hang out with a little pool to cool down and a kitchen. There was also a bar with salsa tunes right across the street…get their before 9pm for 2 for 1!!

Colours of Cartagena is a post from: Get Up and Globe

Every once in awhile when you are travelling, you come into a situation that shouldn’t be shared with your parents back home, at least not until you are certain you have made it through the ordeal unscathed.

For example, telling your folks that you have contracted malaria while you are currently dealing with the hallucinogenic symptoms of this rather unlikable virus, is bad idea (ahem, smooth move Shawna). Waiting until you are removed from the continent of Africa and have survived all the ailments before talking to your parents about what “might have been” is a much more ethical way to communicate these sort of stories back to the people who love you most.

At least you don’t have to worry about noisy neighbours

Our Very Slight Brush With Terror In Mauritania

Middle of Nowhere, Mauritania

We initially wrote a little bit about our time in Mauritania in our Epic Road Trip post. In a nutshell, we wanted to travel through Western Africa from Morocco all the way to Ghana on land. No planes allowed.

We were pretty certain this would be challenging, but doable. The only sticky point for us was Mauritania. We were really getting mixed reviews on the safety of the area. From most accounts it seemed quite harmless, but although instances were rare, this was a part of the world where the occasional Al-Qaeda kidnapping took place. There is hardly a positive spin you can put on a kidnapping, so this was a situation we were hoping to avoid.

Again, I need to emphasize the reality of what we were dealing with. People were not and are not being taking hostage on a daily basis. In fact from our research there have only been eleven kidnappings in Mauritania since 2007 (if anyone has updated stats, please don’t hesitate to prove me wrong). You would have to be an extremely unlucky individual to get yourself any trouble. Avoid night travel, and make the trek in a larger group and you should further increase your chances of arriving to your destination without incident. This was our plan… everything would be fine.

And so we decided to move forward. We actually were quite impressed with how everything fell together for us. Our bush taxi from Dakhla, Western Sahara to Nouakchott, Mauritania was smooth sailing… or at least as smooth as you can expect with Shawna and I squashed up front with the driver in a beat up old Cadillac for 13 hours in the unforgiving sun. Surprisingly, the sun-cooked sheep which we were offered for lunch was actually pretty good!

Our lunch stop on the way to Nouadhibou

Team France didn’t ask much from us: only that we were prepared with several copies of our ‘fiche’. A fiche is simply a copy of all sorts of basic identification information, detailing everything from name and age to movie preferences and what your cousins do for a living. Along our trip we were expected to come across several military police checkpoints, and at each stop we would need to have one of these available.

They recommended we make 50 copies…. FIFTY!?? How were we ever planning on getting to Mali if we stopped every 20 minutes to hand over our ID. Wow!

We needed two days to hit the Mali border (and one more to make it to the capital city of Bamako). Short of a flat tire within the first two hours, day one was fairly uneventful. The Frenchmen were close with the number of police stops we would make. After the first day we had already handed out 17 photocopied fiches to the Mauritanian officials.

After an amazing stay with a local family sleeping under the stars we continued towards Mali early on day 2. The flat tire had cost us several hours the day before, and these guys needed to be across the border by today or they would risk missing their already booked flights back to France.

I swore there was a Burger King around here somewhere

We continued passing through the military checkpoints all day, and although this slowed us down we were more than happy that they were there for our safety. Dusk however was slowly coming in, and at about 6PM we were stopped at one particular checkpoint and told that we were not able to go any further and that we were to spend the night camped next to the military police. It was just not best to be on the road after dark, they told us.

This of course did not go over well for the rest of the guys who were on a really tight timeline to get to Bamako. They already new there would be an administrative nightmare waiting for them at the border (when you are bringing private vehicles across, this is apparently the way it is), and for them stopping was not an option. They were confident that if we sped it up that we would make it to Mali with a little light still left in the sky.

This gentleman would like to see some identification…

At this point, I admit I was probably as nervous as I had been on the entire trip. I knew that if these guys honestly believed there was a gigantic risk, we would not have moved on. Plus, there were five vehicles on the road, which is a lot of work for any bandit to pull over and the sun hadn’t completely set. As much as I told myself everything was a-okay, I was much less than comfortable.

We piled back in and sped away quickly, determined to make it. Looking in the back seat, I felt horrible as I realized Shawna was terrified. She had pulled her scarf over her head so it was covering most of her face as to make herself look as Mauritanian as possible (a policeman down the road actually thought she was!), but there was no disguising the fear.

Maybe this whole overland journey wasn’t turning out to be such a good idea after all.

We drove as fast as we could, our eyes locked on the horizon as the moon was becoming more prominent. We were headed for the border as fast as we could, but every time we hit maximum speed we came upon another checkpoint! In that last 60kms or so, I think we went through eight of them. And at one of them, the guard actually pulled Andre over for not wearing his seatbelt!

I couldn’t believe it – here we are driving like mad in the middle of nowhere, drenched in paranoia and trying to avoid everything bad the night might bring, and a cop pulls us over for a seatbelt?! But sure enough, Andre is asked to get out of the vehicle, and discuss the situation with the authorities for the next seven minutes (which at this point seemed like seven days). A meager five dollar bribe later and we were back on the road.

30kms to go….. 25kms… 20…. 15….

More than a little exhausted.

A few hours later, after all the border business was finished we drove into the small Malian town where we would spend the night. We arrived late at night that there was no food available. However, even a normally very health conscious Shawna was completely fine with ‘beer for dinner’ after the day we just had.

We made it to Bamako, Mali the next day and said goodbye to our crew, putting an end to the most unique road trip I have taken.

We ended the trip so happy that we had met up with the caravan of guys who agreed to take us with them. We were extremely thankful for all the security checkpoints that we encountered along the way (we had only 11 of our 50 fiches left), as they were there for our safety, and we were over the moon that we were able to cross Mauritania without any trouble.

So if the opportunity arose, would I ever make this trek again? Hmmm, not sure about that one. But I’ll tell you one thing I am absolutely certain about.

I will always wear my seatbelt when driving in the desert.

Shawna and Team France!!!

A Travel Story We Probably Shouldn’t Tell Our Parents is a post from: Get Up and Globe

The slight downside to seeking out “Skottland“ was that in order to make our flights work for our next GUAG adventure in Colombia, we had to get on a bus at 4:30am to take the six hour trip from Golfito to San Jose…on my birthday : (

Ammends were promised to be made though with a four day stop in Florida. As crazy as it sounds, it’s actually cheaper to fly to Cartagena, Colombia from Fort Lauderdale, Florida rather than Panama City (which is basically next door) or San Jose, Costa Rica. In our year abroad we’ve spent less than 12 hours in the US when we had an overnight touchdown in NYC so the idea of a few creature comforts was intriguing. Additionally, we had recently spent about a month in Boquete, Panama…a very beautiful place, but the cooler weather just didn’t quite make it feel like summer. I was so excited to be on the beach and enjoy a few days of summer in the good old USA that the 6 hour bus ride was a cinch. (Plus I still did get spoiled when we arrived in San Jose with balloons and a chocolate birthday cake).

As luck would have it, the bakery near our hostel had 2 pieces of chocolate cake left when we checked it out

The first thing that we noticed after arriving in Fort Lauderdale was how easy it is traveling in a culture you’re familiar with and operating in 100% English. We laughed at ourselves when we went out for supper on our first night because we were both amazed at how easy it was to get a table and ask questions about the menu. Then we laughed again when we realized that we were in shock when we saw the prices. We had chosen the 15th Ave. Fisheries right on the water for dinner and actually, as far as US prices go it was really reasonable, but compared to the cheap fare we’ve enjoyed in Guatemala and Vietnam it was a much bigger hit on the wallet. I guess a small dose of reality probably isn’t a bad thing as we will eventually have to reinstate ourselves into North American life sometime this year.

Tarragon fish just below us

We had read a travel blog that compared Fort Lauderdale to “Betty” from the Archie Comics and Miami to “Veronica”. Basically the idea was that Fort Lauderdale, with it’s canals full of fancy yachts, was the preppy, girl next door city while Miami, with it’s infamous stretch of beach side party spots, was hot, sultry and rich. We figured we better check this out for ourselves so we spent our first beach day on Fort Lauderdale Beach, strolling along the strip tor a mile and a half as we stopped for a dip in the water anytime it got too hot. I have to say, I’ve been really lucky to see some amazing beaches on this trip…the most notable being Gilli Islands in Indonesia and Kho Phangan in Thailand, so I’m a little spoiled, but Florida’s waters were AMAZING. Nice clean white sand and turquoise waters at about room temp awaited us and the only reason to ever get out of the water was to have a snooze in the sand. Delightful!

Wow…not too shabby!

The next day we took the 2 hour bus ride to Miami’s Lincoln Ave, a famous strip for shopping but more importantly for us, it links up to South Beach. Probably the most “colourful” part of the day was the time spent on the bus…I had forgotten how many “characters” use public transportation in big cities. We particularly enjoyed a lady who asked every man who got on the bus whether they were a pilot.

South Beach Miami was a pretty happening place. The beach was busy and the street just up from the beach was full of restaurants offering a $20 margarita the size of a 2L ice cream bucket. Scantily clad women strolled the streets selling freshly rolled cuban cigars and many a high rollin’ vehicle sped down just to show off. I think the comparison of Miami to Veronica was spot on. I can only imagine what this place would have looked like as the sunset…but we were ready to head back to Betty by then.

Skott finds a cafe named after him on Lincoln Ave

BLISS

The new bathing suit Skott and Carly got me for my birthday!

Art deco life guard stands on South Beach

The US may not be “good friends” with Cuba, but they still like their Cuban cigars!

This part of Miami is know for its art deco style buildings…very cool!

Our last day in Fort Lauderdale was a blast as we got a chance to hang out with fellow RTW travelers, Danny and Jillian. We toured Las Olas Blvd and Hollywood Beach together and couldn’t ask them enough questions about their 21 month adventure. We enjoyed sharing our stories of all the tales fellow travlers understand…long, hot bus rides…exotic food…bad guts…”favourite places”. All that good stuff!!

I must say that the icing on the cake of my birthday week was our stop at Jaxson’s Ice Cream Parlor with Danny and Jillian. This is a 56 year old establishment that you just have to see to fully appreciate. The walls are completely covered in license plates from all over North America, and every hokey thing you could imagine for decoration is found in every nook and cranny of the place. And the ice cream is phenomenal!! We split a giant Sunday of mint chip, cookie dough and peanut butter ice cream with hot fudge, whip cream and nuts. Unbelievable!!

Thanks to our awesome hosts Jillian and Danny!!

My favourite backpacker snack/meal-popcorn!

Between the beaches, the amazing weather, the ice cream and the great times with Jill and Danny, time flew and before I knew it “birthday week” was over. I think 28 is going to be an amazing year!! Looks like I’ll be starting it in Colombia!!

Summer in the City For My Birthday!! is a post from: Get Up and Globe