The Top Five Scariest Things that Did Not Happen on My Trip to Central America (and five other things that did)

There are so many myths and fears that surround travel. If we let them, they can scare us away from going anywhere besides our own front yard. Here are five fears our group had before our trip to Belize and Guatemala that did not come true, along with five other things that actually happened.


DID NOT HAPPEN:

 1. My flesh was not infested with botfly larvae. All anyone could talk about at the airport were the bugs that attached themselves to the legs of mosquitos, then burrowed into your skin when the mosquito landed and laid eggs in your skin. It takes about two weeks for the larvae to hatch, so it looks like I’m in the clear! Sorry to anyone I just grossed out.

2. I was not bitten by a fer de lance. The seventh deadliest snake in the world, its venom rots your flesh. The only one we saw was behind glass in a zoo.

3. I was not captured while crossing the border into Guatemala and sent to serve as a slave on a coffee farm. A lot of people were super nervous about going to Guatemala (it’s a less peaceful country than Belize…they also allegedly don’t like Americans OR Belizeans), but we were perfectly safe. Guatemala was my favorite stop on the trip!

4. I did not wake up with a tarantula on my face. They were around…I just chose not to look at them, and they left me alone. We never had one in our house, thankfully.

5. I contracted zero illnesses from bugs, reptiles, food or water. My mom sent me off with all sorts of stomach soothing medicine, none of which I used, and I didn’t bother getting malaria pills from my doctor.

 

DID HAPPEN:

1. I accumulated at least fifty bug bites. I quickly learned to apply bug spray like sunscreen: on every inch of your body.

2. I found a baby scorpion in our jungle lodge hallway. (“Hey, guys…is this a bug, or….”)

3. A frog leapt onto my hiking boot. I screamed. Again and again.

4. Sunburn on my butt. To be fair, it was the backs of my thighs below my butt, but it didn’t make sitting down any less painful.

5. I almost had a panic attack in an iguana enclosure. 50 iguanas…and they can leap onto people! Thankfully they stayed away from me and the guy showing us the exhibit got the message after the first time he tried to hand me an iguana.  

How to Pack in Only a Carry-On (for warm weather)

On my trip to Central America, many of my friends were impressed with the tiny backpack and suitcase I carried. My goal was to pack light without forgetting anything important, and for the most part, I succeeded! When we hopped over to Guatemala for three days, I left my carry-on at the Belize lodge and only brought my backpack. Travel is MUCH easier when you have fewer items to worry about. 

the messy beginning of my packing process
(black backpack in the corner zips off the carry on to serve as a personal item)

Here are some tips on how you can travel light:


1. Find out if you’ll have access to laundry services. Some places will do your laundry for you, for a fee. You can pack much less if you know you’ll be able to wash everything.

2. Lay everything out in piles. It’s easier to spot overpacking. Do you really need four pairs of shorts AND two pairs of leggings for two weeks?

3. Get creative with your packing! Roll your clothes, stuff underwear inside your extra shoes, stuff socks between those annoying bars that line the middle of your suitcase. Don’t worry about keeping your clothes organized.

4. Use a small backpack as your personal item on the plane. Make sure you keep some of your clothes in there as well. I stuffed the bottom of mine with a pair of leggings, a rolled up t shirt and tank top, a pair of socks, underwear, and my rain jacket (which I rolled up and stuffed into the hood, keeping it small and convenient for packing).

5. Don’t bring unnecessary beauty products. When I travel abroad, I leave all makeup and hair products home. All I brought to Central America was a travel size shampoo bottle and some face wipes. Think about the activities you have planned – do you really need full eye makeup? You can free up a TON of space in your suitcase (and have more room in your 1 quart liquids bag) without those extra things.

6. Pack bags within bags. I brought a drawstring daypack so I wouldn’t have to lug my backpack around all the time, which I packed inside my suitcase. Empty any purses or bags you don’t need on the plane, fold them up small and put them in your suitcase.

7. Keep your liquids small. 3.4 oz is the rule. As many of those tiny bottles as you can cram into a 1 quart bag, you can take on the plane. Check out the travel-sized shelves at Target, Walmart, and other grocery stores for items in TSA approved sizes.

8. If you can buy something once you get there, don’t pack it! If you know you’ll be able to stop at a store once you reach your destination, save most of your liquids (sunscreen, bug spray, shampoo, toothpaste) and other easy-to-find items for once you arrive. Also, ditch as much as you can before traveling home (most of those travel sized items will be gone by the end of your trip anyway and will just take up room in your bag).

9. Wear your bulkiest items on the plane. Hiking boots may be a pain to retie after going through security, but they’re much harder to cram into a suitcase than flip-flops. Wear that bulky sweatshirt, too; it’ll probably be chilly on the plane.

10. Double-check TSA’s website (and your airline’s) for carry-on/personal item size restrictions and prohibited items. You can bring disposable razors in your carry-on, something I had to double-check online. Small aerosol cans (3.4 oz or less) can be taken on most planes now, but I’d recommend buying regular bottles of sunscreen/bug spray just in case. You don’t want to be stuck in the jungle getting eaten by mosquitos because security took your DEET!

11. Travel technology-free if possible. Using a laptop as your personal item drastically decreases your amount of packing room, so try unplugging from social media for the duration of the trip. If you don’t need it for work purposes, don’t bring it! You can upload all those gorgeous pictures when you get home. Plus, you can be much more engaged with your new environment when you face isn’t glued to a screen!

Traveling light gets a little more complicated if you need to pack for colder weather (more jackets, bulkier shirts, heavier shoes, etc.) but I have confidence that it can still be done!

Hope these tips are helpful. Happy travels!

What's Up Wednesday: Central America edition!

Long time, no update! I spent two weeks in Belize and Guatemala and am now settling back into my usual summer routine. Hopefully my blog posts will pick up from here. I’m planning on writing a series of travel essays about my trip and posting them here if you are interested.

But now, onto WUW!

What I’m Reading

I bought the HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE audiobook and listened to it on my past few drives home and back to Pittsburgh, and it set me off on a big HP reread. I just finished rereading THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS last night. Each time I reread those books, I pick up on new things and marvel even more at J.K.’s brilliance. I also read DOROTHY MUST DIE by Danielle Paige before my Belize trip, so I’ll be posting a review soon.

I’m currently rereading Kirsten Hubbard’s WANDERLOVE (come on, it takes place in Guatemala and Belize…I’ve gotta reread it!) and THRONE OF GLASS by Sarah J. Maas. I started THRONE OF GLASS before my trip, and I’m about 75% of the way through it. I normally don’t read a ton of fantasy but I’m starting to get into it, and this book has me hooked!

What I’m Writing

As part of my Belize trip, I have to write travel essays for a grade. They’re due May 30^th, so I need to get going! I started one yesterday…wish me luck! This deadline is making me anxious! I haven’t decided if I have any big writing plans for the summer yet. Second year MFA students have recommended having a second project to work on along with your thesis so you don’t go insane, so maybe I’ll start something over the summer and carry on throughout the upcoming school year. Or I could continue with my project from last summer. I really don’t know yet!

What Inspires Me Right Now

The memories and photos from my trip! I’ll go into more detail in future travel posts, but I found so many things to write about in those two weeks. I’ll probably be writing about Belize and Guatemala for the next two years!

What Else is New?

Just sorting through pictures like these:

 

Life could be worse! 

An Ill-Fated Journey to Cape Town

At breakfast the next morning, we learned one of the girls had gotten sick during the night. We'd had a delicious dinner of lamb curry and lemon pudding cake dessert. We'd literally been raving about the meal since we'd eaten it, but apparently it hadn't agreed with Katherine. We all felt bad for her, especially because that day was all traveling. A van to a bus to a plane. And traveling when you're sick is the worst.

The van that took us to the shuttle (since the shuttle couldn't fit up the backpackers driveway) could only fit half of us, so I was part of the second group. Once all our suitcases were loaded in, there was barely room for me to sit. Alex, one of the guys, sat in the aisle so that I could have a seat, which was really nice. The only problem was, the luggage was stacked so high in front of me, I couldn't see out the windshield. And when I can't see out the front of a car, I get motion sick. So by the time we got on the bus that would take us to the airport, I felt lousy.

But what makes everyone feel better? Chicken, of course! After driving for a few hours, we arrived back in East London, only about fifteen minutes from the airport, with several hours to kill. So we ordered lunch at Nando's, the same place we'd eaten earlier in the trip, and went exploring in the city while we waited for them to make our food. I got a coffee milkshake from a fast food diner down the road (because they're ADDICTING). When we went back to Nando's to eat, the staff started taking pictures of us with their cell phones while we ate. Which was way weird. Then they asked to take a group photo. Which was even weirder.

Maybe we'll make it on their wall of famous people!

By the time we got to the airport, I was feeling pretty bad. My stomach was hurting, and I figured it was from stress. I was getting sick of some people, and the inconsistency of traveling was taking a toll on me. I was able to sleep on the plane, which was a little puddle jumper with propellers. I probably would've worried about it if I'd felt better.

Cape Town was urban, a total turnaround from the week we'd spent in Mdumbi. I immediately fell in love with Table Mountain, which you can see from anywhere in Cape Town.

Our backpackers was called 33 South. The room most of us stayed in was beautiful, the nicest of the trip. But there was drama with a girl who'd been staying there before us. Apparently the staff moved her things into another room without telling her, and she was yelling and storming up and down the hall while we sat in the room, pretending not to notice. Once she explained herself to us, though, we realized the staff had handled the situation all wrong, and we felt bad for her. 

The staff cooked us dinner (curry, like we'd had the night before), but by that point I had such a stomachache that all I ate was bread and a few bites of rice. By that time, three of the guys had stomachaches as well, so we were in misery together. We were all supposed to go to a mosque that night, but I told Glen there was no way I could go. I've always had a fear of throwing up in front of people, and I was feeling worse and worse by the minute. So I stayed at the backpackers by myself (the guys were in a different backpackers up the street) and called my mom for the first time since leaving home. 

That turned out to be a huge mistake, because as soon as I heard her voice, I started crying. I suddenly got so homesick, I was feeling miserable, and I couldn't hold it back. I told her that I was having a great time, I promise, except for today. She got me calmed down, and I told her about my day at Inkwenkwezi and other trip highlights. We talked for 18 minutes, and then she had to go pick my brother up for school.

And basically after that, I threw up. And felt 1000 times better. Apparently I still looked gray and miserable, and Meg made me switch bunks with her. She was afraid I was so weak I'd faint and roll off the top bunk and die. I didn't think that would happen, but I switched bunks anyway. It was nice being closer to the ground. 

So that's why I don't have many pictures of this section of the trip. But please enjoy other pictures of 33 South Backpackers that I took before I got really sick.

The backyard/outdoor dining area.

The front entrance

The bar and music venue

The cool sign in the lobby with travel quotes.

South Africa: Inkwenkwezi

Everyone had been looking forward to this day for the entire trip. Today we were visiting the game reserve! We woke up an hour before breakfast was supposed to be served because people from the game reserve were picking us up at 8 to shuttle us over. One of the backpacker workers wrestled up some cereal and toast for us, and we ate on the deck outside the breakfast room. Not a bad view!

We all went downstairs after breakfast to wait for the Inkwenkwezi people. They showed up in safari Jeeps (which fit up Buccaneers's driveway much better than our bus from the day before) and drove us over. Our driver, Byron, had a very lovely accent. Inkwenkwezi was only six or seven minutes away, but my hair was 100% messed up by the time we arrived, thanks to the Jeep's lack of windows.

leaving Buccaneers to go see animals!

Inkwenkwezi's reception building is stunning. They have a restaurant attached to their lobby area where we went to sign our waivers (meaning we couldn't sue if we got eaten by lions) and select what food we wanted to eat after our safari experience. I picked an open-faced chicken tender sandwich and hot fudge sundae for dessert.

They do weddings, can you tell?

After signing our lives away, we got back into the Jeeps (I smacked my shin against the metal edge and spent the first four minutes of the ride discretely trying to make sure I wasn't gushing blood. I wasn't. But it still hurt.) Byron drove us into the game reserve, and I completely forgot that it was an enclosure. It seemed like we were out in the African wilderness. Then he stopped the Jeep and announced we were going to walk with elephants. Everyone started freaking out with glee, and we got out of the Jeep and waited for the elephants to be walked over to us. 

There were two elephants, one boy and one girl. The elephant handlers split us into two groups, one group per elephant. I went to Mubani, the female elephant, and we learned the proper way to behave around elephants. Don't grap an elephant by the tusks; they see that as a challenge. Then we were allowed to pet Mubani. Her skin was warm with bristle-like hairs, sort of like a hairbrush. The handler gave us some elephant treats from his satchel and let us feed her. You pour the food into the end of her trunk (sort of like a funnel), and she twists her trunk around like a scoop and puts it into her mouth. ADORABLE. The handlers were super nice and made sure we all had plenty of pictures of us with Mubani.

Mubani had so many cute little quirks. Our activity was called an "elephant walk," but it took us a long time to actually get from point A to point B because Mubani liked to stop and eat the grass instead of walking. She also liked putting the end of her trunk on the ground and blowing out air, making a dirt cloud puff up from the ground. So we all had a fair amount of dirt in our eyes by the end of the hour.

She's taller in person, I promise. I felt really short standing next to her.

We all said goodbye to the elephants and climbed back in the Jeep. It was time to see more animals! Since Inkwenkwezi is a game reserve, not a safari, there was no guarentee that we'd see a ton of animals. It's like being in the wild, almost. But we saw some cool ones, that's for sure!

Giraffe!

Zebras!

Then our Jeep rolled up to a thick fence. We had to go through two gates to get to a separate section. Byron said, "Whatever you do, do not stand up." And we knew we were in lion territory. What none of us knew was how close we were going to be to the lions.

This was right after Glen started making lion noises at them.

Baby!

Byron told us the lions could easily outrun our car, so we were all nervous. But the lions seemed a little lethargic, just lounging around in the sun. All in all, we saw ten or so lions. I'd gone into the day hoping we might see two, so I was beyond thrilled!

After we left lion country, our Jeep was almost attacked by this beast.

Of course, I was right next to the open window. Me, the one with the fear of birds. But the ostrich lost interest pretty quickly, and there were no tears on my part!

After that, we drove back to the reception area for lunch. My chicken sandwich was delicious, as was the ice cream. The only problem was they only gave me two little scoops of vanilla, not nearly enough ice cream to be satisfying, but they left the pitcher of hot fudge. So my friend Maureen and I poured fudge sauce into our empty bowls, mixed it with the melted ice cream, and ate it with a spoon. It was a fun bonding moment!

Then we ventured into the backyard where there was a zoo-like enclosure. Also known as where they keep the cheetahs. When Byron and the other staff members open the gate and stroll right in, we all got nervous. We knew we were doing the cheetah encounter, but we thought we'd sort of peer in at them through the fence. I felt seriously vulnerable standing in the middle of the enclosure while Byron ducks through some bushes to drag out one of the cheetahs. We kept whispering to each other, "How fast do cheetahs run?" and "Is this actually safe?" But we'd adopted the motto "When in Africa..." throughout the trip, so I kept repeating it to myself. And I'm glad I did!

I didn't want the cheetah to think I was trying to sneak up on it, but I didn't want to be any closer to the teeth than necessary.

The cheetah's fur felt like a super high quality stuffed animal. Except, you know, the cheetah was breathing.

So many once-in-a-lifetime experiences in one day! My mind is still blown as I write this today. Favorite day in Africa by far!

But that doesn't mean you should stop reading these posts. Stay tuned for next time: the day I contract food poisoning in a foreign country.

South Africa: East London (part 1)

The bus ride from Mdumbi was a long one (about 4 hours). We stopped for a bathroom break at a gas station, where I purchased an absurd amount of candy and a pack of cookies (called "biscuits" in Africa). I needed to break my large bills so that when we went to barter in the market in a few days, I'd have smaller bills. Also, I wanted lots of candy.

Then we stopped for lunch at Steers, a fast food burger restaurant. I went for the classic bacon cheeseburger, but a lot of people got burgers with avocado on them (nicknamed "avo" there). Avo is big in South Africa.

Steers was attached to a little store, where I bought (you guessed it) more candy. We ate some of it on the bus and fell asleep (I slept a LOT during the entire trip. Pretty much any time I was on a bus/plane/car, I fell asleep).

Then we got to Buccaneer Backpackers. And had some technical difficulties with their driveway. We were in one of those huge fancy buses, which the backpacker owners assured Glen would fit up their driveway when he called on his cell phone. But halfway up the hill, we had tree branches poking through our open windows and scratching the sides of the buss. Not to mention, we were about two feet from rolling off the cliff that lead to a lower cliff which lead to the ocean.

We were sort of freaking out. Our driver got out of the bus to check the situation, and a leaf was stuck in the door. Glen, who was probably the only one remaining calm, casually said, "You've got a banana leaf there." Which alleviated the tension momentarily. Until our driver came back and plowed the bus up the rest of the hill. We all applauded when he put the bus in park, and Jenna (our co-leader) admitted she was sending up some prayers even though she's not religious. Glen had to call the bus company to assure them that the scratched paint and broken  taillight were not the bus driver's fault. And then the backpackers owners had to fire up the chainsaw to get the bus around the circle and out the driveway.

Our poor, poor bus.

The eight of us who had lived together in Mdumbi claimed the 8 person bungalow with an amazing view of the beach. 4 people per room meant Meg and I were with Dave and Alex, and the rest of the girls were in the other room. Our room had the best view.

Bunk beds! I got the top bunk, of course!

If you'll notice, the frame is higher on the sides, like a baby gate. So I won't roll out of bed, I guess.

We had a really cute little living room and kitchen...

Everyone else went to find the free wine some guy we'd run into earlier told us about. Meg and I stayed behind and ate candy.

Then we went to find them. And there were cute dogs!

A lot of people were playing drunk volleyball (other team gets a point, you drink from a box of wine), but the rest of us decided to go exploring and find the beach.

 Through the mini jungle...

...over a bridge...

...through some sand dunes...

...FOUND IT!

We picked up seashells and watched the sun set. Then we headed back to our bungalow for some sleep. We had a big day at the game reserve to look forward to!

South Africa: A Week at Mdumbi (part 3)

On our last weekend at Mdumbi, we had a party with our guides to thank them for all the work they did for us. We danced in the back room behind the dining area...

...and then headed down to the beach for a bonfire.

The fire was ENORMOUS. I felt like my face was melting off when I got close enough to roast a marshmallow!

I was concerned about my clothes catching on fire even though we weren't actually that close to the fire.

Sunday was our last full day. We went to a church service (ran by Boniwe, the woman who'd dressed us up and had us do chores) and, even though the only words I understood were "Jesus" and "Satan," I had fun. The children sang songs, and then we were invited up front to sing, too. So we did a rousing rendition of Jesus Loves Me.

And then we headed to the beach!

The view of the beach from a sand bar

We left Mdumbi Monday morning, and I was really sad to leave. I'd grown to love the people I met, the food I ate, the dogs running around (except for the stray dog that wandered into the backpackers and kept breaking into our hut and running around like a crazy dog while we tried to sleep.). I'd even grown fond of the bathrooms!

Bree and me with Sibongile, our stellar guide!

Eko, everybody's favorite dog at Mdumbi!

And a bonus picture...

Eko sleeping on my feet!!!!

That's all from Mdumbi! On to East London and more adventures!