Feb1015

19

Traveling Couples: Are We Insane? The Survival Guide

8 years ago today John and I met. Well, technically we were in the same class the entire semester already but I hadn’t noticed. Luckily he had! This could of been a classically romantic tale but the truth is he noticed me, not for my drop-dead gorgeousness (HE better say so!) but because I have a nemesis called gravity. For the entire month, twice a week, I would come to our water-color class, fill my water jug and, like everyone else, placed it on my table so I could paint….well unlike everyone else I would then promptly spill the entire jug of water all over myself, my desk, and the floor! Come on! It’s an art desk, it’s tilted, why was gravity only working on me?? My car was in the shop that day and I was roaming around the room after class trying to bum a free ride home when John picked his opportunity and offered me a ride. As it turned out not only did I get a ride home but a date for that weekend as well.

When John and I met, I had just moved to his home town in south Alabama from the Caribbean and Argentina. He had never left the country nor flown in an airplane. But we got along like two peas in a pod and soon we were hanging out all the time. About six months after we started dating, my family moved to New Zealand. Yes, I know, but please hold the questions till later. We were only in New Zealand for three months before heading back to Japan where we were going to revisit our “hometown” of Nagayo. My sister and I had spent our childhood growing up in that small town outside of Nagasaki.

As My Mother Frantically Yells "Which One Is Mine?!"

We were the only foreign family in the neighborhood, my dad worked in a Japanese company, and my sister and I went to the local kindergarten and elementary schools (except for the two years where Mom home schooled us in English as we were in danger of forgetting). While there, John decided to make his first overseas trip and visit me. He got his first passport, bought his first plane ticket, flew across his first ocean, and navigated through three Japanese airports on his own. Not only did this experience open up John to a whole new view on the world but it also allowed me to experience something I had almost forgotten, the absolute thrill of experiencing a new place for the first time!

A Ninja, what more can be said?

Just another normal day in Japan...

Keep going, the top ten tips for staying a happy team/couple coming right up!

7

You’ve Been Traveling Around, Now What?

What happens to travelers when they finally “go home?” After all the planning, saving, determination, downsizing, chaos and sometimes sheer terror of leaving everything behind. After traveling, backpacking, sailing, or living in another country is done and you find your self back in your hometown. Some may be lucky enough to have a home and job waiting for them but for the most of us we will need to re-build our lives. Many people might find this stage un-nerving enough to not want to leave in the first place. What we have found is that the things we learned about ourselves while traveling and living overseas has shaped us in more ways than we expected, including being mentally ready for this next phase in our lives. In the past year, between getting ready to go and actually being out there we have gained a whole new level of confidence in ourselves and what we are capable of. It also allowed us to meet many people that by sharing their stories and being by them we have learned a lot of valuable lessons that might have otherwise taken years to learn. One of the most important things that we actually might have learned is simply to actually start believing that we could be and do anything we wanted, as long as we were committed and willing to work our butts off. Today I’ll look at what a few of us “travelers” are up to when they find themselves back “home.”

John and I have been back since Christmas and we’re staying at his family home in Andalusia with his parents. We are not sitting around watching TV though, we are starting on phase II of operation Hop & Jaunt world domination via friendly fire! Long name but basically it means we have finally found the cojones to start a project we’ve always dreamed of doing: starting our own design and advertising business. Initially a home business but hoping to take make virtually anywhere with us with the power of the internet! The goal is to be location independent and to try and make money online as much as possible. We’ve always been designers, both of us having been caught doodeling on our notebooks since grammar school. Until recently we just thought we needed to be “grown-ups” and have a regular office job with an actual paycheck, insurance, and a commute, preferably with a cranky boss or two thrown in. It was while we were out that we had a chance to meet other designers , bartered with our work, dabbled in freelance, and slowly but surely realized that our parents were right, we were pretty good at this. Most importantly we realized that we CAN do it. So starting this year we have made concrete steps to open up our own free-lance design shop and on-line business! Our ultimate goal is to become our tagline:
“traveling designers.” Setting up shop where ever our laptops plug in, preferably in tropical climates but we’ll start one step at a time. 2010 the year that shall Hop & Jaunt!

Current Office Of Hop & Jaunt: Aly Planning The Next Adventure During Break! Don't Ask Why There's Milk AND Wine On My Desk..

We're Back In America

For those of you who have been following our blog for a while you might recall that the first sailboat we were on, Quercus, was my parent’s sailboat. We had met up with them in Grenada and sailed together through the Venezuelan Islands to Curacao. While in Curacao they sold Quercus and headed back to the good ‘ol U.S. of A. Once I get a hold of our old photos I will introduce you to my family but let’s just say for now that my parents are one of the original adventurers, having sailed, lived, and traveled around the world for the past 25+ years. My parents bought a small wooden boat in the middle of the Pacific, and in 1986 when I was two and my sister was still in my Mom’s belly they packed their suitcases for the first of a thousand time.

16

New Design Sneak Preview!

This is a screen shot from the new design we are working on for our site. The concept is a fusion of our two interests, work, and passion. We will have a home page where you can choose between our featured articles, go to our travel blog, go to our design agency, or browse our travel inspired t-shirt and travel gear store! Here are a few screenshots from what we are working on.

Let us know what you think, we’re still working out some of the kinks so before we say “I Do”. Are there any objections to this union of the new design and Hop & Jaunt? If so, speak now or forever hold your peace!

Home page with links to the 3 different sections, featured slider, flickr photos

The Blog Home Page

The post page

The main portfolio page with rotating images from different projects

This is the basic lay-out of our indivisual category portfolio page

This is the idea of the design so far, we’ve got a few kinks still to work out but if you have any suggestions let us know we still have a little time to change!

To leave a comment click on the title of this post, and scroll to the bottom of the article.

Feb102

5

LIFE ABOARD & ABROAD

Life Aboard & Abroad

Since we’ve been back stateside, we have had plenty of questions about life aboard a sailboat. So we’ve decided to answer some of those questions in todays blog by describing what life aboard was like for us. Feel free to post new questions in the comment area below and don’t forget to help us win a trip to Argentina by clicking here!

Life Aboard: The Day Begins

The sun is nature’s Alarm Clock. It happened every morning despite our best efforts to crawl further into the shadows of our bunks. Still, there was no hiding from the sun once it rose high enough to shine through the open hatches. But it was a nice, gradual way of waking up. Nothing like the annoying screaming of my alarm clock now. But thinking back on the size of my small quarter berth, I don’t think I’ll ever complain about having a small apartment again.

Sleeping soundly in my bunk.

Once we had crawled out of our bunks and had a good stretch it was time for a shower. Nothing shocks you awake like diving off the boat into cool Caribbean waters. I miss personal hygiene being this simple. It was as easy as falling over board. Since most bathing was done outdoors, modesty really wasn’t a practiced concept in most anchorages. Eventually, we got used to seeing our neighbors’ bare asses …and having them see ours.

Our morning shower.

Shave Optional: On days that I deemed a good shave necessary I would shave with a bucket of saltwater and a dull razor. I definitely don’t miss this. Its unbelievable the amount of hair that gathers all over the boat. It was a daily chore just having to sweep it all up. So it was just easier to do all my shaving over a bucket. Thats probably why I didn’t shave so much. And I have no idea how Alyson managed all her shaving.

Next comes a saltwater shave from a bucket.

Transportation: Life without a car

Its strange. I love to drive, and I drive a lot. My ole pick-up truck has covered a lot of ground in the past 10 years, and I would definitely rather drive 1000 miles than fly the same distance. That being said, I didn’t really miss having a car at all. As a matter of fact, life without a car forced us to plan better, be more resourceful and more outgoing. Which in turn, led to new friendships and experiences we would not have made otherwise.

the Dinghy: Our dry way of getting to shore. Even though we got along fine without a car, there was no living aboard without a dinghy.

Going for a Sunday Drive

2

Shameless Call For Action From You To Help Us Get To Argentina

I must confess that we don’t normally do this, enter contest or force people to get involved in random things but this is ARGENTINA! One of my all time favorite places. It’s where I became a teenager, where I had an amazing surprise Quince Años birthday party by my friends and family, and where I have not been able to get back to in nearly ten years. My “Catellano” is starting to slip away and I can’t let that happen! You know how hard it was to learn it at 14, new in a new school in a new country without knowing a word of Spanish? By the time I left I was pretty good at it, ended up making some of the best memories in my life, so it would be a crying shame to lose this language without a fight. And John just started learning in Colombia and we need to drill it into his head before he forgets all that he learned.

So now you’re asking me what it is that you want me to do, right? It’s pretty simple, if you have a facebook account just sign up to this fan page and “like” our photo. This is the photo we have on there. That’s it! We need to get over 50 “likes” to win. Thank you in advance for those that give us a boost!

"we need a good lesson..."

Click Here: Bueno, entonces…fan page

Contest Ends This Friday

Jan1030

9

Sailing the Southern Caribbean

Today’s post is a little different. Instead of me droning on for an hour, for you slow readers, or twenty-eight seconds, for those realizing they got the wrong site, I would like to present you with a cinematic master piece. A MONTAGE!!!

But before you cringe let me also say that it has music, and dolphins jumping, and oceans, and an amazing car race with scantly clad women….OK the last part is a lie.

It’s a video re-cap of our sailing journey across the southern Caribbean from Grenada to Colombia, over 1000 nautical miles, 7 months, and 2 sailboats later.

So go pop some pop-corn, sit back and relax!

Sailing The Southern Caribbean from Hop & Jaunt on Vimeo.

It’s also on YouTube if you have a preference.

3

Perros and Plazas of Cartagena

During the last month of staying in Cartagena (we were there 3 months) we rented a room at Casa Valdez, a hostel-like place only a block from Plaza Trinidad. We had scored the upstairs room with the only balcony/window at the place by the second week and though the water didn’t work in the sink we called it home. The hostel technically came with a pretty decent communal kitchen but John and I were already so unaccustomed to cooking that it might have taken a half a day to recognize what it was.

Untouched Kitchen

It had most of the utencils needed

Nice Design

The truth is that we had grown accustomed to eating the ‘typical’ food of the city at as local a price as we could get them. There was not many meals that we could make that would be as good or as cheap as a Chorri Perro (giant hot-dog with crushed potato-chips, four different sauces, and melted cheese) or bbq chicken and vegetables on a stick, or even a plate of beef steak and potatoes from the street vendors at our local plaza (square). The truth be told we were quite happy to save our money by going out to eat everyday. We tried street vendors, local lunch dinners, and on a special occasion we even splurged on a five-star night out. Today I’ll take you on a mini culinary tour of the city of Cartagena.

7

Storming the Castillo

The Hop & Jaunt crew explore the largest fortress of the Spanish Main.
Its been nearly a month since we left Colombia. Alyson and I are really missing the tropically warm climates and bustling city life. So today we are blogging about one of our favorite afternoons in Cartagena when we visited the “Castillo de San Felipe De Barajas: The largest Spanish Fortress in the World!”

Castillo de San Felipe De Barajas

The fortress is really an impressive structure. It can be seen towering on its hill looming over the old city and water front. It’s a massive construction, but it needed to be. In the days of Spanish Conquisition in the New World, Cartagena was THE major port for exporting gold back to Spain. That meant that nearly all the gold in South America had to come through Cartagena to make the jump to Europe. As anyone can imagine, this made Cartagena the jackpot for pirating. Pirates plundered and attacked the city numerous times. Most notoriously was Sir Francis Drake, the famed English privateer. Eventually after numerous attacks and ship loads of stolen gold King Ferdinand of Spain ordered the fortress to be built.

It took over 200 years to build it.

Although you can see the castle from anywhere in town we did have some trouble getting to it. First off, we didn’t know the actual name of Castillo de San Felipe De Barajas. We just called it the Big Fort. So when we got into a taxi cab we had trouble giving directions to the driver. Neither of us knew the Spanish word for “Fort”. We drove around in circles for nearly 15 minutes babbling to the driver about how we wanted to go to the “Big, Old, Building”. The poor guy was so confused. He kept staring at us through the rear view mirror asking, “Que?” Finally, I remembered the word Castillo and he instantly knew what we were talking about. He had a pretty good sense of humor about it.

Entry into the fort is about $5 US dollars and its definitely worth it. One great way to spend an afternoon in Cartagena is just walking around taking pictures, and the Castillo is a pretty awesome place to explore.

Alyson camera ready at Castillo de San Felipe. Our photo tour begins.

Guard tower at the corner of the wall.

At the top of the wall, there are several entrances into the fortress.

4

Griff Saves Christmas!

After our narrow escape from the Colombian Police (see previous blog posting) we boarded our return flight to the United States with much relief. Colombian prison is no place I would want to spend Christmas. We never really found out why our bag was the only one set aside to be searched. The policia never explained, and Alyson and I didn’t want to prolong our detention by asking questions. We only knew we were free to go, so we got the hell out.

It was hard to relax on the five hour flight back to Houston. We would have to go through a baggage inspection again once we landed. My mind kept wandering what reason could the Colombian Police have had for searching our bag? Had the used suitcase we purchased in a back alley been used to smuggle something before? Maybe a dog or machine had detected something which warranted a formal search. I was dreading that the US customs officers would have the same suspicions and we would have to go through the process again. And customs & immigration officers don’t mess around in Texas. Suppressed memories of a strip search in a Florida State penitentiary suddenly came back to mind.

We were also dreading the possibility of endlessly long lines and multiple flight delays. Thats the sort of thing you expect when flying the day before Christmas Eve, right? Packed airports, delayed and canceled flights, lost luggage. I always hear people complain about how terrible flying is in the US, and how it’s exponentially worse during the holidays. We were expecting the worst possible scenario ever …and maybe an arrest. We only had an hour to make it through immigration, pick up our checked luggage, go through customs, re-check our bags and find our next departure gate. ”We’re not gonna make it” we agreed. We were prepared to make a mad dash off the plane once we landed.

Finally the plane touched down. The doors opened. We grabbed our carry-on bags. And we ran off the plane…right into an empty airport. It was amazing!! There was no one there. It’s like everyone decided to stay home this year. I’ve never had such great service. We made our way through all the checkpoints with no lines and no waiting. Our bags were practically waiting for us at the carousel and no one even glanced at our luggage. We made it to the next gate with time to spare. We got out the laptops and surfed the web while we waited for our flight to Atlanta, which was right on time. I was impressed. That being said; however, we are soooo happy we made it back before the whole Amsterdam terrorist fiasco on Christmas Day.

Alyson, all our luggage, and I made it to Atlanta’s Delta Hub safe and sound. Now we just had to cross that Alabama state line before Christmas Eve. Here is where the hero of our story comes in. No one in my family knew we were returning for Christmas. No one ‘cept one man. Twas my taller, funnier, hell raisin’, cadillac drivin’, tattooin’, trailer park residing, ladies man, cousin Griff. We had let Griffin in on the secret weeks before in an attempt to secure a ride back from Atlanta. He’s awesome.

Griff Saves Christmas! My cousin Griffin picks us up from the Atlanta airport.

11

24hrs In Bogota

It was a couple of weeks before Christmas when John and I decided to heed the call of his family and visit them for the holidays. We managed to find a decent deal flying out of Cartagena (not the cheapest place to fly in and out of) and as a bonus due to the flight schedule we had an entire day to spend in Bogota. The catch was that we had not told a soul, our visit was to be a complete surprise to his family. The only one who knew was his cousin Griffin, who we had arranged to pick us up at the airport. In order to achieve maximum impact we orchestrated the arrival to be on Christmas Eve, at night when we knew the entire extended family would be sitting around the tree at John’s childhood home.

Flying To Bogota

We flew out of Cartagena without a hitch and in a few hours found ourselves racing through city highways and traffic as our yellow cab wound it’s way through Bogota to our hostel.

Airport Vendor in Bogota

Handy Translations For Tourist In Bogota Cab

We arrived in the hostel by 3:30pm and we had to be at the airport no later than 5:30 am the next morning. With such limited time we wanted to hit the city fast to see as much as possible. After checking in we realized a few things about our immediate surroundings: 1.) Our hostel, the Cranky Croc, was the nicest backpacker hostel we have been in, and 2.) It was CHILLY in Bogota at 60F! It was a little worrisome that it was already feeling freezing to us at 60F when where we were going in the U.S., even though in the South, was a nippy 30-40F! I guess spending 8 months where the temperature never dropped under 70F had seriously damaged our sense of hot and cold.

Our hostel, the Cranky Croc, was created by a backpacker who fell in love with Colombia and wanted to create a hostel where all the needs he had identified while traveling where put into practice. The results are quite nice.