Posts

Hong Kong Gems!

Image
The next part of our trip consisted of us riding tons of subways and trollies all over Hong Kong to check off photo destinations! This blog post will mostly be a collection of the photos we took. We found a couple "instagram" hotspots that were very popular among other travelers. The first stop of the day was a collection of apartment building that were painted the color of the rainbow. When we showed up around 11am there were already around 150 people there taking photos! We couldn't believe how popular this spot was. I wanted to get a different perspective so I took out our drone and snapped some aerial photos. When there's 150 people taking the same photos you need to think outside the box! Looking Down on Rainbow Alley! Spherical Photo Ground Level After we finished with the rainbow apartments we headed to another popular hotspot with blue concrete rings. This site was quite bizarre to me as we were in a very quite part of Hong Kong. We had read that the

Mong Kok and Beyond!

Image
We immediately hit the ground running! We arrived early and got settled. We then made our way to the infamous subway system. We knew we would be using it a lot so we bought "Octopus" cards which allow you to tap into the gates instead of buying individual tickets. We would soon find out that the Octopus cards got you access to everything (subways, busses, trollies, ferries, and even 711s). We made our way to Victoria Peaks and got in a very very long line for the Tram. We didn't last long in line and decided to hike to the top. Little did we know that it's a couple miles to get to the top and thousands of feet of elevation gain. After 10 minutes of hiking we hailed a taxi and got to the top in 15 minutes. Just in time for the sunset. Pretty Decent View from the Top of Victoria Peaks We took another suggestion for dinner and went to Yardbird. When we walked in it was the first time since we landed in Hong Kong that we were talking to English speaking people. Our w

Hong Kong 2018!

Image
Hello fellow travelers! A lot of people have been asking about my recent trip to Hong Kong!  I'll give you the 5 "Ws" to get everyone up to speed. Who: Abe Kislevitz, Emilio, and myself What: Lot's of adventure happened including the Rugby Sevens tournament! When: April 2nd - April 9th 2018 Where: Hong Kong and the surrounding areas Why: Abe was invited to be an Alaska Airlines #WorldWideWanderer who partnered with Cathay Pacific to travel to Hong Kong and capture an epic week of content to share on their respective pages. He needed a travel buddy and reached out to me to join him. We left two weeks later with a loose itinerary on places and things we wanted to see! And boy how did things pan out so nicely! Travel Day: Stretching Out in Business Class! Having Cathay Pacific and Alaska Airlines on your side when planning a trip made travel just delightful. I met Abe at LAX at the departures level. He was coming fresh from Cabo and I from SFO. Cathay got us

Hostile Waters! El Salvador

Image
I haven’t updated in about two weeks so I will try to be succinct about my adventures! We ended up staying in Popoyo for another 10 days because the surf was so prime. A solid swell rolled in and we had about 8 days straight of 5-7ft waves. The offshore winds were kicking the whole time so the waves were epic. Chris and I surfed 3 times a day every day we were there. We both got some pretty gnarly surf rash on our bellies from the abuse and the sand that upwells from the shallow bottom and gets stuck between your stomach and board. We met two Frenchies named Sophia and Julien who were staying at our Popoyo Loco Hostel. They had a super tiny Toyota Alto car that we would cram into. We went to Lance’s Left a few more times and scored big there one of the days. Some of the longest waves I’ve ever surfed in my life. We also did another boat trip out to Manzanillo but it wasn’t really happening out there. We still scored some great lefts when the big sets would roll through. Hiking out t

Off the Grid: Nicaragua

Image
Surfing with Chris and Pat!  It’s been awhile since I last updated this. We made it to Nicaragua after a lonnnggg day of travel. I was pretty sick when we left on our journey to Nicaragua. I think it was because of the “red tide” because it was my sinuses that were bothering me. We took the 6am bus out of Santa Teresa and got to the ferry around 8. Crossed the Nicoya Peninsula by 10:30 and got back on the bus until we got to Barancas which was only 30 minutes away. We didn’t know if we were going to take local “Tica” busses to the border or a direct. Just our luck there was a direct “Trans-Nica” bus waiting in Barancas. It was expensive but it was super cushy with AC and a TV playing movies in Spanish. We got to the border after a few hours and crossed without much difficulty. I had heard rumors that the border wait can exceed 6 hours during the Semana de Santa holiday but there was hardly anybody there. We got back on the Transnica and went for about 30 minutes where Chris and I g

Super Swell Swells

Image
Sunset surf session! Doesn't get much better than this! Saying adios to the Swedes! Hanging out at my favorite spot in CR! Ohhhkaaay! Chris and I are still in Santa Teresa slaying the surf. A huge swell just rolled in so we’ve been surfing three times a day every day. The surf has been really fun and super clean! We met some new people down here who had a car and we piled in and went to a break south of Santa Teresa called Sunset Reef. It was a macking left point break that was barreling on the bigger sets. Some of the local guys were killing it and getting most of the rides. We all managed to get a few waves so the trip was definitely worth it. After our session we went up to Vistas de Olas. Vistas de Olas is a water bar, restaurant and infinity pool that overlooks the entire bay. It’s an all you can eat salad bar so we definitely got our fill. After Vistas, we went back to the hostel and rallied some more troops for a fun night at the Coco Loco. The next morning our fa

Costa Rica Bound!

Image
Smooth Criminal! I arrived in Costa Rica a few days ago after way too many hours in Airports. Chris was in Santa Teresa with our friend Ben. I didn’t tell Chris I was coming so it was a little surprise when I showed up. I landed in San Jose CR in the afternoon with just a small backpack. I packed 3 boardies, 3 tanks, and a couple GoPros for the journey. The journey to Santa Teresa is a bit of a mission. It’s a 2.5 hour bus from San Jose to Puntarenas where you get on a ferry to cross the Nicoya Penisula. The ferry is just over an hour to Paquera. From there you get on another bus for 3 hours to Santa Teresa. The bus system in Costa Rica usually rocks but I wasn’t so lucky this time. The bus left late from San Jose because they were fixing something on it. About 25 minutes into the loooong journey the bus shuts off going up a hill on a packed highway in just outside of San Jose. There were lots of clanks and banging by the bus driver on the engine when it started again and we were o