Shortly, after realizing we were mistaken about the visa requirements and only had 3 months because of the EU Schengen Agreement, I took on a large amount of freelance contract work and costly train tickets kept us from roaming too far.

So we checked out a windmill:

Tried some local beers:

And went to the Heineken ‘Museum’:

We took a canal tour:

Then went on a canal booze cruise with some new and old friends:

We ate a lot of fried food…and pancakes:

Rags came to visit!:

So did some other dive buddies:

…on a tugboat in Urk:

We took an extended weekend and jumped the train to Bruges, Belgium:

There were lots of old people and old buildings:

We went for a local brewery tour:

And of course, we tried some local beers:

We ate Belgian chocolate and mussels and frites:

We flew to England to check out the sites and to shop:

It rained, a lot:

But we had fun:

…with more dive buddies:

We took a train and a ferry to Dublin:

to say ‘Hullo’ to Geoff and Charlotte:

We saw some street performers:

Visited the Guinness brewery:

And had a real pint of the black stuff:

Then my computer crapped out and we had to head back to Amsterdam for backups and a new computer. So I booked the right plane ticket on the wrong day. I’m no longer allowed to book flights.

…without checking with the boss:

We spent a few more weeks in Amsterdam, doing what the locals do. Hanging out in parks, BBQing, dodging bikes and trams. Then we flew to Croatia. Currently, Croatia and Turkey are the only 2 EU countries that are not part of the Shengen Agreement so Croatia would be our haven for a month till things warmed up elsewhere. We decided to spend the first couple weeks in Pula. It’s a medium sized town with plenty of shopping and a lot of resort accommodation on the beaches. Which are in reality really rocky bluffs and rocks, with some more rocks.

The food was okay. We cooked a lot at home, but would go out for a pivo (beer) in the evening or have a slivovica (croatian spirit, kind of like shnapps or brandy depending on the kind) or try a local wine.

We went to the Croatian Film Festival and on another night to the Jack Johnson concert at the Pula amphitheater. What an amazing venue under the stars!

After a few weeks in Pula, it was starting to feel like Kellerman’s resort in Dirty Dancing. Everything near the beach resorts was mini golf and dance lessons, with a really family oriented vibe and kids everywhere.

So we headed an hour North to Rovinj; an old fishing village, and rented a suite 20 minutes walk from the main square. Rovinj was much more scenic with its cobblestone streets, the Esplanade, and the cliffside restaurants leading up to the church which towers over the town.

The food was remarkably better, though I still have little idea what real Croatian cuisine tastes like. Croatia as a whole caters heavily to Italians on vacation, so pizza and pasta was everywhere. Though there was plenty of seafood and we had an amazing 11 course dinner at Monte for my birthday. There was a lot of foams, mousse, and flames involved. In the end, it was around $10 per course per person for what would have easily been a few hundred dollars each at a fancy restaurant back in North America… with a bottle of wine!

After 2 weeks, we took a fast ferry to Venice and stayed just outside the city so we didn’t have to haul all our luggage through the canals. Only 10 minutes away by bus, we’d head into the city each day to endlessly wander the alleys, getting lost in our hunt for cicchetti (Italian snacks, typically served 4-6pm for the way home from work) and a glass of good red wine. One eventing, we found a great little restaurant serving your choice of 3 different platters (meat, cheeses, or seafood) and they even bottle their own beer! Yum.

We flew to London after a few days, to pay another visit to our friends Liz and Jez (Thanks again for the house!) who were busy dodging imaginary hurricanes in New York. While they were away we did some shopping and ate jerk chicken at the Notting Hill Carnival.

After a few days in London we hopped another train… this time to the south west of England. To a town called Newquay on the Cornish coast. Newquay is a quaint little place known mostly for it’s surf. Pretty much everyone who comes here is here for the waves. Being the tropical beach bums that we are, we decided to give the frigid English waters a miss, and contently watch the surfers from the warmth of the pub instead.

With not much to offer other than surfing, we quickly ran out of things to do in Newquay. We had a few more days to kill before our dive trip to Egypt, so we decided to check out Brighton and spend a couple more days on the English Coast. Brighton is less than an hour train ride south of London making it a popular weekend getaway. There are lots of interesting streets to explore, and a great selection of restaurants. We had some really yummy Thai one night and even managed to find a Vietnamese Pho restaurant. It was funny to be loading up on Asian food less than 2 weeks before leaving for Malaysia, but it was a nice change after all the English pub food we’d been consuming over the rainy couple of weeks.

After Brighton we headed back up to London. We had one last night out with Liz & Jez, dropped off some extra gear at their place and jumped a flight to Egypt with our dive buddies from Honduras, Jose and Alex.

Spending a week on a liveaboard from Marsa Alam down to Fury Shoal, chasing hammerhead sharks, leopard rays, guitar sharks, and hunting for huge green turtles and dugongs 3 times a day (Unfortunately, we didn’t find a dugong). It was a great week of diving, relaxing, and we met a bunch of folks from Wales and Australia. Shame we didn’t get to actually see much of Egypt through. We went from plane to boat and back to the plane with little more than a few hours of Egyptian soil beneath our feet. The Red Sea was wonderful though. Quite warm, I ditched the wetsuit for most of our dives. I haven’t been able to do that since our first trip to Roatan in 2009! Think I’m getting acclimated to the tropical life? ;)

Returning to London, we then called an end to the European/UK leg of our adventure and boarded a flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for a month before we continue on to Australia. While I feel like I missed out on visiting a lot of Europe because of our visa silp up, I still feel like we did a lot considering our office hours. I’m looking forward to going back in a couple years to explore the rest.

Read the original article here: 5 months in Amsterdam/London/Dublin/Croatia and Egypt – The Pictoral Recap

Related posts:

1. Philippines Recap
2. Week 39: 9 months in Asia and the things we (will) miss.
3. Week 13: 3 Months Housewarming Party

When we last left you we had just returned to Roatan for another 3 months. We’d had a great 4 months in Mexico, but were happy to return to Roatan… to familiar faces, and great diving. Work had become busier than ever for both of us and we just sort of fell into a routine. We spent our days working at home, and then usually wandered down to the dive shop for a couple of after-work beers, followed by happy hour at the local beach bar. From there it was either dinner at home, or dinner out… or often a communal cooking night, or BBQ with friends. On weekends we’d go diving, and hang out at the beach, and spend our evenings much the same way as any other night.

We never intended to abandon the blog we just got caught up in all this routine… which after 2 years on the road, was actually really nice. Unfortunately, routine doesn’t really make for the most interesting blog posts. Sure we were having a great time, but we just didn’t have anything new and exciting to post about. So we let things slide. And the longer we left it the harder it became to get back into it. We were enjoying life, and didn’t feel like taking the time to document it online.

We vowed to catch up on things over Christmas in Canada… but as you can see that just didn’t happen either. We were busy meeting up with old friends and family, and just enjoying the holidays at home.

After Christmas we returned to Roatan, for yet another 3 months, and picked up right where we left off. We were in a new apartment but other than that, things remained the same. We worked, we dove, we chilled. Unfortunately, the blog suffered.

But… we’ve now moved on! After a somewhat sad a tearful good-bye we’ve finally left Roatan.

New adventures await… so stay tuned, I promise to be more diligent.

Read the original article here: The great blog catch up of 2011

Related posts:

1. Week 16: Surviving Christmas away from home
2. Week 15: Tis’ the season
3. The Return to Roatan

Read the original article here: Merry Ho Ho everyone!

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1. Merry Christmas from the Philippines

The first day back, we were just sitting at the dive shop, watching what little traffic there is go by. Adapting back to ‘island time’ hasn’t been hard. It’s nice to be back among the familiar faces in the West End. We made a lot of friends the last time we were here and though many people have come and gone, there’s still a bunch of dive buddies and party pals we’ve reunited with over the last week.

Also, the scuba diving is so much more our style than our Playa del Carmen/Cozumel experience and it’s way more convenient. We can drop in on the shop at the last moment and head out on any of the scheduled dives that day. I’ve missed these near vertical wall dives and even though much of the reef is now densely covered in algae, I’m noticing so many more small critters than before. Although that could be from starting to dive wearing my contact lenses. ;)

Kelly and I scored a great place to stay while we’re here. We met a couple who own a condo in the West End on our previous visit, and when we mentioned coming back they offered it to us at a steal. It’s a fully furnished 2 bedroom, 3 bathroom with 2 balconies, hardwood floors, a well stocked kitchen, and an essential hammock. Needless to say, we’ll be very comfortable for the next couple months.

We stopped in Fort Lauderdale for a few days on our way here. It was a novelty to be back in ‘normal’ society for a while. We went for a good steak, rented a car (first time driving in over a year), and did a ton of shopping. We both got fitted for new wetsuits in preparation for the rainy season dives. Kelly has a new wide angle lens and a dome port for her underwater photos (a very belated birthday gift) and I got a small underwater HD video rig (a slightly belated birthday gift). It’s changed how we dive a lot. We used to be at the back of the pack, letting the silt settle and seeking out the small creatures. Now we’re right up front, fighting for the best unobstructed shots of stingrays and turtles.

It was a logical choice for us to come back. We were looking for good diving, but with the coming hurricane season we were wary of much of the Caribbean. Luckily, Roatan is just outside the hurricane belt. As we’ve already seen numerous times this season, they most often pass north of Roatan. We get a few days of rain and choppy seas as they go by, and it’s not to say that Roatan never gets hit… but we’re pretty well sheltered from the most of it. In the meantime, it’s still smokin’ hot and will stay that way for at least another month before we start carrying our rain gear around with us.

Much like the last time we left Roatan, it’s a wedding that will be pulling us away again. We’ll be headed home to Canada at the end of November. Straight to Whistler for the wedding, hanging around Vancouver for a while, then off to Kelowna for Xmas, and back to Vancouver for New Years. We’re looking forward to coming home for a bit. It’s been over a year since we last saw our families. Though adapting to a Canadian winter again will be… interesting.

Then comes a brand new year, who knows? Maybe we’ll still be caught in the vortex.

Read the original article here: The Return to Roatan

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1. It’s a scuba diver’s scene in Roatan, Honduras
2. Scuba Diving in Roatan, Honduras
3. Roatan Shark Dive with Waihuka Dive Center

We’ve been in Playa Del Carmen for three months now, and it’s safe to say, we’re both ready to move on. That’s not to say that we haven’t enjoyed our time here, it’s just not quite our style.

Playa Del Carmen is one of the most developed places we’ve stayed since starting our nomadic life almost two years ago. There are loads of great places to eat, whether you want Mexican, Italian, America, or even Japanese, you definitely won’t go hungry. Shopping in Playa is also pretty good, you can find almost anything you might want as there are several large supermarkets (including a Walmart) and lots of smaller independent stores. And, if you can’t find it, buses depart for Cancun every 10 minutes, so you can always try your luck there.

As for accommodation, there are tons of options for long term rentals, and as long as you’re not hoping to be beach front, you can find some pretty good deals. We managed to find a great little one bedroom apartment for $800/month, with a nice pool, close to the grocery store.

All of these conveniences were definitely appreciated, but of course with all of this development, comes a whole lot of tourists. Most people who visit Playa Del Carmen, are down for a week or two, usually on a honeymoon, with family or with a large group of friends. Most are here for the party, and are trying to pack as much as possible into their one week vacation. All of that is well and good, but it does make meeting people a little difficult. Especially when we’re holed up at home working during the week.

We did have a couple of good nights out and met some really nice people, but for the most part it was a pretty quiet couple of months. All-in-all we really enjoyed Playa. I’m definitely going to miss the food, but can’t wait to get back to sleepy little Roatan.

Read the original article here: Living in Playa Del Carmen

Related posts:

1. The Return to Roatan
2. The Ruins of Tulum, Mexico
3. A Guide to living short-term in the Philippines

When you’re constantly moving around, making new friends can be hard. Sure, it’s easy to meet people… traveling has a way of breaking down normal social barriers, making it easy to approach new people and start up a conversation. The problem is, that conversation is often exactly the same:

THEM: “Where are you from?”
US: “Vancouver, Canada”
THEM: “How long are you traveling for?”
US: “We’ve been on the road for almost two years.”
THEM: “Wow, must be nice… how do you afford it?”
US: “We work online…..blah, blah, blah…”

From there, the conversation will progress to where we’ve been, where they’ve been, we’ll compare favorite places and add new ones to the list. We’ll swap travel stories, the good and the bad… and at the end of the day, or evening, or dive trip, we’ll say goodbye. Encounters like this are great, we’ve met so many interesting people. All of whom have helped to make the ferry ride, or the boarder crossing or the night out, all the more memorable. But, at the end of the day you know that most of these people you’ll never see again.

When traveling long term this can get tiring. You crave the comfort of close friends and try to get through the standard “Where are you from?/What do you do?” questions as quickly as possible. You miss conversations where you don’t spill your whole life story in the first five minutes and often wish you could talk about something other than traveling. When you’re on the road for a long time you realize the importance of familiar faces and effortless friendships… and cherish inventions like email, Skype, and yes… even Facebook.

Over the last couple of years we’ve missed out on important events back home, both good and bad. From babies being born, and people getting married… to unfortunate losses and sick family members. No matter the event, it’s always hard being away.

This time however, we got lucky. This time the wedding came to us… or close enough anyway. Our friends Randal & Rachelle, planned their wedding in Mexico, and being in Central America, we organized the last 10 months of our travels with this in mind.

We had an amazing week catching up with old friends and even making a few new ones. It was nice to fall back into old circles and conversations and feel like nothing had changed. It was a great reminder that even though we may not see each other for months or even years at a time and despite the different paths we choose to take, some friendships seem to last no matter what decisions we make.

It also made me appreciate the ease of meeting people on the road. The openness of other travelers and all the fascinating people we’ve met along the way. It got me excited about continuing our adventure and reminded me why we do this. It’s great to know those friends will always be there, but in the mean time I’m looking forward to making some new ones.

Thanks to everyone who made it such a memorable week… and we’ll see you all in six months!

Read the original article here: Friendships and long-term travel

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1. The Long Term Travel Gear List
2. A long term travelers guide: 10 things I learned in 2008
3. Week 36 & 37: The downside of travel

West Bay is the nicest sandy beach on the western side of Roatan. Located at the southwestern tip of the island, it’s frequented by up to 4 boats of cruise ship passengers for 4 days of the week, priced to match, and blissfully quiet for the other 3. There’s a few bars and restaurants on the beach but after sundown things tend to get quiet. There’s a hand full of dive shops, a number of nice resorts, and a great little deli for sandwiches and imported foodstuffs. We like to head down here on our days off to hang out in the sun and go swimming/snorkeling in the clear waters.

The West End stretches from Half Moon Bay to West Bay. It’s at the budget end of the spectrum with smaller slivers of sandy beach, but there are upper scale options to be found. We decided that the West End had the most established dive shops, 4-5 good bars, 10-15 restaurants, a few small grocery stores, and it’s where we found the social scene to be just our style. Laid back in the day, a couple good dives, then off to the bar for a burger or a balleada (a tortilla with beans and usually chicken) and a couple beers with your fellow divers. Perhaps followed by a crazy night out at one of the bars down the beach. Pretty much everything is in walking distance aside from the major grocery stores located in Coxen hole and French Harbour, which is a $10 half hour cab ride north, though there are a few smaller grocery stores and convenience stores in the West End. Also of note are the fresh fruit and vegetable trucks that park along the street each afternoon, selling most of your standard veg.

It’s approximately a 45 minute walk from the West End to West Bay. Take sunscreen, water, and be prepared to get your feet wet, but it’s a nice walk past beachfront houses and some of the resorts off the beaten path. Water taxi boats also run from sunrise to sundown for $3/person. And a regular taxi will cost you $5-10 for the trip. Remember to clarify with the driver the cost per person upfront. A little too often we’ve ended up at our location to find the driver expects the negotiated cost for each of us.

Sandy Bay is north of the West End and has the longest stretch of beach of the three. Home to some of the nicer restaurants and many gated vacation home communities and condos it’s more remote and at the uppper end of the scale.

As far as costs go, there’s a pretty wide spectrum of both price and the amount of comfort you’ll have for what you pay. From $300 a month for a small room with a fan, to 1 bedrooms with air conditioning and a kitchen for $700-$1200 a month, and multi-room cabanas and vacation rentals with private pools for $100-$200 per night and up. Being semi long term oriented and needing comfort and connectivity, we opted for a 1 bedroom with a kitchen and A/C for 3 months at the northern end of the West End.

Eating out at restaurants can be a costly expense on the island. You can find small local run restaurants with cheap local fare, but many of the larger restaurants along the beach charge upwards of $10-15 for an excessively huge plate of pasta, or $12 for tacos or burritos, the quality of which doesn’t compare to the local Mom ‘n Pop shops. There are a number of lower cost options to be had though as some restaurants cater to the dive shop staff’s $5 meal philosophy. We’ve also attended a number of communal cooking nights at some of the shop staff’s houses and at a bar that likes to host the events. Everyone pitches in $5 and a helping hand to make a giant pot of chili, burritos, carbonera, or whatever the meal might be. It provides a good social event where everyone can get together with good food and friends, have a few drinks, and a lot of laughs.

Shortly after getting settled, we wandered down to the dive shop. Kelly had been emailing back and forth with Will from Coconut Tree Divers before we’d arrived and he and the other staff at Coconut Tree have gone out of their way to make sure we’re comfortable, happy, well oriented, and very well entertained. We’ve tried to get in at least 2-3 dives a week and have managed to visit many of the sites along the west wall. The diving itself isn’t phenomenal compared to our last year in Southeast Asia, but after the lack of diving in Costa Rica, we’re making the most of it. Hilights so far have been coming across 3 sleeping nurse sharks, huge lobsters and crabs, diving the El Aguila wreck with it’s massive groupers, some interesting swim throughs, a huge seahorse, and turtle and eagle ray sightings. All in all, there’s no such thing as a bad dive in my books, but we’ve missed the deluge of macro life from last year. And yes, I know I’m spoiled rotten.

Kelly and I also recently had the opportunity to try out some alternative dive gear since Coconut Tree has tec diving courses and a lot of people dive with a harness/back plate/wing setup instead of a standard BCD. We were warned that if we tried the setup once, we’d end up buying one… and sure enough. After a handful of dives, the order has been placed. The streamline feel of a harness and wing underwater compared to a bulky BCD, plus the even weight distribution with the back plate quickly drew us in. It’s very compact and will travel well, not to mention that we’ve been unable to find reasonable camera and computer insurance for Canadians as of yet. Buying full dive gear will enable us to insure everything through DAN (Divers Alert Network). So it’s a big win all around and we get new toys.

Aside from life underwater, we’ve been working lots as usual. We went to a play in Coxen Hole, saw a crazy one man band live show, and have celebrated a few new friend’s birthdays, including the dive shops 8th birthday. We’ve spent days relaxing on the beach, and many are concluded by watching the sunset at Sundowners which is our new local. Really, we’ve found a nice work/life balance here with a great social scene and I’m somewhat loathe to move on to the next destination. I think they told me about Roatan’s magnetic properties too. :)

Read the original article here: It’s a scuba diver’s scene in Roatan, Honduras

Related posts:

1. Scuba Diving in Roatan, Honduras
2. The Return to Roatan
3. From Tamarindo, Costa Rica to Roatan, Honduras

Lately, aside from taking 3 weeks off in December for Xmas holidays, we’ve been keeping our noses buried in our computers 6 days a week and sticking to our new exercise schedule of an hour each day. Saturdays are a designated day off now. We were having problems coordinating downtime between the two of us before the holidays and decided we needed to have a day each week where we wouldn’t think about work or working out and could just head to the beach, or out for brunch together.

Kelly has also been busily posting great crafty content on her craft blog – Talk Crafty To Me – ‘Dedicated to all things handmade’.

I hope you’re all keeping busy back home. We’re wishing some sunshine your way!

Want to know what we’ve been working on? Check out our online portfolios:
Kelly – FightLikeAGirl.net
Mike – ASFlasher.com

Read the original article here: Nomadic Professionals – Interviewed by The Professional Hobo

Related posts:

1. Our Nomadic Life — 2009 in Review
2. Interviewed by JetSetCitizen.com
3. Random Factoid: Pura Vida

Below are just a few of those memories, as we look back and reminisce over an amazing 2009.

We rang in the New Year with some friends at a beach resort in the Philippines. We had some great dives in January, made some new friends, rented a motorbike, and celebrated my 30th birthday.

February continued in the Philippines, where we saw some of the worst rain and flooding in 30 years. We spent much of the month partying with friends, both new and old, before saying goodbye and heading to Kuala Lumpur for the next phase of our trip.

March 1st we arrived in Phuket, Thailand, where we spent 2 weeks enjoying the food, the beach and the water. We took a cooking class, went diving and did lots of relaxing. We then headed over to Koh Samui, where Mike’s computer broke, and as a result we ended up staying a bit longer than expected.

April was a month of diving. We headed to Koh Tao, which brought back loads of memories from my first trip there. We rented an apartment for a month, caught up with a few friends from the Philippines, and of course the highlight of the month was definitely seeing a whale shark.

In May, we rounded out our time in Thailand, with a couple more weeks in Koh Samui. We saw a Muai Thai match, did a bit of sight seeing, and woke up to our bungalow being torn down around us. We hit a bit of a low point this month and were looking forward to a change of scenery in Bali, (after a quick stop in Bangkok). Our arrival in Bali was marked by a beautiful hotel with a swim up bar!

June continued in Bali, where we ran into Aimee, a friend from Vancouver. I took a jewelry class in Ubud, and we went for a dive with Manta Rays. Mike’s computer broke again, just before we were due to head to Penang, so we changed our flights and made a quick stop in KL first. In Penang we ate! We visited the butterfly garden, hit the beach, and ate some more.

July was another month of diving and one of my favourite months of the year. After a month in Penang with no diving we were itching to get back in the water. We headed to the Perhentian Islands first, where we did 3 days of diving. Nothing that blew us away, but it was a good warm up for what was to come next. Sipadan! We spent 5 days in Mabul, and got to dive the amazing island of Sipadan twice. If you haven’t seen our dive video definitely check it out.

August was another great month. We spent the first couple weeks in Kota Kinabalu and did an amazing motorbike trip (definitely Mike’s highlight of the year). I visited the Orang-utan sanctuary at Rasa Ria, and we ate Dim Sum in Hong Kong. August also rounded out our year in Asia. We headed back to Canada for a quick visit with family and friends, and I finally got to meet my new nephew.

The first few weeks of September were spent catching up with friends we hadn’t seen in a year. It was great to see everyone, but we were excited to get back on the road. We flew from Vancouver to Costa Rica with a plan to stay for 6 months.

October was a really low key month. With all the traveling, and moving around of the previous few months, it was great to settle down and just chill. We found a fantastic apartment and became hermits for the month, with the occasional trip to the beach, of course.

Lauren came to visit us in November and made us feel like tourists again. We did a canopy tour in Arenal, held snakes in Monteverde, and drank copious amounts of booze on a catamaran in Tamarindo. And, like good little Canadians, we watched the Grey Cup game at Sharky’s Bar.

And last but not least… December. After 3 months in Costa Rica, it was time to renew our visas so we did a quick run to Nicaragua. We spent a few days exploring Granada, and enjoying the rum, before heading back to Tamarindo. We took some time off to enjoy the holidays, Mike took a surf lesson, we went on an ATV tour and of course made the most of living so close to the beach.

All-in-all it’s been an amazing year, and I can’t believe it’s the end of a decade! I hope your 2009 was as memorable as ours, and that your 2010 is even better!

¡Feliz Año Nuevo Amigos!

Read the original article here: Our Nomadic Life — 2009 in Review

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1. Week 18: Hello 2009!
2. Malaysia and Canada travel budgets
3. Week 41: From Bali to Malaysia

Merry Christmas from Costa Rica!

Read the original article here: Feliz Navidad!

Related posts:

1. Merry Christmas from the Philippines
2. Merry Ho Ho everyone!
3. Random Factoid: Pura Vida