Who doesn't love to hammock?? Steve and I bought hammocks for our world trip, hoping that we would find time to relax and use them all over the world. We picked ENO because it is well known, reliable, not overly expensive and sold at a store near us (REI). I went with the double nest in pink and purple (see pics below) because I read that it was super roomy and comfortable for anyone. The double nest runs around $70.00 plus straps. Steve had a hammock from his stint in the Peace Corps, but never really used it until our trip. He has the single nest in an army green color (see pics below), which runs $60.00 plus straps. We found that while we didn't use the hammocks as much as we wished we could have, they were super light weight and EASY to set up (took maybe 2 minutes tops!) We loved them so much we were always searching for a spot to use them (just didn't have time in a lot of situations). You do need to purchase the straps separately, but they make set up so easy that we recommend them 100%. We found that you could set it up in most trees of different sizes and lengths away from each other. Sometimes we even set up one hammock on top of the other if there were only 2 trees available and that worked out great too (a little scary as I was on the bottom) Overall after sitting in both the double and single, I found the single nest to be more comfortable. My double nest might work great for taller or larger people but I found I was downing in the fabric (I am 5 foot 4, 125lbs). However, we were able to fit two people in my double nest. It wasn't the most comfortable with two people, but it did work and we got to hang out together, but I wouldn't recommend that plan long term. On windy days the fabric flapped around a lot (only on my double nest due to the extra size) and became uncomfortable...however I did use it to wrap into a cocoon and block the wind. We use these hammocks around home now, setting them up in the backyard to read a book until our next trip. Really can't say enough good things about the ENO hammock: held up, comfortable, light weight, fun and practical. I have since purchased my own dark green single nest (so we match of course) since it was more comfortable overall, but still plan to keep my double nest around the house for when we have friends over and want to hammock together. Since purchasing these we have had multiple friends and family members who purchased one and also highly recommend getting one. On the beach in Fiji, this was a cold windy day and I wrapped up like a cocoon to keep warm. Day 1 in Costa Rica and already have the hammock out! Steve in his single nest on the beaches in Fiji.
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We have now been in Mackay, Australia just over a week. Many people haven't heard of Mackay and its not a usual vacation spot so why are we here? We are trying out a new way of traveling...pet sitting! We used a couple different websites and became members in order to apply for pet sitting or house sitting positions. We were really excited to try out this type of traveling not just because you can stay in a house for free, but also because we wanted to see what it felt like to live in another country. We also love having pets in our lives, so taking care of a few pets is actually a treat for us! The only downside to traveling by pet sitting is that you have to be in that country at the time the person needs you, for us we knew exactly what dates we would be in Australia so we had to find pet sitting that fit in that timline, was in a location we liked and be accepted by the family we applied to. Bill & Ann were the first people we talked to about pet sitting and they were so excited about having us come, they were telling us about all the neat stuff in the area and even offered to let us us their car. While Mackay wasn't exactly where we wanted to be, it is within a few hours drive of some of the places we wanted to visit and they were such nice people that we decided to give it a go!
Now we are here, in their house, living the Australian life! We are watching a sausage dog (dashound) named Bailey and a cat named Bonnie. They are a lot of fun to have around...we are missing Murphy & Sox, our dog and cat so much, so it is really nice to have pets in our life again. Bailey is such a cuddle bug & sleeps with us every night :) We will be here for about 7 weeks. We are starting to get to know the neighboorhood, where to walk Bailey, where to get groceries, etc. It has been pretty laid back- we clean, cook, blog, watch movies (they have an amazing collection), workout, do yoga and plan to take some 1 day trips to the Whitsunday Islands, Eungela National Park and some other cool places. It's nice to relax on a trip like this and take the time to do whatever we feel like. We find it is hard at home with a job to dedicate time to blogging, working out, taking 1 day trip, relaxing, etc so with no pressure here it has been very nice to do whatever we feel like and concentrate on eating healthier, workingout and bloging. We are both working on books as well, just for fun and creativity! We may start to get bored after a while but for now its been great! So far we HIGHLY recommend joining some of these websites and looking into house/pet sitting as a way to save some money on a vacation! They have an amazing outdoor covered porch here at the house in Mackay with lots of tropical fruit trees and plants, so for now I will just sit out here, soak up the sun and write some more blogs! The sites we used were: www.trustedhousesitters.com & www.housecarers.com Happy travels! 1. Air bnb - this has been our number one choice for booking good locations for cheap prices. You have so many choices of accommodations and price levels from paying for s couch in someone's house to renting the entire house. It really works for any budget and we have had great experiences using places with both good reviews and even places that had no reviews yet! We met a lot of cool people, got great local knowledge and save a ton of money! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
***If you decide to give air bnb a try use this link for $20 off: AIR BNB 2. Trip advisor - this was our number to go to site to pick hotels and look at reviews for other bed and breakfasts or rentals. We found it really helpful, lots of reviews and previous bookers will even post their own vacation photos so you can see what the place is really like! There is also a handy APP which is nice on vacation! 3. Homeaway - we found a house rental for Fiji on homeaway. I've always loved this site for finding vacation rentals. Homeaway was my second site I checked if I was looking for a house rental instead of a hotel. User friendly site & trustworthy, however I found some of their prices were much higher than air bnb....but most of their rentals are high I quality. 4. VRBO - same thoughts as homeaway, I just heard about homeaway first so now I always check them before VRBO...not sure why, but both are great sites! 5. Flip key - a newer site I found that does the same thing as homeaway and VRBO. easy to use site and also trustworthy, fair prices if you hunt around. All of these sites are GREAT for finding the perfect place to stay whether it's a couch, bedroom, hotel, or house but my heart belongs to Air bnb. We just love it. Give it a try! Oh and we hope that when we get a house we can start having our own air bnb guests...so fun! Based on what I packed for my trip to Costa Rica & Panama, I came up with a revised list for what I packed for the rest of my trip around the world. We planned to do similar outdoor activities and the climate is somewhat similar to our previous trip, hot days with some cool nights mixed in. On the first trip I filled my 70L backpack until it was about to burst....I needed help getting it on my back and I thought I was going to fall over when wearing it ....big mistake. I regretted it the entire trip. I read lots of blogs telling me to pack less, but I didn't listen. The positive was that I had all the comforts of home with me, the negative...it was heavy, a lot to drag around, people laughed, I didn't used 50% of the items I brought and overall it made life harder and more complicated when traveling...it wasn't worth the comforts. If an emergency comes up I found you can buy almost anything you need even when you are in remote parts of Africa or small towns in Costa Rica. I was always shocked by the selection I found. So I didn't plan to take my entire house with me on this next trip....I made do with less :) & I was relieved when riding buses, taking taxis and just walking around that I don't have 50lbs on my back and multiple bags to keep track of. However when you have extra space souviners seem to creep in quickly :) I am still taking my 70L bag just filling it like it is 50L. Here is the new list: Clothing: -2 quick dry teeshirts from Lucy -4 quick dry tank tops -1 hiking/causal quick dry prana shorts -3 comfy or athletic shorts -1 dress from old navy -1 convertible skirt/dress from Kohls -1 pants/caprees (REI aldervale roll up) -1 smart wool zip up -3 socks -1 rain coat -8 pairs of underwear (Yes I still like to have lots of underwear...) -3 sports bras -1 tan non sports bra -2 long sleeve shirts from Lucy -2 bathing suit tops and bottoms -1 pair of nike free run tennis shoes -1 pair of Columbia drainmaker 3 tennis shoes -1 pair of keen sandals -1 pair of teva foam flip flops -1 pair of water shoes Everything else: -Camera (Nikon D3300 w/ 18-55 & zoom lens) with 2 batteries and 1 chargers -Two 32gb SD cards -Camera case (USA gear on Amazon) -Camera bag/purse (REI) -Travel keychain compass (REI) -1 travel locks and a travel bag lock (REI) -Pepper spray from Sabre red (Purchased on Amazon) -Travel advil in backpack/purse -Aloksak waterproof bag (REI) one for the computer/camera and one for iphone -Multi-tool (REI) -Mini key chain flashlight -Travel solar charger with USB connection, weatherproof, shockproof -Nalgene water bottle -Mini shaker bottle for protein powder -protein powder -Sun tan lotion for body & face -Ben’s 30% deet bug spray x1 -Deoderant -Cetephil face wipes -Contact solution travel size -Eye glasses cleaner and rag travel size -Face lotion -Pack towel, full towel size -Travel size umbrella -Multivitamins -Probiotics -Headbands, bobby pins and rubber bands -Travel mesh bags to pack stuff in -Emergency kit -Medicines and birth control -Head lamp -Portable hard drive -Kindle with charger and light -Headphones -Waterproof watch -Makeup -Shampoo/Conditioner travel size -Razer with four replacement heads -Body wash -Face wash -Travel toiletry bag -Kleenex (Travel size) -Ear plugs -Body lotion (find a face/body lotion combined) -Cotton Q-tips -Tweezers -Tooth brush -Tooth paste -Retainer -Floss -Spot remover -Leave in spray conditioner -Scrubba -Travel size hair brush -Sunglasses -Glasses -Coolmax sleeping sheet with anti-bug stuff During the trip I bought a few things: some souviner shirts, a new pair of sunglasses (mine broke)and a extra sweatshirt for chilly nights *THAILAND TIP* So many cool CHEAP tank tops, shorts, shirts, shoes, etc at the night markets in Bangkok and Chiang Mai so save room in your suitcase :) Things I packed that I haven't really used: I have a few extra shorts or shirts I probably didn't need to pack but I do use them all, I could have picked one pair of tennis shoes, but it was my first time wearing the new drainmakers and I didn't know if they would be comfortable (and knowing what I know now I would have chosen the drain makers! Shh don't tell Nike!) According to me:
1. Kindle 2. Bug spray 3. Sports bra 4. Dry bag 5. Bug sheet 6. Skirts 7. Camera 8. Water bottle 9. Scrubba According to my husband: 1. Water booties 2. Bandana 3. Flashlight/head lamp 4. Go pro 5. Walking stick 6. Water bottle 7. Music/ipod/iphone 8. Kindle 9. Day back pack I haven't updated on our travels for a bit so I thought I would fill everyone in on what we are up to now. We went from Ireland to Africa to Thailand to Australia and now we are in Fiji! I do plan to post about everywhere we visited at some point. It is a lot harder than it seems to write a blog everyday about what you did...especially when you are trying to live in the moment and not worry about things like blogging or taking notes. So that's what I've been doing...living the moment and thus my blogs have been slacking!! Anyway, we are in Fiji now! We are on the second largest island in a town called Savusavu. It is a really small town, the "downtown" area has maybe 30 shops. Its about the size of a town up north in Michigan. It is an OK downtown, pretty run down...some stores with basic food supplies and a few places to eat, but we haven't explored too much as it didn't look exciting. There is a small harbor, which according to quite a few people in the area is a very well known docking harbor for rich people with yachts. Savusavu is a hurricane hole which means when a hurricane comes it is a protected area so it is very popular for boating tourists. Aside from the occasional boaters there aren't too many other vacationers here, it is pretty quiet...which we love! It's an absolutely beautiful place....so many different tropical plants, fruits, and the most palm trees I have ever seen at one time. Just beautiful. The beaches however are not the perfect white sand you would expect...they are full of shells, very small and only exist during low tide...at high tide there isn't any walking space on the beach. We have spent most of our time going walking/exploring on the beaches during low tide. Steve loves going out into the tidal pools and looking for creatures and cool shells. We bring our ENO travel hammocks with us and set them up in the palms along the "beaches" and just relax. We spend the rest of our time reflecting on the trip, enjoying each others company, hammocking, reading, writing or listening to books on tape. Every few days we take the local bus into town to get groceries. The options at the store are basic but enough to have pancakes, cereal, yogurt, fruits, veggies, pb&j and tacos. We have also spent some of our time working out together...not fun in the humidity and heat but we are both beginning to notice and increase in strength (& hopefully a decrease in fat!) so we are feeling encouraged and plan to continue trying to complete our weekly workouts...which hasn't been an easy thing to do while traveling. The people here have all been pretty friendly, but I did get my tennis shoe stolen off our front porch....which was very upsetting seeing as we still have four months of travel left! We have a couple staying in the house next to us who we have had the pleasure of sitting down with and learning more about....they are the perfect example of how truly amazing people are. One minute you know nothing about them and three hours later you realize you are sitting at a table with two amazing human beings doing great things for the world! One of them is an artist who deals with inequalities between different races of people (pretty famous where she is from) and the other has quite a few degrees, used to be in a somewhat famous band, lived in india for 7 years studying meditation, is now writing a book and is a social worker (for fun.). They will be around for another week and we hope to hear more stories from them and learn more about them. Everywhere we go the natures always opens my eyes, but the people we meet can be a real treat...funny thing is most of the people we are excited to have met are fellow travelers...not locals. I've been feeling a bit homesick here the last few days....it can be really hard looking at friends pictures seeing them buying houses, having babies, etc...while we are traveling. And I know most of you read this and probably think I am crazy for saying that because of how LUCKY I am to travel...and don't get me wrong I feel so very lucky and love every minute of it but I do miss home a lot. Especially the "feeling" of home, my animals and having a space that is actually mine & Steve's...not a rental for a few days or sharing with a stranger. So that is something I am really looking forward to upon coming home. Traveling has given me the opportunity to not only explore the world but also to be thankful and excited about the opportunities and life I have back home. I am excited for the places we have yet to explore in the next few months...and I am excited for what lies ahead for us when we get home. I am a very lucky girl.
Last post I wrote about elephant and tiger issues here in Thailand and conflicts that can arise as a tourist. I'm sure you are all wondering what we decided to do about tiger kingdom...well we decided to get a ride to Tiger Kingdom and check it out for ourselves because we heard you can sort of see inside without paying. When we got there it was very busy, lots of people everywhere. At first I thought, I was right this isn't good for the tigers but after walking around and taking a closer look I started to feel better about things. The tigers were in no way acting "drugged" like some rumors reported, overall they seemed pretty happy and the trainers seemed to understand the tigers well and they worked together well as a pair. The people get to meet the tigers but there are lots of rules and limits of how many at a time so it is not overly intrusive for the tigers. They also constantly switch out which tigers people are meeting. The tigers have a good size cage (better than most zoos) with big pools to play in, while they do play some, they sleep most of the time....but this is normal for a large cat, I think lions sleep something like 22 hours a day! Not sure about tigers. Anyway, the older tigers do have somewhat small cages but then the rotate which cage they open allowing them into a bigger enclosure. None of the tigers were pacing or seemed like they felt too confined. While overall I still don't think the situation is ideal, I think it is a good way to protect the species FOR NOW until a larger area can be established for the tigers...which is what Tiger Kingdom has said their ultimate goal is. While these tigers may not have all of the freedoms of the wild, they are given lots of food, playtime, love, water and most of all safety from those who poach them in the wild. Steve decided he wanted to see the big, small and smallest tigers while I opted for the smallest. I was still scared of getting that close to a big tiger but after seeing him do it...I kind of wish I had. The tigers were beautiful and amazing creatures...it was so fun to see them interact and learn about their behavior! It was such a great experience and I have so much appreciation from them. Steve used the photographer for his big and small encounters since I wasn't allowed in and then we took pictures of each other with the smallest tigers. We also got to see a few new born tigers...including new born white tigers! We also saw a full grown white tiger with beautiful blue eyes...it was amazing. If I could have had a picture with him I would have. It was fun to see him interact with his trainer, he was very playful and acted so much like a pet cat. Here are a bunch of our pictures from Tiger Kingdom....we don't have a CD drive with us so we can't see Steve's professional photos yet but I will post those in December when we get home :) Here we are in Chiang Mai, Thailand and the only thing I want to do is meet an elephant and play with baby tigers. Everyone here does that...it's part of the experience! So I start some online research about where to go and I got way more information than I bargained for. I started to come across one big question: IS IT ETHICAL? So here I am with all of my information, arguments for both sides & no direct evidence of "maltreatment"...but I have to ask myself, is it more important for me to meet an elephant (it's my dream...) or to protect the elephants and not be one of those tourists who provides income for these places. There is ONE place here in Thailand that seems to get a good rapport for taking care of their elephants appropriately....Elephant Nature Park, but it being low season we didn't think we needed to book anything ahead of time and they are completely booked. So my only chance of seeing or meeting an elephant would be going to a place that allows riding, potentially uses bull hooks and puts on shows with elephants....all of the signs to stay away if you care about elephants well-being. Welp. These elephants are potentially treated poorly and are used solely for money...they all had to go through an extremely rough training as babies in order to not be "wild" anymore...you can look that up online if you want more details but its terrible. So in conclusion, I will not be fulfilling my dream of meeting elephants in Thailand...but I will be supporting these elephants and attempting to be one the tourists who can make a difference for future elephants by not going to these places when I truly don't know the details of what I could be supporting by spending my money there. I sure hope one day we can plan ahead or find a place where I can meet one of these beautiful creatures. (The elephant pictured is one we met at the Chiang Mai Zoo) The second debate. Tigers. Steve loves big cats, so do I...but I don't need to be in the same room with one. I would LOVE to play with tiger babies though! Tiger Kingdom gets a good rap from many visitors....and a bad rap from some. There are "rumors" of the tigers being drugged but based on my own research I don't think this is true....tigers are cats, they sleep most of the day....just because they are lazy and sleepy a lot of the time doesn't mean they are drugged. BUT what I do struggle with is the fact that the tigers are constantly meeting people, all day....according to their website 400-600 people a DAY! This is crazy. I understand they have to feed the cats and take care of them, but this doesn't seem fair. They also only allow people to meet cats that are 2.5 or younger as it was determined that tigers older than that are too dangerous. So they have a constant flow of cat options in all ages under 2.5 and once the cats reach that age they "go to another place with lots of space". I might be wrong, but when I put all of this information together I think to myself....how do they constantly have baby tigers (which eventually get older), small tigers, medium tigers and larger tigers? That is a lot of tigers growing up and being around people and reared by people....tigers who will never be able to be fully independent in the wild....and they are breeding new cubs all the time. Where do these older tigers really go and how long can they keep this up before they have thousands of adult tigers who can't live in the wild? It just seems unfair. It sounds like they care more about money than the tigers. The tigers do seem happy, playful and get good meals everyday...some would say this is a luxury but what about the future for all of these baby and young tigers everyone goes to see? I don't have the answers, only my own thoughts on what seems logical...so here we are trying to decide if we should see the tigers? My heart is telling me know, but I've already missed out on elephants...do I tear myself away from the tigers too? Why can't people always have animals best interests in mind? That would make this a lot easier. 1. Get a good case for around the camera. It's great protection from drops, bumps and even light rain. It also protects your camera when it is traveling or in a bag.2. Strap that doesn't say cannon or nikon, etc. This helps deter others from noticing your camera...sure they might see that you have a nice camera but labeling it as Nikon or Cannon says you have the best of the best. (Picture below!) 3. Good travel bag that doesn't look like a camera bag. I took a purse that worked well as a camera, bought it on Amazon. Most women carry some type of purse, so there is always a risk with carrying a purse, but I think having a separate camera bag and purse is asking for more trouble. (Picture below!) 4. Lens covers with attachment. There is nothing more annoying that having to hold your lens cap while taking pictures of monkeys! If you haven't spent the few extra dollars to get a lens cap that attached to your camera yet...do it. 5. Figure out what kind of pictures you want to take then choose the lenses to pack. I tried to pack light for my first trip and thought by leaving home my zoom lens it would save some space and that I wouldn't really need it. WRONG! I completely forgot about the birds in the trees, or monkeys far away, etc and I really wish I had it with me. So make sure to think about what you plan to do on your vacation and then pack your lenses. 6. Keep it out of the heat. Everyone knows the sun is bad for electronics so try to plan ahead when going to the beach or leaving the camera in a hot car. 7. If taking pictures near the ocean bring lens cleaner. I found that if it was windy at all the salt sprayed up from the ocean and got on my lens....make sure you bring lens cleaner with you if you plan to walk along the beach or take beach pictures! 8. Insurance. It is possible to find insurance for your camera with a personal item policy...I got insurance through State Farm so that if I accidentally damage my camera or it gets stolen I will still get something towards a replacement....this relieves a lot of stress. Hope you get some awesome pictures! On May 1, Steve and I made our way from the Lodge to Corcovado. We knew it wasn't going to be a simple trip but it ended up being even more exhausting than we imagined. The trip was supposed to go as follows: Scott drops us off at the bus stop, bus takes us to Sierpe, Catch the 3:30 boat in Sierpe to Drake Bay. Well the first thing to go wrong was that Scott, one of the Lodge owners was supposed to be back from Florida to see us off but had to push his flight back. This meant he wouldn't be back in time to give me the camera lens my mom mailed him & it left only one person to drive us to meet a taxi; a new volunteer who showed up a few days earlier. This volunteer had never driven a stick shift before, so Steve spent some time teaching him. Not only would he have to learn to drive a stick shift but he had to do it on hilly, rocky, rainy road up the mountain in a car that was falling apart at the seams. So our day started with saying goodbye to all of the locals we built relationships with including the Lodge cat Julieta who I fell in love with. Then we headed down the mountain with the new volunteer to meet our taxi...Steve drove us down the mountain & we still haven't heard how the new volunteers drive back up the mountain went. Our taxi then took us to the bank to get money and then dropped us at the bus stop to wait for our 11:30 bus. We got to the bus stop an hour early just in case it showed up early...you never know in Costa Rica....we've been told the buses will show up early and just leave, so we didn't want to take the chance. This bus stop was in the middle of no where on the side of a road. So stood and we waited. 11:30 rolled around and we continued to wait...we waited until 2:30 for our bus when it finally arrived...THREE HOURS LATE!! While waiting for the bus was stressful and exhausting because we had no idea what was going on or if it was even going to show up, we did get lots of time to chat with others waiting for their buses. We met some girls our age from Germany, a local cook from Quepos who's family owned a restaraunt, a bunch of trail guides who were off on an adventure together and an old man from Boston who fell in love with a Costa Rican girl and had been living here ever since. It was nice to connect with all of these people and hear their stories and share ours and of course get local tips. The connections happen so quickly and we exchanged contact info with many of those people! When our bus arrived and we boarded we were lucky to have the last two seats. Others had to stand. No air conditioning though, but the open windows felt nice. We were starving at this point so we were thankful when the bus stopped in less than an hour and gave us a 30 minute food break. Steve and I had some chicken and rice with baked fish and then got back on the bus to continue our journey to Sierpe. The bus stopped maybe 50 times to drop off random locals and pick up others so the ride took longer than expected. We were supposed to catch the 3:30 boat in Sierpe to Drake Bay...but our bus didn't even pick us up until 2:30 and with all the stops we missed our boat by hours. When we finally arrived in Sierpe it was 6pm. We tried asking around and we were told no more boats were going out...we would have to stay in Sierpe. Luckily we were able to get some local advice and talk to some locals in English in order to figure out our plans. We ended up staying at a small cabin called Hotel Margarita (30$/night) and paid to upgrade to have air condiitioning (4$ extra). It was easy to get a room and the owner was SO sweet and welcoming. We didn't even care that we missed our boat, we were happy to lay down and have air conditioning after such a long day. That night we explored Sierpe, which a town about the size of a baseball feild. It was very small, but it felt safe, the people were welcoming and it was fun to relax and walk around the town and river. We asked around about the boat ride and figured out where to meet Captain Dago at Oleja Restarunt at 11:30am the next day. So we settled in for the night, fell asleep QUICKY, who knows if it was the air conditioning or the long day of travel but we slept like babies. The next day we loaded up our way over stuffed bags and went to the dock to meet captain Dago. There were lots of other people waiting for different captains...our boat ended up being one of the larger, more comfortable boats but it was still tiny compared to what you would take in the US. The boat ride was beautiful...for an hour we sped down a beautiful river lined with green trees and palms...it was wonderful! Once we got to the end of the river we had to go into the ocean to get to Drake Bay. I saw the ocean ahead and immediately wanted to go back to Sierpe. The waves were about 15 feet high valley to crest, many were breaking and there were lots of large rocks jutting out of the water. I had a sinking feeling that I just might die. But then I told myself, people go to Drake Bay everyday, Captain Dago does this everyday, just hold on and enjoy the ride, this is normal. I kept telling myself it was normal, but my intuition told me it wasn't. Captain Dago kept looking around, dodging waves, trying to find the path in between the large waves. He was pulling out his phone, making phone calls. I thought he was going to turn us around. But then he kept zig zagging through the waves and I kept telling myself, he does this everyday. He would find an opening and speed as quickly as he could and then come to a stop and we would go over on the the waves and the front of the boat would fly in the air almost 8 feet high and smack back down. I started thinking about what would happen if I went overboard...were there sharks in this water, could I swim to shore, what would i do with my passport at the bottom of the ocean, etc. We saw another boat doing the same thing and when the waves would come it would disappear and we weren't sure if we would see it again. But I told myself again, this is normal. After about 30 minutes of dodging waves and looking for an opening we made it through...there we still really big waves but I no longer thought I would die. We headed towards Drake Bay...when we arrived, there was no dock. The men started grabbing our bags and told us to take off our shoes, that we were getting out in the water. Luckily they carried our bags to shore but the waves were still huge...it took about 10 minutes to get 15 people off the boat because we would have to wait until the wave went up to shore and hurry off so we didn't get knocked off the boat while trying to exit. Finally on shore I thanked my lucky stars and ran up to the lady with the sign for Martina's Place (our hostel) and grabbed our bags. The first thing she said to me is, "Wow, you guys are so lucky!! It was really bad out there...it only gets that bad maybe once a year and usually boats can't make it!!" We made it. We were alive. We found out later than one boat didn't make it, it capsized 300 meters off shore...luckily everyone survived and made it to shore safely but the boat and their luggage was never found. All ocean activities were canceled for the next day because of the conditions. What a long, exhausting trip....but now we've got a great story for our family, friends and future children. And of course, we're alive.
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