5 ways to Live Like a Local while you're travelling

[workin' on my travel writing!]

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To many travellers, “tourist” is a dirty word. The mere thought of organized bus tours, posed photo opportunities and cheap souvenirs is enough to turn their stomachs. We think that everyone travels differently, and if those bus tours are what gets your adventurous spirit going, then tour away! There is something to be said, however, for exploring your new surroundings as an insider, blending seamlessly into local life and observing the culture from within. Here are 5 ways to ditch the tourist mentality and live like a local.

1. Throw away your guidebook

While your Lonely Planet may tell you important info about local customs, currencies and safety concerns, it also highlights the major tourist attractions in the area, with some “off the beaten path” options scattered about. Who wants to show up to that temple only to meet up with every fanny-packed Canadian in a 10km radius? Your best bet? Chat up the owner of your accommodations or a local business owner for the best-kept cultural secrets. And if there is a big tourist hotspot you want to hit, they can recommend the best times to visit to avoid the crowds.

                          

                                           image by Angelo Juan Ramos via Flickr

 2. Avoid big chain restaurants

I know how comforting it can be to see the big golden arches when you are completely flustered by your destination (cultural differences, language barrier), but stop and think before you dive face first into that Big Mac. You can eat that at home! Being abroad is an opportunity to immerse yourself in a new culture and try new things. Head over to that street food cart. You may not know what they are serving up or how to ask for what you want, but you’ll be surprised how far a big smile can go when dealing with language differences. The best case scenario, you’ll try a new food and be proud of yourself for experiencing a new culture. Worst case? You spit out the food, and are now equipped with a hilarious story for your friends and family about how you accidentally ate beetles in Bangkok.

                           

                                          image by Ingsoc via Wikipedia

3. Like home, but different

If you want to experience a culture like a local, think about what you do at home, and adapt. Experience how people go about their daily lives in a different country. Go to the grocery store, see what foods they have that are different or the same as at home. Go see a movie even if you don’t speak the language. Sit at a small café, listening to snippets of conversation and watching as people walk by. Learn a bit of the local language, or take a cooking class to create a famous cultural dish. Sometimes when travelling, you need to just slow down to be able to absorb the experience.

                                     

                                          image by Nicole Cohen via sketch42blog

4. Life is a runway

Take to the streets to see what fashion trends the locals are following. Treat yourself to a new outfit at a trendy boutique and strut your stuff with the best of them. Nothing says tourist more than an “I HEART OKTOBERFEST” tee. Plus, North America is often a few months behind other countries trend-wise, so when you come home you’ll be looking fashion forward, and have a souvenir you won’t be embarrassed to wear.

                                                       image by Elinnea via Wikpedia

5. Talk, talk, talk

Nothing immerses you more into a country’s culture than speaking with its people. While making sure you are safe and trusting your gut instincts, sometimes it pays to strike up a conversation with a friendly shop owner or vendor at a local market. They’re often the best sources for well kept cultural secrets, folklore, and even great restaurants that most people walk right by. They can help you learn the language, and if you’re lucky, might even invite you over for dinner or to a cultural celebration! This is very prevalent in India especially. You never know when you’ll be the guests of honour at an Indian wedding, or cast as an extra in a Bollywood movie!

                                                       photo by Bryanna Bradley via Facebook

While people travel for different reasons and with different agendas, one fact remains the same. Travel is an escape from your reality and a departure into a different culture. While some people rush around to check things off of their sightseeing list, and some people choose to travel slow and take it all in, the real thrill is in the unexpected adventures and experiences of the journey. By living like a local, you can make the most of your trip, learning new things and making memories that will last a lifetime.

Whaddya at b'ys?!

Hellooooo from St. John's! I've been here for just over a week now and I'm loving it :) it's so great to be back working in a creative capacity, especially with my roomie from college, Yvonne, to show me the ropes. We lived together in Toronto for two years in the "Birmingham Basement". This summer I'm staying with her and her boyfriend Noel in their house in Paradise, NL. Not even a joke, it is called Paradise, and it really is - I can see the ocean from my bedroom window! Also joined by their fur children Pete, a 140lb Greater Swiss Mountain dog, and two kitties Henry and Jack :)

I'm working with another CABA as my partner, Cristina. We sit in our little corner with our heat lamp and eat all day, send snapchats back and forth, and laugh at each other. Needless to say, we get along very well hehe ;)

I'm still getting used to a regular 9-5 Monday to Friday work schedule. Mad props to all normal functioning adults who do this... Holy jeeze I'm tired by the end of the day haha coffee is my best friend! 

I haven't done too much touristy stuff as of yet, just a wicked hike up Signal Hill on the weekend, and a nice long walk on the track by the beach with Yvonne, Pete and our friend Ashley and her Great Dane named Ajax! Lots on the list though, I'm going have some busy weekends!

It's been pretty cold so far, I always wear a wool sweater but I'm slowly adjusting. Its been pretty sunny on the weekends so that's all I need!

Been looking into doing some diving here and wow, people are just so nice! I posted on a dive Facebook group and within one day I had about five people offer to take me out on their boats! My mainlander "don't trust strangers" red flags were going off, but you just have to get used to the fact that people are very nice here haha!

Other than that, not too much else to report. Loving it so far, but not an official Newfoundlander because I haven't been screeched in yet! Maybe this weekend ;)

Think warm thoughts for us!

Love from the Rock xx 

Home again, home again

Well, I've been home for about 3.5 weeks now and I have to say it's pretty nice. But my feet are getting itchy again already! Ideally, I'd be headed off to some tropical location (perhaps Palau if money was no issue) to further my scuba diving levels and basically dive all day, everyday. Since I'm not in that dream world, I will have to happily settle for a new adventure in moving back to Toronto. Since I've been home, I have had two interviews for internships at ad agencies which is very exciting. If I am a successful candidate, I'll be couchsurfing my way down to Toronto by mid May while looking for a room to sublet for the summer. 

Other than work-wise, I have been visiting with lots of friends that I have missed over the past two months which is lovely! Before I left, I made sure to put some money aside for when I came back, because when I got home from Australia I was in the red and didn't even have money to put gas in my car to go job hunting. It was seriously depressing and I was convinced that I would be unemployed and living at home for my whole life! Luckily, I came across the job posting for Alice's, and it all worked itself out as I knew it would. I definitely recommend this to anyone going on an extended trip, leave some money at home that you cannot access while travelling for when you get back, you will be happy you did :)

I've also been doing loads of creative outlets such as painting, needlepoint, as well as experimenting with jewellery making with the shells I brought home from Central America. All of these things are turning out quite well, and I plan on selling my jewellery when I have a collection built up, along with doing hair wraps! I've also been back into eating much much better than I was while traveling and am feeling great! I sure missed my morning smoothies :) 

As much as my feet, heart and soul are longing to be back on the road, I know that now is the time for me to buckle down and start my career. Hopefully with time and experience, I will be able to not only travel for work, but maybe relocate somewhere altogether! Who knows what the future holds? For now, all signs are pointing to Toronto, the bright lights and big world of advertising. Wish me luck! I'm ready to jump in.

Until the next adventure,

Soph

My favourite welcoming committee <3

Guess which one is mine? #mermaidlife

Ometepe and beyond!

Hola amigos! I've been too busy hanging out with my momma to update my blog, but now as I sit here by the pool on my last day in Central America I figured it would be a good time to recount my adventures! 

After San Juan del Sur, Siw and I headed to isla de ometepe home of two spectacular volcanoes. Most people climb one or both of the volcanoes, but the hikes are between 8 and 12 hours in 40 degree heat aka not my idea of fun! We chose to look up at the beauty from the beach haha our experience of ometepe wasn't bad, the scenery was spectacular, the waters of lake nicaragua were warm and soothing and we met some lovely people. There were just all of these small things that didn't work out too well, which when compounded, seemed like the end of the world haha needless to say, we were pretty relieved to take the ferry back to the mainland. I'm glad that I went to ometepe but I think that a bit more research and planning would have helped us immensely! 

Once we reached the mainland, we were going to spend the night in Rivas and head to Costa Rica the next morning. Well, the taxi driver told us that the border would be closed the next day because of semana Santa, the week leading up to Easter that everyone has as holidays. So, off to the border we went! We left Nicaragua and headed into Costa Rica, had one last street food meal eaten at the bus station and within an hour, it was time to say bye to my travel buddy Siw as I was headed to Liberia and she continued on to San Jose and then Panama. The trip wouldn't have been the same without her and I am so lucky we crossed paths! It was sad saying bye, but as soon as I got off the bus I had to deal with the fact that it dropped me off on the side of the highway. SO RANDOM! I found my way to the hostel I had booked and settled in. The plan was to stay in Liberia for the week until my mum arrived on Saturday. There isn't much going on in liberia so I took the public bus to Tamarindo for two days and checked into a hostel there!

Those two days I had chillin in tamagringo, as it is affectionately known, were really awesome because I got to check out everything before my mum got here and got readjusted to being in a touristy area with shops and restaurants that aren't overrun with chickens! Haha 

I met two cool people from Toronto, Steph and Aurimas and we rented a surfboard one day (which I waxed with PINK wax!) and hit the waves. It was so much fun! Then we had sushi and they continued on their trip. I'm heading back toToronto this weekend and I think we will meet up. 

One thing about costa rica is that everything is super expensive!  It was such a shock coming from Nicaragua so I'm glad I ended my trip here! Since tamarindo was so busy for semana santa I wasn't able to book a room Thursday night so I headed back to Liberia until Saturday when my momma came!!!

We checked into our beautiful hotel and have been relaxing and eating great food and hangin out together! It's so nice o get to spend some time with her since I haven't seen her in two months! And it's nice to not be in hostels anymore haha

One day I went diving with pacific coast dive centre which was awesome! It was great to be diving again and although I didn't see a manta ray, we saw some beautiful fish and eagle Rays it was amazing! 

We also went one night to a beach to watch pacific green sea turtles nesting. It was such a magical experience, out there with the bright stars and no lights to see these four foot long turtles come out of the ocean, find a good spot to dig their nest, and then watch them dig through the sand and lay the eggs. It was just so cool and something I will never forget in my whole life! So special that i got to see it with my mum! 

Today is our last day in paradise, we are hanging out by the pool, going to have one last dip in the ocean and having our "Friday night pizza" tradition at the Italian restaurant at our hotel. Tomorrow we are on the same flight at 1:30 but I'm getting off in Toronto and she is headed home to Ottawa.

Central America has been so good to me, and a piece of my heart will always be here, in every wave, piña and beautiful sunset! I definitely recommend travelling in Honduras and Nicaragua for backpacking and Costa Rica if it is in your budget is so beautiful! 

Now on to a new adventure as I look for my first "real" job in advertising, and hopefully a big move to Vancouver or back to trusty T.O!!! 

stepping on stars

I am so far behind on this thing, I will try to remember everything I've done!! 

We made it to Grenada where the highlights included: 

- a super nice hostel called the oasis that had a pool, free pancakes and bananas!

- taking pictures of all the crazy coloured walls and doors

- climbing to the top of a cathedral and getting a 360 view of the city

- drinking juice in a bag

- getting hopelessly lost in the local market

- buying some lovely had made jewlery 

Grenada was awesome, a nice change to a city after being by the lake. 

We left with jack and Alice on the chicken bus to rivas, where they headed to isla de ometepe and we took another bus to San Juan del sur. Once there, we hopped on a beach shuttle to stay for a few days at playa Maderas. We stayed in perma tents aka "the doghouses" at Matilda's right on the beach! It was so cool and we heard the waves crashing at night. We watched the sunset, and as it finally went down, the bioluminescence came out. It looked like there were fairy lights in the waves! Every step you took on the sand was stepping on stars. It was so amazingly beautiful and something I have wanted to see my whole life! I feel so lucky to have seen it :)

The next day I rented a surfboard with Nicole, a girl we met there, and we took turns going for some waves. It was so fun! Then Siw and I headed back to San Juan del sur for the next four days. 

In San Juan, we went ziplining, watched amazing sunsets, and went to the pub crawl called Sunday funday! It was hilarious, all of these people getting hammered and bopping around in the pool haha I was a sober spectator but the people watching was the best lol we went to three different bar/pool/hostels including the beautiful "naked tiger hostel" up on the hill with an epic view of the sunset! We also went ziplining which was really fun once I got over my initial nervousness. 

We also got tattoos yeeeewwww!

I also ate a poutine and had a Caesar at the Canadian bar called the loose moose, how cool is that?! 

After a lovely four nights in San Juan del sur, we were ready to move on to ometepe, which I will leave for another post.... 

Really looking forward to coming homeeeeee on April 11th! ( sick of all my clothes now and living out of a bag hehehe plus I just miss you all!!! ) 

Loads of love!!! Xx 

Rice and beans and public buses

I've been in Nicaragua for almost a week now and am really digging it! Sarah and I parted ways on Sunday, she heading to Guatemala off to a yoga retreat and I headed to the colonial city of Leon in nica. It took me two days to get there but that is what trips to Central America are made of... Long ass bus rides of varying degrees of comfort. I splurged and took tica bus which is like greyhound back home since I would be on this bus for about twelve hours. The border crossing was easy and I got dropped off in Leon at a hostel I had no reservations at. Of course, they were full. Ended up at Bigfoot hostel which is basically a party hostel but I ended up sleeping heaps because I got a cold. Highlights of my time in Leon include:

- visiting the 300 year old cathedral in the centre square

- finding the lady behind the cathedral that everyone talks about on trip advisor who makes the best street food ever

- my inner Cheryl Strayed perishing instantly as I hiked for one hour up the Telica volcano with a bad head cold and almost died

- looking into the crater of said volcano after watching the sunset and seeing lava 

- finally buying one of those cute colourful bags everyone had in utila 

- ordering my first drink en Español 

I met this cool girl from Denmark in my hostel named Siw (pronounced like Sue) and we decided to travel together for a while since she is going the same way as me. We went to the surfing turtle lodge in las penitas, where we did not surf and we did not see any turtles lol the waves were maaassssiiivvveee and we had just missed the last babies hatching. BOO! I did end up doing lots of hair wraps and making some moolah so that was cool :) it was a beautiful place right on the beach and I could hear waves crashing from my bed and feel the sea breezes on my face. Heaven. 

The next day we decided to go to Laguna de apoyo, an imploded crater lake near Granada. Again, I had no reservations booked but I figured something would work out. We were joined by new friends Anna from Germany and jack and Alice from the uk. We got there by public transportation which was absolutely hilarious, we are so lucky that both Anna and Alice speak really good Spanish! We ended up walking around for about 5km total trying to find a place to sleep. We eventually ended up at the estacion biologica which is more of a research centre that happens to have the most ghetto accommodation known to man. Buuuut by that point we just wanted to put our stuff down and go to bed! But not before having a swim in the lake. I was so sweaty and gross from being on packed buses all day and wandering around like Mary and Joseph because all the inns were full I just ran down to that lake and jumped right in! It was so refreshing and made the whole journey worth it.

Today we have a full day to relax in/by the lake and tomorrow we move on to Granada for a few days then off to ometepe! 

Hope spring has sprung at home and that everyone is well! I'll be flying home April 11th with my mama from Costa Rica but stopping in Toronto for a few days, so really looking forward to that! 

Peace, love, and gallopinto (rice and beans!) 

Soph xx 

Also... I found these beautiful kittens today!!!!! So happyyyyy

chicken buses and Mayan ruins

Well, to say the last few days have been an adventure would be an understatement! We left utila at 6:30 Friday morning on the ferry. It was such a rough crossing people were getting seasick and I thought I was going to die a little bit. The waves were massive but we made it to la ceiba. We intended on taking the hedman alas bus to copan ruinas, but when we got in a taxi and said hedman alas bus station please, we ended up at Diana express. Didn't really matter because it ended up costing us about 13 dollars instead of 50 so that's cool. Hedman alas is like greyhound with ac and a bit more fancy, Diana express is like a greyhound bus from the '70s haha it also stops every few km to pick up new passengers. We passed heaps of famed "chicken buses" on the road thinking, hmm we'll have to go on one of those one day for the experience.... We finally made it to San Pedro sula where we had half an hour to wait for our next bus. Time to get some lunch. We went into the food court, and the options were pollo, pollo or pollo. Chicken, chicken or fried chicken hahaha! I ended up having rice and salad which was actually delicious! We set out to the road for our next bus... The driver walked towards a refurbished school bus and motioned us for our bags. We were on a chicken bus!!! Good lord. Literally. Complete with Jesus stickers, a full set of tires on two seats, and a dirty diaper, we had started on a journey few gringos had done before lol just kidding, those buses are popular with budget travellers. Every stop, locals hop on a try to sell you stuff like food, drinks, even shampoo! Hah They take a long time, we got to copan ruinas at 6ish and checked into our hostel. We walked around to find some dinner and ended up at Cafe San Rafael and had an epic cheese plate and a glass of wine. Ended up going back for brekkie today, it was so good! Wicked coffee as well, straight from the source :) there is a coffee plantation quite close to here it's nice to know they are supporting local businesses! 

Then we took a tuk tuk out to the ruins and wandered about for a few hours. This was just amazing. The carvings are so beautiful. It amazes me that they are still in tact because they are hundreds of years old. So cool to picture what life was like here so long ago.

We walked back and stumbled across a cool fruit and veggie market, along with some places to get food little more than holes in the wall with a little old lady cooking meat and making corn tortillas by hand. It was full of locals so you know that's the place to eat! We are going to try there for dinner. We got some delicious mango for snack and came back to the hostel to book our bus tickets tomorrow. Sarah is headed to lake atitlan in Guatemala for a week long yoga retreat and I am headed to Leon Nicaragua (with an overnight stop in el tunco El Salvador) to surf my way down the coast to Costa Rica!!! I'm really sad to be parting ways with my travel mer-sista, but excited to do some solo travel. It will be a completely new experience for me, and I'm ready to jump right in! 

Sending love and baleadas from Honduras xx

S 

the island life for me...

hola mi amigos y amigas! Como estas? Yo soy mucho mucho bien 😄 I've been on utila for almost two weeks now and have done so much, that I could go home now feeling like I've had a wicked holiday. Thankfully, I don't have to go home for a while (you poor souls facing those temps aaah!) 

Last week, Jayme was here so we did lots of fun stuff like renting four wheelers and going all around the island, climbed pumpkin hill, you can see the whole island from there because it's so flat! We went into the freshwater caves, went to the fancy resort neptunes for the day to swim, suntan and have a few cheeky drinks :) 

This week I did my PADI open water scuba diving course at utila dive center (also where sarah is doing her divemaster course) it was fantastic! I don't know how I haven't been diving all my life. Diving is literally something I never thought I'd be able to do ever. At first I was pretty scared, but with more practice I really began to enjoy it! It is a whole new world underwater and such a cool feeling to be able to explore while breathing normally! Im pretty stoked for myself for stepping (hugely) outside my comfort zone and being rewarded with this beautiful new way to be closer to the ocean which I love so much! I'm looking into doing a few adventure dive courses which will hopefully count towards my advanced open water course. Or heck, I might even just do the advanced, we shall see I'm on a budget haha 

Utila is pretty cool. It's a super small island, everyone is here to dive, get certified or do professional courses like divemaster, instructor etc so it's all scuba all the time! Things here are very cheap, but more expensive than on the mainland because everything is brought in on the ferry a few times per week. Everyone basically knows everyone although people tend to stick with people from their own dive shop ( there are about five main ones ) 

We've been doing some yoga, drinking great coffee, meeting lots of new people and reading a lot. It's been pretty stormy the last few days, so lots of Netflix has been happening haha next week I'm hoping to get into a regular running and yoga routine with a few dives here and there! I just love it so much! 

Around the second week of March I'll be headed to the mainland of Honduras to go see the copan ruins and then to Nicaragua where I'm going to surf my way down the pacific coast! Meeting my momma in Liberia, Costa Rica in April for a week and then we will see where I go, depending on how much money I have left lol 

That's me for now! Life is good, I'm slowly getting my tan back and enjoying relaxing and hanging out with sarah who I haven't seen in almost a year! So nice to be back together :) hope everything is well with you guys at home, you're all rock stars for enduring those awful temperatures, I'd be crying for sure haha

Much love to everyone, sending island vibes your way! 

Peace and pineapples! 🍍

Sophie

I've got my travel fins, and my flippie floppies

Ola mi amigos! Well, it's just about that time again... One week until departure! It's been a while since I posted on here, I was too busy saving the world, one latte at a time haha its also probably because I feel way more prepared for this trip than I was for the big move to aus. I'm not stressing about packing at all, and my must have item this trip was my travel fins for snorkelling, not crazy vaccines and malaria pills. In fact, I didn't even go to the travel doctor at all! I'm feeling much more relaxed about the whole thing. Which isn't to say I didn't plan at all (don't worry mom!) I got my travellers insurance, sunscreen, vitamins and whatnot all sorted. Now just to shove it all in my backpack with a few pairs of shorts and 10 bathing suits and I'm good to goooo! 

Had a great FaceTime sesh with sarah last week who has been living the island life for a few weeks now (in our sweet bachelorette pad nonetheless) and she is loving it! She said the diving is amazing, food is awesome and everything is really cheap which is wicked when you're on a backpacker budget 😜 our reunion will fall almost a year to the day since she left our little trailer park in Margaret river to head for New Zealand how funny is that?! I am so beyond stoked to see her again!!! And her friend Jayme who is coming for the first week of the trip!

At first I was going to stay one night in San Pedro sula and bus to la ceiba then ferry to utila the next day but Jayme decided to get the little island hopper plane to arrive the same day, so I booked it too! I only have an hour to get off the plane go through customs get my bag get my new boarding pass recheck my bag get through security and get on the new plane! Sarah said I will make it because the airport is tiny and everyone is on island time haha I really hope so!!! 

The first week I'm going to chill, explore the island, do some snorkelling and hang out with the girls. Then the mermaid adventure begins! I booked my PADI open water course to begin feb 16th I am seriously so stoked for this! As part of Sarah's divemaster course, she may end up teaching part of my course! That would be so cool! I have made a vow to myself that I am not leaving utila until I have swam with a whale shark. This island is known to have some of the most  concentrated whale shark populations in the world, so I think it will be a good possibility haha it is basically the Honduran version of my Australian sea turtle quest lol I'm such a nature nut lol

I have three more shifts at work then Thursday and Friday off to finish last minute running around and packing! Then off to the airport for 430am on Saturday 😊 if all works out, I'll be sipping a cocktail out of a coconut watching a beautiful sunset about 12 hrs later!!! 

I'm amped, ready to go, ready to get tan again and stoked to reconnect with the role of beach bum mermaid that I was born to play hahaha 

Our apartment has wifi so I'll be able to update the adventure as I go. I'm thinking it will revolve around eating amazing local fresh food and taking ridiculous pictures of myself underwater sooo, sorry in advance for the #goproselfies lmao 

Love you all heaps and missing you already! If anyone's free Thursday night I'll be heading to my beloved Alice's for one last open mic night jam sesh! Come have a beer ($5 pints of beaus!) haha 

Peace love and island vibes 

Sophie xx