It’s time for a TimeOut on Tuesday. Last week spoke to Charles from Don’t Worry Just Travel who’s been on the road exploring the delights of SouthEast Asia. This week we have Erica from Over Yonderlust, who with her partner Shaun have had some amazing experiences on the road and a couple of weird ones too, read on for their experiences on the road:
Name: Erica
Age: 29
Travel Blog: Over Yonderlust
How long have you been travelling?
We quit our jobs to become nomadic 450+ days ago and have never looked
back.
What’s been your route?
We just returned to our home base (Austin, Texas) after spending a year
backpacking from Mexico to Argentina and are about to head on our next
adventure this August – Iceland and Europe. After that? Who knows!
What’s your favourite and least favourite country?
We have a tie for our favorite country so far. While completely
different, we fell in love with both Japan and Colombia. Each evoke such
different emotions and cultural experiences, but we’re madly in love
with the two. As for the least favorite, I think we would have to go for
Nicaragua – and not for it’s lack of trying. It is an extremely
beautiful place and super cheap to boot! Unfortunately, about two weeks
before we arrived we had 2 couple friends held up and knifepoint
(different instances) which ruined the whole experience for us.
What’s been the most awesome travel experience you’ve had?
There are so many! Mine would probably be getting SCUBA certified in
the Bay Islands, Honduras. There really is nothing else like it in the
world AND I got to see a 3m/9ft nurse shark off a reef. Nobody had seen
anything like that in years! As for Shaun, he likes to stay away from
the water and would probably pick Machu Picchu. We’re anthropology dorks like that.
If you wish you knew something when you started traveling, that you
know now – what would that be?!
Things never go the way you plan. Sure, you can have a plan but if you
don’t mind a bit of flexibility, it will make it a much easier trip.
What was your weirdest travel experience?
While I am always a huge advocate for Couchsurfing, I do have to say
that most of our weird experiences were dealing with some of our hosts.
You really never know what you are going to get. Let’s just say things
got weird when we got invited to “have fun” with one of our gay male CS
hosts.
How much have you spent on this trip and how long has it lasted?
I think total Shaun and I spent $22k for two people on our most recent
year trip. For backpacking that is supposed to be $1k/month/person, I
think we did a darn good job staying within those limits.
Where to next?
Iceland, Europe… and then our itinerary is open! We are thinking of
possibly trying to work for Semester at Sea or maybe teaching in Japan
to replenish our funds again.
What advice would you give to any Aspiring Backpackers?
Laughter is key. If you can laugh at anything, you’re going to do
great. You will find yourself in ridiculous and absurd situations – but
that is the point of the adventure of backpacking right?
Couldn’t agree more with Erica’s last point – things can always get frustrating on the road but when you look back on it in a day, a week, two years – the laughter definitely kicks in. Big thanks for Erica for taking some time out and speaking with us and as always if you have any questions; drop them in the comments below.
Be sure to check out Over Yonderlust too 🙂
Duff