I helped develop learning initiatives at one of their eight libraries in the small town of Morado Q’asa outside the city and worked with the BiblioWorks staff to organize, execute and fund the first ever Literacy Fair in downtown Sucre.

When I wasn’t volunteering, I traveled to Cochabamba, La Paz, Santa Cruz, Lake Titicaca and Salar de Uyuni. I mountain biked down the Death Road, watched the sun rise at the world’s largest salt flats and spent three days celebrating Carnival in Sucre with local friends.

It was a much different experience than traveling deeper in Guatemala, Argentina and Colombia, but like each of the other countries I’ve called home, I have memories and friends that I’ll keep with me forever.

Travel Deeper – Colombia, coming soon!

I passed through Ica, Peru for a few nights to check out the Huacachina oasis and to ride sandboards and buggys through the desert. Here is a short video of my sandboarding experience on the sand dunes of Huacachina, Peru.

If you notice, the snowboarding approach didn’t work very well because the sandboards were very sticky, the straps unstrapped easily and the sand was very hot.

When sandboarding in Huacachina, I would recommend renting a good snowboard (available for an extra fee) if you want to actually try to stand and “surf” down the dunes, and also, go early in the day or just before sunset when then sand is cooler.

If speed is your goal, laying down on the boards proved to be the best option. You’re given a piece of wax to wipe down the board before you launch yourself down the dunes, and as long as you don’t put your hands or feet down you can really get moving.

We hit about six dunes in all and our driver carted us from one to another at high speeds in the dune buggy.

Definitely add Sandboarding and dune buggy rides at the Huacachina Oasis outside Ica, Peru to your Travel Peru bucket list. It is much more exciting than the popular Nasca Lines and the Las Islas Ballestas (the Ballestas Islands) tour.

Check out more sandboarding photos here: Photoessay: Sandboarding the Huacachina Oasis

Drinking and sharing Mate in Argentina is one of the most beloved traditions in Latin America.

An employee at the hostel I stayed at when I first arrived in Buenos Aires introduced me to the mate culture, and from that point forward, I’ve developed an appreciation (and taste) for what this powerful tea signifies for the people of Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and some parts of Brazil, Chile and Bolivia.

As Mariela describes in the video, “the idea of mate is that you meet with your friends and family and share a moment.” Those moments are shared amongst college friends in the public parks of Buenos Aires, between gauchos in Las Pampas of Argentina and even shared between old couples on the beaches of Mar del Plata.

Mate is a great symbol of Latin American culture. 

I believe that all travelers and expats in South America should learn the basic guidelines and rules of preparing, drinking and sharing mate if they ever want to travel deeper and live like a local in these regions.

Here are 18 of the most important things to know about the art of drinking mate in Argentina:

1. Mate (ma-te) is the name of the cup in which you drink from.

2. Traditional mates are made of animal horn, gourd or wood. Some new mates are made of stainless steel, plastic or some type of composite blend of plastics and metal. Stick with the traditional mates.

3. When using a gourd type of mate, you must “cultivate” the mate before using it. You can do this by filling the mate with yerba and warm water and letting it sit for 1-2 days before scraping out the mate and gourd lining to begin using.

4. The straw is called a bombilla or bomba in Portuguese and is made of plastic or metal, but it was traditionally made of silver.

5. To drink, the mate is filled about 75% full with Yerba Mate. Yerba Mate leaves are dried, chopped and ground into a powdery mixture called yerba.

6. Some people add sugar, honey, orange or lemon peel for taste to the yerba for taste, but the traditional way to drink it in Argentina is mate amargo (bitter mate) – without any additives.

7. Adding water is a very important step. The water must be just under boiling and should be poured slowly into the mate to ensure maximum usage of the yerba (by multiple people).

8. There is one designated Cevador or server who drinks the first mate to ensure its taste and temperature before passing.

9. The mate should always be passed to the right to whoever would like to partake.

10. You do not say “gracias” or thank you unless you do not want anymore.

11. You sip until there is no more water left (loud sucking noise is okay) before passing it back to the Cevador for he or she to prepare for the next person.

12. Everyone uses the same mate and bombilla. No cleaning is necessary between mate passes.

13. It is considered bad etiquette to hold the mate for too long. Expect to be told “it’s not a microphone” or to “bring the talking gourd” if you are bogarting the mate.

14. Mate is not traditionally ordered in restaurants, bars or coffee shops, but rather something you prepare at home and take out with water in a thermos.

15. Mate is the national drink of Argentina.

16. In Paraguay, people get real creative with their mate drinking. They use hot or cold water, add mint or lemongrass and fruit juices such as Orange juice and call it tereré.

17. In Uruguay, people are known for toting around a thermos and mate in public and there is a national law In Uruguay that prohibits drinking mate while driving, because it caused many accidents of people getting scalded with hot water while driving.

18. Mate is considered to have many health benefits and has tons of antioxidants and vitamins like calcium, iron and Vitamin A,B, C and E. It’s great for late night work or study sessions.

The Art of Drinking Mate in Argentina (Everybody's doing it: Maradona, Shakira, Che, Guachos and Me)

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A big thank you to Mariela from Buenos Aires Concierge for showing me the art of drinking mate in Argentina.

Here’s the result of four months of working and traveling in Guatemala as a Kiva Fellow.

The scenery is incredible, the people are inspiring and the memories are forever. I’ll see you again soon Guatemala.

Shots from Guatemala: Flores, Solola, Panajachel, Tikal Ruins, Antigua, Rio Dulce, Semuc Champey, San Antonio de Palopo, San Andres, Mazatenango, Marmaya and Guatemala City.

If you like the video, please subscribe to the T2T Youtube Channel as I will be uploading two new “Travel Deeper” chapters over the coming weeks, including Colombia and Bolivia.

This weekend I was going through all my current and old travel video footage as I attempt to put together more featured “Travel Deeper” videos from each country (like this one from Argentina) and I realized, I have a ton of unseen footage that I should do something with.

So I put together a new Youtube Channel to serve as the platform for unedited, behind the scenes, bloopers, outtakes and any other quick or random clips that might not make a featured video, but I still think you might find them interesting.

I’m thinking about putting a new clip up every Tuesday. What do you think?

If you have a Youtube account and you would be interested in these little visual gems, head over to the main T2T Youtube Page as well as the T2T Behind the Scenes Page and subscribe!

In the meantime, above is the first clip from the new series and be on the look out for “Travel Deeper: Guatemala” coming to your eyeballs this week. 

I find great pleasure in knowing that I have no idea what's ahead of me.

On February 1st, I moved into a one-bedroom apartment in my hometown of Rochester to work on the launch of two new projects, plan the next adventure, catch up on video footage and see about a girl.

This past Sunday marked my 29th birthday, and I found myself in the familiar birthday mindset of being confused and frustrated with my life and where it’s heading.

I decided to sit down and share this state of mind with you in hopes that I would find some comfort within my rambling writing…
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I sit alone in my newly rented apartment as 29 slowly sinks in. It’s late on a Sunday night and another birthday has come and gone.

This is the first time that I’ve been home for this occasion in many years, and it makes me realize that things are changing.

Signs of a domesticated traveler are evident as you scan the apartment. A desk sits in one room and a bed occupies another. Nothing more. This is all I own.

Now, I just need to fill the place with things, right? Things that weren’t relevant to me over the past three and a half years – things that I can live without.

I think about the plane tickets I could buy with the couch money. I think about the adventures I could have with the TV money.

But, this is what I want, right? This pause from the road will rejuvenate my passion for travel, give me time to create new videos with massive amounts of archived footage and allow me to focus on generating new revenue streams for more expensive locations like Brazil, Spain and Japan [breathe]… Right?

Let’s be honest, I’m lost.

I have no idea what’s next, and it’s tough to keep moving forward sometimes when you don’t know in which direction you’re heading.

Even as well thought-out as this plan seems, birthdays tend to make me question my choices and discount the accomplishments.

When I returned from Guatemala, I knew I was ready for a change. I was tired of living and traveling alone, and I felt like I had lost some love for the journey. I questioned the point of all this, and I wondered where it was taking me. I was drained from it and felt bad because of it.

On the other side, as any long-term traveler knows, it’s difficult to adjust to life back home. Stimulation and growth inevitably slows and motivation becomes more internal. Your friends and family are the same, but you see things differently. I can’t talk about my travels without feeling like a worldly douche (“This one time, in Greece…”).

So, where do I go from here?

I want to continue doing the things I love, like volunteering in Bolivia with BiblioWorks and working with Kiva in Guatemala, but I also want to start building wealth and maintaining relationships with people at home.

I don’t want to be a lonely vagabond at 50, nor do I want to wonder what if I did more…

Is it possible to have it all? Financial success, world travel, social impact, healthy relationships, personal growth… Is it possible to balance these two worlds?

When I feel lost like this, I try to relate to the great “explorers” and the psychological battles they must have faced when pursuing their dreams…

How many times did Columbus think about turning around? How often did Richard Branson get frustrated with an idea or business? What if Felix Baumgartner let doubt and fear control him?

I wouldn’t put myself in their wheelhouse by any means, but mentally and emotionally, you have to assume that they felt lost and unsure of their direction at some points along the way.

This is an explorer’s dilemma.

What’s the answer?

This lifestyle has been a rollercoaster of emotions and excitement. One day, you feel like you’re on top of the world as advertisers deposit money while you explore ancient ruins. The next day, you’re sleeping in a dirty hostel with $30 to your name and nobody around to confide in.

The only way to overcome the psychological droughts and insecure moments is through absolute perseverance and belief in one’s self. Step by step, the small successes lead to a growing self-confidence.

This was the same when starting a business as it is for travel.

When you decide to step out of your comfort zone and chase your dreams, you’re going to run into obstacles, you’re going to get lost, and it’s up to you to decide if it’s worth it or not.

Being lost is a feeling I’ve experienced many times before and one that I hope to have many more times in my life.

I understand that you rarely get lost on a well-traveled trail.

So, as I sit here while the relaxing silence of an empty apartment is plagued by the perpetual commotion in my mind, I find comfort in the idea that it’s up to me to write the next chapter.

I embrace the fact that I don’t know what’s next, exactly, because it tells me that I’m doing something right. I’m creating my own path and writing my own story, even if I don’t know where it will lead this year.

Who’s ready for chapter 29?

Ancient ruins are cool, but the tours associated can also be slow and boring at times.

I have a tough time sitting still when I’m put in a “tourist” type situation, so I seperated myself from the group and went off to explore the Tikal Ruins my way.

Here are the highlights of our tour of the Mayan Ruins of Tikal in Guatemala for those with a short attention span, just like me.

A huge thank you goes out to my buddy Nate (the guy with the beautiful man garden on his face), who helped film this odd little gem.

P.S. Even with all the joking, I don’t want to discount how mind blowing the Tikal Ruins are. I wish I could go back and see them in action.

Want more from Tikal? Watch a Mayan expert explain the end of the world predictions.

On the pacific coast of Guatemala there is a place as magical as any fairytale you’ve ever read. Where the water flows like wine and the smiles are contagious.

The name is Xocomil, and the game is water slides.

Guatemala’s largest (and I think only) water park is a grueling three and a half hour ride from my homebase in Sololá, but I was able to experience all of its splender because I was already in the neighborhood.

I had traveled to the city of Mazate (Mazatenango) the day before with some local friends and co-workers to have dinner and check out a new nightclub in the area.

While Mazate itself is nothing to write home about (pretty sketchy), a fun night out of dancing and singing karaoke made it almost worth the trip.

The icing on the cake was the decision we made the following morning when we determined that the best cure for our tired eyes and heavy heads was to spend a day at Xocomil before returning home.

What a great decision!

For those of you who know me personally, you know that water parks are up there with pool parties, pulled pork and Rihanna playlists as one of my favorite things on this planet.

After a nice breakfast at Pollo Campero, we waved down a crowded microbus to take us the half hour journey to the main entrance of the park.

Luckily for us, as soon as we got in line a lovely little lady informed us that if you were a resident of the Suchitepéquez department of Guatemala, the price was 10Q ($1.25) per person, instead of the usual 100Q ($13).

We were not, but she happily obliged to buy our tickets for us with her ID. What a sweetheart. Despite the nice gesture, we still couldn’t avoid the hour long lines thanks to Latin America inefficiency and lack of customer service (watch the video below).

Regardless of the long lines, once we entered the water park it was sunshine and smooth sailing from then on. We hit up all the water slides, lazy river, dunking booth and wave pool until we were too water logged to do anymore.

And the best thing about it… You won’t find any foreigners here! Travel like a local : )

SIDE NOTE: One of the greatest things about going to a water park in Guatemala is that people are deathly afraid of the super fast/steep slides so there was no lines at all to ride those. Rinse and repeat!

Wahooooo for water parks!

This is a peek into my daily routine as a Kiva Fellow in Guatemala.

I was working with a new microfinance partner in ADICLA, so most days consisted of visiting borrowers around the region and uploading their profiles to the Kiva.org network.

Join the T2T Kiva Lending Team and help fund the people I’ve met.

If you enjoy this, check out A Day in the Life of Living in Medellin, Colombia

Enjoying the sunrise in Flores, Guatemala

Last week, I had the opportunity to catch a night bus from Guatemala City to Flores, Guatemala (via Panajachel), to meet a good friend and explore the ruins of Tikal for a few days.

The night bus was an all-to-familiar experience of an uncomfortable and sleepless 12 hours, but once I arrived in Flores, just in time to see the sunrise over Lake Petén Itzá, everything balanced itself out.

The docks in Flores, Guatemala

The town of Flores is an island that rests on Lake Petén Itzá and it can only be accessed by boat or one causeway coming from the city of Santa Elena.

Instead of heading straight to my hostel to catch up on some much needed sleep, I decided to join the early morning runners for a few laps around the lovely sidewalk that wraps around the perimeter of Flores.

An early morning boat pulls into Flores, Guatemala

I wasn’t expecting much out of Flores before I arrived, but it turned out to be a beautiful little waterfront town that I enjoyed from the moment I stepped off the bus.

The streets of Flores, Guatemala before everyone wakes up

Sometimes I forget how peaceful and amazing a place can be before everyone wakes up. I should wake up earlier more often.

The Central Plaza decorated for Christmas in Flores, Guatemala

You can experience Flores with a cheap flight into Guatemala City with Air Canada and from there you would need to catch an overnight bus from the Flores-bound bus terminal in the city.