1 Year Traveling Around the World: 5 Continents, 15 Countries, 1 Bad Rash

Okay so I am kidding about the rash but I am still really impressed with the 5 continents and 15 countries! It actually has been just over a year now since I started Wandering Trader.  I really meant to write this post on my 1 year anniversary but being born with Latin genes and living in Africa at the moment I have decided to completely abandon the “being on time” part of my life.

I have been traveling most of my life but this was the first time that I considered myself a nomad.  I’ve always traveled overseas and ended back in the good ole “debt just got downgraded” US and A.  Now in order to save a big chunk of change on my taxes I can only be inside the United States for 5 weeks out of year.  That won’t be a problem since there is so much of the world to discover.

Did I mention I am currently trying to go South Sudan?  The newest country in the world.. yes I thought I did.

I have been able to live in 5 countries across 3 continents during what I consider part 1 of my around the world trip.  It’s beyond hard to actually think of all of the things I have seen and all the people I have met.  I didn’t really think much of my blog and the purposes for it were completely different from what they are now.  The last two months alone have been amazing since I have actually been making money off the blog!

Parliament in the city of Ottawa-Canada

I started off by living in Toronto and touring most of eastern Canada for 3 months.  One of the most interesting things that I found was the city of Montreal.  I consider is the American Paris and is one of the places where you can find Paris around the world.  There are few things that I can’t forget about Canada while I was living there.  The first is the incredible maple syrup and Canadian bacon.

I hope you are above 13 years old when I say the stuff is orgasmic (it is okay to say that right? Oh well too late).

People swear by Tim Horton’s coffee and I suspect it’s because it costs less than a gummy bear at a dollar store, either way the stuff is beyond bad.  When I asked a few Canadians why they would keep drinking the coffee (aside from not murdering their wallet) they would say they are just used to it.  They wouldn’t say it’s delicious, they wouldn’t say it’s good, they said they were used to it.  Point made.

After Canada I skipped down Argentina which is one of my favorite places in the world when it comes to things to see.  The country has everything that you could possibly ask for!  Anything from glaciers to rock formations and one of the most dynamic cities in the world, Buenos Aires.  I could write 10,000 essay to describe to you how incredible the entire country is. I will be the better man and tell you that it was beyond awesome.

Ice falling from Perito Moreno Glacier-Argentina

After Argentina, I continued to live in Chile for 4 months where I was able to explore most of the country including the very unique Atacama Desert.  After visiting San Pedro de Atacama I got a clear idea about how to see the Salar de Uyuni which was on my to do list after I saw people walking on water on the largest salt flat in the world.  I even took a surprise side trip and drove up the Chilean Coast and across the Alto Plano in the Andes Mountains.

After my 4 months was up in Chile I needed to get a little loose.  I partied nonstop in Salvador de Bahia during Carnival in Brazil and then made my way to the place where I fell in love, Medellin, Colombia.  I mean the girls are cute but it was all of the people and even the weather that made it special.  I managed to score a gorgeous penthouse that gave me incredible views of the city every morning.  I try to convince myself that it was the view that I fell in love with, wink.

Sunset over the city of Santiago

I am now living in Nairobi, Kenya.  My plan is to try and explore all of Eastern Africa which includes some off the track places like Aritrea, Djibouti, and even Somalia.  Not the starved part of Somalia but the less dangerous parts like Somaliland in the North.  Somalialand is not a recognized country according to the world but rather a territory of Somalia.  Ask most people from Somalialand and you will find that they consider themselves to be their own country.

Penguins at Port Lockroy-Antarctica

That has been my last year in a nutshell.  I forgot to mention that I was able to travel to Antarctica as well which is one of the most unique experiences in my life.  If you don’t believe me you can ask the penguins that jumped on my back.  And speaking of forgot I was also able to visit the three Guiana’s which most people don’t visit either.  Suriname is such a unique destination in the South America that I think it could be a popular destination for tourists.  I found it so fascinating that I definitely plan on returning.

During the course of the next year I plan on living in Brazil.  I haven’t decided on a city just yet but I would like to explore Florianopolis or Rio de Janeiro.  After living in Brazil and finishing up all of the things I wanted to see in South America I plan on heading to Asia.  One of the things that I have been completely fascinated with is diving in Fiji.  A few Fiji holidays might be in order once I get to Asia! A completely different monster.