Jeremy

Jeremy founded Living the Dream in 2008 to chronicle his long-term trip around Asia. Since then he has been on two long-term trips, visited 69 countries, and is just getting started. He is now on a Lifestyle Design quest to build businesses to pursue a life of travel.

Valparaiso – What Makes It Chile’s Capital of Culture?

Skyline of central Valparaiso from Planeta Lindo HostelWhen you travel around Chile, you will hear one expression in particular over and over again: “Valparaiso is the cultural capital of Chile.”  Other than a few poor attempts to describe the meaning of this expression, with the most common being “all the artists go there,” you’ll be left wondering what it truly means.

We were so intrigued by this expression that we decided to extend our stay in Chile to figure out why everyone has such a high opinion of a city we rarely hear about.  It only took a few moments in Valparaiso to understand, and the city quickly rose to a spot in our Top 10 favorite cities anywhere in the world.

But the question we were so interested in still needed an answer.  Why is Valparaiso considered to be a cultural highlight of Chile?

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Our Best Tips for Driving in Easter Island

Ahu Tongariki on Easter IslandEaster Island is one of the smallest islands I have ever stayed on, and definitely the smallest I’ve ever driven on. At about 10 miles at its widest point, you can drive around the island in a full loop in just over an hour with a few quick stops.

Prior to our Easter Island visit, we were quite torn about renting a car.   We read many stories online about some of the difficulties that other travelers faced, and were not even sure it would be necessary considering how tiny the island really is.  Once we realized that there is no public transportation on the island, and a rental doesn’t cost that much more than a round-trip taxi doing an island loop, picking up a rental car for half our stay was a logical choice.

But even with our eagerness to get out and explore Easter Island, we did have to consider those difficulties we’ve read about online time and time again.  Luckily for you, we think they’re quite overblown.

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G Adventures Reviews – Egypt & Jordan and an African Safari

While we are normally independent travelers, sometimes there are destinations that we want to visit that are not as easy to travel solo. Sometimes this is a time issue, and others it is logistical in nature. 

In these cases, we look towards guided tours as an option to relinquish some of the travel responsibilities onto others who are much more qualified to get us to cool destinations in the amount of time we have available. 

One company we have used in the past is G Adventures. The first time I went on a solo trip on the Egypt and Jordan Adventure (partly due to travel logistics, and partly due to my limited time). The second time Angie and I went on the Cape Town to Victoria Falls overland safari tour in order to hit South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, and Zambia (we selected this one purely for logistical reasons and a great sale price).

The Middle East tour is something that I have often called the perfect tour. From the price, itinerary, to the guide, everything was perfect. Our overland Africa safari, not so much. In this one, I wanted to break down my experience on these two tours and share some things to keep in mind when booking a G Adventures tour for your own trip.

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Etosha National Park’s Most Amazing Watering Hole

The only other guests at today's show.Namibia has been one of those countries where we arrived with few expectations and left with more wonderful memories than we even thought possible.  Our reason for traveling to this destination was to climb the famous Dune 45 and see the trees at the Deadvlei clay pan, but one particular watering hole at Etosha National Park in northern Namibia had us raving for the rest of the journey.

Why is that?

Well, if we didn’t know any better it would be easy to think that the 60 minute show we witnessed was a choreographed production for our eyes only.  Just about every major animal from the park made its appearance at the watering hole in turn, and halfway through vanished for no visible reason.  Something was coming, and a large elephant appeared in the distance as it made its way to the watering hole.

The animals slowly returned, and all coexisted in wonderful harmony around one gorgeous spot.

This photo essay shares some of our favorite shots from this encounter.

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