Volcanoes

Road Tripping Through Iceland Part II

/ brittanyherriot / 4 Comments

DSC_0777

After two nights in the sweet little town of Vik, we thanked our host most graciously for her help, and within minutes of driving away from the coastal town, we left the rain and mist behind us and burst back into bright sunshine. Oh the joys of the open road!  Today we were off to see glacier lagoons, another national park and a river that tore down through a gorge in a valley called Fjathrarglijufur. As we drove, the landscape changed drastically and we suddenly found ourselves amid the largest lava field in the world!  Every which was you looked was a blanket of blackened, cooled lava, which was being taken over by bulbous green moss tufts, creating a strange spectacle. Continue reading →

Road Tripping Through Iceland Part I

/ brittanyherriot / 3 Comments

DSC_0299

Iceland was never originally on my radar- mostly because I thought it would be far too expensive. But it kept coming up again and again, and I couldn’t ignore the universe trying to send me a message. I was already in Europe, who knew when I would be back next… so why not? I looked at flights and while it was still an expensive flight, I had started dreaming about Iceland and knew I had to visit this place. I knew I made the right decision when my dear friend Emilee from back home in Canada messaged me to tell me her and another friend were heading to Iceland at the same time as me! That settled it. I booked my flights and made plans to meet the girls for an epic week long road trip through Iceland’s Ring Road. Emilee and Caitlyn had two weeks in Iceland, so we were going to start with the most exciting stuff in the South and work our way East then North, and then I would catch a bus from wherever we ended up after a week back to Reykjavik. Continue reading →

Salar Uyuni: The Bolivian Salt Flats

/ brittanyherriot / 3 Comments

IMG_8512

I was awoken to the sun glinting through our bus window in the wee hours of the morning. It had been a rather fitful sleep, huddling together on the freezing cold bus, drifting in and out of the elusive world of slumber. The road was suddenly a mess of jarring bumps and as I looked out the window I noticed that we were no longer even on a real road; we were on a path through the desert floor. The bumps were from the sand having frozen and hardened in place. The Bolivian desert is a cold and cruel place come sunset, as we would soon find out on our three day tour through this incredible place. We bumped along, savouring the slight warmth the sun was passing through our windows as our breath misted in front of our faces. Continue reading →

Semana Santa In Leon, Nicaragua

/ brittanyherriot / 3 Comments

DSCN5526

With salt in our hair, and sand in every crevice of our bodies,  our little crew of four set out yet again after five relaxing days at Playa Gigante. We had booked some rooms at the Surfing Turtle in Leon, Nicaragua to spend Semana Santa in the big city. However, we made the rookie mistake of thinking that their Easter holidays were the same as our own back in our respective countries- Monday and Friday. Nope. Way off. Continue reading →

Ometepe Island, Nicaragua

/ brittanyherriot / 1 Comment

DSCN2656

It was a sad goodbye that we paid Laguna de Apoyo. We all packed up our bags, and some of us our hangovers and regrets over lost phones. It was time to move on yet again.

Ometepe island was the one major destination in Nicaragua that seemed to come up again and again from other travellers. It was the must see/do of the country. Thus, we all had rather high expectations heading there. We made our way by shared taxi to the port town of San Jorge, near Rivas. We walked down the pier heading towards what looked like a safe and reputable ferry. Continue reading →

Pura Vida, Costa Rica

/ brittanyherriot / 3 Comments

DSCN5254

After two weeks camping in the jungles and dancing our bodies sore at music festivals, it was time to venture out to see what else Costa Rica had to offer. Like many of the other festival goers, We made our wary way across the Gulf of Nicoya and headed to Montezuma. I had heard the name many times since being in Costa Rica, but didn’t know what the place had to offer, and as a tribe we just decided to follow the masses and head to the coast for a few days of relaxing on the beach. Continue reading →

Lake Atitlan: Santa Cruz

/ brittanyherriot / 2 Comments

DSCN4804

I took a shuttle from the quiet city of Antigua for the two hour drive through the mountain country side to reach Lake Atitlan. The drive was captivating and I couldn’t take my eyes from the road, starring out bright eyed as the sights blurred past me: mountains surrounded us on all sides, farms were scattered here and there, hardy crops of maiz perched on steep slopes, the occasional small village, and now and then plumes of smoke from small rubbish fires dotted the distance. As we got closer and closer to the lake the land became more mountainous, the roads became steeper and cliffs began to form as we hugged the hillside, looking over precariously steep drops with no guardrails. Continue reading →

Guatemala – Love At First Sight

/ brittanyherriot / 4 Comments

Dearest Guatemala, you’ve already stolen my heart. While you revealed your eclectic landscapes to me through the small oval window of a Boeing jet, I instantly felt myself falling for you. As we approached the land mass of Mexico from the open expanse of endless turquoise ocean, I was taken aback by the unending jungle below. It was as if the ocean had never ended, but merely changed colours from blue, to green. Continue reading →