Author: bivylife

I am a hiker, climber, backpacker, and video game addict.

My Hawaii Big Island Recommendations

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Well, I just completed my first trip to Hawaii and it was great! Instead of doing my typical blog about each day I decided to write up some recommendations since I have had a few friends asking for them. We stayed in an AirBnB (Shout out to Pamela – highly recommend) on the north side of the island which gave us perfect access to the best beaches (in my opinion) but made getting to the southern parts a little difficult. And by difficult I mean an enjoyable 2 hour drive. Before I go into my recommendations let me say this first: Rent a 4×4 vehicle (like a jeep) instead of a car. Makes your life so much easier and opens up various parts of the island. Speed limits are low on the island because of the winding roads (max 65 only on a couple of roads), so please don’t embarrass yourself by renting a sports car. Continue reading “My Hawaii Big Island Recommendations” →

Luck of the Irish – Southern Ireland

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This trip was a little different for me in a few ways. First, I was with a group of people including my girlfriend’s family. Second, it was a tour. I dont usually do the regular tour thing when I travel. I enjoy meeting locals and having them tell me where to go, but I have to say I was presently surprised by this trip. We went with a company called Driftwood. They do tours with groups of 15 or less people and go to places that are off the beaten path. The drivers are all locals who have been well trained in the history of Ireland and can give you a good feel for what Ireland really is like. We had two drivers on the trip and the first one was a police officer from Dublin. He explained everything from the education system to why there are so many castles in Ireland (btw, there are more than 30,000 of them). If this is starting to sound like an infomercial for Driftwood, then I’m sorry. But it is rare for me to find a tour company that I actually have good things to say about. Continue reading “Luck of the Irish – Southern Ireland” →

Luck of the Irish – Dublin

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Recently I was able to spend a week in the beautiful western part of Ireland. Western Ireland can best be described as a combination of the greenest back country roads you’ve ever seen. But before I get to that let’s start at the beginning of my trip. I landed in Dublin which is the largest city in Ireland (1.8 million people). Ireland itself is a small island. The entire thing could basically fit over Indiana and it only has 4.6 million people. If you know anything about Ireland’s history you’ve probably heard of the famine and castles. Turns out that much of Ireland’s history is incredibly sad, but we’ll get to that later. Continue reading “Luck of the Irish – Dublin” →

Land of the Incas: Cusco

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The Incas are fascinating. I guess I should say “were fascinating” since the Spanish basically wiped them out when they “colonized” South America. Not to get too dark on this blog post, but it is impossible to talk about the Incas without talking about how their culture vanished thanks to Europeans. But I’ll get to that later. I flew into Cusco on a really nice day. Peru has local airlines that take you to a few places around the country. It is easy to catch a cheap flight from Lima to Cusco thanks to the tourism industry. You cannot get to Machu Picchu without going to Cusco. (Now, before you freak out and say “but Bryan! There are actually ways to do it!” Yes, but it’s significantly harder. So unless you’re going to spend 12 hours on a bus to take a train from another city or a month hiking through the jungle/forest, let’s just say you cannot get to Machu Picchu without going to Cusco first.) Continue reading “Land of the Incas: Cusco” →

Land of the Incas: Lima

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Lima, Peru is a modern city right on the Pacific coast. When I arrived it was pitch black, but you could smell the ocean air and the road from the airport to downtown went between the ocean and the city. Before I get into the specifics of Lima, let me tell you about some of the facts I learned about Peru in general.

First, and frankly the most fascinating to me, Peru has 30 of the 32 world climates. They have a monsoon climate, a desert climate, a tropical savanna climate, a subtropical climate, and many many more. This means you can be sand surfing in the desert, then go literally surf in the ocean within a few hours.  You can climb to the top of a mountain – say for example the mountain in the Paramount Pictures Logo (Yeah, that mountain is real and in Peru) – and then walk down to the rain forest. Unfortunately for me I only had one week in Peru and could not explore all of this despite desperately wanting to. Continue reading “Land of the Incas: Lima” →