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Hello All, Just a quick note to say that I haven't been blogging here for a while because Peter and I decided to get our own doma...
Showing posts with label 2014 Travel. Show all posts
2014 Brazil World Cup Adventure, Rio de Janeiro - Day 1
Note from Ruby: Finally! I got Peter to post his trip reviews here on the site! :) I normally travel with him so here goes!!
Day 1: Departure from Orlando, 6 am sharp. Perfect. Only problem is, we don’t live in Orlando, we live in Jacksonville, so we had to drive to the Orlando Airport the previous night, sleep on a hard wooden bench and listen to people’s footsteps all night.
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| Ruby at the GIG airport - posing with Fuleco the mascot |
Day 1: Departure from Orlando, 6 am sharp. Perfect. Only problem is, we don’t live in Orlando, we live in Jacksonville, so we had to drive to the Orlando Airport the previous night, sleep on a hard wooden bench and listen to people’s footsteps all night.
The airport does have a hotel on site, a Hyatt, and it is
impressive, nestled right in the middle of the airport. But it’s a bit pricey, so wooden benches it
is!
Day 1: Arrival in Santo Domingo, the connecting flight. They kicked us off the plane, gave us badges
to wear, and let us mill around the departure gate for a confusing hour before
putting us back on the same plane. I
don’t really know why. The only thing I
remember about that airport besides the bathroom is the outrageous price of
McDonald’s (or Burger King, they’re all the same; maybe). If there’s one thing I will never do in life,
it’s overpay for fast food. And eat blue
cheese. I don’t like blue cheese.
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| Ruby at the Maracana Stadium during the Belgium-Russia game |
Day 1: Arrival in Rio! The sun, the samba, the beach…the
half-empty, depressing international airport?
Not the best first impression of Brazil, but it was early in the morning
and we were tired, so we were not in the spirits to judge everything kindly. Thankfully, the domestic airport we
transferred to in order to find our World Cup tickets was cleaner and cheerier.
Upon exiting the airport, we did the touristy thing and
booked a taxi. When the driver heard our
destination, he grimaced and said, “Santa Teresa?” in a mixture of disgust and
more disgust. We’d very shortly find out
why because since Santa Teresa is in the hills, you need to go up and up and
up, and the car we were in decided, in the middle of one of the climbs, to just
die on us right there in the middle of the street. The guy uttered some Portuguese curse words
and gave us our luggage and there we were, dragging our luggage in the street,
trying to find our AirBnb place, without any idea of where we were or how to
get there. Google Maps helped a little
bit and so did asking some locals and we eventually found the place.
 |
| At the game, with the token "Guy in Giant Hot Dog Costume" right behind us trying to get more beer. |
Day 1: Our first World Cup game, Belgium vs. Russia! Beer
Drinkers vs. Vodka Drinkers! The EU vs Putin!
Belgian Chocolate vs. Russian…Vodka!
On the way to the game, the subway train was rather crowded. I probably inadvertently smelled 10 different
armpits on that subway ride, and I wish I was kidding. When we finally got to the stadium, it was
packed, but well organized and we found our seats within the hour.
 |
| Peter at the Copacabana Fan Zone |
The game was decent, with some good chances, and Belgium
ended up winning 1-0 on a late goal. The
Vodka Drinkers were silent after the game, probably as a result of drinking too
much vodka.
Back to the AirBnb apartment and End of Day 1.
[Travel] Savannah, Georgia Itinerary & Photos
My mom wanted me to post more photos of my travels... so, in this blog, I'm gonna post Savannah!
We had a long weekend in April (Good Friday - Easter Sunday) and since we didn't get to book tickets to fly out, it's a staycation of sorts and decided we'll explore Savannah & Tybee Island in Georgia.
It's only two hours away from Jacksonville, FL (we drove) but seems completely far away from the world. We could have done separate day trips but I don't know what compelled us to stay longer.
 |
| Outside Fort Pulaski |
Hotel: Stayed at La Quinta in Pooler (around 10-15 minute drive from Savannah downtown).
Cost? Less than $100 per day with free breakfast. They have cozy rooms too.
Itinerary:
April 18th (Day 1) - We left Jacksonville late. Arrived in Pooler, checked in the hotel then ate lunch (at Wendy's in front of the hotel). Drove downtown. Went to the Railroad Museum. The museum had a bunch of historic carts & a steam engine train!
Walked around River Street but got drenched. Ate at Huey's for dinner. Not so expensive, and it was good, comfort food. Found the Savannah Bee Company and did a bit of window shopping. Decided to go back to the hotel and dry off. Early night for us.
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| At Fort Pulaski with a volunteer |
April 19th (Day 2)- Drove to Tybee Island. It is a separate island from Savannah, around a 30-45 minute drive. Also went to Fort Pulatski (the boyfriend loves his forts and would always make sure we stop at these historic site). It was free when we went (National Park Week's Opening weekend), but normally it's $5 per person.
In Tybee, we explored the Tybee Island Lighhouse & Museum. Paid a small amount to get to the top.
Ate at North Beach Bar & Grill and walked around the beach for a bit (it was a wee bit cold and balmy, after all) before heading trying to go to the pier. It was so traffic (there was an event on the other end of the island) that we decided to go back to Savannah.
Finally bought something from Savannah Bee Company in West Broughton Street as a souvenir. Then walked around the historic district and managed to go to the City Market and explored 10 squares. It was quite easy to get to the squares as the next one is always within two blocks of the other one. Even checked out the Colonial Park Cemetery.
After the 10th square, it was getting late so we called it a night and drove back to the hotel. How apt that they were showing Forrest Gump! It was my first time to watch that movie (albeit long)
After the 10th square, it was getting late so we called it a night and drove back to the hotel. How apt that they were showing Forrest Gump! It was my first time to watch that movie (albeit long)
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| On top of Tybee Island Lighthouse |
Went back to the historic district - to the Georgia Railroad Museum to ride the steam train and yay! We got a slot. That steam train was cool as hell. Note: if you pay the entrance fee to the museum, it's valid for a few days after your first purchase so you can keep coming back!
Also walked around some more squares and back to Broughton Street. Soon enough, it was time to go home! :(
Also walked around some more squares and back to Broughton Street. Soon enough, it was time to go home! :(
 |
| Bonaventure Cemetery |
That was our Savannah trip - it was a lot of fun and I recommend anyone to go there. Here's some more photos of me & some other interesting places we've seen in Savannah.
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| From one of Savannah's squares |
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| At the battle of Savannah battlefield |
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| The Nachez |
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| The waving girl statue |
[Travel] Puerto Rico Itinerary
Puerto Rico is technically part of the United States, but is completely different from the continental US. It is technically part of the Caribbean but was controlled by the Spanish before the US took over.
Here's a brief itinerary of what we did. This can be a guide for you guys that are traveling to the island too!
Getting there: Easy, there are multiple flights that go to Puerto Rico from the Continental US. If you have a Philippine Passport, you'll need a valid multiple entry US visa to get to Puerto Rico. For the sake of transparency, I did not show my passport at the TSA, rather, I showed my US drivers license (I am a resident of the US).
Flights: The legacy carriers (AA, United & Delta) all fly to Puerto Rico (as far as I know). The budget airlines (ie JetBlue & Southwest) also fly to this island in the Carribean. We flew Jetblue from MCO (Orlando, FL) to SJU (San Juan), a flight that's almost 2 1/2 hours.
Hotels: We stayed at the San Juan Marriott Resort in Condado. It costs $220 a night (which includes taxes & the resort fee). Be aware that most resorts charge an 11% tax and a resort fee. It varies from place to place. The upside of staying at the San Juan Marriott? It was beachside and the pool was nice. Although the beach was not what I expected (I have a HIGH standard for beaches as I come from the Philippines), it's still a nice place to stroll around - all 10 minutes of walking around, that is. The beach is not that big and the waves are quite big so exercise extreme caution when swimming in the beach!
The pool was actually nice, but is quite shallow (less than 4 feet of water). Still a good way to cool down after a long day of sightseeing or doing outdoorsy stuff!
What we did:
So, for the most part, our itinerary was a 5 day, 4 night stay.
Day 1: Arrival
Arrived around 1PM in SJU. Grabbed luggage and went straight to the marriot.
Taxi fare from airport to Marriot - $20 + $5 tip (our taxi driver was cool so we didn't mind giving him a 25% tip). America has a big tipping culture so be aware of that!
Upon checking in, took an hour to rest from the flight and walked around the Condado area.
Condado is quite small, but it's where you can find the more expensive stores (Louis Vuitton, anyone?). The place gets quite happening in the evenings, apparently, with the bars/clubs.
There is a small park with a fountain that's also beachfront near our hotel. For the life of me, I cannot remember the name!
Ate dinner at Pinky's (yumyum breakfast sandwiches all day long) and had a small snack at Starbucks (mmm salted caramel frappuccino anyone?)
Day 2: El Yunque Rainforest & Bio Bay Kayaking
Booked a tour from Kayak Puerto Rico for the all day tour (started at 11AM when they picked us up from the hotel and ended around 10:15pm when they dropped us off). It's $115+ tax (7% tax in Puerto Rico) per person, including all-day water and transportation from your hotel to the rainforest & to Fajardo. This is being handled by two companies: Fine Line Excursions (for the rainforest) and Kayaking Puerto Rico (for the bio bay kayak).
We met up with Andrea, our guide to the rainforest. Saw three waterfalls overall and hiked our way to one (it's a paved road so it's good). Now, coming from the Philippines I saw my fair share of waterfalls and rain forests but it was the boyfriend's first time.
One thing I loved? The Coquis! OMG they make such amazing sounds. They are literally small brown frogs that make a distinctive sound, and are found in certain areas of the Carribean (and even Hawaii!)
We ate dinner at 4pm at a local restaurant (mmm yummy food, and for $12 for dinner, drinks & dessert, it was a steal!)
Went to Bio Bay in the evening. The bay we went to was in Fajardo. Was quite good. I wouldn't recommend it to people who absolutely have no idea how to kayak! First off, you're gonna kayak in the dark, and secondly, you might become a hazard for the other kayakers (oh believe me, I had our fair share of running into people). If you have 0 experience at all, you can ask one of the guides to just tow you around.
What's interesting about the Bio bay was the bioluminescent creatures that glow when they are disturbed (either with your hand or with your paddle). I have never seen anything like it before!
In the evening, I had a late night Starbucks nightcap (OK, the bf and I don't normally indulge in Starbucks every single day but this was an exception. I was soooo tired and I needed something to warm me up - plus Starbucks is just across the street from the hotel).
Day 3: Old San Juan
After the very tiring day before, was surprised to wake up at 9:40AM. Yep, we overslept.
Finally managed to get breakfast at around 10:30AM at Pinky's (yumyum) then left for old San Juan at noon.
First stop of the day?
El Morro. It was a fortress/castle and is one of the most visited tourist spots in PR!
Off to Calle Cristo after, then Fortaleza St. They're full of souvenir shops so a good place to buy something to bring home!
Go down to the Old San Juan gate and try to walk down the old city walls surrounding El Morro.
You'll see so many things when you walk, it's just crazy. I can't write down all the streets we went to but man, we saw a lot.
Do: there is a crafts/artisan/local market every weekend near the cruise terminal. I managed to buy a wooden horse toy which I lovingly took back home :) It was $12 and the horse's legs were driven by wheels.
Day 4: Old San Juan
I was actually thinking of doing another tour but none of them piqued our interests (well, we wanted to go to Ponce and the Camuy Caves but the hotel did not offer these tours on the day that we wanted them). The boyfriend is also a BIG fortress fan so we had to go back to Old San Juan to go to Castillo de San Cristobal.
Castillo de San Cristobal was bigger than El Morro and the views were to die for. It's just beside the Senate, which was designed to look like the one from Madrid. Also, there were sooo many iguanas around the grounds it was nice to just take photos of them! Note: iguanas are actually an infestation to Puerto Rico so they do sell iguana meat outside of their country.
Went back to Old San Juan and walked around. Managed to get inside the Governor's Mansion (3:25pm English guided tour) and meandered around until we reached a square where we were supposed to take our taxi back.
Hotel then used the early evening hours to chill in the pool and beachside.
Dinner was at a Puerto Rican restaurant where I had a churrasco and the boyfriend had a mofongo. Yumyum.
Day 5: Last day :(
Our flight is at 4pm and we didn't really want to risk going to Old San Juan again.
Stayed in the hotel until around 11AM then back to our old walking haunts in Condado. Still gutted I wasn't able to get a Coqui frog stuffed toy but oh well! I actually realized I wanted that frog AFTER I got back from Old San Juan.
Went to the airport around 2pm. Customs will scan your bags before you go to the US so you'll need to have ample time for that. Also, we checked in a bag so we had to allow a lot more time than we normally would in the airport.
And it was the end of a really wonderful trip
Here's a brief itinerary of what we did. This can be a guide for you guys that are traveling to the island too!
Getting there: Easy, there are multiple flights that go to Puerto Rico from the Continental US. If you have a Philippine Passport, you'll need a valid multiple entry US visa to get to Puerto Rico. For the sake of transparency, I did not show my passport at the TSA, rather, I showed my US drivers license (I am a resident of the US).
Flights: The legacy carriers (AA, United & Delta) all fly to Puerto Rico (as far as I know). The budget airlines (ie JetBlue & Southwest) also fly to this island in the Carribean. We flew Jetblue from MCO (Orlando, FL) to SJU (San Juan), a flight that's almost 2 1/2 hours.
Hotels: We stayed at the San Juan Marriott Resort in Condado. It costs $220 a night (which includes taxes & the resort fee). Be aware that most resorts charge an 11% tax and a resort fee. It varies from place to place. The upside of staying at the San Juan Marriott? It was beachside and the pool was nice. Although the beach was not what I expected (I have a HIGH standard for beaches as I come from the Philippines), it's still a nice place to stroll around - all 10 minutes of walking around, that is. The beach is not that big and the waves are quite big so exercise extreme caution when swimming in the beach!
The pool was actually nice, but is quite shallow (less than 4 feet of water). Still a good way to cool down after a long day of sightseeing or doing outdoorsy stuff!
What we did:
So, for the most part, our itinerary was a 5 day, 4 night stay.
Day 1: Arrival
Arrived around 1PM in SJU. Grabbed luggage and went straight to the marriot.
Taxi fare from airport to Marriot - $20 + $5 tip (our taxi driver was cool so we didn't mind giving him a 25% tip). America has a big tipping culture so be aware of that!
Upon checking in, took an hour to rest from the flight and walked around the Condado area.
Condado is quite small, but it's where you can find the more expensive stores (Louis Vuitton, anyone?). The place gets quite happening in the evenings, apparently, with the bars/clubs.
There is a small park with a fountain that's also beachfront near our hotel. For the life of me, I cannot remember the name!
Ate dinner at Pinky's (yumyum breakfast sandwiches all day long) and had a small snack at Starbucks (mmm salted caramel frappuccino anyone?)
Day 2: El Yunque Rainforest & Bio Bay Kayaking
Booked a tour from Kayak Puerto Rico for the all day tour (started at 11AM when they picked us up from the hotel and ended around 10:15pm when they dropped us off). It's $115+ tax (7% tax in Puerto Rico) per person, including all-day water and transportation from your hotel to the rainforest & to Fajardo. This is being handled by two companies: Fine Line Excursions (for the rainforest) and Kayaking Puerto Rico (for the bio bay kayak).
We met up with Andrea, our guide to the rainforest. Saw three waterfalls overall and hiked our way to one (it's a paved road so it's good). Now, coming from the Philippines I saw my fair share of waterfalls and rain forests but it was the boyfriend's first time.
One thing I loved? The Coquis! OMG they make such amazing sounds. They are literally small brown frogs that make a distinctive sound, and are found in certain areas of the Carribean (and even Hawaii!)
We ate dinner at 4pm at a local restaurant (mmm yummy food, and for $12 for dinner, drinks & dessert, it was a steal!)
Went to Bio Bay in the evening. The bay we went to was in Fajardo. Was quite good. I wouldn't recommend it to people who absolutely have no idea how to kayak! First off, you're gonna kayak in the dark, and secondly, you might become a hazard for the other kayakers (oh believe me, I had our fair share of running into people). If you have 0 experience at all, you can ask one of the guides to just tow you around.
What's interesting about the Bio bay was the bioluminescent creatures that glow when they are disturbed (either with your hand or with your paddle). I have never seen anything like it before!
In the evening, I had a late night Starbucks nightcap (OK, the bf and I don't normally indulge in Starbucks every single day but this was an exception. I was soooo tired and I needed something to warm me up - plus Starbucks is just across the street from the hotel).
Day 3: Old San Juan
After the very tiring day before, was surprised to wake up at 9:40AM. Yep, we overslept.
Finally managed to get breakfast at around 10:30AM at Pinky's (yumyum) then left for old San Juan at noon.
First stop of the day?
El Morro. It was a fortress/castle and is one of the most visited tourist spots in PR!
Off to Calle Cristo after, then Fortaleza St. They're full of souvenir shops so a good place to buy something to bring home!
Go down to the Old San Juan gate and try to walk down the old city walls surrounding El Morro.
You'll see so many things when you walk, it's just crazy. I can't write down all the streets we went to but man, we saw a lot.
Do: there is a crafts/artisan/local market every weekend near the cruise terminal. I managed to buy a wooden horse toy which I lovingly took back home :) It was $12 and the horse's legs were driven by wheels.
Day 4: Old San Juan
I was actually thinking of doing another tour but none of them piqued our interests (well, we wanted to go to Ponce and the Camuy Caves but the hotel did not offer these tours on the day that we wanted them). The boyfriend is also a BIG fortress fan so we had to go back to Old San Juan to go to Castillo de San Cristobal.
Castillo de San Cristobal was bigger than El Morro and the views were to die for. It's just beside the Senate, which was designed to look like the one from Madrid. Also, there were sooo many iguanas around the grounds it was nice to just take photos of them! Note: iguanas are actually an infestation to Puerto Rico so they do sell iguana meat outside of their country.
Went back to Old San Juan and walked around. Managed to get inside the Governor's Mansion (3:25pm English guided tour) and meandered around until we reached a square where we were supposed to take our taxi back.
Hotel then used the early evening hours to chill in the pool and beachside.
Dinner was at a Puerto Rican restaurant where I had a churrasco and the boyfriend had a mofongo. Yumyum.
Day 5: Last day :(
Our flight is at 4pm and we didn't really want to risk going to Old San Juan again.
Stayed in the hotel until around 11AM then back to our old walking haunts in Condado. Still gutted I wasn't able to get a Coqui frog stuffed toy but oh well! I actually realized I wanted that frog AFTER I got back from Old San Juan.
Went to the airport around 2pm. Customs will scan your bags before you go to the US so you'll need to have ample time for that. Also, we checked in a bag so we had to allow a lot more time than we normally would in the airport.
And it was the end of a really wonderful trip