Cool People

Fun people I am meeting during my travels! Some folks I’ve had a great conversation with, others shared a meal, and still others I got to travel with. These are people I might never have met if I didn’t go on this adventure.

Courtney and Jakim. Met in flight to Costa Rica. Very brave and cool peeps on their way to a friend’s wedding.

Phillip and his wife Theresa from Canada. Met on a sailing trip!

Julio from the hotel Nany in Guanacaste. Definitely stay there!

Maggie and Lloyd from Victoria, Canada. Met on the bus from Guanacaste province to La Fortuna. We went zip lining together – like family away from family! ?

Heather and Cameron. From Victoria, Canada. Super. Awesome and ended up driving me in Manuel Antonio and sharing their fruit snack with me and teaching me how to negotiate in Costa Rica!

Agnes (from Spain) and Johan (from Denmark). A lovely couple I met over a coffee in Manuel Antonio. Agnes said the gazpacho was pretty good at the cafe, ad we talked a lot about fun in Costa Rica and life in Europe!

Gianni from Parma, Italy (where the ham is from!) Met in a bus tour in Monteverde, tried to connect via Facebook after the tour, couldn’t, but miraculously ran into her in Manuel Antonio park and exchanged numbers! Instant connection, awesome person and hop to see her when I’m in Europe.

EPIC stay at hotel Samsara in Uvita where I just loved the owners, Raul and Sibila, from Cuba, and met Sabrina from Austria. I was really bummed to leave!

Sometimes you meet people and they remind you of family and you just love hanging out! So it was with Karen, Brian, and Steve who I met in Cahuita. They were lovely and if not for them I would have missed out on a great beach experience!

Joel, Ahmed, and Jenn – 3 fantastic people I met at the Mexican Tequila restaurant in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Go there if you’re in the area, it’s fantastic!

Adam from Phoenix – an awesome person that makes everyone smile!

Karen from the Vaca Purpura – a fantastic coffee shop in La Fortuna! We became instant friends, and her coffee is AMAZING – each day I went I learned about a new one, cold, hot, drip, espresso, you name it, she’s got it!

Julio – my tour guide in La Fortuna! When we hiked Arenal it was really muddy and I slipped and fell. Julio then held my hand all the way down so I didn’t fall again, and is an all around great person! He even rescues hikers who get lost on Arenal. (Hint – stop hiking Arenal at night!)

Cherese and Frankie, from New Jersey! We met over dinner, sitting at neighboring tables, at a restaurant in Lisbon. Their daughter was about to turn 1 and soooo cute! Lovely family.

Roy (from Holland), Eric (French), Lukas (Polish) and Sam (Australian). Four great men I met staying at a WWOF farm down the road in a tiny town in Portugal. Sam is an artist who owns the farm and has a gift for creating community for men. The guys were great listeners, and had loads of fun, and I felt welcomed into their group! 🙂

Gill (Canadian) and Leonie (English) are 2 fabulous ladies I met on the WWOF farm down the road in Portugal. We had loads of fun herding goats and on girl’s day out, complete with port and red wine. 🙂

Marie and Stephen – mother and son that I met at my B&B in Mallaig, Scotland. They helped me learn about another ferry location so I could visit Isle of Muck, and introduced me to the takeout fish and chips place in town!

Tina from San Francisco. We met on a wonderful boat tour of Halong Bay in Vietnam. She helps babies be born! Cool person and helped me with some great recommendations.

Hannah and Paige. We met at a wonderful trek/homestay exprience in Sapa, Vietnam. They are awesome, hilarious, and Hannah is also questing for the next direction in her life so we had some great conversations. I almost joined them for a motorcycle tour!

Marisa – originally from New York but living in San Francisco when we met at the trek/homestay in Sapa, Vietnam. She’s a fellow marketer, energetic, fun, great ideas and looking forward to meeting up soon!

Nikolas. Macedonian engineer, living in Germany. We met on a bus, explored Hanoi together and because of him, I dared to try street meat in Vietnam!

Georgie and Mark – two fabulous Ozzies I met on a morning (pre sunrise) tour of the fish market in Hoi An. They were hillarious and fun and I missed them when we said goodbye! The best part is they own a boat in France so who knows, perhaps we will meet again there!

Kris and Lili from Hungary. Met at a beautiful Vietnamese rooftop restaurant in Ho Chi Minh and went off for beer at a local brewery. Lovely couple who enjoy travel as well!

I met Cuong on a crazy bus trip from Ho Chi Minh, including the bus blowing out a tire, quite an adventure! Cuong is from Germany and was touring around Vietnam with a friend.

Patricia and Xavier, from Spain. Met them on the same crazy bus tour from Ho Chi Minh – we were all going to catch the boat to Cambodia. Patricia and Xavier were on their Honeymoon – what a lovely couple! And they had just gotten the GoPro 7…

David, Mikael, Bella and Ulf – my wonderful Swedish family! We also met in the bus from Ho Chi Minh to the boat to Cambodia. It was like an instant connection and I felt like part of their family! So, I joined them on their 3-day tour of Siem Reap and very much enjoyed extensive photo bombing and jokes for all!

I didn’t get their names, but these were 2 of the lovely Koreans I met on my tour to Chiang Rai and The Golden Circle. Though they didn’t speak English and I don’t speak Korean, we somehow bonded over food – I ate many strange and wonderful things they gave me in the tour bus, and we had a lovely day together!

Franzi, Elli and Jackie. We met on another tour in Chiang Mai – what a gift they all are! Elli and Franzi are German and Jackie is from the UK. Jackie gifted me her presence for my birthday dinner and is on a similar life path to me, company and friendship much enjoyed!

We met in Prachuap Khiri Khan – when Roger saw me freaking out on a bicycle he suggested I join them for a beer, and I did! The result was a great conversation and an invitation to join them a few kilometers away. Great peeps and saved my neck with that bike!

Gregory from the USA – a flight attendant who travels everywhere he can. We met in Chiang Mai on a red taxi bus up to one of the temples. He got me a birthday lunch and coffee and told me about Prachuap Khiri Khan which became my favorite place in Thailand.

Chai was my fantastic tour guide in Prachuap Khiri Khan. He showed me amazing sites, helped me play with wonderful monkeys, and found us a perfect spot to see the sunset. And he is really nice! If you are ever in Prachuap, let me know and I’ll connect you for a great welcome!

Melonie, Jules, Thomas – met playing with monkeys in Prachuap and then saw them again on the beach. A wonderful family also trying to figure out a more meaningful life and work. From Grenoble. Enchantee!

I met Faye and Josh, who are Canadian, at breakfast in the wonderful hotel I stayed in for my birthday in Chiang Mai. A great conversation led to meeting up again in Bangkok and doing a tuk tuk food tour together – shown here at one of our food stops where I ate a grasshopper.

I met Sarah and Corinna, from Germany, on a Safari tour in El Calafate, Argentina, along with our tour guide, Fran! My first cool people in Argentina. As you can see we enjoyed our tour so much we went out for dinner and drinks together the next night.

.Jessica and Silvina from Argentina. Met them at my hotel in Calafate and we got friendly because I told them about the city since I had already been there a week – all in Spanish! We almost hiked together in Chalten and had a wonderful time talking about life and they taught me how to properly enjoy a matte!

Nath and Flo from France. Met them in Ushuaia on the way to the Laguna Verde. I didn’t know you had to hitch a ride there, so they were my first hitching partners! We hiked through tons of mud, and somehow their shoes were spotless and mine were a mess. They’re also on a break with work to live their lives.

Maria who I met in Bariloche on the bus from the airport. Turns out she quit her corporate job to travel for a while, and we had a lot in common. And, looks like we have some travel paths in common, looking forward to meeting again!

Leila and Martha from the north of Argentina. We met in Bariloche and traveled together in Villa La Angostura. Absolutely LOVELY and they always made sure I got home safely at night. Thank you!

Lou and his family. Argentinians who live in California. We met because Loui saw I was alone for a boat tour and immediately took care of me. I had great company the whole day, meal companions and wonderful conversation!

Lourens from South Africa. We met in Villa La Angostura and ended up traveling the same way for a while. Thanks to him I saw small towns I never would have even heard of, hitchhiked, slept on a police office floor (!!) and ate lots of good food as he’s an excellent cook!

My yerba mate friends! Took an amazing class with Melanie, Mera, and Sofia in Bariloche. This taught me so much about the culture and history of mate and made me enjoy the drink even more, thank you!

Michael, who I met on Easter Island because he had picked up my friends hitch-hiking there the day before! We had a great day exploring the island in his rental car.

Anastassia and Priscilla. Met them both on Easter Island – Priscilla just moved there! Lovely women and Anastassia and I shared a special moment seeing a sea turtle in the ocean!

Chloe and Sebastian, from France. Met on a walking tour thanks to Maria, there in the back, and almost met up again in San Pedro de Atacama!

Souza, from Brazil. Met in La Serena. Just a lovely person inside and out. Caring and gave me a makeover and lipstick so I could go dancing with her in Brazil!

Dorothea and Ilka from Germany. We met on a tour to the Altiplanacas in the Atacama. I helped Ilka with car sickness medication and she consoled me when I got altitude sickness! Then we met again in Purmamarca.

Celine, from France. We met on a day tour in Salta and ended up enjoying a couple of dinners later in the week. Wonderful to use my French! 🙂

Robert and Stefan, brothers from Mexico. We met when our tour guide called our last names and they sound so similar we thought we were related. We had a great time getting soaked in the Iguazu waterfalls!

Daniel from Colombia. We met at our hostel, visited a flea market together in San Telmo, ate lunch at the market then walked around drinking an open bottle of red wine – fabulous!

Walter, my Peru Hop guide. Helpful, a really good tour guide, funny, and will greatly miss him being in charge of our bus and our lives!

Alex from New Zealand. She was my seat mate on our Peru Hop buses from Lima to Huacachina, and ended up being a very cool person. So glad I chose the right seat on the bus!

The boys from the Peru Hop bus! Drake and Athanasios from the US, and Pablo from Argentina. Pablo and I enjoyed lots of discussions about Argentina. Drake and Athanasios were happy, positive, awesome people to be around. Thanks for sharing your energy guys!

Wendy and Robin from Australia. We met in our hostel in Parracas. Lovely couple traveling and cooking together!

Angel, from Shanghai, who I met in Lima and ended up staying with in Cusco, and Amilcar, from Venezuela, who I met through Angel and is trying to support his family back home. Angel and I went to Machu Pichu together!

I met Flo in a Facebook group. She came on The Inspired Nomads as a guest…in person because we got to meet live in Cusco, Peru! Great gal also out there traveling the world.

Ronel and Charles. A lovely couple I met on the train from Johannesburg to Cape Town which was 11 hours late due to a series of unfortunate incidents…they kept me company and made sure I was safe.

Myles and Fred were two of my first friends in Cape Town! Myles manages “Free From Eatery” and Fred owns “Biltong and Blade” – check them both out on St George’s Mall!

Paz and Maite from Argentina (thanks for the yerba mate!!), Shamesh from Australia, Bebe from England and Devon, our guide, all met on my Garden Route tour – an excellent 4 days together in beautiful scenery!

I met Jennifer through a mutual friend and we had a blast in Cape Town! We enjoyed a day in Franshoek via the Wine Tram as well as several great dinners and fun chats. She made my time in Cape Town even more fun.

I met Lientjie in Uruguay. She’s from Namibia and we shared a great discussion. Then I went to Windhoek and she drove all the way to meet me for a coffee! And, with the African water turning my hair to straw, she bought me some hair conditioning cream and introduced me to red cappucino.

I met Gomez on Camp’s Bay beach in Cape Town. He’s from Zanzibar and sells bracelets. He gave me one and someone took it from me so I went back and bought another.

A beautiful day on the beach in Ilha da Culatra on the Algarve in Portugal led me to a wonderful chat and I even got a beautiful shell to commemorate the experience.

On my first night out in Christchurch, New Zealand, I met Deb at dinner. She and I quickly got along and she invited me to stay with her. We have lots in common and she’s a rocking successful businesswoman.

Mark and Lisa Ann from Canada. Met at a coffee shop in Mostar, Bosnia. They’re on the full time travel path as well!

Dining alone in Queenstown, I met Don and Dana from Arkansas at the table next to mine. They’re a lovely and lively couple and invited me to tour around Arrowtown with them. What a lovely time!

Stefano, from Bologna, Italy, where I studied Italian! Met on a free walking tour in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

Tina and Marcus from Germany. Met for the first time walking up a hill to a church in Mostar. Met them again playing with some cute cats, got a coffee, talked about our full time travel adventures!