Hola El Salvador!

Ok, so I got sucked into several video games that took up all my time and then fell off of writing this blog.  This is also a really long post so it took me a while.

Let's catch up with my Memorial Day trip to... El Salvador!  Now before you read this story, DISCLAIMER: you will either think I'm extremely stupid, or extremely adventurous. You're welcome to tell me how stupid I am but the fact of the matter is that it happened, and I feel that I'm a better person for it. 

My company gives me Friday AND Monday off for Memorial and Labor day. Woo! 4 day weekend!  So I took a look at what flights I could take that were under $500 for that weekend.

A little about El Salvador, and I am no expert, but when I first started traveling solo in 2006, El Salvador was known as a dangerous destination.  It's a tiny country and usually overshadowed by its bigger neighbors Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and other bigger adventure destinations. It makes awesome coffee and though it's tiny, it has a decent amount of coastline and therefore beaches.   It also went through a quite intense civil war from mid 80s until the early 90s, which left it a bit of a mess and also encouraged a population of Salvadorians to migrate into other parts of the Americas (including the US).  I've met lots of Salvadorians in California and New York, and in Spain! and every single one has been absolutely awesome.  And I love pupusas, so this was a natural decision.

 I arrived in San Salvador International Airport after a ridiculous flight of going from LA to Houston Thursday night on a redeye and sleeping on a floor in the Houston airport. (Thank you American Airlines).  

I am not sure if I've outlined my method of getting a taxi to you all, but I always try to do this. ESPECIALLY if you are a single traveler and you don't know what you're doing there:

• take a step back. get out of the madhouse of the international terminal of whatever airport I am. This is where all the drivers are waving around signs, people are waiting for their loved ones and taxi drivers push themselves on confused and disoriented flyers.  I hate it.
• assess the situation from behind and observe who are the tourist predators, who are the real taxis and where the real taxi stand/bus stop is
• assess whether you can or want to take a taxi from outside of the airport - sometimes its as near as walking down the street and costs like $10 less, also the bus tends to be there if you want to do that
• THEN, you approach whichever taxista you would like to ask about a fare.   BE AWARE of what a normal fare is before you ask them, your hotel should tell you about the right amount, or have them show you an official sign with the rates on it. they usually have those.

Now, sometimes some or none of these things can happen, and yes, shit happens. Believe me. I got some stories. But generally, I got a taxi no problem, it costs about $30, and I take a drive over to La Libertad.

My initial housing situation had been a hostel called El Balsamo. I found it on hostelbookers or wherever. It was $5 a night for a dorm and was just west of El Tunco. However, I was going to El Tunco in a low season and when we arrived at around 11 am, there was no one to check me in.  It was a house with a yard, hammocks, and some barking dogs, but I couldn't find anyone! And I needed to get some internet work done.  So I got pissed and asked the driver to take me to my backup location, SABAS Beach Resort.  Also very quiet because I was there on a random weekend. 

SABAS was a really cute little hotel.  Only 12 rooms. It has a pool and full bar and restaurant and you can walk out to the beach. The owner was SUPER nice when I just showed up out of the blue and gave me the rate I found on Expedia. However, it was a little weird because I was like, the only person in the hotel. This hotel was also situated EAST of El Tunco, and there appeared to be some sort of, how do I say it nicely, shanty town that was obstructing my easy walk from there to El Tunco. The lady at the hotel got worried when I said I wanted to walk around the beach.  It was also about $50 a night. Not too bad, but like, 1000% more than I was going to pay.  This is what I get for not doing my research.

Oh well.So Thursday and Friday I spent working by the pool, eating these gorgeous shrimp burritos they make there, and having some beer and taking a nap.  I basically did this for like, 2 1/2 days. It was glorious.  But also kind of boring as I wasn't leaving the hotel.








This is where things start to get a bit interesting. On Saturday, after being a gluttonous bum, I went and told the lady that I was going for a walk on the beach, and that I'd go in the opposite direction from the shantytown.  So I walk further east.  I get to the end of the beach. I walk inland and recognize that I am in the other end of the neighborhood as the hotel and consider walking up the highway (its a 2 lane highway, not like the 405) to El Tunco. Then I look at the time, 4pm, sigh, and basically chalk up my experience to be a mess this time as I have no easy transport and its going to be dark soon. It does suck being a girl sometimes. There is a lady standing on the corner selling pupusas on the street. I haven't even had pupusas here yet because I've been stuck in the hotel, so I walk over, she looks at me curiously, and invites me to sit down and wait for my food.

While I'm waiting a neighborhood guy comes over and gets some pupusas too. He's a nice older man named Jorge in his 50s.  We chat in Spanish for a bit, I ask him where the market is so I can buy some water and then we both take off with our food in hand down the street.  On the way, we stop at the same market, I get some water and he gets a Coke.

 This dude was honestly curious about me and kept asking me questions.  We're walking and we stop in front of his house and he... invites me into his house to eat with him.  I hesistate.  Stranger danger!  After speaking to him for a while outside his house, assessing the situation, noting that my hotel is only about 500 m down the street and also observing that this is a really small neighborhood that nothing happens and by now our loud talking has everyone on the street tuned in to the fact there is a Spanish speaking Asian person wandering around, I decide that its safe to go in.  So I enter this very kind man's house.

Jorge owns a piece of land, and his house is reasonably sized, made of cinderblocks.  He has very little furniture and there are no glass on the windows.  He has a very old tube TV which he had plugged in outside, and a futbol game was playing.  Around his yard he has a cute dog (which did try to bite me) surfboards, and a lot of ceramic stuff.

We share Coke and pupusas and Jorge tells me about himself.  He is a ceramic worker, and he makes those little artisan ashtrays and coffee mugs you buy from places in Mexico. He has a full kiln and things in his house.  His family is middle class, he told me his mother and brother live in El Salvador and his brother is a doctor.  He fled El Salvador in the 80s from the war and worked in Guadalajara at a ceramics factory for a long time before returning to El Salvador and wanted to live at the beach, so he bought this piece of land and here he is.  He has a pretty calm life of working on his ceramics, biking around, surfing and doing his thing. I bought some ceramics from him.

I told him my issues with trying to get to El Tunco and he said of course, its hard if you're a woman, you can't walk thru the shanty town (I forgot the name of it) and offered to take me. I hesitated again because its one thing to hang out with someone in the afternoon and then go out at night to some town 3 km away that I dont know how to get there and back.  He convinced me that it was Saturday night and I really should see it, that he knows the owner of the hotel I'm at and we can let them know I'm going. So I said, ok.. but only if we go to the hotel first and I tell them I'm going with you.

We go to the hotel and it becomes very obvious that he knows everyone in the hotel so I calm down, and we set off walking towards El Tunco. We walk along the beach over a small creek and then cut thru the shanty town and then walk across the freeway. Honestly, after seeing the town, I don't know what the big deal is, I've been in worse in my time but I suppose it makes sense the hotel people were concerned for me. It's FAR to El Tunco. 3km on a highway, so nearly a mile. It was dark. I was like where ARE we! But we did make it and I'm glad I went because it was a really cute lively town. Live music playing everywhere and lots of people out.

Jorge shows me a few places in the town I can stay at if I ever decided to come back to El Salvador, and dammit, it was like $10 a night.  Stupid hotel.  We go choose a beachfront bar to sit down and I offer to buy him his beers tonight as it's a bit pricey. $2 a beer. 

We end up in a beer fueled 5 hour conversation where I learned a lot about Salvadorian politics,  got some Cuban cigars from them, got stuck in a downpour and then couldn't find a taxi so we had to run back along the freeway to our place, cut thru the beach, and the creek had then turned into a river.  It was like 2 am and the hotel gates were closed, so there was some banging and yelling before the guard woke up and let me in, and I'm sure we looked absolutely ridiculous, covered in sand and soaked lol.  Jorge went home and I went to sleep.



The next day I hung out at the hotel and stopped in El Tunco again on my own by asking the hotel to drive me there, but its much quieter every other day of the week. Other notable things I ate were more beer, and different cocteles de mariscos (see below).  Read a book, drank some fantastic coffee.  It was a good day.  Before I left on Monday, I stopped by Jorge's house one more time, he was hung over - honestly, I think people underestimate my out-drinking capabilities - and said bye to him before I left.

Now, to sum up my trip, I would go to El Salvador again. As usual, a trip like this is character building and I came out of it positively.

• Resourcefulness - Taxis, making sure hotels know where you are
• Reading people and their intentions
• Understanding your surroundings and your environment
• Making plans and backups - stupid hotel
• Practicing a language - I had a Spanish breakthrough on this trip, where after about 8-9 hours of talking to someone, you suddenly start naturally talking in whole paragraphs.  Win!
• Opening your doors to meet someone not like you
• Representing YOUR country and culture to others - this is important!

  My trip didn't start out that great, but it ended with meeting a really interesting person, with a lot of stories to tell, I ate a lot of food, relaxed a bunch.  El Tunco is only 30 minutes from the airport, and the price is right.  I would go back again!

San Francisco Bay To Breakers!

Ok, so this isn't my trip to El Salvador yet... that's coming.  And I guess it's not really a traveling post,  BUT it is a post about if YOU are traveling and you want to go to San Francisco on a fun weekend.

Bay to Breakers is a 12k race done the third Sunday in May across San Francisco from the Bay to the ocean Breakers, hence the name.  It's more than 100 years old and has a tradition for being the "mardi gras" of SF. B2B gets about 50,000 participants a year to run the race.  It also gets another 100,000 spectators to dress up in costumes and party along the race route.  So as you can see, it's a pretty big party.

I will keep this post short by summing up:

We chose to do the race portion of B2B.  Note that you can sign up for the race and support the cause, but most of the city actually just chooses to run around afterwards partying.  So, this can be a very cheap weekend if you want to check out the craziness of SF.

Second, the more ridiculous the costumes, the better.  People run this competitively or they also walk it.  I chose to run it while the rest of my group walked it.  You can dress up as your own thing, or go as a team.

We chose to be... breaded cats! In case this is new to you, breaded cats were an internet meme last year where you stick bread on a cat's head.  An example here. Yes, it kind of pisses the cat off a bit.



Don't ask me why this is a thing.  It is pretty stupid, but it turned out great!  We made our cat breads by

• Square foam seat cushions
• Cloth that looked like bread
• Brown duct tape
• Scissors
• Cat ears and tail

Ta Daaaaaaaaa!





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On the run, I saw people dressed up as:

• Coneheads
• Salmon swimming upstream
• 80's stuff
• Bullfighers in Pamplona waving the Spanish flag
• Fairies
• Superman
• And because there is no law against public nudity in SF, naked people. 27 naked people in fact.  26 naked men and one naked woman.  Now, running a 12k race as a naked woman is not very easy for very obvious logistical reasons.  So this smart lady decided to run with a top and a bra, but no pants.  Kudos to her.  And no, I am not going to offend anyone by taking pictures of people who choose to run in the buff, nor will I offend your delicate eyes by posting them on my blog.  Carrying on...

 I was running so it was a little hard to take pictures. But we saw lots of people cheering us on!



 The rest of my group was walking, and apparently they are featured in slide 10 of this article of the Oakland Tribune.







 Yes. I ran 12k with a giant foam with duct tape attached to my head.  It's pretty sweaty now. I have some photos but they say Do Not Copy, so I'm not going to post my finish photos. 

 Finally, finished! And then promptly went to the corner store and bought a 40 (or in my case, a giant beer : ) We went to some thing called a "parklet" which is apparently some new SF fancy word for a street parking space that has turned into a hangout spot, and then....

I went running BACK ACROSS THE CITY to find Natalie and Eugene (and Julie, and Tafflyn, and Alvaro, and several other people!).  Why was this so important??  Natalie and Eugene were moving to England soon! And this would be the last time I'd see them in a long time (or whenever I next choose to fly into London lol).  Anyway, this was super important, so I started going  back towards the center of the city, effectively adding probably another 3-4k to my total run.





I go TOO FAR, and end up at a party Natalie told me they'd be at.  I got some photo ops in and also saw their awesome dog costume.  Yes! It is a dog dressed up as a hot dog!








 



Finally after running (keep in mind I am drinking ANOTHER 40 at the time), I find them!









\ We have a bit of beer and then hit up a Whole Foods to get some lunch and beer and picnic in the park.  At which time I am starving, inhale two sandwiches and more beer, then totally pass out in a nap in the sun on the grass.  And that is how I got my horrible tan line from my running capris. 






Overall, I totally recommend coming up to SF for B2B.  You don't have to sign up if you're not a runner - just come for the festivities!

Coming soon, when I upload my photos - El Salvador!

Finally a Hyatt in DTLA and a good promo for points!

My two fave hotel loyalty plans are Hyatt and Starwood.  I prefer Hyatts but Starwood have more hotels (they own the Westin, Sheraton, W, Le Meridien, and a few others).  So my loyalty bounces back and forth between the two and I maintain elite status with both of them.

It's difficult for me to maintain status with Hyatt right now.  There was no Hyatt in Downtown LA so it made it a little difficult to stay at them unless I wanted to go to Long Beach and drive up, and that commute sucks.  On top of that, late last year, my company, which usually negotiates a corporate rate for our business hotels, removed most Hyatts from our "approved hotels". 

I will outline the reasons to try to maintain status with more than one hotel brand later, but the biggest drivers for doing this is to be treated well and maximizing points earning if you have to stay at an alternate hotel as sometimes your preferred brand is not at the location you are working/vacationing.  The other one has to do with earning Lifetime Status, which several hotel groups will give you if maintain elite status over a number of years.

Anyway, the point is that late last year, one of the Marriotts in DTLA rebranded itself to a Hyatt and is going under a huge renovation.  It is currently calling itself The LA Hotel until it completes its change to Hyatt Regency. I've stayed at this Marriott before and it's a bit dated and was skeptical of this renovation and how long it would take. 

However, in a bid to get business, the LA Hotel first negotiated an awesome rate with my company, is only 3 blocks from my work, and, it has a promo going on if you stay there where each night you get 2500 points in addition to the points you earn normally.

Even though I use points quite frequently, they are not easy to get. Let me break down how difficult it is to earn hotel points.

• Hyatt Gold Passport lets you earn 5 points per $1 spent.  Let's say it's a $150/night hotel. This means you earn 750 points per night.  So a 3 night stay you would make 2250 points. There are bonuses if you have status so I make more than this. 
• To redeem, a Hyatt hotel at Category 5 hotel (which is like, SF, or Hawaii) is 18,000 points a night.  So to stay one night for free, you have to stay for EIGHT WEEKS before you get one free night. 
• Granted, there are always good promos to take advantage of that increases the number of points you earn, but the catch is that you have to find and then sign up for them.

So as you can see, getting 2500 points for 3 nights at the hotel, plus the points you earn with the regular rate, quadruples the number of points I get in a week! Which means that I only need to stay for TWO weeks to get enough points to earn a free night.

And... this is why I am switching to Hyatt for a while.

The promo for the LA Hotel can be found here: http://losangelesdowntown.hyatt.com/en/hotel/offers/offer-detail.html?offerId=49539468&icamp=specialOfferId_49539468_landing&isBookable=true

Aloha Hawaii!

Ok, so since most people who know me know that I head off to Hawaii several times a year, mostly because it is an easy 5 hour flight from California and that there are some cheap flights to be had.  I have been doing this regularly since I was 25, which is... a long time ago.  haha!


I went on one of these trips in late April and never posted because

a) I was actually looking at real estate, not aggressively, but just a thought since I'm there so much.  On the other hand looking at condos doesn't really make for good travel photos.
b) I was pretty lazy from the recent trip to Colombia and photo'd out.

The assorted photos are from my previous trips to Hawaii.

Anyway, most people think that Hawaii is a family destination, a honeymoon destination, or something really expensive.   I thought I'd update on a few things about WHY I go to Hawaii so much, what I think is awesome about it, and how it's possible to go there by yourself and not on some romantic honeymoon. 

Though I have been to all the Hawaiian islands, I generally go to Oahu for ease, the number of people I know, accessibility.  Honolulu Airport is on Oahu and is the largest city on all the islands.  When petrol was cheap, round trip flights were to be had for $250.  My personal record for a cheap round trip flight was $235. Score!  From California there are many flights and it's almost impossible to get a non-direct.  What are you going to stop in the ocean or something? lol.  Which brings me to my next point, timing.

Because of the time difference in Hawaii and the direct flights, it is really, really easy to take a weekend jaunt or a long weekend.  It is typically 3-4 hours difference in time between HNL and the west coast.  This means I can take a flight out Thursday around 6:30, and arrive in Hawaii at 9:30 pm the same day.  Then I have all of Friday, all of Saturday, and Sunday until 10 pm (essentially the full day) to hang out in Hawaii before heading back.  Yes, this makes Monday morning a bit rough.  But I'm a consultant so we power through Mondays anyway with a lot of coffee, and what do you think the people from the East Coast do when they come to Cali every week?  So I never complain.

Second, housing is NOT cheap in Waikiki, but you can find good deals. When with friends or family, I will shell out points to stay at the five star hotels, which range from the Grand Hyatt, the Westin Moana Surfrider, the Sheraton, or the Hilton Hawaiian Village.  If on a budget and with friends, I find a budget vacation rental on craigslist for $50-100/night. When by myself, I typically stay at this hostel: Which is less than $30 a night for a dorm bed.  Yes, you can stay in Waikiki for $30/night.  Go find yourself some L&L an you can also feed yourself for $5-10 a day.

What do I do there?  Well, first of all I work.  I get up at 5 am and work all day Fridays until about 5-6 pm PST, which, because of the time difference, is about 2-3pm Hawaiian time.  Then I have the rest of the day to relax!  This isn't really conducive to late night drinking in Hawaii but I don't really do late night clubbing anymore, though when I was 26 I totally went pub crawling and had tons of fun.  Saturday I will either go scuba diving and Sunday  I rent a surfboard for a day for $15. Or go out and have some beers, like with people here:

Scuba diving. Anyone who's been to Hawaii with me knows I love diving and though Hawaii is not the most beautiful destination I've been to (I've now gone on to 150+ dives in probably about 15 countries), it has a really nice amount of aquatic life, and a mix of coral and larger animals such as turtles.  Hawaii is not a tropical water destination as the currents come down from Alaska, similar to how the water in California is not as warm as in Florida.  You cannot dive here without a wetsuit (see photo from Colombia where I got attacked by the horrid jellyfish and burned all over because of no wetsuit).
 I have gotten all my certifications from here, from one dude in particular, who I consider a friend, someone I trust with my safety and life, and an entrepreneur I respect.  Gabe is the owner of Kaimana Divers and he's awesome.  I met him when he was newer to the islands and working as an instructor.  Now he owns his own biz and I'm rather proud of him.  It takes guts, risk and a lot of blood and sweat to start your own business.   I've gone on dives to military wrecks with him, black water pelagic night dives, dives where we had an octopus stuck to my head, lots of stuff. There is a thing called a Discover Dive for those of you who are not certified and want to try it out... Gabe would be happy to take you out on one of those and you can see if you like it.



Finally the food.  Hawaii is a great mix of local, Asian, American and everything food. My fave is poke, which is basically an ahi tuna ceviche with soy sauce instead of lime juice. I eat pounds of this stuff.  I don't care. It's awesome. I try to make it at home but ahi tuna is kind of pricey.

 Second, I like spam. I also don't care what you think.  Lots of people like Spam. You will find lots of things in Hawaii that have this.

 Other notables are tropical fruits, such as a large number of things with coconut, papaya, guava, pineapple, etc.

There are many things to do in Hawaii such as go scuba diving, see Pearl Harbor, go to the Dole pineapple plantation, or the swap meet at the Aloha Stadium, but I'll save it for a different post and focus on a quieter one.  On this trip I chose to stay at a different hostel in the North Shore for a change.

A note - you do need a car to go up to the North Shore.  Well, you can take The Bus (yes, the system here is called The Bus - its an island, people!) but its just easier to have a car. If you have the budget just do it.

I stayed at this hostel called Backpackers Lodge.  I give it pros for convenience (it was one block to the only supermarket in the north shore) and reasonable distance to a pretty good beach and surfing. I give it cons for the quality of the dorm rooms. it was like staying in a bunch of run down sheds. The water was leaking, the place was filthy and there were roaches in the kitchen. wifi sucked as it originated from one point on the lot and my dorm was too far to reach it.  But. It is the only hostel up there, they have a variety of rooms so next time I would probably ask for a different accommodation.


Haleiwa is a really cute place to get food to eat, look at shops for beach clothes and hang out at the beach right outside of it.  There is world class surfing right here and all along the North Shore.  Right now the big thing seems to be paddle surfing.  I saw places offering classes to paddle board EVERYWHERE.

All put together, my weekend in North Shore rained so I have little to report other than I drank a bunch of beer, ate some poke and went diving and laying on the beach when the weather wasn't acting up.  But I know I'll be back soon! Though next time I'm going to stay in Waikiki for cost reasons and laziness.  It might be super built up, but it's convenient if you're working and need conveniences such as internet, easy food, coffee shops and it's open till late.

There's a lot to like about Hawaii and I'm sure I'll be posting about it more in the future. But moving on... 


Coming soon - El Salvador!

Business Travel, the Millenial generation and other things

I have a post about Hawaii coming up shortly, but in the meantime I came across this article from Boston Consulting Group about business travel and the Millenial generation.

As I am on the tail of of Millenials (16-34... I have no idea why I am grouped in the same group as a 16 year old today but WHATEVER lol) I suppose this applies to me, but is just kind of fun overall.  It does say that older Millenials account for 90% of this sectors travel spending.

Millennial Business Travelers

Millennials who fly for business report significantly more generational diversity than non-Millennial business travelers: Millennial business fliers include 60 percent more Hispanics than, twice as many Asian Americans as, and 40 percent more women than non-Millennial business fliers.....
Millennial business fliers want different things from loyalty programs than do non-Millennials or Millennials who fly primarily for leisure. And the difference has clear implications for the strategies and tactics of airline loyalty programs. Millennials report more dissatisfaction with frequent-flier benefits such as miles, elite status, and rewards—and, especially, with how quickly points or miles expire: Millennials would rather use loyalty programs to earn free or discounted travel than to improve the travel experience with upgrades. Thus, while not the payment method of choice, cashing in miles or points on airline tickets is much more prevalent among Millennials than non-Millennials. Millennials also report greater willingness to switch from one airline program to another if they can get the same elite status, if they perceive the other frequent-flier program as more valuable, or if they think the other airline has a superior network of global partners. That said, because of their age and life stage, Millennials are far less likely than non-Millennials to use airline loyalty programs or credit cards today.

Millennial Leisure Travelers

...Half of the Millennials we surveyed report taking four or more overnight leisure trips per year compared with more than 75 percent of non-Millennials. It’s not surprising that the frequency of leisure travel increases with household income. High-income Millennials travel for leisure as much as non-Millennials, and much more than low-income Millennials. Those who report the most frequent business travel also report the most leisure travel, and this is especially true of Millennials and businessmen. Millennial women say that they take more leisure trips each year than do men who travel primarily for leisure, and Hispanic Millennials report the least amount of leisure air travel on average. Men of both generations report traveling alone for leisure more than do women.
...
For both generations, visiting family and friends is the most popular reason for leisure travel, but it is more popular among Millennials. This intensity appears to be generational rather than simply related to life stage. Outdoor adventures, shopping, and special events such as weddings, entertainment, and food and wine festivals are key reasons for Millennials’ leisure travel, and the presence of children in the household doesn’t change this. Millennials are also almost twice as likely as non-Millennials to travel for a hobby. And they travel more for personal interest, food and wine, entertainment, outdoor activity, and shopping than do non-Millennial leisure travelers. Male Millennials travel more for gambling and personal hobbies; female Millennials travel more for special occasions, to visit family and friends, and for cultural enrichment and sightseeing. For Millennials and non-Millennials alike, “relaxation and rejuvenation” is the second-most commonly cited reason for travel.
Members of all generations tell us that they respond to economic pressures by taking fewer trips, but Millennials—who book further in advance, book fewer (but longer) trips, and seek out good deals more than do non-Millennials—also tend to see booking as more of a game and respond opportunistically to low prices and interesting packages. On the other hand, non-Millennials say that they would drive instead of fly, stay with family or friends, vacation closer to home, or choose less expensive flights and hotels to save money. All of these generational habits and preferences have implications for travel promotions, packages, rewards, and OTA inventory.

The full report can be downloaded here.
https://www.bcgperspectives.com/content/articles/transportation_travel_tourism_consumer_insight_traveling_with_millennials

If you get bumped on your flight....

http://lifehacker.com/ask-for-cash-instead-of-a-voucher-when-youre-bumped-fr-494629829

Or they lose your luggage.  Which happened to me when I checked my bag for a 30 day camping safari through 5 countries in Africa.  You CAN get something for this!  Because it's horribly inconvenient!  I had to deal with like one pair of underwear and no toiletries for six days and c finally broke down and bought $600 of camping gear... And then they found it.  Ugh lol.  But my  experience with Iberia is another story :)

Don't know how to pay for that extended trip abroad? Consider a Working Holiday visa

This is something I wish I knew about back when I was 26... a working holiday visa.  This is a temporary visa which lets people, generally under the age of 30, to have an extended holiday (vacation) in another country and work at the same time to pay for it.

I really wish I had known about this when I was younger.  I would have gone to Australia to work, which is one of my life goals to get to one day.  I'm still working on it to this day.  I would have done it and worked as a freelance contractor for smart grid technology.  PARTICULARLY around 2009 when I was like, 28 and  a) the guy I was seeing was Australian and b) I was hating IBM and going through the massive layoff craziness during the recession of 2009.  I was heading off to my MBA later on - if I had known this existed I would have said adios to IBM, picked up and started a life for the next year and a half in Australia.  I'm sure it would have been effing awesome.  Maybe things would be different. Who knows.

http://www.anyworkanywhere.com/whvchart.html#

This chart here outlines which countries have reciprocal working holidays with other countries.  Unfortunately, because America is sometimes not so nice to some countries, we have things such as reciprocity fees (see examples of Chile, Argentina, Brazil and goodness knows where else I had to pay at least $100 for a visa) and we only have a working holiday agreement with four countries - Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and Singapore. However if you have another citizenship you might be able to leverage that.

In summary, if you really want to live and work overseas, don't think it's impossible (or that you have to become an English teacher in Asia or something).  For me, this ship has sailed as I am over 30, and is one of my biggest regrets. BUT, for some of you this is a great opportunity to go overseas if you want to work and I highly encourage you to explore this option - there might be something that fits your needs.  Australia is only one of the options for a working holiday visa.   Take advantage of it before it's too late.