Update: After my first blog entry below about Thailand, I continued traveling and returned back home (in New York City) at the end of an amazing 13 months. Even though I was back in the US in summer, the most fun time to be in the city, I wasn’t able to live in-between four walls…
Category: Backpacking
Turkey: Istanbul, Izmir, Bodrum
While being originally from Turkey, in the last few years I’ve extended the duration between my visits to my homeland to explore different parts of the world from my home base in New York. This year, I decided to pay a long visit to Turkey during the Xmas-NYE break and ended up spending close to…
Uruguay: My new love affair!
I won’t hide the fact that I was beyond shocked to find Uruguay as a super modern, progressive, young, and beautiful country while expecting it to be old/historic/authentic such as Peru, Bolovia or Paraguay (oops!). But I was sort of relieved when I heard the same misconception from most of my fellow backpackers. All of…
Argentina: A short visit to Buenos Aires
When I landed in Buenos Aires following the 2 months I’d spent in various mountains and jungles of South America, I felt like I had returned back home to Turkey. Buenos Aires reminded me of Istanbul so much especially during the shuttle trip from the airport to the city center: the people lying on the…
Argentina: Volunteering in an Eco Yoga Farm with Hare Krishnas
After having spent 2.5 mos in the South American jungles and mountains with my giant backpack in my company, my next stop was the most peaceful place on earth in Argentina: Eco Yoga Park, which also happened to be a Hare Krishna ashram. Starting from day one, I found myself in the middle of an…
Peru: Long overdue visit to the Incas: Sacred Valley, Cuzco, Pisac, Machu Picchu
Since Iquitos is connected to the outside world only via boat and plane and we had just gotten off the boat on the Amazon River from Colombia to Peru, we decided to pay $325 for a One-way plane ticket with a connection in Lima to reach Cuczo, our next destination. Once we landed to Cuzco…
Peru, Iquitos: Belen market and the visit to indigenous tribes
On our first day in Iquitos, we wandered the streets of Belen market and explored the stands that sold vegetables and all types of meats including chicken, turtle, alligator, monkey, amazon deer, piranha and many other fish. We made our way to Paquito street that offered a wide range of herbal medicine selection including ayahuasca…
