Keri

Name: Finisterra Travel
Price range: $$$

WORLDLY GIRLIES TRAVEL ESSENTIALS

Who are we? We are Keri & Nicola and we LOVE to travel. To say that we are travel enthusiasts would be a gross understatement, we are travel addicts often planning our own travels a least two adventures in advance. Needless to say our day job (co-owners of Finisterra Travel) helps us to fuel our obsession. Not a day goes by where we don’t squeal with excitement over the possibility of exploring a new destination. Our mutual travel obsession, an insatiable curiosity about the world, and passion for sustainable travel are what really bonds us. What are we about? We do our best to tread lightly in the destinations we visit whether we are travelling alone or with a group. Our philosophy is to travel responsibly for the long-term benefit of the local people, the travellers, and for the environment. During our world travels, we’ve experienced the many sides of tourism from the good to the bad to the truly heartbreaking. We are aware that there are many troubling issues around the globe, but one of the most obvious is the disturbing plethora of plastics discarded everywhere. Literally everywhere. From the stunning coastlines of Bali where we snorkelled beside fish gobbling down plastics to charming villages, we hiked through in the Andes where plastic bottles cascade down into the rivers below. It is heartbreaking to witness and heartbreaking to know that those plastics will still be on our planet for hundreds of years to come. Did you know that 50% of… Read More »WORLDLY GIRLIES TRAVEL ESSENTIALS

FLYING DURING COVID

Late July 2020, during a pandemic, Nicola decides to travel overseas…all in the name of love. She travels from Vancouver, Canada, to the Canary Islands, Spain and tells us about her experience flying internationally during COVID 19. These are her travel tips on how to keep safe while flying during a pandemic.

Traveler with arms outstretched standing on a rock by a tranquil lake under a bright blue sky, embracing the natural beauty of the landscape.

THE SISTERHOOD ON A SURF & YOGA RETREAT

I bobbed in the ocean, sitting on my board, breathing heavy from the paddle out past the break. I already felt like giving up, but my eyes were zeroed in on the horizon, squinting away the sunrise. My brain was on overdrive. This one? No, wait…maybe…no. This one? No, I can’t do this! This one? Yes, …wait…sh*t…yes. I quickly did my sitting turn I had learned and lay down on my board. I scoot into position with my toes on the back of the board, tense and ready. Travel Blog Entry & Photos by Sherry Ott on a Women Only Surf & Yoga Retreat in Panama.

A colorful Peruvian causa dish, layered with yellow mashed potatoes and a creamy filling, topped with a hard-boiled egg slice, cherry tomatoes, olives, red pepper strips, green pea, and chives, artistically presented on a blue ceramic plate with a dark background.

TOP 5 PERUVIAN DISHES

You’ll want to try these 5 amazing Peru food recipes immediately. Start your culinary adventure now. Find the best Peru food you didn’t know you needed.

FUMBLING AROUND TUSCANY

Tour leading is an amazing way to see the world. For sure. It is not without its challenges however. I’ve had many mind-blowingly incredible experiences with a smattering of terrible ones. When asked about my most difficult tour leading experience, I have the same reaction – I pause, tilt my head to the side and smile as snippets of 75+ countries, countless groups, and a myriad bizarre tour leading moments flash before my eyes. One of my favourite travel tales? Leading a walking tour through Tuscany…blind. Not the kind of “blind” that we use in the industry for doing a tour for the first time, but “blind” as in extremely visually impaired. I had just finished leading a tour in Spain and was on my way to Italy to lead a walking tour through Tuscany. My flights seemed simple enough – Seville to Madrid then Madrid to Rome. Now as much as I like to fancy myself a savvy traveller, I am self-admittedly a terrible packer. I sometimes get a bit lazy when I pack and just toss everything in my checked bag. When I’m on the ball, I pack a carry-on bag with all the essentials such as important documents, guide books, glasses, lipgloss (yes, it’s important), change of clothing, jacket, and extra contact lenses. In this instance I’d been so busy with my group in Spain, that I was not on the ball and therefore didn’t take the extra 5 minutes needed to pack my carry-on well. I… Read More »FUMBLING AROUND TUSCANY

REASONS TO RISE EARLY WHILE TRAVELLING

During my tour leading career I have been cursed at by group members for setting pre-dawn wake-up calls, I’ve encountered mini-protests within my group when informing them of departure time, and I’ve literally dragged people out of bed. Why? Am I a horribly sadistic person? Nope…in fact the opposite is true. It’s my desire to showcase a location in its purest form; untainted by hordes of people or extreme heat. So I’ve compiled a list of some of my favourite reasons to get outta bed ridiculously early while travelling: 1. BEATING THE CRUISE SHIP CROWD. The cruise ship crowd doesn’t get up and going before dawn, so you should. Get your butt out of bed early. Anyone who has visited sites such as Pisa, Santorini, or the Venice knows that once the cruise ships arrive, all pleasure you experienced exploring is immediately drained and panic sets in. My favourite quote from a cruise ship goer was at Ephesus in Turkey stating with a southern drawl, “Where are we? I don’t even understand why we came here…everything is just old and in ruins.” Yup. 2. HOT AIR BALLOONING. Whether it is over Luxor, Cappadocia, Bagan’s Temples, or the Serengeti, hot air ballooning at dawn is a surreal experience. In the darkness of the early, the glow of the fire filling the massive balloon is an impressive site in and of itself. For me, the serenity at dawn rising above the vast golden-hued plains with hundreds of grazing zebra and wildebeests below in the… Read More »REASONS TO RISE EARLY WHILE TRAVELLING

Traditional yerba mate served in a calabash gourd with a metal bombilla straw, accompanied by loose yerba mate leaves and fresh green leaves on a white cloth background.

DON’T TOUCH MY BOMBILLA

Since my first adventure to South America many moons ago, I have been intrigued by this mysterious herbal beverage that is sipped through a metal straw. Frequently consumed and shared in parks, on buses, trains, and even on horseback by gauchos, Porteño hipsters, bus drivers, families, and groups of friends alike. What is this substance? The only thing that is shared like that in Vancouver isn’t a beverage. Yerba mate is more popular than coffee yet not found on any menu. It took a couple more visits to South America until I got a taste of yerba mate culture and was invited into a mate circle. I’ve been hooked on the green stuff ever since. What the heck is yerba mate (yer-bah mah-tay)? Perhaps one of the most incredibly nutritious, invigorating drinks ever. It packs the same amount of punch as coffee (without the jitters), has the health benefits of tea, and the nourishing euphoria of chocolate. The leaves of the rainforest mate tree (holly family) naturally contain plenty of caffeine, heaps of vitamins and minerals, amino acids plus a plethora of antioxidants. It is widely consumed in South America, particularly in the southern parts of Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Originally harvested by the Guarani people in the sub-tropical forests around Iguazu Falls, people have been drinking this unique beverage for centuries. Yerba mate culture is so ingrained in some societies of South America, particularly in Patagonia, that I’m convinced babies come right out of the womb… Read More »DON’T TOUCH MY BOMBILLA

Vibrant street art mural in Bogotá's La Candelaria district, featuring intricate designs and bold colors that reflect Colombia's rich cultural heritage and urban artistry.

BOGOTA STREET ART

Colombia is throwing off its negative reputation with a cultural and artistic renaissance to match any of its South American neighbours. Nowhere is this more evident than in the street art which adorns Bogotá’s walls, and which reveals the untrammelled creativity of the capital’s graffiti artists. Check out some of my favourite pieces of street art…

HEART FLUTTERS AT MACHU PICCHU

As a professional gypsy, I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to travel to some of the most amazing places on earth. I have been affected by all of the places that I’ve visited but am very aware that not all destinations are created equal and everyone’s personal experiences in those places are different. For me, there are those places on this planet that cause my heart to flutter and face to beam every time their names are mentioned. I light up when someone asks me about them and a sense of euphoria overwhelms me when I begin to talk about them. Rapa Nui, Iguazu Falls, Torres del Paine, El Camino de Santiago, Ngorongoro Crater, and the Salar de Uyuni are a few of those places that make my heart skip a beat. The one place above all that has this euphoric effect on me is Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu is one of the most mind-blowingly beautiful places that I have ever seen. Of course there are older and more important archaeological sites in the world, but few of them have a location as stunning as Machu Picchu. The Inca were not only ingenious architects but they knew it was all about location, location, location. They could appreciate a room with a view in the 14th century. Located high above the lush Urubamba Valley, the stone buildings hug the mountain and the terraces cascade down the steep-sided slopes into the dense vegetation. There is no question that this… Read More »HEART FLUTTERS AT MACHU PICCHU

A Black Caiman prowles a jungle stream in Amazonian Ecuador.

PIRAÑHA FISHING IN THE AMAZON

Deep in Ecuador’s Amazon Basin, with sweat rolling down my back, I sat patiently in the dug-out canoe under the equatorial sun’s harsh rays. The surrounding jungle was tranquil in the mid-day heat and not the cacophony of sounds heard the night before. The occasional mosquito buzzing in my ear wasn’t enough to make me lose my concentration. Nope. Bathed in DEET, I was jungle-ready and determined to catch a piranha! Piranha fishing? Whoa…back-up. Initially my boyfriend (Mike) and I were totally shocked by the guide’s suggestion, not because of the activity per se, but because there could not possibly be piranhas in the same river that we had swam in twice the day before, right?! Don’t get me wrong we were a bit crazy and had knowingly (some may say insanely) swam in the same river that we had spotted black caiman and massive anacondas in earlier…but piranhas?! They are all kinds of terrifying! Why didn’t the local guides tell us about the piranhas before we had gone swimming? Clearly because we NEVER would have gone had we known. Ever. Armed with nothing more than fishing lines, rusty hooks and rotten pieces of chicken, my boyfriend and I were poised to catch ourselves some fierce little piranhas from our dug-out canoe. Our Huaorani guide, Eduardo, demonstrated his fishing technique with such ease and within seconds, he had a piranha on his line. The fish was voraciously gnawing away at the meat…not even on the hook…when Eduardo plunked it in… Read More »PIRAÑHA FISHING IN THE AMAZON