You’ll need to read Parts One, Two, and Three before continuing.

I get up from the grass and head over to the meeting spot. I don’t want to break my #1 rule of raving: Leave before the sun comes up.

Lauren and Adam are waiting for me and we head to the car. The drive back is bitter sweet, the three of us are realizing that the fun is over and reality awaits for us in a few hours.

I have to catch my flight to Berlin in 12 hours and Lauren is off to Los Angeles to visit a friend. I drop the kids off at the Bellagio and head back to the AirBnB solo to clean up and pack up my stuff. Check out time is 11am. I plop down on the bed and set my alarm for 10am, two hours from now. 

It takes me a while to get moving, but I’m able to pack everything up and head out in time. Lauren will be sleeping in with Adam at the Bellagio until at least 2pm, so I have some time to kill. This is the first time this weekend I’ve had to my self.

After some lunch and the obligatory photo at the Las Vegas sign, I head to the Bellagio to try my luck at the roulette tables. “Max $200” I say to myself.

I know roulette is a losers game. Even if you play the outside (which pays 2:1) your odds of winning are less than 50%. I’m here to have some fun and kill time, not win it big. So I sit down at busy table and start playing my numbers. One of which is my birthday: 24.

On the second roll, 24 hits! Sweet. Payout is $175. I needed to share my excitement with someone so I sent a message to my buddy Brian (who loves roulette):

I play a few more times, and the table starts getting cold, so I cash out $150 ahead. Not bad!

Walking down the roulette aisle I see this cute girl playing at another table. She has a fat stack of chips and an EDC wristband on her arm. Sweet! I pull up beside her, introduce myself, and start playing.

This time around though, I’m playing with $1 chips instead of $5 chips. I want to maximize my time at this table since I’m still waiting for Lauren. 

After chatting with Anastasia for a bit, I quickly find out that she’s up over $700 at this table alone.

Ok enough flirting, it’s time to ride her luck. So I start playing all the numbers she’s playing, plus my lucky number 24 of course. 

The croupier spins the wheel…

“No more bets!” as she waves her hand over the table.

The ball bounces, and bounces, and finally settles on a number.

“24. Black!” the croupier announces.

I jump up screaming… “Yes!”

I had to explain to Anastasia that I always play 24 and that it hit earlier today. So she starts playing it too.

We order some drinks and keep playing, all the while chatting about the festival and getting to know each other. 

The croupier spins the wheel again, the ball bounces around so hard that it flies out of the wheel and on to the table. 

All the players at the table are shocked. Nobody has ever seen that happen before, so we all joke: “Everyone wins!”. This is not your typical roulette session.

We both continue winning, my number (24) hitting a total of four times that day. Anastasia decides to cash out and I follow suit asking her:

“Want to grab a drink? My friend still isn’t here yet”. 

She agrees and we head to the bar to celebrate our winnings. By this time it’s almost four o’clock and I have a flight to catch in two hours. 

Lauren joins us and we have some food and one more drink before parting ways. Anastasia and I exchange contact info and hug it out.

Fun is over! I hop in the car and head to the airport, all the while coming down from this weekend and my roulette winnings. Fuck I’m tired. 

I get on the airplane and realize something amazing… For the next 12 hours I have an entire middle row (4 seats) to my self. Score! I lay down, put my seat belt on and immediately fall asleep before take off.

Eleven and a half hours later I wake up feeling great. This was the first time ever that I was able to get a decent sleep on an airplane. Turns out we’re a little bit late arriving into Cologne, where I need to catch my connecting flight to Berlin.

With 20 mins to catch my next flight, I head over to the gate and get on the airplane for the one hour flight to Berlin. I got on my connecting flight, but my bags didn’t. Great. 

Don’t forget to read Parts One and Two!

The forecast high for our last day of partying was supposed to hit 45ºC, but we had a great plan to stay cool.

Adam invited us over to the Bellagio to chill by the pool and hang out. So, after waking up at around 1pm we changed into our bathing suits and headed over to the hotel. 

I had never met the guy, so this was a good opportunity for me to see what Lauren was gushing about. 

We wait by the elevators for him to come down and meet us. The door opened and I had to raise my gaze up. Way up. The 6’11” (211cm) figure strides out of the elevator wearing bowling shoes and some sort of housecoat kimono thing. 

This guy is fucking cool.

We head to the pool, find some chairs under shade and shoot the shit. Every now and then taking a dip in the pool to wash the sweat off our bodies. 

It’s at this time I get a text from Emily:

“Hey Blake!!! It’s Emily from last night! I am heading out for night 3 tonight, if you you guys want to meet up at some point let me know 🙂 I’ll be with my friend Chris ❤️”

Perfect! Learning our lesson from the previous night, I coordinate with Lauren and Adam on a meeting time and place. There is no excuse of us not to party together for our last night in Vegas!

We say goodbye to Adam and head back to the AirBnB to get ready to head out. We’re meeting everyone at 11pm. 

We get to the venue, and that’s when I realize that I told Emily to meet us at the wrong spot. Fuck! (Turns out the carnival ride on the map wasn’t where it actually was).

This is also when we learn that Adam is going to be late and the new meeting time is 12am.

Our well laid out plans are quickly falling apart!

Well, we can still meet Emily and have enough time to head back to the carnival ride to meet up with Adam. So I send Emily a text message:

“I gave you the wrong meetup place. Meet us under the Electric Avenue sign instead!”

My phone replies with “Failed to send, retry?”. Daaaam you technology! I repeatedly hit retry, over and over again.

“Message Sent!”

Ok, now we wait. Tick-tock. 11:05, 11:10, 11:15. 

“Don’t worry, she’ll find us!” Lauren says. 

I spot Emily’s curly red hair from a mile away and scream out her name. Sweet. We all say hi and head over to the VIP area at Kinetic Field. One down, one to go.

We decide to get some drinks, and that’s when Chris (Emily’s friend) realizes that he lost his wallet!

I’ve heard of stories whereby someone has lost their phone twice at the event and someone returned it to the Lost & Found both times. So there is a high chance that someone would have returned his wallet.

Emily & Chris leave us for the Lost and Found and Lauren and I head to the carnival ride to meet up with Adam. 

“I don’t think we’ll be seeing Emily again” I say to Lauren.

Adam and his gang show up on time we head to one of the food stands to grab something to eat. Lauren and I haven’t had dinner yet. The three of us look back and realize we lost the rest of the gang.

We order some burritos and this is when I realize I don’t wan’t to be the third wheel. 

“Hey Lauren, I’m going to go see Markus Schulz, meet back at the Electric Avenue sign for 3am?”. I ask.

She agrees and I’m off! 

This is when I get a text message from Emily saying she’s on her way back to the Kinetic Field VIP area alone. Chris is stuck in the Lost and Found line for an hour or so. 

I bee-line it to Kinectic Field to meet her and we spend the next few hours or so tearing up the dance floor. 

At 3am, we say our goodbyes and I head out to meet up with Lauren. The last night is proving to be the best night and I really don’t want it to end. So when I propose the following to Lauren and Adam:

“So, I’m thinking we head out at 6am?”

The look on Lauren’s face wasn’t what I was expecting.

“How about 5am?” She replied. 

I think for a moment: “Well, it’s better than leaving now.”

“Sure!” I reply.

 

The entire trip we spent most of our time at the high energy stages. So it was time to “clean our pallet” (as Lauren put it) and head to Cosmic Meadow. This stage plays more ambient and down-beat music. It’s set up so that you can chill out on some grass and “get away” from the madness. We chill out to Chet Porter for a bit when I get a text message from someone back home.

My buddy Shawn has been following EDC all weekend on the live stream. So he tells me that they’ve announced the special guest artist as being Kaskade (one of my top DJs). He’s been playing since 3am! By this point I only have an hour or so to see him before we head out.

I leave Adam and Lauren and try to find my way to Kaskade’s stage. It’s at this thing called an “Art Car”. It’s a decked out car that roam around the festival playing music. I’m frantically looking for this one when I see a staff member and ask her where it is.

“Oh, they move around, the last time I saw it was near the Upside Down house”. 

My frustration grew.. but after 30 minutes I finally found it.

The place was packed and I couldn’t get as close as I wanted to.

I enjoy the show for about 25 minutes, when I get a text message from Shawn back in Toronto:

“This guy Billy Kenny at Cosmic Meadow is awesome!”.

I look at the clock, I need to leave soon anyway and Cosmic Meadow is on the way to the meeting place. So I ditch Kaskade to see Billy play.

It’s 5:03am and I now have a choice. I can be an asshole and not meet Lauren at the agreed time. After all, I’m having a blast. What’s an extra hour anyway? She can wait. Or I can leave now and put an end to the adventure that has been EDC.

I look around and notice everyone is still going hard and enjoying themselves. It’s dawn, but the sun isn’t anywhere near full force yet. I think for a moment, then make my decision…

Be sure to check out part one!

The weather forecast was showing increasing temperatures as the week wore on. So we decided to go hard on day two, worried that night three would just be too hot.

We both really wanted to see Duke Dumont (who killed it by the way). So as soon as we got inside, we hit the VIP area to settle in.

This is where we met Emily and Chris, who we ended up spending the most of the night with. Pro tip: Bring a bubble machine. Lauren did and everyone loved it. An awesome ice breaker when meeting new people. 

We continue to dance the night away, taking breaks every now and then to drink some water. It wasn’t until after the festival did we learn about its casualties.

Around 1090 people needed medical attention, 15 were taken to hospital, and one person died.

Even before you enter the gates, you are handed free bottles of water. Which you can fill for free at the many refill stations inside. There really is no excuse to not stay hydrated. 

However, when you mix in alcohol, drugs, and the heat, people just go overboard. I remember seeing two or three festivalgoers get hauled out in stretchers over the course of the weekend. A sobering reminder to to be smart about my water intake.

Taking breaks from dancing was also part of our “don’t die” strategy. This meant taking advantage of the huge ball pit available to all VIPers! Most people say the dedicated air conditioned washrooms are the best part about VIP access, I disagree:

 

Meanwhile, Lauren was trying to meet up with Adam,  a guy she met at Marquee earlier that day. When you jam 150,000 people in one place, your cell phone struggles to function. Mobile data doesn’t work and text messages are severely delayed. So trying to coordinate a meet up is virtually impossible. A lesson we learned that night.

As the clock rolled over to 4am, it was time to head home before the sun came up. Number 1 rule for me: Leave before the truth revealing sunlight ruins your night.

We went hard on day two, we were smart about it, and came out unscathed.

Driving back to our AirBnB, Lauren was working hard on our strategy to beat the heat on day three…

I decided to kick off the 2017 festival season by hitting up Electric Daisy Carnival. A mainstream rave that started 21 years ago in Las Angeles. 

The three day electronic music festival is hosted at a racecourse just north of Las Vegas. As soon as the tickets went on sale, I scooped up two VIP wristbands back in November. At the time I had no idea who was going to go with me.

As the event date drew near, I started going through my list of friends who I wanted to party with. Each one of them turned me down. I have no issues going solo and selling my extra wristband would be a piece of cake. But I really wanted to go with someone.

As I went through my list Facebook contacts, I remembered meeting someone last summer that I think I could have fun with.

Lauren and I met for the first time at Hanlan’s Point in Toronto, we became friends on Facebook and didn’t end up hanging out again after that. 

Naturally, I was a little apprehensive at first, but I decided to let her know that I had an extra ticket to EDC and if she wanted to go. She jumped at the idea and said she would love to party it up with me. Awesome! I’m always down for an adventure. Spending four days with a complete stranger is always a good time, right?

Our flight to Vegas departed from the Toronto Island Airport and headed east to Montreal, where we would catch a connecting flight south. As we boarded the plane we hear someone called out her name: “Lauren!”. I turn and it’s one of the flight attendants! Lauren and her went to school together.

We make our way to our seats and both look at each other with smirks on our faces.

“Free Booze?” I inquire. 

“Maaaaaaaybe!” Lauren replies.

We’re not even in Vegas yet and the possibility of getting comped booze is high!

About half way into the flight, her flight attendant friend comes over and asks us if we want anything to drink. Score! We enjoy some free wine and plan out what we’re going to do over the next few days. 

We land in Vegas, grab our car, and check into our AirBnB. We’re both tired and crash hard. Day one, here we come!

“I want to shoot some guns!” Lauren exclaimed. She grabbed her phone and giggled at the name of the gun range: Strip Gun Club. 

I was a little nervous, which is rare for me. I’ve never held a gun, let alone shot one. We get to the range and the staff were super helpful and friendly. They handed us a menu with all of the guns we could shoot along with package prices.

I wanted my first experience to be easy, so I decided on 9mm weapons as a good introduction. The Glock 19 and Uzi. For my finale, I’d shoot the AK-47.

We were having so much fun. After each round we’d do a little dance because we were so excited to try out the next weapon. Our range master, Matt, was enjoying the show!

We were having a blast and any fears I had about this weekend being a bust quickly melted away, literally. Vegas was hot as daytime highs hit 45°C.

After shooting all of our rounds, and taking the obligatory photos, we head home and get ready to hit the festival.

Arriving at EDC for the first time, I was overwhelmed. This place is HUGE.

We spent the next 5 hours or so familiarizing ourselves with the grounds, how VIP worked, etc… Of course we got some dancing in as well! Tomorrow we’re going to party hard. Both of us were concerned with the heat though. Even at 4am, it was still 30°C!

We headed back home just before dawn to get some rest and prepare for the big day tomorrow.

Waking up at 1pm, Lauren worked her magic and got in touch with a friend who worked at Marquee. The day club for The Cosmopolitan Hotel/Casino. We wanted to cool off in the pool before we headed to EDC for day two.

In our beachwear Lauren drops a few names to the bouncer at the club, he checks a few things and lets us in without paying a cover. Yippee! I was excited to go because of Dash Berlin, the DJ spinning today.

The place was hopping, we grabbed a few drinks and spent the next 5 hours or so getting some sun.

So far, Vegas did not disappoint. Lauren and I were having a blast and we couldn’t wait to get to EDC to continue the party. Little did we know what we were going to get ourselves into…

 

Suriname is a country that few know anything about, including myself. After spending a week or so in Guyana I figured I would explore their neighbour to the east.

My flight took me from Georgetown right into the Paramaribo City airport (Zorg En Hoop airport), which is handy considering their international airport is almost 60 minutes south of the city.

I took a short taxi ride to my hostel, Die Kliene Historie Guesthouse. They had just celebrated their one year anniversary a few months before I arrived, so the place still looked fresh and new.

Because I flew into the smaller local airport, I wasn’t able to get any local currency. So first things first: after checking in I grabbed my wallet and headed for an ATM.

This posed to be a bigger challenge than I anticipated. The entire country seems to only accept Mastercard. My wallet full of Visa cards meant that a cash advance from an ATM was out of the question. This is a travellers lesson that I’ve learned the hard way. My undiversified wallet meant that I might be cashless in Suriname!

Five ATMs later, I was finally able to take out some cash at the Republic Bank Suriname on Grote Kerk Street. The ATM there supports withdrawals on the Plus network. Phew!

Suriname is a country stuck between two worlds. On one hand you have the old remains of the Dutch colony, the official language is still Dutch, and the colonial buildings have that European “feel” to them. On the other hand, you have a history of violence and civil war that has ravaged the country after their independence. 

Just before the Netherlands pulled out of Suriname in 1975, nearly one third of the population emigrated to the main land as they feared that the country would be worse-off after independence. They were right. Over the next thirty years there will be as many as four coups against the government, a dictatorship, and a civil war.

Today there really isn’t much to the country other than gold mining in the jungle and exporting bananas and rice to the United States and Canada.

That said, the capital of Paramaribo is a great example of preserved colonial architecture. The owner of the hostel I was staying at explained it to me this way:

“All of the buildings you see that are in great shape, new paint, bright colours, well kept lawns, are those owned by private individuals. The rest, the ones that look like they are falling apart; are owned by the government. They would rather spend the money on salaries.”

If you can see past the derelict units, you can pretend that you’ve transported yourself back in time to when the Dutch still lived here.

I didn’t plan on doing anything else but hanging around the city and meeting fellow travellers in the hostel. As such, I ended up drinking way too much of their local beer: Parbo (a play on the name of their capital: Paramaribo). The radler is actually quite tasty. 

I was curious to know why there were so many Dutch people here. Turns out, this is a popular destination for the Dutch to escape the cold European winters. Wow! Unless they know something I don’t, Is flying 8 hours across the Atlantic to some poor South American country that happens to speak dutch worth it? I don’t think so. 

That said, this statue of one of their more prominent (non-corrupt) Prime Ministers during the 60s always makes me chuckle.

 

It would only be natural to keep heading east and visit French Suriname. I decided to give that country a pass for two reasons:

1. The main attraction in Cayenne (the capital) is the launch of the European Space Agency rockets. I missed a launch by one week.
2. They are still under French rule, and as such use the Euro. Fellow travellers have told me that it’s quite expensive to visit.

So, I found a flight from Paramaribo to Belém, Brazil. The next month in this Portuguese country will test my strength and will power to continue on this world wide journey. 

It’s always a constant battle between your travel plans and being able to afford that next trip. There are a few sites out there (like workaway.info) that pairs up hosts and workers for free room in exchange for work. This is handy if you’re already on the road and wants to lessen the load on your wallet.

However, I wanted to try something different and get paid in cold hard cash instead. With bike in hand, I decided to sign up to be an Uber Eats delivery boy. 

It works like this: Using my smart phone, Uber tells me which restaurant to pick up the food and which location to drop it off. Pretty straight forward.

Monday morning: 10:51am. My phone buzzes with my first pick up at Bacon Nation in Kensington Market. Hmm.. Monday brunch it seems! The app doesn’t tell you where you are dropping off the goods until after you put the food into your insulated bag and tap “start trip”.

Looks like I’m heading up to Church and Wellesley hood. Riding along I’m thinking to my self: “Who is this person? Shift worker? Late night partying last night? Unemployed and looking for work?”. 12 Minutes later I arrive at his apartment and head up the elevator. 

Knock, Knock. 

The door opens and a bleared eye man wearing a tracksuit in a blacked out apartment opens the door and reaches for the food. He blurts out a thanks and closes the door.

Delivery #1 done. $7.32 in my pocket. 

This goes on for ten more deliveries before I call it quits at 3:04pm. Total for day 1: $74.74 during 3hr 50min or $19.66/hr. Hmm.. not bad!

In the end, my week looked like this:

Day	Payout	Total Hrs.	# of Trips	Rate (/hr)
Monday	$74.74	3.8	11	$19.66
Tuesday	$122.45	5.5	18	$22.26
Wednesday	$65.80	2.7	10	$24.37
Thursday	$109.75	4.2	16	$26.13
Friday	$38.72	1.8	6	$21.51
Saturday	$85.73	3.6	12	$23.81
Sunday	$0.00	0.0	0	$0.00

Things that worked for me:

Weather was perfect. Sunny and 18°C. Any bouts of rain where short lived and no more than 10-15mins long. 

I’m able to work any time during the day or night. So timing my shifts to coincide with peak times (30% bonus) means that I can maximize my earnings. 

I’m a confident douchebag that is always aware of the clock:

• Heading straight to pick up counters at restaurants to pick up my order. Line? What Line?
• Calling the customer while on the road if they don’t provide a buzz code to their apartment to come down and pick up the food.
• Cancelling a run if the restaurant doesn’t have the order ready within 1 minute so that I can pick up a new (paying) order. 
• Taking the stairs up five flights instead of waiting for the elevator in apartment buildings.

Things that worked against me:

The Uber Partner app is a piece of shit. It’s slow and it uses up to 3GB of data per month (WTF Uber!). It assumes that drivers are idiots (rightfully so) and defaults to giving you turn by turn directions instead of the address and major intersection. I always have to perform 2-3 taps to get the destination address up. 

Restaurants that don’t have their orders ready in time. This means that I have to cancel the pick up, which counts against me even though Uber suggests that I do. 

Pedestrians… They still aren’t used to seeing bikes in the road and are not paying attention. Case in point:(yeah, shitty portrait style video.. complain to instagram about that).

Uber allows you to select “meet you at the curb” or “deliver to door”. The curb-meeters are never there when you arrive.. So you end up waiting, or knocking on their door anyway.

Conclusion

I had fun. I love being outside and I’m getting paid to ride my bike and get exercise. Assuming the weather holds up and it doesn’t rain or get too hot.. working ~22 hours a week and getting $500 is a pretty good gig for someone who wants to have the time to still travel/see the city. 

The flexibility of working the lunch or dinner rush means that you can still have a plan for the day and have a social life to hang out or get your grocery shopping done, etc…

I achieved my goal of $500 for the week! Time to celebrate with a few beers on one of Toronto’s many patios.

“Why Guyana?!” People have been asking me ever since I went. Two reasons:

1. My favourite Rum is distilled here and I wanted to go on a tour of the distillery.
2. Kaieteur Falls.

One disappointed, the other did not.

Exiting the airport with no local currency in hand and not wanting to get ripped off by the taxi drivers, I found the #42 minibus to take me into town. Problem is, the smallest note I had was $20USD. 

I ended up essentially hiring the entire minibus to take me straight to my hotel. The driver agreed not to pick anyone up along the 45 minute ride into town.

Driving in Guyana is fast and furious. Peering over my drivers shoulder to see how fast we were going on an undivided two lane road, the speedometer was pushing 140km/h. Buckle up and don’t fight it!

I stayed at the Signature Inn in Alberttown, a safe neighbourhood in Georgetown. If you plan on going to Suriname and need to pick up a tourist card, the hotel is less than a 2 min walk away. I had no issues walking to all the sights in town from here, during the day of course. At night, stick to taking a taxi. I ended up paying $500GYD for most destinations in the city. 

Guyana is at the intersection of English, Caribbean, and east Indian influences and culture. As such, their food is highly influenced by these regions. I found a street vendor that was selling Doubles.

Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, Doubles are flat fried bread filled with curried chickpeas. Simple and delicious. 

One of my favourite places to grab food, although maybe a little bit touristy, was Palm Court. Try their jerk chicken, it’s amazing. 

One sight not to miss is Stabroek Market. Hold on to your stuff and keep your eyes peeled. Everyone is going to be haggling you for a ride or to buy something. This is where the majority of Georgetowners buy their goods from. It’s tight quarters once you’re in, but the sights and smells are amazing. Take your time and peruse all of the booths. 

I took a boat (the dock is behind the market, a little tough to find) to Vreed en Hoop for $100GYD. The drivers take the safety of their passengers seriously and make everyone wear a life jacket for the 10 minute ride. On the other side, you’re once again hounded by taxi drivers. Just walk past them and check out the shops and restaurants. It’s worth the trip, but you wont spend more than 1-2 hours here, it’s a small town.

My attempts at getting a tour at the Demerara Rum Company failed. One of the plights of the solo traveller, I was unable to find five other people to form a group. Calls and emails to tour companies also went unanswered. Shame.

I was, however, able to secure a seat to Kaieteur Falls. Don’t book with a tour company, instead book with the airline directly. I was able to secure a spot on a Air Services Ltd. charter flight to the falls. Since everyone needs to be escorted by a park guide, there is no point in paying extra for a tour company to get you out there.

The tour is two hours and includes visiting three vantage points to see the falls.

My next destination is Suriname and I really wanted to take ground transportation east to the border. I was reminded how much I loved flying when I went to Kaieteur falls that I decided to take a Gum Air flight directly to Paramaribo’s downtown airport. Give them an email and they will be able to get you there for around $47,000GYD.

“This is the first time I’ve met a couchsurfer” I said nervously. 

Natalia starts laughing uncontrollably.

I think they are just as nervous as I am! Phew! Ok, this should be a breeze then.

Turns out the two cousins are still on their winter break from school, so they have time to show me around the city! We continue to exchange personal details about each other. Natalia wanted to practice her English speaking, which I happily obliged to participate. 

Mónica’s english is perfect even after two or three beers. The mood is light and any fears of being murdered or robbed float away with my sobriety.

The next morning I wake up to the sound of giggling. Looks like the girls are up! I get up and get dressed. Today they are going to introduce me to some typical Colombian breakfasts. On the menu are Changua and Caldo de Costilla. 

Simply put, Changua is a soup made of milk, eggs, and bread. The milk gives it a sweet taste, while the eggs are hard poached inside. Extremely filling because of the protein and bread. 

Caldo de Costilla is another soup, this time made with beef ribs, potato, garlic, and cilantro. Something I would traditionally eat for lunch or dinner, not breakfast. 

For the next three days I spent every waking moment with these two amazing women. They introduced me to their families, took me out partying, and taught me so much about Colombian culture and the Spanish Language. 

This is what travelling is all about. Getting to live like a local for a bit and to understand why a certain culture is the way they are and how they think.

I’ll never forget the hospitality that was shown to me. If I’m ever sad, I will just remember Natalia’s laugh and it will put a smile on my face.

We part ways and I check into my new hostel: El Pit Hostel in La Macarena neighbourhood. I highly recommend anyone staying in Bogotá to spend a few nights here. Failing that, show up for lunch! The place is owned by chefs and they serve a three course lunch to the public for $16,000COP. It never disappoints. 

This is where I came across two new people who shaped my visit to Colombia: An Austrian and American. What could possibly go wrong when you throw those two plus a Canadian into the mix? 

After I left Canada I learned that I needed to have a travel visa for Brazil. After some research I decided to take advantage of the Brazilian Embassy in Bogotá to take care of the paperwork. 

So first thing’s first. I headed to the Brazilian embassy to surrender my passport for two weeks! It feels weird being in a foreign country without my passport, but it’s in good hands.

I spent my first few nights in a wicked hostel in La Candelaria district called Fernweh Photography Hostel. The owners are photographers and as such have some amazing photos hanging up all over the hostel. The place has quite the hippy vibe too, with an amazing fire pit in the backyard to stay warm on those cold Bogotá nights.

This is where I was first introduced to the Bogotá Beer Company (BBC). A large successful craft beer company that names their brews after neighbourhoods in the city. By far their best drink is a honey ale called Cajicá. Light and perfect after spending the day walking around the city. For dinner, I’d usually gravitate to something heavier such as their porter named Chapinero.

La Candelaria is the oldest part of Bogotá and in order to fully appreciate it’s history I went on an excellent graffiti walking tour. For $25,000COP and 2.5 hours you get to learn everything there is about street art in the city. Including how Justin Bieber sparked a revolution in the scene by having an impromptu painting session on Calle 26, one of Bogotás busiest streets.

By the way. The “art” that Bieber painted was a piece of shit:

Another not to miss sight, is to head up to Monserrate, rising up 3,150m above sea level. There are three ways to ascend: By funicular, cable car, or by foot. Unfortunately, due to land slides, the foot trail was closed. So the gang decided to take the funicular up, and the cable car down. 

My first few days in the city had been awesome. I quickly felt at ease with the culture and getting around the city by foot was easy and safe. I was a little nervous about something looming though: my first ever couch surfing experience.

Earlier in the week Mónica reached out to me saying that she would love to host me for a few days. We agreed to a date and time and I started assuming the worst.

What if this was some elaborate ploy to lure me to her apartment, where she’d use the “worlds scariest drug” on me to drain my bank account of all my money and leave me for dead? Scopolamine (aka: Devil’s Breath), according to wikipedia: “affects the ability of a person to resist criminal aggression”. In other words, you say “yes” to anything and everything.  

I told my predicament to other members of the hostel for their feedback.

“You’re meeting her at her house, and not a public place?” Someone asked.

“Yes” I replied. It didn’t matter where we initially met, the intention was to go back to her place, so the criminals can be already be waiting there anyway. I’d just be delaying the inevitable by meeting someplace else first.

“Put her address in google maps and check out the street view!” I heard. Ohh! Good idea.

Yup! An Empty lot. This is it, there is where they are going to murder me!

I pack up my stuff, and take an uber to her place. When I arrive, I tell the Uber driver I’d like to wait in the car until I see Mónica come out and get me. I wait nervously…

This tiny girl runs out with a huge smile on her face. Yup! That’s her!

“Gracias, Señor” I quip to the driver and get out while yelling “Hola!” to Mónica.

We head inside and I put my backpack down, I turn around to two young women. Mónica and her cousin Natalia. Her arm is extended: “Would you like a beer!?”

Beer in hand, I plop down on the floor and and we introduce ourselves…

I’m planning on making the trip to Suriname by land from Georgetown, Guyana. As such I will need to obtain a travel card before entering Suriname immigration. If you are travelling by air, this is done in real time at the Paramaribo airport. 

The tourist card is valid for single entry only, so keep that in mind. A full list of countries that are eligible for the tourist card can be found here. 

The service is “same day”, however, you will need to be organized ahead of time in order to go through this process pain free.

Collect Your Documents

You will need to submit the following documents in order to receive your tourist card:

1. A copy of your passport photo page.
2. A copy of the passport page which contains your Guyana entry stamp.
3. Your passport.

You will need to bring the following items to process your application:

1. $35USD in cash. Small notes only, they accepted my $20 notes.

You will need to have proof of the following when you arrive in Suriname:

1. Yellow fever vaccination (no need to bring your immunization card to the embassy).

There is a strict dress code in effect for both men and women. Long pants, closed toed shoes, and an appropriate shirt (short sleeves are ok). I was able to get in with running shoes, jeans, and a polo shirt no problem. For women, closed toed shoes, a long dress (below the knees) or pants and a blouse are acceptable. 

The Embassy

The embassy is located on the north west corner of Anira and New Garden Streets. It’s a green and white building flying the Surinamese flag. It recently moved from a few blocks away, so ignore any maps that tell you it’s elsewhere.

You must arrive before 10:30am in order for them to accept your application. Walk up to the gate off New Garden Street and the guard will let you in. She will ensure that you have all the prerequisite paperwork and make you sign a log book.

The Process

Enter through the door and hand in your documents and money to the clerk on the other side of the glass. She will ask you a few questions to ensure that the travel card is going to meet your needs. 

They will keep your passport and copies while they process the application. You will be given a number on a piece of paper to hand in when you return. The clerk will let you know when you can come back to pick up your documents. Mine told me today at 1:00pm.