Nicaragua

I'm in an unlicensed taxi with black tape over his plates paying less
than a dollar to get somewhere. Some say sketchy, I say awesome!

(there were a bunch of them arguing over my friend and I... When I picked the nice guy, another cabbie said he wasn't licensed and we'll get robbed, shot, and killed. Then he shook his pelvis at us and winked and called us pretty. Such a great way to instill confidence)

El Salvador buses

It's about an hour/ hour and a half from Santa Ana to Lago de
Coatepeque, and costs a whopping 45cents per person. I bought a bag of
water (it's how they roll in central America!) for 15cents, so since I
packed a lunch, it should be a cheap day at the lake! It's wild
here... All around central america on these smaller or 'chicken
buses', people are constantly hopping on and off selling their wares,
foods or drinks. I admit it's really handy when you spend a whole day
traveling or even on short trips, and they're usually cheaper than
store bought items. One dude just finished up selling when the bus
pulled off, so he just opened the back emergency exit and hopped out
onto the road with his food and condiments as we were hitting a good
speed.

Operation El Salvador

I'm on the bus in El Salvador typing this while we dodge potholes on the pavement and the driver sits on a modified seat; the frame of its former self strung to be like a lawn chair. The front door never closes and there are still stickers from its days as an American school bus. I started the morning in Nicaragua, crossed into Honduras and finally into El Salvador.

No one here has a lot by western standards, the roads are often out of shape, and the comfort levels and personal space levels are constantly dived past and rules seem to almost be expected to be bent. I see shotguns ALL the time (aside from Nicaragua so far at least), and things are much more eclectic and worn in than our cultures in the west would approve of. The personal space and comfort levels being challenged mean that intercity buses can be as cheap as $1. Can't wait to see whats in store for me in this country.

Here are a few shots from Nicaragua!

sleeping all over

I've just slept for two nights in the same place for the first time this week. I've had a king size bed and a room to myself, shared a fouton in a living room with a 4 year old, slept on a couch, and am now sleeping on a floating house! It's my last few days in town before I leave for Honduras - I've been in Vancouver now for about 5 weeks, living without a home, and hopping from place to place to both not overstay my welcome anywhere, and to also get some hang time in with some great people while also working insane amounts of hours at work.
That, and it's (somewhat) helping to save money. I spend a lot more on food out than I ever have before, but for the most part I'm at least trying to be spending those times with friends as well so I can at least in my mind justify the cost.
It's now Sunday and I leave on Wednesday for Honduras.
Time's are getting crazy; but I can't wait to get down there and have everything here all taken care of and done. I've been doing my best to find somewhere to couch surf, but so far no takers.
Wish me luck!

30 before 30

So, being the stubborn daughter of my similarly tempered father, I have gotten something in my head and can't shake it out. In all honesty, not that I want to. It's developed into it's own monster that I am now basing the next few months of my life around.

THE IDEA.

I want to get to 30 countries before I turn 30.

I'm currently at 26 countries, but my birthday is quickly approaching, and lands only a few days over 4 months away. I can't got anywhere at the moment, because I'm staying in Canada until my best friend gets married (Nov 12th, so I've got only two months after that to complete the mission).

This is TOTALLY an adventure for adventure's sake. I could go anywhere that I can realistically afford, and being a photographer, I plan on shooting every second of it.

THE OBSTACLES

A few things currently stand in my way, and tend to be things that everyone can identify with;

TIME

MONEY

WHERE 

I will have two months to get to 4 more countries. It would be kind of cool to roll into #4 the night before my birthday, and celebrate like the Mayan calendar is right.

But even better than that would be to cruise right past that and hit even more countries on the list jsut for good measure and even better times. 

The main obstacle in my way, like most people, is money. The devil we both fight and need. Keep in mind that I live a fairly modest lifestyle; I ride a bike everywhere, have no internet at home (resulting in the local coffee shops quickly getting to know that I've now landed in their neighbourhood), no television, hell, I've got no radio, and I sleep on a mattress on my best friends floor. Some people might think this is terrible living at 29 like this, but in all honesty, I'm happy. I was MILES from this goal a year ago. I was at something like 14 then, a teenager in travel terms, but then I hitchhiked from Turkey to Poland, moved to Korea, caught a boat to Japan, and ended up in a few more Asian countries and found myself sitting atop a list of 26, and thinking that this was looking more and more doable to reach this goal. 

What does this mean? It means adventure, LIVING my life while I'm young and willing to sleep practically anywhere. And I mean anywhere. It's a skill I thank my parents for. I started out young sleeping under their feet on airplanes, on their laps on a bus, or just wherever my hyper-self passed out when I was finally worn out. Not much has changed, and in the last two years I've slept under a house, on a yoga mat in a kitchen (MANY nights), on a floor on a sign, outdoors on a sign, on the beach, on a pagoda, in a cube/fort made of insulation panels, in a front car seat (a weeks worth), on a truckers second bed in the truck, in a wood/corrugated iron fort, on multiple friend's floors, in LOUD night club in tokyo against some lockers, outside a library in a bush, on cardboard, in a campervan, in a room with no windows, in a tent, at a bhuddist temple next to the bathrooms where I hoped I wouldn't be noticed, and even more places I'm sure I'm either forgetting, blocking out, or can't be bothered listing. So as you can imagine, a mattress on a floor feels pretty damn good right now.

So the adventure begins, with the only question I'm unable to answer or begin to answer is WHERE. I guess the answer really is anywhere. I'm toying with anything from Norway, to Argentina as starting points, maybe Cuba or Haiti ... who knows. I guess it depends on which way the world opens it's doors.

Here's to the adventure that awaits!

it's a non-stop evolution

So I've been tracking my website stats, and how and where the traffic is coming from ... it's amazing watching the surges come depending on what I am doing, but it still hasn't ceased to amaze me how consistant one thing is: whatever city I'm currently located in, is where the majority of the traffic also comes from. This is kind of a strange phenomena, since I move around so much, and although I am obviously trying to get my name out there wherever I may be, it seems to prove to me the adage that you can most certainly be 'out of sight; out of mind', and therefore the opposite applies. As much as I pushed my work in New Zealand, the high level of traffic literally took a dive and Toronto became the major influx city. It shows you can't under estimate the self-promotion side of the industry - just meeting people and getting your name out there and doing your best to direct people to your work so that hopefully the right eyes will find themselves scanning the pages.

I recently dropped a large sum of money developing and scanning roll after roll of film, a few of which can be seen on this website I speak of (iamadroit.com), but below are also a few. I shot mostly with my yashica fx-103 on fuji colour film, between 200-400 iso, but also on the yashica EM with ilford 120 film. Just dropped off another roll of Kodak 120 colour film that I get to go pick up tomorrow night ... can't wait to see how they turned out.

some film i've developed lately

shots from korea