The Little Black Backpack

Honduras The third country on our backpacking adventure! We skipped the mainland and spent all our time in the beautiful Bay Island  Utila .  Our Honduras travel route A short ferry ride from La Ceiba, Utila is known for being a cheap place to learn how to Scuba Dive! (Tequila Tuesdays are also legendary) 💰= Honduran lempira , £1 = L31 / $1 = L23.5 Pegs got her PADI at Parrots Parrots Scuba Diving, Utila Although Utila is very small ( about 13km long and 5km wide ), there are over a dozen dive schools. We'd researched a little bit beforehand, but decided on arrival to go with Parrots !  Utila is one of the cheapest places in the world to learn how to dive - our PADI Open Water Certification cost us $260 / ~£200 - which included 2 fun dives at the end and our accommodation!  Passing your PADI  It took is 5 days total to complete our certification.  Day 1: we got to explore the island, do some snorkelling, ...

Nicaragua Nicaragua , the second country on our gringo-trail backpacking trip. Land of the Nicaraguan Cordoba  (£1 = C$40 / $1 = C$30.5), volcanic islands, volcano boarding, colonial architecture, Sunday Funday and very good cheap rum. Our Nicaragua travel route Sunday Funday in San Juan Del Sur   Sunday Funday Pool Crawl  (  http://www.suitcaseandheels.com/sunday-funday-san-juan-del-sur/   ) Sunday Funday Whether you're travelling up or down, you'll constantly see people wearing Sunday Funday tops at the beach. Where do they come from? THE gringo party in Central America: the  Sunday Funday Pool Crawl in San Juan Del Sur. Sunday Funday consists of all-day drinking, meeting many other travellers, riding between hostels in the back of a truck, and watching the sunset from The Naked Tiger .  Not a traditional, cultural Nicaraguan experience, but still worth doing! We had an amazing time and met some really fab people. ...

Costa Rica The first country on our backpacking adventure :  the land of Pura Vida, sloths, surfing, and so many bananas we considered getting tattoos ( thankfully we didn't) All About the Money (Honey) Their money has sloths on it, what more could you want? Costa Rica  is generally known for being more expensive, so spend less time here if you're on a budget. 💰 - Currency here is the  Colón  ( £1 = 750₡, $1 = 570₡) Travel Route Many people travelling the ' gringo trail ' choose to start in Mexico, but we chose to fly to Costa Rica and head up. San José is generally not worth staying in too long, but it's the main airport in Costa Rica.  Our Costa Rica travel route Puerto Viejo Sunset at Salsa Brava Bar, Puerto Viejo Rockin J's - a hostel with tents and hammocks! Relaxed, Caribbean beach town near the Panama border. It rained a lot, but with better weather we would have stayed longer. Beaut beaches and ...

Forever channelling my inner Reece Witherspoon Welcome to the Little Black Backpack! Before we get into all the fun stuff, I thought i'd introduce the one and only ' Little Black Backpack ', that definitely is not little at all. I travelled to my 30th country this year, and my backpack has travelled with me to 12! It is an 80L Vango backpack that I got for my 19th birthday. ( Some people get jewellery, I get travel equipment. ) 80L sounds massive, but it has lots of features that make it adaptable and fab: 1. It's a 'travel pack', so it zips open like a suitcase ( i.e. no more emptying your whole backpack to look for something.) 2. Its adjustable straps mean you can change its size for you needs - also good for attaching still-damp towels or shoes so they don't stink out your bag (damp smell is  the worst ). 3. Comes with an attachable little black day-pack - a definite travel necessity ( I sadly lost mine on the 900 bus, RIP, but it was ...