Ryan Goes Abroad

The other day I was prowling around the interwebs for some info on a certain city I am interested in visiting. Unfortunately, all I really could find in my short search was a bunch of pages written by travelers who blab on about how their flight and hotel were, and how they had 2 or [...]

The other day I had to go in to get my tourist visa renewed in Medellin. They had given me 90 days upon entry, which means I’ve spent 3 months this year in Medellin (already!). Combined with last year’s 3 months, that means I have lived here for 6 months in total over the course [...]

During my time as a travel blogger, I am often concerned about the safety of my computer when I’m browsing online. The internet connections in some places like, the internet cafes I go to, are completely open, and sometimes I don’t know who could be peering in on my activities while in South America. Like [...]

Geo-arbitrage is the idea that you can earn money in one part of the world and spend it in another. If you do this, often you will find that your dollars (or pounds / euros / francs / krone) go further, and you can afford a higher standard of living, partially due to exchange rates. [...]

I recently wrote a little intro to Livemocha, an online community which I think is great for learning a new language. Not all aspects of the site are great, though. This is especially true when it comes the courses. Basically, here’s how the courses work…. You hear and read a bunch of words and phrases [...]

Going abroad is a relatively simple task. All you really need to do is to get on a plane. But if you really plan to do a significant amount of travel, you can begin to do things now which will prepare you to take the trip you’ve always dreamed of. For one, if you aren’t [...]

A big key to saving money, for the purpose of traveling or for starting a business, is to reduce your expenses. Many people have the idea that travel is expensive. And it is, somewhat… but only because you are removed from your normal ways of making money (i.e. job). If you could make money wherever [...]

So, the other night, something happened to me which is not all that rare in Colombia. It was last night actually… but to get the whole picture we need to go back two nights ago. Let me give you the play-by-play. The following takes place on a Sunday night via Facebook chat. The girl I’m [...]

In my journey to learn Spanish, I have used a lot of different resources, figuring out which ones are the most helpful, and which ones are a large waste of time. One resource I have used extensively is Livemocha, and today I’m going to tell you how you can get the most out of it. [...]

Sometimes people wonder how they can afford to travel around the world. Part of it is geo-arbitrage, the reality that many places in the world are significantly cheaper than the modern nations of the West. I’ve written about my monthly costs in Colombia and Ecuador. Now, my costs are not as low as they could [...]