Hi there, I’m Andrew, and welcome to Flights and Footsteps! I’ll use this page to tell you a little bit about me and my goals for this blog. My goal here is simple. I love traveling, and I want to share everything I know, everything I’ve learned, with you, so you can have unforgettable experiences as I’ve had.
Ok, a little about me:
I’ve been lucky enough to go on a lot of trips in my life. I’d spend a week here, four days there. But I started really traveling in 2020, a few months after I returned to work from spending eight months locked up. I (luckily) never lost my job, but it was certainly a different world. The business I loved and had been in for over ten years was not the same anymore.
I was frustrated and didn’t know what I wanted to do about it. Life was crazy that year. The only thing I knew was that I needed to shake things up a little. So, I booked a flight. I didn’t know much about where I was going. My friends and family asked me what I was going to do there. I wasn’t sure myself, so my reply was, “I’ll just start walking.”
When my flight landed, I had no idea that I was going to discover a love for staying in hostels. Any tourist can book an all inclusive resort. It takes a real traveler (to me, tourists and travelers are different) to find a great hostel. Hostels are aimed at travelers, people who want to see a city/town and the surrounding areas and need a place to lay their head down at night.
Even in a great hostel, they might not have a fancy bed and a soft pillow, but the staff knows the area, how to find the best deals, and how to stay safe. The added bonus? You get to meet other travelers from all over the world!
And, as a bonus…
I discovered a love for visiting Mayan ruin sites. I visited six over the next twelve days. When I visited that first one though, I knew I was hooked! The Mayan architecture and culture fascinated me.
I’d been to Chichen Itza a few years before, and it was cool, but the throngs of people, sweltering heat, and tour schedule made it a long day. When I started finding my own way to these sites, and seeing them the way I wanted to see them, I knew I had found my thing.
These experiences are both incredible if done the right way. I’m here to share with you how to do that by telling you what I did when I visited ruin sites and stayed in hostels in order to have my great experiences.