Travel and other junk

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Trying to get a post up is the most painfully slow process ever. 10 plus minutes to upload just one photo is making me a little crazy. Oh well, I’m grateful that we at least have wifi that lets me stay in touch with my friends and family and eventuallyyyy post pictures to my blog.

Anyway, our stay here in San Juan del Obispo, which is about 15 minutes shuttle ride outside of Antigua, has been great. We found an amazing deal on an Airbnb WITH A POOL! The gated community thing is also a huge plus, not to mention it’s nice and quiet over in this neck of the woods. We stayed several days in Antigua last year and it’s always a party over there! 

So, of course I travel hacked my Airbnb. Would you expect anything less? Total price out of pocket: 

Free 99 plus some blood sweat and tears. 

It’s actually pretty easy to save money on Airbnbs. Gift cards via PayPal Digital Gifts, sold on Ebay, are frequently on sale for around 10% off. I mention this company specifically because buying gift cards on Ebay can be pretty sketch but PPDG is legit. Other sites have frequent sales on them, as well. Back in the day there was this amazing way to game ebay and get Airbnb gift cards at insane discounts, but alas, all good things must come to an end. You can read more about the basic bones of the deal here:

 https://milesperday.com/2016/04/dead-deal-the-target-ebay-merry-go-round/

This time around was much more simple. I just used the points I accrued from my Barclay Arrival Plus card towards the cost of the Airbnb. Right now it’s like a 70k point signup bonus, which is great. Dang, I need referral links! 😉

Now back to Guatemala. We ventured out to the Valhalla Macadamia nut farm today. It was about 25 minutes from our Airbnb. There isn’t a ton to do there, but just the quick tour and eating the “famous” pancakes at the restaurant made the trip worth it. 

Afterwards, we headed to Antigua and did some purse scouting, grabbed a few more groceries and headed back to the house. We lucked out and it still wasn’t raining by the time we arrived so we played in the pool for a few hours and then called it a day. 

Fun fact: Our tv keeps blacking out and when it comes back the language changes. It’s pretty hilarious. It’s also hilarious to hear my kids yell when the show was going strong in English and then switches to Spanish.

Now go earn them points and miles so you too can experience a weird tv that switches between languages, and of course all of the other awesome things that come along when you explore the world!

 

“How do you guys travel so much?”

“We are just insanely rich!” 😉

If I had a quarter for every time someone asked me how we afford to travel so much, I would be, as the title reads, “insanely rich.” Unfortunately, life doesn’t just hand out quarters for things like obnoxious questions and being extremely rich isn’t how we afford to travel as much as we do.

So, what’s my secret? I travel hack! Despite it sounding like some money laundering scam to rip off old people, it’s 0% shady and even less glamorous (see following paragraph about hauling kids to store after store) than it sounds.

First a little history. I jumped into this hobby full speed over 6 years ago after chit chatting with my cousin and her telling me of several fancy schmancy trips she had planned despite being poor college students. We are talking front of the plane to Europe fancy here.

I remember how she mentioned they had gotten some credit cards for the points and miles and used those bonuses to cover their flights. The entire time I was thinking that she had fallen into a dark and terrible world of debt and imminent financial ruin; plus everyone knows having credit cards is actually a sin! Anyway, long story short, and lots of conversations and research later, I was applying for my own credit cards and before I knew it, I had like 50 plus shiny hunks of plastic attached to my social security number, which, pro tip, also work great for scraping ice off of a frosty winter window.

With this discovery came a new full time job of hauling 4 young kids around town for hours on end, store after store after store and melt down after meltdown after meltdown to get those points.

My new hobby also impacted my relationship. Things I never thought I would fight with my husband about sounded like this:

“You bought that energy drink with your debit card? I don’t know if I can live with this betrayal!”

And

“They ‘had a special offer at Cabellas when you opened a new store Visa card’ ???? Do you even care about 5/24?”

Anywayyy, travel hacking is my life. Not only do I have bajillions of miles to travel all over, slight exaggeration on the quantity, I have met more amazing people through this hobby, many of whom I call my closest and dearest friends.

My intention for my website is not to turn it into another travel hacking blog, though; there are tons of them already on the internet with much better information than what I can offer. I do want to be open and transparent about how we travel so often. I want to share the different redemptions I use/used to get to wherever the heck we went/are going, and more than anything, I want to show you all that you can do it too!