Hollywood, Florida, United States

After traveling around the world for weeks, I am getting ready to head back home. My final stop is back in the US at Hollywood, Florida. I didn't do too much in the city, although I know they had para-sailing, beaches, and parks. I visited the Everglades during most of my time, which is why I chose this location. At the Everglades there are trails, visitor centers, and boat rides. It is such a big area that it's hard to run out of things to do there. I stayed at the small village of Flamingo one night, a tourist area a few miles from the Everglades. It was a good way to wrap up my trip across the world.

Taganga, Colombia

Despite being near oceans during most of my trip, this is my first and last time snorkeling. It seems like it would be a fun experience for someone who likes diving or snorkeling, but I'm not too interested in fish and the bottom of the ocean. I just ended up sticking with the many different tours and "adventures" they offered, like biking and climbing. If you are looking for a place to do things like scuba dive and sail though, this city is centered around it and it is the main reason most tourists come here. The food choice in this city is based mostly on the food of surrounding countries and cultures.

Manaus, Brazil

Since I started this trip, I have been looking forward to going to the Amazon Rain Forest the most. An experienced tour guide took a group of us down the Amazon River to get to a more remote place, away from the city. We had to wear long sleeves, pants, and boots to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes or coming in contact with any poisonous insects or frogs. Our group was big enough to scare off any jaguars or other predators. Even with all these precautions we were still pretty safe as long as we stayed on the trail and with the rest of the group. The rain forest had the most diversity of animals I've ever seen and according to our guide there weren't even that many animals out that day.

Conakry, Guinea

For my final trip in Africa I stayed at Conakry, Guinea. The city is going through quite a few problems right now, between a rising crime rate, problems in infrastructure, and reports of an Ebola outbreak, I had to cut this trip a few days short. In the time I did spend there I went to Musée National to see the country's largest collection of masks, statues, and musical instruments. Besides the problems, I enjoyed my time there, it would have been better to go a few months earlier than I did. Because the people are mainly Muslim in Guinea, there were many mosques, some that could even hold 10,000 people.

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Dar es Salaam has by far been the most crowded city I have been to, with almost the same amount of people in Sydney, while being less than a seventh the size of Sydney. It has attracted so much attention around the world that almost all of its food choices are international restaurants. Despite this, the city does a good job at preserving its culture, with traditional songs and dances frequently preformed, as well as an impressive museum. It is on the coast, so it also comes with all of the activities you'd expect from that.

Nelspruit, South Africa

Most of my destinations have happened to be near national parks, this one included. I stayed in Nelspruit, South Africa, about two hours away from one of the biggest nature reserves in Africa, Kruger National Park. It makes all of the other parks I've been to look small, and is also better protected than the others. Zebras, elephants, giraffes, lions, wildebeest, leopards, and cheetahs are just some of the animals that live in the reserve and I was able to see on a safari. Much of the area's economy is based off of the tourism of this reserve alone.

Nosy Be, Madagascar

Nosy Be is a small inland north of Madagascar that is the biggest tourist attraction in the country. There was a nature reserve called the Lokobe Reserve not far from where I was staying at the L'heure Bleue Hotel. There I saw various animals, my favorites were the radiated tortoises and ring-tailed lemurs. There were even more local companies dedicated to whale watching and snorkeling in Nosy Be than I saw back in Sydney. I went on one "whale safari' to see whale sharks and we were actually able to swim with the whales.