Travel for Love

While Roberto and I were driving along highway A-7 near Malaga in Southern Spain, I was browsing through the guidebook looking for places of interest along our route. I happened upon an entry about the town of Ronda, which was about 60 km north of us up in the mountains. The article sounded interesting and indicated Ronda was a popular spot, so we decided to check it out. We had plenty of time and nowhere in particular to be, so why not?

It took about an hour to get there on a windy mountain road that was a little scary at times. As we made our way up into the mountain meadows, we could see a few of the white towns (including Ronda) off in the distance. It was neat approaching the little town and the mountains were very beautiful!

We drove into the town and right across the famous Puente Nuevo bridge before parking and wandering around a bit. There were plenty of tourists around and we saw our first Americans since arriving in Andalusia. It was windy and pretty chilly there, but the old town and old city walls were so cute and fun to wander around! We stopped for some cappuccino (and to pee!) before setting off to wander around the town.

We wandered over to the bridge and walked down the into the canyon. It was gorgeous down there, with the river rushing along and the beautiful green valley below. The bridge spanning the canyon was just stunning! We would have really enjoyed hiking down into the valley and wandering on the dirt road along the sheep and horse farms below. But that would have taken hours, so we made a brisk hike back up the hill to meander around town some more.

There were more beautiful views and some amazing-looking terraced restaurants and hotels on the other side of the bridge. We visited a few little shops and enjoyed some coffee in a cute little cafe before deciding it was time to head down the mountain. Roberto was really set on getting off the windy road before it got dark. We did ponder finding a hostel or pension and staying in Ronda for the night, but ultimately we decided to find a campground back down on the coast.

Our spontaneous decision to check out the town of Ronda was one of the highlights of our trip. We loved the beautiful, historic little town!

This is the second entry of a series about my experiences with making money online.

Last year, I began experimenting with a few ways to make money online. I think it will be a good exercise for me to evaluate these methods, assess where I’m at, and make goals for 2010.

Second Method – Craigslist

Well this isn’t really generating new income online, but I started selling some things I was getting rid of anyway on Craigslist. The plan is to make a little extra money while getting rid of clutter and things I never use anymore.

What I Did

I’ve gone through my house a few times and set aside stuff I don’t want or need anymore. I am planning to have a garage sale once Spring comes. I pulled out a few items that I thought would make enough money to be worth bothering with individually, and photographed them. I listed a handful of items on Craigslist a couple months ago, including an obsolete electronic, two pairs of champagne flutes, and a bunch of Boyd’s bears that I’d gotten as gifts and can’t really stand.

Outcome

I got responses on every item, but only actually sold one pair of flutes. I did get my full asking price for those, and had a good experience meeting a nice girl at a local coffee shop. I got quite a few inquiries on the electronic, but no one ended up buying it. I got a pretty low offer on the bears from some lady that now I’m thinking I should have taken, but it was really only about 10% of what I think I could sell them for. They’re still collecting dust now, with no new offers.

Recommendations

Based on my experiences I put together a few Craigslist selling tips which I wrote in another article. Here’s an abridged version:

Accurately describe your item. Provide pertinent details such as brand and model, size, and color. Give information about when it was purchased, how much it’s been used, and describe any wear and tear. Describe what it’s used for if it’s not obvious. You should be honest about it’s condition since prospective buyers will most likely see it before they buy it. Be descriptive in your title as well and be sure to include the price in your heading.

Once you’ve described your item as accurately as possible it’s a good idea to include at least one picture. If you item is very straightforward one photo is probably enough, but it’s helpful to include several photos, as many as you need to accurately portray your item. Be sure you photos make your item look great! Stage it nicely with plenty of light, and the item is clear and in focus. Nice photos will entice Craigslist surfers to want your item.

Pricing your stuff correctly is very important for selling on Craigslist. It’s a good idea to browse through your local Craigslist and even other cities to get a good idea of what items like yours are going for, and check other sites like Ebay and look in local classified ads. Your item needs to be priced competitively to sell, but you also shouldn’t underprice – unless you really need to sell quickly. It’s also recommended to price your item a little more than you really want, because most Craigslist buyers expect to haggle.

Once you list your item on Craigslist, you’ll begin getting emails from people interested. Be sure to reply promptly and answer any questions they have. It’s not uncommon for people to contact you then never hear from them again. If someone is interested in buying your item, make arrangements to meet them if your can bring it with you or allow them to come to your home only when you are not alone. Beware of scams offering money orders and requesting that you ship your item – it’s best to use Craigslist locally.

The Future
I’ll keep using Craigslist because it’s free. In fact, I have several items I plan on listing in the next few days. I am going to try re-listing these items every so often if they don’t sell, so Craigslist browsers can find my stuff without having to search.

… is quite an experience. We decided it would be fun to camp near Iguazu falls instead of staying in a hotel. After stopping and asking at several gas stations (a Brazilian tradition – who says men don’t ask for directions?) we found a camp ground right next to the entrance to the Iguazu Falls National Park. It was incredibly hot and humid when we showed up and the campground only had 2 other groups there. It was a nice campground with plenty of shade, picnic tables and churrascos, and full bathrooms and electrical outlets. And, it was surrounded by the jungle.

Once we selected our spot and started setting up, I went to look around the facilities and almost stepped on a GIANT spider that was poking out of a hole in the ground. It may have been a tarantula and I was so freaked out I changed from flip flops into tennis shoes. Further inspection showed hundreds of such holes all over the place and eventually I just gave up and decided not to look at the ground. In addition to the tarantulas, there were great big orb spiders with webs everywhere. I did couldn’t walk between two trees within 20 feet of each other because there would be a web or several. Shudder.

We set up our tents for the tarantulas to crawl in and went to the Bird Park and grocery store. We got back right before dusk and there were tons of really interesting birds around. Parrots, woodpeckers, canaries… very nice. As we started the fire, there was lots of rustling in the tree right above our campsite and something made a weird, almost meowing noise. Turns out it was a MONKEY! A monkey, eating a banana, in the tree right above the tent (we knew this because when he was done, he dropped the banana peel and it landed on the tent!). There were several more monkeys hanging around the campsite and it was so much fun watching them!

As the sun set, the night creatures really started to come out. And by that I mean the various mysterious things in trees that make really weird noises. There were some really absurd sounds and I had no idea how I could ever sleep in all that racket, but luckily they shut up for the most part after a couple hours. Here is a video I made recording the crazy sounds.

We had a nice barbecue and built a campfire to keep the mosquitoes out, and it was really great being outside. The temperature had cooled down and there was a pleasant breeze and those night creatures had shut up for the most part. It was a fine evening. That is, until 3 am or so when it started POURING. The tent held up for awhile, about 45 minutes I’d say. Then it started dripping in a couple places. Then, a couple more (why did I think it would be a good idea to camp with a down comforter?).

When the drips became streams with no signs of the rain stopping we knew we’d have to go to the car. Roberto made several trips back and forth in the downpour, taking stuff to the car, getting the keys from the other guy (whose tent wasn’t leaking, WTF!), and rushing me through under a towel. I balled up the comforter under the air mattress and hoped for the best. Oh and the electricity in the campground went out, so everything was pitch black.

We settled in to sleep in the car and it rained for about another hour and then let up. Trying to sleep there was uncomfortable, and it was too hot to keep the windows up but mosquitoes came in immediately if we cracked them. We decided to see if we could sleep in the tent. Flipping the air mattress over was fairly dry and the comforter was just a little wet, so we had a damp rest of the night. One good thing about the rain was it was really nice and cool the next day at the falls. It was also cloudy and a little drizzly all day, so not ideal. But, overall, the camping experience was great despite the rain. We’ll do it again, but this time with a tarp just in case!

My advice for camping in this part of the world: be prepared for rain – it is the rain forest after all. Also, the mosquitoes are very bad. We used tons of insect repellent with DEET. I would consider taking malaria pills if I was camping for a more extended period, but preventing bites by religiously applying bug spray is supposed to be safe for short stays. Also be prepared for night visits from all sorts of interesting critters.

Happy New Year’s from Brazil! More updates to come, including working on the farm, Christmas on the beach, and a 2000 Km road trip to Foz do Iguazu!