ENTRIES FROM THE GLOBAL TRIP BLOG CHRONICLES
The Same Old Thing
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip: The Central American Eviction Tour"
Posted January 26, 2008
DAYS 37-38: If you’ve known me since my formative years in suburban New Jersey, or if you’ve paid attention to the comments on The Global Trip blog since its beginning in 2003 (wow, has it been five years already?), you are probably familiar with the name “Elaine,” who always ends her comments with the catch phrase, “I’m jealous!” This supposed jealousy towards my traveling isn’t really warranted because Elaine — who I’ve known for years and is practically my cousin — is quite well-traveled herself, having spent many extended weekends living it up somewhere else in the world, in South America, Europe, and Africa. She had been to Central America a few times before, but never to the country of Nicaragua — and it was her idea to be there for the turnover from 2007 into 2008.
Agua In Nicaragua
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip: The Central American Eviction Tour"
Posted January 27, 2008
DAY 39: If it is me who has an affinity for puns, it is Elaine who has an affinity for rhymes. One of her goals on this trip was to have “Agua in Nicaragua,” a fitting sounding pair not only because she doesn’t drink alcohol, but because there was much ado about water in Nicaragua — particularly on the Isla Ometepe surrounded by the fresh water of Lago de Nicaragua.
Nicaraguan New Year’s
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip: The Central American Eviction Tour"
Posted February 01, 2008
DAY 40: New Year’s. Every year, it’s the same question: Where do I want to be when one year ends and another begins? This question has troubled many people, with all the pressured expectations of the overly-hyped holiday. Everyone wants a good answer to the post question: “So what did you do for New Year’s?”
Faithful readers of this blog know that I’ve had many eventful New Year’s in my life as a traveler. On New Year’s 2002-2003, I stayed in and read Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, which convinced me that I would follow my dream of going around the world for at least a year. On New Year’s 2003-2004, I reflected on this decision with no regrets, as I trekked down the world’s deepest canyon in Peru with a young Aussie girl named Heidi. The following year, as the calendar turned into 2005, I was with my Spider-man costumed cousin in Manila, Philippines, where he’d won a contest that night and ended up on national TV with Filipino supermodel Giselle Toengi. The two following New Year’s Days were spent back at my base camp in New York City: one at a rooftop party in the East Village with Elaine and her animator friends at Blue Sky Studios (a.k.a. “The Ice Age Guys”), the other running around the midnight fireworks in Central Park with 5,000 other runners — including my friend Adam (a.k.a. “Balls”) — in a four-mile fun run/concert, where there were champagne stations next to the water stations.
But another year later, the questioned remained.
End Of An Eviction Tour
From the trip blog: "The Global Trip: The Central American Eviction Tour"
Posted February 01, 2008
DAYS 41-43: If you recall, Elaine met a guy on the plane from Houston named Steve, who was actually a friend of a friend of hers back in New York. Like Stephanie to Camillo in Bogota, Colombia, we had to use my cell phone to track him down. Even though Steve was in Nicaragua to take a Spanish class in Grenada, he was using all non-class time to see as much of the country as he could. Upon contacting him via email to his BlackBerry, I soon received a text message. We discovered that he was in fact, right there in San Juan del Sur too, at one of the restaurants on the beach, two blocks away from us.
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ABOUT ERIK R. TRINIDAD
When he’s not making a living as an interactive/motion designer or playing with fast food, Erik R. Trinidad is a travel writer, blogger, video host and producer focusing on adventure and culinary content. His work has been featured on National Geographic Intelligent Travel, Adventure.com, Discovery.com, Saveur, Condé Nast Traveler, and 
Hyenas Laughed at Me and Now I Know Why, which also includes the work of Tim Cahill, Doug Lansky, Jennifer Leo and Rolf Potts. He has also referenced his travel experiences in his solo book, Fancy Fast Food: Ironic Recipes with No Bun Intended.
For over ten years, Erik has traveled to the seven continents of the world — from Timbuktu to Kalamazoo — with a curiosity for exotic foods and a thirst for adventure (and writing material). In his travels, he has been mugged at knifepoint in Cape Town, extorted by corrupt Russian police on the Trans-Siberian Railway, stranded in tornadic storms in the American midwest, and air-lifted off the Everest Trail by a helicopter that was thankfully paid for by his travel insurance. But it hasn’t been all fun; he has also donned a tuxedo amidst the penguins of Antarctica, paraded with Carnival-winning samba school Beija Flor in Rio, run for his life at Pamplona’s “Running of the Bulls,” cage-dived with great white sharks, gotten shot point-blank in the stomach in Colombia (while wearing a bulletproof jacket), and above all, encountered many people around the world, including some Peruvian musicians in Cuzco who learned and played “Y.M.C.A.” at his request. He loves the irony that, after everywhere he’s been, he has never been to Mexico.
Erik writes stories and news articles when he’s at his base camp in New York City, and continues his blog when he is on the road — provided he’s not occupied tracking down lost luggage.
Additional news/article clippings at ErikTrinidad.com.
See Erik talk about travel in an American Express ad:
Read about Erik in this feature article from Filipinas magazine by National Geographic Traveler Associate Editor Amy Alipio.