I'm Samantha. I love nature, wildlife, hiking, kayaking, camping, yoga, photography and, of course, traveling!

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

To explore the world and meet interesting people

Interests

• animals
• wildlife
• vegan
• yoga
• nightlife
• movies
• reading
• live music
• hiking
• kayaking
• camping
• whitewater rafting
• long-term travel
• nature
• plants
• knowledge
• drinks
• qigong
• nature lover
• ethiopian food
• ahimsa
• hidden places
• thai chi

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

What's amazing for me might be no big deal for someone else. I absolutely love nature and wildlife. I can watch a sunrise or sunset and be blow away. I can look up at the stars and ponder the magnificence of the universe. Or look out on the ocean and feel so lucky to be on this planet.

So many amazing things come to mind, I don't know where to start. So here goes:

Costa Rica. Staying up all night and into the next day to help the local women who live in the gorgeous little town of Ostional help baby Olive Ridley sea turtles safely make their way from their nesting spot on the beach to their new life in the ocean.

A monkey. One monkey. Her name was LuLu. I went to visit a wildlife sanctuary in the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. It's kind of a pain to get there. Not accessible by road so you have to hire a boat to motor you over. I got there and this monkey literally climbed up me and wrapped her arms around me like she'd known me all her life. After this monkey hug, she had no interest in me putting her down. She sat on my hip and I carried her around the whole time. The woman who ran the sanctuary was like, "Whoa! LuLu crazy likes you!" I was like, this is the best thing ever. I didn't want to leave. I felt such a bond with that little monkey and I still check the sanctuary's website time and again to see how she's doing. : ) I love LuLu!

Romania. I traveled the country by myself. It was my first time traveling by myself and the first time traveling in places where pretty much no one spoke English. So I learned as much Romanian as I could and hit the road. There was one moment of one day.. I was in a small town in Transylvania being followed around the streets by a large pack of wild dogs. Not sure if you've dealt with the wild dogs there before. People told me what it was like before I went and I didn't believe them. I was like, "I love dogs! What could be the problem? Turns out when they're starving and there's a large number of them, they get all wolf-y and territorial on you and are like, "Either you're going to share your lunch with us or you're going to be lunch for us." So I'm by myself, the dogs have me surrounded, they sense fear so I'm trying to keep my shit together, lol, when I look up and see a hearse go by. I'm talking an old-school hearse, drawn by two horses with a coffin in the back. I'm like, "Oh no. I did NOT just see that." Then I glanced over and saw a "No Ox Cart Crossing" sign. And I kind of cracked up to myself. Cuz in that moment where I'm about to be devoured by wild dogs I thought how quintessentially Romanian this moment was and how lucky I was to be there. As for the dogs? There literally were about a dozen of them. I had a baguette with me so I broke it up into small pieces. I threw the bread in one direction and I confidently, but swiftly walked in the other direction and I was fine. : )

Tikal, Guatemala. Sleeping in a room with only screens for walls and being woken up by a troop of howler monkeys in the tree next to my room. It was still dark and they were a great alarm clock. Because in a few minutes I would get a knock on the door from Manuel, a local tour guide I hired the day before. Manuel and I took off before sunrise. Our goal was to hike to a Mayan pyramid and watch the sunrise from the top. He spoke only Spanish and I spoke enough to understand the basics. We'd done most of our talking the day before so we made our way through the dark, deep jungle forest paths in silence. Manuel didn't need a flash light. He knew his way. It was surreal hiking through the jungle at night. Manuel using his machete to cut through the thick undergrowth when needed and me hoping baby tarantulas were not going to hit my face en masse. (

Teach, Learn, Share

Trying to learn Portuguese and how to work a camera in manual mode.

What I Can Share with Hosts

So I'm very flexible when it comes to being a guest. I know that you're busy and have other things going on. It also seems that some hosts want to spend a lot of time with their surfer and others are happy to offer them a place to stay but don't have much time to socialize. I'm perfectly happy either way. I love talking about travel and most everything else! I really enjoy getting to know people and just hanging out. I'm also very good at planning things myself and I'll probably have a thousand things I want to do and places I want to see.

Hmm. So the question is What Can I Share With Hosts? I suppose I don't have much to offer. haha. : ) A smile, a laugh, positive energy. All the travel stories you can handle. : )

Countries I’ve Visited

Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Guatemala, Iceland, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States, Vatican City State, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

United States