http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/AndrewsWHERE/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from AndrewsWHERE en-us Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:43:40 +0000 Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:43:40 +0000 Hold the search party Yes I am still alive still in Finland but I can occasionally understand the locals now I could make excuses for why I haven't written lately but there's no good ones. It's just been on my 'to do' list for a very long while but never quite made it to the top until now.So the Navy is well and truly over now silent cheering and life is far more comfortable. I'm still http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Finland/Uusimaa/Helsinki/blog-126703.html That's right Winter is gone summer is here I've got 20ish days left in the Navy and things are starting to look good. Our training is all but finished only some classroom sessions left to go. On one day last week I watched 3 episodes of LOST which I have been waiting to catch up on since I finished at camp last year so we haven't exactly been busy. But I'm not complaining about being http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Finland/Uusimaa/Upinniemi/blog-66563.html We got into Puerto Igazu at about noon on Wednesday and caught a 1240 bus to the falls. I could spend ages describing how unbelieveable they were but you probably wouldn't believe me....... that's stupid. Look at the photos instead. We spent most of the afternoon there got a bus back to Puerto Igazu grabbed our bags and headed over to Brazil. My Finnish EU passport paid off well at the http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Paran-/Foz-do-Igua-u/blog-28240.html We got into New York on the 14th of December my birthday and nearly froze when we got out of the terminal at 6am. We made our way over to the Big Apple Hostel and got ourselves organised for a few days of sight seeing. We were staying pretty much on Times square which made sight seeing incredibly easy. Over the next few days we managed to see most of the major sights including the Emp http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-York/New-York/Manhattan/blog-28398.html ATTENTION Sorry again about the extra emails. No I am not in South America. Just cleaning up some of my old blogs and unfortunately it's way too much effort to not send those emails. Read them if you want...... or don't.Thanks to everyone who has emailed me sent messages and left comments. It's good to know that people are actually reading my blogs and I'm not wasting my time spending hour http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Finland/Uusimaa/Upinniemi/blog-39455.html I'm really not sure how to start writing this journal. Right now I'm in Finland and due to my Finnish citizenship doing 6 or so months National Service in the Finnish Navy. Yeah I know it sounds kind of random if I hadn't told you already.So yeah I got here about 3 weeks ago. The trip took about 50 hours I had to stay overnight in Darwin on the way such a pain. I also managed to pick up http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Finland/Uusimaa/Upinniemi/blog-38245.html NOTE It's a little embarassing that it has taken me this long to put up this journal. I've been home for about a month and a half working and catching up with people. On the 5th of Januray I'll be heading over to Finland to live for a while. I'm doing National Service like in the military I have Finnish citizenship and it's compulsory should be interesting for at least the first 6 months http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Taiwan/Taichung/blog-28245.html After the morning in Machu Picchu we headed down to Aguas Calliantes for a swim in the Hot luke warm Springs and later in the afternoon caught the train back to Cusco for a good nights sleep back at the hotel.Tuesday we did some tourist shopping and that evening had dinner with the Inca Trail gang guinea pig is overrated. After dinner we got the 10pm Bed Bus back to Puno and then the next http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/blog-28239.html Before heading out on the Ina Trail we spent 3 days relaxing in Cusco and for my part trying to get over a stomach cramping case of travellers diahrea. A quick trip to the doctor a stool test and a packet of Ciproxin later we were ready for 4 days of pain on the Inca Trail.Friday 26th we started at 6am pretty easy for a first day. Saturday involved going almost straight up a 1200m mountain t http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Brazil/Paran-/Curitiba/blog-2387.html You may have been wondering what has happened to me over the last 56 months since I last posted. It seems a little unfair to jam 5 and a bit months into 1 short journal but I'll try. I've been working at a summer camp called Camp Wahanowin. It's about an hour and a half north of Toronto just outside Orillia. Camp was divided up into probably 3 main parts so I'll deal with them seperately. W http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Orillia/blog-18997.html On Friday we drove from Big White down to Vancouver then up to Whistler. We stayed in an awesome condo in the middle of the village about a 3 minute walk from the gondolas that go up the mountain. We even managed to pickup free internet on Sean's laptop from one of the nearby hotels. While we were there they had the Ski and Snowboard Festival in full swing it was such a change from whole fami http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/British-Columbia/Whistler/blog-7674.html I know everyone needs to plan before they go on a trip but I'm starting to wonder when enough is enough. Does not chaos theory throw all planning out the window anyway.Oh well not to bother. I have my list of stuff to buy now about 40 to do items all of which are important and about 8 weeks to go before I head off to South America and Canada. Oh yeah that's the point of all this An arou http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Cairns/blog-1284.html Hi all this is the first propper entry that Ive made so it may not go that smoothly but bear with me itll get better.The flight over from Aus was pretty good. Long but good. I think it was about 35hrs all up and we were glad to see the hotel in Miraflores Lima for more than just one reason.Once we had cleared immigration and customscustoms by the way consisted of handing a form to guy http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Lima/blog-2061.html It's felt like ages since I last wrote but I guess that's just because so much has been happening. Right now we are in Nasca waiting for our overnight bus tonight to Arequipa so I have a bit of a chance to write. Im sorry if this is the first journal that youve got or you dont get this one. Im just adding addresses as I am able.We spent 2 whole days in Lima mainly in a seaside suburb calle http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Lima/blog-2126.html Tuesday afternoon we caught a bus down to Huacachina a small oasis town outside of Ica. It was really good to finally be out of Lima and actually on the road to La Paz in Bolivia. Huacachina's surrounded by massive sand dunes that you don't want to climb more than once but the views from the top are worth it. As soon as we got there we headed straight up the dune that was behind our hostel. Th http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Huacachina/blog-2129.html Wednesday afternoon we caught a bus though to Nazca. By the way we now consisted of Paul and Rebecca as well as Ross. Paul and Bec are from England while Ross is from Scotland. We were all heading in the same direction so it made sense to stick together.We got in about 4pm and again there were people everywhere trying to take us to their hostel or sell us plane flights over the Nasca Lines http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Ica/Nazca/Nazca-Lines/blog-2130.html Before we headed off from Aus both Lundy and I were expecting to find Peru as you see it in the photos. Kind of along the lines of Incan descendents wearing lots of colourful clothing seeing some high mountains and of course loads of Colombian architecture. Thus far we had seen very little until we got to Arequipa. This place could very easily be uprooted and stuck somewhere in southern Eur http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Arequipa/blog-2159.html Firstly thanks to everyone that has sent messages and left comments. Please be aware that I usually only have a small amount of time to spend on the net checking my messages so if I don't respond right now I will when we get stuck in another hole like Nazca and have some spare time. Saturday night 7pm we got into Puno the main Peruvian port on the shore of Lake Titicaca. As soon as we go http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Puno/Lake-Titicaca-/Uros-Island/blog-2161.html It has been quite a while since I last wrote. A lot has been happening so there'll be a few entries in a row sorry that they haven't been more regular.We decided that we had seen enough of Puno. The Uros Islands were nice and all but the town and hotel left a lot to be desired. The room was on a noisy street corner and the water only worked occasionally. I had somehow managed to get myself a http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Puno/blog-2268.html The three days we spent in Cusco before our Inca Trail hike were relaxing. It was great to be able to stop and not have to be anywhere or do anything. I was still trying to get over a a case of Travellers Diareha which wasn't subsiding so I went and saw a doctor to try and get something to clear it up. It took a few visits and tests to get things sorted but by Friday morning everything was fee http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Peru/Cusco/Cusco/blog-2679.html