Brian Phelps
Hi! My name is Brian and I am a graduate of Maryville College in Tennessee with degrees in Political Science and International Business. I love to travel and I use this blog as a means of sharing stories, reflections, and pictures. Hope you enjoy!BGPhelps
Travel Blog Posts
October 23rd 2007
Almost from the beginning I was in love with Peru. It might have simply been leaving the endless desert that had me so excited but as I moved from Arica in Chile to Arequipa (a six hour affair) it seemed the country was just brighter, happier, more friendly than Chile. The exciting and fast-paced flight through the Tacna bus station trying to get tickets and board the soon-departing bus to Arequipa led by a loco local seemed to set the tempo for what was to come. Festivals in the White City, floating villages, and a friendly family who possibly saved my life are places and stories that will stay with me and now I'll begin to relate them and others to you: As I mentioned, I began my adventures in Peru on a bus. The adventures ... read more
Moving on Up! (Valparaíso to Arica)
Published: August 21st 2007South America » Chile » Arica & Parinacota » Arica
August 19th 2007
Here's the long overdue account of my post-paradise adventures! First, though, I want to thank whatever kind soul worked to recover my previous two blog entries, wherever you are you are appreciated! Now, where to begin... My last night in Valparaíso was a little sad. As things turned out I really liked my host family and didn't really want to say goodbye. I truly felt like I was part of the family when I was living there and I still feel part of the family even though I'm gone. I hope to see them again, but if I don't we drank well to our goodbye with some delicious Cuban rum and then took crazy photos all around. Salud familia! And then I left, ten o'clock at night I boarded the bus to La Serena, an overnight ... read more
Marching Alarm Clocks and the Poet's Three Footprints
Published: July 21st 2007South America » Chile » Valparaíso Region » Valparaíso
July 21st 2007
Welcome back to Chile, here goes round two. So I've given a slight introduction to the city of Valparaiso, I'd hardly say I did it any justice whatsoever, but I did just finish getting pictures uploaded to the blog so hopefully pictures will speak the rest of the words that I failed to say. And so now, with horses, we begin. Horses? Yeah. I've never claimed to be much of a rider. Last time I was on a horse it was in Lesotho and I'm pretty sure I thought I was going to die. Something about riding a horse for the first time while you're on the edge of a cliff in the mountains has that effect. Still, I was quite excited when I found out our first trip with my exchange group in Chile ... read more
June 29th 2007
Pay attention to the cracked streets And the broken homes Some call it the slums Some call it nice I want to take you through a wasteland I like to call my home Welcome To Paradise Ahh ValparaÃso. It's 3:57pm local time and trying to communicate my time here in ValparaÃso leaves my mind more twisted than the haphazard streets that surround me as I write. So I begin, Welcome to Paradise, by Green Day. The song seems to fit perfectly. Cracked streets? Got 'em. Broken homes and slums? Although I'm not sure if slums is the correct word, the poverty here is tangible although most people seem to get by well enough. Nevertheless, the garbage that fills the streets as one ascends the hills and the graffiti that can be found nearly everywhere in ... read more
May 23rd 2007
It's official. It's 2:09 a.m. and I just purchased my non-refundable ticket to Santiago, Chile. My non-refundable return flight is from Lima, Peru, which gives me good motivation to travel once I'm through at Valparaiso where I'll be studying Spanish for six weeks. Here's some general information about where I'll be and some pre-departure research I did that you might find interesting: What is my trip? I'll be studying for six weeks at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica De Valparaiso beginning June 10th and ending July 20th. I'll study Spanish and Latin American culture and get to live with a host family who will feed me and shelter me during my stay. After this, I'll take another six weeks and travel towards Lima, Peru and see as much as I can on the way. I'll have ... read more
June 26th 2006
Well if might be an understatement to say that this last blog is long overdue. Last time I updated was.. well a long time ago. I think about a month before I left Japan. And now it's a little over a month since I've been home (yes for those of you who don't know yet. I'm no longer in Japan, but if you didnt know you should have). My last days in Japan were crazy to say the least. I did take my trip to Tokyo and we did hitchhike. It was wild and I had a great time there. After that I finished up my schoolwork, went out a lot with friends, said my goodbyes, and managed to get to my gate at KIX as they were boarding (I'm not only home but lucky to ... read more
May 1st 2006
OK, before you start reading this let me say its not finished. I started writing this when I got back from Tokyo and life got in the way. its still in the way. i didnt want to waste all of the incredible writing I did do though, so heres my first couple days in tokyo. we didnt hitchhike all the way there, just to nagoya, but we hitchhiked all the way back to nagoya on the way back so we made one full trip. good times, here ya go This past week was Golden Week, a holiday in Japan that consists of a holiday on Wednesday and Friday and a day off in between just for the hell of it. So with three days off from school Garrett and I decided to skip the other two ... read more
More Life in Japan: Sakura, Bunraku, and the Great Buddha
Published: April 28th 2006Asia » Japan » Kyoto
April 25th 2006
So once again I've run into a pretty busy week. So naturally, as a solution to this, I'm ignoring all my schoolwork and writing in my blog. Let's face it, it's been a while and I owe this to my readers : P. Also, I hope this blog will include more about my day to day life as well as different places I've gone since I think I might ignore that in other blogs.. so here we begin: The week after Hiroshima, as far as I can remember, was pretty regular. I went to school, hung out with my friends, probably didn't study, and probably still aced my tests. I've decided that Japanese isn't too difficult a language to learn. Maybe I'm crazy but it's coming a lot easier than Spanish does. There's obvious reasons for ... read more
April 1st 2006
This entry is for reflecting on my trip to Hiroshima on April 1 and I'm already hard on myself for not writing this sooner while it was more fresh in my mind but now I have time and I will begin. This is a long entry so if you're in a hurry I'd just wait to read it. Also, I expect a somber tone but this was a somber experience so that makes sense.. here goes: Today, many classmates and I went to Hiroshima, the first city in the history of the world to be the victim of an atomic bombing. There, we listened to an atomic bomb survivor speak of her experiences on that day, and visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, dedicated to the the promotion of peace and the abolition of nuclear weapons ... read more
March 31st 2006
Ok so I'm gonna try to finish up on spring break today so here goes: Day 5 Today we did some hiking in Yakushima. It was great. We woke up early, had breakfast and then took the bus which was fairly expensive to Yakusugi land which is a rainforest with Yakusugi cedars, some of which are several thousand years old. These cedar forests are very special to the people and even with such rich resources, they still import most of their lumber. We owe them our thanks because the rainforest was absolutely beautiful. We spent most of the morning and afternoon hiking but we had to move quickly in order to catch the one bus back down the mountain. We still saw everything we wanted to and Garrett and I even made it to the top ... read more
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