Blogger Bec Early, crack of dawn, sparrow´s start this morning for a long bus ride to the depths of Colca Canyon to see the famed Andean condors - filthy ugly yet majestic creatures found only in the Canyon. The ride to the condor lookout was spectacular. Incan terraces lined the cliffs and tiny villages dotted the countryside. The sun was out, not a cloud in the sky. Many of us were still a little shaky from the very high altitude but we were compos mentus enough to take in the scenery. I think the photos speak for themselves but suffice [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Bec This morning we drove from Arequipa to the amazing Colca Canyon - a beautiful drive spoiled a little by our REAL dose of altitude sickness. About 15 minutes into our 6 hour journey, we stopped at a shop to buy some coca leaves - a natural remedy to alievate the symptoms of altitude sickness. They taste horrible (like a wheatgrass shot only stronger and without the OJ chaser!) and you have to bundle them up with a piece of soft ash in order to digest the juices properly. The leaves kickstart your saliva glands, making your mouth water. [View Full Entry]

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Arequipa is a lovely town in the middle of Peru at a fairly high altitude (about 2,500m above sea level) which meant we had our first taste of travel at high altitute. At that point, we just felt a little more tired than usual and had a wee headache, fixed by drinking lots of water. Unless we had read up on it, we would have just put the symptoms down to general travel tiredness. We had two major sights on our itinerary for Arequipa - the Santa Catalina monastery and the mummified remains of adolescent girl, Juanita - a sacrificial offering [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Dougo Today we awoke in our hotel in Nazca early to be ready for the transfer to the airport to view the Nazca lines. Unfortunately, we walked out our hotel room to be greated by a thick blanket of fog covering the town (and surrounding area). So we waited. We played cards, taught a few of our group members our new found passion, Shithead. We waited. The bloody fog hung around until 12 noon when it cleared to be an absolutely perfect blue sky day. At 12:30pm we finally got our bus transfer to the small, light plane airport [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Bec Day 2 of our trip saw us visit the amazing Ballestas Islands, off the coast of Paracas, about 4 hours south of Lima. (Normally, tourists stay in Pisco, a major town, but due to the major earthquake there late last year, it was not possible. Pisco is still being rebuilt, a very slow process, but one helped immeasureably by NGO´s and the local government.) After an early start, we walked about 1km to the boat dock where once suitably life jacketed up alongside about 25 other cameraweilding tourists, we set off in a speed boat. About 10 minutes [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Bec We´ve arrived! Day 1 (real) of our Peru trip saw us take in the sights of Peru´s capital, Lima. We spent most of the previous afternoon in bed watching Nadal beat Federer - we were going to see the sights, really! But when you have the world´s best tennis players slugging it out on the world stage, you have to go with the flow... We mostly just walked around the capital, taking in daily life in the affulent suburb of Miraflores. The highlight of the jaunt was visiting the Inca ruins which lie smack bang in the middle [View Full Entry]

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Blogger Dougo ...And so the next great Bec and Doug adventure got underway with a long haul flight from Bangles (Dhaka, Bangladesh) to LA with a 6 hour stopover in Honkas (Hong Kong). Twenty two hours of our lives gone forever. The up side came in the form of a great hostel in San Pedro, south west of Hollywood. The YHI San Pedro Hostel was a converted army barracks on the edge of the Angel Gate park, overlooking the Korean Friendship bell and the bay. Yes it was a mile from everywhere touristy, but it was quiet and had a [View Full Entry]

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Mollie's birthday, yet another Scavenger Hunt. Anyone would think we would be sick of these by now, but it's such a fun way to interact with the locals. They love seeing us do stuff that to them is just their everyday lives, but to us is crazy. The winners of this hunt was determined by everyone voting on the best picture for each task. It was our first loss. We are now 2 for 3. [View Full Entry]

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What do you think is the best way to see your own city in a new light? Participate in a crazy scavenger hunt to help celebrate your mate's birthday! Lori let us loose with cameras and a list of weird and wonderful items to source - go team! [View Full Entry]

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4 glorious days off work stretched in front of us - how should we spend it? Drinking tea and sheltering from the horrendous daily onslaught of Dhaka noise seemed like a sensational way to escape. We rose early on Friday morning to catch the 4 hour train ride to the northern state of Sylhet, renowned world wide for it's magnificent tea. The jam-packed train station was the usual source of panic for me, made worse by the combination of extreme interest in my sensationally white skin and the presence of Dylan, our friends' baby boy. 8 white people, 2 of them [View Full Entry]

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