How time flies... This was written about 2 weeks ago but forgot to publish it.... Well, here I am, on my last day in beautiful Viña del Mar. Can´t believe I´ve been here for a month! The last two weeks have been really enjoyable, although not lots to tell in the blog, so I´ll keep it short and sweet! Happenings at the "Jardin Infantil" (kindergarten) I´ve grown to know the children a lot better, and we´ve all become very attached to each other. There was a new boy, who is only 1.5 years old and really cute! Ariel (the 2 year [View Full Entry]

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Week 2 in Viña del Mar, Chile I can't believe another week has passed! It's all going too quickly, and I am over half way through my time in Chile. It's all be really enjoyable so far, which is fantastico! Earthquakes and tremours!! Yup, that's right...I have experienced my first mini earhtquake ever, and many more little ones since then! It's totally normal here...or so the family try to assure me. When you're lying in bed it feels like you are lying on top of a washing maching with a train driving right past you!! You can hear the rumbling [View Full Entry]

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My first week in Viña del Mar, Chile I love it! I´m living with a lovely Chilean family for a month, and volunteering in a kindergarten where the kids are super cute! Sooo a bit more info... After a few days of relaxation in Lima, Peru, we flew to Santiago de Chile on Saturday 17th October. After a bit of a mix up with Fiona´s flight ticket in Lima (which resulting in us having to wait at the check in for about 1.5 hours!) we finally arrived in Chile. Unfortunately, due to strict border controls, I wasn't allowed to carry [View Full Entry]

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Strange village homestay, beautiful Arequipa, super fun sand boarding, sleeping in the desert under the stars and wildlife watching! Just a quick overview of the last two weeks or so...hope its not too long and rambling! Friday 2nd October - Saturday 3rd October HOMESTAY IN RAQCHI VILLAGE As part of our Inca trail tour, we had arranged to stay in a little village called Raqchi, famous for its pottery and Inca temple. When we arrived we were greeted by the local women in their traditional dress consisting of big wide brimmed stiff hats, big puffy skirts, jackets, and baby b [View Full Entry]

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Hiking at 4800m, camping in style (well kind of...), breathtaking scenery and more Incan ruins Saturday 26th September Up VERY early for a 6am breakfast, then a bus ride to the Sacsayhuaman (sexy woman as everyone says!) ruins on the outskirts of Cusco. Very impressive, big temple ruins, and hidden tunnels which we got to walk through, although we were a little wary as someone has been lost in them and was never found! There were also lots of cool natural rock slides which were super fun to slide down, although it did result in a blood blister on my [View Full Entry]

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Tuk tuks, floating islands and more Incan ruins Wednesday 23rd September (continued) All aboard the tuk tuks to the port! Fiona and I shared one, and our poor driver was huffing and puffing while cycling our tuk tuk along to the harbour... Once safely deposited at the port, we wandered through the market to find some lunch. Trout yet again! We then boarded a luxury boat ´with our lovely guide Placido to visit the famous floating reed islands, which have been around for hundreds of years, and are still lived on by natives. We were greeted by a local band [View Full Entry]

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Copacabana and the Isla del Sol Our group for the Inca Trail is great! Lovely mix of people from all over the world, all different backgrounds, ages, and personalities. I think there are about 19 of us, and we have two amazing leaders, an energetic couple from New Zealand (D & D!) who have an unending supply of enthusiasm and seem to know what to do in all situations. We met them all for the first time at a special buffet dinner in our hotel on Sunday night (20th September). Some of them have been on the tour since Rio [View Full Entry]

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It's VERY high up actually... Well, I'm afraid I don't have anything too exciting to report from La Paz, due to losing track of days whilst stuck in bed with altitude sickness/possibly food poisoning! I will try not to let that colour my description of this impressive city though! Fiona, ben and Rich have been great at keeping my spirits up though, and even bought little knitted puppets to perform a show for me whilst I lay in bed. Cute! But no so cute was the waking up at 5.30am by an alien head which they had randomly found in a [View Full Entry]

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The world famous salt flats...blindingly white and vast! Friday 11th September (cont.) Decided to go for dinner in a restaurant mainly because it had an open fire, albeit tiny! After a healthy feed of lasagne and pizza, we huddled around the fire a little longer before heading to bed...with EIGHT blankets each. And some thermals. And a hat. And our stylish alpaca wool jumpers. Yes, it was THAT cold in our room! Saturday 12th September SALT FLATS today, yay! Poor Fiona and Rich had been up all night due to altitude sickness, so it was only me and Ben who were [View Full Entry]

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Sub zero temperatures, rickety trains and lovely wooly alpaca jumpers Our last day in Salta was spent sightseeing, going up the gondola and watching the World Cup qualifiers in an Irish pub with hot chocolate....hard core!! Thursday 10th September We caught the bus the La Quica (on Argentinian border with Bolivia) at 00.30, and the following 7 hour bus journey was a little bit tedious, due to sub zero temperatures on the bus! We would stop every so often, and the driver would leave the doors open for what seemed like hours. But we survived, and arrived in the sleepy [View Full Entry]

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