McLarkin - melanie larkin

Straight Trippin: My Year Around the World

I started this blog primarily as a means of chronicling this amazing and significant year for me, as I'm apt to grow vague on the details as time and frontiers pass. I also thought it'd be cool to have an instant connection to everyone at home and for those who choose to share as much of this dream-come-true of mine with me. So please don't mind the boring minutiae, and feel free to skip them over once they make your eyelids heavy! The photos are by far the best bits and tell a story better than my jumble of run-on sentences could.

Cheers and Happy Travels!
xx, Mel.

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Joined on: May 23rd 2008
Last Login: October 11th 2009

Blog Entries: 70
Photos: 3711

TB Code: [blogger=73959]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by McLarkin, order by Date newest first.

By McLarkin
June 2nd 2009

Sacred Valley to Ollantaytambo South America » Peru » Cusco » Ollantaytambo

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Our third day in Peru was spent with our GAP guide (Ozzie) and group in the Sacred Valley and Ollantaytambo. It was, as expected, breathtakingly beautiful, scenic, and HIGH. By spending each day at a higher altitude, we were supposed to be acclimating our bodies, before attacking the trek, which gets as high as 4440m (about 14,600 ft) above sea level. I fell in love with the children of Peru. They are everywhere, running around in their bright colors and round, ruddy faces. I had to stop myself from whipping out the camera at every sighting. In Ollantaytambo, they were celebrating [View Full Entry]

By McLarkin
May 31st 2009

Last Stop: Peru, First Stop: Cuzco South America » Peru » Cusco » Cusco » Cusco

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Our final stop in South America was Peru, more or less exclusively for the trek to Machu Pichu. I would have loved to have spent more time there, but time's up (not to mention money) so I'll take what I can get for now and save the rest for a future trip. We spent one night in Cusco to acclimate to the high altitude before setting off on the Lares Trek. Cuzco is a charming, if touristy, city, where the hike up to our fourth floor hotel room (with bags) left me winded and therefore a tad bit anxious about the [View Full Entry]

By McLarkin
May 22nd 2009

Beautiful Bariloche South America » Argentina » Río Negro » San Carlos de Bariloche

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After spending one week of our alotted two week timeframe in Chile, we decided we had seen enough and bused it back over to Argentina. I'm so glad we did because Bariloche was incredibly beautiful. The night we arrived and the entire next day was lashing rain and people in our hostel were fed up after many of them had spent a week or longer there in that same weather. We got lucky though because the next day cleared up completely and the views were stunning. It was like being in an entirely different town from the day before. The architecture [View Full Entry]

By McLarkin
May 17th 2009

Chiloé Island South America » Chile » Los Lagos » Chiloé Island

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Castro, on the island of Chiloé [View Full Entry]

By McLarkin
May 13th 2009

Val Paraiso South America » Chile » Valparaíso Region » Valparaíso

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Val Paraiso is more than a bit dodgy (two people in our hostel had their cameras stolen out of their hands while we were there) but the photo op's in the old town are pretty incredible - especially when the lighting's right. The old town sits on a hill overlooking the sea and the rest of the city. It has narrow, winding, and dilapidated but charming streets with an array of colorful buildings. The smells can be overwhelming at times, but that's autheniticity for you. There is also a healthy sprinkling of cute cafes, seaview restaurants and enchanting little crafts boutiques. [View Full Entry]

By McLarkin
May 11th 2009

Iguazu Falls South America » Argentina » Misiones » Puerto Iguazú

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Iguazu Falls - larger than life. [View Full Entry]

By McLarkin
May 10th 2009

Patagonia: Buffet for the Eyes South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Calafate

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I´m so glad we didn´t heed fellow travellers´warnings and skip our stay in the El Calafate area. It is by no means shut down for winter, and the landscapes we´ve seen over the past few days have been nothing less than unique and remarkably stunning. Our first full day started at 4:30AM for a 5:30 pickup to Torres del Paine in Chile. We booked the tour through our hostel at around $100USD for the day, so no small change. The van showed up to collect the four of us just after half6 and broke down about 2 hours into our 4 [View Full Entry]

By McLarkin
May 1st 2009

Argentina: First Stop, Buenos Aires South America » Argentina » Buenos Aires » Buenos Aires

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Our plane landed in Buenos Aires on the 1st of the month, after a 12 hour overnight flight from Auckland. We stepped off the plane into a 25 degree C afternoon and I was immediately relieved that I hadn´t sent my flip flops home like I´d originally planned! We were expecting the winter and strolled into summer - but no complaints here.. We spent 4 nights in Buenos Aires, which is usually ample time for me in a big city, but (and I wasn´t alone in this) I could have stayed at least a few more. The city is massive and [View Full Entry]

By McLarkin
April 8th 2009

Back in Christchurch - Time For An Update Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Christchurch

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These are the biggest problems NZ authorities face. Says A LOT.

Since leaving Raglan, our last stop on the North Island, our plan has undergone a few revisions, but not at the sake of the excitement!! We started off in Queenstown, where our original plan was to find work and an apartment for the month. That didn't work out because in the end we decided a) a month was not enough time to find work, get trained, then give notice and b) finding a furnished apartment that would fit all of us for a month would be more hassle and more binding than it's worth. So we left lively, beautiful Queenstown on [View Full Entry]

By McLarkin
March 19th 2009

Raglan Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Raglan

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Raglan is a cool, tiny surfing town, and our favorite on the North Island. We spent a couple of relaxing, lazy days at the chilled out Raglan Backpackers, which surrounds a hammock-lined courtyard, complete with spa and sauna. The hostel sits right on the water where you can let free kayaks and go cliff or bridge jumping just in the backyard! We spent very busy days cooking, eating, taking walks, singing, dancing in the kitchen, reading, drinking coffee, drinking wine, baking scones, and I even managed to squeeze in a desperately needed run! Life is so hard. [View Full Entry]

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