One of our best times in Peru was following an old Inca Trail around the Inca Temple and fortress at Pisac. It was great! There were watchtowers looking down the valley to where the River Amazon is only a 2 day walk away! Our guide, Reuben, was an artist and he also played the flute! We went just by ourselves with Reuben and there was hardly anyone around. It was easy to imagine the Incas living there hundreds of years ago! In the Inca time they would sacrifice virgins to their gods! Apparently they would choose the prettiest and it [View Full Entry]

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Photographs from Peru - by Rachel South America » Peru By TheEversonFamily April 15th 2007 The Everson Family Peru is a country of brilliant contrasts; of sun and rain... grimy poverty and gleaming Inca gold... terraced mountains and teaming wildflowers.... mud brick homes and sophisticated stone ruins..... cappuccinos and cloud forests....... Hope you [View Full Entry]

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Soon it will be Jake's 12th Birthday! I've bought a couple of cards with me, but I thought it would be nice to do a "secret" blog asking family and friends to send him a secret message! I can then show him these as a surprise on his Birthday morning! All you need to do is click on "Add Comment" or "Contact the Everson Family" at the bottom of this short blog - under all the photos! If you "Add a comment" it will appear on this blog - everyone can read it including Jake - but he can only reply [View Full Entry]

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This is a big THANK YOU BLOG! On behalf of the Vietnamese in Hoi An, we wanted to thank you all for your generous support. Through the LifeStart Foundation, we will make sure that 100% of your donations are put to good use. Thanks to your kindness and generosity, we've raised enough funds here to change lives in Vietnam. We’ll use this Travel Blog to show you what a difference you’ve made, when we get to Hoi An in late May. We've changed our world trip so we can spend a month in Vietnam helping the charity wherever we can. Fantastic [View Full Entry]

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Fire Flys...... The crowds were all staring in at Rachel (not my mum - a different Rachel!), Dave, Lee and me! Dave with his fire poi, Rachel with her fire snakes, Lee with his Diablo and then me with my fire staff! It all started at Macdonalds in Freemantle, Perth, just three days before! Mum was waiting for Sam's fish fingers and outside were a group of performers practising with diablo, poi, devil sticks and many more. Dad and I went over to them and I asked if I could have a go with the diablo. They said yes, so [View Full Entry]

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58 days and 18 flights later, we have nearly completed the first leg of our trip. Whilst we’ve enjoyed all of it - the absolute highlight - for all of us - has been Hoi An in Vietnam. So we plan to change the rest of our trip and return there for a month. Hoi An is a small, poor, market town in central Vietnam. It's quite famous for it's tailors shops - but there are no spectacular tourist attractions. For us, the people are the main attraction. They have so little, but they’re so kind, warm and welcoming. And [View Full Entry]

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Dad and I stood on the top of the ‘coat hanger’ also known as the Sydney Harbour Bridge! We were looking over Sydney admiring the sunset. The Bridge Climb was one of the most exciting things I have ever done! The trip started with a briefing and breathaliser test! We then moved through to the changing rooms were we put on some special overalls. We then got all of our equipment on to do the bridge climb which included a radio head set. We also received a metal ball on a piece of elastic and that would be the only [View Full Entry]

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The Emerald Buddha and Royal Palace. So Wat?! So Special!!! - by Jake A “Wat” is a religious temple for Buddhists and monks. There are hundreds and hundreds of Wats all over Thailand. Today we went to a very special one in the Royal Palace in Bangkok. I wouldn’t call this one Wat - it was more like 5! All surrounded by gardens and 10 holy buildings. One of these holy buildings contained the most sacred and valuable Buddha in the world. It’s called the Emerald Buddha, but is actually made of jade. Wars and battles have been fought over this [View Full Entry]

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Today we went to Ang Thon National Marine Park on a big, posh, boat. It is a long way from Ko Samui and took one and a half hours to get there. It was worth it because we went kayaking around some small islands. Helena and Mum went in one kayak and Jake, Dad and I in the other. We went a long way and it made our arms ache! I liked it when we had to squeeze under rocks near the caves. It was great. I felt perfect. Then I went snorkeling with Helena. It was brilliant. I liked it [View Full Entry]

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One of our adventures was when we went on a small, noisy long-tail boat from the south of Ko Samui. We had a brilliant time! We went snorkeling and had to dodge big pieces of very sharp coral. Also there were some dangerous sea urchins - so we didn’t go that close to them! We saw hundreds of colourful fish! Sam threw some bread onto Jake’s forehead as a joke. Hundreds of fish came swimming straight towards him! We then went to a mysterious island. There was a really long, white, sandy beach with nobody there. We went for a walk [View Full Entry]

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