Glad to see you are still on the road. This was a very informative blog. I hope when you are back home you will have a chance to add some pictures of your trip. Enjoy Brazil!
Message for Turk Hi Turk,
Glad to hear from you! I'm even worse at staying in touch than you are - at least you remember to send a message when we go somewhere new.
Interesting to hear that you've moved onto the 'stimulating' surroundings of Jeddah now. Never been to the Middle East. But if you remember, we've been down the Curry Mile in Manchester & I imagine it's more or less the same thing really.
Looking forward to seeing Bolivia (although cycling in the Andes sounds like bloody hard work...) but can't wait for Brazil. I'll put in a good word for you at the Maracana. Those Brazilian teams could do with a bit of Scottish flair!
Cheers,
Rich
Ok, Peru...Our peruvian adventure was largely taken up with the Inca Trail so we flew from Lima straight to Cuzco and spent a few days there mainly to acclimatise a bit before embarking on the trek. Definately worth doing if you can it was a huge highlight and as far as I'm aware they have have put in a lot of restrictions on when / where you can go to try and preserve the routes etc so you don't feel as bad about adding to the touristic erosion of the pathways etc. Other than that we went to Puno, which wasn't terribly exciting then to Lake Titicaca. I'm jealous about you going to Nazca, presumbly to see the Nazca lines? That should be great! Have fun, Anna
Peru advice Thanks Anna, we'll definitely be going to those places!
Looking forward to the Inca Trail - less than 2 weeks now. Dunno what the trail was like when you did it, but you have to book months in advance now cos they only allow 500 people on it per day. I think it was precisely to help with conservation efforts, so hopefully it'll be in a good state when we get there.
We'll also be exploring Puno & Lake Titicaca. Probably more Lake Titicaca after your less-than-glowing review of Puno :)
Hi Hi Rich
How's it going? This is your old mate from 5 a side footie, Turk a.k.a Matthew, sorry for being crap at keeping touch over the years. Good to hear that you are still with Rachel. I'm still working with the British Council, except I've moved on from wonderful Oman to the more stimulating (That is the most positive adjective I can think of) Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. It does have its advantages living here though. Anyway, enough of me, enjoy South America, I look forward to hearing what you get up to. I have a mate, who cycled through Bolivia and that sounds amazing. Venezuela doesn't seem to be on your itinerary but that's a country which sounds interesting.
Anyway, all the best, hope you enjoy yourself and don't end up on Al Jazeera.
Turk
Hello! Hello to you both, how very exciting! I love South America and had such a good time there. I would agree with your other friend who commented that Punta del diablo is worth a visit. It was a bit tricky to get there and involved a a mile or so of walking to get there as the bus didn't actually go to the town at that point (I'm sure it does now!) but felt much more like I'd earned the lovely beaches. Lake Titicaca between Peru and Bolivia was lovely and interesting too with the various floating islands. We stayed on one of the islands for the night with some locals which was entertaining! There's tons of places I could mention, I've been to each of the countries you are visiting at some point or another and so am very excited for you! I'll try and work out when you are in each country so can give you relevant information at the right time rather than just rambling generally! Have an amazing time, Anna x
Following in your footsteps... Hey Anna,
Lovely to hear from you :)
We´re in Lima at the moment - only landed a couple of days ago so haven´t done much exploring yet. I remember you planning that route around South America, doesn´t seem long ago at all. In fact, I think hearing you talk about all your destinations helped inspire this trip!
To be honest, I´ve not heard about Punta del Diablo before but will definitely look into it now you´ve given it the thumbs-up. We´ll be going to Lake Titicaca at the end of September. Before that, we´ve got the rest of Peru to explore so maybe Pisco, Ica, Nazca, Arequipa, Cuzco & Park Manu. Let us know if there´s anything absolutely unmissable - if you liked it, we´ll probably enjoy it too!
Stay in touch,
Richard
Hello, from you first TravelBlog follower! :) ''...if you've got any thoughts or travel suggestions...''
I loved Punta del Diablo, when I was in Uruguay. I recommend it, if you like the idea of a little fishing village by the sea. It has still got what is good about a remote place, but with some fairly recently added backpacker comfort, such as hostels and a few restaurants(or more accurately, shacks that serve food). The hostels are right by the sea and most/all have lovely views from many of their windows.
http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/blog-457996.html
Thai Allstars...surely some mistake? Hello Mr Carp! It's a fair point Bangkok has other attractions, but none of them really jumped out at me. Perhaps Id feel different if Id seen Thaksin Shinawatra's mob trying (and failing) to play football there.
Sadly I didn't make it out to Pattaya, altho I am greatly intrigued by your description. 'Twinned with Sodom & Gomorrah' sounds like a great slogan for their tour brochures!
Nice one but... Yo Frosty, you forgot to mention the highlight of the Kanchanaburi, with the effigies of the leading protagonists of WW2, none of whom, look anything like the people they claim to represent.
You're a bit hard on old, Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit, (Bangkok to you and me) There's Jim Thompson's House, Wat Pho, The Palace, chilling out in Lumphini park with all the giant monitor lizards and if you are as lucky as I was seeing Manchester City getting beaten by some Thai "Allstars".
For somewhere that could be twinned with Sodom & Gomorrah, Bangkok has nothing on Pattaya.
Hi Kae, good to hear from you!
Afraid that I know only too well the pain of jobhunting. I swear there must only be one journalism job left in Britain - everyone I know seems to be searching for it.
I'm really enjoying travelling at the moment. Well, not right this second cos Im suffering from heatstroke in Cambodia. But generally it's pretty damn marvellous & allows me to put off the jobsearch for a while. Hopefully see you soon!
Respect and jealousy Richard Frost, you have me green with envy! Travelling is on my list of urgent things that need to be done in the next 5 years. But being unemployed and several moons behind you in the journalism-job stakes, it looks like it's going to be postponed for a while yet. Alas, keep me dreaming of that fateful day with your blogs and have an amazing time!
Right. I'm going to go and do another 12-hour shift of job hunting now...
Kae :-)
How do Good to hear you're both ok! You're not missing much back home, the weather is typically un-winter-like and Uniteds inevitable ascent to the top of the league has begun. Still you don't want to listen to me moaning about Manchester! Looking forward to some pictures!
All the best, Owen, Adam & Emma.
My name's Richard Frost and I'm a Manchester-based media freelancer who loves to travel.
In late 2012/early 2013, I spent 6 months in South America visiting Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil. You can also read about my previous trip to China and south-east Asia, where I passed 5 months in Beijing, Hong Kong, Macau, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.
For non-travel stuff, I have a separate site where I blog about Chorlton, Manchester, SEO, PR and social media marketing.
... full info
Brian Bugeja
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Richard, Where is this water park? Brian