Travel Blog Posts
January 28th 2011
Another week, another Friday, and we're pretty tired out. Last weekend we went up the coast for a night with a about 12-13 others for one of their birthday's. We took a 2hr taxi out to the middle of nowhere to find a nice quiet beach with a nothing much for miles around. We thought we were going to be sleeping on the beach, but in the end we ended up in a slightly fenced off area with access to a proper toilet - bit of a result. We had a fire, and cooked food in tin foil parcels on the coals, and drank rum and had a good time. The next day, me and Sarah fell asleep in the sun, and I got burnt to a crisp. I have been in some serious pain all ... read more
January 13th 2011
So here we are, back in Peru! We've been here just over a week now, and we're getting settled in nicely. There's a bunch of people still here at the school from the last time we were here, which has made things even easier. Getting on the plane was a nightmare though - took us about an hour to get through check-in! They wanted proof that we were going to be leaving within the 6 month visa limit (which we didn't have) and we ended up having to buy and then cancel a refundable ticket. Also, after we had checked in 2 of the 4 bags their website said we were allowed they decided to mention that we were only allowed 2. Another drama followed, but all got sorted in the end. Also, we had a ... read more
July 14th 2010
Lazy days. After leaving Trujillo we've headed north to relax by the beach for a few days - this time to a place called Mancora. It's a real tourist town after what we've had for the last couple of months, you can't move for sunglasses salesmen and 2x1 drinks offers! Still, we're in a posh little bungalow with hammock and a flower bed in the bathroom! Leaving SKIP was a bit wierd, quite sad really. You live and work with the same people for a couple of months and then you're off. It's a shame to be leaving all the grubby little kids too. Made some good friends, and had some great times though so that was all good. Also had a good leaving do where we took over a balcony in a bar and saw ... read more
July 4th 2010
When we signed up for this teaching we thought 2 months would be ages, but with only 1 week left here it seems like it's flown by. It's quite a strange way to live here - every week friends you've made leave, and new people arrive. Must be pretty tough for the people here for a year or more, but we're still having a great time. We had a long weekend last week, which was timed nicely with Sarah's birthday, so we headed up the coast a bit to find some warm weather. We chose a place called Colan to go to, and planned to get there for before the England Germany game - 9am here. The less said about that the better. It took a couple of buses, changing at Piura and Paita, the second ... read more
June 15th 2010
To get out of the jungle we had a final boat, which pulled up at a port with far too many taxi drivers for the passengers. The drivers had a fight, and we ended up being driven by a maniac at 100mph down terrible roads, and being over charged for it. Mustn't grumble though, we were apparently in the old area held by the Peruvian terrorists The Shining Path, and we had no terrorist troubles. Apparently they've moved on. From there we headed to Lima, where we had hot water and fast food and all the things we'd missed for the last couple of weeks. We didn't really do much, just rested up and maybe hit the town a little bit. We're here in Trujillo now, on the north coast of Peru, working with SKIP (Supporting ... read more
May 1st 2010
Sephaua, at last a town with a hostel including a comfy bed and running water! We were living the dream overlooking a beautifal park where we had the choice of a variety of cheap but tasty restaurants and even managed to wash our damp filthy clothes. After being befriended my a few local drunks whose only intentions were to get beer bought for them we decided to seek refuge in our hostel, and enhance our card playing skills! It was all well and good being off the tourist trail, but we wanted to do a bit of trekking etc in the jungle, but we couldn't seem to find any way to do it. We liked the place, but as we'd been without cashpoints for over a week, we had to move on to Atalaya before we ... read more
April 24th 2010
...we've got fun and games! We got a colectivo (little people carrier that waits til it's full) from Cusco out to Quillabamba on the jungle side of the Andes. For the first time in a while, we were in a town with very few westerners, so it's quite funny seeing the open mouthed stares from the locals - especially the kids. This place was pretty laid back, and had a massive market where we got some essentials for the jungle. And Kees got a massive machete. Our plan was to head to a port on the Urubamba river (the same river we rafted on) and get a boat, as that's as far as the road goes. We had a 5am bus for the port, but that day didn't quite go as planned! About 1hr out of ... read more
April 14th 2010
OK, I know - we are lazy. It's been well over a month since the last blog, but here's what we've been up to. Back in April.... We had a night bus to Cusco with big 1st class lazyboy style bus seats which was nice, and (as a treat) we also had two fat snoring Peruvians behind us for 12 hrs! Still, I'm sure we brought a little English snoring to the party so we can't complain too much. Cusco is the starting point for Machu Picchu, so there's a load of tourists about - more than anywhere else we've been. The only problem with this is there's people trying to sell you hats/massages/dinner/etc everywhere you go. Among other things, I now own a hat with llamas on it and a spiderman finger-puppet as a result ... read more
April 6th 2010
So then, this should finally have us up to date! We met up with Ryan and Kees in Mendoza Argentina, all pretty successfully, but Ryan did have to spend a night in a McDonalds waiting for daylight so he could find where we were staying! We had a fairly lazy week or so, in Mendoza and then Cordoba - catching up with old stories and getting used to Ryan's new hair. We had just under a month to get to Peru to meet Ma and Pa Vickery, with a route north through Argentina, Chile and Bolivia planned. We went up to Salta in the northwest corner of Arg. and had a pretty good hostel, where we met a few people who by chance we'd end up bumping into over the next couple of weeks. They also ... read more
A big catch up. Part I
Published: March 19th 2010South America » Chile » Antofagasta Region » San Pedro de Atacama
March 19th 2010
So OK, we´ve been a bit lazy. First blog in ages! I´ll do a bit of a summary of what we´ve been up to, and hopefully we´ll be a bit better from now on. We´re in the desert in northern Chile at the moment, nut for now here´s a catch up... From Bariloche we went down to El Bolson, a nice little town in the lake district in Argentina. It´s a bit of an old hippy hangout, apparently it´s got one of the world´s great energy centres, but we didn´t feel anything man. What we did feel was a big 8hr hike in the rain up and down mountains, and over indiana jones style bridges, which Sarah loved. From there we got a couple of buses over to Chile, where the slightly anal border control took ... read more
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