AJ amandajane

Sunday 6th April (Odyssey Day 149) Breakfast was set for 0700 and the whole of cook group was there early for a change! My new group is Group 4, consisting of myself, Mike, Hannah and Bartley this time. No complaints from me, it’s a good group. Packing our stuff back into the truck, Simon managed to get our bowls back from the Tucan cook tent and while there, stuck an Odyssey sticker on a pot. Hannah then put one under their trestle table and our group found it absolutely hilarious. Nothing quite like showing your maturity, hey? We got going at 0800 and today we head for Huaraz. To get there we headed off down the coast for quite a way before turning inland. Then we headed away from the coastal plains and over some rather ... read more

Monday 31st March (Odyssey Day 143) We had time for bacon and eggs for breakfast, and still managed to depart at 0830 this morning. We were heading for the city of Cuenca, our last stop in Ecuador. We had lunch in a little town, the name of which I never did discover. Though a few of us spent the lunch hour trying to find a working ATM so we could get out some more US$ before crossing the border. The town of Cuenca seemed to be quite nice on first view, though it took us a while to get the truck within walking distance of the hotel. When we finally managed to find somewhere to park temporarily, we walked a few blocks to the hotel and after such a very long day of driving, we were ... read more

Sunday 23rd March (Odyssey Day 135) After 135 days travelling the roads of South America in a converted truck, it was about time for a vacation. And so the majority of the group headed off for a break from our life on the road. This mini holiday within a holiday was spent in the beautiful Galapagos Islands, where the yacht ‘Darwin’ became our home for four unforgettable nights of amazing wildlife, beautiful scenery and fantastic food. First however, we had to get there and so our taxi this morning was at 0300, as one of the hotel staff said it might take 1 ½ hours to get to the airport. Mind you, another said it was 45 minutes. In the end it took us about 35 minutes, due to our rather speedy driver and the completely ... read more

Friday 14th March (Odyssey Day 126) An early start this morning, with Simon wanting to be on the road at 0700. Salento doesn’t seem to be very far away on the map, but it may still take us about 10 hours to get there. We have to backtrack to Medellin and then the road from there is very winding and sometimes suffers from landslides to delay traffic. Surprisingly, we managed to get packed up and on our way almost 10 minutes early. With so many of us, it is usually quite the task to leave on time. We stopped in a fairly large town for lunch. A few of us headed off to a nearby bakery/café to enjoy some delicious pastries while Simon had a tyre on the truck dealt with. If you want milk with ... read more

Saturday 8th March (Odyssey Day 120) We had a 0900 departure and said our goodbyes to Maddie and Lou this morning. They will be staying on in Cartagena for a bit, then doing an abbreviated trip including Machu Picchu, before heading back home to England. So now we have lost four more members of our group, and re-gained one. It feels noticeably emptier on the truck now. Driving along some high, winding roads, we saw some random single bright yellow trees. It was a bit odd as they were the only real colour around for a long time. There were a lot of police checks on this stretch and we had to stop a few times, though never for very long. Instead of camping, we stopped for the night at pretty much the only place we ... read more