Predicted and Unpredicted Showers

After a quality couple of months in Australia, we caught our 3 hour internal flight from Cairns back down to Sydney and then our 10 hour flight from Sydney to Bangkok. 5 Films later, we were in the land of THAI! Here's what we've been up to:

Bangkok:
Spent a couple of days in Bangkok doing the usual tourist trail. Went to visit a few temples, experienced some of the local cuisine and enjoyed a lot of the Thai beer which in comparison to its Australian counterpart is ten times tastier and a quarter of the price! Most of our adventures/misadventures in Bangkok took place as a result of Tuk-Tuk rides... Thailands very own 3 wheel motorised Taxi's which feel like they are about to crash every 10 seconds. In an attempt to get to the Grand Temple, our driver instead insisted on taking us to the floating market before eventually dropping us 10 minutes away from where we wanted to be! (We didn't actually make it into the Grand temple as we deemed the entry price was far too expensive for our modest budgets and had already visited several other lovely Thai temples and smiling little budda's!). Similarly, when trying to get to one of Bangkok's famous shopping centres we were instead dropped at a huge local market which spanned about 2km of straight road which we walked down for hours... seeing shop after shop of Ben10 pyjamas, fabrics and generally nothing which 3 boys would want to buy! Another awkward Tuk Tuk encounter occured when one dropped us at a Suit shop  (that we had no desire of going into) on our way to a temple and said we had to go in for at least 10 minutes even if we didn't want to buy anything. We went in and after the salesmen got angry at us for not buying anything, we left after 5 minutes of awkward chat to return back to the angry TukTuk driver who said we didn't stay in their long enough! Mental!

Krabi
Next off we decided to go to Phi-Phi, but after a 12 hour overnight coach journey where the roof leaked on Dan's head, we arrived in Krabi where the roads were flooded and we discovered that due to the floods, no boats were running across to where we wanted to go. We checked into a hotel in Krabi Town where we were stuck for 2 days because of the floods, power cuts and interestingly enough a shortage of running water from the mains of anywhere in the town. This meant no flushing toilets, running water and perhaps most detrimental to our stay in Krabi... KFC was shut! After around 48 hours without a shower, we took advantage of the persistent rainfall and got ontop of the hotel roof with some shampoo and shower gel to have a 'natural' shower! This was fun, clean(ish) and provided us with something to do as for the rest of our time in Krabi we were either stuck in our shack of a room playing cards or eating at the same restaurant! Forgot to say, we also indulged in a Thai Massage to kill some time.... I would say that the word 'massage' is used very liberally here as I would call it more of an assault! David also pointed out that the Thai definition of a happy ending is perhaps different from ours of finishing feeling soothed and relaxed!

Phi-Phi
We eventually made the short boat ride across to Phi Phi, a really chilled island with several amazing beaches scattered in or around it, including Maya Bay most famous for being where the film 'The Beach' was set. PP was a mix of chilling on the beach topping up our tans, going out in the night to one of the many beach bars and also seeing a couple of nutters kick the living daylights out of eachother in a bit of Thai Boxing... great entertainment and a very very cool 5 days spent on the island.

Rai-Lay Beach-
Next off we hopped on the short boat trip to Rai-Lay beach where we spent 3 nights in the comfort of a hotel/resort for only a few pounds each a night. Very very relaxing couple of days on a beautiful island which is pretty undiscovered by tourists. Highlights of our stay were the BBQ fish dinners (sampling sea bass, shark, kingfish for only a couple of quid a night) and also David's admittance/revelation that when he went swimming with Dolphins in New Zealand, upon his emergence from the sea and back onto the boat he was very excited and proclaimed that they should rename the tour 'Dancing with Dolphins!'. Despite being man enough to admit how ridiculous he sounded this has not stopped an onslaught of rinsing of his manlyhood.

Koh-Tao
I write this blog from Koh-Tao, where we have been for 5 days whilst David is completing his PADI Scuba Dive License and continuing his love affair with the water! As David gets his accommodation pretty much free with the course, me and Dan are staying in the same lovely resort for the small cost of an extra bed in the room a night. It is probably the nicest place we have stayed during the 6month trip and as well as the usual chilling on the beach/by the pool we have been and done a few things too.

First off, Dan and I got a haircut. This in itself was always going to be a risk due to the language barrier, but when your hairdressers is a he-she with boobs and a beard, the risk factor, in my opinion, doubled! Thankfully both haircuts turned out OK, much better than the massacre of my hair in Argentina!

Another great moment of the trip took place a couple of days ago.... when it was Thai New Year. It is a tradition on this day for the Thai people to go around with water guns drenching absolutely everyone whiilst getting drunk. Another funny custom they had was to chase people with soap and try and shampoo people's hair... very much in a similar way to how the big guy in Takeshi's castle tries to attack people with his painted hand when the contestant is trying to complete the giant maze! Not wanting to insult anybody, we soon joined in with the fun and partied from around 3pm until the early hours of the morning in a mix of swimming pool and beach bar parties. Highlights of this particular night were shutting Dan in a chest freezer full of ice and sitting on it and also jumping through a ring of fire! (A hoop set on fire... not a deck of cards pre-arranged for a drinking game).

And the rest..

• Dans has made an outrageous claim that he can perform 10 somersaults whilst underwater in the swimming pool. He is yet to back up this claim.

• We have suffered the biggest loss of the trip to date. Bigger than Kurdish Michael going home, just about bigger than leaving Jonny in Australia and just pipping our first football Wilson being torn apart on a night out in Bolivia... on a perfectly calm sunny day in Phi-Phi, we lost our beloved yellow official weight disc blaze ultimate Frisbee in a freak sea accident! Beach days just haven't been the same ever since

• Have had amazing weather since the Krabi floods, and had some of the tastiest food of the trip for some of the cheapest prices.

• After traveling with the same people for 6 months you would think that you would run out of things/stories to tell eachother, and whilst it is true that I have heard Davids yet to be confirmed as true 'goal monster' story around 20 times and Dan's Teddy Sherringham Bumblebee tale so many times I know it off by heart.... yesterday whilst sitting in the pool I heard 2 new fantastic stories from the pair of them! Don't let anybody ever tell you that Dan Cohen and David Friend can't spin a good Yarn. Please feel free if you ever see Dan crossing the street to get him to give you a rendition of his David 'The Sherriff' Seaman story, and similarly if you ever want to be enthralled for minutes... ask David to give you a quick recital of his Kenny Dalglish wonder!

 In other news, I have 2 weeks left of the trip and Dan/David have another 4 weeks as they have extended their trip to go and see Cambodia/Vietnam and Laos. Next up is Ko Phangan for the full moon parties and hopefully a few more epic nights out.

Until next time..

GOOD BYE!

Life's a Beach

Since I last wrote, 6 weeks have passed. Michael has left us, Spurs have defeated AC Milan in the champions league, Me and Dan have woken up at all sorts of hours to see the mighty Spurs play, we have left Sydney and said goodbye to Jonny - reducing our travelling group from a fantastic 5 to a feeble 3, David has shaved his hair off and Dan fears his head will explode!

Sydney
We lived in an apartment right on Bondi Beach for about 5 weeks and this proved to be a more chilled but still awesome experience. We sacrificed a couple of wild nights out for TV-watching nights in - partly due to the lack of money and partly due to Sunday nights fantastic TV viewing - Bondi Rescue, Hawaii Five 0 and NCIS LA became staple viewing! Meanwhile, Friday nights seemed to be occupied by going to dinner at our adopted Family, the Hoffmanns! My boss at work, Brenda (Brendles as she was affectionately nicknamed!) was a lovely jewish lady who kindly took the 4 of us into her home for Friday night dinners and to meet the family, feeding us up and sending us home with the leftovers! The food and hospitality was very much welcomed having been living off of Instant noodles and pasta for days on end! Meanwhile, a few of the Aussie girls we met in Argentina also took pity on our malnourished bodies and invited us round for a delicious BBQ.

We had some fun nights out including Brenda's Daughters Chloe's 21st Birthday Party - A fancy dress house party with the theme 'In the Garden'. Me, David, Jonny and Dan dressed up as a washing line and thought we were rather witty!:

Between going to the beach, watching DVDs and working our respective jobs, We also found some time to be tourists and visit the Opera house and Harbour Bridge... Dan in Particular enjoyed getting up close and personal with the opera house:

As our time in Sydney drew to a close, we began thinking about rushing our way up the east coast and Dan and David headed to Byron Bay where David shaved his hair off and they had a delightful time on the beaches and looking around the town. I stayed in Sydney for a couple of extra days then said my Goodbyes to all the lovely people I had met, and also to Jonny who is staying in Sydney for a couple more weeks and whom I wont see until he is back in England in around 6 months or so... Sad times!

(Jonny's hat in particular will be sorely missed!)

Brisbane:

Next up I took the 16 hour bus ride up to Brisbane, where Dan and David also arrived after their trip to Byron, and we all met up with Jack and Oscar, 2 friends we met in Bolivia who you may remember fondly from previous blogs entries in which Oscar ate a bunch of fish food and Jack was awfully handsome!

Our 4 days, 3 nights in Brisbane were hilarious and despite being poor travellers like ourselves, Joscar demonstrated outstanding hospitality in borrowing bedding for us and buying us a welcome pack of eggs bread milk and cornflakes. Here are a couple of highlights from the brief stay:

• Sausage-Gate: Oscar having recently travelled with a couple of Israeli's was intent on making us a traditional Israeli dish upon our arrival, and one that he had just learnt was a tasty Israeli stew called Shishuka (not sure how you spell that!). Anyway, whilst he was at work, he texted me asking to take his Sausages out of the freezer, and I obliged. Later in the night, when he got home, there was a powercut and in the darkness, lit only by candlelight, his french housemate Remi appears out of nowhere and accuses me of taking HIS sausages out of the freezer to defrost.... I immediately pointed the finger at Oscar who had told me to take the pack of sausages out of the freezer and despite Oscar realising he had made a mistake in that his sausages were in the fridge and not freezer, he maintained his innocence and let me take the wrap. As we later told the story to Dan and Jack, the story got more and more ridiculous until it was decided that Remi had been a raging frenchman who had accused me of being a 'Sausage Bastard!'. That aside, Oscar made a fantastic Shishuka despite having to chop all of the vegetables in the pitch black!

• Gold Coast - made the short trip down to the gold coast and more specifically to Surfers Paradise, a beautiful beach famous for its big waves. We spent a great day there with the boys playing football, frisbee, and jumping in the sea to rid us of our respective hangovers.
  
  

• Brisbane city... surprisingly cool city with plenty to do... especially when Jack and Oscar are involved!

• Oscar's face upon realising he would be too late to get a Mcdonalds breakfast... a 6 foot 4 man close to tears!

Cairns:

After a mad few days and a couple of emotional goodbyes in Brisbane, we boarded our plane to Cairns where I am writing from now. Dan and David are currently doing a scuba dive in the great barrier reef and then tomorrow we are heading off for Thailand. It is a sign of how long I have been on the road for when I am most looking forward to receiving 1 (or hopefully 2) free meals on the aeroplane!

Thailand on Sunday...
The last leg of the trip. The first time in 5 and a half months that we will be properly travelling in a group of 3. We are all very excited at the prospect of travel, cheap food and accommodation, good weather, wild nights out, exciting new things to see and generally seeing what Thailand has to offer. My prediction is that the Thai people will be friendly but sly! Fingers crossed that they are nowhere near as annoying as the Bolivian locals.

In other news, Dan has expressed concern about his head exploding due to a scuba dive and 3 flights in 3 days messing with the pressure in his head! Concerns were almost realised when he gave a positive reading in a routines explosive check at the airport last night, but a second test came back all clear. That actually happened!

That about wraps things up, so until next time...

Adios!

Australia-la-la

Just  a quickie....

What we've been upta
So after an emotional goodbye to whats-her-face (Amanda) we caught the short flight from Christchurch, New Zealand, to Sydney, Australia. The journey was painless, a short 3 hour flight was nothing in comparison to the 14 hour rocky bus journeys of Bolivia. Saying that... the pilot was seemingly terrible and almost crashed upon landing! We jumped into a shuttle that took us into the heart of Sydney's city centre... and more specifically to our Hostel... which was an absolutely dump! Highlights included the hapless staff (I asked one for a paperclip and she genuinely didn't know what a paperclip was, claiming English was not her first language) weird guests... and complimentary cockroaches! We stayed a couple of nights here and had a few very unsuccessful nights out. The first night out.... Michael and David were still in New Zealand mode so wore flip flops to go to a bar... but the bar had a strict shoes only policy... and despite Me lending Michael my socks to put over his flip flops as a genius disguise, we were turned away! The other night out involved being ejected from a bar for cheekily drawing an F on my hand and claiming that it meant I was owed a free drink. Bouncers in Australia are apparently more uptight than the Kiwi ones!


Fed up of the hostel, the seemingly weak nightlife and the cloudy weather... we were all but ready to pack up and move onto Melbourne. However, after a trip down to Bondi Beach on our third day, and the first sunny day of our time in Oz, we realised we had found our true calling! Bondi Beach is a wonderful place my friends, great views, great weather and great women... poyfect! We realised the error of our ways in staying in the centre of the city and quickly moved to a new hostel by the beach which was much more chilled out... and began our search for jobs, cheaper accommodation and a decent night out! Also... we have met back up with Jonny who flew into Australia a few days after us.... more on that later! (below... Bondi Beach)

Business Ventures
Given that the average price of a cadburys Dairy Milk here is about 1pound50, money is sure running out fast and we have become inventive in new ways of saving money (using mcdonalds for free wifi and free ketchup, eating peoples left over food etc!) - also stepped up the search for job.

• However, Before resigning ourselves to the working world  Myself and Michael got a bit entrepreneurial and decided to try and make a quick buck by making and Selling Sandwiches! We bought a load of ham bread and mustard from the supermarket, swiftly made and wrapped 50 sandwiches and places them in our cool bag, made a sign... and headed out into the streets of Sydney to get selling... $2 a sandwich, the freshest and cheapest in town... surely we were onto a winner!? Apparently not... we broke even on our 30$ costs and made about a 10$ profit each. We discovered that nobody really wants to buy sandwiches off of bearded travellers... and also that people ended up just giving us money out of sympathy! On the plus side, we got a lot of exercise walking around and also saw a lot of tourist attractions including the opera house and the harbour bridge... both of which are no different in real life as to what they look like on google images!

• By chance I was standing by reception at our second hostel when they got a call from a tree surgeon saying that he needed some assistance for the following day... essentially labouring for him by carrying large trees, branches etc to his trailer once he had cut them down. For 20$ an hour, I bit his hand off and the next day I began working for Pip, The Tree Surgeon! Pip, aged around 35 is a big man who carries his tiny dog on a pink lead with him to work every day. Pip, cuts down trees using chainsaws. Pip is skilled at his job. Pip has a funny name. I have never done a days gardening in my life. I am small. I have a normal name. So the next 5 hours were pretty hard work as I schlepped heavy trees and branches over many metres and lifted them into his trailer, occasionally having to cut them down and do some raking and leaf blowing in the process. The work in the sweltering heat was extremely tough but i got through, and he even hired me a few more times after which was most delightful. Theres even whispers of me being nominated for young rakesmen of the year 2012 (I already beat David to it this year despite his work helping an old lady renovate her house and garden)

• Pip only can give me occasional work, so I have now scored myself a full time job... Holding a sign for a shop! I get paid 50$ to stand (or sit) holding a sign for 4 hours a day. Its the easiest money I have ever made. I don't have to do anything but exist, and hold a sign. Simples! (Family... I know you are really proud of me!)

Apartment
Due to the extortionate price of hostels, its actually cheaper to rent an apartment! So very quickly, we found and moved into one right next to the beach, on Bondi Road... and its absolutely awesome! Me, Jonny, David and Dan are the occupants, with Michael just crashing on our couch for the week until he heads back home. We have quickly made the place our own, and it is great not to be living out of a suitcase again, if only for the next 5weeks or so! New Apartment, 'Cassa De Gringo' shown below!:

Birthday Week
The much anticipated Birthday Week is under way! Jonny celebrated his birthday on Saturday night and we decorated the flat accordingly.... banners, hats, balloons, cake etc etc! Michael's Birthday is on Tuesday, and Davids on Wednesday... so the messy week looks set to continue!

People

• Australians - haven't met very many yet! Everyone around here seems to be travellers! Hope to find some real ozzys soon!

• Thomas - staff at our Bondi Beach hostel. French. Extremely good at table tennis. Extremely bad at doing an English accent.

• The Kaizer - or captain of 'Team Ireland' - the hostels group of travellers who took over the kitchen every night. We despised her for many reasons, not just that she was fat and ugly!

• A tramp... in a bid to save money... we slept on the beach with a many a tramp the day before we moved into our new apartment as we did not fancy spending another 100$ collectively on one more nights stay at the hostel. Michael and Dan chose a nice concrete floor next to the tramps, whilst me and David opted for the softer sand. It was uncomfortable and got freezing at about 5am.... but money well saved and another life experience gained!!

• Michael Rhodes. Lad. What a man. He is going home on Thursday after an extremely enjoyable and memorable 4 month stint with him. He will be missed greatly by all. The rumours are true.... Rhodes does indeed know the roads... and his navigation skills have pretty much single handedly got us to where we are today. I will not however miss his Kurdish beard.
  
• Ricky Lawrence - true legend. Fact.

Aims
So looks like going to be in Sydney for the foreseeable future.... have a couple of publishable things to tick off my checklist:

• See an Ozzy Rules Footy game
• Have a good night out
• Rid Michael Rhodes from our lives
• Have a BBQ on the beach
• Find a nice Australian Girl to marry
• Get a great tan (yes i am using factor 50 sunblock mum)
• Find another job to save some money so that I am not a tramp in Thailand!

So that just about wraps it up! I'm off to do a wee that I have been bursting to do since I got into this Internet cafe, then (after washing my hands) will be going to buy some fresh vegetables to make a pasta sauce with!

Until next time... Byeeeee!
x

'Sweeeeet As'

Sweet As Bro! New Zealand has had a bit of everything, and due to the extortionate cost of getting on the Internet and the lack of free time, this blog post has been extremely delayed! I will attempt to fill you in on the last month of my trip....so eeeree goooeezzz:

New Years Antics:
Having just arrived in New Zealand and chilling in Auckland for a few days, we didn't really know what to do for new years. After attempting valiantly to board a freighter ship to Fiji, but falling short at the final hurdle, we decided to make the short 3 hour trip up to the Bay of Islands situated at the very north of the north island of NZ. From here, We got a ferry across to an island with a funny name, believed to be Uckupucku or something similar for the Annual New Years Eve Music Festival / Fancy dress pirate party! We had a cracking night, and given the short notice, our pirate outfits went down a huge hit:

However, perhaps the most remarkable thing about that evening / the trip / my life was the 'Miracle of Che'
.... I attempted to draw a pirate upon Dans arm, but after drawing a circle and two dots in about 1 second, I realised I had drawn a perfect replicate, completely by accident, of the iconic photo of Che Guevara! Truly Unbelievable I think you will agree:

To this day I still can't believe it! When the party died down, we got on the ferry back to the hostel where our bags were stored, but as we were doing a day trip the next day at 7am, we decided against booking in at the hostel and instead, attempted to slum it for a few hours between 4am and 7am. We didn't take into account that the storage room would be shut and that it would be cold and wet... so we spent these few hours shivering on the outdoor decking before I found refuge in someone elses room... and then discovered that the hostel had a hot tub, so on New Years Day, 2011, at 6am, we relaxed / recovered from near frostbite in a relatively dirty and overly hot, hot tub!!

At 7am on New Years Day, we were picked up by our bus for the day to take us to Cape Reinga, the most northern part of New Zealand where the Pacific and Tasmin Sea's meet. The views were incredible, and after a jumping in the sea with massive freezing waves crashing over us... we were rid of our hangovers! The rest of the day was spent on the famous '90 mile beach', going sandboarding down massive sand dunes, and on the way back from an extremely long day, we got the best fish and chips I've ever had from the apparently world famous "Mangonui Fish and Chip Shop". The fish had been caught merely hours earlier and it was heavenly!!

Car Rental/Car Mental:
For the rest of our time in the north island, we decided to rent a car to give us the freedom we so badly craved! We didn't take into account that it was peak season for car rentals, so dreams of a camper van soon diminished, and after hours upon hours of searching, we settled for a Toyota Camry. This my friends is the definition of a mid of the range business mans car! It was a 5seater and given that there were 5 of us plus all of our luggage, it was a miracle that we all managed to fit in comfortably. The boot of the Camry was bigger than Ian Wrights Wife! Me and Michael were the designated drivers for the 10 days we had the car, and here is a quick run down of what we got up to:

• New Chums Beach - one of the worlds top 20 beaches. bliss.
• Hot Water Beach. Does what is says on the tin... burns ya feet.
• Played a whole lot of pool. David mentored me to become an average player but I had to sack him when he failed to take me to the next level. I installed Rhodes as my new mentor but we're already having teething problems. I feel a bit like a caged rocket Ronny ready to be let loose!
• Hells Gate - Hot Mud Baths.
• Maori Village - Exhibition of the customs of the Maori people including meeting a tribe, being shown the Haka very enthusiastically and having a 'hangi' or feast as we would say in English!
• Caving/Abseiling/Black Water rafting - Action packed day, very fun, sounds more dangerous than it was though!
• Skydive....

Skydive over Lake Taupo:
The 5 of us decided to do a skydive from 15,000 ft in the air, jumping out of an aeroplane and free falling for 60 seconds before the release of a parachute, attached to a stranger that we could only hope had guided people to safety before! I was very nervous beforehand, especially after the kind receptionist at the hostel asked us why we would want to get out of a perfectly functioning aeroplane at 15,000 ft in the air when we could land safely without jumping out! I put his perfectly logical question to one side as we got inside the tiny aircraft and readied myself for the big moment! I was strapped to my Canadian instructor Cody and after I had seen the trees below turn to dots in the distance and had watched David and Dan being sucked into thin air, I found myself at the open door of the plane, flying high, hanging out....and then.... whoooshhh.... I was pushed out by my instructor and began the ferocious fall screaming shouting and attempting to breathe! Before I knew it, the parachute had been pulled and I felt safe again as I glided for few minutes to the ground, landing perfectly and taking in the great views over the glorious Lake Taupo on the way down! Splendid.

Delighted to be alive, I began to jump up and down with the others for a video but ALAS jumping up and down appears to be more dangerous than skydiving as the clip on the harness smashed me in my teeth when I was in the midst of celebration! Classic moment and.... OUCH!

The rest of our car rental experience was awesome - the scenery on the drive was the best I have ever had the privilege of driving through, and despite us only having 1 CD for the car for 10 days, we made the best of a bad situation and this hit by 'collective soul' became our car anthem... mainly because everyone hated it but I kept playing it!! See Link Below for the song!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9ywbNv72xM

South Island/Kiwi Experience:
After crossing the channel and arriving in the South Island, we boarded the much talked about Kiwi Bus. (A bus full of young traveller that takes you to loads of popular places). Highlights include:

• Poo Pub! A pub/hostel nicknamed the poo pub due to its location by Lake MahinaPUA. The place has become legendary because of its owner, an 85 year old mental man called Les with a big beard! Everyone from the bus dresses up in fancy dress and pretty much goes a bit mental:

• Franz Joseph Glacier. 'The worlds fastest moving ice glacier' - It was really cool, we drunk some glacier water, climbed through tunnels, caves, tight spaces, hiked for about 6-8 hours and threw some glacier water over our heads. COOOL!

• Made loads of friends including Canadian Ryan - LEGEND, The other Leeds Uni boy crew (pannicc), Euan who's cross dressing antics made for a hilarious story, the flying Belgium, and many many more.

Queenstown:

Picture about sums it up:

The penultimate stop of our Kiwi Bus is/was Queenstown. Its by far my favourite place in New Zealand due to the nightlife, picturesque scenery, heaps of activities to do and of course the notorious and delicious 'Fergburger' Restaurant. Our 7 days here have been particularly crazy, involving a lot of partying and of course....

THE NEVIS BUNGY JUMP!! The third highest bungy jump in the world, hovering a staggering 134m over a canyon, leaping off a tiny platform in a suspended cable car, attached only by some bungy rope attached to your ankles! I was pooping my pants prior to doing it, and being the lightest in the group, I had to go last!! When it was finally my turn, my instructor shouted 3-2-1-JUMP, and with that, I took a leap of faith, literally, and sprung into the air and for some reason decided to shout/scream 'LEEEEESSSNEEERR!!" It was unbelievably unbelievable as I plummeted for what seemed like an eternity before feeling the re-assuring feel of the bungy chord kicking in and the feeling of weightlessness disappear! Of course the bungy was not over and after bouncing back high again, i was dropped again a few times before being towed back up to the cable car and kissing the 2 instructors jubilantly. I thanked them profusely for not killing me and we were all absolutely buzzing. Amanda certainly won the award for most comical fall, I hope that one day you all get to see her video! My Bungy video can be seen below:

Freeeee stuff
In Queenstown we have won and worked for an incredible amount of free stuff! It all began on the day we got here and we haphazardly entered ourselves into the 5-a-side footy tournament. Our team of Me, David, Dan, Michael in goal with his marigold gloves on and Canadian Ryan grew in stature and confidence throughout the tournament.... drawing our first 3 games before winning our last league match - and then winning the final on penalties thanks to some heroics from Rhodes in net. Ryan was an absolute gem, having only played football a few times in his life, he was taking on players and banging in the goals for us! Our prize was a 100$ free bar tab at Buffalo's Bar which we were most grateful of and it lead to a fantastic night out on the town! At the bar, I also won a free zip-line day out in a raffle... Result!

Earlier in the week I was really hungry and got a free pie by simply asking for one!!

Later in the week.... I won a Free Bungy Jump by winning a dance off with some SICK moves!! So yes.... just as I thought my extreme sports days were behind me, Today I partook in my second Bungy Jump of the week.... this time from a shorter distance but it was equally as scary and even more fun as I got to take a run up and hurl myself off the top of a cliff before having a fantastic view over queenstown on the way up.... WOHOOO!!

Michael and I also worked for a couple of days, cleaning for 2 hours in exchange for a free nights stay at the hostel. We had a laugh changing the bed sheets whilst extremely hungover!

Finally, My Zipline experience which I won was pretty tame in comparison to my other extreme sport activities, however, I am proud to say I have now zipped down the highest zipline in the world! The experience was somewhat less dramatic given that the average age of the group I was with was about 60 years old, but a free activity is a free activity and it was a very pleasant afternoon!

Jonny, Will, Amanda, Serial Killer
Remember Jonny....who we travelled with in South America....We met back up with him in Queenstown and had a cracking night out. We hope to see him again very shortly in Australia. He is still really good at stuff... he fixed my flip flop with a paper clip.

And What of Amanda I hear you ask? She has been an extremely wonderful addition to our group over the month in new Zealand and I for one will be extremely sad to see her go. She is much much much better to look at than those ugly mugs of Dan David and Michael!

Will Burgess. WILL BURGESS??!?!!? We only went and ran into none other than under 17 Spec Legend cup winning hero Will Burgess on a night out in Queenstown. Absolute LEGEND! Small world eh!

The Serial Killer.... There was a Dutch woman on our kiwi bus who we have nicknamed the Serial Killer. This is because her face actually offends us! She is really odd looking and we believe she has escaped a mental asylum and is on the run. We haven't seen her in a few days and are pretty grateful!

What Does the Future Hold? Noodles?
With Money running out fast, instant noodles have been the order of the month in New Zealand. I now consist of roughly 70% instant noodle, 20% pasta and 10% beer. We are flying to Australia in 2 days where the plan is to work work work and also celebrate Jonny, David and Michael's Birthdays within 4 days of eachother in the middle of February.... or as it has become known.... "BIRTHDAY WEEK". It Promises to be a classic.

Peace and Love and Gareth Bale

xxxx

Feliz Navidad

Simon Lee, Dan told me that you required me to talk more about my thoughts and feelings in my blogs. I take my readers opinions very seriously and as such, I will attempt to do so in this blog, and those in the future.

Laurence Conway, in a recent viber call you informed me that my sentences could flow a little more and you felt 'let down' by my spelling, and in cases, grammar. Again, I value the opinions of my viewers as both very important and indeed crucial for the future success of Jim's Travels.

So, to continue from where I left off last time:

Cordoba, Argentina:
After enduring the worst hangover known to man, and spending a day on a wonderful glittery beach next to a stream, I readied myself for one final night out. Many things happened on this night but the highlights include practicisng our broken Spanish whilst chatting up girls...and repeating the sentence, "Por favour, esta es mon primera noche en Cordoba, Donde Es Mui Bien??" which roughly translated and using hand motions means, "Excuse me, it is our first night in Cordoba....Where is very good?" - Needless to say... the line worked terribly. Also, Jonny promised us that he would take us on a "giant tour" - which involved him taking us to the end of the road where he thought he had seen a giant women, but by the time we got there she had vanished. I don't think Jonnys Giant Tour will be making it into the lonely planet guide this year but regardless it was a very fun night.

Simon, How did this make me feel?? I felt upset. I was looking forward to the giant tour.

The next day, we headed to the Che Guevara museum - which was his old house from his childhood which had been converted into a museum. It was interesting, if a little lacking in information! On the way to the museum, I got talking to a 60 year old Argentinian woman called Marina, who gave us many recommendations for the rest of Argentina. She was lovely and we discussed Argentina, England, Politics, Sport, Art....and we really hit it off! When we both got off the bus at the same stop, I had a photo with her and kissed her goodbye. Just as I kissed her goodbye, her very confused husband coincidentally drove past and must have wondered what his wife was doing with 5 boys and kissing such an attractive young man! I explained it all to him for a while until his wife informed me he didn't speak English! (below, me and Marina!)

Simon, How did this make me feel?? Happy. And slightly confused that I am attracted to old women!

Mendoza, Argentina.
Mendoza is an area in the middle of Argentina famous for its vineyards. Eager to improve our knowledge on one of Argentina's most famous exports, we embarked on a wine tour of the local area. Mr Hugo provided us with a map of the area, a glass of wine, a bottle of water and bicycle to get around. The next 6 hours or so were truly magical! We visited a few vineyards, tried many red wines, white wines and sparkling wines, learned a little about the grapes of the region... and visited a special special place - a factory making the finest olive oil, spirits, chocolate and absinthe! We sampled all of the above, and rode around Mendoza for the rest of the day very merry! (below.... us at the winery)

The next day, we headed to a huge park in the middle of the city which contained a large football stadium (estadion Provincial) around a 40,000 seater which hosted some games when the world cup was last in Argentina. We ventured towards it in hope of perhaps doing a tour... but with no staff around, we took matters into our own hands, snuck around a fence.... and bang....we were in the stadium! Photos were taken, seat hopping took place and ideas were formulated on how to jump past the moat which surrounded the pitch to stop fans getting onto the pitch! Me and Dan lowered ourselves down, then jumped onto the pitch to run around jubilantly and pretend for a minute that we were Argentina Footballers. Getting down was easy... but getting back up was ny on impossible as its much easier to fall/jump downwards six feet, than leap upwards the same distance! Michael and David were waiting patiently, safely in the seats thinking of ways to get us back up when a security guard, with a big dog appeared out of nowhere to tell us we had 2 minutes to get off the pitch... or pay the consequences! We found a table near the dugout (convenient i know!) and climbed up on it, then leaped to safety with the assistance of Michael and Davids firm grips before swiftly departing the lovely stadium- safe in the knowledge that a real stadium tour was soon to commence a week later... in a better stadium, with an actual guide...and in a legal manner! (Below, me celebrating entrance to the stadium!)

Simon, How did breaking the law make me feel?? Scared. I'm an honest man with honest values and if its a crime to love football so much that I want to jump onto a pitch then I'm guilty. *
Buenos Aires, Argentina.
What a week, what  place! Arrived in BA on the morning of the 19th December and headed to a local area called 'La Boca' where Boca Juniors football team are based, and we meandered the local markets and took in the sights of the colourful buildings and football mad culture. I successfully took my tally of foreign football shirts up to 10 with the acquisition of an Argentina, Tevez football shirt. (I had by this point already purchased my Martin Palermo, Boca Juniors top!) That night it took me 24 minutes to down my dirty pint.... and I didn't make it to the nightclub!

The next day we drew names out of the hat for Secret Santa gifts, played some pool, recovered then went out again, sober as could not stand the thought of alcohol, and performed some classic dance moves including the pencil jump! Successful night!

The rest of the week was generally spent preparing for Christmas (I bought 12 Christmas hats after running around the city for an hour asking people where i could buy a 'Sombrero Navidenyos') sight seeing, partying and  trying to find lookalikes. I found a Kevin Pieterson lookalikey who David denied, but I will claim until I am blue in the face that he looked exactly the same as him! We also all concurred that Michael looks very much like your average kurdish man! MICHAEL IS A KURD!! (Below, picture of typical Kurdish man. Please note similarities to Michael)

We made it to Recoleta, where we sunbathed next to a massive mechanical flower and also saw the grave of Eva Peron, Evita, in a famous cemetery. We experienced the Palermo and Santielmo Markets, where I purchased a mannequins head, for 50 pesos. Mannequins heads are fun for a few minutes, however almost impossible to travel with due to their weird shape and size! This aside, I do not regret my decision! We also completed our legal, excellent and highly recommended Boca Juniors Stadium tour. The stadium nicknamed 'la bombonera' was awesome, and our tour guide was a really fit woman! Highlights included running onto the pitch, getting undressed in the changing room showers for some photos, and having a kick around outside with our boca juniors football! Oh... and I accepted the challenge of wearing my full boca juniors tracksuit for the full day despite the 35 degree heat. It was boiling and everyone thought i was either mental or an extremely cold and passionate Boca Juniors Fan! (Below, me in my full body tracksuit.... HOT!)

Jonny left us on the 23rd. It was emotional. He was a great guy and will be sorely missed for the next week or so until we see him again, however he had to catch his flight from Chile to New Zealand on Christmas day. As a result, we had a mock Christmas a few days early where we went for another great steak meal and exchanged our secret Santa gifts:

• Michael got Dan a book about space and planets as well as a voucher for one hug! Dan loves space and planets!!
• Dan got Michael a Toy Story Towel, and some children's Toy Story underpants. Michael LOVES toy story. And underwear!
• Jonny got me a Boca Juniors Football. He must know me very well, I LOVE football!!
• I got David a bracelet, some Dulce De leche, some black pepper, medicine and a voucher for 1 favour, non sexual, to be redeemed at any time. David LOVES stuff!!
• Finally, David got Jonny some Cigarettes. Jonny LOVES cigarettes!

We said our farewells to Jonny, and spent the next day, Christmas eve, partying hard at Pacha nightclub until the sun came up... It was a great night and bought Christmas Day in in Style! (Below... Tearing up Xmas.... BA style with fake snow!)

We Also met a very happy Chinese Man called Shin.

Our time in BA was spent at Millhouse Hostel, which apart from some of the most unfriendly and unenthusiastic staff known to man, was awesome. We met some real characters, including one man in particular, Angel! Angel, or Kevin to give his christened name was a 29 year old American who was looking for a flat in BA but spent his days and nights in Millhouse sitting on a couch near the back of the lobby telling stories of his miss-spent youth. One night when David was very drunk, he kindly offered to put David into a choke so that he turned unconscious as this would put David out of his misery. He assured us that he had done it a hundred times and it was very safe... indeed he had endured the fate himself a number of times and woken up in the trunks of cars! After a few minutes of persuasion we let him down gently and politely asked him not to choke anyone tonight... nor in any nights in the future! Choking aside, Angel was a millhouse hero who endeared himself to us with his cheeky grin and infectious smile... legend! (Angel, Shown Below)

Dan Also gave 100 pesos to a tramp on Christmas day... whilst the tramp was asleep. Giving charity anonymously is one of the nicest and most generous things man can do. Simon, How did this make me feel?? Proud. Very Proud of my kind friend Daniel!

Flying:
Spent the days of 27th and 28th December on Flights to Auckland, New Zealand. There were many highlights of the epic journey.... including:

• everyone having to wake up very early, very drunk and hungover to catch the flight.
• One member of the group throwing up both on the plane and at the airport!
• Watching about 5 films, 2 Documentaries and reading 1 book.
• An increase in the standard of aeroplane food and free headphones.
• Stopping over in Sydney and rubbing the ozzies faces in it that we were killing them in the ashes.
• Arriving in an English speaking country 2 days later, get in!!!

Auckland, New Zealand:
After a fantastic and well deserved nights sleep, we set about organising our next month's travel (we are no further forward) and seeing some of Auckland's sights. Today we scaled the city's sky tower to see a great view over the city and looked down through the glass floor at a height of around 192m. The glass was only 4cm thick...Scary!

We walked to the harbour, ate some sushi, wondered about the city and also we are now with Michael's American friend, Amanda, who will be travelling with us for the next month. In Jonnys boots, she has large boots to fill, but after day one I am confident she can affect the group dynamic in a positive way as she also likes to mock Michael and his Kurdish beard!

Many more things to do in New Zealand, and so little time.

I hope you all had a good Christmas and enjoy the new year.

Simon.... what are my thoughts and feelings about the pending new year.......joy, excitement and anticipation.

Prediction.... 2011 is going to be absolutely HUGE!!

xxx

*Don't Commit Crimes.

2 weeks. 3 countries. Several Hangovers.

Forgot to say last time.... we also did some volunteer work in Cusco, Peru.... we helped build a straw thatched roof for a building inside a local school/community centre. Now, I Don't mean to blow my own trumpet, but I think these kids will be some of the driest kids in Peru.... It was an absolutely wonderful construction!

Arequipa Continued:
Given that we had little idea of what Arequipa had to offer, we soon discovered that it was a really cool city with lots to do.... Many of which we didn't do because of time and money! But During some of our most proactive hours, we were challenged to a game of football against the hostels Peruvian staff. They dismantled team England quite easily (I blame the altitude) however we did show some flashes of brilliance and on another day, with Adam yuchatel as manager, I firmly believe we could have won! This game lead to a lifelong (2 day) firm friendship being built with the hostel staff, and its fair to say that we established ourselves as hostel legends too over the coming days. After the football game, we headed to a local museum where we shown the remains of a girl who's body has been frozen, preserved almost perfectly, for the last 500 years! Her name was Juanita, and at aged just 13 she was sacrificed to the Inca gods on top of a volcano! Pretty weird right.... see below!

With our brains having experienced a bit of knowledge and culture, we decided we best have a big night out so that the world regained some equilibrium. Yes, you guessed it, pre drinks began with the customary game of ring of fire.... .this time the drink in the middle contained avocado and tomato, and it was again Dan who had to consume this alcoholic gazpacho! We also had an epic game of giant jenga which left the Arequipans amazed with our guile, dexterity, and hand eye coordination.... it is estimated that the game lasted around half an hour and the tower reached a height which exceeded the length of any known tape measure. We headed out to a club called dejavu, and what happened later that night is not publishable on a family friendly blog such as this. But it was hilarious.

The next day, I recuperated in the hammock for most of the day in the summer sun, then we grabbed a nice dinner, and once back at the hostel, were presented with a "the point" (name of the hostel) tshirt each for free for being such great guests. Chuffed with this, we headed to bed and began to mentally prepare ourselves for firstly, crossing the border again the next day, back to Bolivia, and secondly, for one more crazy night out at the Wild Rover Hostel!

La Paz, Bolivia, Again, Just for One day!
The man who had promised us the world in booking our coach to the border and then to LaPaz from Peru had, as expected by most, not delivered and we rushed to the coach station after the lift that he had said would be picking us up from our hostel, had not turned up. We made our coach, and upon changing coaches then realised that the coach he had said he had booked for us from Puno to the border... did not exist! We complained to one of the bus companies and they said a man called Fernando would be along to meet with us in 10 minutes. He turned up, sorted out our transport to the border, then gave us 50soles to get another bus once we had crossed the border in order to get to LaPaz. Whilst we were again suspicious of the strangers generosity and help, we obliged as we had no other way of getting to our destination, and a few shady minibuses and several hours later, we were back at our spiritual home, Wild Rover Hostel.... for one more crazy night!

Now..... doing a shot of jagermeister on a dicky tummy is no easy feet. Now..... Please spare a thought for the poor individual who was born 6 weeks premature and as a result has a gag reflex to shots when on a dicky tummy... myself! It was agreed (forced upon me) that should I not be able to do said shot, I would be stripped to my boxers in the middle of the bar. Despite the fact that head barman, Jack, assured me that Jagermesiter was voted the easiest shot to do in a recent poll by fellow gag reflexers, 2 Minutes later I was in my boxers having only been able to complete the shot in 2 attempts! I have terrible terrible friends. They also hid my clothes! This obstacle aside, the night turned out to be a bit of a let down after our high expectations, highlight was probably coming back to the room to discover my Norwegian roommate had purchased 2 giant paintings which were sitting on top of my suitcase.... one of several giant cows and one of the more elegant Lamas. Norwegians are weird.

Potosi
Arrived in Potosi, the city in Bolivia famous for its mines, and chilled out during the day, headed to the miners market... which was nothing short of rubbish, and booked our mine tour for the next day with a company called the real deal.

We woke up early the next day, and soon discovered that they really were offering the real deal when we were dressed in our full mining gear, head torch included, and were readying ourselves to go down a tiny shaft into an underground world full of miners, dynamite and a little underground devil called Tio. First we headed to the refinarys where they seperate the minerals from the rock in order to sell on, then we began our tour of the mines. It was dark, enclosed, dusty, boiling hot and we were also at the second highest city in the world.... so the altitude ensure it was also hard to breathe! The tour was amazing as we got to see the miners working conditions, rush out the way of wagons carrying 2 tonnes of rocks at a time, climb up and down a ladder with no rungs... whilst not being able to breathe.... see the miners devil, tio, in his full glory, and at the end.... after surfacing alive from the mine without any damage.... hold some live dynamite in our hands (and mouths) then giving it to the tourguide to run really quickly with to a spot 100m away, then run back, and watch the dynamite explode! After this, I discovered 2 things... 1) Being a miner would be a near impossible job.... very very very hard work. and 2) Blowing up stuff is awessommmee! (The miners were mining silver, zinc, tin and other things but most of the silver has run out so Bolivia is pretty much done for economically unless they can sort their lithium reserves out in Uyuni, I tell you!)

After a hard mornings work, we headed to the natural hot springs half an hour away. A relatively hot lake, made less relaxing by the fact it was really deep so you could not stand or sit anywhere in it!

Uyuni, The Salt Flats
We indulged in an American breakfast and booked our salt flats tour for the same day. We were driven to various stop off points to take the standard photos. If like me, you don't know much about the salt flats.... in short its a large body of salty land, completely flat for miles and miles, left there by an evaporated salt lake many many many years ago. We took hundreds of photos, using our props of baby dolls, finger puppets, hats, dice, Bolivian women statues and a stolen polystyrene cart combined with the theory of perspective to take some interesting snaps! Full results of our unique pictures can be seen on Facebook.... but below is a personal favourite!

Michael also managed to trip and fall and graze his back when attempting to kick his baby in the air! Child abuse never pays.

Salta, Argentina

After a torrid Bolivian/Argentinian coach journey lasting 22 hours and involving Davids hand luggage being stolen, An extremely ugly and annoying Bolivian women shouting at the coach driver, and a serious lack of Argentina pesos, we arrived in Salta, Argentina! We were delighted to be in civilized society again, and to be rid of the ugly Bolivian women! We checked into our hostel and after a day of Yaniv, the Israeli card game we are now addicted to, we had a steak BBQ prepared for us by the in house chef. Now comprised of 50% cow, and having loved our first Argentinian steak, it had been a tough day and we headed to bed!

The next day, I was determined to get a haircut. This was indeed a great risk given that my last attempt at speaking Spanish had involved me asking for a ham and cheese sandwich, and receiving a fried egg sandwich combined with a glass of coffee. However, I was determined to cut my hair for Argentina is in the height of its summer and all this hair was making me mighty hot! I stumbled across a unisex hair salon, in town, who´s `pictures on the wall did not inspire me, but I took the gamble none the less. A lovely woman called Sally, began with precision, to give me the haircut i had asked for. Short on the sides, and just trimmed on top. It was going perfectly.... superbly.... brilliantly.... I thought she had understood my request once she had shaved the sides and trimmed the top to perfection.... and then, when I wasn't expecting her to continue.... she carried on... chomping away at the top until it was very short, almost a crew cut. I paid Sally for her time, not the terrible job she had done, and got lost on the way back to the hostel. When I eventually arrived back, Michael decided that my new name was G.I.Jim, and asked me how my time in the army was. It was bad haircut as shown below. 

That night, we went out in search of the beautiful Argentinian women we had seen that day seen perusing the streets of Salta. We found some, who recommended we go to a certain club, and drink a drink called fernet. Fernet is a horrible drink! Do not under any circumstances ever drink Fernet!! It tastes like petrol and shoe polish combined, thinned, and disguised as a normal drink. It was the devil! The above picture demonstrates both our disgust at the drink, as well as my new haircut. Fetching. The night ended at around 6am, and for legal reasons, I cannot say which 2 out of the group we were with ended up kissing girls who may or may have been 15 years old!

Salta was a lovely city, and we found a great Steak restaurant called Jacks where we consumed larger than life steaks, and I predict that we now consist of 75% cow. Also the beer of Argentina, Quilmes, is a taste sensation. We decided that Argentina has everything you need for a man.... great beer, great food, great football and great girls!

Cordoba

Coached our way 12 hours down Argentina to Cordoba, again a lovely city. I purchased my umpteenth football shirt, a Boca Juniors Home kit with Palermo on the back. Delighted when the market guy had no change so let me off of 5 pesos. So far we have eaten steak, sunbathed, and been out on a night out which I do not wish to talk about in the foreseeable future!

In Cordoba, we plan to go to the Che Guevara museum and today, to a natural pool thingy to catch some rays and relax. Then were off to the vineyards of Mendoza tomorrow night.... before making our way to Buenes Ares in time for the lead up to Christmas.

Happy days.

Friends, I have obviously under exaggerated these stories, its absolutely mental out here! My haircut is really short, I look like a thug.... innit!!

Mum and family, I have obviously exaggerated these stories greatly for the benefit of my friends. My hair has already grown back, and I do not drink alcohol. If anything, I actively discourage my friends from doing so! 

Until next time, when I imagine I will be in New Zealand in a couple of weeks..... Byyeee Stay Safe and Merry Christmas, Happy Hanuka, Delightful Devali and a Rapturous Ramadan to you all!

xxxxxxx

Lots Of Stuff Happened!

Ola! Since my last blog I have done a lot - for my readers convenience, I will write about my experiences in chronological order. Here goes:

La Paz¨;
Day 29, Thursday 11th Novemeber, Woke up at 8am and made our way to death road. Death road my friends, is the most dangerous road in the world in terms of people dying on it by car accidents as the road winds down a very high cliff edge at 4700m high altitude.... so why not cycle down it we thought! Below is a link to a video of some people doing what we did... one wrong twist or turn and we would be dead but after a whole day of cycling down with some breaks to take in the scenary  we made it down safely and it was one of the best things I have ever done. Once back at the hostel, we ordered a 2 and a half foot pizza to share between 5 people. It was absolutely MASSIVE!!
(death road vid;   http://bit.ly/gcjGoZ )

Other stuff we did in La Paz, went to San Pedro Prison for an illegal tour. San Pedro Prison is a prison run entirely by the inmates. Criminals can live with their families in there, and no guards or policemen are allowed inside, much like Sonar prison from prison break. Basically, what you do is you go to near where the prison is and you get approached by one of the wives of the inmates who you pay to get you inside, and inside, you are greeted by a guide. Ours was named Gabriel and was inside for 2 years for smuggling cocaine) All details can be found here = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Pedro_prison to save me some time but the tour was incredible and for a while we almost forgot that we were inside a jail with rapists and murderers and no police protection - fantastico.

Oscar ate some fish food for a dare.

The Pampas
From LaPaz, we headed with Jack and Oscar, or Joscar as they are now affectionately known, towards The Pampas, which is an area at the start of the jungle which lies next to a large long winding river and is filled with wildlife, humidity and vegetation. To get their we got a tiny plane, no bigger than a mouse at a guess. Upon arrival, our tour guide didnt really tell us much for 3 days, for example, we only discovered his name on the last day! During our pampas tour, we saw aligators a plenty, did an annoconda search for 5 hours only to find one tiny snake hiding in a tree, swimming with dolphins which was in fact sitting in a boat and seeing a dead dolphin and an alive dolphin half under water and also went fishing..... slash..... tried to catch a fish but only David caught a tiny catfish and didnt know what to do with it so Oscar beat it to death with the paddle!!! Our hostel or lodge was basic to say the very least....and there was pretty much no way of seeing light after 7pm so we had 2 nights of going to bed at 8pm and taking sleeping pills to deal with the ridiculous heat and uncomfortableness. Highlights of the Pampas were generally the banter between our group and also Oscar having a weird reaction to mixing his malaria and sleeping pills which made him feel drunk and cold despite the hottest weather ever! Lowlight was the 3 hour bumpy dusty jeep journey with the random korean woman in our jeep with far too many people in.


Isla Del Sol
Bussed, walked, boated and skipped our way to Isla del Sol, Island of the Sun, which sits on Lake Titikaka in between Bolivia and Peru. The island is extremely basic with a population of about 2000 people and a handful of restaurants and hostels. Also, its pretty much built on a mountain so getting to our hostel with a backpack on consisted of walking up 100s of steps at a ridiculous altitude and making you want to die when you reached the top! Highlights of Isla Del Sol == Sunbathing....next to a pig. The view from our hostel over the lake. The thick duvet. Sitting 3 to a computer in the only internet cafe watching spurs vs arsenal on bbc live update and manually refreshing the page every minute to see us go 2 goals down then have to leave to catch a boat then get 3 texts from dad saying spurs has got 1 back, got an equaliser, then won the damn match with a few minutes to go and then seeing Michaels little big head and face turn rather sour and celebrating mentally with Dan! Oooo and also paying a random local called Moses quite a lot of money to take us in his motorboat which didnt really work to another part of the island which was actually awesome but only spending an hour there because Moses has said he wants to go back now. good times!

Other things about Bolivia.... general lack of toilet seats, and toilet paper.

Michael telling Dan how to say "we only have 1 hour to eat before our bus arrives" in spanish and dan repeating this to the waitress at the restaurant, however, what Michael really told him to repeat was "I have a very small Penis!!"


Cusco, Peru
Went out a lot. Tried to get a taxi driver to take us to Columbia.Failed. Went out some more. great Israeli restaurant. Went out some more. Stole some road signs, love life, hated life, love life, then went out some more! Stayed in Loki Hostel. Reunited with Joscar. Said Goodbye to Joscar again. Booked Inca treck to Machupicchu.


Salkantay treck to Machupicchu
4 day treck. One of the hardest things I have ever done, getting up at 4am each morning to walk between 8 and 10 hours. Now for any normal human climbing mountains at this altitude would be hard. But now please spare a thought for me and my tiny 6 week premature underdeveloped lungs!! It was mighty hard but we had a great group consisting of our guide, Peruvian Jorje, A czech, a spaniard, a german, an American and South Korean named Lee who was 39 but looked 18 and was probably the nicest man alive, as well as our group and also our new friend... Ned. Many things happened along the way, the most difficult perhaps was night 2... or Tsunami night as it is known when the heavy flooding meant that my tent as well as Michael/Dans Tent leaked covering all of our stuff in water.... our sleeping bags were drenched inside out and we were pretty much the only sufferers as the other tents had been constructed correctly! Damp, Cold and seeking restbite....we meandered our way to a small hut with 3 walls and a roof  (no fourth wall so it was still very cold!) and found a couple of sheep skin matts to lie on, used a tablecloth as a cover and froze our way through the night until morning arrived where we huddled to keep warm! We arrived at Macchupicchu on the fourth day of our treck and despite having a hungover tourguide, and me losing my ticket to climb one particular mountain there, was pretty special. Turns out the Inca´s were a clever bunch of people really, building a community hidden from the spanish in 1400ad with temples, houses farms etc out of massive pieces of stone cut using the most basic of materials. Again, my description is probably not doing these places justice so get yourselves down to google and wikipedia then look at my future photos for more of an insight.

Ica, Huacachina
Next off, we headed to Ica, and more specifically, Huachachina which is a tiny resort next to a lagoon in the middle of the desert. We relaxed here before getting a crazy sandbuggy, driven by a man called smiley, to the top of the sand dunes where here, we sandboarded down them which was SICK. I Must mention that David was very confident going up to the top as he claimed that he skied as gracefully as a swan. I must also point out that David was rubbish at Sandboarding.... and volleyball for that matter... and he complains a lot about a wrist injury that he sufffered when he fell over on the street standing near a motorbike.

Arequipa
We are now in Arequipa and I dont really know why we are here... but apparantly there is stuff to do such as seeing stuff and whatnot so should be interesting!

Elsewhere, No Shave Novemeber is now over and myself and senor Rhodes are sporting wonderful Moustaches (probably just for a day or two before we are babyfaced again, and the others have yet to shave their lovely beards off.... oh the tough life of a traveller!

Until next time..... BYEEEEEEEEEEE xxxxxxxx