k

Have arrived safely in the US and have just spent my first weekend at Impy’s house. Impy is a counsellor at camp who has been a girl scout since she was 8. Her neighbourhood in NorthCarolina is exactly what ive imagined the US to be like. Neat pretty houses, with matching letterboxes; Camp is exactly what I imagined it to be like, beautiful lake, green trees – the woods, great facilities – rock climbing wall, archery, pool,…  ITS BEAUTIFUL!! And moreover things here are cheap! Shoes are cheap, swiss army knives are cheap, some food is really cheap… im really liking the US. Camp training begins tomorrow for 2 weeks, then the kids come. So Im not too sure if I will keep this blog going… i think its unlikely but we’ll see.

I’ve :

Eaten Biscuits – bread type food very similar to an english muffin. Ate mine with egg bacon and cheese inside for breakfast. Think I prefer english Muffins!

Eaten dippin dots. Icecream in small round balls!!

Gone to Wallmart!!! they sell EVERYTHING there.. from grocerys to gold fish to camping gear to clothing!!

enough for now..

k

Last day in South America tomorrow.  Wow it has flown so fast! Im not sure why, but i am finding it difficult to remember what I did only last week..

Since the OT conference in Chile I returned to Lima and headed down the south coast to Nazca. Nazca is a small town with not much there except the Nazca Lines. I organised to fly over the Nazca lines in a small aeroplane and had no idea what to expect, except from the pictures advertised. There were 6 tourists in the plane and two guys flying the plane. It began well until we came to the very first picture and suddenly the captain took a sharp right and before we knew it we were all on our sides trying to look at whatever picture was beneath us.  The next picture was on our left and we took a sharp left.  The flight was 30 minutes and throughout the whole flight we were constantly rolling from left to right to left to right. Everyone was trying not to throw up whilst also trying to take photos of the famous nazca lines… To sum up.. it was an expensive experience in a light plane seeing very small pictures etched in the ground.

From nazca I took another bus down to Arequipa, a place i coundt wait to get to. One reason being that I wanted to do the Colca Canyon trek, and the other reason being that I hadfriends  who were volunteering there. On the bus to Arewuipa I met this lovely Swiss lady who later turned out to be a Physiotherapist!  We found a hostel to stay at and organised to do the Colca Canyon trek together. We did a 3 day trek, First day taking a bus at 3am till 9am, getting out to look at these huge condors (birds), then getting back in the bus to drive for another 2 hours. We reached a town called Cabanaconde, had luch there, then began our trek down into the canyon. It took 3.5 hours of steep down hill trekking to get to the bottom of the canyon. My legs began to ache a little and my knees were definitely getting week and shakey. We crossed a bridge then proceeded up hill for another 2 hours to a tiny, rundown hostel. Very basic with no hot water. Lovely! Stayed there for the night, had one little piece of cuy (guinea pig) for dinner.. which kind of made me sick just looking at it. Reason being that they had not shaved off all of its fur and there were chunks of fur on my bit. Day two we hiked long the canyon to a beautiful oasis filled with gorgeous blue swimming pools. Spend a few hours at one pool swimming in the cold, and eating a good lunch. Then we began our uphill ascent out of the canyon. Surprisingly it only took us 3.5 hours to get up to the top of the canyon, but we did hike at a fast pace and didnt have many breaks. It was TOUGH going!!! Spent the night at another hostel in the town Cabanaconde, then returned to arequipa the next day, after going to a lookout spot that morning.

Spent 2 days in Arequipa buying last minute souvenirs, sent a huge package home with clothing and stuff i DONT need in the US (summer) and then took a bus up to Ica. From Ica I went to Huacachina, an oasis surrounded by sand dunes OOhhh  YEAH!! Went sandboarding there.. almost killed myself after doing  awesomely. Hit my head and pelvis.. brised and battered but still kept on going! There I met these 2 Israeli guys who were also travelling back up to Lima and so I joined their group of two and we became three.

Lima, have been here for about 4 days now, can honestly say i havent done all that much. Good thing about travelling with other people is that its possible to go out at night time and experience a bit of the night life .. so thats what we did! Also managed to buy expensive tickets to AEROSMITH!!!! ohh yeaa !

Last day tomorrow in south america. Maybe Ill end it with paragliding over the beach…

k

The weekend finally! I have been in Santiago, Chile since Monday and hae just attended the 15th World Federation Occuational Therapy congress 2010. It has been difficult to get my head back into OT language since I havent needed it for the past 5 months, but has also been an amazing experience meeting OTs from all over the world and hearing about the recent research and findings. Everyday I attended presentations. There was a welcome reception on the first evening, and a gala dinner on the last evening. I now have this afternoon and tomorrow to explore a little of this city, then will return back to Lima, Peru on monday.
Halfway through my trip now!!!!

k

The famous Machu Picchu. Because we caught an early bus, we were able to get a ticket which allowed us to climb another mountain called Winay Picchu. Only 400 people per day were allowed to climb this mountain. i think because it is such a narrow staicase up and down it couldnt possible handle more that 400. We spent the morning taking in the amazing view of the ancient inca ruins, joined a tour  of the ruins then headed of to climb this mountain for an even higher view of Machu Picchu. Picture perfect views all around.

Upon returning from Agua Calientes back to Cusco I decided to make a trip to Puno and to visit Lake Titicaca, of which I had absolutely NO idea what wsa so good about it, but just that it was somewhere  tha everybody went to. Upon leaving my hostel I met up with a girl from south africa – Susan, what was also taking the same bus to Puno. We became friends!!We found a tour that seemed interesting and it was a 2 day one night tour that visited 3 Islands on lake titicaca. The morning of the first day we visited Uros, the famous floating islands. This was really cool because these Islands are made of reeds and need to be stacked up with fresh reeds every 2 weeks. Their houses need to be remade every 6 weeks, due to the harsh sun of the altitude and the natural rotting of the reeds. We learnt a bit about the culture and history of the people who live  on Uros Islands and then they took us into their homes and dressed us up in their traditional clothing. Weird and exciting.

After that we travelled to the Amantani Island. We met out host families and went to eat lunch and hang out with them. The food was deliious as usual, me and Susan met our two `younger brothers`called Enoc and John Brett. Cutie  pies they were. In the afternoon the gringos (non locals) played soccer with the locals. Not sure who won but we were definitely panting harder then they were, due to the altitude. We Hiked up to one of the hightest points on the island to watch the sunset and then returned to eat dinner with our families. After dinner there was a fiesta – party for us. We again, got dressed up in traditional clothing and danced and pranced around. Had a lovely time.

Day two we headed off to the last of the islands Taquile Island. There wasnt really much here, it was a peaceful island and they had beautifuly made knitted and crocheted clothing, (apparently the best in south Peru), but apart from that the town was quite  quiet and I somehow expected more.  But the 2 days spent on Lake Titiacaca was wonderful and an enriching experience. Learnt lots about the different cuture.

And today, Just took a 6 hour bus back from Puno. Susan headed off to Arequipa and I am now back in Cusco. Tomorrow I will be doing a Sacred Valley day tour, which should be good. And should be similar to Machu Picchu .. with lots of ruins.

Heading off to Chile on Sunday for the OT conference.  WOW, still cant believe I am here doing and seeing all these wonderful things… LOVING IT!!!

miss everyone!

k

Baños continued..

After  our rafting scare, we decided to end the day with a nice relaxing ride in a cuadrones. Sort of like a Quad bike, but with less power and it is able to seat 2 people. We hired this for an hour and  drove along the road passing numerous waterfalls. After half an hour of driving we turned back so we could return the  cuadrones. However, upon entering a tunnel our bike seemed to be putt-putting and straining to drive up hill. We entered a tunnel and when we were 30 mentre from the end the engine cut out. This tunnel had cars, and trucks, and busses driving though it, and we were in a shitty little cuadrones that wasnt able to drive! So after relentlessly trying to restart the engine, we decided the best and safest thing to do was to get out and push it out of the tunnel. We called the help line and help came to the  rescue, refilling it with petrol. Just our luck to get a bike with no petrol in it…

Next morning we decided to do something a little safer.. such as jumping off a bridge with no helmet on. We got all buckeled up into a harness and we stood on the ledge of the bridge side by side.. however Rocio started to freak out. And I spent 20 minutes standing on the ledge, waiting for her to decide if she was going to jump or not. By the end of it, we decided I would jump, then if she wanted she could follow. The bridge was 100 metres high, but the drop was only 340meters. And they didnt offer any jump from a higher bridge, this was the highest. When the time came it was difficult to jump.. but after the actual act of jumping the fall was easy and quick. way too quick. And over in a matter of  seconds. Next  minute I see something flying by me.. Rocio had jumped . hooray!

We caught the next bus back to  Otavalo after the jump. satisfied our trip wasnt totally doomed.   PHEW!

Since Baños, so much more has happened. I finished volunteering during early April. Matt the intern at my school organised a surprise goodbye present for me from the Larcacunga Volunteers and all the kids from the school.  He got my kids to hand print a Tshirt, and everyone else in the school wrote their name on on the back of the tshirt in sparkly glitter. IT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME. I LOVE IT! and miss my kiddies so…

Right after the end of my time volunteering I caught up with Rocio and we headed off the THE GALAPAGOS islands. After going to the Isla de la plata – the poor mans galapagos, and being disappointed, i thought, I HAVE to go to the Real glapagos. and mark my words it was WORTH it  and totally AMAZING! Pictures will give you a good idea about it, but to really explain it, Im sorry, you´d have to have been there. 8 days spent upon a luxury cruie ship – well maybe not luxury, it was either tourist superior or 1st class, but it was defintely above my expectations. The crew were wonderful, the guide really easy to get along with, the sea, flora fauna, animales, marnine life, vegitation… UNDESCRIBABLE. We went snorkelling every day, swam with 3 or 4 different types of sharks, swam so so so close to turtles, Mantas and billions of different fishies. One of my highlights was getting right next to giant tortises. AMazing creatures.

From the galapagos I flew to Peru and soon met my small group of 4 people plus guide to hike the Lares Trail. An alternative trail to he Inca Hike. I hiked this because  I didnt book the actual inca Trail hike early enough and there are a limited amount of places available. The Lares Trail began from Cusco. We took a bus from there to Calca, and got some refreshments and snacks. Then we drove to Lares. There we soaked in hot beautiful springs heated from a nearby volcano. We were preparing for our hike and this was the best way to do it! From the hot spings we began our hike. We had a cook, 2 porters, another guy and 4 donkeys to carry our stuff: Most of our clothing and backpack, tents for 5 people, tent for the kitchen, tent for the dining room, and all the food and cutlery. I have to say I wasnt expecting good food on the hike but i was amazed at what the old cook was able to dish up. we had GOOD food!

We hiked for only 3 hours that first day. And when we arrived at our camp site our tents were set up, the kitchen and dining room were all set up, and we each had a small bucket of hot water ready for us to wash with. We all bought bread to give to the little kiddies we saw along the way. SOme of them were so cheeky getting a piece of bread, then running home to get a poncho, put that on, and run back to us to get more bread! At our camp site we had little girls set up shop right outside our tent. they were selling drinks and little craft goods. Poor things they sat outside from 4pm until after dinner.. about 8pm when some of us went to buy some beers from them and tell them to go home. Cute little kiddies.

Second day we had a long hike ahead of us. we did 3 – 4 hours uphill, to an altitude of 4800m (i think). Then down for 30minutes to a beautiful lake where we had lunch. We continued for another 3 hours down hill to our next camp site. Day 3 we only had 4 hours of hiking to do but we walked so fast that we got to our lunch spot wih plenty of time to spare. From there we bused to Ollantambo and took a trin from there to Agua Calientes. IN Agua Calientes we again, soaked in hot springs, ready for our early 5.30am bus to the famous Machu Picchu.