The Bish Krew on Tour

Quito 2/8/06

2006-08-02T17:43:00.000+01:00

So, last one then.

After a huge good bye party in Atacames with the other volunteers I rolled back to Quito ready to get prepared for the madness of Colombia. Everything I had heard had led me to believe I was going to a land of ridiculously beautiful women and was going to get kiddnapped. Had to be done then.

From Cali airport the minibuses wind their way through sugar plantations in ridiculous (40 degree) heat towards Colombia's third largest city. As you enter city limits a sign welcomes you to "Cali, the home of South Americas most beautiful women". No seriously they have the sign!

I rolled up to the plush hostal Iguana and quickly went hunting for some food at a local supermarket where the disadvantages of stupidly hot women everywhere became evident. Firstly, the beauty section was about a third of the shop! Secondly and probably more importantly the staff kept trying to help me and I kept knocking things over! Apparently I am still scared of girls. Escaping with some basic provisions (aguadiente, juice, coffee and bread). I rolled back into the dorm to discover my new roomates in the middle of a flowing hebrew argument. After introducing myself and breaking up the near conflict between Tal, Shai and stoned Israeli kid (never did learn his name) we decided to hit the nightlife for which Cali is famous. It was pretty damn good for a Wednesday, though I really can't salsa and we only seemed to be able to attract the attentions of guys from Cali, who bought us copious amounts of alcohol, and girls from Mexico (I was told one of them had beautiful eyes, I mean who says that?).

A next day and feeling a little the worse for wear we woke early and headed for the nearby village of San Cipreano in the jungle. Colombian bus stations are really nice, Colombian buses are horrific. As we weaved along bumpy roads, through stunning jungles and past tanks, soldiers and seemingly limitless road blocks, assorted Colombians decided to amuse us with the contents of their stomachs. Me and Shai appeared to be the only people not getting sick and so traded stories from when we were 18, him blowing holes in people/houses in the West Bank during 2 compulsory years in the Israeli army while I blew up 3000 balloons in my school at 3am. Different world. On arrival in Cordoba we rocked onto the craziest train I had ever seen. It was a motor bike attached to the rails with wooden planks where the sidecar would be. We then rocketed through stunning jungle all holding on for dear life while the driver just laughed and went faster. On arrival in San Cipreano we headed straight for the River where we swam, tubed skimmed stones and generally wasted an afternoon. The way back on the train it was rainingand I was pretty sure we were close to derailing on every curve!

On arrival in Cali we where informed that it was the 472nd birthday of Cali and that there was a gigantic beer and salsa festival to celebrate. We hit the beer festival hard for $5 all you can drink! Then we headed to "Blues Brothers" for live Salsa and weren't disappointed either by the Caleñas or the band. Following this epic night we grabbed savory churros (absolutely gorgeous) and staggered to bed.

Friday I realised signalled 5 months away and as a result I felt spontaneous so headed to Medellin for the flower festival. So Medellin has a bit of a bad reputation on account of previously having the worlds highest murder rate in the early nineties while some guy called Pablo Escobar ran the infamous Medellin cartel exporting the white stuff. If you can find it watch Rosario Tijeras, which is probably the greatest film I've ever seen, but I fear you cannot get in English subtitles.

The drive was stunning as we saw huge coffee plantations, jungle and the mighty andes all in one fail swoop. Arriving in Medellin I was disturbed to discover Casa Kiwi - the place to be - was filled with English people and that I would be sleeping in the TV room, allbeit at knockdown rates.

Having chatted to some lads from London and Sheffield it appeared Friday was gonna be pretty big so we headed out into El Poblado, Medellin's zona rosa. So basically this is the first time I say this, but it wont be the last and I probably will be going on about it all summer; the girls in Medellin are the hottest in South America (maybe the world), nothing else even comes close, I have honestly never seen anything like it. This said unlike Buenos Aires they are really really friendly and almost everyone goes out of their way to make you feel welcome.

OK back to the night fastforward a couple of hours of reggaeton (thank god) and we got thrown out, not sure what for, I think for drinking someone elses drink but I don't know and walk out into a massive fight. The scrap was very brief as we quickly find ourselves staring down the wrong end of 2 soldiers Kaleshnikovs. We were informed that in order to avoid arrest we would have to pay them 20,000 pesos (US$8) and that they wanted one of the other guys green hat ("it looks military"). Following a lot of swearing and threats (in english) we paid and wandered back to the hostel. Someone wanted to watch City of God which was fine by me but I got almost no sleep.

The next morning I was up bright and breezy to do Medellin's sights. Having jumped on the metro I began to work out a plan. As the birthplace of Santiago Botero, Medellin has the largest collection of his works anywhere in the (free!) modern art museum and also has loads of statues in the Plaza de Botero. I started with the museum of modern art and was again distracted by the ridiculous amount of beautiful assistants all of whom wanted to show me around. The museum is really cool and the Botero section is amazing, though you can't take any pictures. Having wandered around the square checking out the crazy statues I headed for the, again free, cable car which gives stunning views over Medellin. I then grabbed an awesome strawberry batido at the botanical gardens before heading back to the hostel to meet the guys and do the flower festival. The flower festival was kinda crazy, basically a massive advertising parade with a few horses (no flowers) and I'm not really sad I forgot my camera.

Following another crazy night out, I headed back to Cali for my flight the next day. I was sorry to leave Colombia and definately want to go back to do the whole country properly. Though I did nearly miss the flight on account of being searched 4 times and xrayed twice before questioning about my colombian family(!?) and job description.

Anyway, Dad I'll see you tomorrow, everyone else see you Saturday!

LOL Jx

Ecuador and Colombia Pics

2006-08-02T17:41:00.000+01:00

Medellin. 5 Months and I can sure time a photo. (they were 17 seconds apart)

Colombians write meaningful stuff. Me I jus graff the place up.

Botero; Legend or Nutter?

Cali - Is that someone playing the jazz flute? He dabbled.

Wacky Colombian transport system.

Atacames, last night of work.

Cacao harvesting. That is my Mancora 'beater by the way! Never go to a Quito Laundry.

Congal biomarine station. Artsy

Ecuador Pics

2006-07-24T17:05:00.000+01:00

Spring Break!!

Cuenca. Night. Nothing amusing.

Wheeeeeeee!

The Devil's nose.

Baños Baby!

Cuenca 3am. God i'm such a 'baller.

So you walk down these stairs....

... and come out looking like this.

(Waterproof clothes!?! How do the people at Rohan sleep at night?)

Howler monkeys in there somewhere - God I miss Bosley!

Working hard.

They jumped me.

Isla Margarita

2006-07-18T18:54:00.000+01:00

Dear All,

Slightly apprehensive due to all the dangerous stories we heard, we landed in Caracas airport and headed over to the domestic terminal. Here came mistake number one. We had turned up with NO money, not a dime between us and you guessed it, our cards didn`t work. Some "friendly lads" took us on a 2 hour tour of the airport looking for banks until we were saved when Laurie was able to withdraw enough to pay for our departure tax out of the boiling hot hell-hole. Our new found friends then decided we owed them nearly 20 quid for following us around the airport offering comiserations! After a "&$*k that" and a very generous on our behalf, 5 pound tip, we ran into the departure lounge followed by howls of abuse.

We touched down in Isla de margarita looking forward to tanning our white bodies ready for England. We kicked things off to a good start by immediately befriending some pizza guys and a self-confessed local stud!! The beach, called Playa el Agua was fantastic, a back drop of palm trees, white sand and bath temperature water where we could play bat and ball to our hearts content.

The structure of our days in Margarita was simple. We got up early, ate as much complimentary breakfast buffet as possible, then retired again to our room for another couple more hours sleep. Then, at around 1pm, we made our way to the beach, packing the `Geek Bag` with the essential items: sun cream, sunglasses, bat and ball and the football. 4 or 5 hours later after various sessions of keepy-uppy and bat and ball ( Kieran and Tom`s 1200 record from Barca remained intact) and a daily dip in the crystal waters we would head, perhaps slightly `rougier`, to Miragua Cafe for our daily Cocada ( a beautiful coconut smoothie thing). Now, at about 6pm, we would head back to our air conditioned hotel room and cool down, watching the Film Zone or CNN before heading to Kalimbas for our routine evening pizza. A Palmera for Teo, Salvaje for Laurie and a Jardin for Tom. After some banter and beers with Luis and Hector we made our way to Woody`s in the vain hope that that night would be different. It never was. So we returned to the hotel room, Tom and Laurie fought over the little space their measly double bed offered, and we went to sleep.

Woody`s: We strolled into this much recommended establishment...confident that we could aquaint ourselves with some of the local ladies with our honed spanish abilities. Our dreams were promptly shattered when every girl turned out to be a prostitute or under 16 and german. The blokes were all capped gangsters that thought dancing involved bobbing your head on the dance floor with a drink in hand and looking as menacing as possible!!! Thus, we contented ourselves with being the crazy dancing englishmen. Over our 10 days we hoped this would change.

Our time in the Carribean Paradise did have some quirks to the firmly established lifestyle that we had adopted from the word go:

One change of hotel from Posada las Ross to Hotel Costa Linda Beach ( too far to walk and we wanted our free buffet breakfast).
Whilst walking down the waterfront boulevard we would occasionaly be hailed by our young 16 year old (self confessed stud) Leo. The proceeding 30 minutes would be full of his conquests over the female tourist population of Margarita or his apparent near signing with the Brazilian national football team. A friendly chap none the less.
Various new records were set in the pool and on the beach. 46 water based headers, 23 sand based keepy-uppy aerial exchanges and of course the eight consectutive pizza nights.
A days snorkelling around the coral archipeligos of Los Frailes. This included unlimited Polar Ice, our cerveza of choice. A huge amount of parrot fish and some embarassing boat side backflip attempts.
One day trip to the Angel Falls by Teo leaving Tom and Laurie with some peace at last!

All in all its been a fantastically relaxing ten days and an incredible six months. We look forward to seeing you all in a matter of hours and boring you with our tales.

Lots of Love,

Teo `The Battery` Lopez Bernal,

Thomas ´The Dart` Fleming,

Lawrence `The Hooligan` Howell.

Quito to the Carribean (photos)

2006-07-18T18:42:00.000+01:00

Beauties and the Beast.

The `Heroes`.

Supper.

Humpback Whale.

Parrot Love.

Papallacta..... sublime!

Playa el Agua, Carribean Paradise.

We do apologise for the quotes.

Bristol 18/07/07

2006-07-18T15:31:00.000+01:00

OROIGHT MOIY LUVURRR!!!

Well, having been silent for quite a while now, KT have decided that it's high time we updated the readers on our globetrotting voyage. On Friday the 30th of June at roughly 9:30am we came to a bumpy landing at Heathrow airport, prepared for the most intense culture shock of our travels. Shortly after picking up our luggage we were zooming across the British countryside in a monstrous, fuel guzzling 4x4 vehicle, packed in tightly amongst extremely creepy and over familiar passengers. Fortunately we both had our i-pods at hand and, having plugged ourselves in, feigned sleep for the entire duration of the journey to Bristol.

Upon arrival we were devastated to discover that, due to booking complications, we would be forced to stay in separate hostels. Fortunately they are within minutes of one another and are both of a fairly decent standard. We've both found the beds to be reasonably comfy, the other guests tolerable and the food regular, if basic. There have been times when we've both felt compulsions in the early hours to visit "arches" - a local chippy which seems to have become one of our haunts since we arrived. In the evenings we have frequented a number of fantastic venues. The Lizard Lounge, an extremely sweaty underground grotto guarded by vicious brutes, has consistently impressed us with its heroic and apparently unchanging playlist whilst the Berkely, a fairly basic, bustling bar, has had us gaping in wonder at just how small the world seems whilst travelling. Also guys, when you arrive you should really look out for a club called OCEANA – multiple floors/rooms/bars/music styles and we’re pretty certain that it’s the only one in the entire world.

Life’s pretty sweet in Bristol and we’re actually considering sticking around until well into September at which point we may split up and start travelling alone for three years or so.

Look forward to seeing LTT tomorrow, you’ll love it here lads.

KT

P.S: We didn’t actually blog our insane adventures in New York and Washington, but if there’s enough demand we may hold a seminar in the near future.

Muisne, 15/7/06

2006-07-15T23:12:00.000+01:00

Holas,

After leaving the boys looking somewhat tearful in Puerto Lopez I bused down to the chilled out surf resort of Montañita. Here I checked into the cheapest dorm accomodation ever - $2 per night but bats may land on you - and quickly established I was indeed the only person in the place! The owner was a legend however and after a few beers promised to take me out surfing in the morning. It was great fun 3 metre waves are a little large for me at the momment.

On a whim I decided to go to Guyaquil that night and arrived at the absurd (small international airport) sized bus terminal at 11pm. The rough guide describes Guyaquil terrestre as very dangerous with petty theft a common occurance and suggests that on no account should you go there at night! I have to agree although it was pretty fun making myself look as angry as possible and then swaggering arond the underground walkways surrounded by shady characters. Feeling slightly threatened I decided the best move was to jump on the next bus to Cuenca. Sadly it arrived there at 3am.

Cuenca is a beautiful colonial city. The bus station is terrible. Having tried to snatch a few hours of sleep cruelly disturbed by geese carrying peasants (too stingy to fork out for a hostel I know) I took the only course of action, drank 7 cups of coffee and played hacky sack until dawn finally broke. Feeling pretty wired I hit the old town and wandered around the deserted streets looking at the beautiful Spanish architecture and checking out the small saturday market. I then discovered my first choice hostel had shut down but (thanks to the help of my lovely mother) I quickly found another and crashed out for some well deserved rest. Awakened by the guys next door aka the "cronwell rd massive" (bloody Bristol uni students) we hit the bar for breakfast and to watch England lose. More sleep. We then watched Brazil lose. More sleep. Crap day.

In the evening following a quickly grabbed snack overlooking the beautifully lit up skyline we hit "Roca" one of Cuencas biggest salsatecas to celebrate Canada day big time! A good time was had by all and I was sorry to leave at 4am to catch the bus to Alausi. A little innebriated me and the friendly conductor quickly established (in flowing spanish no less) that I had indeed lost my ticket. He let me stay and I am eternally greatfull. I was on the 4am bus on account of the hostel owner telling me the train leaves at 8.30 sharp. It leaves at 11. Luckily 4 other gringas had heard the same and we hung out on the freezing platform.

The devil's nose is awesome! You sit on top of a train zooming down the Andes at ridiculous speeds with dizzying drops and then every so often you have to take the switchbacks and the train de-rails! It was great fun! Having fallen asleep on the Canadian member of the group on the way back (she had obviously been celebrating heavily) I was quickly persuaded that going back to volunteer work was a stupid idea and that I really needed to see Baños.

Baños is awesome! Having found a four person room, meaning I would be sleeping on the floor (I suggested rock, paper, scissors to the girls, but they where having none of it), we went for a meal at Casa Hood, a backpacker institution, for an awesome thai curry followed by "Soy Cuba" some Russian propaganda movie which is aparently a "classic" but is really too intellectual and too artsy for the likes of me. The next day the girls went for massages followed by facials while I grabbed a mountain bike and headed down 22km through the cloud forest. On the way I saw loads of stunning waterfalls, took a cable car and even a $10 dollar bungy jump which looked really good but I was puished for time. The highlight however was going down into the Panillo del diablo, a 50 foot waterfall with a stairway through the jungle into the falls and got soaked. On arrival back in Baños we hit one of the thermal baths from which the town gets its name for a refreshing soak before going up the active volcano Tungurahua. The cloud was so thick that you couldn't see the top from our vantage point but the noises where amazing and it was a great experience.

The next day I attempted to return to work in Muisne at the far end of Ecuador from Baños but after sleeping a little too late I found myself stuck in Esmeraldas City at 11pm. Small children attempted to steal the shoes tied to my bag. Feeling a little sketched out I found a hotel room and hid for the evening. The next day I finally got back to work 12 days later than had been promised and was quickly filled in with the latest gossip. It's better than a soap opera round here!

Work is still pretty fun. We do a lot of the routine stuff on our own now - monitoring shrimp, clearing trails, replanting mangroves but at the same time we also do some cool stuff on the reserve with the definate highlight this week of watching a fisherman reel in a 5foot hammerhead shark with a day working with the local school kids cleaning the village a close second. We also have spent more than a few hours on some great beaches and had a couple of fun nights out in Atacames.

LOL Jx

Quito, and back, then back again, then back again again!

2006-07-12T22:38:00.000+01:00

With James now on board we happily collapsed into his plush Quito appartment after another routine night bus, this time from the hairising border crossing of Huaqillas. Not much was done on the thursday we arrived except for lounging around in our new home and as the day drew to a close we had the dilemna of deciding who slept with James. After many games of rock, paper, scissors it ended up with Teo having to put up with 6 nights of rompous snoring! Anyway moving on.
Friday was spent going up the scenic TeleferiQo, getting the material and fittings for our suits, and sampling the Quito night life. After an eventful night out we returned to our apartment for our three hours of sleep before getting up at 6 to leave for the Otavalo. In a bleary eyed, hungover haze, we slumbered slowly around this huge street market, purchasing gifts and other market paraphanaelia including sunglasses, bracelets, hats, mats, and most notably two huge wooden ??????! Don´t ask me why. We returned soon after lunch to catch the Brazil match and that evening, after one of James´ much hyped Hotdog´s ( they´re lush!), we headed for another night on the town. Slightly less rowdy than Friday we headed again to the infamous No Bar, where James would meet a Colombian with a withered arm and we (as a whole) would meet some strange, high-pitched, squeaky American girls who saw Tom as a potential rapist and who were reluctant to enter the basement of a perfectly normal bar because it apparently looked ´sketchy´.
Overall, however, the night was a success and the following day England took on Ecuador in what proved to be a bit of an anticlimactic match that we ended up watching in the apartment, for fear of being killed. Later that day England again took on Ecuador in El Parque Carolinas, this time the result was reversed, we blamed it on the altitude.
The highlight of Monday saw two heroes undertake one of the most courageous and manly of challenges. Eating the whole menu of the Hot Dog stand. This included a double hot dog con todo, a single hot dog con todo, a double burger con todo, a single burger con todo, and a beverage. The two heroes, better known as Tom and Teo, completed the task with aplomb only to be left for the rest of that evening groaning and clenching their stomachs! Don´t try this at home.
On Tuesday Teo witnessed the dumping of Spain out of the World Cup at the hands of France ( a la bimbon, bimbon, bimbo, a la bimbon, bimbon ba, España, España no vale na!) and the rest of the day was probably spent in Papaya.Net, our regular Internat Cafe.
That night we decided to leave our beloved Quito and head to Puerto Lopez in the hope of seeing some whales and catching some fish. We did both, count it! Again we arrived in the early hours of the morning and were forced to catch up on sleep, this time in Hostal Fragata. We got up at about 11.30am, quickly organised for Paco to take us out in his boat and soon began our quest into the Pacfic Ocean. After seeing some blue footed boobies (who needs the Galapagos?), we cast our rods and hoped for the best. A few seconds later and the first fish was reeled in, it was a strange little brown fish that would prove reluctant to die. As the day wore on and the fish count increased, we were soon rewarded with an amazing ceviche (raw fish dish) made by Paco with one of the fish Laurie had caught. And so there we sat, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the sun reflecting off the waves, eating sublime ceviche and sipping ice cold coke... until out of nowhere we heard the shout of WHALE! WHALE!coming from Toms mouth. Without a moment to loose Paco revved up the engine and headed towards the beast and soon enough we were to witness one of natures many wonders. A Humpback Whale fully emmersing itself from the depths of the sea...spectacular!
However the day was not over, we still had time for another half an hour of fishing. Just enough time for Laurie to battle against and eventually to reel in a humungous Sierra. This particular Sierra turned out to be perhaps our best ever evening meal and this day perhaps one of the finest experienced on our travels.
The next day was spent snorkelling in a nearby bay, and more importantly saying goodbye to James, who now had to part ways.
We love you James! TLT
(P.S. James owes Teo 5 dollars and Teo wont forget! Nor will the blog!)

2006-07-12T22:37:00.000+01:00

As we got off the bus from Puerto Lopez we were only a little bit less tired than our previous eleven hour journey of hell along the same road, we had nowhere to stay this time. We grabbed a taxi and headed for the centre of Quito and the Mariscal. We wandered around the tourist centre at 5 in the morning for hours but there was no room at the inn. Desperate for a place to stay we finally set eyes upon the 1950´s edifice infront of us. We pressed the buzzer and checked into the sterile but beautiful HI hostal and crashed out til the afternoon. That day we slept and ate and prepared ourselves for the night to come.

That evening we grabbed a mexican (´dunno what came over us we just grabbed the bugger´token), and set off for Level night club. It turned out to be exactly like it´s Bristol counterpart, however we just partied in ignorant bliss as we had little idea as to what was being hollared at us. With both Teo and Tom enjoying the forwardness of the local chicas Laurie took it upon himself to drink some beers with a particularly large and intimidating gangster. After a few hours a scene change was needed and we went to No Bar for the remainder. That is all we shall say but the night was quality and we resided to our NHS wipe clean hostal beds to get some kip.
The next day was the England vs Portugal game. Nothing more to say on that apart from, if C. Ronaldo happened to get hit by a First bus whilst walking down Gloucester road and we were a meter away we might just be forced a blink. Our anger and hurt was so great we forgot to pay at the bar we watched the game, after this moment of madness and illegality we decided to run away to the jungle.

Having heard bad things from James about the bus journey to Tena, we were expecting the worst. However our driver who was no doubt a legend threw the bus around the corners with an elegance similar to that of an Ecuadorian figure skater, we arrived in Tena that evening with not so much as a scratch on our hardened skin. We checked into the Travellers lodge, and got a good room with a fan thanks to Tom´s visit two years previous. This was not before asking ´did you see three lads here about 3 months ago´. This became quite a frequent question and came with the remarkable answer of ´yeh, good kids´amongst other less patronising answers. We adjusted to the humidity over an Italian and resided to our beds for our first jungle night.
The next morning we were fitted for the black rubber boots (wellies) that this part of the jungle is famous for and jumped in the back of a pickup. We were taken to Shangri-la. We checked into the cliff side jungle hotel and after about an hour of indecision decided to the take the less tiring option of floating down the river on a tractor innertube. With our guide who also knew KJT we ´went extacurricular´ and trekked up the river napo on foot to indulge in a spot of uninsured mental rapid tubing, this was so good it left a taste for more white water in our insect filled mouths. Our first day was awesome and it was a great introduction to the jungle. After chilling that evening in the hammock garden, playing hammock ball, talking with an over exubarent american lady and destroying the double bed in our room we got down for a night of sleep. The next day we got an early morning transfer to the Amorangachi huts.
Here we played with the very same parrot as Tommy before donning our boots and heading for the Cascades. We were surprised to meet a group of Christian Missionaries in the gorge and even more surprised by there lack of adventure. Our crazy guide was eager to get wet so without further a do we passed them and threw ourselves up and around the huge cascades without ropes (mothers) and generally soaked and bruised ouselves . After the last cascade we truged back to the huts and consumed a whole meal of food. That afternoon we took the medicinal plants walk where we learnt about the ways of the jungle and became one with the plants and fruit. The entire time we were keeping an eye on the now record flood that was lapping against the shores of the river Napo. We were told that we could not go rafting tommorow. In dismay we had no choice but to reside to our hammocks for the night, here we smoked jungle pipes, ate parrots and amazed our new missionary Deciples with tales of old and tales of our spitual journey.

2006-07-12T22:36:00.000+01:00

Our jungle experience was completed with a days white water rafting. It began with some obligatory form signing and we immediately made ourselves popular with the "captain" of the rafts, by crossing out "we denounce all responsibility to press charges even if it is the fault of the company" or something along those lines, before we would sign it! (don't worry mum's we are taking care)
This was followed by half an hour of safety talks, much of which was spent swatting the various species of biting insects, only then were we allowed near the raft. As we set off our guide informed us that the day before our river had flooded to it's highest level in 4 years, and thus we were rafting with the best conditions that year.

After a hard half-days rafing we paused for a beach-football match against our fellow "rafters." We bet one of our 2 lunch time burritos on the match, which we then proceeded to lose!! (However we did the polite thing and ate it anyway when they weren't looking)

Later, we displayed our rafting skill, or lack thereof, by managing to be the only raft to tip ourselves fully over. Our guide may have been partly to blame, due to him being the biggest (literally) nutter on the river. The day was finished by everyone else deflating our raft (see photos), in retaliation to the consistent spalshing we subjected them to throughout the trip.

The hot springs of Papallacta had been recommended to us, so as it was getting dark, we headed off on a bus with no idea what was ahead of us. 5 hours later the bus conductor unceremoniously woke us up and turfed us out, seemingly in the middle of no-where, surrounded by clouds and mountains. This was then compounded by a 20 minute walk at 3700m to the springs, opposite which was meant to be a cheap hostel. This wasn't in existance so we were forced to stay at the papallacta springs hotel. Small consolations include a double bed, en-suite complete with our own private hot springs...oh yes!! Teo and Tom thought that this wasn't luxury enough and decided that full body massages would be more appropriate. We got onto the bus, fully lubed up and smelling of lavander from the massages, worrying that we might give some locals the wrong idea. It turned out to be the last bus of our travels (I can't tell you how good that feels, we have crossed the 100 hour barrier in Peru and Ecuador alone!!).

We made it safely to the internet cafe in Quito, where we bumped into none other than our old chum George Garrad, and friends. After some banter and MANY travel stories, we decided to celebrate the occasion by going out British style. The next day heads hurting we collected our much anticipated suits, and keeping true to lazy teenager tradition decided to pay for, and confirm that we had infact changed our flights for early the next morning and not 2 weeks ago! A much needed early night was followed by getting up at 4.30 in the morning for Venezuela...but that is for next time!!!

We are writing now from Isla de Margarita - fantastic, with its amazingly expensive internet facitlities. Photos will be posted in a couple of days, when we have saved up enough money by missing a few meals/begging etc...

Some New York and Toronto pics

2006-06-29T01:10:00.000+01:00

Look at these gayboys we snapped by the water.

Had to swim out a while to get this one.

www.proannie.com

Time square.

It was gift from the french to signify friendship. They accepted it before making it their own symbol for freedom. Uhhh... what?

Manhattan syline from Liberty island.

Sorry.

Kieran held the camera whilst Jesus gave Tommy a piggyback... /several gruelling hours and 17 attempts with the timer.

The thee-enn tower wath MATHIFF!!

Dickie put us up in a quaint little outhouse tucked behind the main palace.

Here we learnt to appreciate the finer things in life...

... like getting sh**faced.

Tommy & Kieran homecoming!

2006-06-28T21:28:00.000+01:00

12" Pizza and portion of chips for £5 -bet you can't wait to get home!

Party Up the Panamerican. (photos)

2006-06-27T22:37:00.000+01:00

Our Huachachina heaven for 48hrs...oh yes!!

Bad Boys in the back.

Shockwaves...peruvian gel...nuff said.

Before....

...and after.

The wind changed.

Milky Joes , Green Eggs and Ham.

Mancorian Sunset.

Morning all.

Spot the gangster.

Partying up the Panamerican

2006-06-27T01:12:00.000+01:00

After a couple more amusing nights in the crazy cusco night clubs we jumped on a 16 hr night bus to the oasis of Huacachina on the south western coast of Peru. We arrived at the unearthly hour of 6am and booked into the gringo ridden Casa de Arena hostal. Our time was to be short here but we still manged to fit in three world cup games, a sand boarding and dune buggy tour, a BBQ, a dip in the pool and an evenings banter with Jake, a legendary American. The highlight was undoubtedly the dune buggy tour which proved to be an unforgettable experience. We set off from the hostal in what looked more like a cage on wheels than a dune buggy and headed for the surrounding dunes. Little did we now our driver was to be an absolute nutter who repeatedly tried to eject us from our seats by flying vertically down or up dunes and at times driving almost horizontally along the face of the dunes. Every so often he would stop to let us bomb down the dunes on waxed up 'sand boards', more like planks of wood. We started by attempting to do it standing up, but with Laurie being the only one with any sort of sand boarding talent we decided to race down on our fronts. This technique proved unwise as we reached the bottom of the dune with pain in most parts of our body and with Americans laughing at us. Nevertheless we trekked it back up the 30m dune, bad call, and threw ourselves down again!
Huacachina was definitely a worthwhile stopover and a perfect change of scene in between Cusco and Lima. Most of our time in Lima was spent organising our flight to Venezuela and what we were going to there, so there is not much to say. Its not the most inspiring place although the Miraflores area was nice and after missing out on saturday night we tried to make a night of it on Sunday. It didn't really work and after getting too much unwanted attention from various annoying Peruanas trying to get us into empty bars, we headed to the famed Lima casinos. Sorry parents. It ended up being probably the worst decision we've made during our travels, with the only thing gained from the night being- NEVER GO TO A CASINO! We had to get out of this place as soon as possible and so after toying between going to Trujillo or Huaraz we eventually decided to head for the picturesque town in the centre of the Peruvian Cordillera Blanca (Huaraz). We picked up a chinese and headed to the bus station for yet another night bus.

2006-06-27T00:48:00.000+01:00

We rolled up at the Cruz del Sur bus station in Lima for our impending night bus, excited at the prospect of travelling on the best company in Peru. This journey varied little from our other night-buses....it was freezing, Laurie and Tom would sit freezing wearing 2 jumpers, hat, gloves, and curled up in a ball trying to get whatever sleep possible. Meanwhile, Teo "the battery" Lopez-Bernal would somehow recline in just a t-shirt, radiating heat to all those around him!!

At first Huaraz didn´t meet our expectations, our bed´s had close to a wigs worth of hair in, and Tom´s had what we swear were blood stains. However things looked up when we switched rooms, and ate our memorable yoghurt breakfast. Teo and Tom thought it would be a bright idea to buy a large milkshake, a large yoghurt and some chocolate milk... each. This error was compounded by the windy taxi ride to the top of a nearby mountain, where we disembarcked feeling remarkably peeky. We balanced the small girl´s bike-helmets on our heads, took a few token poser photos and set off on our 30km trip downhill. Highlights include Tom and Laurie somehow both going over their handlebars at slow speed and an epic no pedalling race, periodically broken up by various lorrys (of the mechanical variety, not our fellow bishcrew member) going in the opposite direction.

We tumbled into a restaurant, cut, bruised, tired and fired up for the much needed meal (we hadn´t eaten since the chinese the night before). Afterwards following the spanish tradition by retiering for a siesta that afternoon. Our day was completed by an eveining of table tennis where Lauire beat Teo...will Teo ever hear the end of this, although it can be called revenge for when Teo beat Laurie at pool (both claim to be superior at the respective sports).

We were up early the next morning to visit a glacier at 5000 and something meters. The tour company drove us from Huaraz to 1km away from the glacier, stopping off at gripping sights such as a blue pond and some natrual fizzy water which tasted like metal. We surprised ourselves, being so acclimatised to the altitude that we were able to have a 5000m snowball fight, much to the annoyance of the other "glacier goers." Back in Huaraz the idea of a warm, virtually equatorial beach where we could surf and sun ourselves sounded appealing. Tom and Teo thought they would get into the world-cup, English hooligan spirit before the nightbus, by shaving their heads. Teo removed his swarve 70´s style locks for a number 3, while Tom thought he would inflict a mowhawk onto the innocent peruvian public.

The three musketeers racked up in the beachside "resort" of Huanchaco, to be met by so much fog around us that the sea was hardly visible from the beach and the only good hostel full. The other alternative in the guide book turned out to have not had a visitor for nearly 2 weeks and the beds appeared to be made of a 6 by 4 plank of wood! Our misery was compounded when we were informed that we hadn´t arrived on an unlucky day and that the weather really was always this bad. After watching England scrape through AGAIN, against Trinidad and Tobago, we thought our footballing talents would be better, and embarked on an expedition to buy a ball. The bus back from the shop proved to be the highlight of the day when Laurie pointed out the the man sitting opposite was infact a carbon copy of Tommy in 70 years time. The looks from the other passengers at our mirth made us think that maybe we had insulted a village elder...

Maybe travelling had turned us into masocists but we thought that Huanchaco was such a dump and we couldn´t bear to stay any longer. Despite our sleep induced state, we had the intelligance to take our 3rd night bus in 4 days. No good bus companies went the route we wanted, so we settled for a second rate bus where the conductor gave out free English toffee. Afterwards, he kindly informed us that we had to pay for it. He then proceded to talk animatedley to everyone about fathers day and played what appeared to be a toilet roll wrapped in silver foil with a straw in for a good 10 minutes, much to the laughter of all the passengers. The only downside to this experience/journey was the constant battle of the Peruvian passengers over Tom´s window, whether it should be opened or closed, whether Tom and Teo wanted it open or closed was besides the point....to this day we can´t work out what was so special about that particular window.

2006-06-27T00:47:00.000+01:00

We got off the bus in Mancora, sleep thick in our eyes but looking as good as ever. A man came from the shadows and put our bags on his infeasably small trike. We piled in and shouted "to the beach", we promptly pulled up at the gated compound that was Sol y Mar hostal located approxiametly 0.5m from the golden sand that makes up on of best surf beaches in the world. After crashing out, following our horrific bus journey, we woke to see the sun, the sea and the surf. We promptly lubed up with factor 40 and exposed our so far mountain carcasses to the equatorial rays. This became a fairly common occurance, and we like to think we have taken the edge of the moon tan (josh tribute). By sheer luck our room turned out to be one of only a few penthouse batchelor suites in Mancora: TV, En Suite, Electricity,Sheets and an amazing view of the beach and bay. Our first night saw our livers beginning to absorb the Mancora culture at 6pm that night: consequence being NWA sung at top volume on the PanAmerican highway and bed by 11pm.

The next day we awoke and hit the beach. We played football against some mildy phsycopathic locals, sunned ourselves further and sat watching the surf, plucking up the courage to join the surf dudes in the outrageously powerful waves. That evening and following a quality curry by an ex-pat bar owner we had a couple of beers and prepared for a big one. It turned out to be a ghost town so we returned and went to our beds. Tom did not and went to the reception to investigate the apparent burglary and theft of 300 soles ( fifty quid), he did not return for a good hour, having evidently become distracted. Teo went to investigate. Ten minutes later we were all assembled in the foyer at midnight ready to start saturday night again. This time it was made easier by a dozen Irish lads and a handful of gap year girls and what appeared to be 50 bottles of the finest rum. Round two was a success and we ended up on the beach at 5am with clothes being ripped off and with our fellow gap yearers we ran starkers into the still intimidating surf. After returning to see our sandals of all things stolen, the camp fire was lit and tales we shared until the sun rose. The bed was now beckoning and we spent sunday relaxing/recovering on the beach. Our peace was rudely broken by a very familiar face jumping from behind going ¨you didn´t see this coming", it was the hardened ecuadorian traveller, Jimmy ´skew. From this point he features in all our adventures.

The next few days; we sunned ourselves more, relaxed in the leather sofas of Milky Joés watching the football with our new gap year buddies Gudrun (Teo*) and Laura, not before a touch of brekky at Green Eggs and Ham. There was more blood spilt in beach footy with locals and we finally took the boards to the waves (no success as we just ended up a good 500m down beach due to the rip, much to the amusement of the locals). We socaliased more and love was poised to flourish (see above*), until we promtly left realising that the border into Ecuador might infact have opening hours.

We took a two hour bus ride to Tumbes and were instantly put into a taxi with two friendly looking Peruvian chaps, and were then subject to a clearly pre-planned taxi scam. Having ripped us off with a blatant display of dishonesty they promised to escort us through the border crossing, so with no choice all six of us remained in their taxi. We assured ourselves that despite their gun four of us would still hijack their taxi and drive to the border ourselves. On the other hand, given that this crossing was highlighted as extremely dangerous by both our guides and the guides we were glad for the company. This is mainly because the hundreds of police present at 5.59pm are absent at 6.01pm. Cleverly we arrived at 8pm in Aguas Verdes in Peru and scurried across the packed footbridge across the border into Huaquillas, with cries of ´your dead´ echoing through the lethal streets surrounding us. This was not helped by the fact that we we were still in full beach attire including party shorts. Here we jumped on the bus at 9pm and at 6am the next morning we arrived in Quito.

Ecuador Pictures

2006-06-22T18:09:00.000+01:00

My current home.

I never really knew that she could dance like this, She makes a man wants to speak Spanish... (shameless quote fest this blog...)

Local politics.

Most of the international volunteer team on our beach... crap weather though...

Guapulo. Count it.

"Whadya mean I need to pass more?" Bloody kids!

Totally worth the 21 hours of buses just to run on to a crowded beach and scare the crap outta Teo.

I may be a midget but watch out for the guns they'll get ya and it is a lovely tan... (...told you so)

2006-06-18T23:57:00.000+01:00

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!

And with 5 minutes to spare. That's showmanship for you. Thanks for bringing us up and stuff guys.

Sorry it hasn't come above as usual, but a new blog is below.

KT

2006-06-16T23:51:00.000+01:00

Hello,

Apologies if this blog appears somewhat hurried/of poor quality, we are currently exploiting the free internet provided by the display models in an apple store and the attendents here are like hawks.

San Francisco (1st - 6th June)
On the morning of June the 1st, we parted ways with our recently aquired "homies" in Miami and boarded our plane bound for San Francisco, excited to be checking into one of the world's top 10 hostels upon arrival. The Adelaide hostel is located just one block from union square, a perfect position from which to launch our assault on the city. On our first day we leapt aboard one of SF's historic streetcars and headed down to Fisherman's Wharf. Here we were ferried accross to the island of Alcatraz where we enjoyed a fantastically informative prison tour along with a several hour lecture regarding why we shouldn't approach the birds. Once we'd returned to mainland, we indulged in a delicious meal of cisco's famous dish; clam chowder. Lovely. The following day we went shopping. Not much to report except that we are currently looking into purchasing an extra kit bag to accomodate our new garments. That evening we shared an enourmous 18" pizza. Again, not miuch to report, except that Tommy spent the rest of the evening curled into the fetal position, cradling his stretched stomache. That's the way to do it!

The next day it was back to business as we embarked upon a bus tour around the city (naturally led by an overweight homosexual). This included a quick look at the golden gate bridge, union square, the painted ladies, haight street (the hub of the hippy/tax dodging movement back in the day) and some ruins that we didn't even know existed, which was a nice bonus. That evening went for a chinese.. we don't know what came over us, we just went for him. Seriously though, he's stable now. We then hit the second largest chinatown in america for a delicious meal and BEER, the stupid hussy.

On our last full day we returned to the Wharf where we rented a tandem bicycle. On this scorching day, we had a fantastic ride accross the golden gate bridge into the marvellously quaint, Sausalito. A beautiful day, despite the numerous calls of "good for you guys" from the locals. The french kissing probably didn't help. That evening we made our way to the AC & T baseball park to watch the San Francisco Giants slaughter the Florida Marlins. Thia game included a trademark homer from the legendary, pumpkin headed, drug abusing Barry Bonds (now second on the all time biggest hitters list). Despite popular opinion, baseball (for us) is actually a fantastic sport to watch and we drifted home determined to attend a game in L.A.

Los Angeles (6th- 9th June)
Fortunately, on the day we arrived (06/06/06) the remake of the classic film, "The Omen" had just been released into American cinemas, providing us with some entertainment for the evening. This theater was like nothing we've ever attended. Full to the brim with large, black women who would have probably been well advised to buy two tickets, shrieking, laughing and yelling advice at the screen. Literally top volume. Literally the entire length of the film. One of them was called "January". FFFFFFFFFlipping hell. The next day was spend exploring Santa Monica, including Muscle Beach, Venice Beach and that peer what Forest Gump runs down in the film, "Forest Gump". Basically, we bought enourmous sandwiches along with a bag full of fruit each and wondered about. That evening saw us attending yet another baseball game and this time it was to be the L.A Dodgers taking on the New York Mets. Awesome!

On the final day, we donned our string vests, our trucker caps and most importantly, our false mustaches to venture into the highly glamerous Beverly Hills. An equadorian man named Pedro was kind enough to take us along with several other women (who again, probably should have forked out for more tickets) on tour of various celebrity homes. The only house that really sticks in our minds at the moment is that of BIYYAOW CYAOWWZZBEH (Bill Cosby). Minly because once he'd spotted the bus out side, he sprinted accross his front lawn to inform us that (what with being kids), we didn't "understand about the jazz". Nice bloke. To be honest, L.A wasn't really our scene. Whilst we had a good time marvelling at the proportions of some of its inhabitants, we were keen to move on to Toronto.

Toronto (9th - 17th June)
On the evening of the 9th, we were lucky enough to arrive at Dickie's incredeble compound when a traditional family party was taking place. Whilst to Paul, this meant turning 40, a significant landmark in any man's life, to us it meant being fed and watered properly for the first time in months! We absolutely stuffed ourselves with an amazing range of succulant BBQ meat, knocked back a few ice cold beers and of course nibbled some sides of caviar, pretending that we, like everyone else, loved its delicate taste. After escalating out of control, the evening eventually died down with a 3am "hot tub sesh".

The next morning we took take a trip on Dicky's new toy; a 23 foot, leather seated, luxury speed boat. Obviously. Cruising accross Lake Ontario in the blazing heat was a great way to start the day and we could tell that life in Toronto was going to be sweet. That evening, Franka, Paul and Ali were kind enough to burden themselves with our company and we all took a trip to their local pub, The King's Arms. Good times.

Bright and early the following Sunday, a slightly hung over Franka drove a slightly hung over Paul along with the deliciously awake KT and Fiona, to the jewel of North American theme parks, Canada Wonderland. Here. We. Had. An. AHHHSUM TIME!! The next few days were spent perfecting our backflips on the outdoor diving board, consuming numerous BBQs/beers and scampering excitedly around the aisles of the local supermarket having been told we could buy "whatever we want". Sorry Franka, but we also had a party. Don't worry Dickie, it wasn't that big, that's a big part of why we were so shocked when all the furniture went missing.

On Thursday we visited the Toronto apartment of the newly engaged couple, Fiona & "Jeffy"<--our christening. Congratulations guys. After a lovely pizza at the pad, we visited what we had heard described as their local "undercover meat market". It was a confusing yet fascinating, multi-story labyrinth of bars and bustling customers. After several rounds of drinks the happy couple stumbled home. They were pretty gone, but we kept an eye on them and saw them to bed. On Friday morning, having twigged onto a certain sensitive issue regarding a picture the previous evening, we rearranged some things and fear we may have sparked the couples' first serious domestic dispute. Sorry guys. We then headed home for more backflips and swimming before heading out for our final meal. Everything about this evening was wonderful and the fact that Dicky scored us some free champagne and pudding by pretending there was a birthday girl at the table (Franka) was almost too much for us. Thankyou very much for the hospitality guys. You have been very generous.

The following morning we flew to New York and this is where we finish. We've been doing shifts battling off the apparently marshal arts trained staff here and we're both pretty beat up.

Out.

KT

California 2006

2006-06-12T04:09:00.000+01:00

California.

Highlight of the entire trip. No contest. Reprasent.

"Now Kieran, this is a shot in front of the Hollywood sign which means it's DEFINITELY going on the blog so try not to embarass yourself, okay?"

They're like ants down there aren't they? Seriously, if you think that you're on crack, they're just far away. What a ridiculous thing to say.

Luckily, homosexuals (and tandem bike owners at that) are extremely easy to overpower.

San Francisco is famous for its enchanting mist. A dense fog that shrouds the city's landmarks, cloaking them in a magnificant veil of mystery and intrigue making for the shittest photos.

Lombard street. In the photo above.

On our first full day in the city, we tried to immerse ourselves in the culture by riding their famous streetcars... like benders

Kieran's incessant questions regarding the lizard population of Alcatraz landed him in the hole.

Tommy takes a deep breath and plunges down for the pose - completely filled with water!!

Drink it in... it always goes down smooth.

Atacames, 11th June

2006-06-11T16:45:00.000+01:00

Hola,

Ok i'm no less exhausted than yesterday so bear with me as I recount my various adventures in deepest ecuador. Firstly complaints. Mosquitos/Sand flies/Ticks have all established what many people already know, I taste really good! I have more bites than the rest of the volunteers put together. The heat, it's really really hot, 30 degrees and 85% humidity, and I tend not to thrive in warm countries!

Thats my griping over. I set off for Musine in the Ecuadorian province of Esmeraldas not really knowing quite what to expect. 9 Hours later I arrived pretty much drenched from the absurd humidity, and was quickly introduced to the international team of volunteers and our spacious if basic volunteer home. The team consists of 3 Canadians, 3 Ecuadorians (not including me), 1 Swiss, 1 American and 2 English (including me). Naturally, Tom is from Bristol.

The next day was my first day of working, in a typical day we will do one manual task and one conservation or community task. For example my first day featured 4 hours of hacking at a rainforest trail with machettes in the morning and turtle monitoring out on the ocean in the afternoon. In the following days we have done a lot of machette work, built roofs, made trails, stocked shrimp ponds, monitored the rock pools and generally wondered around Congal Island itself harvesting pinapples, lemons, corn as well as rubbish clearing on the beaches. It's all really hard work, but really satisfying and we definately pack a lot into each day.

My favourite part of the course so far however has to be the community work. We are based 5 minutes walk from a tiny village called Bunche where we spend a lot of time. 2 volunteers teach English every morning and while the kids are ridiculously rowdy, it is really fun both for us and for them I hope. We also help the village president with the running of the village which has included repainting and cleaning the health centre, laying a floor in the nursery and my own personal favourite playing football against the villagers. This next week we are going to spend 2 nights on Congal island for Marine conservation clases and the whale season started last week so pretty soon we should start heading out on the boats after them!

Our free time is slightly limited by exhaustion and sickness, but most mornings everyone gets up at 6 piles into a 4x4 and races the 30 seconds to our own private beach for surfing and body boarding. We also have enjoyed the hospitality of the Bunche government, (who all seem to be around the same age as us!) and there culture of all night drinking sessions featuring home-brewed liquor retailing at $2 for 4 gallons has definately kept spirits up in the evenings.

The main events however have been our free weekends and this one has been pretty epic to say the least. Following the game on Friday partying hit the streets of every town around Ecuador and we definately enjoyed ourselves! Heavily hung over we hit Atacames, the party capital of Ecuador for a mad weekend. The ultimate hangover cure of 24 Ecuadorian girls school leavers in your hotel seemed to work pretty well and while they didn't seem to understand my invitation for me to be Charlie and them to be angels I felt it would be rude not to join them on a night out. Things got out of hand pretty quickly as within 20 minutes i found myself dancing salsa, merengue and of course reggaeton in a competition, for "chicos y chicas sexy", which took place on the bar itself. I'm not sure whether it was the thought of wining four pitchers of caipriña for the girls or just my natural dancing talent coming through but somehow me and my partner, a lovely quiteña called caroline, swept all before us and won!! I quickly became very popular and the girls are all looking forward to meeting Teo and Tom next weekend!

I haven't quite managed to make it to bed yet and the thought of Iran Mexico is calling so i'm gonna press on...

LOL charlie

Ecuador 2 - Polonia 0

2006-06-10T17:36:00.001+01:00

C. Tenorio 24
Delgado 80

Enough said.... We partied big time last night... Sadly someone took out the power for the entire province and as a result i missed Englands victory! Will post a real blog when i've had some sleep and am less hung over! Saturday 21st... England vs Ecuador in Munich... LOL Jx

Power to the Picchu

2006-06-06T17:21:00.000+01:00

Pants down in Peru! (Tom joins the club)

One for the Mums.

It´s behiiiiiiiind you.

Machu Picchu

A room with a view (Cusco).

´English explorers save tiny people´s straw boat.´

The Three Musketeers on the Islas Flotantes.

Lake Titicaca, Cusco and Machu Picchu

2006-06-06T17:20:00.003+01:00

Soon after meeting in Arequipa we three Bristolian gentleman left Peru´s second city with stomachs full of alpaca and minds full of anticipation about the adventures that were spread out infront of us. The first of these being a six hour bus journey, landing us in the small town Puno. Puno is at a height of 3800m and falls into the deep waters of Lake Titicaca the largest lake in South America. We immediately checked into Hostal Virgen de Copacapana, a quiet, old building with what we gathered from the guide book had the best bathroom for miles....it didnt. Washing aside we ate yet more alpaca and drank the night away next to the typical cauldrons in most Punoian* bars knowing that the next day brought a horrifically early start. We woke up the next day at the unsaintly hour of 6:40am to the beeps of the bike powered rickshaws tootaling along below our window, minutes later and we were chugging out into Lake Titicaca on the slowest boat in the world.
*not sure.
An hour later and we stepped out onto one of the Islas de Flotatantes, made entirely from reeds, a mean feat we should say. We all agreed that it was abit like a human zoo with rich americans poking and photographing the local Quechuan people, but we could see nothing else to do and subsequently chose three particularly vicious looking reed poles. Once the main culprits had left on an overpriced boat journey to another island we finally got down to business with the locals asking us remaining immensly strong hulks to help them launch their newest boat the Reedmaster 2009. Further island hopping and we finally left the locals in peace and chugged for a further two hours to the third biggest island in the middle of the lake where another indigineuos people awaited. We strolled and panted with the altitude and evenually settled down to eat some fish from the lake..delicious. We returned to the boat on the other side of the island after purchasing some wristbands from a little girl who displayed the indiginious selling technique of absolute silence but pesistent pointing. Three hours of what felt like we were reversing across the lake and we were on terra firma.
The next day we left the delightful lakeside resort and took the incredible beast that was the Pony Express bus to the city of Cusco in the Peruvian Andes. By incredible we mean aweful and by Express they clearly meant the slowest bus on earth. It was made worse by the fact that the bus was bright pink and the driver obviously had a vendetta against any peruvian that was remotely near the road by beeping his horn and refusing to budge his bus an inch, thus forcing cyclists to swerve off into ditches etc.

We had heard that Cusco was the city of dreams and that we would never want to leave!! The drive in suggested otherwise; however the centre was rammed with restaurants, bars and overshadowed by majestic Cathderals. Our plan to have an epic saturday night-out, to so-call christen our travels together, was somewhat scuppered by the Peruvian elections (there was a countrywide alcohol ban.) Having been tipped off about a party in a youth hostel, we intrepid young gentlemen taxied it there to be met by two men with guns wearing balaclavas. This was made worse by the S.S. badges they wore on their arms, and the angry looks on their faces. Deciding that maybe this wasn´t going to be the best party, we elected to return to the centre; however for some strange reason it took a while to persuade our taxi driver to budge from the hostel. We slept off our traumatic experiences, before heading off to Machu Picchu on the Sunday morning. The cheapest way to do this was to take a chicken bus, followed by a collectivo, and then a train - a monumentous undertaking. Particularly as the man sitting next to us not only smelt of alcohol every time he breathed, but also smelt distinctly like the Elephant house at Bristol Zoo!!!

We trawled into Machu Picchu village at 10pm after a days travelling, before being hustled into what we thought was a bargain hostel, for 2 and a bit dollars!! Our lack of sleep, and incistance that we were flea ridden made us feel that maybe it hadn´t been a great choice.

The three musketeers had an unusual flash of organization, and managed to be up at 4.45am to catch the first bus to Machu Picchu. It proved to be a wise move as we were among the first few people in, to see the sunrise and experience a stunning and empty Machu Picchu. Our tranquil moment was sadly spoilt by some american "hippies" who said that our heathly debate about camera batteries, or lack of, was ruining their auror and experience!! Ignoring the pansies we continued to take novelty photos, and as the sun rose and lit up the famous sun temple we were left in ore at this incredible sight.
Trying to live up to the hardcoreness of our musketeer namesakes we soon decided to climb the mountain behind Machu Picchu, Waynupicchu. However, the fact that we had had 5hrs sleep, no food, no water and a 500m vertical climb to undertake didn´t really help our cause. Nonetheless we couldn´t undermine our now fierce reputation and so we began the supposed 1hr vertical climb. Half an hour later, and after shouts from passers-by of ´look at those lamas go´ and ´what a packhorse´, we were at the top, hardly out of breath and ready to continue with the novelty photo theme-HARDCORE! Soon enough we ran back down, in an attempt to catch Laurie who had sadly, for him, been ´door-knobbed´ at the top! Finally out of breath and in need of rehydration we chilled out and took in the beauty of this famous Inca ruin.

The rest of the day was spent in Machu Picchu Village, aka Aguas Calientes, where we indulged in some nice meals and a nap before heading to the thermal baths just outside the village. Much to our dissappointed the baths turned out to be Israeli full, murky coloured, urine smelling dirt pools. After a brief ´get your moneys worth´ half an hour in the so called medicinal baths we returned to try and get some sleep before the 5.15 rise the next morning. Soon enough we were abruptly awoken by Laurie´s shout of ´the train leaves in 5mins´ and so at lightning pace we headed for the train jumping on just as the departure whistle was sounding- perfect timing!

We are now back in the beautiful Cusco, and after an earlier game of our now regular darts and pool at Nortons, we are getting ready to take part in some of the cities well-known night life. Tomorrow we head to the oasis of Huacachina.

Miami 01/06/06

2006-06-02T04:54:00.000+01:00

Greetings,

It was in the summer of 1999 that Will Smith graced Bristish charts with the hit single, "Miami" - an infectiously groovey club tune that promised prospective visitors, a "party in the city where the heat is on" and even the opportunity to "lie on the beach untill the break of dawn". What a fantastic track that was. His equally impressive earlier work includes several timeless chart toppers, such as "summertime" and the ruthlessly hip, "boom shake the room". Finally, it would be blasphemy to even begin talking about Will's achievments without giving due acknowledgment to the hilarious T.V series, "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air" in which his mischievous yet endearing antics would invariabley send poor uncle Phil round the bend. Classic stuff. Thanks Will.

On the 27th of May, after a brief exchange of cuddles and condolences, KT finally parted with the Jim-meister outside Quito airport and boarded their plane bound for the sunshine state. It is at this point that we would like to apologize profusely for our previous cynicism with regards to american flight schedules; we simply did not understand that such precision was possible. Our flight was scheduled to take off at 08:26 and, sure enough, we were soaring up into the couds at 08:26 and 13 seconds. What is that?
Anyway, we arrived in Miami that afternoon to find, debatably, the biggest culture shock of our entire trip, bar India. It turned out, after a small amount of investigation, that we had arrived during "Black Beach Week" - an annual hip hop festival featuring the performances from the likes of P Diddy, DMX, Nelly, Fat Joe, LL Cool J and several other artists of whom we'd never heard, plus numerous afterparties hosted by today's NBA stars. So, as you would imagine, the streets were completely swamped with the standard bandana wearing, gun slinging, ho pimping, drug pedelling gentlemen that one would expect to find at such an event (350'000 of them). Insanity.

On the first evening, perhaps slightly intimidated by the circumstances, we made a point of burying ourselves down in our hostel's T.V basement, where we enjoyed one of Vince Vaughn's earlier films. Thanks Vince. It was only when we re-emerged however, that we were informed that the police had come by and forcibley removed two drug dealers from the premises. Lovely.

Just two nights were spent in Miami Beach International Traveller's Hostel, before we gathered our belongings and moved onto a far nicer placed called, Clay. It was here that we shared a dorm with Marcus, a Yugoslavian Drum n' Bass fanatic who claimed he used to make a living driving limosines for the stars in Los Angeles, his client list supposedly including big names like Robert Deniro, Harrison Ford, Joe Strummer, Axel Rose, the Cypress Hill group and several other names that escape us at the moment. Having previously spent few years in Miami, Marcus had grown accustomed to "Black Beach Week" and seemed to take a perverse pleasure out of filling us in on the blood soaked tales from past festivals. Despite being a complete legend, we only learnt his name at 05:30 on our final morning in Miami from his derranged stalker who happened to be lurking in the hallway (up to this point, due to his nationality, he had only been referred to as "Yugi").

During long, scorching days between the 27th and the 31st, KT could typically be found lounging on Southbeach or jostling through the pandamonium of Miami's busy streets. Mingling amongst the visiting gangsters and the wildly amusing, native eccentrics was entertaining to say the least and when lacking the energy to mingle, grabbing a coffee on an outdoor terrace and just "people watching" was always an option. In the evenings, searching for somewhere to eat was a pleasant affair, although unfortunately clarity of mind and coherant conversation were both inescapable due to the outrageous/perhaps rather sensible drinking laws.

Once our fear of a premature death by drive by shooting had been overcome, Miami became a great chapter in our travels and certainly added to our excitement regarding the rest of the States. We arrived in here San Francisco yesterday and what a beautiful city it is! But that readers, is for another blog.

Anyways, we out y'all. REPRASENT! RICE AND PEA!!

KT

P.S: We've only just gotten used to the absence of camera happy James. Sorry. We promise we'll feature in the S.F pics.

P.P.S: The Da Vinci Code is blood boilingly awful. Don't go and see it.

The Three Musketeers

2006-05-30T22:23:00.000+01:00

From Santiago to the back end of Bolivia. Photos.

2006-05-30T21:51:00.000+01:00

Kawabunga!

Riding Bolivian Stylie.

2006-05-30T21:03:00.000+01:00

zzzzzz.....5.15am.....zzzzzz

Lago Colorado

Geezers and Geysers

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee......

Enough said

30c, 3000m,30km...and energy to pose!

Valle de la Luna

Santiago Army.

Look into my eyes, look into my eyes, not around the eyes...your under.

Santiago to the back end of Bolivia...and at last we found him!!!

2006-05-30T17:36:00.000+01:00

It was monday morning that we left the three globetrotters in their plush Santiago appartment, it had been a great long weekend of unadulterated tomfoolary and we left with long faces. Sadly this lasted a short while as we were soom absorbed into the fine life in Santiago with our friend Sebastien and his lovely family. We were picked up from the end of the metro line and driven out through the smog, to the green suburb of Las Condes. We quickly established the tone for the week as we immediately took to our beds and began two days of sleep. On tuesday however Teo took a bad turn for the worse and this peaked in a spectacular projectile vomiting session coating everything bar the toilet. Our previous travels were clearly catching up with us, and we saw it fit to sleep some more. It is at this point we should mention Ida, she is the family´s house keeper and she was fantastic. With motherly attention accompanied by a warm smile she served us five meals a day. Breakfast, 11´s, lunch, tea and supper, her motive being that we needed to fatten up. We did not complain as she was a master chef so we simpy ate everything put infront of us, and apart from Teo being struck down it was this limitless hospitality that caused us to emerge from the house 3 days after arrival.

Thursday saw us travel by bus to Valparaiso, the oldest city in Chile. Its buildings fall down the steep hills to the sandy beaches lining the coast. These hills are scaled by funicular railways called Ascencors, it is these that structured our mornings ambling around the colourful alleyways high up above the central plaza. We strolled around the ancient Cerros and got lost looking for Escalar de Muerta. We eventually found our way down another rickety Ascensor and took the coastal metro to the co-city of Viña del Mar. Here we were to be met by Maria, an old Chilean Raleigh chum. We quickly jumped in her jeep thing and were wisked off for a tour of the city. The ride took us up to the coastal village of Con Con where we indulged in a gourmet fish meal in a restuarant overlooking the bay full of sealions and pelicans. The tour took us up and around Viña before returning to Maria house, witnessing an amazing sunset over Valparaiso on our return. We ended up crashing at Maria´s house that night as we had missed the last bus back to Santiago. The evening saw us chilling out at a Chilean appartment, chatting about football, travels and general banter. In the morning we headed back to the capital after what was an awesome time in Viña and Valporaiso.

Soon enough it was Saturday and time to head up north. This could not happen before another one of our daily fights with the six kids- Sebastien, Maria Jesus, Bernandita, Jose Manuel, Javi and Juan Diego. These battles ended up getting quite vicious, with Laurie standing on Jose´s head in one memorable duel. Sadly the battle mostly ended up with us getting defeated simply through shear numbers. The battle may have been one but the war is not over!
Later that day it was time to say goodbye and take another one of our now regular, epic bus journeys, this time up north.

We were thrown off the bus 6 hours down the road at 4am in La Serena at the base of the famed Elqui valley. With nothing open we settled down to 4 hours of freezing sleep in the half open bus station. Later that morning we took the bus up the Elqui valley to the small town of Vicuña, and absolutely shattered, we crashed in a nice hostal till the afternoon. We rolled out of bed and onto the bus to Pisco Elqui, the heart and namesake of the Pisco region. After an overpriced lunch we embarked on a tour of the Pisco distillery ´Tres Erres´, we learnt how they made it, saw where they made it and most importantly drank it. At 40% we returned to Vicuña a happy duo. That evening we visited Mamalluca Observatory and spent the evening looking at Casius Major, Saturn and Jupiter amongst other nebulas and things, and the night was finished off with some traditional music played by the in house astronomist. The next day we returned to La Serena and took the over night bus in the evening for a further 19hrs to the town of San Pedro de Atacama in the middle of one the driest deserts on earth. After checking into Hostal Florida, the next two days in the town saw us cycling around the various delights in the surrounding deserts. We visited Valle de Luna and as recomended watched the crimson sunset, we went sandboarding down the nearby dunes and also had some good chats with fellow desert explorers. It was after these two days that the race began....

Meeting Tom on the 27th had been scrapped as we had decided to go the the Salar de Uyuni on a three day jeep tour, it was so close we couldn´t miss it. We changed the meeting date to the 29th and began the three country sprint up South America. The tour took us up to the Bolivian border at 4500m at the foot of the Altiplano where we had brekky and Coca tea (the basis of Cocaine, Parents) . We then drove on a dirt track for an hour to Laguna Verde at roughly 4600m and watched the lake change colour to become a lucid green colour. The track climbed and climbed to the hot springs at 4800m where we swam and relaxed in the 35c water. We ate a fine lunch out of the jeep and climbed further to the Sol de la Mañana geysers at a head pounding height of 5000m. Feeling the altitude, we descended only 200m where we slept in a shack on the shores of Laguna Colorado. This lake due to the algae is bright red and is the home of three types of flamingoes including the rare James flamingo, we watched these peculiar birds frollick about till sunset and returned to the shack for a breathless nights sleep. After more Coca tea we finally began our descent to the Salar, stopping at a string of flamingo lined lakes and looking at the crazy Dali-esque volcanic rocks. We reached the Salar late that evening and were welcomed into the Salt Hotel, and yes it is made entrirely out of salt. We had a warm night at last and woke up at the un-godly hour of 5 to drive onto the Salar to watch sunrise, it was worth all the grumbling and moaning and was an incredible sight. As the sun came up we drove to Isla Pescada, an ancient island lined with ancient cacti. Here we ate pancakes with our Bolivian drivers and contemplated the vastness of the Salar. The jeeps then roared off across the white expanse and we covered the huge white plain stopping only for novelty photos and salt crystals beneath the salty crust. At 3 in the afternoon we eventually arrived a the tiny town of Uyuni.
We didnt pause for breath as we immediately and desperately wanted to get out the town and start our challenge of reaching Ariquipa in two days. We were so keen to leave we bought both a bus ticket and train ticket . We could not leave till midnight at the earliest so we spent the evening in a pizza place with no money but euros talking to two Raliegh friends who we had luckily met earlier that day. After killing time with good banter we jumped into our Executivo seats at 1 in the morning and chugged off on the train for the Bolivian town of Oruro. We arrived at 7am and instantly went to the bus station, with perfect timing we were told the bus to Arica, Chile left in three hours, this was perfect. After being done over by a Bolivian before we should have expected what was going to happen. Three hours turned into 5 hours, and the bus was now leaving from a place 20 mins outside the city. At least they gave us a pickup to the leaving point we thought. However when the jeeps back wheel exploded at 120kmh we were sure the bus would have left without us. But with minutes to spare a lift down the road to the bus stop left us on a bus for 9 hours to Arica on the other side of the Andes. After passing amazing volcanoes in the Lauca national park we got to Arica late at night, and we said ´f*¨! this¨and checked into a hostal for the first sleep in 24 hours. Slightly fresher we got a Collectivo (taxi) across the border to Tacna, Peru and then a rickety bus to Ariquipa 7 hours up the road....and then....

We found him!! The elusive Tom Fleming, tanned, smiling but with a glint in his eye...

TL and now T

One from Arequipa

2006-05-29T19:50:00.000+01:00

Hey all,

It´s Flemuche here!! I do still live depite any rumours. I am emailing from Arequipa in Peru, hopefully a couple of hours before meeting up with LT. We´re going to head off on travels round Peru and Ecuador, hopefully where we´ll see JA (loving the new blonde james by the way!) Definately looking forward to heading off as i have been twidling my thumbs for 2 days and seeing such culturally diverse things as the Da-vinci code (not worth it) and X-men 3. Arequipa is a good place, but is rammed with travelers plus the typical american pensioners on a coach tour. I went out with some Austrian girls for a meal last night, they were obcessed with being budget and I ended up having steak, chips and rice for less than a dollar - if i am not ill later today i will be amazed!

I have had a wicked 4 months in Costa Rica, although i was gutted not to be there for the bish krew S.A. re-union, i have been reading about it. I also visited Panama and Nicaragua while i was there. The Panama canal is a definately overated sight, i had to pay for an expensive taxi ride and then pay again to watch a boat go really slowly past me!!

I will post some photos on the blog in a few days when i get them on c.d.

Later,

Tom.

P.s. Thea and Lizzie are staying in the same hostal by co-incidence!!

Ecuador Pics

2006-05-26T18:46:00.000+01:00

This particular rodent is renowned for its disproportionately large faeces.

Our lodge at the top of a gruelling staircase.

"THEY'RE IN MY HAIR!" - they really were.

Deep in the amazon the intrepid explorers pause for a photo op.

The view from OUR hammock on OUR balcony of OUR room. It was ours.

Her name was Veronica and she had an adorable ability to imitate laughter. No shit.

We'd heard that over-fishing was a major problem. We really had to restrain ourselves.

Stop... Hammock time!

The world famous Otavalo market

A distracting backdrop, but we like it.

To this day the soppy buggers blame this photo on a "dusty gust of wind".

Pululahua crater

The Equator

Quito 26/05/06

2006-05-26T17:05:00.000+01:00

Howdy folks,

As I'm sure you were previously aware, this will be the final KJT blog of the entire tour... We'll just give you a moment to take that in. It's okay... shhh, this is a hard time for all of us. Right, we shall continue. Tomorrow morning KT will depart for Miami at precisely 8:26 (twenty-SIX for F's sake - that's the yanks for you) whilst our hero James will remain in his homeland, plowing into his own hard earned cash *ahem* as he counts turtles, monitors whales and teaches misfortunate seals to read.

High in the Andes, Ecuador's capital unfurls into an inplausibley long north-south ribbon, over 30km long and just 5km wide (almost as big as my...). To the west the city is dramatically hemmed in by the steep green walls of Pichincha, a formidable, active volcano that has been threatening to splurge its hot gunk all over the city for several terrifying years. To the east the urban sprawl abruptly drops away to a wide valley that descends down to the untamable and spectacularly unspoiled Amazon basin. We're talking about Quito by the way.

We arrived here on the 16th and have since had an incredible time. Our first day was spent absorbing the vibe of the city, booking bus tickets for future adventures and of course, loading our kitchen with the necessary supplies for the romantic meal we would be rustling up that evening. At around 8pm our guests arrived and were served a dish they themselves described as "quite literally the best portion of food (they'd) ever eaten". They also added, "all my life's meals subsequent to this one will only make me depressed, I think I'd like to go and lie down". In seriousness though, we do think that Ruthy and Jorge rather liked our chilli con carne and it was the least we could do, given the amazing hospitality they would be providing us with during our stay.

On the second day we boarded a bus to the equator with our cameras primed for all sorts of novelty shots. Having all studied Geography to at least the age of 14, we'd like to clarify now just how much of a farce the whole "north-south divide" theory is (if anything, the cafe's were slightly cleaner in the southern half). After this, we jumped in a taxi to view the incredible volcanic crater of the extinct Pululahua. The evening was spent exploring Quito's glitzy new town where, we are embarassed to say, we quickly discovered "The Queen Vic" where we partook in an evening of english lager, arguments about english football, english fisticuffs after closing time and several other pastimes that invariably provide one with that warm swell of patriotism in the pit of one's stomache.

On Friday we spent the morning ascending the teleferiqo to an altitude of over 4km where we found stunning views of the city and the surrounding volcanoes. The afternoon saw us strolling through the centro historico, admiring ancient spanish architecture before catching an extremely crowded bus to the legendary town of Otavalo. Upon arrival, we quickly checked into a budget hotel where we would spend the evening before an insane day of market shopping.

4:20 - very, very loud spanish music booms from the town centre. Sleep becomes impossible. Empty beer bottles launched from balcony. 4:40 - music grinds to a halt. Lead singer carted off to hospital. Sleep continues. Bottles not returned. Deposit lost.

The Saturday market was absolutely amazing! We had no idea just how many hand crafted goodies we really needed. Not to mention the clothes, animals, food and of course, pirate DVDs. The place is huge, but nothing on Eastville, naturally. That afternoon, we raced back to Quito in time for a Saturday night out with the Raads, featuring a lovely meal and some dancing at La Zona (The Zone - our spanish is really coming along).

Sunday was pretty chilled out. We devestated a traditional ecuadorian meal at Jorge's, consisting of succulant fried pork, four types of corn, roast potatoes and a selection of fantastic ice cream for dessert. After this we returned to our flat for a good night's sleep before our voyage to Tena.

The bus journey to Tena took five and a half hours and we nearly died on several occasions. The bus driver would make a habit of accelerating round blind bends, with steep drops into ravines on one side and oncoming traffic on the other. At some traffic lights, James also nearly choked on a peanut which was very scary. We arrived in one piece however and managed to organise our 3 day jungle trek along with our accomodation for that evening in what we think was close to seven minutes.

The jungle was an awesome experience, but we can already see how much we've rambled, so we'll keep it concise. On the first morning we trekked through dense primary rainforest before eventually arriving at a fast flowing stream which we followed as far as we could. This included the unharnessed ascent of four waterfalls which was far more dangerous than any bungee jump/sky dive we had done previously. After a delicious lunch at the jungle lodge we took a leisurely stroll through some of the tamer areas of the forest where we were shown a large variety of the natives' medicinal plants which, scepticism aside, was extremely interesting.

The second morning was spent trekking through a canyon. It was this part of the trip that the salesrep had described as the "Indiana Jones phase" due to the oppresively dense greenery, the tight squeezes/climbes through bat infested caverns and the standard issue leather whips which we were all given at breakfast. Naturally, we spent the entire day humming the Indiana Jones tune along with Jurassic Park and, very occasionally, Ghostbusters. What can way say? It's a classic. After another delicious lunch at the jungle lodge, we grabbed a collection of large rubber tubes and drifted down the gorgeous river.

The final day involved a brief trek through some secondary rainforest before arriving at one of the more authentic indigenous communities. Here we tried their drinks, learnt about their survival techniques and generally mingled as we pleased. The whole jungle experience was absolutley fantastic and we were slightly sad to head back to Quito last night. Anyway, we should probably head off before we start to ramble...

Lots of love,

KJT

Oh there is one more thing... It's been emotional.

A taster!!

2006-05-22T19:52:00.000+01:00

Unlimited pisco tasting.Blurred vision.

Saturn. Seen.

Mamalluca Observatory.

Quito Information

2006-05-17T22:33:00.000+01:00

Hi guys -a few ideas for things to do while in Ecuador:

Descend into the crater of Pululahua near Mitad del Mundo (but get a lift back up!)
Take the Teleferiqo to the top of Mount Pinchincha by day
Take the Teleferiqo to the top of Mount Pinchincha by night
Take a hot bath in the thermal springs at Papallacta
Visit Fundacion Guayasamin for some culture
Go for a beer at Mirador de Guapulo your local bar
Take in the cinema and fast food at Plaza America
Order a pizza at L'Arcate or a crepe at Crepes y Wafles
Go see Liga play
A walk in Pasachoa
Mountain bike down the Cotopaxi
Horseriding from an historic hacienda
Go climbing with Moggely
Canoe to Cuayabeno Reserve with Magic River Tours
Birdwatching at Bellavista Lodge in Mindo
Take the Chiva Express and ride the roof down the Devil's Nose
Watch Tungurahua smoulder by night (from a safe distance!)

More about things to do in Quito, and the apartment at www.my-Quito.com -enjoy

Iguazu falls photos.

2006-05-15T20:34:00.000+01:00

Waterfall.

The Hardcore on their epic journey.

44hrs on the party bus!!

Crikey, I can´t believe my eyes , is that a Toucan?!

Garganta del Diablo (Devil´s Throat)

L: Oh, is that a rainbow in the foreground?

T: Yes it is, how spectacular!

´There for a short time remembered for a lifetime´

Coati (Nasua narica)

Iguazu Falls

2006-05-15T17:33:00.000+01:00

Amongst the madness that both BA and Santiago have invoked, the two more rough, and hardcore looking members of the crew took a four day detor to visit one of the most beautiful natural wonders this planet has to offer. Despite plans having been created to orchestrate an almost* entire crew outing to the Iguazu falls, it was left for us to fly the flag over the torents of water that awaited us 20hrs up the road by bus.
*( by almost i mean without Flemuche, who still remains an elusive editor to this fine archive of journalism, if your reading ´get involved´)

We left for the falls on Tuesday evening. As the others had three seats still booked, it left us with five seats for the journey north to Puerto Iguazu. By seats we mean beds as we had decided to pay the extra 2 pounds or so to indulge in the delights of ´Coche Cama´. With the two of us sprawled out across five business class coach seats we soon fell asleep and were abruptly woken the next morning by an Argentine stewardess clothed in only an apron, beholding some croissants and coffee. The 2 pounds extra had proved well spent and two hours later we had reached our destination. We left immediately for the ´Parque National Iguazu´. On arrival we were kindly informed that the park required 8 hours minimum to fully experience its delights, with only 6 hours left we quickly hopped onto the ´high speed´ train set to take us to ´La Garganta del Diablo´( the bigger waterfall). Walking out to the edge, on a platform, looking straight down the Devil´s Throat, we spent a while trying desperately to take in the shear scale of this waterfall. With Laurie trying to return to the train, realizing that we had only seen a quarter of the waterfalls, Teo felt it necessary to stop at all the snake signs with the hope that they had been kind enough to stay close to these signposts.

We then took a walk along the runways and paths that criss-crossed the park down to the waters edge of the river below. Its hard to explain but the Iguazu falls flow all around the park, and it is the width and area they span that really gets you. We then took a gentle boat ride to the central island amongst the falls, able to see all of the cascades around us, and with rainbows all over the place we returned on the last boat back to the ´mainland´. Being the only two people left at the end of the day, we were given our moneys worth on our powerboat ride into the falls that followed. Expecting a light shower, we were not prepared for our enthusiastic Argentine captain who decided to take us fully into the falls as we were pummeled by the warm water. Emerging sodden, he decided to take us in again just to make sure everthing was wet. After 20 minutes or so frollicking amongst the waterfalls we left the river shore to make our final climb to the box seats so to speak. Dodging crazed balls of fur (Coaties) we walked along the upper walkway seeing the Adam and Eve falls, St. Something falls and the Diablo from a distance.

Our trip was almost complete, however we had not seen the elusive Toucan. Slightly upset, we set off to leave the park without seeing the trademark of Iguazu. However, on leaving we suddenly saw a plastic creature mucking about in an overhead tree, realizing that it was infact a Toucan we squealed and ran at the tree to photograph the beautiful bugger. After three shots, it had had enough and flew into the ever reddening sunset.

Now content that we had seen all of the falls we returned to the town of Iguazu and jumped onto a bus to begin our epic 45 hr journey back to Santiago de Chile. Although this time we were stuck in ´cattle class´, we valiantly endured the slow but beautiful journey through rural Argentina. With a whole two days and two nights stuck on a bus we didnt have much choice but to listen to the tales of our constantly changing neighbours. We were more than often reminded that Iguazu to Santiago de Chile was not a frequented route. Each new face brought a new story, and we told ours in return. Poetic licence or not, none of the stories quite matched those told by us. We crossed vast plains, passed through rustic vine yards, rolled past quaint Argentine villages and after finally climbing through the Andes we eventually arrived in the smoggy Chilean capital. After this arduous voyage, we had taken another giant step along the path to being fully ´HARDCORE´!!.

LT

Buenos Aires and Santiago

2006-05-15T01:36:00.000+01:00

The boys are back in town.

Casa Rosada,Buenos Aires (culture)

Independiente vs Boca

One of the hookers was kind enough to photograph us.

Santiago de Chile.

Buenos Aires & Santiago

2006-05-15T01:28:00.000+01:00

Hey gang,

Having arrived safely the previous evening and unloaded their belongings into their gorgeous, high ceilinged apartment, KJT casually strolled the beautiful streets of Buenos Aires. After a few minutes however, the ambiance was ruined. An unpleasing smell hung in the air... They quickly attributed the smell to a pair of haggered looking beggars loitering in the street ahead, one of whom's head was concealed due to low cloud cover. KJT made their move to cross the street, but were too late! The bums had spotted their prey and were already galloping towards them!

Having arrived safely from Ushuaia earlier that morning and checked their belongings into a squat of some sort, LT strolled the beautiful streets of Buenos Aires. After a few minutes, they noticed a pleasing aroma drifting through their filthy nostrils. They quickly attributed the smell to the three fresh faced, young gentlemen confidently striding towards them. They looked gay. After realising that they were, in fact, their old chums, LT galloped towards them and dived in for a passionate embrace.

The next few hours were spent reminissing on the terrace of a lovely coffee house, where LT purchased their first cold beer in months and KJT purchased their ninth that day. We spent the next few days absorbing the many delights that BA had to offer.

The first night saw ´the bish´ venturing into one of BA´s hottest night spots, and although a good time was had, KJT left at a meager 3am, clearly lacking the stamina they had been boasting. LT were left to party with some former Raleigh colleagues although they were soon overwhelmed by the transvestites and burlesque dancers and returned 3 hours later.

The second night, after a further days reminissing, we visited the infamous sunset club with the promise of foam. Again BA didn´t dissapoint, more scantily clad young ladies and a pulsing dance floors entised some offensive shapes to be made. Realising that it was infact 8 in the morning the crew staggered back to their respective residencies. LT returned to the never sleeping Milhouse to indulge in some brekky at 9 before hitting the sack. NB there was no foam.

The third night, after another days reminissing, only James and Teo had the stamina to hit BA for a hatrick of nights. Visiting the world famous Pacha club, they arrived at 3 and were disturbed to find it empty(fashionably late taken to far). Being patient they grabbed some beers and were rewarded with some hardcore trance and soon enough another throbbing dance floor.

Sunday. With LT having moved onto the floor of KJT´s grand appartment, ´the bish´ decided to stop being nocturnal and just about managed to emerge early enough to watch Boca vs Independiente. Whilst the quality of football left a little to be desired, the relentless aggression of the crowd was easily enough to keep us entertained for 90 minutes. Apparently rather confident at the start of the match, Independiente taunted the Boca supporters with stand shuddering chants and your usual south american hand gestures. We were impressed to find that when Boca promptly slotted two goals in, Independiente's spirit remained unconquerable. The chanting stopped, yes. But the firework/chairleg throwing and fence climbing began! One particularly valant group of supporters even expressed their devotion to their club in the most noble way imaginable. They destroyed a small womans' soft drinks and hotdog stand before throwing the debris onto the pitch. Such galantry.

On monday the group had a girlie shopping spree on Florida street, a few minutes walk away from the apartment. The evening saw them hitting a late night coffee house for hot chocolate and churros. It was during a lazy discussion sat here that KJT became utterly convinced that a visit to the Iguazu falls with LT was the one thing missing from their itinerary and preparations must be made immediately to alter their route!

On Tuesday the fickle idiots returned to Rio on their scheduled flight and agreed to meet LT in Santiago as planned. Yet more reminissing has been done here in yet another plush apartment and this evening we will be going out for our final meal together before reuniting in Brizzle. There is very little to do here, so we're just doing what we do best. I'll just say this...

Die Hard
Risky Business
Mission Impossible 3
Sensual Friends (oi oi)
FA Cup Final
Federer vs Nadal
Seinfeld
Frasier
Desperate Housewives
CNN

*ahem*

1000ml Vodka x 2
750ml Red Wine
750ml White Wine
1000ml Pisco
2888cm squared Italian Pizza

That was the first afternoon. We haven't the energy to describe the evening or the days that followed. It's just been a whole lot of fun!

We love you all,

KJTLT

Pictures Rio

2006-05-11T22:05:00.000+01:00

It was a right shit hole.

Rochina, City of God

We saw many big men in skirts.

We were lucky to get out alive after we sweated off the boot polish.

He´s not the Messiah, He´s a very naughty boy!

Copacabana with Sugarloaf in the backround.

Santiago de Chile, 10/5/06

2006-05-10T21:44:00.000+01:00

Oi/Hola/Hi,

the three of us arrived in Santiago today after an exhausting week babysitting Laurie and Teo in Buenos Aires. We figured we should just write a Blog about Rio since it was so long ago, and wait until we catch up with the other 2 here in Santiago before we tell all about BA.

We arrived in Rio on the 26th, seriously worried that Kieran wouldn't even be allowed to enter the country, or that at best he would be forced to buy yet another ticket. As it happened the immigration officials simply waved us through to be set upon by the hordes of waiting taxi drivers trying to take us to an underground car park. Eventually we found our way to the hostel where, due to delays in our flight from Santiago, we were told our reservation had been cancelled. Not speaking a lot of Portuguese seemed to be a bit of a problem and had the guy standing next to us not been from Westbury-on-Trym we may have been in a world of trouble.

We quickly settled into the life of a Carricosa and hit Copacabana wearing, so called, "Bannana Hammocks" (one step up from a loin cloth). Despite what we had heard there weren't exactly a lot of tourists on the beach and one member of the group left in tears after being described as "pasty" by a group of local children. In addition to Copacabana our other regular haunt was the internet cafe where, in probably the highlight of the trip so far for Tommy and James, you could play online pro evolution soccer for a measly 3 Reals an hour. It's boring but it's a part of my life.

Our hostel offered a wide range of tours and activities and we took full advantage of this whenever possible. However, the buses would occasionally arrive late/not atall and our second night saw us finding our own way (without a guide) to São Cristobal a huge market in which we were the only gringos. To be honest we never really felt like we were in any danger but even so we wern't tempted to get involved with the dancing and gun fights. As the buses still were being a little tempremental the next day, we grouped up with some girls from Manchester who, as expected, went to UWE and yes, lived by the arches, for a trip to Corcovado to see Christ the Redeemer. The views were spectacular and the Christ was really impressive. Why certain people felt the need to try and balance him on their fingers for a comedy picture we'll never know. Its against nature, against God and he's going to hell. We saw even more spectacular views from on top of Sugar Loaf Mountain. The whole city was stunningly displayed in front of you, but "Lizard Boy" spent his whole time following reptiles around the cable car station.

With the hostel we went to the Maracana to watch Fluminese against Vasco de Gama in a massive local derby. The atmosphere was amazing totally different to anything we had seen in England. The people obviously cared for their team and didn't seem to care what they looked like as they screamed, danced and sung for the entire 90 minutes. Our final outing with the hostel was to the favela, Rochina, where City of God is set. We were pretty afraid before arriving and the rocket like motorbike ride to the top of the Favela did nothing to ease the nerves. However our guide, Daniella, assured us everything would be fine and as she slung the AK47 over her shoulder we all felt tempted to believe her. We entered at the top and made a beeline straight through the narrow alley ways. We soon realised that favela life is not how it is portrayed in the movies with benifits including free cable, free elecricity, free water, free protection by drug lords and some of the nicest cakes we have ever eaten. There is also a McDonalds. Alright for some.

Hope all is well back in blighty and we will post the BishKrew's adventures in BA soon....

LOL KJTx

The BishKrew achieve new fame on Google

2006-05-08T21:58:00.000+01:00

Try these searches on Google:
Crazy stuf to do in Patong
or the famous: Napoleon Rass

and of course there is:
Tommy James and Kieran on Tour
or:
Laurie and Teo in Patagonia

´After you´...´no, you first´

2006-05-03T23:19:00.000+01:00

Last stop before the white continent!!

2006-05-03T23:14:00.000+01:00

Boat Hijacked, Antarctica here we come!!

2006-05-03T23:06:00.000+01:00

Los Cuernos, Torres del Paine National Park

2006-05-03T22:52:00.000+01:00

Giants infront Umpalumpas behind

2006-05-03T22:49:00.000+01:00

Ice Ice Baby!

2006-05-03T22:43:00.000+01:00

Teo versus Transport

2006-05-03T21:20:00.000+01:00

First things first. Contrary to popular belief I am still alive and I am litterayte!

Here`s my story of Ushuaia. Basically, me, Laurie, Ed and Dani have been partying down in the southernmost city in the world, Ushuaia. On our first day we took a boat into the Beagle Channel and saw some quality sealife, including sea lions, cormorants and albatross. However, on the return the b*****d boat repeatedly tried to throw me into the sea as it hit the huge Beagle waves; I received a large number of hardcore water facials but I was still standing as the boat entered the harbour by night and although I was drenched from head to toe it was all good fun. On tuesday we decided to hire bikes and hit the Tierra del Fuego National Park. Little did I know the bike I was to ride would be cursed, trying to defeat me by first the seat coming loose, then the brakes breaking and finally the wheel coming off as I was cycling! The ride was still amazing and included a brief but memorable entry naked into the freezing Beagle Channel...where men turned to women! Yesterday it was time to travel by horse. However, again I was to be the one with the cursed horse, appropriately named the Gypsy, that repeatedly tried to throw me off, reduce my sperm count and to cover my whole body in swampy mud and water. As with the bike and the boat, the horse learnt not to mess with Lopez as he will always come out victor! Much to the disagreement of Laurie who just laughed histerically at my three tough battles.

Thats pretty much Ushuaia with the addition of our entry to a local Club Nocturno last night. It was Dani`s birthday so we thought we would celebrate by researching the nearby establishments. Entering innocently into Sonia Club, looking forward to a tuesday night boogie, we ended up being offered 15 minutes for 100pesos (20quid)...with the lovely lady specifying that it was `only to f***, no a**l!` Shocked and dissapointed at this lackluster offer I proceeded to nutt the woman and we left never to enter a `Club Nocturno` in South America again!

Laurie and I are now off to Buenos Aires to meet up with Kez, Tommy and James. Im sure there will be more interesting nights to come and comment on!

Teo.

Nz Pics

2006-05-02T00:37:00.000+01:00

Skahh Tawahh had SCAWWAY GWASS FWAWWS.

Josh standing, Timmy squatting, generic rah girls scattered.

James was strapped to the bonnet for this one.

The local Police were kind enough to take a photo for us.

TRIVIA: Kieran used to have an earring.

You wouldn´t think it to look at us, but we were almost too wasted to make it back to the car.

Fantastic Views

2006-04-30T17:37:00.000+01:00

To the end of the Earth

2006-04-30T16:31:00.000+01:00

Its the 18th of April and we have just been left behind in the town of coyhaique, the previous day we had been told we were taking a road trip 400km south to a glacier called the exploradores to do some glacier walking by a mildly insane chilean man. Louis had clearly become a fan of us gringos and decided to show us the delights of the region in his own way. After picking up enough food to sink the titanic and enough pisco to float it we drove down the Carreta Austral towards the Northern Icecap. He had hired a pick up the day before and was now trying to convince us that it was a four by four by taking the scenic route on to pure mud tracks, after 2 hours of muddy madness we returned back to the road via a bridge for cows only, louis had now convinced us that this may be a one way trip.

Our two fellow explorers Danny and Ed of umpalumpa proportions were running around in the back of the truck whilst me and teo were experiencing chilean driving at its best with knees touching ears. After 7 hours of driving we eventually came to the final valley, with hanging glaciers above the ´road´ and frozen water falls around us we arrived at the our destination, after some smooth talking by our chilean guide we managed to blag the floor of a refuge in the woods, and spent that night drinking pisco sour and eating some massive pinenuts by a wood burning range. The next day we woke early and climbed for two hours to the end of the moraine field to the start of the open ice, after attaching crampons and roping together we strolled further into the glacier. Teo decided that it was too easy to walk on a glacier and decided to pick up the pace, two seconds later, he was face down 6 foot from a crevass with a bloody arm.. a warning not to mess!!! 3 hours was spent on the ice in the shadows of Mnt St. Valentine, and we returned 2 hours later to the truck battered but satisfied. 5 hours back to coyhaique, and more pisco sour and the night was partied away in the local gringo trap. Having planned on staying only 3 days , we stayed 5 on Louis´s floor with his mum baking us some Sopapia´s and just generally recovering after 3 months of tent action.

Last saturday,we flew south to Punta Arenas and then to Puerta Natales by bus, after waiting for Danny to recover from some particularly nasty tenacious D, we got the bus to Torres del Paine national park, for another 4 days in the wilderness. The two of us went for a small stroll the first evening to check out the view of the Paines , which turned into a random assualt of the summit, worth everyminute we returned from the top in the dark by torch light. After meeting a 30yr old vegetarian who abused us for rations and insisted on pointing out she got her meat in other ways...we trekked as fast as we could for 27km to get to the next camp. After K.O´ ing, we woke up the next day to find we had been raided by mice, and there were holes in everything. Another few days and a total of 50 km and with the weather closing in we called it a day on the wilderness, and left for Ushuaia the southern most city in the world. After listening a to a remarkably irritating canadian for 12 hours, we arrived at our hostel only to find him already there and pointing out to the kind receptionist that he was not to be anywhere near us. After an all you can eat buffet last night,we are going even further south in a boat today to check out some sealife, and hopefully see some whales.

TL

Final planning!!

2006-04-30T11:02:00.000+01:00

Saturday evening at the Rafters back in England -preparations for the grey gap year reach an advanced stage...

I know what you're thinking ..... and yes she did try to run off with the camera.

Getting down to the serious business of eating and drinking......

.....when celebrations are interrupted by an unexpected phone call from Rio, although no one could figure why an England centre back would want to speak to Susana.

Time to get out those baby photo albums.......

Rio de Janeiro 28th April

2006-04-28T22:55:00.000+01:00

Hello families,

Having been told that this blog will be the topic of discussion at tomorrow evening´s meal, we feel under immense pressure to make it interesting. If in a few cases, that simply means outright shocking, then sue us.

On our final night in Christchurch, we were shocked to find the streets swamped with grungy looking youths, fighting one another, vandalising public property and complaining about their parents´ oppressive chore regimes. Apparently they had just watched an interesting act called "Disturbed" at the town hall. Anyway, the following day we gave Mel and Gerrard a lovely present for their hospitality and boarded our flight to Auckland. Imagine our excitement when we spotted that Disturbed themselves were sitting amongst us in the economy section of the plane!! They provided immense entertainment for us during the flight; striking air hostesses, taking full advantage of the free alcohol and one of them even broke into the cockpit to throw up on the pilot. The part about them being on the plane was true by the way, but all looked over the age of 50 and seemed to be the most polite passengers on the flight. Apparently when you destroy the self esteme of thousands of kids, you don´t need to destroy much else.

Upon arrival in Auckland, it became clear fairly soon that, despite being a large, busy city, there wasn´t a hell of alot to do. So in all our heroism we scouted out the cheapest bottle stores and assured one another that we would have fun nonetheless. On the first night, spotted a bloke and two girls from Cardiff drinking on the roof of our hostel. Having noticed that their drinking games were strikingly similar to ours we decided to join them and share in their merriment. However, subtle differences in our rules soon led to bitter conflict and eventually (don´t ask me why) a psychology debate. At one point, Hannah (a psychology student) attempted to explain the nature of the human psyche, by using a snorkelling trip as an analogy. It was at this point that Tommy saw his cue to inform her that he hadn´t just been snorkelling, but DIVING no less, thus making her argument completely invalid. QED. Fast forward a matter of minutes and the three of us have made it to our beds and are lying in an alcohol induced slumber. Happy days.

Night 2. Slightly more tame than the previous night yet somehow still involving the same amount of alcohol. By this point we had made friends with a few of our roomies and decided to go out for a civilised drink. At some point the illusion of civility was shattered when James´s head thudded against the centre table and it became clear that he was, in fact, fast asleep. Fast forward a matter of minutes and the three of us have made it to our beds and are lying in an alcohol induced slumber. Happy days.

Night 3. This was our one recooperation evening in Auckland and, unwisely, we decided to spend it forking out 15 dollars for the incredibl(y awful) Scary Movie 4. Luckily we watched it with Josh, our recently aquired group gimp/legend. What with being a Londoner, Josh was sometimes hard to understand. For instance, when in a particularly boastful mood, he claimed to have "smashed some old bird" in a girls only dorm at the last hostel he had stayed in, and said that he had awoken by the manager "whapping [him] right across [his] cherry chase". Any idea what this means parents?

Night 4. This evening had a gentle start with a few beers with an Australian bloke called Timmy (from Wyong). In a matter of minutes it became obvious that this young gentleman had an uncanny ability to be extremely racist whilst being extremely endearing at the same time. In fairness, when discussing potential solutions to the Aberigini problem in Australia, he didn´t once mention the word "camp", so he was probably less racist than your average Australian. Timmy turned out to be quite a bizarre character and in hindsight, that first conversation was probably him at his most normal. He was the sort of person who would not talk for hours on end and then break his silence by shouting through a traffic cone... sober. This evening saw us elevated to a legendary status amongst the hostel guests, purely due to the fact that we were prime suspects for some damage to a wall in the bar and thrown out as a result. Hazy memories mean we honestly couldn´t tell you whether it was us or not, but we´ve photographed it and are willing to take credit for it. Fast forward a matter of minutes and the three of us have made it to our beds and are lying in an alcohol induced slumber. Happy days.

Night 5. Having earnt a few followers for our stunt, the three of us along with Josh, Timmy and a few loaded, rah girls (with whom Josh was obsessed) hit a bar called -5degrees. It was all made of ice making it extremely easy to smash up. After this, we let the rah girls go and spend their parents money in the bar whilst the five of us began a steady session in the room. A night out in the local clubs followed and we managed to return to the room at a reasonable hour. By "reasonable" we mean late, unlike our previous evenings´early crashes. Whilst the rah girls were okay company before, we preferred them once they´d been taken down a peg or two from Timmy showing them his penis (for a prolonged period) and threatening to photograph himself doing unspeakable things to them in the night. We´ve since convinced ourselves that their tears were of laughter. As with Josh, Timmy´s foreign dialect sometimes made him difficlut to understand. For instance, he told us one story in which him and his roomate were *EDIT: communally decided to be to obsene* and were "high-fiving over the top". Any ideas guys? Anyway, here it comes: fast forward a matter of minutes and the three of us have made it to our beds and are lying in an alcohol induced slumber. Happy days.

If you were wondering, during the days in Auckland we visited the skytower once and embarked apon numerous trips to "Foodtown" the local super market.

There was a fiasco with some tickets in the airport on the 26th which is currently being sorted and Rio has been great so far.

Bored now,

lots of love,

KJT

PS: Have a lovely meal and do try to keep the discussion high brow.

Sydney Pics

2006-04-22T04:11:00.000+01:00

The aid work we did really took its toll!

Surfings pretty easy.

The Smiths were lovely

One of wyongs finest beaches.

Diving Pics

2006-04-22T03:51:00.000+01:00

Coral and fish.

Mr Sicky

We grabbed anything too slow/stupid to escape!

Not a camera trick, these fish were huge.

Scuba Tom

19th March, Queenstown

2006-04-19T08:06:00.000+01:00

After reading about Laurie and Teo we felt we should probably write an update of our own adventures.
We left Cairns on a ridiculously early flight to Sydney following a pretty big last night at Gilligan's. Once landed we had to navigate through several train and taxi journeys to reach our eventual destination in Wyong, two hours outside Sydney. We were all looking forward to chilling out, maxing, relaxing, or cooling, or shooting some B-Ball by the Smith's pool. But when we saw the lake and the selection of neglected pedalos we were all thoroughly over-stimulated.
Our first adventure saw us taking the local nightclub by storm with Laura, Hannah and their friends. We felt we had to live up to a binge drinking reputation, but sliding down banisters into tiny (angry) Australian girls probably wasn't the best idea.
While in Wyong we spent a lot of time building up our fat reserves or adding to them as the case may be. The Smith's wonderful hospitality was much appreciated.
Our first day in central Sydney was spent at the Easter Show, a load of farmers competing against one another in various agricultural disciplines with free food samples and chocolate thrown in for good measure - ace!
The second day was a little more relaxed as we spent all of our time on Bondi Beach, soaking up the atmosphere and getting some well-deserved chillout time.
The third day was probably the most exciting as KJT ascended the spectacular Sydney harbour bridge on a wallet ravaging and vaguely exciting tour. Following this we headed off to starbucks for a quick nap before comencing the nights activites at the notorious King's Cross. What happens in King's Cross, stays in King's Cross - absolutely nothing. Fun times though.
The rest of our days were spent eating barbecues, sipping beers, swimming in lakes and watching netball tournaments. We enjoyed Sydney very much and left for Christchurch feeling well-fed and relaxed.
We arrived in Christchurch where James was promptly set upon by Customs who dragged him off for an hour because he had "been to high risk drug countries and fits the demographic [they were] looking for". More panic occured when we discovered Gerrard and Mel weren't home, but a quick cup of tea with the neighbours settled us down a treat.
During our few days in Christchurch we watched Sticky the Stunt Clown aka Rent Boy (his words not ours) in Cathedral Square and attended a Canterbury Crusaders Match. Match report: Dan Carter - Professional Legend.
Somehow we managed to blag the hire of a 3.6L Nissan saloon for the long drive down to Queenstown and by 3.6 we mean 1.5. The drive consisted of Kieran and Tommy opening the engine up in front of some of the most stunning views we'd seen, whilst DJ Jamie Q was banging the tunes out in the back. After an hour or two he stopped beat-boxing and Kieran turned the Ipods on. 8 hours, 5 speeding tickets, 3 devasted trees and some surprisingly mild damage to the bodywork we collapsed at our hostel. Unfortunately we were woken up at 4am by our drunk Welsh roommates who talked us into spraying the car pink to cover the dents. Then we killed a prostitute and wrapped her in a carpet. Decide for yourself when you think we started lying.
We leave Queenstown tommorow and our time has been spent wisely with 3 bungy jumps and a river boarding trip under our belts. Although we were all slightly nervous about jumping to say the least, one particular member of the group would come dangerously close to throwing up over himself prior to each jump. All over his grey hoody. With "JA" written in the label. His name was James Askew. All three jumps were crazy for different reasons. A running jump, a dunk in a river and some old school height.
Speak soon, LOL KJT

´Patagonian Swede´

2006-04-17T22:06:00.000+01:00

Teo´s Guiness Advert

2006-04-17T21:50:00.000+01:00

1800m Andeists

2006-04-17T21:39:00.000+01:00

castle mountain

2006-04-17T21:33:00.000+01:00

The photos to match!!!

2006-04-17T19:14:00.000+01:00

Three months in patagonia!!!

2006-04-16T16:51:00.000+01:00

On the 7th of Febuary two gringos, one huge, one not to huge at all rocked up in the dusty patagonian town of Coyhaique, immediately rushed off from the airport like mafiosi dons, they were smuggled into Raleigh International Fieldbase Chile. Raleigh is now only a memory.
Enough of that...
Me and teo were not together for any of Raleigh apart from each phase changeover which lasts four days, this means our thoughts and feeling on our adventures cannot be summed up by just me but i will try...

First Phase:
I was deployed in a town called chile chico on the shores of the lake grand general carrera, here a group us, staying in the back yard of the church, were asked to build a playground and five-a-side footy pitch for the locals. After three weeks of hard graft we repaired and made the climbing frames etc and did the ground work for the area (playground etc later completed by phase three group). we taught the local youth club some english, and played much football against the firemen in the town, we have since then been the only Raleigh team to beat them.21-20. It was an odd town, windswept and full of stray dogs, crazy old men with dummys and numerous offensive nippers shouting ´gringos,´this was until our victory against the town heroes the bomberos.
We returned over the lake and back to fieldbase awaiting, our new instructions, community phase done!

Teo meanwhile was dressing up as a girl in the tiny village of el blanco, he was working on a communnity hall they have been building for 2 years...and is currently at the opening ceremony with the ambassador of chile as i write this!He will no doubt add more...

Second Phase:

I was trekking. Our mountain guide was shared by both me and teo on our adventure phases, he was ray mears´ apprentice at one stage and has taught me and teo how to survive in patagonia, hardcore stylie. my trek took me 130km from lake to source of the rio avellano. After walking 40 km to the valley itself we climbed up to 1700m through a pass and down under the shadows of the castle mountain ´cerro castillo´and the shores of the high lake ´lago alto´. With 15-17kg on our backs and only two re supplies we trekked through dense forest,made 17 river crossings and battled through snow and white out conditions. Sleeping under bashers and in a bivi bag, and using only our new found fire starting techniques we survived on beanfeast, oats, chocolate and manjar ( chilean condensed milk). Having finished ahead of schedule we climbed up to the New Zealand base camp 1833m on the castle mountain, walking from 8am to 8pm, with no track and pitch black for the final hour..

An awesome phase, unforgetable....best moment:swapping a chicken for three potatoes and 5 carrots, from resupply, and killing ,gutting and roasting it...we were very hungry, it was no english chicken i tell the!

p.s we had to sh*t in holes dug with sticks for three weeks...its called scratching the cat...its wrong but u get to love the poo with a view..
Another three weeks gone, adventure phase done..

Teo meanwhile, was playing cricket with folk, in the remote valley of chacabuco, removing alien species from a ranch, to connect to huge national parks together..im sure he will add to this..

Phase three:

I was sent to Parque Reserve de Simpson. We were asked by the chilean tree commission CODEF to help them reforest the park with Lenga trees, this meant three weeks of moving trees around the place, sounds sh*t work...it is, it was worthwhile and we did feel like we were being hippy environment people.! We had and awesome time all the same, banter was quality, and we bided our spare time in the autumn sun playing cricket in the shit pit arena...a rickety old horse paddock...eating more dodgy rations we made friends with local farmers, and i was given a hunting hat by don juan, a top bloke, with 3 teeth..kieran its the same one as in deerhunter, exact same one...oh yes it is!you can touch it when i get back..with raleigh coming to an end we had a double asado, with the farmers and chileans at the end...an asado is a dead sheep ,cohones and all strung up over a fire, and then slammed onto a table, and everyone attacks it with there knifes..mental..
Another three weeks over, Environmental phase done..Raleigh International done..

Teo meanwhile was strolling through the very remote Neff valley on his adventure phase, sounded quality and just as hardcore as my own...he is very thin now, were feasting tommorow night...and sleeping on a bed for the first time in 10 weeks.. he will no doubt want to add even more..

PLANS: on tuesday we head to the san rafael glacier, with two others, to do some ice work on the glacier, terrified, as our guide is a raleigh guy who is 25 and doesnt seem to know that many knots, but he assures us its his job...hmmmm.we then travel up along the carreter austral and then onto the island of Chiloe, for some horsey stuff on beaches and some fishing. On arrival at the fishing port of Puerto Montt we then fly south to the land of fire ´tierra del fuego´. we have been told not to do this as it is now nearly winter, and it can be impossible to then get out of the south if winter comes behind you, but we are cos we are now hard....´er. we plan to do a four day trek round the famed torres del paine and then onto ushuaia and the beagle channel for some whale spotting in sub antarctica...

YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST: sounds like its all awesome for the bishkrew ,cant wait to see you in santiago, should be quality, let us know any more plans that you have, and when you are in buenos aires, cos we might collide as we will be there in about 25 days.

PHOTOS: are on here tommorow.

Cairns/Sydney/Singapore Pictures

2006-04-13T04:26:00.000+01:00

A good night, but we couldn't get served anywhere.

Outside the bridge climb centre.

A lovely american family took this photo for us. They asked us to return the favour but we really had to press on.

Oh that's right, we're artsy.

Bondi beach. Jealous?

God knows how long that poor woman's earring had been caught on tommy's bag.

Waiting for the bus to take us skydiving... We were asked to move along.

Our first daytrip out with dad.

The Olympic Torch [insert ring joke here]

A shot off the dive boat on the way out to the reef.

In hindsight, asking a dwarf to take the photo was a stroke of genius.

Cairns 06/04/06

2006-04-04T06:43:00.000+01:00

G'day,

Happy birthday Danny and happy belated birthday to Mike.

If we remember correctly, we were all too shattered to talk about Singapore in depth in our last blog, so we'll go ahead and tell you about it now.

Upon arrival, not knowing much about Singapore and its attractions, we decided to do the natural thing and looked into having ourselves strapped into a steel cage and launched into the air with the aid of bungee tension (the "G-max" DVD's are in the post). Having gotten this out of our systems, we spoke to our extremely knowledgeable hostel owner, Ken and found out what was available for us to do around the island. Whilst exciting times were had trying new food and site seeing, the day in Singapore that will stick in our memory the most will undoubtedly be the trip to the zoo, followed (unwisely) by a night safari. Not only did we realise just how superficial our interests in wildlife really were, but we also purchased a group mascot to accompany us on the remainder of our travels. He is a colourful bottomed toy baboon, and his name, we have decided, is Bosley. Whilst a cuddly toy may seem like a slightly camp item for three young men to be spending their money on, actually cuddling Bosley is banned and we were each careful to headbutt someone shortly after leaving the shop.

Next on the agenda was a few days in Darwin. Our hostel had a pool, plus on our departing flight we were able to use an extremely exciting inflight gaming system.

Onto Cairns. Having selected the somewhat cushy, Gilligans as our accommodation, we were looking forward to a week of comfort. Despite this however, our rugged backpacker spirits endured. We have been living on take away/microwave food despite access to a beautiful kitchen, and wear the same underwear for days on end despite an abundance of reasonably priced laundrettes. We will not be broken!

As I'm sure you've all heard by now, our roommate, Tom happened to be a post grad student who had recently completed his degree in Bristol (UWE) and even lived in Bishopston no less! He is undoubtedly an exciting character, but unfortunately he tends to be at his most exciting (orgies with Swedish girls, skirmishes with local authorities, acquiring the ability to fly etc) on the evenings we choose to stay in. "Dad" as he has become known (he has no idea) has organised numerous day activities for us including the incredible, extreme quadbiking and several trips to the local lagoon. Always one to lend a helping hand, we will never forget the intense lecture Tom gave us all on the correct way to throw a boomerang whilst, rather comically, a ranger was still retrieving his most recent effort from a nearby rooftop.

Cairns has been a lot of fun but also, rather alot of money. The fourteen thousand foot, four hundred dollar, one minute free fall from a small aircraft was probably the most efficient attack on our bank accounts so far. It was well worth the price and I'm sure the DVD's that we posted today will give you a good idea of why. We also have no financial regrets regarding our quadbiking trip through the Australian outback. When the speed and the danger wasn't enough to get our hearts racing, there was always a chuckle to be had at the sheer creativity of our leader when it came to splattering frogs. Throughout the afternoon he would occasionally bring his bike to an emergency stop and scramble into the bush, always emerging dangling doomed "little rotter" from between his fingers.

Diving the great barrier reef was also something not to be missed - sharks, manta rays, giant clams and fish that clearly weighed more than any of us. We took an underwater camera with us and hopefully the pictures will show what we're talking about.

Tomorrow its time for Sydney to take its punishment and we're all very excited.

Hope all's well in t'UK. Much love to all.

KJT

Bangkok/Singapore Pics

2006-04-01T07:54:00.000+01:00

Apparantly without a binge drinking culture, a society can actually have nice things (however pointless).

Central Bang-cock.

Awww.

R2D2 always put his finger over the lens (we're sorry, that's awful).

Scholars maintain that there is a gold Buddha hidden somewhere within this temple.

A forced smile from all of us. A day trip to the zoo and an evening trip on a night safari should not be done in succession (Tommy: It's just a little f***ing furry thing).

Places the Krew stayed in

2006-03-30T21:35:00.000+01:00

Some web links so you can see where the boys have been:
Click the picture on this page to see what the boys did on Sunday!

Australia: Cairn's, Darwin
Gilligan's -a lush hostel in Cairns!
Elkes -hostel in Darwin at the top end of Australia

Singapore
Betel Box -backpackers hostel in Singapore

Thailand: Bangkok, Phuket, Patong
Patong Sub Inn -"hope you have happiness"is their slogan.
Sunrise Diving -run by Charlie from Somerset.
Big John's -didn't impress the team.

Hong Kong
Wikipedia -Chunking Mansions -a whole complex rather than just a hotel -so well known it even has its own page on Wikipedia.

India
Smyle Inn Delhi -very basic but also very cheap which is nice! $4 a night with free internet and breaKfast is all good!
Prince Polonia -also in Delhi, run by an ex scooter driver called Prince -their slogan "The Guest is like a god for us"

Singapore 26th March

2006-03-26T18:16:00.000+01:00

Happy Mothers' Day!

We all really appreciate the past 19 years of parenting, ladies.

Moving on. Diving was absolutely incredible. The pictures you see are no exaggeration - beautiful fish, clear water and masses of crazy coral.

The first day was spent grappling with the more academic/dull aspects of diving sat in a classroom, although we were given a quick chance to try out our diving equipment in a nearby swimming pool. Our instructor, Fil (that's how he chooses to spell it) was probably at his most patient during this day and as we headed home that evening, we were all agreed - he was a bloody nice bloke. By the end of the course however, he had told us all, we reckon about twelve times each, that we had "the concentration spans of knats" and even raised his fist at one unresponsive member of the group. Said member, whilst trying valiantly to pay attention, was helplessly mesmorised by the effects the moving water was having on his (blond) leg hair.
Out in the deep we did two fun dives during which we simply drifted around looking at what interested us. We also did two skills dives during which we practiced the various techniques we'd learnt and James was given the opportunity to thoroughly overuse the purge button on his regulator. Mr. Blowey, as we've just decided to brand him literally two seconds ago, was most commonly found skimming the surface trying desperately to sink (eventually he learnt that swimming upwards wasn't doing him any favours).

Fil's apparent disliking for the three of us, we have decided, can be partially attributed to the fact that we had an uncanny ability to ask him questions that made him feel rather awkward;

"So Fil, have you ever seen a Napoleon Rass?"
"What do you mean?"
"Erm, have you ever been diving and seen one?"
"... Maori and Napoleon Rass can be found at the great barrier reef or in the Red Sea"
"So have you seen one?"
"The boat's here"

Given as the boat was a good 50 metres away, the silence that followed was excruciating. Why a certain member of the group thought that asking "can I go in the suit?" would help the situation we'll never know.

We feel we should include a brief reference to ladyboys. They're hot. We're saving up for councelling in Cairns. What happens on tour...

Bangkok was alot of fun and, to our surprise, seemed extremely westernised. We stayed at "Big John's Guesthouse" in Thonglor, and within seconds of our arrival he made it clear that "Big" actually meant "obese" and "John" (funnily enough) meant, "twat". If that's too cryptic for you - we thought he was a fat cockmuncher.
Our wrath didn't stop at John by the way. During our first evening there, as we casually sipped our beers in the living area, we overheard a large american man telling a young Thai employee that she was a "hypocrite sinner" whose only hope was to turn to christ. Shortly after engaging with the man (civilly) we were quickly informed that we too were "filthy, rotten sinners" and that our damnation had been planned by god before the very conception of the universe. Whether he was right or not, we took a small satisfaction out of the fact that he had no business in the shirt he was wearing. Using "The Da Vinci Code" and a GCSE study of Luke's gospel as our source of ammunition, we set about dismantling this poor man's argument/way of life. We were actually doing surprisingly well, but at some undefined point, the vast amounts of alcohol we had consumed seemed to take effect and the debate may or may not have ended with one member of the group chanting, "all religion is just a structure for the weak". By the way, in Bangkok we spent our time shopping and partying.

We're now at a lovely hostel in Singapore and have just returned from a day trip at the zoo. It's past 2am now though, and I think we're going to turn in.

Hope all's well in Bristol.
The boys.

India, Hong kong and Phuket pictures

2006-03-24T12:33:00.000Z

Sunset at our local beach.

Chunking mansions with an annoying randomer in the way.

QEII boat on the right. Hong Kong skyline on the left. We have to put something ok.

Tommy and James punched me down and forced me to take a photo.

I know what you're thinking and yes, he tried to run off with the camera.

A magnificant sight. Plus the Taj is in the background (hayohh!)

Phuket, March 16th

2006-03-16T07:59:00.000Z

We flew out of Delhi on the 11th, and although some great times were had in India, the coming change of scenery was definately a relief for the three of us. Having not booked any form of accomodation, we followed our noses and arrived at the legendary Chunking Mansions. This mammouth structure contains tens of floors of dingy guest houses and bedsits whilst the first two floors are a warren of your standard indian restaurants, sweat shops and dildo vendors. Shortly after arriving, we realised that in order to find a room we were going to have to follow one of the many Indian touts milling around on the ground floor. We were led up to a small aisle of boxy rooms on the 5th floor masquerading as "The Royal Plaza Inn". A shrill voiced and rather large turban wearing gentleman offered us a room for 250 Hong Kong dollars per night, so naturally he settled for 180.

Outside the squalor of Chunking, Hong Kong was an extremely clean and efficient city. The architecture was incredible, not to mention the array of crazy gismos most of these buildings contain. Toilets flush themselves, soap automatically dispenses itself and the toilet attendants typically come to your assistance via zipwire. Our three days and three nights in Hong Kong were all spent exploring the city and convincing ourselves that our life's troubles would inevitabley end if we were to only buy a 110" widescreen liquid display television for 14,000 pounds. The change in food was a big treat and although we did eat a portion of chow mein each at a street restaurant, McDonalds milkshakes were the staples of our diet. Sue us.

After Hong Kong's brief cameo in our travels we made our way to Phuket, Thailand and arrived on the 14th. We're staying in the flashy beach town of Patong and were organsized enough to book our diving course almost immediately (we're starting tomorrow). Luckily we've found a dive center (www.sunrisediving.net) ) run by an ex marine who went to Queen's Taunton. He gives us free internet access aswell as advice on fighting, drinking and prostitution (we'd never looked at it the way he does). Naturally, he makes us all giggle like the pathetic young boys that we are .
Patong is everything you would imagine; white sand, crystal clear water, lush greenery and a few gogo bars to cheapen the scene a bit. Hopefully our skin will soon recover from the 35 degree scorching it received yesterday and we can show ourselves in public.
Hope all is well in Bristol, we are thinking of you and love you all long time

India Pictures

2006-03-12T09:45:00.000Z

The place where Buddha first preached (we nicked it).

Happy (d/g)ays.

We fed the deer instead of the child next to us.

The view from our Balcony in Varanasi.

Some Temple.

The view from our balcony in Delhi.

2006-03-09T14:30:00.000Z

Hello!
Today we went to the Red Fort... which was nice.... yesterday we visited the raj path and india gate, for all the generall tourist stuf.... we're pretty much ready to hit hong kong on saturday now though and it'll be a bit of a relief to get some kind of normality back.. Tommy got charged by a cow today, we seem to be doing well with the animals really! only 2 minutes net time left so this is going to be very short! we have burned pictures onto a cd and as soon as we get somewhere with a cd rom drive we'll add them to the blog,
Hang loose,
xxJKTxx

Varanasi 5th March

2006-03-05T14:22:00.000Z

Hi,

First of all our linen suits are a big hit (amongst us anyway). In the street they seem to only attract laughter from small children rather than repelling the grouts.

The Taj Mahal was amazing, and just about made up for Agra being the biggest dive we've ever visited. The train station (where we hid for a lot of the day) was exciting although during dull moments I/Kieran entertained the locals by provoking the monkeys into a frenzy. Basically I offered it a bottle thinking it would do something amusing with it or at worst run away, at which point he decided he was a lot harder than me and chased me half way down the platform.

We opted for second/ghetto class on the sleeper train to Varanasi and it was more comfortable than expected. Our concerns regarding James' snoring were confirmed when a very calm looking Buddhist lady started ferociously slapping his bunk during the early hours for the unholy noises he was making ("it's just a cold"). So far we have strolled across the Ghats and absorbed the sights of burning corpses and cowshit and even taken a night time boat trip. Apparently there are dolphins about (not cute - blind and probably horrifically mutated) but unfortunately we haven't spotted any yet.

Today we took a seven hour tour of the nearby Hindu temples and also the birthplace of Buddhism (which was nice). Anywho, we're pretty sure two of the "crazy monkeys" (as the staff call them) on our balcony have taken a particular disliking to eachother so, naturally, we're off to stir it up.

KJT (innit)

Delhi

2006-03-01T13:42:00.000Z

Hey,
Arrived at the airport at about 2:00am this morning. By 2:30 we were speeding towards our hotel and had collected all of our luggage near enough without incident.
Roaming Delhi today has been a great shock, as expected (if that makes sense). We soon hardened to the situation however and whilst in the morning we were typically surrounded by several hustlers for long periods of time, by the evening we were able to dismiss them with little commotion. The most difficult thing to adapt to has been the need to be quite rude to people whose living depends on being sickeningly polite. Navigating through the city is difficult as strangers (although insisting they are taking you where you want to go) will inevitabley take you somewhere they can get comission.
By the time a bearded man was solemnly insisting that a building clearly labelled "information technology offices" was the international tourist bureau, all the lies and harassment had become rather amusing and was contributing to the overall charm of the city.
In an effort to blend in we visited a tailor and have some less western clothes ordered (encouragingly we were able to haggle him down 1500 rupees).
Reading over this, today probably comes across as a more morbid affair than it actually was. The weather was lush, the food is great and we've sorted tickets to Agra to see the Taj Mahal tomorrow. Viva la Bish!

Kieran, James & Tommy

Some useful links:

2006-02-26T09:35:00.000Z

External sites:
Foreign Office Travel Advice
British Embassies Overseas
STA Travel

Final Planning!

2006-02-26T08:49:00.000Z

The Bish Krew Depart

2006-02-25T20:35:00.000Z

A weekend of shopping and packing, with perhaps a little eating and drinking before Tuesday's departure of the last of the Crew, Tommy, Kieran and James. Sunday will be spent cooking Sunday lunch for the families before the lads set off to Delhi on Tuesday morning..........the plan is to travel round the world, visiting friends, and meeting up with Laurie and Teo in Chile and then again with Tom F, Laurie and Teo in Ecuador while Tommy and Kieran head to North America before returning in Summer.