Colombia and Panama: The end of the dream

Yes that is right. I let the blog go. Everyone said I would! Every traveller I met had good intentions, and most had let it go. It became homework. That and uploading photos. I mean fair enough right, when you could be outside at the beach, going on a hike, climbing a mountain, sunbathing, surfing... ok you get my point.

So I am going to tidy up Colombia and Panama with a summary.

Colombia was defintiely one of my fav countries.
The last time I wrote, we were in San Gil. The Queenstown of Colombia. Rod loved his grade 5 white water rafting, but didn't find it that scary. Kinda wish I'd done it now... I spent that day doing my CV!!!

So after San Gil, we did another overnight bus to Santa Marta (12ish hours). We were like excited kids at Christmas. Rod's mate Pete had jacked up for us to stay with his Colombian wife's Mum. She was holidaying up there in a friends apartment. Our 3 days with Norah turned into one week. It was awesome relaxing in this incredible complex with 3 swimming pools right on the beach. We had some great times with Norah - we can only speak 'Spanglish' and she knows the odd english word, so there were lots of laughs, pointing and sign language. We were lucky to go on a road trip with Norah and her friends to Cabo de la Vela in La Guajira. It's not very touristy, which made it pretty special. Our hosts were Norah's friends Carlos and Yolanda, and they took us in their new Renault Koleos (the last vehicle I launched in NZ before I left!!) Cabo de la Vela is a desert on the coast which is an odd concept. Barren and dusty with branchy trees and right next door is the sea... which is as warm as a bath. Weekend highlights were; sleeping on a hammock overnight for the first time (much more comfy than we imagined), seeing Wayuu Indians in their traditional dress and environment, climbing a hill that I wish I knew the name of which had incredible views from the top, eating fresh fish from the sea every day, and discovering arepa con huevos (traditional Colombian food, which is sort of like a savoury pancake with a fried egg in it).

Our time in Santa Marta was more about R&R and spending time with our new Colombian family. When it was time to say goodbye we moved onto Taganga which is a seaside town 5km out of Santa Marta - famous for its cheap diving. The hostel in Taganga (Casa de Felipe) which was French owned, was probably the best hostel we stayed in, over our whole 5 month journey in Sth America. I'm not sure what the dorms were like, as we mostly stayed in private rooms... but it had everything you could wish for - book exchange, internet, nice rooms with comfy beds, mozzie nets and big fans, a big courtyard... and the highlight - a restaurant with the BEST steak in Colombia. Rod went for a dive in Taganga. He didn't come home raving about it, but was happy he'd done it. I wouldn't recommend Taganga for it's beach, I would say it is a cliche Colombian beach tourist town, and is probably a bit overated. But given it's proximity to Santa Marta, you've gotta check it out at least. Our hostel experience made Taganga for us, and we had a great time there.

Next stop - my highlight of Colombia - Tayrona Park. I was expecting the entire Carribean Coast to have pretty spectacular beaches but I was quite disappointed that they didn't blow my mind... that is until I got to Tayrona. WOW WOW WOW. White sand, warm turquiose water, coconut trees, hammocks - the place had everything you could ever want. But the mosquitos were hell. They were like killer bees. And there were far too many tourists. But that certainly didn't ruin our experience. We slept in luxury hammocks with mozzie nets the first night at the first beach Arricifes, and then moved along to Cabo San Juan, and slept in a tent, which is officially the worst night sleep I have had in my life, it was so HOT! This prompted us to move to a hammock on the top of a hill which got a nice breeze. So while sleep quality was low, the mozzies were biting and it was super hot and muggy, the beauty of this place was just incredible, and still managed to make it on the top of my Colombia list in terms of stunning sights. Cabo San Juan in Colombia makes my list of top 3 beaches thats for sure!

Moving on from Santa Marta region, we had a short 4 hour bus ride to Cartagena - our last stop in Colombia, which saddened both of us. Although we had mixed feelings because this was also where we were organising our trip to sail from Colombia to Panama. More about that shortly...

The old town of Cartagena was just as gorgeous as everyone said it would be. It is full of old Spanish Colonial buildings which had been restored into beautiful colourful buildings. There is also a huge concrete wall which surrounds the town, which was built to protect the town from pirates (back in the 16th century, I think?). The wall certainly added interest and character to the city, which along with La Paz in Bolivia, is one one my favourite cities, because of it's uniqueness.

I celebrated my birthday in Cartagena. There is a 15m mound which is a volcano, about an hour out of Cartagena where you can have a mud bath! This was my choice of activity for my bday! We were covered top to toe in mud - hair and face included! I have an awesome photo of us, which I will have to post up here... I think that will be one of my most memorable birthdays. We had a great night at our local pub - Media e Luna (also a hostel) which we frequented every night we were in Cartagena with our crew, who were eventually the people we went on our sailing trip to Panama with.

Back to the sailing trip - I was a bit anxious because it would be my first boat trip in open water with no land in sight, so it was important we picked a good boat. We spent 2-3 days researching, asking around, checking out flyers around the hostels, looking online at blogs etc to find our perfect boat. It costs $375 US per person for the 5 day trip, so of course we wanted to make sure we spent our money wisely! We were stoked to find "Lost Elvis" with Captain Randy and his first mate Mark. Randy had a gorgeous 51 foot yacht - check him out at http://www.lostelvis.blogspot.com/

Unfortunately not much of our trip was documented on the Lost Elvis blog as Randy's better half does the blog, and she wasn't on our trip... but we had an awesome time with Randy and Mark (the crew) and Aussies Tracey and Tim, Rob and Jennifer and an English chick Natasha and her Belgium boyf.

The highlight of the sailing trip was our 2 days in the San Blas Islands. More white sand, coconut trees and turquoise water. Reminded me a lot of the Pacific Islands... We spent 2 days diving on and off the boat, mucking around on the kayaks and swimming from island to island. It was absolute paradise. We also had a crazy drunken night which ended up with far too much nudity and some crazy guy running around the island with a flaming palm tree... say no more! Lost Elvis was good times all round where I was introduced to the Gypsy Kings and Jimmy Buffet, and every time I hear those bands I will always think of our time in the San Blas Islands.

The San Blas Islands are part of Panama and are populated by Kunas who are the local people. They are pretty much self governed and have these amazing huts on some of the islands and spend their days fishing in these little crazy skinny boats which they carve from trees. We went visiting and got a ride from island to island in the kuna boats... I nearly wet my pants watching Rodney get paddled across to the island... he nearly sunk their boat!!! Rodney did not look comfortable as the sea lapped the sides - he was so close to going for an involuntary swim!

So that pretty much sums up Colombia. I don't feel like I have done it justice in my quick attempt to get this blog up-to-date, but I have to say that I enjoyed myself the most here. I am not sure why... maybe it was my expectations - from the start I was nervous about Colombia because of its reputation, but I enjoyed every moment. Perhaps it was because we got to see a lot of it from a local perspective and got involved in the culture of it a bit more by spending time with our Colombian family. Or maybe it is because we met some new great friends in Colombia Randy, Tim and Tracey) who we hope to keep in touch with. It was also one of our last stops, so I was appreciating every moment we had left. And the locals are so lovely... more so than any other country we visited. Colombia is also a good looking country which is pretty easy on the eye, so I guess that pretty much sums up why I liked it so much! I'd like to think that we will go back there one day, to see the areas that we didn't visit.

One more thing I loved about Colombia - I found my favourite Sth American food there! Arroz con Coco! A rice and coconut dish to die for!! I need to work out how to make this for myself...

Panama to come... writing about our trip in hindsight is making me wish I was still there! More soon,

Dahlia xo

Welcome to Colombia where the only risk is wanting to stay

Hey hey, hope you are all well!

I left you last when we were about to leave Ecuador for Colombia. We were really to hit Colombia, after Galapagos Islands, the rest of Ecuador didn´t really have the same sparkle as Galapagos (I mean how can you compete with birds with blue feet!), so we were ready for a new country!

Our mission to Colombia was huge. Caught a bus from Quito, Ecuador at 8.30am to the border which took 6 hours. The border was fine... but there was a HUGE amount of trucks lined up, possibly up to 100, waiting to get searched for drugs and weapons. Fortunately our taxi got to go to the front of the line and we didn´t get searched for drugs or weapons. We then caught a bus from Ipalies, the first little town in Colombia to a gorgeous town called Popayan. The bus though was another longish one, and we didn´t get to Popayan until midnight... the roads are so so so so windy though, and unfortunately I am sad to report that literally 2 mins before the bus stopped after all that travelling I had a chuck!!! Gutted!! On this ride Rodney did get his first ´frisk´. At about 11pm the police stopped the bus (we were at a checkpoint) and asked all of the men to get off the bus. I was half asleep and didn´t realise that they only wanted men until I got off. It was a standard procedure, hands on bus and a bit of a pat pat all over the body. We weren´t worried about this, they were actually protecting our security by making sure there weren´t any dodgy people on the bus who were going to rob us.

Stayed the night in Popayan and had a quick look around the following morning... the town has whitewashed walls and is totally spanish colonial. Loved it. But we were on a mission, so caught a bus AGAIN at 10.30am. The bus was to San Agustin, which is only 120km away but because it is such a hugely windy and mostly gravel road, it took almost 8 hours!!! I was OVER buses by the time we got to San Agustin.

San Agustin is a little country town with a national park, where some statues were found a wee while again which from my understanding were tombs from back in the Indian days. So we jacked up a horse ride for the following day to go and look around all the different sites. Rodney didn´t want a slow horse, so told the guy he had been horse riding before.... so so funny, about 15 mins into the ride his horse is pretty much galloping on him up hills!!! Our guide Lucas told us that he gave us the best horses because we were experienced! I was so thankful that I had had some horse riding experience because they were pretty enthusiastic!

The statues were pretty cool, the biggest one is 7m high. And our guide was so so lovely. When people are overly nice we are sometimes a little skeptical, as more often than not if they give you a little bit of info or show you where to go they will expect a tip over here. But our guide was a geuinely nice guy, and when we left he gave us a present each! I got some earrings and Rodney got a mini statue replica. I was overwhelmed by his kindness.

We then caught a bus, thats right, only 24 hours later to Bogota. This was an overnight journey of 12 hours so at least we were sleeping for most of it.

We were looking forward to Bogota and meeting Pete Meek´s wife Carolina´s family. Juliana and her boyfriend David entertained us for most of the weekend. Was so great seeing the city from a local´s perspective. We went out for dinner on Fri night in a really fancy area which has a Lacoste store, D&G, Converse, Hugo Boss etc etc. All stores which only sold these brands, and they were all pretty flash buildings. On Sat they took us to the showgrounds where there was a fair celebrating Colombia. So there were stalls for every region of Colombia demonstrating their food (lots of yummy taste tests), arts and crafts etc. Colombia is so diverse and it was great to get a taste of it all in one day!

On Sunday we were invited to Carolina´s mum´s house for a traditional lunch. She made a traditional soup and a main dish which was a yummy chicken and rice with corn. And she was so lovely, they bought red wine and beer, because they know that is what kiwis like to drink! It was so nice to be welcomed into someone´s home, especially after backpacking for almost 4 months. That arvo we went a flea market with Juliana and David and then spoke with Pete and Carolina on Skype which was cool! I think Carolina found it strange with them in Japan and us at her house! We were really grateful to Juliana especially for spending her weekend showing us around, we had a great time!

We then moved north onto where we are now, San Gil, another 7 hour bus. San Gil is the adventure town of Colombia, just like Queenstown! They have everything here from white water rafting to kayaking, caving, abseiling... the list goes on! Today we went caving which was fun, in one section we had to army crawl on our elbows and knees for a good 10m! Another part was a bit freaky where you only had about 10cm between the roof of the cave and the water that we were in. So we had our heads back with our lips almost touching the top of the cave so we could breathe! It was only like that for a few seconds so wasn´t too scary. Tomorrow Rod is going whitewater rafting on 5 plus rapids... I decided that is probably a bit too extreme for me so am leaving him to it!

Tomorrow night we leave here for the Carribean Coast! Oh yeah!!! Santa Marta is our first stop, where we will stay with Carolina´s mum, Norah for 3 or so nights. She is up there on holiday and has very kindly invited us to stay in the apartment with her that she is staying at, as she has spare beds. So looking forward to a bit of luxury!

Best get going, am going to explore one of the water holes around here and chill out for the arvo. Is nice and warm in San Gil, which I am loving!

Hope everyone is well, we think of our friends and family often!
Adios for now!
Daile and Rodney xx

Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands

We are now in Ecuador. First stop was Guayaquil, which I believe is the 2nd biggest city here. It was SO SO HOT, there was no coastal breeze, despite it being by a river and this could possibly be one of the hottest places I have been so far, which makes sense given how close we are to the equator, and that we were at sea level. The actual city itself didn´t really impress me, but to be fair, we haven´t really enjoyed cities as much as we have the smaller towns. They have quite an impressive waterfront which they have done up and it looks amazing, so we enjoyed a few strolls down there, but seriously it was just too hot to do anything come 11am we were both dripping with sweat! And believe me this is a big thing for me to say, as usually the hotter it is, the happier I am. We didn´t actually see how hot it was, but we think it would have been close to 40 deg and humid.

We stayed in Guayaquil for 2 nights while we were waiting to fly to Galapagos Islands! Monday 4th May was the big day that we flew over there to San Cristobal Island. A warning before I tell you how cool the place is.... the flights were $320 US return and this is off season prices, and there is a $100 US tax for EVERYONE entering the Galapagos, oh and I forgot about the $10 each depature tax that we had to pay at the airport before we left! SO it was creeping up to $500 US each before we had even started!!!! As you can imagine, we were hoping this place was going to be worth it!

We decided not to book a cruise, which you can pick up on a last minute deal for around $450 US as it was all feeling a bit outta control on our ¨South America on a shoestring trip¨.

So after a couple of hours flight we landed on San Cristobal Island, surf board in tow, which is the island with one of the 3 world class surfing spots, or so they say. Unfortunately for Rod, it is the wrong time of year, and the swell is coming from the wrong direction... so no surfing :( Secretly I may have been happy about this, just a little bit, as it meant we would be doing more island hopping!!

We spent 3 days on San Cristobal (the capital of Galapagos), and did a lot of walking, a bit of snorkelling and had a tour around the island in one of the taxis. Saw our first giant tortoises here in the breeding centre which were VERY impressive to see (the only place in the world that there are giant tortoises). There are only just over 1000 left in the world!! During our island tour we visited our first white sand beach which was absolutely beautiful, and the water was turquoise too.... oh my it was gorgeous and we were the ONLY ones on the beach!! We also visited the crater at the top of the mountain, not sure if you realise that the Galapagos Islands are all volcanoes. San Cristobal isn´t active though, but others still are (and always will be, but I am not going to get into a geography lesson for you!)

We also got our first taste of sea lions here (no, not literally!!). The sea lions are incredible animals and have a great personality. And they are so close to you too, during the day, they even make there way up to the footpath here on the streets sometimes because it´s nice and warm. There was a seal colony literally 1 minute´s walk away from our hostel where we were staying, so a couple of times a day we would go and watch them for ages... it´s really interesting to see them all interact with one another, frolick in the water, and the big daddy get angry. Not sure if you realise that in a sea lion colony there is only one big male, all the rest are females and babies. The boys get kicked out once they have grown up and the big daddy is very posessive so you gotta watch out for him!

We then moved onto Santa Cruz island which is the more touristy island. We met a kiwi family first up, when Brendon the father came up to Rod who was carrying a surf board the minute we stepped off the boat! Another surfer who was keen to talk all about the waves he had caught in Peru and if there were any to be had on Galapagos. This kiwi family were very inspiring, they had a 9 yr old girl and 12 yr old boy and they had been travelling for 6 months, through Central America, then Columbia and were now in Ecuador. The kids were only gonna miss 2 terms. We spent a bit of time with them and it was quite an inspiration! (Previously Rod and I had been having discussions about how our world travels are going to be a little bit hindered with ankle biters!)

We did a day trip to Floreana Island where we had the best snorkelling of all! The first snorkel was cool and really crystal clear water, but the 2nd was amazing as they dropped us off by a colony of sea lions who then jumped in the water (there were prob about 50 of them!!) to play with us. Initally I was a little nervous about it, as they swim right up to your face (at pace!) and then last minute they turn away. They just love teasing you. If you dive under and swim around with them, they mimick you and watch you. It´s really quite incredible how they interact with humans, they remind me of a pet dog! We both decided after this that we want a pet sea lion!! Don´t know how that will go down in London though :) Swimming with the sea lions was definitely one of the highlights of our Galapagos trip. We also visited the highlands while we were on Floreana and saw and even better giant tortoise breeding centre, and watch them munch down on bananas. They remind me of ET, and someone actually said that the guy who wrote ET actually visited Galapagos not long beforehand and these huge creatures inspired ET the character. How true that is, I do not know...

Tortugas on Floreana, Galapagos Islands

Hmmm what else did we do on Santa Cruz... we visited the Charles Darwin Centre, where you learn all about the islands. They are just facinating. How they came to exist and evolve, along with the unique animals that only exist on Galapagos is incredible. This is where we saw Lonesome George, the last giant tortoise of his particular species. They have found female tortoises who have the closest DNA match to him, hoping that he will mate with them and continue his breed, but George ain´t interested!! He is 95yrs old, and apparentely they live until they are about 200, so if he doesn´t get interested in the future then they are going to look at cloning him...

We also spent a bit of time at the fish market, just watching them bring in the huge fish, mostly wahoo and tuna. SO funny because the pelicans and sea lions fight over the fish guts when the guys cut it out of the fish. I also had a very cool encounter with a blue footed boobie here. This is actually the name of a bird which has blue feet! Like baby blue feet. SO weird! This bird landed right beside me and was not afraid of humans so I was able to feed it fish guts and get photos with it. This was rather exicting, as we had seen them from a distance but not close enough to get a decent photo, so I was stoked, and it made my day!

We also went to Tortuga Bay (turtle bay) a couple of times, which is a HOT 2.5km walk to a beautiful white sandy beach. The swim was one of the best swims I have ever had by the time you reach the beach here! Stunning stunning stunning! This is a beach that the sea turtles lay their eggs at, so everyone has to be gone by the time the sun is setting, and there are places you are not allowed to walk incase you stand on the eggs.

After 5 days on Santa Cruz, we decided to head over to Isabela Island which was just stunning. Turquoise water, white sandy beaches, coconut trees, I couldn´t get enough! We did a bit of snorkelling here and I saw a sea turtle underwater! Very exciting! We have seen lots in the water from in a boat, but this is the only one I saw underwater.

We also met a dutch couple here and did a bay tour with them. Rod convinced the guy that did our bay tour (snorkelling, looking around the bay in a boat) to take us fishing the next day (in exchange for payment of course!) and the dutch couple were keen to join us....

SOooooooo this was the day Rod has the best fishing of his life! (and me too!)
We had the lines out for 2 minutes and got a strike! A big wahoo! When it was right near the boat, a sea lion started attacking it the little bugger! But fortunately it let it go, and we pulled this huge thing in, which was prob about 6ft 5 long! Rod started pulling it in initially but believe it or not, we were fishing on handlines!!! So as you can imagine, getting used to pulling in the nylon is a bit hard, and when the fish starts swimming away from you, its pretty tough on the hands!

The 2nd strike was a wee while later, and it was my line!!! Exciting! So I was pulling it in and doing quite well (even if I do say so myself) and then suddenly it started swimming away at pace, too fast for my hands to handle the nylon, and the local fisherman had to take over! Turns out the reason it started swimming away because it must have seen a shark swimming towards it, when we pulled it in, it was only the head, a damn shark had eaten the rest of it!

Poor Saskia, our new dutch friend was horrified, this was her first time fishing ever!!

We then did a bit of snorkelling by a nearby island and an hour later had the lures out for some yellow fin tuna. We had already seen some amazing performances by these fullas, jumping super high out of the water, I reckon they would have gotten up to 1 and a half mtrs out of the water! Rod got a strike and it was all on.... he pulled in on a hand line, a 20kg yellow fin tuna!!!! He was stoked. An awesome day with the locals, another Galapagos stand out highlight.

That night at our hostel we cooked up some juicy tuna steaks and wahoo steaks... oh my they were DEVINE! The dutchies were pretty impressed with Rodney's man vs wild display, as he carved up the fish and cooked it on a homemade bbq with some carbon underneath. Was a great night, with great company.

I won't bore you with too much Galapagos Islands, I think that pretty much cover the highlights. Other amazing animals (again unique to Galapagos) include the marine iguanas which are everywhere. They are very interesting to watch. They lie in the sun to warm up and then go into the sea to eat algae (they're vege thank goodness!) and then lie in the sun again to warm up. That sounds like a good life to me! We also saw a frigate bird from a distance, which is a black bird which has a red patch under his neck (only the boys have this) and when they are mating they blow it up like a huge red balloon to attract the ladies, who will then hopefully want to mate with him. Our camera wasn't good enough to get a photo of one of these, but it was a pretty spectacular sight, the balloon was huge!

That pretty much brings me to the end of Galapagos. The weather was so gorgeous over there, it was like being on a tropical island, but with lots to do and see, which is great because I can't see Rod happily lying on a beach for more than 2 days with nothing to do!

After Galapagos we missioned it straight to a surfing town called Montanita where we met up with Brad the Aussie who we met in Ecuador and had a big night with him and a few Canadian ladies that he met and was travelling with. We stayed there 3 days, and then went north to visit the town that that Panama hat originated from. That's right, it was NOT invented in Panama, it was invented in a town called Montecristi in Ecuador. Rod bought a very cool genuine Panama hat which we hope lasts the rest of our travels so he can wear it in London (at the appropriate times of course!) It was uber hot in this town, they had a temperature gauge and it was 37 deg!

We then cruised to Quito, the capital of Ecuador where we are right now. This is the part that will all make you feel good.... it is NOT warm here! We are in the mountains at an altitude of 2800m!! I am not a happy chappy to not be in the sun, and I am not enjoying wearing warm clothes. Yes I know, I know, London will be cold, be mentally I will be prepared, I was not prepared for this!

But it is an interesting city, there are two areas, new town and old town. Old town has actually been named a World Heritage Site because of all the old amazing buildings.

Today we went to Mitad del Mundo which is the place where you can stand on the Equatorial line! I was very excited, given I have never been to the northern hemisphere... but I think I had built myself up a little bit too much... it was just an orange line.... but it was pretty cool to think that we were in the middle of the earth, and I'm stoked we went.

Tomorrow we are going up some cable car, which is supposed to have amazing views, and the day after we will head to Columbia!! Whoo hoo! Looking forward to Columbia, every tourist that we meet that has been there, says it was their fav Sth American country... so I will be sure to have some cool Columbian adventures to tell you.

Oh yeah, we have changed our itinerary too. Orginally we were going to do a jungle trip and fly out of Rio in Brazil, but this country is FRICKEN huge. We could not possibly do that in the time we have, all by land, so we have decided that we will sail through the Carribean via the San Blas islands for 6 days, when we will arrive in Panama. We hope to spend a week in Panama (we will find the beaches!) before we fly to London, arriving on the 11th July now (yes we extended our trip by 2 weeks hehe).

So there we are! Still having a fab time.... and recommend Sth America to anyone... but make sure you learn at least a little bit of spanish first, unlike us!

Until next time, hope you are all happy and well, and are coping with the cold in kiwi land for those that are there.

Much love to you all,
Daile and Rod xxx

Surfing in Northern Peru - for a month!

Hola!!!!!!!!!!!

Well not really ideal leaving it a month to update this, I have been getting slack on it, and if I don´t do it now, I will leave it for good!

Basically we are having too gooder time to hang around in internet cafes!!! But we still love all of our friends and family of course, so I hope no one has felt neglected.

Righto, so we left you in Pacasmayo, a surf spot where we ended up staying about 5 or 6 days with a bunch of Aussies. The swell finally came in on the 3rd afternoon we were there, just after Rod bought his wetsuit, and to cut a long story short, he caught the longest waves in his life there and absolutely loved it. After one surf when he was in a particularly good mood, I said, "how was your surf babe?" and his reply was that he had the best surf of his life, so that says something, cos he´s been surfing a while now!

Los Faroles, Pacasmayo, Peru

Our whole crew then moved onto another rather isolated spot which is not on the gringo trail, unless you are a half decent surfer. The place was called Lobitos, and we were told to go there by Pete, but he also said that we would probably get robbed by Banditos while we were there! So Steph and I, my girl buddy, were not too keen on the idea of Lobitos, and did a bit of research. It seems that a few years ago there was quite a bit of trouble but now they have quite a bit of military there and things have improved. We also chatted to others that had been there, so decided best we suck it up and take one for our men, after all, it was only going to be a few days of a 5 month trip! So after a nasty overnight bus with really uncomfortable seats we arrived in the town Lobitos. First impressions were not good! It was a big house called ´Nachos´(the name of the guy who ran it) and it was a big house with 10 bedrooms, hammocks out the front, and a shower you would never touch in your life (thank goodness for the outdoor shower). But we were tired and cranky, so after a wee nap, and once the sun came out, the place was actually quite lovely and the people we were with were great! I read a lot, lay in the hammocks a lot, yarned with everyone and we went out for dinners and lunches together. A great 3 or 4 days chillling out. Oh yeah, and the surfing was also some of the best Rod has ever had, and if you have access to his facebook account he has uploaded some photos on there that a pro photographer took of them. The actual beach itself looking out to sea is pretty cool cos it is an old oil rigging town, and there are about 350 oil rigs out at sea, which is a pretty impressive sight!

Rodreigo surfing in Lobitos, Peru

After Lobitos, and lots of relaxing while Rod was surfing (not much else to do in these small towns, not that I am complaining!) we moved onto my choice, a town called Mancora. This is quite a touristy town and is one of the last decent places to stop in Peru before you go to Ecuador. It was the perfect place for me to surf, and I was out there everyday on a long board having a great time! The water also got warm here, something to do with a different current to the one 2 hours down the road believe it or not, so I was in bikini and rash shirt and loving it! We also had a couple of big nights here with our Aussie friends at the Loki (a big touristy and very social hostel). This is also when we said goodbye to Brad, Steph and Mark which was sad because we had been travelling with them for 2-3 weeks!

After an amazing 6 weeks in Peru it is time to move on, we are very sad to say goodbye. Rodreigo is still pining for Lobitos, the surf spot he fell in love with. He and the boys were talking about buying a section, and Rod was talking it up about how he was going to convince the boys to go on a surfing mission in Peru sometime!!! LOL somehow I can´t see the girls approving a 3 week surfing mission in Peru without them!


The thing we loved about Peru was how diverse the place was. The first 3 weeks or so were spent up in the mountains at altitude, and the 2nd half was spent on the coast in gorgeous sunny weather. If someone had 1-2 months they wanted to travel for, somewhere not too expensive and with lots of variety, I would definitely recommend Peru.

In Mancora, we decided we did have the funds to hit Galapagos!!! So after Mancora we caught a bus onto our next country, Ecuador.....

Peru: Huacachina, Paracas, Lima, Punta Hermosa, Huanchaco

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a fab Easter break! Was a little different over here, yes they were selling easter eggs, but we decided to abstain! My fav easter eggs are creme eggs hands down and they don´t sell them over here, so it was either them or nothing!!!

The last 3 weeks have been heaps of fun, and its been great being in sunny weather again!

So after arriving in Lima and staying for a few nights there, we went 4 hours south on the bus for a few days to a place called Huacachina. I know I have said this before, but if you are a kiwi, seriously it is like nothing you have EVER seen!! (except maybe on movies!)

Huacachina, Peru. Incredible view from the top!

I have uploaded a piccie above, so you can see what I mean. It is literally a lagoon in the middle of the desert. An oasis with HUGE sand dunes 360 degrees around. You can´t really tell how big they are by the pic, but we walked up one side and it took us a good half hour to 45 mins to get up the top, and 5 mins to run and jump down!! We stayed at a hostel with a pool and loungers and had a really lovely 2 nights there, except for the fact that I had picked up a cold going from the cold to hot weather, and poor Rod got a mean tummy bug and was in bed for a good day!! This town is near Ica and is famous for sand boarding and dune buggying, all which was part of our plan while we were here, but given our sad state of affairs we didn´t do either!! At the end of day 2 we were both feeling a bit better, so did the walk up the dunes, the scenery was totally worth it!!
We then caught a bus back up north (just one hour) and went to a place called Paracas. This is the base for the Ballestas... the islands dubbed ¨Poor Mans Galapagos¨because there is lots of wildlife, but it is only 40 soles which is probably $26NZD to do a 2 hour boat ride to see the wildlife. You can´t actually go on the islands though. We saw an amazing amount of bird life, a bird watcher would be in heaven! Penguins and pelicans were my highlights, along with the sea lions - we saw thousands of them!! We then hopped on a bus that night as we had some celebrating to do the next day.... it was our 1 year wedding anniversary!!!

April 4th 2009.... we spent the day in Miraflores, Lima. That night we treated ourselves to a yummy dinnner to celebrate one year of blissful marriage at a seaside restaurant in Laromar called Portafino of all names! It was divine eating in fancy restaurant again instead of the cheap eats!

Rodreigo  picked up a surfboard in Miraflores and two days later we headed half an hour south to a seaside town called Punta Hermosa. This place is only briefly mentioned in Lonely Planet, but is a pretty famous surf spot from what I understand on the Peruvian coast. Punta Hermosa is the home of the big wave called Pico Alto, and other surf breaks like Punta Rocas, La Isla. Also the world number one women´s surf champion, Sofia Mulanovich.

We stayed at an awesome surf camp called Bravo Surf Camp, where we met our first Kiwis! But they had been living in London for 14 years, and were on their way home via Sth America. Was cool hanging out with Aaron and Damon and talking about home. Abraham ran the place, he was born and bred Peruvian, but had lived in the US for a while so spoke perfect English. Each day he would load us all up in the VW Combi van and hit the best surf spot for the day. The surf was quite big everywhere though, so poor Rodney got a bit of a hammering on his first few surfs, cos his paddling fitness was rubbish!! (this is self proclaimed so I am not being mean ok!) There were like 8-10 surf spots all within 10 minutes drive, so you can imagine Rodney was a pretty happy man here. Even when he wasn´t surfing we were going for long walks checking out different beaches (more importantly, the surf!). We stayed there 5 days, which was heaps of fun! They also had the best fresh fruit milkshakes which became a daily treat, they were only $2 NZD each! Yummmmm I miss the mango con leche jugo already!! (Mango with milk).




The kiwi crew in Punta Hermosa. Cruising in the VW searching for the perfect wave!


Moving on.... we then missioned it up to Huanchaco, which was a 9 hour bus. Nice and short. Our perception of long and short bus rides has totally changed!!! This was on easter Saturday, and we went on an overnight bus so arrived Sunday morning. Huanchaco is a little surf town near Peru´s 3rd largest city, Trujillo (1.2 mill ppl apparently).

We stayed at one of the best hostels we have so far, called Naylamp. They had everything you could want... beautiful sunsoaked courtyards with seaviews, chess, book exchange, cafe, help yourself kitchen, nice rooms, right by the beach.... I loved it there. Stayed there 5 nights again, enjoying the sun and surf and good mexican restaurant and happy hour mojitos! Daile had a go at surfing and was a miserable failure.... my arms need some serious strength to help with the paddling! Will get a bigger board and try again in warmer water up north... We met a couple called Guy (Pom) and Sarah (Scot) who are live in Bristol in the UK and they have told us to come and stay so they can show us around! They are engaged and getting married next June in a castle in Scotland! Had a fun time hanging out with them, and they both surfed so I couldn´t stop Rodney talking about surfing and waves. I think I could easily talk the lingo now, I can easily get by in a convo about surfing now!

From Huanchaco, we have come 2 hours north to where we are now to a town called Pacasmayo. Rodreigo's friend Pete recommended the hostel we are staying at (Los Faroles) cos he stayed here about 2 years ago when he backpacked around Sth America! Unfortunately the surf isn´t happening yet, we have been here for 3 days now, and all the boys are getting depressed!!! The wave here is famous for being 1km long, so you can an awesome long ride (if you can stay on the board!) and then you walk back up the beach and paddle out again. We are hanging out with 3 Aussie boys, and 2 guys from the US. Fortunately one of the guys is travelling with his girlfriend too so I have some female company. Perfect! We have all been hanging out in a big group and going out to dinner etc together. Tonight we are going to do a big bbq, Steph and I went on an early morning mission today to buy the fish from the local market while Rod has gone to Trujillo to buy a cheap wetsuit (he is over hiring them) and the other boys are searching for waves in a nearby town (where there aren´t any, they are just getting desperate, and cabin fever!!) But this hostel is great and really social so we are really enjoying it!
We are also going to do a day trip to Chicama, which is known for its 2km long wave... but apparently it only works when the waves are huge everywhere, so they have to wait till the surf picks up until we go there.
We will prob stay here until Thursday/Fri, and from here, we are stopping at 2 more beaches in Peru, called Lobitos and Mancora, and then will then mission it to Guayaquil in Ecuador and fly to Galapagos Islands early May!!!!!! So exciting!!! We were wondering if we should flag it cos how how expensive it is, but we are tracking ok with the deniros. We won´t be doing any fancy week long boat trips, will fly over and do the islands independantly with day trips on boats and lots of walking. We are going to stay on San Cristobal Island which also quite convienently has a really good surf spot!!! I´m looking forward to the snorkelling, we have seen videos from other tourists and there is SO much to see!!!

Can´t believe we are half way through our trip already!!! I had 2 recruitment companies email yesterday from the UK, so obviously it is time to start thinking about the next phase and getting a job... but I won´t think too much!!!
Also a special congratulations to Mrs and Mrs Warren and Michelle Day (Kingi), who got married on Easter Friday! I spent all day thinking about you two!!

Love you all, take care, and send us emails telling me the latest!
Chau!
Dahlia xx

When in Peru, do as the Incas do: Machu Picchu

I am a little outta date on this thing.... been too busy spending time outside when we can, but I will endevour to do a quick catch up!!

The Inca Trail was AWESOME!!! Had 3 Aussie chicks, Tori, Min and Sara, 4 people from the US, 1 Sth African, 1 English, 2 Norweigans and 1 Peruvian in our group, so a real mixed group which made life fun! The Aussie girls get there names mentioned cos we spent quite a bit of time with them afterward the trail...!

Day one was supposed to be flat all the way apparently! Whatever!! The last third was rather uphill but nothing we couldnt handle after our mountain climbing expedition a week before. Towards the end there were scales where we could weigh our bags.... we chose not to hire porters as they are really expensive and we figured we could handle carrying our own bags if we travelled light. Rodney carried 14kg the whole way which is pretty impressive to be honest considering most of the way he was at the front. I carried 8kg (thanks to Rodney who carried my sleeping bag, my bag wasnt too heavy!). But we also found out that Rodney has already lost about 6 ot 7kg!! We were noticing how loose his clothes were getting, but if he is losing weight at that pace, what is he going to weigh when we get to Londontown???? I have lost a kg or two from all the walking, but nothing to write home to grandma about!!

The 2nd day of the trail is the hardest, where you walk what they say is 4 hours uphill to the place called dead womans pass. It would be a pretty hard uphill walk if you werent fit, and it was challenging even for the fit with all the stuff we were carrying.

Day three was easy peasy with only 4 or so hours of walking, and we had our first shower that night (every other day we had a little mini sponge bath), along with a fun night of eating, drinking and card playing with our group! Over the course of the trip we had a great time with our gang, team USA, Team South Pacific, Team Norway, Team GB, Team Sth America and Team Peru!

Day 4 we woke up at 4am to be the first group at the gate to enter Machu Picchu. Then it is a 2 hour walk to Machu Picchu, but it is like a race, because there is an additional mountain you can climb called Waynu Picchu, that only 400 people are allowed to climb per day. But you need to get your tickets in advance, so everyone was literally running! We managed to get these tickets, but then didnt end up climbing it because it was real cloudy. But then it cleared about an hour before we were going to leave so we got to enjoy walking around Machu Picchu and saw the whole thing from the view point that all the classic photos are taken from.

Machu Picchu is an amazing sight. It is incredible to think that they could put together such a structure with so little tools and lifted them with their own strength (no cranes back then!). I was blown away the whole time we were there and couldnt stop staring and took about a million photos (which will be loaded onto facebook!). If you get a chance to do it, then do it!!! You dont have to do the Inca Trail to get there, you can catch a train to the closest town and go on the bus up there for the day. But I figure if you are there why not do the Inca Trail!! (unless you are a bit older and not really into hiking, in which case I would suggest the day trip!)

After we checked out Machu Picchu we had our final team lunch and said goodbye (until the following night in Cusco where we were meeting up again). Rodney and I spent the night in Aguas Caliente which is the small town closest to Machu Picchu, famous for their hot pools. So we had a soak in them with Team USA that arvo.

We cruised back to Cusco the next day where we had a wicked night with half of our team incl Team Australia, where we had dinner at a place called Two nations (owned by an Australian/Peruvian husband and wife) and then went out to a club called Mama Africa. Was the biggest night we have had so far over here, crashed in bed sometime before 4am.

Then caught the most horrible bus ever up to Lima, which was supposed to take 20 hours max and took almost 30 because there was a road block, so we had to stop pretty much for the whole night while we waited for it to clear!! Arrgghhh we felt hideous by the time we arrived in Lima. Stayed in Miraflores which is the beach suburb that all the tourists stay at for 2 night looking around and then headed south to do a wee loop...

I have run outta time so will have to continue this amazing story next time for you all where I will tell you all about giant sand dunes and lagoons in the middle of the desert, along with Poor Mans Galapogas Islands!!

Hope everyone is happy and well. HAPPY EASTER to you all!

We are heading to a place called Huanchaco tonight on a 9 hour overnight bus (little surf town).

Take care,
Love Daile and Rod xxx

Peru: The Build up to the Inca Trail

Only one sleep until another highlight of our trip!!!

Tomorrow morning at 5.45am we meet to go on the Inca Trail... we had a briefing tonight at 7pm and our group seems like a pretty sweet bunch - Aussies and Americans and one Peruvian.

Rodney and I chose not to get porters (they carry 9kg each and charge about US $120 I think.... not entirely sure, but we figured we could handle for how much it was gonna cost, the trip is expensive enough as it is!!!). Hopefully this is something we won´t regret, so I am about to finish packing LIGHT for 4 days, after I write this. It certainly won´t be a fashion show, will probably be having to don the same clothes most days!!!

The Inca Trail is 4 days and 3 nights, until we get to Machu Picchu. We have opted to stay a 4th night at a place called Aguas Caliente (direct translation, Hot Water) where there are hot springs and a hostel to relax at. So will be back to civilisation (and internet) on 25th (which is NZ 26th).

A quick run down of what we have been doing since last week... after climbing Chuchani we went to Cabonaconde with our two UK friends Karen and Tom where we stayed two nights at an awesome hostel with a restaurant attached, meaning a few drinks and laughs! This is the base town for the Colca Canyon which is the 2nd deepest canyon in the world (deeper than the Grand Canyon) at approx 3 and a half kms deep. The deepest canyon is not far from here, but Colca is much more commerical and touristy (and accessible!).

The walk down to the canyon is 2 hours down and a hard 4 hour slog back. Unfortunately I got the worst blister (which turned into a wound) during Chuchani which has prevented me from wearing shoes for the whole last week, so couldn´t do the canyon walk as it required proper shoes :( Went down to the viewing point though, so have some good piccies.

After the Canyon, we caught a bus to Cuzco, the base town for the Inca Trail where we have been for the last 3 nights relaxing. They tell people to come here for 2-3 days prior to doing the trail to acclimatise, but we are WELL acclimatised, so were here sightseeing mostly. The highest point of the Inca Trail is 4200m.

Yesterday we went to the Sacred Valley and checked out some Inca ruins and learnt the most cultural stuff in one day than we have the whole time since we´ve been here! The guide spoke very good english. Turns out the Incas only reined for 150 years (approx) until 1530 (approx) when the spaniards came and took over, so they got lots achieved in that time! It is amazing to see the HUGE rocks that they have carted for kilometres to get to the site they are at today. It would have taken hundreds of people to drag them! Many of the buildings in and around Cuzco still have the original Inca foundations which I noticed more so after having been on this tour!! There is your history lesson for the day....

Anyhow, must get an early night, unfortunately our hostel is a bit noisy and we have a large Iraseli group staying here who had a small gathering outside our room last night in the corridor, so sleep is even more important tonight! Also, you don´t sleep very well at high altitudes, so must get some zzzzzz´s while I can!!

Congrats to the Red Beach surf boat boys for getting 3rd in the long course in Gizzy, great news, wish we were there cheering you on!!

We will be back online in 5-6 days, so until then, take care of yourselves and watch this space!!

Much love
Mrs D X

Conquering my Everest: Mt Chuchani, Peru

Arequipa is a gorgeous city, this is where we are now. The centre of town is gorgeous and has that colonial spanish feel about it with a huge cathedral. It is also the town where you base yourself for some serious mountain climbing....

Rodreigo had been doing some research before we left NZ, and on his list of ´things to do´ he really wanted to climb Misti mountain, which is 5800m high. So we went to the tour companies to ask around..... and the lady from Colca Trek told us that Mt Chuchani was possibly easier (not as steep), but at a higher altitude of 6075m could be harder, depending on how altitude affects you.... of course she hadn't climbed it, and the way she was talking, it sounded like something we could do. And I figured, with a pack full of chocolate and energy drinks it would probably be rather enjoyable...!!! So we decided to do it, and Friday 13th, which also happened to be a full moon we committed to doing possibly one of the craziest things I have ever done......

Sooooo to set the scene...

Climbing Mt Chuchani - 6075m summit.
Thursday 12th March
Full Moon
Pick up from agency - 11pm
Drive to base, arrive at 2am
Start walking on Friday 13th March at 2.15am....
Walk will be approx 9km each way, if we make it all the way.

We were wrapped up super warm in our jackets, ski pants, real hiking boots and had lots of lovely accessories, such as our two walking sticks, crampons (thing spiky things you strap to your shoes to give you more grip) and ice axes strapped to our packs. What we didnt know is that we werent just doing another hike or tramp, we were doing proper serious real MOUNTAIN CLIMBING. Like Everest styles, just not as high or obviously as serious.

There was no snow for the first part, and yes the height at 5000 plus had us gasping for breath right from the start. We were zig zagging up the first peak which took us a couple of hours and then the hard parts started. To cut a really long story short, the hard parts where were there was snow, and we were walking along narrow ledges with scary drop offs having to use our ice axes to ensure we didnt fall down the mountain to support ourselves!! Daile really did not like this part, and there were two of these sections, which lasted a good couple of hours each.

At 5900m, after about 9 hours of climbing (all uphill) we wondered about turning back. Now neither of us give up easily, but we still had a mammoth walk back, and we wanted to do it safely as we were getting quite tired. Our guide, Angel, had a wee pep talk with us and told us that we should do it. He thought we were fit enough and weren`t too tired. As long as our legs weren´t too sore he wanted us to do it. SO WE DID!!!!!!!! We made it to the summit!!!!! It was super seriously hard, but the problem was, we had to go ALL the way back again!

It took us 10 hours to get there and 5 hours back, and we didnt like going back one bit. We were exhausted beyond exhaustion, and definitely pushed our limits further than I ever have before. We are now mountain climbers, although we have decided that is our first and last mountain we will climb...

A word of warning though to anyone who is considering climbing a mountain this high..... don´t!!! LOL! Ok do but get in lots of mountain climbing practise first, on smaller mountains....

We slept like babies that night, and both got a solid 12 hours sleep.

We did it, we conquered OUR Everest!!!!!!

Bolivia: The Worlds Most Dangerous Road

Well where do I start???

We have done so much since we last wrote, but will try not to bore you all as I fill you in on the goss!!

Right now, we are in Peru, crossed the Peru-Bolivia border on 10th March, our 1 month travel anniversary!! 3 countries down, 3 to go! We have been going pretty hard, never a dull moment, but have decided to take a chill pill when we get onto the Peruvian coast and relax on a beach for 5 days or so. Think we have earnt it!

So anyway, since we last wrote.... we left La Paz, which we both really enjoyed as a city. Daile was facinated in how the women dress, and took lots of sneaky photos of the many many ladies in traditional dress with their bowler hats... and thought that perhaps it might inspire Kelly Donovan´s first fashion collection?? Also the fact that it is 3800m high, meant that the view from almost anywhere was amazing as there are buildings perched on every space on the hillside! Part of the enjoyment of La Paz is that we made some friends, Brett and Heather from Melbourne, Cara from USA, Justine and Becs from UK, so on and off we were hanging with this group having lovely CHEAP meals (25 Bolivianos each for a 3 course set meal). NZD $1 is about 3 and a half Bolivianos, so obviously we were VERY well fed and watered!

While in La Paz, we signed up to do THE WORLD´s MOST DANGEROUS ROAD, downhill mountain biking! The company was a NZ company called Gravity and comes HIGHLY recommended from us both if any of you are ever tempted to do something so silly! So for those that dont know, the road has this name because it has the most annual deaths on it. Reason being, it is the width of one lane, and is a 2 way road, and it had sheer drop offs, and many vehicles literally do ´drop off´the side. On our way there in the bus, we saw a sign which said ´42 deaths this year´and it was only March 4th!!

So.... onto the ride itself! Rodney was a pro - the guide invited him to go biking with him and the guides that weekend, he was right behind the guide the whole time! We had strict instructions NOT to look at the scenery while we were riding, or our bikes would go there and we would be goners. We were also told many stories of people slamming on the brakes too hard, going over the handle bars and doing serious damage to their jaws. Apparently MOST tours they have an accident, which was not great news as we prepared to start the ride! We were then told that most of the people who do have accidents usually have cocaine in their system (they get tested in hospital) or are typically the Irish who stay out until all hours, get a couple hours sleep, and then attempt the bike ride! Duh!!! To make matters worse, after hearing all of this, we had to ride on the left hand side of the road, which is the cliff side! I dunno about Rodney´s but my heart was beating so loud I could hear it half the time and the adrenaline was pumping hard!

The ride itself was amazing! We got tips along the way on how to ride each section, and my confidence grew and I got faster and better, and was quite impressed with my efforts by the end of the day. It was a real sense of achievement finishing, and this is another highlight of our trip for sure! Even though I dont normally drink better, the free beer at the end was gone in seconds!

We finished at an animal refuge which the Mt bike company have an affiliation with, had a hot shower, a feed and then got to check out all the animals, mostly monkeys! I was busy playing with the cutest baby monkey and then I thought ¨DUH, rabies!¨and quickly stopped. Rodney then assured me that he saw a sign saying all of the animals are vaccinated, but you never can be sure, so that was the end of that!!

That night, we stayed at a cute town called Corioco, which is only about 1200m above sea level so was semi tropical which was so so nice! Up in altitude it has probably been an average of 15 degrees, so it was nice to get some sun and wear summer clothes again! We stayed there for two days with Brett and Heather our Aussie friends (they did bike ride with us), at a hostel with a pool and a restaurant and bar, and had an awesome time drinking cervezas and vino tintos! (beer and red wine!)

After a lovely two days of good company and chilling out, nursing any sore muscles from the Mt Bike ride, it was time to move on, so we said goodbye to Heather and Brett and caught a bus to Copacobana, which is a lakeside town, by Lake Titicaca, one of the worlds highest navigable lakes, also at 3800m. They supposidly have one of the biggest breeds of trout that you can catch (Trucha in español) but the ones we saw at the markets were not overly big! People outside restaurants were constantly cat calling ¨Trucha, Trucha¨trying to entice you into their restaurants. We were not tempted, gotta be careful what you eat around here, and neither of us are really trout fans to be honest! Copacobana produced our cheapest accommodation to date, at 50 Bolivianos total for a matromonial room (a queen sided bed with a bathroom), which if you do the conversion is probably only about $15 NZD give or take a few dollars! Score!

After two nights here, we decided to tackle another challenge (our adventurous feet were getting itchy again!) so decided to do the highly recommended 18km walk to the end of the pennisula where you can get a ride to Isla del Sol on a local´s boat for a small fee when you get to the end. Yes the scenery was lovely, but this walk was hilly and at over 4000m was tough!! After an exhausting walk, we did negotiate a boat ride with a local, but he ripped us off hard (its not like we had many options) for our 10min boat ride and charged us 70 Bolivanos, more than our accommodation!!! We then had to walk some more to the nearest town on Isla Del Sol, so all in all we comfortably walked a half marathon that day and were rather tired!!

We bought a 2L bottle of Coke, sat down in the sun, and Daile invited a UK couple over to share our much deserved drink and this is where we met Karen and Tom who we have been hanging out with for the last week. Isla Del Sol was lovely, and again we had good company to spend the night with. Caught the boat the next morning, and decided to go all the way to Arequipa in Peru which consisted of 2 bus rides, 3 hours to Puno, and then another 7 to Arequipa. You would think we like long bus rides or something!!!

Next up, all about Arequipa, Peru and our mountain climbing efforts.... Chau for now!

D X

Bolivian highlights including Salar de Uyuni

Well we have had a rather adventurous last week, and I think our trip has picked up a notch in terms of activity and excitement!

Chile was nice and a great way to ease into Sth America, but now that we have our 'travel legs' and are starting to meet new people and do unique experiences we are loving it even more!!!

San Pedro de Atacama was a very cool place and we loved the desert. I could have easily stayed there for more days, but we have to keep moving! The bike ride through the canyon was breathtaking (both literally because of the altitude and because of the scenery!)

The Valley of the Moon tour was cool with very unique scenery of large sand mountains and dunes...

We also had a very cool hostel that we found which had a mint kitchen so we cooked up a few feeds, including good ol scrambled eggs! We stumbled across a blender which had Daile in a frenzy wanting to make a fruit smoothie, which tasted awesome, but caused a sore belly for 2 to 3 days! Couldn't hack it after so little fruit for so long!!

Anyway moving on from the food cos I don't want to bore anyone senseless... Thursday morning was the beginning of an adventure we were very much looking foward to! A 3 day 4WD trip from San Pedro to Uyuni in Bolivia. It is so hard to describe how amazing this tour was! Day one was full of lots of Lagoons - a white lagoon, green lagoon, and red lagoon (and they really were these colours!!!) We saw our first flamingos (so pretty!) and geysers (sorta like the ones in Rotorua with no fences or anything!).

We topped 5000m that day and slept at 4200m, and there were lots of very big headaches amongst the group and people even vomitting! Rodney and I were very lucky, he got a pretty bad headache, but I was rather stoked with myself, I just felt a bit tired...

Day two was mostly making up the miles... and I am not sure if I should tell you this next part or not.... as we were driving along we saw some people waving us down (from another company) to find that they had rolled their 4WD. 3 people were injured, one with a broken arm, another with a sore back and ribs and another with a munted arm. It was not nice for those in that car and our first aid skills were not required as everything was under control by the time they got there, but we squeezed people into our car to get them to the next hostel while the injured got taken to hospital. This reinforced our decision that we are willing to pay a bit more money for the highly recommended companies (we did our research before we booked). Put a bit of a downer on the day, but at least no one got seriously injured. (I hope this doesn't make anyone worry about us!!!) FYI our company was called Estrellar del sur, and were very good, safe and fed us really well!

Day three was the highlight of the trip. The Salar de Uyuni Salt flats. 30 years ago this was a salt lake, but has since dried up and is now the largest salt flat in the world at 12,000 sq metres. It was unlike anything we have ever seen and was AMAZING!! We took some pretty cool pics, (sorry to tease you about those when we havent uploaded any yet). I can't describe in words how facinating the 360 degree views are. White salt on the ground, which meets the horizon all around. And it created amazing reflections of the clouds in the sky. A HUGE highlight for us!!! We also saw giant cactus which was over 1000 years old. They were massive, like 3 or 4 Rodney's high!! (aka 6 to 7 mtrs).

We then arrived in Uyuni which is a hole... and booked a bus to get out of there immediately. As it is rainy season we were told that the road was very wet, and there was a chance the bus may not go. We were also told that we would get 3 toilet stops over the 11 hours. Weeeeellll the bus did leave but the toilet stops were few and far between! The bus was an epic journey to say the least... The road was so rough it´s difficult to describe!!! We could feel our kidneys bouncing around in our guts which was not overly comfortable. More than once, we got bounced about 30 cm off our seats so we were totally airborne and all this in pitch black darkness. The aisle and drivers cabin where filled with locals, sleeping on the floor! Parts of the road had been washed out and after a few hours, we started to understand why they were hesitant to leave... We had to forge a number of rivers where the drivers lacky had to walk through first to make sure we could get across in our off road bus with around 1 and a half meters of ground clearance!!!! Was a few very dodgy moments where we thought we might roll it.... At 3 am (that is 7 hours folks!) we got our first bathroom stop much to everyones relief! As you can imagine, the constant jolting and bouncing were not helping!!! Rodney jumped off the bus straight into a knee deep puddle! Anyway, we eventually made it to La Paz some 14 hours later!!! Bus ride would have been quite fun if there was a bathroom on board and no people sleeping everywhere there was a bit of floor space!!! We were travelling with an Aussie couple we met and a cool chick from the US which made it more comfortable, having safety in numbers!

La Paz is pretty sweet. Got a nice place too stay and are spending some time with people we meet on the tour which is great. Food so far has been awesome and super cheap. 3 course meals, are only NZ$5 each!! Booked in our bike ride down the "Worlds Most Dangerous Road" for this Wednesday which sounds awesome and we are really looking forward to that. See http://www.gravitybolivia.com/ to read about it. Pic at the start of this post is a teaser for you from the website.

Had planned on catching a local football game but nothing on for a week so will have to wait for Bogata or Rio. Had planned a tour of the San Paedro prison but apparently a little girl living in the prison got killed a few days ago so theres a bit of clamp down at the moment so thats a no go unfortunately. Gonna do a bus tour of the city tomorrow and then the bike tour the next day. Gonna spend a night or 2 in Corioco which is at the end of the bike tour and then onto Copacabana on Lake Titicaca. Gonna spend a few days around there and do a walk for Copacabana to the end of the peninsula and then catch a boat over to Isla Del Sol for a couple days and then onto Puna and Cusco for the Machu Pichu trip.

So that is us for now!! Having an awesome time, living the dream completely! We think of you all lots and wonder how you all are! Thanks to those who have been emailing us and keeping us up to date, its great to hear the local goss!

Chau from La Paz, the highest capital city in the world!
xo

The Jewel of Northern Chile: San Pedro de Atacama

Since we last wrote we have been on the move and have gained some serious miles!

We have done some serious bus rides, which were: Vina del mar to La Serena (7 hour bus). La Serena to Copiapo (5 hour bus) and the BIGGIE was Copiapo to Calama which was supposed to be 11 hours, but thanks to our bus breaking down before we had even got on it, our 11 hour overnight bus turned into 14 hours!!! Longer than the flight here in the first place!

So we are now in San Pedro de Atacama which is the desert right at the top of Chile... right near the Bolivian border.

So before we get onto what we are going to do, apart from long bus rides which have taken up our time, we have been mostly checking out local towns along the way. La Serena was a gorgeous beachside town (another resort beach type destination) which stretched for miles. Gorgeous! Copiapo was inland, and was our first taste of the desert. On the trip there we saw lots of wild cactus in the desert on the side of the road which had Daile pretty excited! Calama is the main centre to the biggest copper mine in the world, which we tried to get a tour on, but unfortunately it was Sunday, so it was a no go.

Calama saw our first taste of altitude! It is 2700m above sea level, and didn´t bother us. From Calama we caught a 2 hour bus to San Pedro de Atacama where we are now.

We have found it odd that for one whole week, we didn´t see any other foreigners!! That means, that poor Rodney had to listen to Daile as she used up her daily word count all on him!! LOL! We only spoke english to each other for a whole week! Then we arrive in San Pedro de Atacama and the place is FULL of tourists. There are hardly any locals and the streets are lined with travel and tour agencies who are selling tours for all over the region.

This place is pretty amazing with everything being brown, dusty and made of rock or clay of some sort. Check out http://www.sanpedroatacama.com/ingles/home.htm to read more about the region. We really like it here, apart from the steep tourist prices!

Today we are going on a tour called Valley of the Moon - should be a pretty stunning sight as we go at sunset.

Tomorrow we are hiring bikes and cruising around (with large bottles of water!).

Thursday is the exciting day, where we leave on 4WD and do a 3 day tour from here all the way across the Bolivia border to a place called Uyuni. We will see Lagoons with pink flamingos (Daile is VERY excited about this!) drive right across the worlds biggest salt flats/lakes, see giant cactus, and top out at 4900m above sea level!! This will probably see us gasping for breath in our sleep, and fingers crossed with our supply of coca leaves and coca leaf tea we won´t suffer from altitude sickness!

Bolivia is going to be very basic, but much cheaper. We are going from one of South America´s richest to the poorest country.

We won´t be on the internet possibly till after the weekend at the earliest and are on track - we hoped to reach Bolivia by the end of the month and we will!

A special CONGRATULATIONS to Kate and Jase who are getting married this weekend, we so wish we could be in two places at once.

Much love,

Dahlia xo

Chilean Coastline: where surfing began

We just had an incredible 2 nights at the beach in Chile where surfing first started. The place is called Ritoque beach and is about a 30 minute drive north of Vina del mar where we were before that.

The beach was totally like a NZ west coast beach - we came to the conclusion that is was Piha crossed with Raglan. Rod never went for a surf though. Surf was 4-6ft and didn´t look too bad but apparently it gets a lot better. Water was damn cold and without a wetsuit there was no way Rodney was going surfing (it was colder than the water is in NZ winter!).

But before we stayed in Ritoque, we went to a little town called Quintero where we stayed the night at Ritoque had no room for us. Well well well it turns out this is NOT a tourist town. We were the only gringos (foreigners) we saw in the whole 24 hours we were there! We later found out that in the 11,000 tourists that have visited that town in 2008 only 460 were foriegners! No wonder NO ONE spoke english! But we got by on our hand signals and 15 words (yes we are progressing! ha!).

But with every cloud there is a silver lining and while the town was a bit rough around the edges, we went for a walk around the coast of this sleepy fishing town and it was an amazing walk! Beautiful clear blue seas and gorgeous scenery and small beaches nestled in between rocks with huge fat sea lions (with lots of fur cos the water is so cold) were just hanging out! So was a nice surprise when our expectations weren´t exactly huge of the place on arrival! We had our first ´scare´, some bloody stray dogs decided to have a wee bark at us (there were about 6 of them). It wasn´t really a drama in hindsight but at the time my heart rate definitely got up! Rods cool dog whispering skills had them running off with their tails between their legs in no time and I was very thankful of the many hundreds of dollars that we spent on vaccinations, and decided it was a very good investment as I´m sure they are no the last dogs we´ll see!

Onto Ritoque the next day where we stayed at a place called Dunas hostel, think the website is http://www.dunashostel.com/ ... it was amazing! We had the honeymoon suite - we could see the sea from our bed. Awesome. Basically just chilled out for several days, went for huge walks along the beach and explored the rugged coastline. There are HUGE sand dunes at Ritoque, ones to rival Hokianga in NZ and there were lots of dirt bikers around. Every afternoon we watched the locals try to drive off the beach in the soft sand and watch without fail, every 4wd get stuck in the sand!!! It was rather amusing, and provided entertainment between reading books and lying in the sun relaxing! Fortunately they all eventually got out!

Spent quite a bit of a time at the most authentic beach bar we´ve ever seen... right on the beach with a thatched roof, old surf boards in the rafters and sun loungers out front on the beach.

Now we are back in Vina Del Mar, and have booked a bus to La Serena tomorrow which is another resort seaside town about 6 hours north, so we´ll be catching our very first long haul bus (not that this is very long haul!)

Will spend a couple of days checking it out before we make our next move. Anyway time to enjoy the beach, hope you are all well and enjoying the NZ summer or winter if you are elsewhere in the world!

Love Dahlia x

Culture shock: Arriving in Chile

Well we finally made it to Chile!!

Flight was supposed to be 11 and a half hours, but we were stoked that there was a mean tail wind and it took 1.5 hours off the flight! Arriving at the airport was a bit crazy with no one really speaking english, so we just had to wing it and made it out the other end safely!

Managed to find a chick who spoke english who sorted out a taxi and place to stay, although we are still feeling ripped off from it as we are sure she took a large cut!

Will be much easier once we have worked out how much 1000 pesos is, although we are starting to get the hang of the $$ now. The spanish is another story though! LOL! We have a vocab of about 5 words which seems to be getting us by! Hola for hello, gracias for thank you, donde for where, cerveca for beer, vino for wine! Other than that it is a whole lot of smiling and hand signals!! Keeps us entertained and as a result we are reading the phrase book during downtime and have a new ¨word of the day¨ each day after today I accidently bought a return ticket for a bus ride to Vina del mar when we only wanted a one way ticket! Fortunately Rodney realised when she handed us 4 bus tickets, so we somehow managed to work this out and speak pigeon english with her and get a refund!!! The language difference is keeping us entertained! Hence todays ¨word of the day being¨ dee ida, meaning ONE WAY!!! lol!!!!!

Staying at Vina del mar beach at the moment, which is 2 hours from Santiago by bus, deciding our next move, but bascially heading up the coast beach hopping for the rest of the month, and plan to hit bolivia by late Feb.

Hope everyone is well, would love to hear your news too, so email us to say hi or make a lovely comment! (except you schumacher!)

Dahlia and Rodrigo xxx

ONE sleep until the trip of a lifetime

Wow only one sleep to go until we leave NZ until who knows when! Exciting!

Has started to FINALLY sink in with all the sad goodbyes, had a lovely family dinner tonight in Auckland with both our parents and my aunty Margie. We fly out at 5.30pm tomorrow and land at 1pm the same day! Hows that? As in the 10th Feb so we actually go back in time!! I've worked out the time difference to NZ. The formula is: Add 7 hours to NZ time and then go back a day.

Anyway it's time for bed, see you on the other side!
Love, Dahlia X

Leaving on a Jet Plane! Goodbye New Zealand (for now)

HOLA!!

Welcome to our brand new blog!

Only 24 sleeps until the biggest adventure of our lives!!!

Rodreigo and I are backpacking through South America, flying out on the 10th February to Santiago, Chile. I can't believe that life as I know it will be completely different in only a matter of days...

And while I love my job, I am quite excited about not working for 5 months - I've had jobs since I was 14, working all of my holidays, so the feeling is pretty unreal, but to be honest it hasn't really sunk in that we're going. To say that Rodreigo is excited is an understatement!

So the rough plan is to head north up the Chilean cost, have a look around Bolivia, hit Peru and do the Inca trail to see Macchu Picchu, go to Ecuador and if the funds allow fly to the Galapogas Islands, then Columbia, and up to the Carribean coast, then across to Brazil following the amazon (by boat and land) to the Brazilian coast, then follow the Brazillian Coast south until we get to Rio De Janerio where we fly out from on 30th June to London where we will be working and playing. We'll initially be staying with my sister Leigh and her husband Paul in Putney, South West of London until we find a job and get some more income rolling in! Everyone that has been there has told me how lovely this suburb is, and it is right next to the Thames River which has plenty of rowing clubs on it, so Rodney can do a season or two of rowing.

This may change, and we can change our flights, we're bascially going to play it by ear - if we like a place, we'll stay a while, otherwise we'll move on and keep exploring. It only dawned on me at Christmas time how huge the continant is when I was showing my family a world map - it's WAY bigger than Australia, and we're doing most of it by land!! My luxury item is definitely going to be a pillow (I'll make it fit!!) cos those overnight bus trips are going to be looooonng!

We'll be uploading some photos along the way onto facebook, and hopefully keeping this blog up to date so you can see what we're up to, but obviously this will depend on internet access, and we don't wanna spend all our time on the net, but wanna keep our friends and family updated at the same time! We won't have a mobile phone, but will be sure to keep checking in!

Asta la vista!
Dahlia and Rodreigo xoxo

Email me on dailestephens@gmail.com