FOOOOOOOOOS!

OMG OMG OMG OMG I found FOOS! A whole plaza filled with Foosball tables! So it is true!!! That South Americans love their Foos! There were so many tables I thought I´m in paradise! Me and my mate Laird went to this vanue last night, and challenged all the locals kids to a game.

And guess what He-Man, J-Man, Shanmus, Smelly Al, RC, Wilson and the rest of the Frucor posses? We KICK ASS!!!!! Oh yeah mofos we won all the matches!

How it work in Bolivia is this, you pay 1 Bolivianos for 5 chips, each chips inserted into the chip slot gives you 5 balls. Which gives you 5 rounds of game play. The loosing side at the end pays for the game.

The tables are also slightly different to ours at Frucor. The side are all rounded to keep the ball moving, so tring to do trick shots off the side is way harder. Also, the goalie cannot move sideways beyond the goal post so no fancy trick shots from the goalie either. Finally, when a ball goes dead (corner dead zones), they pick the ball up and do a reverse goal kick from the second line defenders. If kicked well it could send the ball straight into the goal post!

We played many games, and tonight we plan to head back to the plaza to play more games before I take off to Cochabamba. PRO 1 is BACK! :)

My Spanish classmate

Shelagh is my Spanish classmate. She rocks! Looking at this photo you wouldn´t have guess that she is a 62 years old grandmother, travelling in South America for 6 months on her own. She has 3 kids in their 40´s and 8 grand kids. As part of the 6 months trip in South America she is studying Spanish, working with street kids, saving the turtles in Galapagos Islands.

We were the only 2 students in our Spanish class and we constantly made a nuisance of ourselves to our teacher Elizabeth. It was quite fun to have another person around and to learn with someone else. Last night the class organized salsa class and everyone had fun.

I hope to catch up with Shelagh in Quito in a September as our roads will cross once again!

4 Hostels in 2 weeks!

I have been in Sucre since last Tuesday and I have moved hostels 4 times! The last move was yesterday, after I found a room mate to share an expensive hostel. :)

We thought we´d treat ourselves after staying at crappy hostels for the past week. My room mate is Laird, a 27 Canadian studying Spanish in Sucre like me. And we are staying at the Grand Hostel. As the name implies, it is indeed grand. We walk into 2 beautiful courtyards, filled with statues, water fountain, plants and flowers. Our room overlook the second courtyard. It is HUGE! With 3 beds, 2 of them double size, big mirrors, study table, a huge bathroom and satellite TV. I could lounge in this room all day!

This is definitely the nicest place I have stayed at, and even though it is expensive in Bolivian standards, we are paying 150 Bolivianos for the room. Which comes to USD17.50 between the two of us!

Sucre

I´m still in Sucre, the University city of Bolivia. Yesterday (25th March) there was lots of people out on the streets, marching for Sucre to become the capital of the country. It was loud and lively, with lots of marching bands, plane dropping leaflets, adults letting off bangers and school kids waving the Bolivian and Sucre flags out on the streets.

I am here in Sucre for this week to study Spanish. The routine for the week has been getting up at 7.30am, eat breakfast and take off to my class which starts at 8.10am. The walk to my school is only 7 minutes. After 4 hours of lessons, I would meet up with my new room mate Laird for lunch. Over here in South America lunch is the biggest meal of the day. And our favorite dish is the ¨Menu del Dia¨, meaning menu of the day. And since it is buffet we would stuff ourselves. Afterwards, I´d spend my afternoon doing homework, exploring the neighbourhood, visiting a museum or do some Internet. Finally, I´d meet up with a bunch of people for coffee, followed by dinner. Night time would be spent watching movies and hanging out at the gringo bar call Joy Ride. :)

As for the Spanish lessons so far it is ¨bien¨- well. I still have a long way to go before having a conversation with locals... But I am not too worried about it yet as this is only week 3. I will have more opportunities to practise the lingo!

Tigger Lilly and friends

Tigger lilly wanting to say hi to her putriku with her new friends. Finger puppets purchse from the markets. :)

Each of these puppets cost 2.5 Bolivianos = 40 cents US. In NZ they sell them at Trade Aid for NZD10!

Rubbish worker strike

On Tuesday last week I left Potosi to avoid a miners strike, and arrive in Sucre to see another major strike happening. This time it was the rubbish men. They block off all major roads into the town center with rubbish trucks. They have also dump a pile of rubbish in front of the City Municipal office!

Whilst walking past the Municipal office I saw this cute little doggy hanging around outside.

Not long after, I walk past the Municipal office and saw took a picture of the door... And saw this hanging!

... Such is a dog´s life aye?

Alex the kid

Why do I always end up travelling with French people? Like this fella Alex Taurand. A 23 year old student of Economics whom I met back in San Pedro de Atacama in Chile. We happen to be on the same route so I ended up sharing a room with him here at Sucre.

But seriously he´s been great! We get on well and he´s been helping me with my Spanish. Yup! Alex studied in Santiago for 6 months so he speaks it fluently. Throughout our stay I´ve been giving him shit about France though, from Green Peace to rugby. :p He is also a brand brasher... in a small way! His entire closet consist of American Apparel, from his undies to his sweater! LOL! But he did point out to me that this brand is not displayed anywhere.

Anyway Alex leaves tomorrow for the border of Paraguay. He will be sorely missed!

Alex also has a blog - It is chilealex.blogspot.com

Cooperative Mine Tour in Potosi

This is a real life TNT you are seeing me holding. In 5 minutes the whole thing would go BOOM! It was lit up and passed around amongst the tourist for posing. This TNT cost 15 Bolivianos all together and is legal to buy anywhere in Potosi. In fact, the number one suicide method is by blowing one self up!

The tour of Potosi´s mine itself was pretty grim. It shows you the harsh working condition face by the miners, some as young as 9 were used, even though the legal age is 18. Luckily we didn´t meet any kids underground. The mine itself is a real working mine, with 4 levels deep. Underground the temperatures can get to 45 degrees. Workers were scurrying past us as we follow our guide inside the shaft. At parts it got very narrow and the fumes were choking. Good thing I wore my Cambodian scarf to help with breathing. Some people freak themselves out and a friend had to be led out after getting too claustrophobic.

Because of the condition underground most often die of silicosis pneumonia within 10 years of entering the mine.

I follow Koala Tours on this and highly recommend them and my guide - Pedro.

Spending 19th July

32 Bolivianos - Accommodation
4 Bolivianos - Internet
12 Bolivianos - Dinner
25 Bolivianos - Lunch
32 Bolivianos - Spanish Lesson
==========
105 Bolivianos

Spending 18th July

32 Bolivianos - Accommodation
18.8 Bolivianos - Moisturiser
14 Bolivianos - Snack
16 Bolivianos - Museo de arte Indigena
10 Bolivianos - Drinks
5.5 Bolivianos - Grocery
14 Bolivianos - Lunch
3 Bolivianos - Internet
=============
113.3 Bolivianos

Spending 17th July

2 Bolivianos - Internet
24 Bolivianos - Dinner
10 Bolivianos - Drinks
32 Bolivianos - Accommodation
14 Bolivianos - Lunch
13 Bolivianos - Laundry
==========
95 Bolivianos

Exchange Rate USD -Bolivianos

1USD = 8 Bolivianos

But in the streets you get 1USD = 7.78 Bolivianos.

Check out my daily spending as I am now definitely coming under 20usd per day. :)

Toilets in Bolivia

This is instructions on how to poo found at a hostel from the Bolivian border to Salar de Uyuni. One thing I can say about toilets out here is that despite the fact that the country is the poorest in this region, it is still cleaner and more hygienic then toilets found in Asia. Especially China, Tibet, Nepal and India!

Salar de Uyuni

Here is a 360 degree video taken of the salt flats at Uyuni. Being there blew me away, so watch this and judge for yourself.

Salt harvest

Salt are actually harvest from the salt flats. Here you can see piles of salt being left for collection by trucks to near by towns.

Pose 2

Salar de Uyuni
Originally uploaded by benwoo

I Taekwon-Do this fella´s ass! Actually I was just doing a side kick when James (bloody English pom) jump into my photo deliberately. But then it did look good for the photo! So thank you James for trying to ruin my picture!

And me doing this on my bible was all my idea! hehehehe

Pose 1 - Group Pose

This is Salar de Uyuni, the famous salt flats in Bolivia. It occupies one massive huge plain of hundreds and hundreds of miles. It is so huge all you could see in the horizon are the blue blue sky. This must be one of the natural wonders of the world.

So what do most travellers do when they arrive? They pose for pictures of course! Here is my group doing various cool pose. From the left you have Jason, Michael, me, Stephanie, Heekow and Joan. Cool aye?

Salar de Uyuni

Amazing salt flats. What you are seeing here is the dry salt plain and the hexagon shape are the effects of salt drying under the relentless sun. The altitude here is over 3,600 metres and covering 12,000 sq km. The reflection on the sun is blindingly white. I thought it was one of the most fabulous natural sight I have ever witness!

More about the background from the bible: It was part of a prehistoric salt lake, Lago Minchin. Whcih covered most of SW Bolivia. When it dried up, it left a couple of seasonal puddls and several salt pans. Including the Salar de Uyuni and Salar de Coipasa.

Expediciones Strella Del Sur

Jason on tour.
Originally uploaded by benwoo

I highly recommend this tour group whom I used to take us from San Pedro de Atacama to Uyuni. The company is "Expediciones Strella Del Sur". In our group we had 6 people. They were the 2 Canadians Jason and Michael, Joan the Spanish, Stephanie the Mexican, Heekow the Korean and mua! Our guide Carlos was the driver, cook and guide to the trip. He was knowledgeable and has a great sense of humour. He didn´t speak any English but 3 of the crew did so it wasn´t an issue. It cost us 4,900 pesos or 90 USD for the trip. I know people who paid 4,300 pesos for other tours but I have also heard lots of horror stories, like people not having enough blankets up there or the food was horrid or the 4x4 ran out of gas or broke down halfway. We did not experience any of these problems, though when we got to Uyuni the 4x4 was running on empty! :)

Welcome to Bolivia!

Our bus waiting at the Chile-Bolivia border... And the guys in bus are Canadian Michael and me. Altitude at around... 4,000 metres+ perhaps? All we know was that we were freezing our ass up there!

Small World!

Get this, I met Alex Coonce back in 2003 in Cambodia and China. And last week, at the Tatio Geysers at San Pedro de Atacama we bump into each other again!!!! What a bloody small world! I ended up going to dinner with her and her bf at a local restaurant. We talk heaps to find out about mutual travelling friends from 2003. Alex and John are heading the same way as me up South America but only have a few weeks left. But it was great for me, as that was my first nice dinner out with companions.

And this is what I love most about travelling, the randomness of it all, encountering people from the past in the other side of the world 4 years later!

Wot´s been happening...

Tis mad it is... these last few days of no communications.

I am now in the city of Potosi. At 4,090 metres this is the highest city in the world according to the bible. It felt it too when me and my companions got here. We were out of breath pretty quickly, so walking around town takes time. Especially since Potosi is a hilly city... We came here specifically to see the mines and meet the miners. Potosi was the richest city in South America 500 years ago because of the mines and the mineral it produces. And after 500 years these mines are still operating. We visited the mine shelf's, crawl through the different levels, met the workers and heard the horrors of working in such an inhospitable place with no protection for the miners. The miners we met were all furiously chewing on coca plants. They believe it gives them the effect of not feeling hungry (miners don´t take lunch) or tired.

But I am tired... the last few days has been hectic and very little sleep was gathered. My trip from San Pedro de Atacama in Chile to Uyuni in Bolivia pass through some amazing scenery. From the highest geyser fields in the world (over 4,000 metres), active volcano, amazing rock sculptures at 4,500 metres (which I tried climbing for all of 5 minutes), red-green-white colored Alpine lakes, wild animals such as wolf, vicunas and pink flamingo´s to amazing salt flats which is blindingly white for miles around.

I will try and post some photos as soon as possible. Am hoping to find faster Internet cafe in order to do this.

Cost 16th July

15 Bolivianos - TNT-fuse-BIG BOOM
80 Bolivianos - Mine tour
40 Bolivianos - Accomodation
14 Bolivianos - Lunch
10 Bolivianos - Entrance to view point
17 Bolivianos - Dinner
2 Bolivianos - Internet
4.5 Bolivianos - 2 ltr Water
===========
182.5 Bolivianos

Cost 15th July

40 Bolivianos - Bus from Uyuni to Potosi
20 Bolivianos - Tip
20 Bolivianos - Dinner
4 Bolivianos - Internet
40 Bolivianos - Accomodation
4 Bolivianos - Taxi
5 Bolivianos - Toilet
=========
133 Bolivianos

Cost 13th-14th July

No cost, didn´t spend moolah as I was on a tour. Chooooice!

Cost 12th July

49,000 Pesos - Salar de Uyuni tour
... to be completed.

Cost 11th July

6,400 Pesos - Dinner (!!!)
5,000 Pesos - Accomodation
1,000 Pesos - Llama Kabab
500 Pesos - Cheese snack
1,500 Pesos - Moon Valley Entrance fee
1,500 Pesos - Tatio Geyser Entrance fee
500 Pesos - Tips
2,500 Pesos - Lunch
=========
18,900 Pesos

Cost 10th July

2,000 Pesos - Lunch
500 Pesos - Coke
5,000 Pesos - Accomodation
800 Pesos - 5ltr Water
10,000 Pesos - Tattio Geyser tour
4,000 Pesos - Moon Valley tour
1,500 Pesos - Bus from Calama to San Pedro
2,400 Pesos - Dinner
==========
26,200 Pesos

Cost 9th July

398 Pesos - Internet
1,288 Pesos - Lunch
100 Pesos - Snacks
========
1,778 Pesos

Tigger Lilly

...Oh and Tigger Lilly wants to say hi to her putriku... :)

Monkey Magic

I love street arts and art bombs and Chile is full of it. This one was taken at the port city of Valparaiso.

Photo of me and soldier at La Serena

Photo was taken at La Serena today. Wanted to pose with this soldier guarding the a hill side fort. Well he wasn´t really standing at attention. Before I ask him for a photo he was listening to the radio from his mobile... Guess his job must be pretty damn boring huh?

Weather here as you can see has been perfect almost everyday. But La Serena is on a dry plain close to the desert which I am heading up to tonight. So it gets pretty cold as soon as the sun sets.

Up the coast to La Serena

Caught a 6 hours bus ride from Vina Del Mar today. The buses here are great, reminds me of buses in Turkey. There is an attendant whom walks the aisle and hands out treats like hot tea and cookies. I notice my co-passengers even got serve lunch! They must pay extra for the privilege. The seats in the bus was most comfy too, with recliners and foot rest, and the television plays movies but you don´t get the sound unless you plug your headphones into the headphone plug above you. That is a huge blessing as compare to many long distance buses around the world you don´t have to listen to their blaring televisions while trying to get some sleep!

I arrive in La Serena late, around 3pm. So didn't have much time to check out the town before dusk. I did walk out to the beach to see the lighthouse, and locals being touted for horse rides. The sand here are nice but the water is too damn cold and dangerous to swim. Or so the big sign on entrance said...

Am staying at a hotel call El Punto. I haven´t sleep there yet but it has 5 star backpackers potential already. The beds are solid and comfy, the room very tidy with reading lights, the showers and toilets are clean and comes with toilet paper, there is a fridge for food, a nice hang out area for chit chat and a bar at the back with... Satellite TV! My final hope is for a quiet restful sleep as the past week my sleep has been punctuated with barking mad dogs, locals chatting loudly and construction.

Oh for dinner I ate at Doggies - remember that Hot Dog fast food place I spoke of a few days back? Well I can tell you the food isn't too shabby. The hot dogs was chopped up and server on a plate of french fries and top with chopped tomatoes and avocados. De-li-cious!!!

Cost 8th July

Ok I am not hitting the 20usd budget, but no surprise there... Except am running low on cash... And can´t wait till Bolivia which should be much cheaper!

9,000 Pesos Accommodation
2,100 Pesos Doggies dinner
1,300 Pesos Breakfast
19,400 Pesos Bus ticket from La Serena to Calama
400 Pesos Internet
=========
32,200 Pesos

Chillano

My darling putriku wanted to know if the people in Chile are hot... the definite answer is NO! In fact, I notice many Chilean guys have very untidy bushy eyebrows, and I saw quite a few whom seem to have uni brows. LOL!!!!!!! Will have to take a photo evidence when I get a chance!!!! :)

As for the girls, lets just say I have yet to see a pretty Chillano. :*(

Again will have to ask other backpackers for their thoughts when I actually meet one!

Big Mac Index

Big Mac Combo - 1990 Pesos

No I didn't have one and no I am not an anti-globalisation dickhead. I just weren't desperate for something "western" just yet. Big Mac index is good coz McD exist in most countries around the world and the index tells you something about the country's wealth. :)

Today I ate Paila Marina at the markets in Valparaiso. It is basically seafood chowder cook in a pot. It is serve in a big stone bowl filled with shellfish of every sorts and fish. It was kinda yummy... but to be honest it got too much after awhile. And there were too much sandy residue in the soup and in the meat... eeek! Still, that was my main meal for the day. I ate 2 minute noodles for dinner.

Day 5 Cost

6,000 Pesos Accommodation
2,800 Pesos Lunch
600 Pesos Funicular rides
1,687 Pesos Supermarket
554 Pesos Dinner
700 Pesos Metro
1,350 Pesos Phone call
400 Pesos Internet
=========
14091 Pesos

Day 4 Cost

700 pesos Internet
6,000 pesos Accommodation
1,450 pesos Dinner
400 pesos 1.6 litre water
1,300 pesos Lunch
300 pesos Museum visit
6,000 pesos Bus ticket to La Serena
=========
16050 pesos

Woohoo! Found cheap food today buy buying my lunch at the supermarket. The spaghetti bolognese was tastier then dinner from previous nights!

Another thing to note, Chilean meat aren't all that tasty. I also found the texture to be rather tough and chewy.

Vina del Mar

Left Santiago this morning to head west to the seaside town of Vina del Mar. Lonelyplanet (LP) calls it the "garden" city but after walking round the place all day I found our own garden city in Christchurch (or was it Hamiltron?) to be much better. They did plant this pretty impressive theater in the middle of a park surrounded by hills.

The beach here is ok, sort of... better then my Bucklands Beach! Looking across the ocean I see big container ships heading to the neighbouring port city of Valparaiso. This by the way is the Pacific ocean! I am now thinking of Auckland, my friends, my family and my gorgeous putriku. :)

Day 3 cost

850 Pesos Cuppachino de Chile
8,000 Pesos Accomodation
630 Pesos Cheese Empanadas
3,700 Pesos Bus to Vina Del Mar
2,000 Pesos Palace Cousiño
530 Pesos Metro
3,500 Pesos Lousy dinner
=========
1,9210 Pesos

Bloody dinners!

Ah shit, just spent half an hour walking to a el-cheapo restaurant which serve paella. I am dying for rice and found this place in the afternoon advertising a whole meal for 1,300 pesos!

SO... I get there this evening for a bargain to be told that they only serve this during the day! Arghhh! So, I went back to town for a meal. I found another place which advertised paella but when I sat down they told me there weren´t doing it. So I chose pizza with lots of meat on top instead. But guess wot, it sucks ass! The meat was tasteless, reminding me of the left over meat mum used in boiling soup! Grrrrr and to top it off it cost 2,600 pesos! Maybe I need to lug around chili sauce or oyster sauce... ;)

As far as dinner goes the last 3 meals has been more a miss then hit affair. Night one I ate pasta baked in a white sauce. Night two I ate sandwich with ham and cheese bake and tonight there´s pizza with tasteless meat.

I think I need rice soon or I´ll die!

Football madness!

This was taken last night out by the main shopping complex in Santiago. It was mad as there were people everywhere standing out on the streets watching the football match between Chile and Mexico on the big screen. There were heavy police presence everywhere. The Copa America cup is currently being held in Venezuele and goes from June 26 till July 15.

The final score was 0-0 though Chile had more shots on goal. Boo hoo...

Tips from Natasha

Hi Ben

Was digging through our photos and journals (and Lonely Planets) from our time in S. America. Wow, it’s amazing how much you forget.

Found a few things though:

In Cuzco we stayed at Magnolias II (don’t remember the address, but looking at the map, I’m sure if was down Av Sol, or just off it), which was not in Lonely Planet, but recommended to us along the way. Yvonne and Tario are gorgeous. I hope they are still around, as Yvonne had had a brain tumour of some sort removed. They met us at the bus station, with a cute little sign saying ‘Bienvenidos Claude and Natasha from South Africa’, it was sheer luxury. We got hugs and kisses and all, like mum and dad away from home. They run a wonderful hostel for P$10 per person per night, with complimentary coffee and tea, and hot showers.

If you find them, please send our regards. Remind them that we shared a hot pools experience in Aguas Calientes on the 20 May 2002, and I gave Yvonne a massage afterwards.

From La Paz you can do a ‘Downhill Madness’ ride to Coroico, that is where it is time to chill out for a few days. Lovely little place and substantially lower than La Paz, so it is warm and lush, even in winter. We stayed in El Cafetal, owned by a Frenchman who makes wicked Banana and Chocolate crepes.

In Potosi, Bolivia, there is an awesome vegetarian restaurant called ‘Apple Magic’. Set menu was B$12 per person, set menus are good value in SA. Apple Magic had great atmosphere, tasty food (the best in Bolivia that we had), and heat and smiles . . . and awesome hot chocolate. We found it on the 28^th June, had lunch there, where we shared a table with a Canadian who we befriended, ate ourselves fat. Left, went to the Museum and then went back for dinner! Potosi is ‘mucho frio’, so any place that is warm is good.

In Salta, Argentina we stayed in Youth Hostel Terra Oculta, which was nice, with great, consistent hot, pressurized water.

Well those are some starting recommendations.

Have a wonderful time. Looking forward to having you back home and hearing all about your adventures. In the meantime, you will be missed . . . especially on the dance floor.

XXX
Natasha

Day 2 Cost

420 pesos 1.5 litre water
180 pesos bananas
8000 pesos Accomodation
2090 pesos KFC lunch
1000 pesos Visit to Pablo Neruda´s house
400 pesos Municipalidad de Santiago
300 pesos Bellas Artes
3200 pesos Domino dinner
=====
15590 pesos

KFC

Yes I know, why go to an Americanize institution when you can try out the local cuisine? :)

Well my last meal with my putriku is KFC, and I wanted to sample the local offering. Over here they do mega size pollo con frits. And guess what, it is all crispy! :) :) :)

But after litrally drooling on my food I found my taste budd is still tune towards kiwi pollo. The meat is simply tastier then the offering here. Still, I enjoyed my meal.

Also notice they do toasted twisters here. I think that would go down well back home!

First impression

Hot dogs, stray dogs, football and the scenic backdrop.

I see hot dogs stand and shops everywhere, there is even a hot dog chain call Doggie! LOL! There are stray dogs are everywhere too, no collers, barking mad, I must stay well away! As for football, it is blaring away on the tele at the hotel reception, out on a mega huge screen in the center of the shopping mall, and in the restaurant I ate it, every tele is tune to it.

The mountain vista surrounding this city is farkin amazing. As I arrive in the evening last night and dusk was settling in, you could see the huge Andes glowing red in the background. This really blew me away... I mean, the closest thing we have in NZ is Queenstown but this is the second highest mountain range in the world and they are M A S S I V E and my God they seem to be only kilometeres away.

Made it!!!!

Woohoo!

I made it!!! After a 16.5 hours marathon journey, and a very sad farewell to my darling putriku, Ting man and my folks at Auckalnd airport on Tuesday at 4.30pm. I made it to my hotel in Santiago on Tuesday at 7pm. Am staying at the Hotel Londeres in Town on Paris Ave. This place was recommended by Amy, my big sis, whom travel through here only weeks ago. The place is allright, nothing fancy. Check into a simple room with share showers. It´s clean, has a tv and a nice double bed.

I then head out to look for food and water. I was so thirsty!!!! But the first bottle I bought was bloody gassy water! They love gassy water here so I have to be careful next time. I ate spagatti baked in a white sause for my first meal. It was yuck, but I was hungry. Maybe I need to point at other diners in the future to eat their yummy meals. heheheh Also over here you need to tip, but I haven´t got a clue on their currancy yet so am tipping way too much. I need to sort that out.

So all up it cost:

8000 Peso - Room + breakfast
9USD - Share airport taxi
3800 Pesos - Dinner
400 Pesos - Gassy water
=========
16,800 Pesos

Today I think I will walk the town and check out their museum. I hope to hook up with other backpackers too to get an idea as to recommendations and where to go next. I also plan to take it easy as I am feeling completely wasted, the time zone thing is wrecking havoc with my body.

We are like a day behind here, and at 12am NZT on Thursday it is only 8am Santiago time on Wednesday.

The day...

Am being pick up by dad at 1.30pm, before heading off to work to drop off stuff for Alan. The flight AR1183 is departing on time at 4.30pm. :) Richard, my folks and of course my darling putriku will be there to send me off.

Auckland Airport has it's flight info online. Very handy!

Travel doco's

The wonder of scanners, am scanning all my important travel doco's - passport, visa, travel ticket, vaccination booklet, travelers cheque into the PC. Will then Gmail the attachment to myself and family. :)

Claude & Natasha

My mates Claude and Natasha Sabatier came to say their farewell to me this evening. They also have lots of fond memories to share as they spent 6 months traveling in that region in 2003. One which stood out was the shock therapy of live electricity and showers in Peru and Bolivia, as in order to heat up the water the locals attached live electricity straight into the shower head. I will be looking out for that! Their advice was to wear flip flops in showers if you want to minimize the zap!

They also recommended a wildlife sanctuary in Bolivia which they spend time at. This sanctuary is a place where illegally captured and obtained animals are taken to in order to help them rehabilitated back to the jungle. Claude help with a monkey (no surprise there!) while Natasha helped with the birds. This was the one topic which everybody at work came back to me about when I mention about wanting to help out there. And for those who wants more information or see pictures of animals you can help out with, check them out on Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi.

Personally I'd LOVE to take care of those spider monkeys! :)