1st week in London

The row of houses where we live in Herne Hill

Me outside Grandma's house


Nath took this photo - and thinks its quite good cause you can see my eyes and mouth!

London has been great so far!

I have had 2 days of work. The 1st school I went to was really poorly organised and the students behaviour was terrible (it put me off teaching in London). My agency later admitted that it was one of their tougher schools on their books. Good move sending me to a tough school on my 1st day. My other agency sent me to a much nicer school, although stil not brilliant. Students involvement in PE lessons is minimal and the teachers seem ok with this. On Tuesday I am working at a school that is looking to employ me for 4 weeks afte easter break. They have seen my cv and are really keen to see me teach. This 4 week stint could lead to a permanent job for the beginning of the school year. This school achieved top 75 GCSE results and is only 2 stops away on the overland rail :)

Nathan has had several interviews with recruitment agencies and has an interview with a company on Thursday.

At the moment we are living in Herne Hill which is a really cool suburb with lots of character. Its only 8mins by overland rail to Victoria station. Next stop down the road is Brixton which doesn't have a good name, but has a vibrant feel to it. Not sure how long we will be in Herne Hill as we are bunking down for 3 weeks in a spare room. 2 weeks to go then we might be living under the rail bridge!

Today we have done a little spot of sight seeing. We went to the London Museum because entrance is free and learnt a lot of the history of London. After we went to Buckingham Palace and had a wee nosey. Tomorrow we might head to Clapham to check out the area, as we think this is where we want to settle. Clapham sounds like its an STI like "I got a bit of Clapham in the weekend" and "my Clapham is really itchy"

Easter is next weekend and Im excited to report that the easter bunny does appear to visit London :) Nath and I might pop on down to Brighton to catch up with my Uncle and to see a bit more of Britain.

The weather is fairly poos - not freezing cold but still need to wear a jacket when venturing out. The morning has good weather but it clouds over and gets dark by lunch time.

M&N

London (and photos from Santiago)

Baggage claim at Santiago Airport

A very expensive pair of shoes!! Actually only $70 USD

Looking out over the city from the cable car

We have arrived safely in London and are loving it so far. We mastered the underground on day one and have not got lost once. This may change as I have to find my way to work without Nathan to help me.

We are onto our second home already!! We lived with Bhavik and Emma for 3 days and now we are living with Simon for 3 weeks, and then who knows where we'll be.

I met one of my teaching agencies the day we arrived and I got job starting Monday!! Im working up north at Frien Barnet school. Im really nervous and not sure what to expect - in terms of student behaviour and PE Dept resources. Im thinking Im going to have to get up really early for the 1st morning to allow for peak hour on the tube, which Nath and I haven't experienced yet.

Loving watching live premier league football (even Nath is watching it and reckons he could learn to like it).

The cost of living is cheaper than we expected. On our night out we got 4 red bull vodkas for $12 (we dont have a pound sign on our NZ laptop). Also clothes and shoes are cheap as are pub meals :) Check us out with our cheap drinks at The Walkabout.

Will keep you posted on how work went. Nath has two interviews with recruitment companies on Tuesday and Im hoping on Monday he gets a hair cut. I also need a haircut as Im over the ginger mullet, but I will have to wait for pay day.

Tonight we will have to cook dinner for the first time in 7wks! It was fairly weird having to walk to the supermarket then walk home with all your groceries. Usually I would drive. I dont think supermarkets here will let you take home trolley's like the old days back in Dunedin. If we want to go to a bigger supermarket with more selections we have to take the tube and that will be weird carrying groceries on the tube. When in London...........

Santiago

Just a quick note to let you know that we are safe and well (except for nath's bung knee and wrist) in Santiago. The only sign of any earthquake was when we landed at the airport and we had to disembark on the runway and walk to tented areas to pick up our luggage. The termial is not in use. Loads of tents set up as check in areas, luggage pick up, taxi stands etc. Driving into the city we saw no signs of damage. There was a power cut as we were in the taxi to our hostel, but luckily our hostel had power and offered us a bbq dinner. Score. The chilean peso is really hard to get your head around. Our dinner last night cost $4000 peso's each!! Equivalent to $8 USD.
Tomorrow we are taking a hop on hop off bus around the city. We have 11 stops along the way. One of the stops we visited today - taking a cable car ride to a look out point over the city. Very cool. Lots of smog though. It is hard to think that the entire popultion of NZ fits into Santiago!
Loving being back at sea level - breathing is much easier and not feeling as tired. Its 11:30pm and Im still pumping. It could be the 2 4 1 cocktails (mojitos all the way)!
Laters gators,
Michelle (and Nath - we all know he doesnt do the typing!!)

Lake Titicaca Photos (finally)

Approaching the floating Islands. We visited a group of floating Islands called Uros Islands. 3 Islands make up the Uros Islands, where 12 families live.

Homestay - Llachon Community

This is looking through to the house where Nath and I had our homestay at the Llachon community.

Nath and Sonia carrying the fishing net to the wharf.

Nath, myself and Amanda in traditonal dress. My hat with the two pom poms represents the fact that I am married/not available, whereas Amanda is wearing the single ladies attire.

In the morning, pulling up the fishing nets. No such thing as undersized here!

Death Rd Mt Biking Photos

Nathan and I looking hot in our biking gear. The helmets were hard out full face ones which made you feel like a pro.

Just a wee example of how close we got to the edge of the drop off when cycling, and how narrow the road is!

Me hooning along. I was the fastest girl (except for 1 other chick who has Mt biked before and she kept up with the boys). Hence why Im bking all alone, too slow for the boys, too fast for the girls! ;)

Nath looking rather pro styles.

Group shot before we began. Nath is closest to the camera and Im down the other end.

I am following directly behind Nathan (with the bright white shoes and tapered pants!)

Death Road

Well our tour is over, finito.

We had a great time and had some amazing experiences. We count ourselves lucky that we were able to have so many opportunities to interact with local communities. Those are the experiences that we treasure most as we learnt lots about other ways of life.

We are heading to Santiago tomorrow. We spoke to an Irish guy who lives in Santiago who was Mt Biking with us and he said the main city is fine and running as normal.

Yesterday was an epic day. We mountain biked the death road in bolivia! Was super fun and scary at the same time. It is called the death road for the shear drops off the side of the narrow dirt roads. Cars and buses were using the road to which made it all the more groovy. We got t-shirts to say we survived and a cd with photos. Unfortunately this computer does not have a cd drive so I havent viewed the pics nor can I upload them! Many people have died on the rd, in the 80s a bus load of 100 went over the side. We saw a memorial for an Israeli tourist who died in 01 Mt biking, and as late as May last yr a tourist guide died while running a tour. Pretty scary stuff, I wasnt aware of thes incidents until we had finished the ride.

Im getting so frustrated with the slow internet in South America. I have been waiting 30min to upload 5 photos. Ugh. The ICT guru in me is not happy. Well the computer has buggered out so you will have to wait for lake titicaca photos. Probably wont upload or update until we arrive in London. Bring on fast internet and tasty food.

Lake Titicaca

Since our last update we had a boat trip out to Uros floating reed Islands on Lake Titicaca. It was incredible to see how these little communities lived on an island no bigger than 300m2. In one community you could expect maybe 12 families to live on one island. They are fishing families and take their fish to trade for veges and clothes on the mainland.
After our visit to the floating Islands we continued onto the pininsula where we had a home stay with the Llachon community. There were 14 families that lived in this community and they were really welcoming. Nathan and I helped dig up potatoes for the big dinner, we went fishing, played volleyball, untangled the fishing net, peeled potatoes with a knife (which is really frustrating because you know its a lot quicker with a peeler!). Our host family had a daughter Sonia who is 10. Sonia has an older brother and a younger brother of 3. She practically mothered these children and prepared their food and ours. When it came time for the big community dinner she dressed me in traditional clothes and even wrapped a waa waa (baby) blanket on my back. After dinner we had a band play local music and we all danced.
Unfortunately this computer is crap and I cant uplaod photos. In 2 days I took over 100 photos, thats how amazing these peoples lives are. So very different to NZ.
We are in Copacabana, (just like the song!) Bolivia. We have to get used to a whole new currency. Bolivia uses the peso or bob as we call it. For $1 US you get $6.9 bob which is really cheap. Yesterday arvo we found a cool we bar/cafe that had 2 4 1 cocktails. 2 cocktails for 20 bob works out at about $2.50 nz for one cocktail :) Good times.
This arvo we travel to our last desination on our tour - La Paz.
Its sad that the tour is nearly over but I am looking forward to arriving in London and continuing on with exploring the world.
Adios Amigos.

Lare´s Trek and Cusco

We have been all action since our last update. Our whole group successfully completed the Lares Trek. It was very hard in places and the rain that we had every day didn´t help the positive thinking. At its height we reached 4600m and it was very hard to breathe. The group photo is taken at the top of the trek. I really enjoyed reaching the camp each night, especially as our tents were already up and dinner was cooking. The Aussies complained alot about the cold weather, maybe they should have been more prepared as Nath and I were very toasty (my puffer jacket was my life saver) with all our winter woolies. On the 1st night of the trek we camped at the local school. Our tour leader told us to buy fruit and toys to give to the children along the way. While it seems like a nice guesture Im a little synical as the children expect you to give them something and will hide fruit to get more off someone else. I guess in the end the children do benefit because they dont get fruit from home. It would be nice to give them something more sustainable like planting fruit trees but they dont have the climate for it up in the Mts.

On our way to starting the trek we had a night in Ollantaytambo which is a stop over spot for a lot of tourists. It is a lovely town that has been built at the bottom of Inca ruins. We looked around the ruins and they were amazing. We visited a local farming family and had a go using their hand tools to plough fields and plant potatoes. The family cooked us lunch and we had cuy (guinea pig) for the second time. My highlight was playing a football game against the family who roped in some locals to play. We lost by 1 in the end. The Peruvians are quite small so are easy to push off the ball!

We are back in Cusco and spent yesterday morning looking at ruins. Mostly of Incan origin, but some pre Incan as well. There are always people trying to sell stuff at all these tourist stop offs. Nathan took quite a fancy to one object in particular!

At the moment there are 4 other Intrepid groups in Cusco. As a kind gesture because we didnt get to Macchu Pichu Intrepid took us out for dinner and organised a quiz night for us. We were 2nd heading into the last round and some how managed to come last!! Go figure. The night continued on to some local night clubs and I taxi´d home at 3am. Luckily today has been a free day.

Paul has turned very metro on us and today had a massage, hair cut and back wax. Always nice to have more ammo to hassle the Aussies with.

Tomorrow we have a bus trip to Puno which is really a stop over on our way to Lake Titicaca. We are having a home stay with a family in the Llachon community, which has those of us that cant speak Quechua (language from the highlands) a little nervous! We will be spending the night with this family so it could be a little awkward.

Only 7 days left on our tour. Time has gone really fast. Nath and I will then have 2 nights in La Paz and 3 nights in Santiago. Obviously with the earthquake we are making enquiries into travelling to Santiago and may see if we can change flights. Will keep you posted.

To sum up our tour thus far Nath and I tried to compile a list of our top 5 memorable moments. It was very hard and so much has been left off. In no particular order they are:

Nath´s list:

1. Amazon jungle lodge

2. Lares trek

3. Huaca de Luna

4. Dune buggying and sand boarding at Huacachina

5. White water rafting in Banos

Michelle´s list:

1. White water rafting in Banos

2. Amazon jungle lodge visit to the animal shelter and playing with Lucas (the monkey)

3. Flying over the Nazca lines (even tho at the time I was in tears cause I didnt think our pilot was very professional dressed in jeans!)

4. Visiting the ruins at Ollantaytambo

5. Colca canyon

Hope to scoop some good purchases at the black market tomorrow morning. 5:45am departure, but it will be worth it for the cheap shoes.

3 days in Peru then off to Bolivia.

Adios.