Exhausted & smelly, but still going strong!!

Has it really been that long since my last blog, time really does fly when you're having fun!! Our time in Chile was fantastic and we will def be going back to travel the south of the country as we didn't have the time to do it on this trip, however, Chile has been and gone and we have been in Peru for the past two weeks with our tour group. What a two weeks they have been!!

We have just got back from doing the Inca Trail trek through the mountains in Peru. We reached Macchu Picchu yesterday morning after getting up at 4am to start the last day of treking. Macchu Picchu is the ancient ruins of the lost city in Peru and the trail we took was the one the Inca people took 500 years ago to reach Macchu Picchu and what a privilege it was. It is still not known what Macchu Picchu was used for, so there is a lot of mystery surrounding it. We trekked 38kms over 4 days and reached an altitude of 4200m above sea level. It was trying at times and Colin fell ill, yet we both made it through with the help of our group (pic of our group starting the Inca trail) On top of all this, we weren't able to wash properly, let alone take a shower!! There wasn't even running water in some of the places we stayed, so you can imagine how the toilets smelled, all part of the experience I say!

Reaching Macchu Picchu yesterday morning was amazing (see left) and a great end to our treking, however I am a westerner at heart and am very much looking forward to a hot shower (hair is like lard) and a comfy bed!!

One thing that amazed me along the way was how very much on par I felt with the Incas and Peruvian people. The main religion for them is Catholicism, but that aside they are very spiritual people and have so much faith and belief in who they are. They know where they've come from, where they are and where they are going after life and now matter how hard times are for them this never comes into question. For me, I have always questioned my faith and beliefs and have struggled for many years to understand what I have been put on earth to achieve. At this stage in my life, as I'm preparing to get married the right thing would probably be to follow the Christian beliefs, but is it so wrong of me to acknowledge that I find it and have always found it hard to believe in and am not sure if I could even begin to or want to understand. However, I have always felt I have had a spiritual connection with something in some way but am yet to understand what this is about. Anyway, I digress plus a story on my faith is a whole other blog!!

We are now chilling back in Cusco for 2 days, tonight we are having a group photo taken of us dressed up in traditional Peruvian clothing, which should be a laugh. On Monday head to Lake Titicaca where we will be spending a night with a local family, before moving on to Bolivia. We are having such a wonderful time in South America and experiencing so many things, however we are really looking forward to getting back home. We have become very weary travellers and are in desperate need of some TLC from friends and family!! Only 6 weeks to go, so everyone prepare yourselves for many tales of our travels!!

I'm not sure when I will be blogging next so I'll love ya and leave y'all for now and will be in touch soon xxx

Hola!

So here we are in beautiful Chile at last. I've definately had mixed emotions since being here. There has been elation at being able to speak ¨the lingo¨ and yet frustration at not being able to understand it! It's all good and well being able to ask for a diet coke, but when I get asked the question back, do I want it cold or room temperature? I get a bit stumped. I hear the word 'cold' in the sentence and I'm trying to figure out what being cold has to do with me wanting a drink. I got there in the end, when the waiter bought out a cold coke bottle and a warm coke bottle!!

We have picked up so many more phrases than what we were taught in our lessons back in NZ though and we've only been here 1 week, who knows what we'll be able to say in 2 months, I'd like a cold diet coke, maybe!!
We spent our first couple of days in Santiago, the capital of Chile and stayed in a great area with many artsy cafes where we spent our nights chilling out and having a drink or two! They serve beers out here in litre bottles, so you can imagine how Colin's loving it!!
We took a night bus 2 or was it 3 nights ago (I've lost track!) which took us to our first beach town of La Serena. The sun was shining when we got here and for the first time in 4 months we've been able to walk around during the day without wearing a jacket and it felt goooood!! Unfortunately we had to leave the next morning to continue our journey North to Caldera. Here was the prettiest beach town called Bahia Ingles, we even spent a couple of hours on the beach and burnt our faces, hehe.
We also met the nicest bloke and his wife (Francisco and Alexandria) who were on their honeymoon. He took us under his wings, almost literally as he's a pilot, and helped us with getting into town and they asked us to join him and his wife for lunch. The people in Chile have been some of the friendliest we have met on this trip, it's amazing! We took another overnight bus last night and we are now in Iquique which is still on the coast, but not as nice.
We're hanging around for a couple of hours, waiting to catch our next bus up to Arica tonight and from here we will cross the border into Peru and fly up to Lima, phew I'm exhausted justing typing about all the travelling that we have\will be doing. We have travelled almost 25ookms in about 5 days, hardcore!!

We're both looking forward to travelling with a group of people again, we meet up with our tour group on the 15th July and begin our tour the day after. We're also really looking forward to taking our first helicopter flight, which shouldn't be too long now, yeah!

I seem to be having trouble uploading our photos on this computer, so I'll try again soon.

Adios xxx

Up and away!!

Ok, so we haven't flown yet! We're in a lace called Matamata where we did a tour to the film site of "The Shire" from Lord of the Rings. It was pretty cool, but then again Colin and I are movie geeks, oops I should really say movie buffs!!
We are now finishing off a few last things before we drive to Auckland and fly to Santiago, Chile today. I made a phone call earlier and booked a room for when we get there and had to speak in Spanish! It was sooo funny, but I managed it and I'm quite proud of myself. Am really looking forward to speaking and learning a bit more when we get there, we just need to get this 13.5 hour plane journey out of the way!

Anyway, just a quick blog, they charge the earth out here for using the internet. Will post some more photos of our week around the North Island soon. Just imagine my next blog will be from South America!

Bye for now xxxx