Quick update

So I have now been back in the UK for just over 2weeks and I am starting work tomorrow! And on Saturday I am moving into my own place (well room). So everything is going forward as it should.

I am already busy planning away at my next trip as well as what I will be getting up to here in the UK. For example I am planning on going hiking in a couple of weeks time at Brecon Beacons in Wales with a bunch of Couchsurfers, well that's if everything goes to plan. I also have loads of other stuff I'm looking into that I will of course share here.

On another note, I have decided to go through all my pictures that I have left (since a lot of them were destroyed) and post the best ones on here. I will soon start a diary post were I go through what happened on my trip. Since I did kind of keep a diary so should have quite a good idea of what happened when (thou I don't promise anything).

Back in England!

Came back to England this morning.

Yesterday I was walking around Sao Paulo feeling a bit chilly since it was "only" +21 degrees. Today I've been walking around in +5 degrees feeling like Im going to freeze to death.

Yesterday I had no worries.
Today I've been on the phone to my credit card people since my bank screwed up the direct debit I set up. Can I prove it? No I wish! I set the payments up with one of my banks staff (Barclays), me on one side of the table whilst she was tapping away at the computer. I've written down on a piece of paper how much I wanted the payments set up as (sorted all my bills out at the same time, normally I like to transfer the money myself every month for all my bills but since I was going to be away for 3 1/2 months that wouldn't have worked), but now find out the CC was set up as £20 lower. Meaning I havent been paying off enough money each month, meaning I lost my 0% promo that was running til dec 2010 and actually now owe more money then when I left!

So yeah not all that happy to be back.

Oh and one more disaster, a big one! I was having issues with one of my cameras memory cards (long storry ending in the fact that the pics appeared to have been erased from the card) and I was going thru the rest today when I realise another one wasn't working either. I took it into a camera shop who kindly tried their best to save my pictures (Station road cameras in Reading who are now my personal heroes) after PC world told me they couldn't (but they did tell me to try the camera shop which was very good of them) and they saved most of my picture thou sadly far from all were rescued. Also it appears my movie footage's arent vieuable. This making me very sad since it means I lost the only footage of me Paragliding (I filmed myself and the vieu), which was quite an event seeing I don't do well with hights. But I will double check with the camera shop tomorrow that the films definitly are lost or if I just dont have the right program to vieu them.

So Im happy a lot of the pictures are saved, but as I'm sure you can guess not very happy that they needed saving in the first place. It appears a faulty card reader was to blame, which is especially ironic since I got the card reader so I could copy the images onto a USB as a backup incase something happened to the cards. Meaning me trying to be smart and save the images is what destroyed them!

I end with a picture from Brazil showing what I miss...
And promise I will update blog with the rescured pictures very soon.

And then...

Yes I know Im bad at updating. If you want to read someone that updates regularly check out my sister's blog.
As for me I am after all travelling and computers arent always plentyful here in Bolivia.

Since the Inca Trail I have done loads of things!

I have visited Lake Titicaca
Were we did 2 nights of homestays.


Joined my new group and gone to the Salt Flats were we spent Xmas.


The hostel on the first night was brilliant and all made of Salt.
But the place we were at on xmas (the 24th) wasn't as fancy but we made it as xmassy as possible.


Visited some silver mines (were I was forced to climb down a rope which I did with as little grace as possible and a lot of healthy fear)


And now enjoying a lovely town called Sucre.

For New Years we are supposed to be in Santa Cruz in Bolivia and supposedly spending New Years in a waterpark (if open)

Inca Trail!

Yay! I survived the Inca Trail! Now Im off to eat Guniea pig. Will do proper update later and see if I can get some images uploaded somehow.

Update....Inca Trail.

In Arequipa now. The Inca trail is getting nearer and nearer. On saturday I start the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. And I have been warned that it´s murder!

At the highest point I will be 4,215 metres (13,830 ft) above sea level.

Apparently day 2 is the worst because all you do all day if walk up steps, thousends of them :-(.

Only rainclud on my sky is the fact that I have been sick for over a week and still are. My stomach is shot and I keep feeling nauseas. But spoke to doctor over the phone and on medication now so should hopefully be OK. Will go see the doctor in Cuzco before the trail if still sick but hopfully there will be no need.

Also no shower for 4 days sounds a bit staggeing ;-)

But yeah I am looking forward to it and will enjoy seeing Machu Picchu at the end!

Ecuador!

Today is my birthday! And I´ve just spoken to my boyfriend, my best friend and my parents. Before that I was feeling a bit down not having any of them here but now I´m happy!

I also checked my Facebook and all the lovely people whose wished me a happy birthday. So now all is fine.
Tonight I am going out for dinner with my gap group to celebrate my birthday, which wont be as fun as if my friends were here but should hopefully still be a great time.
I can wait to post pics of the stuff I have done so far thou anything water based I dont have pics since my camera isnt waterproof.
I´ve been Paragliding and Rafting and Tubing, I also had the chance to do a bungyjump but I chickened out! :-)

Picutures will follow in due time. I still have pics of Vegas I can post. But wanted to just do a quick post today.

Tomorrow it´s onwards to Peru!

Grand Canyon

Right now I am in Ecuador in an Internet Cafe. Tonight I will meet the rest of the group Im going with and they it´s of to the Amazon.

I succeded in uploading some pics from The grand Canyon, Vegas and New York. So thought I´d do a quick post with some pics form the Grand Canyon atleast, to start with.

Sunrise over the Grand Canyon

Me and my fellow band of very cold explorers!

Like I said, it was cold...

Steph and Markus looking over the edge

Markus up a tree

Steph admirering the vieu

Me

And on the way back we stopped at the hoover dame.

Hopefully I will get more pics but I wont worry about that until I get home.
The Grand Canyon was beautiful and if you have to decide between seeing the the Grand Canyon or the Niagara Falls I would vote for the Canyon.

Tickets are now booked!

I am leaving the UK on the 13 October and will not be back until the 25 January!

Unless I get killed or something in which case I might be back sooner...or not at all.

But yay! I'm going :-)

Trek part 2

Yay! I just had some great news. Someone didn't pay for their reserved space on the south America trek so I have it instead!
Meaning my plans are back on track and if everything goes OK I will be leaving the country early October :-)

Trek

My trek might be delayed to next year!

Something went wrong when the travel place reserved my seat on the South America trek so I probably wont get a seat.
I find out Monday or Tuesday :-(

Which means that I could still go but not do South America which seems like a waste. Or spend money on another trek that I might not like as much.

So if I can't get this space I will wait and go next year instead, that does shake up my plans quite a lot but at least I should have more money when going so might do more.

I guess there is an upside to everything :-)

But like I said I will find out in a couple of days.

I'm going on a Holi Holi Holiday!

Back from holiday and at work! Now I am planning for my next step! And my secret planning can be revealed

I have decided to take a trip to America. I'm hoping to travel thru North America and to stop in New Orleans for a while, best thing would be if I could do some volunteer work there for a month. I might be female but no one could accuse me of being weak and feeble & I would love to help restoring New Orleans even if only for a month. Then to fly over to South America from New York and join a tour trekking with a group, starting in Ecuador and finishing in Brazil (Rio).

One of the problems is (the biggest problem) money. It will be quite expensive to do all of the above and thou I do have some money saved it wont be enough so now I need to work out how to make enough, and how much enough is.

Might take evening job to make more (if possible).

Also looks like I might be out of a job end of august, I'm only s temp but they are laying people of then so I will probably go to. Can't make enough by then, also my rented room don't run out until end of September, don't know if I should keep it whiles gone (and pay rent for a place I'm not using) or give it up and have no place to stay when I get back. Also need to make sure I at least have £1000 for when I get back in case I have problems to get a job and prob even more if no place to live.
My dad thinks I should split the trip in 2 and do 1 part go home then go back to do 2nd part. I see his point because I could then pay for it in 2 and have more time to make enough but think it would work out more expensive and I'm planning on looking for a good job I enjoy doing when I get back so can't really swan of for months on end again once I find it.

Decisions decisions!
But no matter how horrible the run up will be I think the trip will be worth it! :-)