Hello 2015

2014 was fun and exciting, challenging and rewarding, swelteringly hot and freezing cold. I climbed mountains, saw things I can't even dream of seeing again, went back to school, got a job, petted alpacas, visited the jungle, made shapes in salt that looked like snow and settled into living the life of the 9-5 grind again. We met amazing people I hope to see again sometime in the future, and got to spend some time with family and old friends we hadn't seen for such a long time. We saw in the year with the lovely Rosario and Antonio in Buenos Aires, sat in a park and watching the sun come up, and ended it back where I was three years ago, in the Coppards' front room.

This was the year I felt I got a few things out of my system, resolved that there were lots of other things I wanted to do and really got my head down to try and achieve a few things.

Here are a few highlights of 2015:













What a wonderful year it was! Let's hope 2015 is just as memorable!

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Travel Tuesday: Peru, the Highs and the Lows.

Four months down, two more to go!

From the surf town of Huanchaco we took a night bus to Piura in the North. We arrived at the little town really early in the morning and had to wait outside the bus station until it opened. It was weird watching the sleepy town come to life, which took an incredible amount of time as it was a Sunday morning.

People started to sweep the pavements as the sky started to change from black to grey, then the street vendors would cycle their rickety carts down the road and start setting up, and eventually people came out of their houses to buy breakfast from the bakery down the road.

Eventually the cleaner unlocked the gates of the station and let us sit in the waiting room while he swept around our feet. Nick, and a girl from Belgium who we had met on the bus tried to catch up on some sleep, while I read through all the things we’d done in Peru, trying to ignore the stench of stale pee coming from the waiting room.

On reflection, Peru was a weird country for me, there were lots of amazing things to see and do here, more than the other countries we had been to. But, for some reason, it was probably my least favourite of the countries that we had explored, from Argentina, to Chile, and Bolivia. So here are a list of the highs, and also the things I think made it a little less favourable for me.

Machu Picchu was definitely one of the things I had looked forward to on the trip, and it lived up to every single bit of expectation I had of it, although I had secretly tried not to get too excited as I thought I’d seen so many pictures of it that it might not be so great in real life. The walk there was one of the easiest you can do and I still found that a challenge! But once we were at the top it was amazing!

On the down side of Machu Picchu was Cusco. This was something I really did get excited for, every traveler told us how beautiful a city it was. And they were right. The buildings were grand and old, the streets were cobbled and narrow, and at night it was really beautiful. BUT, there were so many tourists there ready for their trip of a lifetime to see Machu Picchu that prices were just too high, locals kept you at arms length and everything was fabricated to make money. I know that the locals need the business, but it felt more like a show rather than seeing the genuine side of the city.

Lima was fantastic, and it was definitely our hostel in Barranco that made it so memorable, the people were great and it was so close to the beach. Barranco was a really nice area to just wander around, whatever time of day. I liked the fact there were two clear sides to the city, the new modern side which was good for shopping and restaurants, and the old side which was great for sightseeing.

My absolute favourite place in Peru had to be Nasca. We only spent a night there, but it was great to really learn about the lines, about the scientist who dedicated her whole life to trying to understand more about the lines. I think the heat in Nasca helped too, after a very chilly month in Bolivia.

Last, but not least, I have to mention Colca Canyon. It was so beautiful there and I think gave me the biggest sense of achievement and I really felt I deserved a dip in the pool at the bottom of the canyon! A must do for anyone who goes to Peru!

Peru was a good place to keep up the Spanish, as in Bolivia, not too many people spoke English and would much rather talk in their native language. This was good for us, as in other countries like Chile and Argentina we really struggled to find people to talk to us in Spanish, everyone wanted to practise their English.

It is also the country we will always remember for being sick in! I came into it really sick, spent time in hospital in Puno, and time in bed in Lima and Huaraz. Huanchaco was where we tried to give ourselves the time to try and beat it.

So despite the illness, and the feeling that people did keep a wide berth from the tourists, we still made some amazing memories. This was the low point of the trip for me though, it was 4 months in, with 2 months left. It was almost a whole month of being ill and thoughts started to cross my mind of cutting the trip short and heading home to try and get better, rather than doing a tour of the inside of hostel rooms. However, we stuck together and helped each other through it.

And even though it did smell of wee, I was excited to be in the bus terminal, waiting for the next, and penultimate, chapter of our journey to start.


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Goodbye July!

July came and went, and lots happened in the middle. I can't help but notice it's the first time I've done a monthly round up since November 2013, the month that I left Korea, and the month I gave the blog a make over. So much has happened since then, and my time in Korea doesn't feel real anymore!

I think the biggest thing that happened this month was moving to Norwich and starting my new job. I tried to ease myself into the new city by visiting Katie and spending some time with Tash down there.

Next was the week holiday in Italy at Nick's parents' house. The views were amazing and the food was so good. A little bit too much wine was consumed though!

I shared a few more of our experiences travelling in Peru to Lima, Huanchaco and Huaraz. It didn't all go smoothly but each place was memorable in its own way.

I also shared my updated packing list for 6 months away, is there anything else you would have to add?

As I knew I was moving away this week, I tried to spend some time in Sheffield, I shared the weekend that Lou and I went for some drinks and then I went to an amazing book shop with my mum.

I also had a great time at this year's Tramlines festival, and shared some photos from the last time I went in 2011. Baby faces galore!

Catching up with old friends is always fun, and I had a weekend packed with rollergirls and uni friends.

Forget moving to Norwich, it's still a shock to find that I'm back in England sometimes. I started a silly, little mini feature about perfectly normal things I've learned to appreciate since I've been back. Being back in England also called for some new goals, see how I got on with my list here 3, 2, 1.

With all this rushing around this month, it was nice to spend some time with my mum at the Yorkshire Wildlife park where the cheeky limas made me fall in love with them.

And finally, sharing things I love, the new Sonny Angel range was brought out, they all look so tasty!!


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Travel Tuesday: Surf's Up In Huanchaco

We were in chilly Huaraz, it was 8:50 and we were killing time waiting for our bus at 10pm to go to Huanchaco and Trujillo on the North Coast of Peru when Nick flicked the TV on. On every station there were news reports about the earthquake that had hit Chile, which meant they were predicting a tsunami to hit the area we were going to. We looked at the map and the route the bus took was the PanAmerican Highway which ran along the coast, all night. Not good. We had to either risk going, or lose the money for the bus. We asked the lady at Joe's place and she seemed pretty sure that we would be fine. Risking the value of a ticket over our own lives we decided to take the bus.

I was so scared all night, I don't sleep well on buses, but this was even worse. I kept peering out of the window into the still darkness, expecting to see a huge mass of water heading towards the bus out of the blackness. But we arrived safe and sound at Trujillo bus station at 4am and jumped into a taxi. The taxi driver explained that nothing had happened, and that he had been on a fishing boat the night before and although it had been a little choppy, it was fine.

We decided to use the Lonely Planet for once and chose a hostel Naylamp which offered private rooms, dorms and camping too. We didn't really get to look around as it was still dark, but the sleepy guy on reception ushered us into a deluxe room and we were amazed. The room was built up on a hill and overlooked the sea. It was ensuite and had the towels folded into amazing origami shapes on the bed. I know, it's the small things, but when you're travelling luxuries are few and far between. I would strongly recommend this hostel, it was really clean, next to the beach, spacious and also did great food.

We woke up pretty late and ordered breakfast to our room, lemon pancakes and chamomile tea! After that we went on a hunt for a pharmacist to try and get rid of the bug that was hunting us once and for all. Finding a pharmacy proved a harder task than we thought, considering how small the town is, there are not many signs, so you have to peer into the shady shops to see what they have on offer. The lady gave us some medicine and a huge bottle of strawberry medicine and told us to drink it all in 24 hours. Quite a challenge! We spent our first day just enjoying our room, the camping area meant there was lots of green space with hammocks, and with the beach just a stone's throw away we wandered by the sea that no longer seemed as menacing as the night before. We had dinner at the Dutch owned vegetarian restaurant next to the hostel, filling up on falafel and apple pie and were in bed by 9:30.

Feeling much better after resting and our medicine we decided to do something touristy and go to Chan Chan. This is the biggest remaining ancient mud city in the world. As we walked down the path to the visitor centre, we could't believe how huge it was and how long we actually had to walk for! The yellow sandy walls contrasted with the blue sky and the sea beyond. Each King would build his own temple in the city and when he died it would be closed off with all of his treasures as his grave, and his predecessor would start to build his own grave temple. Pretty cool.






The next day we went for a surf lesson. Nick was definitely on his way to becoming a pro, I was more like a beached whale with my mobility on a board. The teacher would send me off into the wave and shout 'GET UP! GET UP GET UP!' but I was just enjoying the ride and found it really hard to get up and keep my balance. After a couple of attempts, the teacher helped me get in position and said softly 'If you don't get up this time, I will kill you!' Well that certainly gave me motivation but in my panic I fell off after a second or two. I swam reluctantly back to him and he said 'Just Relax!' I pointed out it was hard to relax when he had just threatened to kill me, he laughed and propelled me away on the next wave. Needless to say, it didn't happen for me!

We spent our last day in Peru in Trujillo, the city next to Huanchaco, and were a little sad that we hadn't spent longer there as it was really, really pretty. We grabbed some dinner at a fancy restaurant and started our huge mission to get to Ecuador. Vamos!


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Travel Tuesday: Conquering Mountains in Huaraz

Nick and Whitey not looking impressed when I tell them it's time to go home
 after our scenic slum walk.

We arrived in Huaraz from Lima incredibly early in the morning and I have to say when I first took in the drab cement buildings in the gray, early morning light, I wasn't too impressed. It turned out that the whole town had been flattened by an earthquake in 1970 and so everything has been built since then. There isn't really any old architecture to appreciate, it's all about the surroundings here.

We decided to head straight for Jo's Place, the hostel we were staying in. It's run by an English man and his Peruvian wife, Jo was actually away at the time but his wife was really friendly and welcoming and made us the Full English that we'd eagerly anticipated, despite it being the off season and her not opening the kitchen then. It was funny to see all the familiar sauces on the table after spending so long away from England.

Wanting to see a little more of the town we decided to go for a walk. Nick had taken a bit of a liking to the hostel's dog, Whitey, who moped around waiting for his owner, Jo, to come back, so we took him along. The walk confirmed to us that there wasn't much to see in Huaraz, so as soon as we got back to the hostel, we arranged transportation to the outskirts of the town to do a walk around a mountain laguna. We bought food and drink and started preparing outselves for the hike the next day.

Unfortunately, Nick got really sick in the night and was up  with stomach pains all night, meaning that by 5:30am he only just fell to sleep and both felt pretty awful. It was obvious that he wasn't going to be able to do the hike, so I sat on the road side, waiting for our driver to arrive at 6am and to tell him we had to cancel.

When Nick started to come around a bit later, we took Whitey for another walk. We followed the river out of town towards the snow topped mountains in the distance. We eventually started to walk through the poorer end of town. There we saw women washing their clothes in the river, where further up a man was peeing into it. We saw sheep and pigs grazing on rubbish dumps and ducks waddling around old, dilapidated, basketball courts. It definitely was an eye opener. On the way home we stopped off for a drink at a tiny neighbourhood shop. The lady made a huge fuss of us and when we got talking she started to tell us about how her home was destroyed in the earthquakes and she'd had nothing after that. It was all really sad as the people there seemed to have very little already.

So there was no mountain climbing in Huaraz and no lovely scenic views. But I do feel like we got to see a different side of the town and it was nice to actually get to talk to some of the locals. We were quite happy to leave Huaraz and Nick's illness behind, but I don't think Whitey was happy to see us go!

Not the best chapter of our adventure, but a learning curve non the less.

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Travel Tuesday, Torture and Tombs in Lima

Lima, the capital of Peru was surprisingly diverse and beautiful. There are two main areas of the city, there is the old centre where all of the colonial buildings and sights are, and then there’s Miraflores and Barranco which are the modern, wealthy, residential areas. Surprisingly, it’s right on the coast, so you can go from cathedral to beach in just 20 minutes.

We stayed in a hostel called Barranco's Backpackers Inn. This was one of my top 3 hostels of the trip. The shared dorm room for 6 people was spacious and lovely with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the sea. The mix of people made staying there really interesting, we met the funniest and most memorable people from the trip. Old and young all living and chatting together. Our favourite character of all has to be Pedro, an old Dutch man who had been travelling for years and looked like Saruman from Lord of the Rings. He was very relaxed and always had a good bit of advice, or an interesting story to share. If you ever visit Lima then you should definitely stay here.

Barranco turned out to be the right choice of area for us. There were beautiful old buildings, colourful flowers, a plaza that was always filled with people chatting and playing, lots of nice coffee shops and restaurants. Add to that that you’re just a 5 minute walk from the beach and it is the perfect place to have a city stay.





You can walk around the coast to Miraflores, another popular area which is a shoppers paradise and you can get your fill of familiar food here with nearly every fast food chain imaginable. Tucked away in Miraflores are the ancient ruins of Huaca Pucllana. These ruins are pretty impressive when you realise that they have stood the test of 2 invasions, from the Incas and the Spanish. I’m not quite sure what it was about these particular ruins which made them leave those when they pillaged everything else!




My favourite thing about Miraflores was the park packed with cheeky wild cats. They hid in the flower bushes and would jump out if they saw someone with a tasty looking sandwich or someone that looked particularly comfy. It appears that Nick looks welcoming too…


Unfortunately this is when my second illness episode started and my first night in Lima I had to go to bed really early and I didn’t stir until the next morning. Feeling a little better, we decided to counteract our binge on Western culture in Miraflores by going to the old centre.

We started by watching the change of guards which happens every day at 12. It’s pretty extravagant, and what’s more, it’s free! Nick was more entertained by this poor dog who had been dressed up by his owner.

Next, we visited the catacombs, and underground crypt with hundreds and thousands of bones. They think that upto 75,000 people were buried there. This was closed as a burial site in the 1800s after it was filled with victims of the plague. The bones had been arranged into fascinating shapes which added to the creepiness of being in a mass burial site. To do the tour of the catacombs you have to do a full tour of the church of San Francisco, but it is definitely worth it!

Needing a breath of fresh air after being in the staleness of the catacombs we grabbed some lunch and took a walk around china town. Feeling ready again we braced ourselves for the Spanish Inquisition museum. This was really interesting for me as I’ve always heard people say ‘what’s this, the Spanish Inquisition?’ but never really thought about the true meaning of it. We discovered that only 32 people were killed in Peru over 250 years. The Spanish left the indigenous people to it as they believed that they didn’t actually have souls. The unfortunate 32 were killed on suspicion of being Jewish. The museum entry is free, there is a guided tour and you can go underground to explore the old torture chambers.

We got back to our hostel that night after a heavy day, so decided to treat ourselves to a burrito from a really nice Mexican restaurant. Try and find it in Barranco if you go, although it has no signs outside and looks like a canteen inside. The food was very very tasty!

The next day I was back to feeling ill, and only had the energy to roll down to the beach and lay there most of the day. Not a bad life, eh?! Unfortunately the illness didn’t get any better after this, Nick fell ill that night and the rest of our time in Lima was spent taking it easy, napping and skyping.

I’m just glad that we had our two action packed days so I felt like I didn’t miss too much of the city.


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