Showing posts with label Beaches. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beaches. Show all posts

Sunday, September 26, 2010

A Week With Levi



En route to entering Peru, me and my fellow travelling gringos stopped to change busses in Ecuador and went for a bite to eat. For a change, I had Rice and Chicken. It smelt of cheesy feet and battery acid, but the hunger won and I ate most of it. That was the last time I remember my bowels being normal.

First stop in Peru was the Surf town of Mancora, tucked up in the North. This is where my old pal Joe Levi came to join us. He´s half English, half Peruvian and lives in Lima. Taking some time off from work he joined us for a few days in the sun and water. Following Mancora, we hopped on what turned out to be a 20 hour bus ride into the Mountains. To Huaraz. An amzing spot over 3000 metres high. At this height we needed to aclimatise, as I believe above 2500 metres there are 40% less Oxygen particles in the air, so we had to take it steady. This was highlighted by Will fainted at Lunch. The next day we did a glacier hike at 4500 metres, which was tough work, but very impressive. The mountains here are epic. The next was mountain biking, another breathtaking day in terms of altitude and scenery. Well worth the effort.

Next stop was Lima, now the group was down to myslef & Joe and James & Will, my aussie travel buddies. On arrival, Joes Mum was in town and she very kindly cooked us an excellent Roast Lamb lunch, the first we´d all had in months. Throughout this time my guts had been getting progressivly worse, and after the night of boozing that followed the Roast Lunch, I think I pushed my insides too far.

The next 4 days were a bit of a blur and were spent either at Joe´s house or in Hospital. Thankfully him and his Mum were kind enough to take me in and get me back to health. All in all an interesting week in Peru, with lots of memories, both good and bad.

Now i`m on the move again, heading South, to hike Machu Pichu.


Monday, August 9, 2010

Bed 50

So, whilst sat in a hammock on a secluded paradise beach, I went through my trip so far and counted how many beds I had slept in this year since leaving the UK.

It turns out that the circular hut full of Hammocks on this tiny tropical peninsula pictured above was Bed number 50. Not a bad spot to reach this landmark. 50 doesn`t seem too many, but when you consider i`ve only been on the road for around 150 days, then I guess i`ve been moving around quite regularly.

Bed 50 was in a stunning location on the northern Carribean coast of Colombia in the Tayrona National Park. This hidden away spot is only accesible by boat or a 2 hour hike through the jungle. I opted for the hike, because taking the boat is lazy (Will).

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Naples, Florida.



I had the pleasure of a week with my friends Jay & Jackie in Naples, Florida last week. A sleepy town on the Mexican Gulf populated with stacks of Golf courses, gated communities and beautiful beaches. Thanks to some good timing, Jay was available to hang out and show me around for the week, which involved a lot of moving slowly, gym sessions, tennis, bocce ball, golf, a spin class courtesy of Jackie, lunch, dinner, beers, Marqueritas, Naples Beach Club, driving golf buggies around Hideaway Beach Club and avoiding rich kids on Spring Break.

Those of you that know Jay will also know that the week involved many debates about global political, economic, business and cultural affairs - and Jay wearing small, tight shorts. It was also a crash course for me in American politics and media, which was both interesting and pretty shocking.

All in all a great week that was the perfect solution to shrugging off the doom & gloom of winter in London.

Soundtrack: Efterklang - Magic Chairs

Friday, March 12, 2010

Miami. South Beach.


Dropped into the warm Florida air (even though the locals say it's cold) and experienced a culture shock far beyond what I was expecting. Thinking back, i've only been to LA 12 yrs ago and New York 6 Years ago, so I guess i'm not very Americanized. Checked into a cool little Hostel on South Beach with a view of getting straight into the backpacker scene. Great decision, met tons of people and eased myself into life on the road nicely.

Soundtrack: Greg Wilson, Essential Mix.