and the epic journey continues.... whens it gunna end!!!!!!

No really it just keeps happening to us, OMGoddess where do I start!?

Well I guess it really started (again) when we left Steveo and Nat on Playa Blanca. We caught the fast boat, but just getting onto it was fun, it wasn't the jewel sellers that were like vultures it was the tourists!!! So Jodes and I stood back and let them go for it.... Getting on the boat was fun as the swell was right up so basically.... SATURATED!!! then the only seats left were right up the front so constant sea spray! Ha! La vida es buena...... life is great, I dunno if i spelt it correctly Im too tired to care at this point.

We stayed again at the Media Luna and of course as soon as we walk in we bump into Hamie, who we have seen in Cuzco and Lima!! Yay so we got on it, free jello vodka shots and new friends - Fergus, Jasmine, Corey, Joe and several others! who could say NO.... no, not us! The next morning was the first morning we actually woke up with a hangover! NICE!
So we did some Internet, wandered around then decided to go get on the bus! We just made the 3pm bus from Cartegena to Barrenquilla, lucky I'm a little bit pushy when I need to be. But then their was a lady on the bus who decided that her crutch had to have a seat all to its own...... that's where Jodes was supposed to sit..... She was being mean and I wasn't sure what Jodes was about to do but I was was about to throw her crutch into the aisle and sit there, the bus driver was trying to sort it out and eventually they kicked her off the bus!!!! YAY she was a meanie. So off we head on our 2 hr bus ride to Barrenquilla........
Hhhmmmmm we forgot about Colombian time, and the fact that some random little village was having its own carnivalle! so no go through the town for 1.5 hrs.
Ok Before this point I am trying to string together sentences to work out how far away from Barrenquilla we are, are we best to walk and get a taxi?... outcome B is still one hour away, no taxis, ahhh you may miss your plane..... oh dear plane leaves at 7.30... its now 5.45pm......
Jodes finds a random bloke who speaks english (Canadian) and spanish and starts to get him to bargain with a local to take us in his car!!!! Then its VAMOOSE lets go back on the bus we out of here! We are still stressing but are figuring what will be will be..... as the sun sets I know its def after 6pm......
la vida es beuna, let it go, what will be will be,
la vida es beuna, let it go, what will be will be
la vida es beuna, let it go, what will be will be
la vida es beuna, let it go, what will be will be
la vida es beuna, let it go, what will be will be
la vida es beuna, let it go, what will be will be
la vida es beuna, let it go, what will be will be
la vida es beuna, let it go, what will be will be
la vida es beuna, let it go, what will be will be
la vida es beuna, let it go, what will be will be
la vida es beuna, let it go, what will be will be
la vida es beuna, let it go, what will be will be

Outskirts of B and we get out I tell the taxi driver in my broken spanish-
PLEASE HURRY WE ARE REALLY EFFN LATE...
I figure we ain't gonna make but there is a voice there in the back of my head telling me..... by the skin of yer teeth..... la vida es buena
RAN, bolted, into airport, made it by 25 minutes till take off!!! Cant believe they let us on that would never hacve happened in OZ. VIVA COLOMBIA!!!!
YES WE SO ROCK JODES!!!! and the taxi driver did good too.

Oh yeah they fly their planes like they drive their cars.... hard and fast!!!!

Ok so peaking time is over we made it. phew....
Get to Bogata all good crazy cowboy pilots, Jodes and I not seated beside each other on next flight though. I fall asleep on Bogota to Santiago flight, at one point I feel plane banking around... I wonder some... and go back to the land of sweet alpine dreams. The I realize a time later we are landing! I was like that's awesome I slept for ages!!!! Then the chick beside me informs me in her broken english no we are back in Bogota!!! Pilots window broken...... 3.5 hrs in the air for nothing!!!! So they- Avianca Airlines- put us all up in a hotel for 2.5hrs, from 3.30am till 5am. Slept not really, then eventually caught flight at 8 am this morning, with the pilot telling us most likely we go to Iquitos then Lima airports on the way.... Groan..
But its ok that didn't happen flight was good, this pilot wasn't as much of a cowboy as others.
So we get into Santiago and just wanna get our bags check them in for flight with Lan Chile, tonight..... oh no that's right check paper work... flight is tomorrow night the 14th not the 13th!!!!..... eeeeeeggits that we are.

SO within that, we have come into the city of Santiago to get us a nice hotel. Done. We have sat at a corner cafe watching the world (and ahem... very cute boys) go by..... that was nice. Yes been missing the Melb cafe culture but we have found it here in Chile!

Tomorrow the 14th the night we fly back to melb.... we are going to the Andes, along the Cajon del Maipo canyon, trekking to see the San Jose Volcano, a dip in the hot springs Valle de Colina, a view of a glacier and all back in time to get to airport TOMORROW night to catch plane to home..... just incase i forgot.... again...
Looking forward to seeing everyone as soon as humanly possible after the crazy flights.

Cartagena Coppers

Hey there all, now it seems we have managed to leave the wave of natural desrutction behind us! HURRAH! I hear you cry, and the Peruvians are probably happy too!

We are now in Cartagena the old city is amazingly beautiful, I wandered around yesterday afternoon and got lost in the maze of beautiful streets, obviously, I found my way back again! Back in the day they had built a large wall to keep the enemy out, most of it still stands today and the architecture is absolutley stunning.

Diving..... well we arrived here thinking it was going to be great, but the vis is not, and its quiet rough and expensive so its off the books. Personally I dont want to dive if Im not going to see anything! I think I have been spoilt by Egypt.

Well its been kinda uneventfull of sorts here as, we had a party the first night we got here, and then in the morning my phone and camera got stolen....... GREAT!
Well its only a phone, and the only really shit part about that is I have been going to check the time (DOH!) and text certain people :(
Attachments gone! I dont feel so bad about that! which is a very freeeing feeling. The camera, well it was starting to die anyhow, so maybe I can get a better one with the insurance $$$.
Anyhoo more of a hassle than anything else as I have had to mess around for the last 2 days getting to cop stations getting reports made. I have a police report in spanish now!!! I feel so special! Freinds of the police again!!! Contacting telstra (ghee that was fun and easy.....NOT)insurance blah blah blah. Glad its done now i can move on.
Everyone at hostel believes staff to be very dodgey, but all other places are full. The staff at hostel have been completely unhelpful, they blamed to girls who left that morning.... hmmm.... personally I blame the staff!!!!
As someone else had their iphone nicked the week before and 3 weeks prior to that the whole hostel was held up by a gang.
At least they only got my stuff and not us huh!
So Colombians ... nah dont trust em!
Oh yeah in all my years of travelling this is the first time I have been robbed, so I think Ive done pretty well. I just gotta see if I can find a multi country charger for Steveo, dunno how thats gunna go, maybe I could ask the staff at the hostel!!!! Bahhhhaahahahahahaaaaaa!

So we are heading to a beach today to do nothing for 3 days before we get back on the tin birds to come home!!!
We leave Barranquilla on the 12th (right as Carnivalle starts!! boo hiss!), Bogata, Santiago, on the 14th fly Santiago, Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne arrival on the 16th.... phew thank gooddness I was able to get some Zolpiedems.... zzzzzzzzz
well thats it for the mo, as we are going to an island I dont think i will be online there and maybe not during transit... see what happens
Love you all xxxooo

Taganga, To get ya.....

Hey guys! Well we made it!!!!!! in 2 flights a crazy bus ride then a crazy taxi ride to meet Steveo here in Taganga, Colombia.

This place is sort of quiet..... well for a start the roosters ~ and there are LOTS of them start crowing at around 1.45am they generally finish at around 4pm....... Then the night life, well that usually kicks off around 10pm and we seem to get kicked out of one place and just move on to another, oh the mirador!!!! Yes I think I managed to freak the locals out with my barefoot rave dancing on slippery tiles then falling over (3times) only to jump strait back up again as if noting had happened, maybe i freaked Jodes out too!!! But I didnt hurt myself!!! But I did have a blister on the bottom of my toe! But that's a given for me anytime I go out dancing! It goes with the territory.

We were staying at the Hotel Oso Pereze Oso on the 4th floor open air bedroom in hammocks. It was novel for the first couple of nights but after a while constantly sleeping like a banana and trying not to swing into the person beside you ~ there was 5 of us up there! is not so much fun anymore! AND THE WIND.... wow its INSANE here especially when you are on the 4th level with no real walls around to protect but at least it shut the noise of the roosters out!!!
By day 4 we were pretty much over it and decided to move to the Hotel Pelican, 4 walls and a bed, its amazing such a small thing can be so good.at $13 a night i no complain...
The food is great, EVERYTHING is cheap! Bought a bottle of Absolut vodka 750mls for $17!!!!!! Going for a dive on Monday ~ Steveo and I decided that is was best to be not hungover, so we should wait until after the weekend to attempt a dive!

See sometimes we do think....
There has been no threat of us gettin kidnapped, so all is well.
We may go to Baraquille for the carnivale on the 11th, but not really sure yet because of accomodation etc. We will see what eventuates.
Till then, oh yeah have decided WAY easier to get photos and video up when I get home from my puder..... so ya just gunna haveta wait so ner!

Cruising to Colombia

ok everyone dont freak out..... but yes thats where we are headed, but no not by car, it was better to fly there and back to Santiago, Chile than get a one way flight Lima to Chile!!! AND we get to hang out with Steveo and I get to dive and Jodes gets to chill! TTFN acey and Jodes

Ive been writing poems of sorts.....

Feeling insignificant
as the mountains arise

Feeling helpless
as the mud slides

Peaceful feelings
as my eyes search the skies

Clarity fills
as my mind is satisfied

Passionate feelings
as the condors fly

Feeling amazed
as the Inca time goes by

Feeling loved
as the messages arrive

Chaos in Cusco

Hey there peeps,

By now most of you are aware of the natural disaster in this area. According to the local paper I just picked up 19 people have died, 9 of which are at the Macchu Picchu site. Many families have been displaced from their homes. Across the road from our hotel are now temporary houses- tents were set up for the families who´s homes were covered under mud. We moved out of our hotel that next day as it was under direct threat of more sliding mud and buildings from above! We decided that as we really couldnt help in any way that we would do something nice for the kids near our hotel. Teagan, Jodes and I went and found a newsagent (for lack of a better word!) bought coloring books, pencils and sharpners then found a bakery and bought yummy pastries. Jumped into a taxi and gave them out to the kids in the tents, those kids were loving us!

They have had such bad weather it has been really hard for them to get helicopters in there to get people out. They only had 1 heli for 2500 people taking 25 people at a time. I did notice today that there was 3 choppers in the sky and the weather today has been greatly improved.

So within this we are obviously NOT going to get to Macchu Picchu, Boo Hiss. But what you gonna do? Everything happens for a reason and that is the perfect excuse for me to have my plan of coming back and buying a punch buggy to cruise around in, see stuff, go trekking, climbing, diving the list goes on....
Celebrated Aussie day for the last 2 days, we started in Aussie time then when it really was the 26th here......... UUUUUUGGGGGGGG alcohol free day today....

Yes things are bad here, but we are ok! Flying out of Cusco tomorrow back to Lima, where there has been a minor Tsunami! Oh and the day after we left Peurto Inca there was an earthquake 5.3 on the scale! and everyone was worried about us getting kidnapped! HA!!!! WHATS NEXT!!!!!! Def considering getting punch buggy and driving to Colombia to see Steveo and go diving........ surely the wave of destruction wont follow us there!

Mudslide maddness, and no im not talking about the cocktail

Just letting everyone know that we are ok, I made a bit of a joke out of the mudslide last night, but come the light of day I have been able to see the real damage.
There are probably 60 people whos homes are partially covered in mud, I dont beleive anyone has died. Our hotel sits at the base of a large cliff which is continuing to slide away as the morning wakes up. Atop this large cliff are many other homes on the very edge......
So I believe we are moving to another hotel. This is serious shit for the locals.
peace out.