2 months late...

hey kids,

hope this post finds you well. Im not sure what you know, but if you still think or have been told that im somewhere in the south american jungles chasing something around then you are wrong. I have actually been home for almost 2 months. I have been procrastinating this blog for ages, and have been doing a few things out of internet reach as well, but this arvo i find myself with a few minutes to let you out of the darkness. (unless you already knew i was back...)

(As this happened probably 3 months ago, i cant promise that all details are correct. Ill try my best but please be aware that some names, dates, locations and events may not be 100% correct.)

I eventually got on the right bus up to Piura, one of the northern most towns on the peruvian coast and switched onto another bus for guayaquil, Ecuador and the straight onto another bus for Montanita a surf town on the coast. When i did my rough time estimation from Peru, i thought no more than 15 hours, but once again i was wrong and i ended up crusing in not far off midnight almost 24 hours later, nice. Montanita is pretty well known to backpackers, but it was the off season so there was a comfortable amount of people around. Found a cool backpackers (theres 60 in the town of about 80 buildings) and was pretty much just living with a family there, i was the only person staying in their rooms. The water was warm, like 23 or 24degrees, but the waves were small as, like 23 or 24cm. So i decided to just hang out as it was cheap and eventually sell my board and get into the jungle for some exploring. I made up some "se vende" signs to try and hock off my board and stuck them round the place, but didnt have much luck; but i wasnt concerned as it was a nice place to hang out. Met some cool dudes and enjoyed hanging out with the family (who seemed to be watching "zohan" everytime i went past the tv room). There was a great soccer tournament on, including a reggae band playing during the entire game with an announcer screaming over the music like his life depended on it. The pitch was an Ecuadorian classic made up with a base of crusher dust and a top layer of gravel(with grass half a metre tall in the corners only (where no one actually runs). The soccer was great and the atmosphere even better, and when the games had stopped the band jumped on the back of a truck and played continuously till 3am while driving around the town. Nice. After 3 days i was keen to move on, needed to get rid of my board (i had just learned that i couldnt take a surfy home on BA flights) so a made a "se vende" (for sale) sign and hung it over my board bag and walked around the streets, 2 mins later a Argentinian dude bought it ( i actually made $15, yeew!) 2 hours later i was on a a bus back to guayaquil. (after buying 4 wooden spinning tops, and meeting a texan spearfisherman in need a wetsuit; what a conincidence i still had my 80's retro suit. He was happy as he wouldnt freeze in the depths of the ocean, and i was happy as id helped keep 80's fashion alive and started a free communal wetsuit group, with that one wetsuit hopefully passed around between backpackers for years to come...)

Another overnight bus trip bought me to Banos (meaning baths) up in the mountains, it was a beautiful setting with the town situated in the valley with towering mountains and even a volcano surrounding on all sides. I found 'hotel las vegas' and got a room for $3, which included a bed and a light. The cold shower and toliet were outside. Spent the day exploring the town, with heaps of cool little shops and markets etc. Ate awesome breakfast at a market stall for $1 and just cruised around. Met some cool Algerian boys (also staying at las vegas) and hung out with them for a while, they even gave me a cuban cigar, i dont smoke but a cool gesture. The next day, was supposed to go hiking with the fellas, but couldnt find them, so just set off by myself. Met Alison, a cool american chick halfway up the mountain and hiked around and got lost and searched for the volcano (turned out we were looking at the wrong mountain) met a few cool other people up there hiking around including 3 dudes from norway searching for an alleged man who lives in a tree house and monitors the volcano activity (saw them the next day at the bus terminal and they hadnt found the treehouse man). That night went down to the hot baths and chilled out. Theres a whole range of pools ranging in temperature from 6 degrees to 45 degrees. Met some cool backpackers and locals, you can spot the gringos a mile away. The next night Alison was due to bus out to vilcabamba in the south, i went to the hot springs. I came back to vegas and the dude said " your friend Alison is here". It turned out a bit hectic for her getting onto the bus, and a guy had helped her put her bag in the storage underneath, closed it and she jumped on. It turned out he must have come back and stole her bag, so she returned to banos to sort some stuff out. So that was pretty unfortunate situation for her, but im sure its turned into a good travel story by now... Later we hired a dodgey chinese one-speed quad bike and zoomed up the volcano road about 10 mins before dark, managed to get a glimpse of it not totally covered by cloud. We also found the treehouse man. What a find! Rode back in the dark, almost hit 2 kids playing on the road. (the light shone about 1.5m in front of the bike)

A few days later i jumped on a bus to riobamba, and hopped on a train called 'the devils nose' apparently one of the steepest rails in the world, where the train uses a series of switchbacks to descend. (goes forward, then reverses on a different track, then forward again) To be honest, i didnt find it overly exciting and a bit lame. Made it down to vilcabamba on my journey south back down to peru. Another town simliar to Banos, surrounded by mountains and really beautiful, had a great time hiking and meeting people. One day i set out for a hike at 8am, and ended up just chatting to people along the way (including sharing a papaya in the main square, helping push a bogged car out of mud, and chatting to a local cowboy) by 4pm i still hadnt made it to the start of the trail...i ended up giving it a miss.

Vilcabamba was my last real stop in South america and my long, fast trip home began. I had 2 overnight busses down to lima, one night rest there, then 2 overnight flights to london. I had planned to spend 10 hours in new york running around and looking at stuff, but ended up missing a connection, so enjoyed my 10 hours inside an airport terminal instead. I only just made my flight out of jfk, new york by 45 mins.

Spent 5 nights in England, and was able to spend them all in different locations. It was great catching up with mates from years back, most of whom i hadnt seen for years. It was ace! I was pretty stuffed tearing round the country, but its always worth it when you get to hang out with some cool cats. Shipped out of Heathrow to Narita, Japan Via Helsinki. Only spent 1 night there, stayed in a rad hostel and spent my 2 days, riding bikes around, trying to speak to locals with charade actions, and eating noodles and tofu (as it was all i could afford) Met some rad people there and really enjoyed the hospitality there, the people are so nice (but then again, maybe they were impressed by my fluent 2 words of Japanese, konichiwa & origato (fluent in speech only)).

And it was then on the plane to Brisbane, only 5 people knew i was coming home. Was met by Bro ben and Jasmine (girlfriend) and shot up the coast where there was a surprise party organised for my mums 50th birthday. I managed to sneak up and surprise her, she screamed right in my ear for about 5 minutes. (About half way through i was wondering if i had made the right decision to go for the surprise option)

So its been nice, being home for the summer with the family and enjoy some nice sun and surf (as opposed to the english winter) Since ive been back, ive gone for a road trip down to sydney, and have just come back from a 3 week road trip across to Perth (the other the side of the country) we clocked up almost 7000km and it was rad seeing a bit more of my own country, as i seem to do most of my sightseeing overseas.

So theres a bit of a rough overview of my last few months, it all seems very rushed and a bit random. Heaps more happened then what ive been able to bash out on the keyboard, tons more stories, heaps more cool people, more locations. For now, ill be hanging in Aus for at least 8 months as im going to attempt uni this year, but still plan to get out in the long summer break (savings allowing). I know what your thinking, and yes you're right. If im going to uni i'd better learn how to spell, punctuate, and write proper paragragh, not least a sentence. Your spot on.
(I have an aunty whos an english teacher, she said it made her physically sick to read my blog).

Thanks for reading, until next time. take it easy :) andy

ps. ill chuck some pictures from my $0.70 camera up soon.