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Around the World
  • Susie Bruce
  • Susie Bruce

Around the World

An open-ended adventure by Susie Read more
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  • Trip start
    March 31, 2017
  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce

    COLOMBIA - Bogota

    April 2, 2017 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    One day spent here exploring the city. Took the cable car up to the 'top of the city'. Also a bicycle tour around the city, stopping off at coffee shops, fruit markets and finally a game of 'tejo' - throw a heavy rock at some markers filled with gunpowder and wait for the explosion!Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce
    1

    Villa de Leyva

    April 4, 2017 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Spent one day in this lovely village, where the film Zorro was filmed. Our room was beautiful, with a balcony overlooking our garden with hammocks we could enjoy. All this for the equivalent of a tenner a night. During the day we hired bikes and cycled round the main tourist attractions - the clay house, the fossil museum, the ostrich farm and the 'blue pools'. The square was lovely and the locals were very friendly.Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce

    San Gil

    April 6, 2017 in Colombia ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

    Known as the adventure capital of Colombia, we stopped here for a day and went paragliding over Chicamocha Canyon. All great until the motion sickness started to kick in!

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce

    Cartagena

    April 10, 2017 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 30 °C

    We spent two days here exploring the city. The first day we took a boat trip out to one of the islands outside the city. The boat broke down about 3 times during the trip which the driver seemed to think was perfectly normal. In between these times we would tend to go very fast, either being bounced up and down on our seats or being soaked by the water. We stopped off to watch a dolphin show and had lunch. The next day we explored the city. The inner city is enclosed by a wall so we walked this and then enjoyed a cocktail on the wall.Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce

    Medellin

    April 13, 2017 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Doug taking a turn at this blog thing!
    Next stop Medellin, the place for coffee and cocaine...I was asked numerous times before coming to Colombia, why on earth are you going to Colombia of all places, I thought the answer was fairly self explanatory? (See above)
    Getting there involved another night bus, oh joy! Three hours after setting off Vin Diesel, or the Spanish guy pretending him to be him finally shut up!! But Susie snoring like a train didn't....So into an uneasy sleep.
    Next day we went on a Pablo Escobar tour, to be honest, I don't think Susie had any idea who this was, I though was extremely keen.

    The man who picked us up offered us a Coca Cola now and a gram of cocaine for later, we think he was joking, but on the other hand maybe not as it turns out he was one of Pablo Escobar's two drivers (the other one being on duty with Escobar when he died, so was also dead). This made Susie uneasy, a sense which was heightened a lot when the man shouted "NO PHOTO" in a Chinese mans face when he held his camera up to take a photo of the driver, apparently this was because he had never gone to prison and didn't want to go. I felt sorry for the Chinese man it just comes naturally to them! We also met Roberto Escobar, Pablo's brother, he was the "accountant" and spent 16 years in prison and got out early as he was a changed man, that and apparently $1 billion dollars changed hands. He also lived in a huge mansion so clearly still plenty of money kicking around.

    We then went to Parque Arví (a nature reserve and archeological site) but unfortunately we couldn't get in. Now maybe our Spanish still needs improvement but I think we were told it was at capacity. Or maybe it was because we looked dodgy as we got stopped my police 2 minutes later requesting out passports. So being told by numerous people that we should have our passports on us at all
    Times with the visa stamp we course were very organised....and did not have them on us. A argument broke out, the police in Spanish and us in English, needless to say we got nowhere. Eventually they accepted looking at a photo of our passports, which they then also took pictures of!!??? No idea why. We thought this was odd behaviour it did cross our minds that these weren't police at all!! So basically if this is the last post from us for 4 days or more, we have been abducted so please come help..............

    Lastly we went to Plaza Botero, a park with statues full of work from artist Fernando Botero, who specialised in naked statues of excessively fat people and animals! Naturally I felt right at home and joined in. Apparently statues are fine, real life not so much.    Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce

    Manizales

    April 16, 2017 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Next stop Manizales. On the first day we visited Nevado Del Ruiz, an active volcano. A bus took us up to 4500meters but we couldn't go any further as it would have been dangerous going right to the top. Unfortunately there was a lot of fog but when at the very end it settled and we were able to see some great views. On the way home we visited a hot spring - definitely a highlight for cold water-hating me.
    The next day the plan was to visit a coffee farm, then carry on south to stop off in Pereira for a night before continuing our journey. I was 10 minutes into the bus journey before I realised I'd left my passport back at the hostel. Luckily we were with a worker from the hostel at the time so agreed to carry on with the coffee farm tour and go back and get the passport after. The coffee farm was great, we spent 3 hours there exploring and learning all about coffee. We basically learned that even if you pay for 'top quality' beans, it's probably all a lie, so I will stick to my Nescafé instant for now. After the coffee farm it was a short 3 hour detour to go back to the original hostel, pick up my passport, drive past the coffee farm again and eventually arrive in Pereira. Bed time now....    Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce

    San Agustin

    April 19, 2017 in Colombia ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    We spent one day exploring San Agustin, famous for its stone statues. In the morning we walked around the town looking for them, then in the afternoon we visited the Archeological Park, a world heritage sight, where there was yet more statues. It rained heavily but still a nice day out.Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce

    ECUADOR - Quito

    April 24, 2017 in Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Long time no speak!! It has been mentioned and I can only apologise for Susie's complete disregard for the stalking possibilities provided, needless to say it is Doug again, Hii!!
    So we are now in Ecuador, first thing we are told here is that the people are not as friendly, for example don't get into the front seat of a taxi because the driver can point a gun at you and drive at the same time...good to know! The main reason for coming here is to visit the Galápagos Islands which will be the next instalment of this thrilling tale...to be continued!
    However, while in Quito we thought we should do something. There was a 'free' walking tour offered by our hostel, given the old centre of the city is a UNESCO world heritage site I persuaded Susie that we should go. After about the 8th church we looked at I think she felt completely justified in saying "told you so" because I have to admit..the tour was boring and the guide was shite, she couldn't keep the interest of a bitch on heat! Not only that but she asked us for 5 dollars after the tour (cheeky sod).
    We also went to the "centre of the world" which is the equator, this was more fun than we thought with numerous experiments to prove we were actually at the equator! Saying that most people probably would have found this extremely boring, but what can I say we are boring people! There was a lovely indigenous tribe that let us join in their naked dancing, see the picture below, after the picture was taken it became more raucous but I won't go into details!
    However back to the main event! The Galápagos, we spent the rest of the time (or tried to)..going around tour operators to find out what cruises were going out and if we could get a cheap deal....we got to one tour operator! The lady here, extremely helpful, suggested we changed our flight to leave the Galápagos on the afternoon so we could finish a cruise the day we fly out..sounds a great idea! She even offered to phone avianca and change the flights for us! Obviously too good to be true the lady found out that there was a problem with our flights we had to go the the Quito avianca office to sort them out!
    Turns out the guy I spoke to about a week before in the avianca call centre had changed our flight dates and then cancelled the new flight tickets not the old one but kept the new flight reservation not the old one, confused??? We were! But surely we are in the best place to sort out this problem that was not at all our fault?..No!
    Approximately 4-5 hours later after we had got angry and shouted, I had lost a lot more hair, we got more angry and shouted at a supervisor, Susie got grumpy because there was no food, We got angry and shouted at a manager, Susie felt better after she ordered a pizza, my dads genes came out and my red face was about to spontaneously start bleeding it was so red, you get the idea, anyway...we eventually got our flights...good thing too, the plane was was leaving in 14 hours.
    Anyway we are here at the Galápagos, going on a cruise tomorrow, you shall hear from us after!
    P.S. don't worry next time I will let susie take over so you don't have to listen to my boring waffle....she didn't want to do it today because she is sulking because "it's too hot and I'm hungry".    Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce

    Galapagos!!

    May 5, 2017 in Ecuador ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    As promised the next instalment, I know you have all been waiting anxiously for this and we will disappoint with poor humour and dull chat!
    Obviously came here to see fantastic wildlife, mostly marine species. So Susie waits until now to tell me, 'I don't like swimming in the sea and most of the animals in there scare me' perfect start to the holiday. So the first day we hired snorkels and it was dedicated to Susie facing her fears, you could say it was time for her to sink or swim, or she needed to jump in at the deep end......sorry. Anyway she was fantastic after some gentle encouragement.
    Next day we boarded a cruise I won't bore you with the details or island places and names we went to just look at the picture of the itinerary below. The cruise was not the most comfortable our rooms were tiny and there were Americans on the cruise...... to which everything was 'super' or 'amazing.' However, what was more frustrating than the small rooms and the Americans was that we had a 'wannabe professional photographer' on board. Now don't get me wrong I like good pictures but seriously she took sooooooooooo long taking photos and plonked herself in the best places stopping everyone else getting good shots. She also spent ages so that we had all left her behind and then to catch up she would walk all over places the guide had specifically told us not to walk, for reasons such as it was a nesting site. So as you can probably gather i did not really like this person and she tested my patience somewhat. However, the food was fantastic and we had a great guide who was very knowledgeable. He had actually had an accident a few years back and had been in a coma for a year so had to learn everything from scratch! We also saw exactly what we wanted to see phenomenal wildlife and scenery! We couldn't believe how 'tame' these animals were it was truly amazing but as they say pictures can speak a thousand words and my descriptions certainly won't do it justice so here is a sample of the pictures we took, all the rest will be on Facebook, and if you get a chance to come here don't hesitate!    Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce

    Nasca

    May 9, 2017 in Peru ⋅ 🌬 4 °C

    Next stop Nasca to see the famous Nasca Lines. These are continuous lines in the sand that makes various shapes. Know one knows how or why they were made - it was such a long time ago, before planes etc, which is why they are so amazing. They are such perfect shapes and the people making them would have had no way of looking at them to check they were getting it right! Also they are so big you can only see them from an aeroplane.
    Naturally me and Doug thought it would be a great idea to get on a plane and see them. I was about 5 minutes into the ride when I started being violently sick. I spent the next 25 minutes with my head in a plastic bag before landing. I was assured by Doug later that it was amazing to see all the shapes and he even showed me some pictures to prove it. Next time I think il let him go alone.    Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce

    Huacachina

    May 11, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    Huacachina is a tiny village surrounded by sand dunes. We stayed here for a day. In the afternoon we went on a wine tour to the Tacama winery, we then went on to a smaller winery which specialises in Pisco which is a Peruvian spirit made from grapes.
    Late afternoon we went dune buggying and did a spot of sand boarding which was very fun!    Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce

    Lima

    May 13, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    We spent an evening in Lima, mainly due to to the fact we had tickets to see Ed Sheeran. He was amazing as expected! We also went to see the fountain show which was incredible. Doug left the place soaked through as he wanted to 'play in the water like all the other boys and girls'.Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce
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    11

    Chivay

    May 17, 2017 in Peru ⋅ 🌫 28 °C

    Next stop Chivay. Here we went on a day trip to Colca Canyon (twice as big as the Grand Canyon). Great views and got to see many Condors in flight. On the way back we visited another hot spring for a spot of relaxation. Doug also made friends with an eagle and an alpaca.Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce

    Lake Titicaca

    May 20, 2017 in Bolivia ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    We spent two days exploring Lake Titicaca. The first day from Puno we took a boat out to the floating islands. These are man-made islands which float - as the name suggests. They each have communities living on them and they choose to join up with other islands or break apart every so often. We got to see their houses and speak to the people living there.
    On the second day we crossed the border into Bolivia to visit Copacabana. From here we visisted another island on Lake Titicaca - Isla del Sol. This was very pretty and we had a great day.    Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce

    Machu Picchu

    May 27, 2017 in Peru ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Our final activity in South America was a trip to the infamous Machu Picchu! Nowadays this can be done easily by taking a train from Cusco and then a bus up to the site. However, the 'traditional' way is is to hike to Machu Picchu, now I am a man of tradition...(not really) but I like a challenge. So after some persuasion I managed to convince Susie to go for the hiking option . We opted for the Salkanty trek consisting of 70 ish Km over four days and the final day touring Machu Picchu itself. We delayed our departure for a few days as unfortunately after trying some local cuisine I had emmm...some stomach issues that would not have been helpful on a very lavatory sparse trek!!
    It started with an alarm set for 4am (a reoccurring theme unfortunately) and we were picked up from our hostel by a guide, and a very loud and annoying group of French people. We guessed they were drunk and judging by their behaviour over the next 5 days we were probably correct. Luckily though our big group was split into to two smaller ones, we were in the one without the frogs. Turns out our group was a great bunch and our guide was was a blast!!
    Day 1 lured us into a false sense of security as even Susie said that it was easy! That night though in paper thin sleeping bags and temperatures below zero was not fun!
    Day 2 was the biggie 24Km, 10 hours of walking, going up to an altitude of 4650 meters with stunning views! Well actually no! We took no pictures at the top because just before we got there a snow storm hit, pretty much a white out and it was freezing, we stopped long enough to look at the sign but didnt want to take our hands out of our pockets to get a camera out, there was a group photo taken which hopefully we will be able to get our hands on....so all in all it was a waste of a day!! The next few days passed with out incident really, but we did get to see some amazing scenery! The highlight obviously being Machu Picchu, a staircase up to it with over 1200 steps (I lost count) the sun even graced us with its presence for the first time in 5 days but worth it in the end! A great way to finish the 4 day trek and celebrate Susie's birthday. Other highlights included seeing a toilet with a toilet seat AND paper! Having a shower for the first time in 4 days (even if it was cold) and having a drunken party on the night of day 3, which we regretted massively at the 5am wake up call!
    In all seriousness it was a great experience which I thoroughly enjoyed! For Susie, well
    in her words "I enjoy the satisfaction of completing the trek, I mean I wouldn't do it again, and am not going to take it up as a hobby, but I'm happy to be finished it. "
    Oh well!!! But given that it could have been quite a strained few days for us, it wasn't and she did fantastically well, even though it may not have been her first activity choice!
    Next stop NZ we shall see you on the other side!    Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce

    Vs NZ Barbarians

    June 6, 2017 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 29 °C

    Made it to New Zealand! I've decided to split the blog posts into the various lions matches which are happening every 3 days, for the next 6 weeks. So the first match is vs the barbarians in Whangerei. We flew into NZ and met up with Ben, Flooky and Amie who we are traveling with for the next 6 weeks. We then went and picked up our hire car Freida and were on our way! Over here in NZ there has been a Facebook group called 'adopt a lions fan' which is basically full of kiwis willing to provide rooms in their house for us lions to stay in. One of the first things we did was watch the first match - but the less said about that game the better! I also managed to get my phone and purse stolen that night so Doug is now paying for everything - ideal! We then travelled north and visited the bay of islands and stayed with a lovely couple. They lent us their paddle boards and kayaks and basically treated us like their children which was just what we needed! None of us wanted to leave after our 2 days there but alas the tour continues! We also visited a waterfall where flooky decided to go for a swim - not on purpose I might add!Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce

    Vs Crusaders

    June 13, 2017 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    I've missed out writing about the Blues game - we don't want to talk about that game as it was so awful. Also the fact we did a lot of driving round so not much to write about! The crusaders game took place in Christchurch in the South Island so we took our little car over on the ferry. In Christchurch we stayed with some lovely rugby fans. They told us we would go down to 'the shed' to watch the game. This was a converted wool shed which 20 of the local 'lads' had made into a man cave. As we pulled up we were a bit nervous as the shed looked like it was ready to fall down at any minute. However when we walked in we were amazed. The shed had a bar, two toilets, a projector and a wood burner. It even had a secret bedroom that you got to through a bookcase for when they had drank 1 too many. It was amazing - the guys that were there called themselves the Wednesday boys as they met up every Wednesday here for drinks. Anyway enough about the shed, but it was incredible. The family we stayed with was lovely and invited us back the following week on our way back up to the north island. The mood was also lifted with the result of the match - finally we have started to play well! The next day we we drove to Akaroa close to Christchurch to go swimming with the worlds rarest dolphin (the hector dolphin). Four out of five of us loved every minute but alas for me, travel sickness strikes again. I spent most of the journey being sick off the back of the boat!Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce

    Vs Highlanders

    June 16, 2017 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C

    We next travelled down to Dunedin (the student capital of New Zealand which grumpy ben was not looking forward to.) The match was vs The Highlanders. The stadium had a roof which was great! We stayed nice and dry it also made the atmosphere great, shame about the result - another loss where we played very poorly but we had a good time in the city. We visited a the New Zealand sports hall of fame, the famous railway station and another museum during the day. Myself and Amie liked looking at the pictures but we had to wait for ages for slow reader Quayle's. However, we learnt that Dunedin originally was full of Scottish migrants, hence the name of the rugby team so we were treated like a local! The next day we visited the steepest street in the world. The record for someone to run up and down it was 2 minutes! As usual the competitive streak between Doug and Flooky reared its head and they both tried to run up the hill, neither got very far and both stopped when they could taste blood!! A source of hilarity for the rest of us! However, turns out they got further than out car did. We thought driving would be easier, but we were wrong. Our car stuck halfway up, fairly embarrassing as someone on the street filmed us driving up, wheel spinning then rolling back down. A bit of bum twitching for Doug, who was driving, when his foot was fully pressed on the brake and we were still skidding down the hill, our poor rental car certainly took a battering that day as the dash board was lighting up like a Christmas tree, luckily it still seems to be working reasonably well currently. On our way back up to the north island we visited the moeraki boulders and stopped in to visit our friends at 'the shed' again.Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce

    Vs Maori All Blacks

    June 18, 2017 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    The next match we went to was vs the Maori all blacks, billed as the 4th test match, Our hosts were very confident that we would lose convincingly. The lions put in a solid performance and we won! Finally were receiving some respect from the all black supporters who before this game had been telling us we would defiantly lose...they will probably still be right for the actual tests though!
    While in Rotorua we took part in a world record attempt for the largest haka with over 7700 people!! Our hosts were very excitable people generally, this nearly sent them into overdrive and made us arrive 3 hours early!! Flooky, Amie and Ben conveniently thought of things they had to do around town, leaving Susie and I to be polite, turns out ben just went to a cafe and read the paper!!! We also went to the moon craters, because of the volcanic activity in this area these moon craters were constantly releasing steam which gave the impression we were 'on a different planet'.....apparently! However it was very interesting but the smell of sulphur was horrific. However, it could have been some of flooky's more potent farts.
    Next we went to the Luge, which is a sort of downhill go karting. This was unbelievable fun, the competition and the rain started making the racing fairly dangerous though. Both Flooky and I had fairly epic wipeouts managing to flip out karts over, which we assured Susie was an impossibility. Turns out driving headlong into a curb a foot high at full speed will do the trick, we were both quite lucky to come away with only minor injuries. Not bad enough to stop us planning to go back again at a later date!
    Lastly we went white water rafting on our way to the next destination. This was grade 5 rafting. Both Amie and Susie didn't really have a say in whether we did this or not. We conveniently forgot to mention that this had the largest waterfall that it is possible to raft over in New Zealand, sitting at 7.5m high! Unfortunately when we arrived we had to sign the 'death waiver' during which we were shown some pictures of people unsuccessfully rafting this particular waterfall. The fear seen on both Susie's and Amie's faces were a picture to behold, but if I'm honest my face probably looked similar!! Anyway we all survived! On the bright side Susie didn't get motion sickness, but she was sick from nerves anyway. Hopefully one day she will manage to go vomit free!    Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce

    1st Test Match

    July 3, 2017 in New Zealand ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C

    We had a pretty adrenaline packed week for the first test match. For Doug's birthday we had a day go karting, followed by an 'escape room' experience which was great fun! Unfortunately the All Blacks won the first test but the atmosphere in Auckland was amazing. The highlight of the week was skydiving in Taupo which we all did, and bungee jumping which only the boys were brave enough to do. The bungee jump was a 'water touch' jump which meant your hands were meant to touch the water at the bottom. They either misjudged the jump or the boys lied about their weight because they all went right into the water so that even their shoes were wet!Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce

    2nd Test Match

    July 6, 2017 in New Zealand ⋅ ⛅ 10 °C

    The second test match was amazing - mainly due to the fact we won. The boys went to the match while me and Amie watched in a pub. There was an 8m high jump into the wharf which the boys said they would jump off if we won (I dont think any of them believed we actually would!). So after the match they stuck to their word and jumped into the freezing water.
    Activities during this time included horse riding which was very entertaining for me and Amie - especially as the place we went to looked like something out of a horror movie. The boys were put onto the horses with no safety briefing or riding hat, just as we heard gun shots from around the corner. They feared for their lives but thankfully the ride went without a hitch.
    We also visited a natural hot spring which was lovely and relaxing.    Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce
    1

    3rd Test Match

    July 8, 2017 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌧 13 °C

    On our way to Auckland we decided to trek the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It took about 6 hours but was worth it for the amazing views. The weather was fantastic which made it even better. The next day we visited the mud baths in Rotorua to ease our tired muscles which again was a great experience.
    The final match ended in a draw - which in hind sight was a great result but at the time we were hoping for a win. All in all we had a great time on the tour and the boys are already planning the trip to South Africa in four years.    Read more

  • Susie BruceAround the WorldSusie Bruce

    The Campervan Diaries - The South

    July 21, 2017 in New Zealand ⋅ 🌬 7 °C

    After the lions tour finished we hired a campervan to spend 5 weeks exploring the South Island of New Zealand. Our camper has a toilet, shower and cooking facilities - all you need! We set off from Christchurch in a clockwise direction so headed down to the South of the island first. Here we visited the Royal Albatross centre and got to see some blue penguins coming home after a days hunting in the sea. We carried on to Dunedin and visited the Cadburys Chocolate Factory. After this we kept travelling and visited the scenic locations around the South coast, the highlight of which was visiting Milford Sound which was just amazing.Read more

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