• Susie Bruce
Obecnie podróżuję
mar 2017 – wrz 2025

Around the World

Otwarta przygoda według Susie Czytaj więcej
  • Ko Phangan and Ko Tao

    25 stycznia 2018, Tajlandia ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    Our next stop was two islands that lie to the east of Thailand. The first was Ko Phangan which is famous for its full moon parties. Luckily me and doug managed to time it just right so that we missed the full moon party - we both agreed we are just too old for that kind of nonsense. Instead we explored the various beaches around the island. We had the 'smart' idea to hire a scooter to drive ourselves around. I have to admit I hated every minute of it - there isn't any set rules on driving on the roads, it's basically just push and shove to get out of junctions, so it wasnt the most enjoyable day. The next day we got a traditional Thai massage which was one of the most painful activities we have done on our travels - Doug even had to ask the lady to stop at one point.
    Next we travelled to Ko Tao where Doug did a days diving experience (I chose just to stick with snorkelling for now). He really enjoyed it and is considering doing his Padi now.
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  • THAILAND - Krabi

    23 stycznia 2018, Tajlandia ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    Next stop was Thailand and we started in Krabi which is a very popular place for tourists due to its stunning beaches. We made the most of this and basically just lazed around on the sand for most of our time here.
    We visited Railay beach first which was lovely but absolutely rammed with tourists. It's very popular for rock climbing but looked a bit too extreme for us to give it a go.
    The next day we went on a day trip to Hong Island where we did some snorkelling and kayaked around the island.
    We also visited the Tiger Cave Temple which was high up on the mountain so we had to walk up over 1200 steps to the top, we did get a good view of the city when we eventually got there.
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  • Bukit Lawang

    20 stycznia 2018, Indonezja ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    After a day of travelling with two flights and some pretty interesting public transport we arrived in a place called Bukit Lawang. Right on the edge of the rainforest either side of a large river with battered wooden bridges to cross. No obvious roads it was just scooters or walk.
    The day after arriving we set out on our 2 day trek to see Orangutans in the wild. It was a bit of a detour to do this but with this is only 1 of 2 countries in the world where it can be done. The trek was difficult very humid a lot of sweat, no real path so it was very slippy! Parts were more like rock climbing and abseiling!! We got our reward by seeing Mina the worlds most dangerous orangutang. Well known for attacking humans, all of our guides had scars from bites and scratches from her. We managed to get close enough to get good pictures but our guides had to distract her with themselves and in the end told us to run!! We also managed to see some other wild life as well!!
    At night we camped by river under a shelter. In the morning we were visited by another favourite orangutang of our guides. This one christened Jackie!! She was trying to raid our shelter for food. She was harmless according to the guides but they wouldn't give her food to encourage her to return! One time after our guides moved her away from the shelter she decided that she wanted another trophy! ...... Susie!! Luckily being harmless she basically went over held her hand and hugged Suse! She had to go for a swim to clean her knickers after!!
    After this excitement we rafted back down the river into town.
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  • INDONESIA - Bali

    16 stycznia 2018, Indonezja ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Our travels in south east Asia started in the island of Bali. The first day we spent on the beach relaxing - here I managed to get burnt through clouds, a parasol and factor 50 so that was brilliant.
    The next day we had a tour around the island - this involved watching a traditional Indonesian dance, visiting temples, rice terraces and a coffee farm. The coffee was special as it was made by feeding it to an animal called a luwak, waiting for it to poo then using the beans from the poo - lovely!
    After this we visited a monkey sanctuary. It was great fun - as soon as you looked as though you might be opening your bag they jumped on you. Doug loved it but I was a bit nervous - eventually I let a little baby monkey sit on my shoulder though.
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  • Melbourne to Alice Springs

    5 stycznia 2018, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 35 °C

    From Melbourne we started a 10 day tour up to Alice Springs. This was a chance as Ben was nice enough to point out to us to make some friends for a change. The first part of the journey was along the Great ocean road stopping at the famous 12 Apostles. I hated it.....there were too many tourists with their stupid selfie sticks all pushing for THE photo that might mean they get an extra 5 likes on Facebook making 6 in total. On this leg we also visited the Grampians and Adelaide. Which both of us agreed was a lovely city as far as cities go.
    The next leg of our journey was up to Alice Springs. We gained some people on our tour taking the number 14. We were very lucky with the other people on our tour who were all lovely meaning the experience was even better. We also changed our guide who turned out to be a good laugh telling us lie after lie meaning we didn't know quite what to believe. At least 5 times a day shouting oh my god guys look, look to the left....there's a tree!? But it all added to the fun. The temperature along this leg was close to unbearable averaging about 40 degrees!
    Noticeable stops along here included Cooper Peady a small town, only there because of opal mines. Here 70% of the locals lived under ground because it was too hot! We also stopped at Kings Canyon, Kata Tjuta (the Olgas), and the famous Uluru (Ayres Rock). All of which were amazing, the favourite surprisingly being the Olgas. Due to the extreme heat we often were getting up at 4am to avoid the midday sun for our walks. Although we did get to see some amazing sun rises. We also spent 3 nights swag camping. Basically a waterproof sleeping bag allowing us to experience the proper outback. Camping around a fire in the desert no electricity, or toilets. Something I enjoyed. Susie enjoyed the experience but wouldn't do it again, the worst point was a scorpion crawling next to Susie's swag. The big brave tour guide had to save her...(and me). Next instalment Bali... your excitement is palpable!
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  • Melbourne

    2 stycznia 2018, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    From Darwin we flew to Melbourne for Christmas! We did another house sit here to save money. We were very lucky only being 10 minutes outside the city centre. Melbourne has countless nice cafes and restaurants. We had to exercise real control to stop ourselves becoming even more blubber filled. Being standard Brits we needed our turkey roast for Christmas dinner and rather than fall out over cooking it we went out for a meal and spent most of the time feeling sorry for the solo eaters close by. We also went to see the fireworks at new year. The rest of the time was spent relaxing, site seeing and eating. Visits to the Eureka sky tower, botanical gardens, the beach, the tourist tram and the Australian moving image centre were all done, along with a trip to the Wallace and Gromit museum. The highlight though being a visit to the 90,000 seater Melbourne Cricket Ground for the third day of the Ashes Boxing Day test. Even Susie enjoyed it (or so she said). Unfortunately after 5 days the end result was a draw!! The highs and lows of cricket!! Czytaj więcej

  • Working in Australia

    30 listopada 2017, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 34 °C

    A quick post to write about our time working in Australia. In September we worked for a month in an RSPCA clinic in Broken Hill. Broken hill is a small city in the outback, pretty much as far away from any other civilisation as you could get. On our first day working here we were brought in a baby kangaroo to treat - luckily the nurses knew exactly what to do as this was our first time even seeing one! We saw many more along with a baby emu too. It was very strange working here - the next town was 4 hours away, so if the clinic didn't have space to see a client they would have to travel 4 hours for another vet! If we wanted to refer a case it would be at least a 7 hour drive to the nearest city!
    Next we worked in Darwin for two months. It was a little busier but so warm! Average daily temp was around 35 C, but the worst part was the humidity! It meant we spent most of our time inside under the air conditioning but we braved a few days out to visit Kakadu and Litchfield National Park. We were also invited to their Christmas party which was a cruise on a yacht - a bit different to British Christmas parties!
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  • Cairns

    27 października 2017, Australia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    On our way up to Cairns we stopped half way to spend a day on Magnetic Island. We finally got a day of lovely sunshine and had a great time exploring the beaches. The girls decided to go on a horse trek which was amazing. We rode down to the beach, then took the saddles off so that we could swim in the sea bareback. The horses loved it too!
    Cairns was our final stop - we mainly just relaxed here. Doug went on a trip to the great barrier reef which he said was great but I gave it a miss as I felt that might be one boat trip too far for me!
    We then said goodbye to Laura and Jane and headed to Darwin for 8 weeks work. With an average daily temperature of 35 degrees we hoped the clinic was well air conditioned!
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  • Whitsundays

    21 października 2017, Australia ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C

    After getting stranded in the town of Gin Gin due to roadblocks because of the rain we finally made it to Airlie Beach. The first day here we went on a jet ski tour. It was great fun even though I feared for my life when Doug was driving - I think he forgot I was on the back most of the time, or just assumed I'd fallen off and was using it as the perfect opportunity to have some time away from me!
    The next day we set off on a sailing boat around the Whitsundays. The boat was very basic and having around 30 people staying downstairs got very warm but the tour was great. We visited Whitehaven beach which has been voted one of the most beautiful beaches in the world - and it did not disappoint! Other than this we spent most of the time snorkelling the Great Barrier Reef which was fantastic.
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  • Fraser Island

    18 października 2017, Australia ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    From Sydney we started our travels up the coast. Our first stop was Byron Bay, the surf capital of Australia. None of us had surfed before so we decided to get a beginners lesson. It was great fun even though I spent most of the time falling off!
    Next stop was Brisbane - here we visited Australia zoo (Steve Irwins zoo) the highlight was definitely holding Koalas and feeding Kangaroos.
    We then headed to Rainbow beach where we started a three day tour of Fraser Island. Unfortunately this is where the rain started (more on this on my next blog post.... it has been never ending!). Despite the rain we had a great time. To get around the island you had to drive 4x4s along the beach (which acted as the main road for the island) so there was lots of getting stuck in the sand and splashing in the sea. We visited lots of pretty places and the famous ship wreck. On the way home it took an hour to drive back to the boat and we were driving as fast as possible as the tide was coming in. In the end we only had a couple of meters between the sea and the end of the beach - 10 more minutes and we wouldnt have made it! Safe to say our guide was getting a little nervous at this point and kept telling us to drive faster over the walky talkies!
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  • AUSTRALIA - Sydney

    3 października 2017, Australia ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    After working for four weeks in the outback (Broken Hill) I joined Jane and Laura in Sydney for the first of four weeks travelling up the East Coast of Australia. We spent the first week exploring Sydney while Doug spent an extra week working.
    We spent a large amount of time seeing the sights of Sydney, including the Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge.
    We spent one day being ladies of leisure and went on a wine tour of the Hunter Valley.
    We also spent a day at the zoo and plenty of time lunching and drinking wine.
    At the end of the week we met Doug, picked up our hire car and started travelling up the coast...
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  • FIJI

    23 sierpnia 2017, Fidżi ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    After New Zealand we spent 10 days relaxing on Fiji. Firstly we spent 5 nights on the island of Mana. Here we relaxed on the beaches and snorkelled. We had a boat trip to the island where castaway was filmed but unfortunately when we got there they were doing more filming so we weren't allowed to set foot on the island. Another day we visited cloud 9, which is a floating bar in the middle of the ocean - this was great fun. We made some great friends on this island and all the Fiji locals were great fun. The rest of the time was spent exploring the mainland but to be honest this didn't compare to the islands. Im afraid this will be the last blog post for a while as we now fly to Australia to work and earn some much needed cash! Czytaj więcej

  • The North

    7 sierpnia 2017, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☀️ 13 °C

    Our final stint in New Zealand. We spent a lot of time sight seeing - the highlight of which for me was Abel Tasman which was very pretty. Doug had two flights - the first was a scenic flight over the glaciers and mount cook in a helicopter. The second was a flight for whale watching where he managed to see a sperm whale. I bowed out gracefully of both flights as I felt I'd already done enough spewing on this trip. We took a day trip over to the north island to revisit Wellington and went back to the museum to see the Gallipoli campaign which we missed last time. We also did a wine tour in the Marlborough district and had a lovely spa day at Hanmer Springs Czytaj więcej

  • Queenstown/Wanaka

    3 sierpnia 2017, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☀️ 5 °C

    Next we arrived in Queenstown, the adrenaline junkie capital of NZ. We spent 2 days here. Initially the weather was pretty poor and we went on a tourist boat showing us the different parts of Queenstown, including the million dollar district where the average value of all the properties was over 1 million dollars! That evening we went to a fancy ice bar where everything was made of Ice, the temperature was -5 Celsius. It was great fun. However we were only allowed 30 minutes in the bar and I don't think either of us could have done much longer! Next day we jumped straight into the adrenaline life style going on a jet boat which was great fun even better that Susie didn't get sick! And I did the Nevis Swing, the largest canyon swing in the world...I couldn't persuade Susie to join me on that! We also went for a slap up steak dinner that night, because we felt we needed to be spoiled a bit more.
    Next day we travelled to Wanaka a slightly more laid back version of Queenstown. We went to a old school cinema where the seats were sofas and you could take wine and dinner into the cinema with you which was a cool experience. Here we also went to Cardrona ski resort to do a days skiing! It was great fun the resort was a lot smaller than any in Europe but the weather and snow were great!
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  • The Campervan Diaries - The South

    21 lipca 2017, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ 🌬 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. Czytaj więcej

  • 3rd Test Match

    8 lipca 2017, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ 🌧 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.
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  • 2nd Test Match

    6 lipca 2017, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ⛅ 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.
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  • 1st Test Match

    3 lipca 2017, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☀️ 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! Czytaj więcej

  • Vs Maori All Blacks

    18 czerwca 2017, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☀️ 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!
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  • Vs Highlanders

    16 czerwca 2017, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☀️ 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. Czytaj więcej

  • Vs Crusaders

    13 czerwca 2017, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ☀️ 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! Czytaj więcej

  • Vs NZ Barbarians

    6 czerwca 2017, Nowa Zelandia ⋅ ⛅ 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! Czytaj więcej

  • Machu Picchu

    27 maja 2017, 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!
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  • Lake Titicaca

    20 maja 2017, Boliwia ⋅ ⛅ 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.
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  • Chivay

    17 maja 2017, 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. Czytaj więcej