My Gap Year

When you think of Argentina two things come to mind…Steak and Wine. However, we (Sophie and Lydia) bith feel a large part of Argentinian culture has been forgotten, and we are here to rectify this tragic error. The beauty of Dulce de Leche has to be experienced to be believed, but we are here to pass on this joy to the masses, via the wonderful medium of the world wide web.

While in Argentina, the four of us feel we have been responsible for the death of about 20 cows, and provided the annual income for at least 2 wineries, each. Every meal now permits us to sample and judge some of Argentina’s finest wines and cow as true experts. Our personal favourite is a nice glass of Cabernet Sauvignon, accompanied by a large slab of cow buttock, cooked to perfection (very rare, possibly still alive) obviously;the Argentinians have a reputation to uphold! Followed by (more a personal preferance of mine (Lydia)) a sachet of Dulce de Leche, theived from Hostal Inn!

Let us explan this wonderous phenomonon (sp -3. see me). Dulce de Leche is effectively boiled condensed milk, to a beautiful state, somewhere between caramel and fudge. it is a common breakfast condement amongst the locals, and forms a major part of most sweets found on your standard Argentine menu. Our theory of this incredible abundance of sweet ambrosia is due to the immense stock of cows required to feed such a carniverous nation, who must while their bovine days away, lactating till their hearts content, hence producing a mass surplus of dairy, which must be consumed, lest a major economic crisis ensues; supply and demand, aren’t you proud Daddy!

Excuse us now, as we depart for our last supper in BA, guess what……..

The day started with a search for the bus stop to the bike shop. Once we had collected our bikes we hurried off to the first winery. With a slight misunderstanding of some directions we were slightly delayed but once we made it to the end of the road we wasted no time in starting the tasting. The idea of the tour is that you cycle to the end of the long road and work your way back slowly stopping at the winerys on the way. At some we had a tour at others we just tasted!! Towards the end we stopped off for bread and oil tasting followed by chocolate and liquer tasting. By the time we made it back we were struggeling to cycle because we were so laden with bags of wine and chocolate liquers!! It was a lovely day out and deffinetly not something to be missed in Argentina!!

http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/sign_in.jsp?aid=768a5498cf4383957a1c

 Password: photos

Having changed our plans to stay in Sad Perdo de Atacama for an extra two nights in order to star gaze, our expectations were high. We were taken out in to the desert to the obsevatory. There was a large seletion of telescopes to view the sky, each was pointing at a different star, planet or galaxy. The french astronama who gave us the tour was very entertaing and informative. Despite it being -5 degrees we stood outside for nearly two hours looking at various stars, learning the name and constalations. Every now and then there was a shriek as someone saw a shooting star…we were told this was actually the ionisation trail of meteors. Finaly Jupitur had moved around enough for us to see very clearly  through the telescope and even take photos. The tour ended with a mug of hot chocolate and returning to the town. The tour of the sky was excelent and deffinetly on of the more original activities we have done this year!

   After the salt flats we were so glad to have made it to San Pedro as it was so hot!!As soon as we got there we went and booked ourselves onto a sandboarding trip for the next day as we had been told how much fun it was!

  So we all got up bright and early on thursday morning, had a hearty breakfast and made our way over to the sandboarding place. There was a guy and girl on our trip from Canada which was nice, all of us girls and the girl from canada were complete beginners in sandboarding (and snow boarding which is really similar) so we were all in the same boat!! We met our instructor called Christian who had some very cool dreadlocks, and the photographer called Diago and set off in the bus to the dunes we were going to be sandboarding down!!

   When we got there we were all given our boards, I was the only person who was gooffy (meaning I stand up with my right foot first) so everytime I went down the dune I faced a different way to everyone else! To start with we had to make the mammoth walk to the top of the dunes, it was very tiring but luckily we all came prepared with massive bottles of water! When we got to the top we all looked down either side of the dune and realised that one side was a fair bit steeper and longer than the other, thankfully we started and practiced on the slightly smaller and slower slope first!!

   Our first few attempts down the slope were a bit wobbly, especially for Lydia who didnt actually manage to go down the slope once without wiping out!!After going down the smaller slope a few more times we were allowed to attempt the bigger and faster slope!!The bigger slope was so much more fun and noticeably faster, I dont think any of us managed to get down the slope without falling over atleast once, luckily though the sand was a very comfortable surface to land on!!It took Lydia a few more attempts down the practice slope before she attempted the main slope, though unfortunately her attempts didnt end in success as she didnt manage to get down without wiping out!!

   Altogether we were sandboarding for about 2 hours. We all enjoyed it so much, and even though Lydia didnt actually manage to get down the slope once without wiping out I think she enjoyed it the most!!We got back to San Pedro safely though we were all covered in alot of sand!!

We arrived in Uyuni on Saturday, with full intentions of begining our tour on Sunday, and booked it all up that night with a lovely lady called Fatima! Next morn, all pretty much ready to go, and good old Thomas decides to have lost his passport, the fool! Genuinely bad times, and after turning his bag and the room inside-out, we decidede it was a lost cause, and much time ws spent in tinterweb cafe sorting things out. So later that night, Tom was on the bus back to La Paz, and we were packing up once again, ready for the off the next morn.

We rose early-ish, and had one of the best brekkies I have ever had, amazing banana pancakes! and headed off to Fatima’s office. We sat outside for a goodly time before our 4×4 turned up, a rather vintage looking Toyota land cruiser, but pretty standard kit by the looks of all the other companies. We loaded up mochillas on t’roof, met our travelling buddies; happy poncho man, a nice lady from Ecuador and a couple (although we weren’t quite sure what the relationship was) from the Czeck Republic, genuine happy campers!

So we were off! First stop was a rather spooky train graveyard, and then it wasn’t long until we were on the Salt! Quite a strange experiance, as it looked exactly like snow, but when we got out, it was completely solid. We had a few more stops at the ’Salt mountains’ and the illegal salt hotel, naughty naughty, then on to La Isla de Pescada, where we had lunch, and had plenty of opportunity for all the standard picture taking, abusing the medium of perspective! After lunch, we left the salt, and had a long-ish drive to our hotel for the night, another salt hotel, but we were assured this one was legal, and after a belated, but very warming dinner, accompanied by a rather interesting musical delight from the local children, we donned as much clothing as we could, and went to bed.

Second day, we rose at a reasionable hour to be greeted by a standard continental breakfast, lots of hot drinks (wonderful!), then packed up the truck again ready for our longest day of driving.  Our first stop was at an active volcano, a good chance for some rock climing, then back in the van. Not for long, as it turned out, as our driver decided to add a bit of excitement to the journey, and burst a tyre.  Thankfully we had a spare; always prepared, these Bolivians!  So as the men were left to deal with such matters, we went in search of a suitable little girls room. Unfortunately, the thing about the Salt Flats, is they are terribly, well, flat, so some amazing teamwork and extemperisation came into play; two as a barrier from the rest of the group, as the other did whatever was required. By the time we were done, the new tyre was in place, and we were on the road again, headed towards El Arbol de Piedra, a collection or rather intriguing rock formations formed by the sands of time. We then headed to our last stop of the day, a salt lagoon full of flamingoes! Who knows why, the biology boggles, but another excellent luncheon later, and we were off to our second hostal, within the Beautiful natural park, right next to Laguna Rojo, literally a red lake, caused by minerals in the water. A freezing night was remedied by some good round the fire singing, and a bottle of rum or two, before we settled into our coldest night by far.

Day three we rose at a ridiculous hour, so we could catch the sunrise at the hot geysers, which were terribly impressive at that hour, I must say, and then we were off for brekkie at some hot springs. Being absolutely freezing, stripping down to a bikini was really the last thing we wanted to do, but we braved the chillsome weather, and after an epic dash down to the pool (surrounded by ice!), we hopped in, and thawed out instantly in the relatively boiling pool! Feeling much better, and with a warm tingly feeling inside, we headed off on our last drive to the Chilean boarder, where our bus was waiting to bring us to San Pedro, and after some of the most intense boarder conterol any of us have encountered thus far, we arrived home and dry(and not so chilly) in Chile!

Hello.

This is Tom writing his first post on the blog. I have been travelling with Sophie, Moo and Lydia for about 2 weeks(ish) and they have allowed me to write the blog for the mine tour we did as I was the one who actually wanted to do it.

We arrived in Potosi and went pretty much straight on the tour which involved going to the miners market where we bought dynamite and drinks for the miners who ranged in age from about 13 to 58.  We also got to see how the minerals were seperated from the rock and mud which was quite interesting.

The main part of the tour was heading down the mines which was truly amazing and eye opening. I am glad I am not a miner in the Potosi mines because the dust in the air made it hard to breathe even near the entrance and being 6´3 I hit my head on the roof, alot.  The tunnels which the miners had to work in were so small we had to crawl through them and it was hard enough without the 30kg sacks the miners had to carry. On the 3rd level we stopped for a bit to ask our guides questions and just get a feel what it is like for the miners (who were actually working deeper in the mountain) due to the lack of oxygen and temperature range. We all felt pretty faint and I nealry threw up, a few times.

Again, I can say we all never want to underground again never mind work in a mine and we are all glad we did the tour as it was a real eye opener to see the conditions these people have to work in to make even the smallest amount of money. All I can say is I´m glad we´re going to uni in September. Not working in the mines.

 Anyway, got a bus to catch to Uyuni.

Speak soon

Tom, Sophie, Moo & Lydia

Having arrived in La Paz we quickly found our self in Olivers Travels! And English pub right in the middle of the city (for anyone who has ever been to the real MaCoy in Cusco, its like that but 10 times better and cheaper!) We enjoyed bangers and mash, shepards pie and bread andn butter pudding whilst chatting to some of the Emglish staff who persuaded us to take on the worlds most dangerous road!! So the next day we searched for the best company we could and the most reliabel brakes!

By 7:30 the next day we were in a cafe getting our briefing for the day. We started with an hour bus ride stopping to drop off all our details in case our bus fell off the cliff. At a hight of 4570m we were given our full supension bikes with brakes as powerful as a motor bike, a helmet and protective clothing. The start was fairly easy on tarmac and we were reaching speeds of up to 50-60 km per hour. We had only been going a few minuites when we were stopped to look at the remains of a truck at the bottoem of the cliff.  At the begining of the death road we were given a snack, our bikes were checked and we were told a few scary stories about accidents on the road. The road was bumpy and narrow with a 400m steep drop off the edge. To add to the fear we were told to ride on the side of the cliff incase a truck came up, luckely we met no traffic coming up. Our guides stopped us offten to tell us stories about trucks going off and cycelists who had died by being stupid or going with companys with dodgy bikes. A bus followed us down with spare kit and first aid making you feel a little safer. The road took us form 4570m to 1200m so it was nice to be able to have some extra oxygen and the change in sceenary was pretty incredible. Our guides took photos and videos of us going round scary corners and through the waterfalls. At the end of the day we reached a small village in the rainforest, where we were given a really good meal and looked at the photos. T-shirts were given out saying…I survived the worlds most dangerous road. yet there was still the trip back up to survive. Although a new, safer road has recently opened our driver took us back up the same route but we were the only vechical on that road.

 It was a scary experiance but deffinaetly one of the best we have had so far! It is deffinatly not an activity that you want to cut corners on and if you are going to do it we recomend Gravity.

We finaly made it to Copacabana in Boliva after two bus rides which we only just made it on to. As we walked down towards Lake titicaca we found Tom (form the rainforest) out side our hotel. We caught up over dinner and spent some time planning the rest of the trip.

The next day we looked round the markets and watched a bizzarre ceremony in which the Bolivians bless their cars. Us girls spent our last day in Copacabana visiting the Isle del Sol. We took a two hour boat ride accross the lake then walked for three hours accross the island before getting the boat back. We met up with Tom to climb up a hill that took us to over 4000m to watch the sunset over the lake.

     After our lovely bus tour around the canyon and our epic trekking to Machu Picchu  we decided that we owed ourselves a good days resting and relaxing in the plaza de armas in Arequipa! We had a bit of a late start and managed to miss the complimentary breakfast offered at our hostel, so we went searching for a place to eat. When we got to the plaza we were presented with lots of people and lots of colour as we were unaware that there was a massive religious festival going on around the plaza that day, all of the roads had been blocked and there were loads of school children all with there own section of the road to decorate using sawdust and colour dyes!!It was really fun to watch whilst having brunch!

       After brunch we decided that we would be cultural and go and visit the Juanita Girl museum. The tour was supposed to include a video about the inca´s and juanita girl and then a guided tour around the museum, however the video decided not to work so we just got the tour which was really interesting, and at the end we got to see the actual mummy called juanita girl, she is the only inca mummy that is still completely preserved due to the fact she was found burried in ice!!After the guide we managed to get ourselves a free showing of the video for later in the day which we were happy about!!

     After the museum we just wondered around the plaza watching the images being made and went up and visited an artists sale which had some really nice things, though they were fairly expensive and probably would have pushed our budgets. We then went back to the place we had brunch and had a late lunch, then headed back to the museum and watched the video which was very good though a little creepy at times!!

     In the evening we found ourselves a perfect viewing spot for the festival procession in one of the cafes along the balcony!!The procession was pretty impressive , they had built during the day a massive stage which was used for the huge service they held for all the viewers. I think pretty much all the habitants of Arequipa turned up to watch the procession, at the end a massive float went round the whole plaza driving over the top of all the images that had been created during the day.

    After the procession we had an interesting meal (mainly due to the slightly strange english translations) and then quickly went to meet up with Iggy who has been volunteering in Arequipa at a school!It was really good to catch up with Iggy and he gave us a very good guided tour of the bars and kebab shops in Arequipa, and the night ended on a high with us being true gringo´s doing some classic ballads at a karioke bar!!It was a night we won´t forget.

     All in all we really enjoyed our time in Arequipa!!

Having arrived in Arequipa on the over night bus from Cusco we got straight on a tourist bus to visit the deepest canyon in the world. The main principle of this trip was to see the Condors that fly up and down the canyon. They are teh second largest bird in the world.

On the first day we were driven to a town call Chivay. A small town in the middle of a dry valley. We had a guide who talked to us for the whole 5 hour trip which ment sleeping was not an opption. The tour made plenty of stops to look at Llams and different rock formations. The sceenery was very different to anything we had seen so far. There were many volcanoes surrounding us. At altitudes of over 3000m and a maximum hight on the trip of over 5000m everything was very dry and vegitation was sparse. So we were supposed to get exctited about a dry, green moss like plant that grew on rocks.

At Chivay we were given lunch, which ment having our first taste on Guinea Pig. It tasted ok but it was really just a mouth full of bones. after lunch we were taken on a walk up a mountain to visit Inca burial sites where you could still see the skeletons. This was followed by a trip to the hot springs.

In the evening we saw a cultural show of music and dance as we ate. Moo was draged on to the stage along with some of the other tourists to play with the “band”. The prive was given to the tourist with the largest cheer. So of course Moo won with Lydia and I sreaming. The prize a clump of goats hoofs…which is supposed to be some kind of musical instrument. We then all had a go at the traditional dances.

The next morning we were woken at 5am to get the bus to the Canyon. Along the way we made many stops to churches and view points. Eventualy we made it to thae actual canyon and were very lucky to see so many Condors and so close to us. Though taking photos was very challenging. The trip back ment more stop offs at various sites that all looked the same and constant streams of information about different mountains. We even stopped once to look at rabbits! This provided a suprising amount of entertainment as we laughed at the others on the tour run around trying to get photos. All very tired we tried to sleep but were reguarly woken by the man next to us who wanted us to take photos of hills from the other side of the bus.

At the end of the day we were happy to see the Condors and the Canyon but we have made a pact not to go on a coach tour again!

Welcome, all. this is my first post since joining Soph and Moo, terribly exciting! just got back from a bit of quadrimoto this morn, all these extreme sports! got up early-ish, but not early enough as it turns out, as bags had to be packed in a bit of a scuffle, dumped tres rapido in the storage room, and we were off in the taxi! i was still a tad under the weather from the past few days, but started to feel better after a bit of mountain air! we were introduced to our bikes, mine was Percy, and had a little warm up sesh round the garden. we then signed our lives away, and set off on the trail. we had a good half hour climbing before our first break, photos were taken, and we were given free run of a field for 10mins or so, improve the skids and skills! We then continued along the top of the mountains for a bit, before we got to “The Jump”. First go, we were all a tad scared, but second time round, we all let go, and i personally caught some air! twas all downhill from there (goegraphically, not metaphorically), and we arrived back at camp after a good 3hrs on the dirt! made good use of the ‘heated’ swimming pool, before the taxi home, safe and dry, ready for bus to Arequipa this eve!

Having been unorganised we only book our trek two nights before we left so were unable to do the classic trail so we setteled for the Inca jungle trail instead. Our trip started early with a five hour bus journey to our starting point. From here we had a three hour bike ride down a bumpy trek. We didnt do to badly and without mentioning any names we came out with just one broken bike and one very bruised and scratched person! Our first night was in a comfy hostel and we ate in a local village restaurant.

Day two was our longest toughest day. 8 hours walking! With a large amount up hill. Our guide was very informative pointing out all the plants and painting our faces with the fruits. At the end of the day we took a wooden platform on a zip wire accross a river to some hot springs. This was just what we needed and we relaxed in the pools for two hours.

 On day three we were given the option of walking or taking a car for the first part. We took the car…but not out of lazynees. The route we missed would have been flat and easy but taking the car ment we got to Agaus Calientes by lunch giving us the afternoon to climb Putucusi mountain, which rises above machu picchu. It was the toughest climb of the trip and took us nearly two hours with many steep ladders.

On our final day we were woken up and four in the morning and made our way up to Machu Picchu in the dark. At the top we were met by a guide who showed us around and gave us a brief history of the Incas. The three of us used our last bit of energy to make it into the four hundred people who are allowed to climb Wayna Picchu. It took us just 40 minutes and from here we got the best view of Macchu Picchu. After reating at the top we climbed down to catch the bus back.

We were very lucky with the weather as all the clouds cleared to give usa a clear view. It was a very rewarding trek and looking back at the pictures it seems wired that we were actually there.

When we arrived in cusco we went straightto our Hostel where Lydia was waiting for us. We had alot of catching up to do and what better way thanh to head off one of the markets for the day. All of us coming from hot places have found the  cold a bit a shock so we bought alot of Alpaca jumpers, hats and scarfs.  Today we begin our four day trip to Machu Pichu!!

5:45    Wake up nad begin first task o fthe day. This could be bird observations from one of the platforms around the reserve. the aim of this is to record sitings in the reserve and be able to prove that the area is worth protecting. The bird watching can be really exciting seeing lots of brightly coloured and/or rare species but some day it can be very quiet. Another early morning task is farm maintance. this means feeding the donkeys, gunie pig and bottel feeding the baby goats.

8:00 Breakfast

9:00 There are many jobs that need to be done in the morning, some daily and others less often.

* Lodge maintanence has to be done everyday. All of the animals need to be fed. Taricaya has many mamals and birds that have been rescued from homes where they have been kept as pets. The animals are looked after untill they can be released back into the wild. Often the birds have to grow their wing feathers back as they have been clipped to stop them from escaping and others have to learn to survive without a beak. Once released alot of the animals like to hang around the area and remaiing the lodge pets.

* There are many jobs to be done on the farm, like chopping down old plants, cutting flowers, picking coffee beans and planting fruit and chilies.  This is all done on a small scale to show local farmers how to make money sustainably so they don´t need to cut down trees and hunt indangered animals.

* Other tasks include checink the sensory cameras around the reserve, clearing the trails, maintaining the animal enclousers and lodge buildings. Setting up and monitering bird nets, reptile traps and butterfly nets.

Throughout the middle of the day it is usually to hot to do much so we takes naps, read and swim in the river. Although it is not extreamly hot all the time, the temperature often drops when weather fronts come in called friaje. Somethimes it can be so cold you have to wear hats and sit around a fire.

3:30  We begin work again wither with more bird observations or training donkeys to be passed on to local comunitys in order to help them out.

Most days we finish at 5:30 and we have electricity for three hours from 6 so we are able to watch films. However sometimes the staff take us on reptile hunts through the forest and caimen hunts down the river. We have also been given talks or birds and bats.

Life at taricaya is basic but never dull. The huts where we live are simple and showering in the cold river water can be tough when there is a cold front. But even the muddy water is strangely refreshing after using a machete to clear the trails in 35 degree heat. As we have limited electricity and boatds to the town only once a week the food is also simple, it includes alot of egg, rice, potatoe, pasta and smash!! At meat only when there is enough ice in the cool box to keep it fresh!!

Alot of the time we finish the day with a party before heading back to our hut and removing the cockroaches and if your lucky a trianchular from your bed!

         This week has just gone so quickly……the time has just flown by!!The week started off with the usual 5:45am start on Monday, which is always a bit of a shock to the system but you slowly get used to it. Both Soph and I had to do some bird watching which isn´t too strenuous and is always very interesting, the birds in the rainforest are just so beautiful and their colours are just amazing!Then on the monday afternoon all the volunteers and a few of the staff went up the river to the home of a guy called Enrique. Enrique is actually originally from one of the Peruvian tribes from deep in the rainforest, but due to project abroad he has been funded and encouraged to move to the edge of the rainforest and provide a talk for tourist and volunteers about life in the tribe and how they survived, it was such an in teresting talk, though it was all in spanish we had a translation!

         Throughout the rest of the week we have just been doing the usual conservation tasks, got to do lots of work on the farm that project abroad works with called New Farm. We had to repair the fencing around the goats and donkeys, we had to pick the coffee beans - I was so suprised by how the coffee plants look before they are peeled, they kind of reminded me of oversized holly berries! Soph also had to plant some new chilli plants, they are a special kind of chilli which are extremely hot, wasn´t daring enough to try one, but another voluteer did and I think he definitely regreted it after he tasted it! I also got to do some donkey trainging this week which was really good fun, they have 4 donkeys at the farm at the momment, however one of them is pregnant and another one is just a baby, so we got to ride two of the donkeys around a special track set out for them, have to admit riding a donkey isn´t quite as comfortable as a horse, but it was still really good fun!

         On Wednesday this week all the volunteers got taken by Stuart and Nando who are the two in charge of Taricaya Lodge to a settlement down river from us for the morning. It was really interesting to visit the place, though there wasn´t actually alot to do and it was a really hot day so we wound up just sitting in the little shop there having drinks. Nando and Stuart were having to sort out some business, as the one major problem in the settlement is the rubbish as the locals don´t have any rubbish system so they literally just throw it onto the ground around them, and as a result the place is actually very dirty, so what Nando and Stuart have agreed to do is give the settlement one of our donkeys and a specially made cart which they can use to go around twice a week and collect up all the rubbish!!That afternoon we also didn´t have to do any conservation work, instead we got given a talk by Stuart about bats, it was a really interesting talk and made you realise how clever bats are!!

       At the end of the week there were quite a few sightings of packs of Peccaries, which are basically wild pigs, however unlike pigs they are one of the most dangerous animals in the jungle along with panthers and jaguars, and if you come across them then they have the ability to kill humans. So of course all of the sightings were quite dangerous, but no one got hurt and everyone lived to tell the tale! I came across a pack of the Peccaries when I was on a walk through the jungle with two other volunteers, it was so amazing to see them however when one started to run towards our direction it wasn´t so great, but it was all ok and we successfully managed to manouvre our way around the area that they were and get back to the lodge safely!!

       All in all it has again been a really good week in the jungle, and we can´t wait for next week!!! 

Both Soph and I have really enjoyed our first week in the rainforest. It is a complete change from Nepal in many ways. The tropical weather is something that I think both Soph and I will adjust to with no problem, though during the middle of the day it can almost get a bit too hot!!The conservation work has been really great to, we get to do variety of things from doing some peaceful bird watching to feeding and building cages for the animals that at our around the lodges we live in and on the farm that Projects Abroad support! The work can be quite physical, especially when we have to work with the machettes, I had to go and cut down a load of trees in order to build some new ledges for the birds to perch on - that was a pretty tiring day!The rainforest is a really nice place to be though, it is really peaceful and very calming, though the mosquitos are out in force most of the time and no matter how much DET you put on yourself they still seem to bite you, so both of us have a nice collection of bites dotted around our bodies!!

On Friday all the volunteers we´re given a day off from the conservation work, and we all got taken down river by Stuart, who is the man in charge, to a large lake called Lake Valencia. It was a really nice day out, and was really nice to have a break from the work. We all ended up going in the lake and attempted to do a kind of water skiing off the back of the boat, the water ski was infact and ore from a rowing boat and it was literally attached to some rope that was being held by someone in the boat - it was new take on water skiing and was really good fun! We´d been given sandwiches by our chef at the lodge, so had a bit of a picnic and then continued to swim for a little bit more, then we headed back to the lodge!

The lodge that we stay in was actually built by past volunteers when the project first started up, they managed to do a pretty impressive job, though the rooms aren´t exactly luxurious they are perfectly fine, we have a bunk bed and some shelves and that is really all we need!! The food is pretty impressive aswell, we get meat everyday of the week depsite the fact that they have no way of re-fridgerating things, don´t really want to know how they keep the meat we just accept it and eat it! We also get given alot of rice, but we are both now used to it after Nepal!!

Overall both of us are really enjoying our time in the rainforest and we´ve had a great first week!!

Our last adventure in Nepal was to head up to the last resort near the Tibetan border. The group of 20 of us left Kathmandu at 6 in the morning. We arrived at 10 and all walked accross the bridge we were about to throw ourselves off. There were mixed reactions from the whole group. Before we knew it we were given a saftey brief and were all back on the bridge. One at a time we were taken forward and interviewed before the jump. Everyone was shouting so you had no choice but to jump as the man standing behind you said 3,2,1 bungee and almost pushed you off. It was an 8 second free fall into the 167m gorge. The most enjoyable part was the bouncing back up. After the jump you were left hanging untill you were pulled in on to a bed then you began the steep walk back up. Despite being terrified we both really enjoyed it once we were off the edge and its something we would deffinetly do again.

We satrted with two..by Saturday evening we were four as two other volunteers had a week off for school holiday, and by Sunday morning we were 5 as Sarah decided to join us.

By 1pm we had eventually sorted out all of our permits and headed out in the heat. We were all a little shocked as the taxi driver droped us off and we were faced with steep stone steps that seemed to go on forever. It was extreamly hot and we had a lot of catching up to do because of our late start. James’ story of the purple princess kept us going, although laughing throughout a one and half hour story while out of breath was very difficult. As the thunder and rain came in we stopped for a mo-mo break! And then carreid on till nearly 7pm. Our first stop was a tinny place called Tolka, made up of about three small guest houses. Here our group became 6 as we met an American man who joined us.

On Monday we had an early start and the whole day marced up and down steep stone steps. Realising there seemed to be a pattern to the weather we stopped for lunch in perfect timing just as the heavens opened, and crossed the last valley after our Mo-mos. Reaching Sinuwa at a more reasonable time of 5pm. Tonight our group had the lodage to ourselves.

Another early start and a much nicer path…alot of down hill, although this was not always so nice as you knew what you went down you would only have to go back up! We were beging to be able to se the mountains more clearly as we crossed jungel like paths. Again our lunch stop was right on que, although the rain and hail did not stop, so for the first time the waterproffs  went on. Totaly unplanned  the two of us had matching outfits and rucksack covers, after the restof the group and finished laughing at us we moved on through the rain. The rain soon turned to snow and the path was very slippery butwe reached Deorali in good time, another comfy lodge.

With only three and a half hours of walking to do today we slept in! So when we headed off in the fresh snow there were some footprints ahead to follow. By mid morning we reached Machapuchre base camp, there were increible views down the valley and of the mountain nick named fish tale. As there weather began to close in we carried on up to Annapurna base camp, and arrived in time for lunch despite the snow being knee deep in places. We picked a lodge and joined the other trekkers in the dinning hall for lots of games of cards, avoiding the blizzard outside. The best invention of the lodges is the whole in the ground underneath the table with a cerasine heater in. This warms you up and drys out your boots. We shared out the Percy Pigs that we have carried aound and resisted for the last two and half months. The food they create at altitude was pretty impressive…the pizza’s cost just 3 pounds and you would see the porters carrying the food up the mountain on their head and practicaly running up somtimes just wearing flip flops.

We woke up early to see the sunrise but unfortuanatly its was a bit cloudy so we hung around waiting for it to clear, passing the time with a snowball fight. The view became a little better, but the top of Annapurna (the 10th highest mountain in the world) was still covered in clouds. At ten we began the callenge of making it down in two days. We slid down and with James pushing us on made it all the way back to Sinuwa by 7. When all we wanted to do was eat and sleep, the local children came up and sung for us and the guides and porters made us dance. Althogh very painfull on the legs we had a good time and were all given flower necklaces.

Our last day of trekking was possibly the most challenging. For the first part Anna the dog joined us. Then the rain and thunder came in as we batteled up the last stretch of steep stone steps. After lunch we carried on down, we came to a larger village called Ghandruk. As we entered we were faced by an army of young children, who were covered head to foot in red paint (beacause of the Holi colour festival). Each of us were given a tika on our forehead and we moved on only to get round the corned to meet a larger army of older boys who covered our faces in the red powder. This carried on for the rest of the afternoon, we were even given our own bag to throw at each other and the other trekkers coming up (though they didn’t sem so keen to join in). Some children would throw water bombs too. Eventualy we made it down just as it was getting dark and pilled in to a Jeep that took us back to our hotel.

So we proved that it is posible to reach ABC and return in 5 and a half days rather than the 7-12 that trekking companies advertise. There is no need for a guide…just take a map or ask the locals along the way. We all and alot of fun and spent the entire time laughing!

Before heading back to Katmandu on Sunday we spent Saturday relaxing taking a rickety wooded boat out on the lake in Pokhara. There was a lack of wind and we managed to lose one of our ores. All the same we all ahd a good time despite not making it back dry!

Having made such good friends with Maila our rafting instructer and the saftey raft guy Amit, we had some free guides to the temple of Pashpati for one the most religous hindu occasions of the year. It was Shivas birthday and the temple was packed. We batteled through the crowds and dodged charging bulls.

A few days later Maila took us off on a bike ride. It was pretty incredible how little distance we had to go to get out of the city and into beautiful countryside. We climbed up a long steep hill, but the view made it worth while. Coming down was bumpy, muddy and wet! But we all made it back in one piece but in a little pain!

Last weekend Soph and I went with all the volunteers on a rafting trip to the Trisuli river which is down near to Pokhara and Chitwan National Park. We set out from Thamel bright and early on Saturday morning and took a bus down to our starting point - only took three hours so it wasn’t too bad a trip - did see quite a few bus accidents on the way down which is always going to make you feel a little less safe!!We made it though in one piece!!As there were about 22 of us we had to obviously divide ourselves between four rafts, soph and I went with James, Tara, Russel, Kristina and Britta!!!We firstly had to pump up our raft which was not as easy as the rafting guys were making it look!! We eventually pump it up and then had our safety briefing by Maila - seriously one of the funniest people we’ve met out here yet!!!He turned out to be the rafting instructor that we had on our raft which was really good!! Our raft was called team Yo Baby!!We rafted our way down to the beach that we were having lunch on plunging ourselves into many rapids, falling out several times and jumping out at our own will - the water was seriously cold, but you kind of just got used to it!!After every rapid we had to chant our yo baby chant which was really funny - we were by far the loudest raft!!!We were also allowed to actually swim down one of the rapids which was seriously good fun if not a little scary at times!!We literally just stopped at a little beach on the side of the river took a seat and the next thing we knew the rafting guys had prepared this feast for us, we even got tuna!!!It was amazing!!We just sat around and relaxed for a while as instructed by Maila so letting our food digest before we were thrown back into the water again!!One of the rafts had a whole in it which had to be fixed aswell - luckily not our raft!!

We then rafted our way down to the place where we were camping for the night!!It was seriously nice spot that they had chosen, they even pitched up the tents for us on the beach so we literally just step out of the rafts, got changed into some more dry clothes and sat around having some tea and coffee to warm us up!!! The food that the guys managed to produce for us was pretty impressive considering that the gas that they had bought to cook with didn’t work, so they had to cook everything over a wood fire - we literally got given yet another feast, it was amazing!!We then all sat around a camp fire and were thoroughly entertained by Maila’s singing and dancing!!!The rafting guys then produced this homemade rice wine which was actually really nice and really warmed us up!!!We also got to playing some games around the fire which were really funny!!!Most people then headed into their tents for bed, however soph and I decided to be really hard core rafters and sleep next to the camp fire on some mats!!!

Both Soph and I woke up with sand all over us, but feeling content as we had such a good night sleep!!!We all grabbed some more tea and coffee, and then the rafting guys produced yet another amazing meal for breakfast, we even got pancakes!!!!We all stocked up on as much food as we could to re-energize ourselves for some big rapids!!We had to dismantle the tents before we left for rafting - proved to be quite a difficult task for soph and I, had to get the rafting guys to help us!!!We then set out again on the river and had yet another amazing morning of rafting, the rapids were slightly bigger and that was made apparent by the number of people that fell out of the rafts!!!Our raft spent most of the time getting soaked either by jumping in, falling in or being splashed by other rafts - so generally it was a wet morning!!We also had the best instructor being Maila, his broken English commands kept us all thoroughly entertained on both days!!!We eventually got to the beach, had yet another amazing lunch, got changed and dry, and then hopped on the bus and headed back to Thamel!!!The bus journey was also very entertaining and Kristina and I serenaded everyone for the whole journey!!!There was an accident on the road on the way back so we didn’t get back till really late, so everyone stayed in Thamel that evening and we went out for supper with all the rafting guys which was really nice!!Generally it was an awesome weekend, and one full of many quotes and jokes that will never be forgotten!!!

MSPN is the name of the childrens HIV centre where I have been working for the last three. The centre is funded by a charity called Friends of needy children nad is a small building where there is only room for 15 children. The children all saty there with one parent each and our given 24 hour care. Whent he children arrive they are malnurished and have many othe illnesses aswell. My job as a volunteer was to entertain the children throught the morning, by playing games and doing puzzels, also trying to introduce some of the older children (8-10) to English. Meanwhile the parents where given lessons (most could not read or write). In my time there I had the oppotunity to go to the dentist with 3 of the children, each had a tooth pulled out so I sat a held their hands felling a little embarresed about all of the fuss I made when I had teeth taken out compared to how peacfull they were. They didnt even have a pain killers! And the next day they were vey proud to come up and show me the gaps in their teeth!

Also while at MSPN the other volunteers and I painted the railings of the balcony to try and make the run down building look a little more presentable. While children were sleeping we would help out in the kitchen chopping up vegetabels.

On my last day they held a mini ceremonay for me, giving me a tika (well more like painted my face), a flower garland and a photo album. I was sad to leave and im going to miss the children.

Now that i am no longer working at the CP centre i thought it would be good to write about my overall experience there!!It was a really amazing place and the facilities that they provided for all the children was incredible too!!The building was actually built due to a donation by a man from Holland, which is why the building is named the Holland building.  All the people that worked at the centre were so friendly and welcoming to me which made the experience even better, and it was really great having physiotherapy students there aswell, as they could explain to me everything that they were doing, and i think it was actually quite beneficial for them to teach me stuff. The centre was really well run, with there being two sessions a day for the children, and for each of these the centre provided a bus for all the children to come in on, as the centre was quite a long way from the all the districts that the children lived in!!All the children and parents that came to the centre were so sweet and really friendly to me, and helped me to learn some important Nepali words!!All of the children that i observed over the time i was there really did make some major improvements over the 2 months which was really fascinating to see!!!I was also really thankful that Suresh allowed me to do a home visit and actually have my own chance to be one on one with the child, and the report that i wrote up for that is hopefully going to be published in the centre which is really exciting, so i feel that i have left my mark on the centre!!!Also i’d like to say thanks to the cook at the centre for making probably the best buff mo-mo’s in Nepal, always gave a good mid-week boost on wednesday lunch, and for making probably some of the best tea in Nepal!!!My last day at the centre was so special aswell, I was presented with a bunch of flowers picked from the garden around the centre and a card which had been signed by all of the staff at the centre, it was so sweet, oh and i also had to write a little message in their book!!!Generally the whole experience has been so amazing, and it was so great to see how appreciative all the parents and children were to the CP centre, honestly two of the best months in my life!!!!

If there is one thing Kathmandu is famous for its having lots of temples!! Locals are very proud to be able to say that “Nepal is the second richest country…in terms of historical artifacts”! Don’t ask us where the first is! So last weekend we ventured off to Swayambhunath stupa, also known as the monkey temple due to the number of monkeys around, and the fact that its is totaly unpronounceable for a tourist! It is a buddhist temple up on a hill, so the stairs alone took us 15 min to climb! At the top the view of Kathmandu was very impressive. We walked round the stupa in the culturally correct clockwise direction then sat in a roof top cafe for a cup of Nepali tea!

One evening this week a large group of us met to go and eat in Patan Durbar square in the evening. We had been told that it looked really nice at night when it is lit up! However there was a power cut so we just ate dinner in the dark on a rooftop!

Seeing as there have been so many holidays and days off school due to strikes, I decided to spend an extra week at the school. The last week was definetly the best!! My football skills were tested during break times, but atleast i could save a few goals!

 I finally tought the children that “Please” is a very important word!! Seeing as there is no Nepali equivalent it is a very difficult concept to understand!!

I have also sat in some older classes with another English volunteer who is actually a teacher! I was relived I was not expected to do this on my own, as I dont think I would have been able to control a class of 40 10-11 year olds!! The kids were really interested to learn about England, but sometimes they have too many questions are are constantly shouting “Sophie Miss, Sophie Miss!!” Very sweet but it makes it hard work!

On another day when we were stranded in our village due to strikes, we walked accross to the school to play volleyball and basket ball with the kids! Moo and thought we would be able to keep up with them..afterall we both did volleyball in year nine as an activity! We were very wrong! These kids clearly dont do anything else in their free time, they were all extreamly talented at both volleyball and basket ball and could even hit the ball further and shoot from further away than one of the other vounteers who is well over 6 foot!! It is deffinetly safe to say we lost the East vs West game!

Last weekend it was the Tibetan New Year, or Losar!!!It was a really fun evening which in which we went to three different parties, all of which were equally lively and fun!!!We managed to meet up again with our friend Nawang who we met on our way down to Pokhara the weekend before, so it was really good to see him and to celebrate his New Year (as he is Tibetan)!!!The night was quite a long night (didn’t get to bed till 5 am) so the rest of the weekend was fairly calm and we weren’t very active at all!!!!Note to everyone at home Tibetan New Year is definitely one to put in your calenders and celebrate in Tibetan style : )

Over the last few weeks I have spent alot of time in the nursery of the school. The classes are small but they make enough noise to make up for it! Its been hugely challenging teaching a group of five year olds how to tell the time when their English limiting, but it is very embarresing that they can understand most of what i say and in four weeks I have learnt about five Nepali words.

Every morning the children will gather in a circle to sing songs before lessons. Recenty i was asked to teach them some new ones and i struggeld to remember a nursery rhymes. Another task has been to brighten up the class rooms, so on a strike day when there were no children in school and Moo could’t go to work we sat on the roof, in the sun and coloured in pictures and wrote out poems (neiter of us knew any so we took disney lyrics of an ipod!).

As part of my placement I was lucky enough to actually go and visit the family of one of the children who comes to the centre that I am working at. The family live in a place called New Banesher Chock, so i had to get my first local bus to get there.  It was such a great experience to meet the family and see the conditions that they have to live in. Unfortunately I didn’t actually get to meet the child who has the cerebal palsy (his name is Risab), but I did get to sit and chat with the mum (her name is Shubha) and one of her other children and I found out so much stuff about Risab and when he developed the cerebal palsy, and I found out lots about the families background which was really interesting, and I am currently arranging another time to go and see them again and hopefully this time I will get a chance to meet him.  After all the visits I am hoping to right a kind of report on the family which will then be published in the centre which is very exciting, hopefully I will be able to do a good job of it!!!

Soph and I have just come back from probably our most action pack weekend to date!!We left at the crack of dawn on Friday morning to catch our bus down to the sunny area of Pokhara, wasn’t the most comfortable of bus journeys, Nepali roads are always a bit bumpy!!We managed to make it to Pokhara though in fairly good time, and also managed to make friends with a Tibetan man called Nawang, who very kindly showed us around on our arrival, and managed to get us a very cheap taxi ride to our hotel!We hadn’t actually booked a hotel before, so just picked on out of the lonely planet! When we got to the Yeti Guest House we walked into what looked like a jungle, there was no-one around at all, so we were about to go and find another hotel when suddenly the guy that ran the place jumped out of one of the trees, he’d been picking some fresh fruit for the other guests!!Immediately we thought he was a very cool dude so we decided then and there to stay!!We had our complimentary tea and chatted for a while, and the next thing we knew Kamal (the owner) was rushing off to book us to go para-gliding!!That night we we’re both a bit tired so just went out for our first western food since we’ve been in Nepal, and then went to bed!!

Saturday morning again we were up fairly early, but this time we had no problems in getting up early as we were about to be flown 3000m into the mountainous sky!!We got to the para-gliding place a bit early, so we just sat around preparing ourselves for what was about to come. We then got a mini-bus up the mountain with the instructures, who were all absolute nutters!!! Had to walk a little way aswell to get to our take off point!!Everything happened so casually, we waited around a bit until the instructures could see the birds in the sky, and then the next thing we knew we were strapped to one of the instructures and were running off a mountain!!We both thought we were going to get really scared but you actually didn’t have a chance to because everything happened so quickly!!We were up in the sky for about 45mins , and at the end got to do some para-gliding acrobats!!!After the para-gliding we felt that we should settle our stomachs again with a bit of grub, so went to one of the many restaurants in lakeside and had some food!!In the afternoon we decided that we were going to continue to be active and hired a rowing boat, and rowed ourselves out to this island in the middle of the Phew-tal lake which had a temple on it!!It was so nice and very peaceful rowing around the lake, took us a while though to actually get anywhere, we were not very co-ordinated!!In the afternoon we sat around in the ‘jungle’ at the hotel playing cards with two other guys from england staying there, which was really nice, and before we knew it there were about six of us all sitting around!!We decided that we wanted a cheap local meal that night, so went to a place down this alley which literally only had 1 table, and had yet again mo-mo’s (we are both so hooked to mo-mo’s).  After the meal we all went to a place callled Busy Bee’s, which had a live band, with a very enthusiastic guitar player who at one stage decided to jumped off the stage into the crowd, best place ever!!!

On sunday we had a bit of a lie in, grabbed some breakfast, and then caught a local bus to Devi Waterfalls!! The waterfalls were really pretty though didn’t actually have that much water as it is not the rainy season!!We then decided to go to one of the Tibetan refugee camps near the falls, and it turned out to be the where our friend that we met on the bus lived, so we called him up and he came and gave us a free tour round his home!!He showed us all the places that we probably wouldn’t have seen, we went and saw these women making carpets which was amazing to watch, got to have some serious patience to make them!!We then walked around all of the houses and watched everyone preparing food for the Tibetan New Year that was coming up, got to try some Tibetan bread which was amazing!!We then went and visited the monastry in the camp which was really nice, they to were making all kinds of things for the new year!!We then went down into the cave that was below the waterfalls which was amazing, and was the first time for are friend Nawang aswell!!We then went and had some lunch at one of the local family cafe’s. had mo-mo’s again as they are traditional Tibetan food, and whilst eating we met the Tibetan national goalkeeper!!!!In the afternoon we decided to go and walk up to the World Peace Pagoda, which according to the locals should take about 20mins, took us 1hr!!!The view from the top though was amazing and the temple was pretty amazing too!!!

On monday we decided that we were going to hire some bikes and cycle our way round the lake!!We managed to find a bike really easily and then headed off!!Initially the ride was ok, but as we got further and further away from lakeside our bums were getting in more and more pain!!!On our way aswell we got stopped by these tow little boys who just decided to jump onto the front of our bikes, so we cycled them to there home!!After about 2hrs of cycling we decided that we were in so much pain that we had to head back to lakeside for some lunch!!!In the afternoon we just relaxed around lakeside, did a bit of shopping, and discovered that the Tibetan people sell everything for such better prices!!!In the evening we actually met up with two other volunteers who had just got back from trekking around the Annapurna range!!It was really nice to see them and see all there pictures - made us want to go trekking even more!!We went to bed fairly early again that night as we were going to have to get up at 6 the next day!!!

Altogether we had an amazing few days in Pokhara, and we are definitely going to go back!!!

After meeting the travel agent that had organised our National park trip only once we were invited to his wedding. With just a days notice we were very worried about what to wear so on the morning before we hurriedly had traditional Nepalise outfits made.

Already feeling a little silly in such bright colours we had our make up down for us by another volunteers host Mum. The make up was by no means subtle and the group of us walked down the road to get a taxi standing out hugely! It was really interesting watching the wedding. The bride and groom have to carry out lots of sacrifces of money and food, while the guests just watch, chat and dance. When it was time to eat we were sat down with the bride and groom. It was bizzare as we didn’t know them but just cause we were all western it made us very important.

At the weekend a trip was organised for us along with the other volenteers to go to the largest national park in Nepal. We left early in the morning on a six hour bus journey in a damp and cold bus. However it was deffinetly worth it. We arrived to a nice but basic lodge on the side of the river. The weather was hot and sunny, and there was a weekend full of activities aranged for us. First was a visit to the Elephant breeding centre, followed by a cultural dance show in which we both got up on the stage and gave it a good. We took a relaxing boat ride through the early moring mist to begin our jungle walk, we wondered through the beautiful green jungle but unfortuatly we only saw one peakcock, a crocodile and lots of red bugs.

The highlight was deffinety the Elephant safari, we were very lucky to see Rhinos, including a baby one, lots of monkeys, dear and more peakcocks. The Mahot (elephant driver) gave us all goes at driving.

We spent the evenings by the river, around the camp fire watching the sun go down and relaxing. Bravely both of us and a few others slept out side one night very peacfully!

It was a great weekend and we hope we have more adventres to come.

In true Nepali laid back style, no one managed to tell me that the first week i was supposed to be teaching was actually the school holidays. So i spent the first few days helping in the HIV centre with some other volunteers. We spent most of our tiime just playing with the children, giving the mothers a break as they get very tired because they are quiet ill. The children though ill have alot of energy and need alot of attention. The children are unable to go to school so all the games need to be eduactional and they need to learn English.

This week I have started working in the school, but classes are very small at the moment due to petrol strikes preventing the buses from bringing them. I have mainly just been helping the teachers out, but I have taken a few classes of 6 and 7 year olds for conversatioal English on my (it is suprisingly difficult to keep finding questions to ask, and to keep the children talking). I also took a Maths class, i think i managed to get the three times table accross to them!?!

My first day at my placement was really good!!The Cerebal Palsy centre is quite a long way from our host family, so it is about a 45 minute walk there and back - should keep me fit over the next 2 months!! The walk is actually really nice, bit dusty with all the cars driving by, but the view is so nice as it is all farmland and small villages, and you can see the mountains really clearly!! The people i work with are so nice aswell, when i first arrived they were so welcoming, and immediately got me involved and working with the children, although i obviously couldn’t do all the physio on my as i’m not qualified, but i can still help, and because they all learn physio in enlgish here they can teach me themselves which is a bonus!!The day is really well structured aswell, they have two sessions a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, for each session there are roughly 10 children, although it varies a bit as all the children come in buses provided by the centre but not all of them can get it every day, so sometimes apparently there can only be one child for a whole morning!! I also get lunch at the centre which is amazing and i get given endless suplies of tea which is amazing too!! Altogether it is such a nice place to work, and i’m really looking forward to the next 2 months.

Today we finally managed to make it out of Thamel after a longer than expected wait, and headed for Patan with Shanika where our host family lived!! Before that though we went to meet Navin and Sajini who are the people in charge of Teaching and Projects in Nepal, they were both really nice. Before we went to our family we stopped at the HIV Childrens Centre, where soph is doing her second placement. We intended to stay there for only a short while, but as soon as we walked in both soph and I were pounced on by the children, and from then on we were dragged around the whole centre and played with the children for ages, we even managed to slip lunch in before we left, and because it is one of the festival’s at the momment all the vegetables that we eat must be from the earth, so they are all root vegetables, we ended up eating a purple looking vegetable - it had a very unique taste!!!! After we left the centre we headed for our host family, the area that they live in is much more remote, and there are lots of farms surrounding it, and just up from the house is a farming village, which apparently will give us a better sense of the true Nepal, rather than the tourist areas. The house is actually away from the main road, so it is more peaceful!! The people we are staying with are called Madan and Shubha, they are really nice and were so welcoming. Madan is a really fascinating man and actually went to Bath University, so he speaks really good english - which is useful as soph and I haven’t quite grasped the Nepalese language yet!!!! At the momment they have lots of people in the house because it is the school’s holiday, because as part of Madan’s work he and Shubha adopt children from the more remote villages in Nepal and he finds people to provide scholarships for them to go to the better school’s, so the house is very busy at the momment!!!! Tomorrow soph and I will go to our placements for the first time, so i’m sure we will have lots to say about them soon!!!

As we sat wondering what we were going to do trying to adapt to the Nepalise food, two other projecst abroard volenteers walked in and told us where all of the group were meeting. We went next door and suddenly there were nine of us and before we knew it we were squashing into taxis to head off to Bodthnath stupa, a buddist temple surrounded by schools for monks and lots of tinny shops. We had a drink in a small but very nice rof top cafe looking over the temple also with views of the montains. the next stop was a hindu temple called Pashupatinath, this was very morbid as cremations where taking place along the side of the river so we didnt stop for long. The evening was really god fun to as our group grew to 14, we went to a reasturant and sat round crossleged on the floor and had a whole meal and drinks for 2 pounds. As the evening got later the group shrank untill there was just the two of us and three other English volenteers in a bar continuing to share travel stories. On sunday the two of us were taken to a clinic for malnutritioned children, it was really eye opening yet everyone was really welcoming and we sat and had sweet black tea with the staff and our projects abroard guide. We spent the afternoon doing what girls do best…shopping!!! And also visitng the garned of dreams!

We wish we could upload some of the photos we have taken, but the internet connection just doesnt seem up to it. We are lucky to have come to a good cyber cafe as when there was a power cut and all the lights went out a moment ago all the computers stayed on.

We arrived this afternoon to a warm dry and very dusty city. Qatar airways exceeded our expectations by a million miles however the Nepalise at the airport had slightly more laid back approach to handeling our bagage. After over an hour of waiting we made it out and on to the crowded and dissorganised roads. We have been made very welcome in our hotel and menus were soon put infront of us, but later to be told we didn’t have a choice of what to eat! We had very detailed instructions of how to eat our dahl from the hotel staff as he sat and watched our every move!  We can’t wait till tomorrow when we can go and explore the city!

Hi! Welcome to Sophie and Moo’s gap year blog site, we are still at home but we are heading off in two months. You can read about what we are going to get up to over the year on the “About” link and we have uploaded a few picutres of our future destinations.