The start of a new millennium, and the start of a "new way" for our expeditions. The internet was by now in full force both in the UK and South America, and travel to this continent was starting to become a little more accessible - tourist trails were beginning to become tourist motorways... This was making our once intrepid expedition a little more mainstream, we couldn't be having that! So, teams and expedition leaders were given the challenge to head off the beaten track and see what they could find which was new and exciting. Of course, some things from the old expedition were there to stay - how can you go to Peru and not visit the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu for example - but this year, tales of ice climbing, attending female Bolivian wrestling tournaments, rafting down nearly never visited Amazon tributaries etc. were coming in thick and fast to the office, they must have been impressed.

Well, the office was impressed of course, but we were celebrating a new era as well. Perhaps not such an extreme pursuit but an equally mind boggling one at the very least... everyone in the Quest office had become hooked on Neighbours! Yes, it's true. The pressures of hearing all these crazy new adventures going on thousands of miles away made us decide we needed a temporary escape from the adrenaline, if only for 25 minutes a day. And let's be honest, what is more adrenaline free than the tales of Howard and Lou in the coffee shop, Carl and Susan with their pet sheep and the ever so soothing bark of bouncer the dog?!

(On that note, if you do ever call at lunch time and you get the answer phone, you won't get any prizes for guessing why that is now!)

Back to South America though. Our project in the shanty town of Villa Maria had expanded beyond the bag of crayons and footballs, and children were being given the chance to take part in all sorts of skills workshops and after school groups. One of the more popular ones was the stage performing classes teaching dance choreography, clown sketches etc. all with the idea to show it off to the entire community every Sunday on stage. This gave our teams the idea to add to the Sunday shows, and a group of skinny sexy 19 year old fellas took to the stage and danced their version of a Backstreet Boys number - for just five minutes in the dusty south of Lima, Backstreet Boys WERE back!

We previously mentioned changes to the expedition but that some things were there to stay. This doesn't mean that some groups weren't stepping away from the text book there as well. One group, led by the notorious "Mad Dan", were inspired to make their way to Machu Picchu all dressed in tailor made suits. The lost Inca city is always an awe inspiring sight, but even more so with ten "Men in Black" donning rucksacks strolling through it.

(this set the scene for an ongoing competition for the most outrageous photo at Machu Picchu, if you ask us, we'll show you most of them, but some have been hidden away forever...)

We couldn't talk about the year 2000 without mentioning the never tiring leader Matt Powell. Never tiring in a number of ways, he never tired of leading our expeditions in South America, he never tired of telling the same jokes, he never tired of pulling the same pranks. One group this year though managed to turn the tables on him. When pulling out a selection of delicious English chocolates in the middle of a trek, with the plan to sell them at hugely inflated prices, the group were ready for him. They had saved up a handful of false notes which had been handed over to them over the past few months, and so happily offered to "buy" the lot. Matt was so delighted at the prospect of selling all his wares that he didn't notice the wool the group were pulling over his eyes - maybe time to come up with some new jokes Matt...?!