Quest Overseas - Gap Year Travel

Six weeks all crammed into a few lines, prepare yourselves...

The private bus journey from La Paz to Rurrenebaque consisted of 18 hours of extreme Bolivian Boy Racing around cliff edges. ´Sit on the left´ is the advice is you want to stare death in the face. Suprisingly only one Questy member hurled, whether this was due to fright, distinct lack of bus suspension or a lunch of sweaty cheese and warm yogurt , remains a mystery. A night in Rurrenebaque, followed by a nicely stable canoe across the river and an hour in the back of a pick up truck; 13 questies, 13 big rucksacks and daysacks, a fair few Bolivians, topped off with wire cables and cement bags, comfort went out the window.

JACQUSI

We got thrown ´head first´ into the deep end; no electric, no running water, interesting toliet, and the much loved "shack". "The shack" as referred to, was to be our home for the following 3 weeks, in which many a memory was shared. The shack however was not just our home, o no, it was also home to huge spiders, a family of bats (that particularly enjoyed playing "who can crap on your head") and Gordon (the resident cockroach).

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Having finished trekking in the Colca Canyon, we headed back to Arequipa where in order to recover from the strain of the trek dinner took place at ZigZag, where we compensated for the lack of meat consumed over the last four days by each devouring steaks. Drinks afterwards lead us inevitably to "deja vu" where the aces and pains of the trek were danced away.

Latest news from the field.

The whole of the team were exhausted after the Apolobamba trek and ready for some time to relax. However our fearless leaders had something else in mind for us! After a 6 part transit day into Peru we felt very much immersed in the expedition phase of our travels. We entered Peru in the best possible fashion driving along side Lake Titicaca.

Now they're coming thick and fast, keep it up guys!

Our next blog entry finds us on a long bus from Ambue Ari to La Paz, having finished the project phase of our trip. It was strange to leave the now familiar confines of the rainforest and be thrown headlong into the ways of city life, although many of us were craving a warm shower and a good feed. Having made it through the pitches of a man attempting to sell us some sort of anti-parasite powder, we arrived in La Paz at around 9am to greet Rob, our leader for the expedition phase. After a quick pep talk about what we were to expect in the next few weeks, we went out to lunch and gorged ourselves on a delicious curry, something we had seen hide nor hair of in all our travels. That evening, after getting kitted out for the next few days we had a Mexican to utterly finish off our spice free taste buds and then took an early night.

Written by two people known as Thumble and Josh (...). It's actually 4 weeks after they did this, but better late than never!

When we arrived at Parque Jacj Cuisi, hot and sweaty after our truck ride in sitting on metal poles and holding onto a pram, it signaled the start of our month long project phase. The month was to be spent in two parks; Jacj Cuisi, where we were working on construction, and Ambue Ari, our animal reward. Some of us settled into our new accommodation better than others, with an eventful first night - one man in his pants, with a plastic bag against (in Doc's eyes) the worst Mother Nature could throw at us and Stephen Fry's soothing voice lulling us to sleep with tales of Hogwarts.