Chapter 9 - Peru Loving - Part 1 - Lima

Life In Chile

Chapter 9 - Perú Loving - Part 1 - Lima
(June 2014)
3 Months to go 

I honestly do not know where to start with this blog post about Perú!!!!!!! It was such an incredible trip!! I am going to try and not bore you all again so here goes :) 

Our first stop was in Lima to visit our beautiful friends Mr & Mrs Woodland!! We loved being able to hang out with our amazing friends for a few days :) They were such amazing hosts and we had so much fun!   

On our first day in Perú, we went to see the government palace, 

Plaza del Armas,

a Cathedral,

and lots of bones and skulls in the Catacombs :)

After a good amount of time sight seeing, we had all worked up a mahousive appetite and after Jr & Patty had been telling us amazing things about where we were going for lunch, we couldn’t wait!!! Guess what….they were not wrong!!!! La Bistecca was incredible.  It is a worldwide buffet restaurant and boy we were stuffed after that!!!! 
We then headed to a park called Parque De La Reserva – Circuito Mágico Del Agua. It was such a beautiful water park with loads of different fountains and even a native dance show projected ontp the wall of mist - and it was also so much fun!!!! 

Of course we couldn’t finish off the day without catching up on the Britain’s Got Talent Final in our Pjs haha!! 

The next day we headed to a beautiful part of the city called Miraflores where we had a lovely bike ride along the beach side :) even if it rained haha!  

All this exercise obviously made us very hungry, so here we come CHILI’s!! 

Once our bellies were full to the brim, we headed to catch a bus tour around Miraflores where Jr attacked Josh and I by pulling a branch back and then it whacked us in the face haha!!! Of course we couldn’t finish our trip without heading to another restaurant ;) Loving life!! We headed to a restaurant called Las Tinajas - Chicken & Grill where we had our first taste of Pollo a la Brasa…. delish!!! (Although I wasn't a fan of a Peruvian drink we tried there called Chichamorada - Made from Purple Sweetcorn) 

Thank you so much Jr & Patty, we had such an incredible time and cannot wait for more fun times together. 

Love you both x

Chapter 8 - Gringos in Chile

Life In Chile

Chapter 8 - Gringos in Chile
(May 2014)

4 Months to go

What a busy time we have had recently! In the space of approximately 8 weeks we have had 6 people come to visit us here in Chile!!

First to visit were my Mum & Dad, they were with us for 10 days. We experienced our first Chorrillana from J.Cruz in Valparaiso.

It doesn't look too appetizing but it is incredible!!

I am so happy we went to this restaurant even if Mum & Dad wanted to kill us given the sketchy looking alleyway the restaurant was down haha. Thankfully it was such an incredible experience!!

Our first trip to the Thermal Springs

Our first BBQ

 Luckily, I was only working evenings so I was able to be tour guide Barbie for them haha!! I was so upset once they left!! We had so much fun!!!!! Come back please :)

Second to visit were Nathan & Teri (Our cousins :)), they were only here for 7 days, short but sweet!! They were lucky enough to have the opportunity to go quad-biking in the Andes. They were also able to tick off something from their to do list in Chile…. to have a photo with a llama!!! Haha WAHOO!! We were also very lucky enough to try our first Dominó’s hot dogs……DIVINE!

They also introduced us to the international gaming world :) We almost wish we hadn’t gone now because by the time we had got home, Josh had already looked up all the games we played to see where we could buy them from haha!!!! We loved it though, us game nerds partied hard till 1am!!

 Once again we were gutted they were leaving us so soon but we were so excited for them as they were heading to Rio De Janeiro next!!!! Well Jel!

Last but by certainly no means least, Jodie & Ben (Our brother & sister)!! Finally after more than 2 years we were reunited with Ben! Wahoo! Obviously for their first meal in Chile (like mum & dad) we had to make them try some traditional Chilean food a.k.a TACO BELL! Haha! Fortunately there was a national holiday on one of the days that they were here so Josh & I were able to both take them to Vina del Mar & Valparaiso, don’t worry Ben I’m not going to tell anyone that you fell down the stairs TWICE (ooopps too late ;)) luckily he was not hurt, we think!! Sadly, it poured it down with ran that day!

We also visited San Pedro De Atacama in the desert of northern Chile (driest in the world), which was a first for all of us! What a trip that was! We were able to experience Geysers, thermal pools, being in a desert (of course!!!), Moon Valley, a Chilean graveyard and not forgetting some of the craziest weather of our lives (a sandstorm, hurricane and SNOW!!!) It hadn’t snowed there in 13 years and it was apparently the worst snow they had seen for 70 years; of course it snowed on the weekend we went there!!)

What this selfie looked like from an outsiders perspective haha

All in all it has been incredible! We have experienced sun, wind, rain, thunder & lightning, hurricane, sandstorm & snow!! Gotta love Chile!!!

Please feel free to visit, we only charge a minimum staying fee of chocolate

;)

Chapter 7 - I Love Technology

Life In Chile

Chapter 7 - I Love Technology
(April 2014)

5 Months to go

This may seem like a random blog post but whilst being over here in Chile, my eyes have definitely been opened to how amazing technology is right now!!! We are so lucky!!

The reason I wanted to write about this topic was due to 2 experiences I have had whilst being here that have really made me LOVE how amazing technology is!!

1.     I visit a family here in Chile a few days a week and hang out with the kiddies in order to teach them some English. However, one time I had turned up to their house and the children were all out until 5.30 (1 hour and a half after I arrived at the house!!) The only other person in the house was their maid/helper who doesn’t speak English at all (let's remember I don’t speak Spanish either). This was going to be ONE LONG HOUR AND A HALF!!! After trying to connect to Wi-Fi through her phone I was able to download Google translate onto my phone. After the app downloaded we were able to sit there and get to know one another as we took turns to type and translate our conversation. To some people this may seem stupid but it made me so happy as I was able to ‘speak’ to her and learn more about her life, which I never would have been able to do without this technology!

2.     To be able to contact my family makes this time apart so much easier. I LOVE Facetime & Skype. Later that day I arrived home from work and had planned to Facetime family, not realising beforehand that it would be an evening full of non-stop talking and laughing. We were able to Facetime/Skype:

-Ryan and Emma- 2 hours (Maidstone, UK)

-Jodie-1 hour (Gloucester, UK)

-Ben-2 hours (Gloucester, UK)

-Sam, Hanna and Auntie Alison- 1 hour (Baltimore, USA)

What an evening!! On Sundays we are also lucky enough to speak to our families every week and I am also lucky to be able to Facetime my sister and Steve as well as see our little princesses and prince and how fast they are growing up! TOO fast!!  I am also able to keep in contact with my best friend Laura whilst she is partying hard in Salt Lake City.

It just amazes me how easy it is to contact anyone and everyone, wherever we are in this world!! We definitely take it for granted and are just so lucky to have this type of technology!

I LOVE TECHNOLOGY

Chapter 6 - Rio De Janeiro Part 3

Life In Chile

Chapter 6 – Rio De Janeiro - Part 3
(March 2014)

6 Months to go

Day 3

Luckily we had just planned for this to be a chilling kinda day. We had to check-out of our hotel at 12.00 but we were able to leave our bags there whilst we explored and looked for Rio souvenirs. Next to our hotel was a Havaianas flip-flops store which was amazing because the flip-flops were like £6-9 each!!!! Obviously had to buy 2 haha, loving life haha!!

We then went for a walk along Copacabana Beach where we stayed for a bit and took a few photos :)

 Then we headed over to Ipanema Beach quickly so we didn’t miss the beautiful sunset.  We had been told there was an amazing viewing point for it, and they were not wrong!!!!!! Ps this is the beach David Beckham’s Hotel was on AHHHH! But, sadly no DB L

Once Josh had had his little swim in the sea we had to rush back for our taxi to take us to the airport L

Ok, I completely am going to skip past the next part because I am so annoyed/scarred by this experience. We basically ‘missed’ our flight due to the stupid TAM Airline who claimed we were late for boarding, despite having proof that we were at the gate on time!!! Luckily a TAM/LAN air steward knew it wasn’t our fault so he helped us out and tried to make the situation we found ourselves in a teeny tiny bit better. He then missed his flight to LA to help book us on another flight for the next day for free, which was amazing! We had to stay the night in a hotel near the airport, but it meant we didn't have to spend the night at the airport in Buenos Aires, where we would have struggled to sleep, and got a delicious breakfast and dip in the pool too in the morning.  In the morning we were able to get on the flight - luckily they didn’t mess up that one - and we FINALLY arrived home!!!!

WAHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Presents for us :)