Lauren & Ian

Surviving traveling as a couple

Most single travellers we have meet have asked how Ian and I managed to travel together, particulary 24 x 7, and especially for so long. I am honest and tell them thats its all been too easy, actually. But some people just do no seem to understand this though, so I will explain more, and tell them what I think has helped. Like the following....we are older and wiser, so this probably helps with being patient, easy going and level headed. Both of us do not really get stressed and we do not take things too seriously. We know what is actually important and just what is not. We always had our own double rooms with bathroom, which meant that we had our own space, compared with having to share doom rooms with all kinds of interesting people. And we liked not rushing and taking things quite slowly, which meant that we did not get sick and tired of traveling. What can I say will be a good thing about stopping traveling. Well the only things I can think of is, not having to wear a money belt, and having a fridge and cupboards full of food that you can just go to anytime you want to eat something, instead of eating out all the time. But that is about it! I have loved traveling for the past 22 months. I have seen the most amazing places and met some wonderful people, that I hope our friendships will continue. Now, how do we manage to visit the rest of the world in our lifetimes?

What now you may ask?

Our adventure is all but over with 4 days left, (after 22 months) as we fly back to the UK on the 1st of June 2006. What happens now, you may ask? Well my application to the new UK Social Work governing body has been processed in record time, which allows me to work back in the UK, which it very good news. Just need to wait for the Police Check. Have had interest from an old employer, so hopefully something comes from this, as I need work for 10 weeks, before we head to Australia for a Wedding and a visit in September. We plan on staying with Ians old house mate in London for the 3 months that we are there, and look forward to catching up with everyone.

Map of South America

Back in Peru on the coast

In Peru now after a 30 hour bus ride from Educador. After such a big bus journey, I figured I deserved a beer!!! So my month off alcohol, (thinking that may help lose the pounds for the Wedding we are going to when we arrive back in the UK) which has only been 2 weeks so far, has seen me come off the wagon. But only for this night. And my head was very cloudy the next morning. Stayed at a place called Ica, Luguna Hucacachina 4 hours south of Lima. The small place is surrounded by huge sand dunes, which has a lake in the middle. An Oasis. So sand boarding and dune buggies were on the agenda - which was the BEST fun. Somewhat scary though, as the buggies drove up and down very steep dunes. We visited the Museo Regional de Ica, which had a lot of mummies, skulls that had been reshaped deliberately over the years, and information on the Nazca lines. Now in Nazca, having done the lines this morning, in a 4 seater plane. Felt sick as a dog, and was eyeing off the sick bag (even after setting the alarm for 6am to take a high potency motion sick tablet that takes a couple of hours to kick in, and I was wearing my acupressure bands) but it was very interesting to see many different pictures, such as the monkey, spider, hands, tree, astronaut, whale and so on. The famous, enormous geoglphs and geometrical lines and shapes cover a huge area of the desert. The monkey is 90 mtrs high, and the wingspan of the condor is 130 mtrs. They were made by removing sun darkened stones from the desert surface to expose the light coloured stones below. We now have a 12 hour overnight bus to Tacna, which in on the Peru border with Chile, as we plan on spending a few nights in Arica, on the Chilean side. It apparently has some nice beaches, and we just want to top up the tans, so that everyone back in the UK can be extremely jealous. Please note : After the sand boarding Ians camera died (yes that his second camera that he has managed to wreck whilst we have been traveling), so unfortunately we are not able to post some photos of the Nazca lines yet (assuming that they work out alright anyway!)

For a comparision, this was the steepist run, and there are people (just black dots) down the bottom of the dune. I did most of this one pratically sitting on my board because it was so steep!! My legs are still sore - 4 days later! 

Our sand buggy ride included sunset 

This is Ian finshing at the bottom of one dune - they just got steeper and steeper!!!! 

This is my first time sand boarding 

Overlooking the dunes 

Ready to go dune buggying - scary! 

Luguna Huacachina near Ica 

Guayaquil is Ecuadors largest city

Due to having to make our way down to Chile to fly back to the UK, after the Galapagos, we decided to have our return flight from the island, to the city of Guayaquil. Not many people have good things to say about the city. The waterfront however, has had loads of money injected into it, and it looks really nice. The road is called Malecon Simon Bolivar, and the waterfront has lots of walkways, gardens, features, some restaurants, cafes and fast food places, an IMAX, and some shopping hidden under the boardwalks. We only stayed the night, for the purpose of then getting a bus to Peru, the following day. We only saw this part of the city, and it was pleasant.