Confirmed!

Yeaaah  \o/


All booked and confirmed! 16/04 - 07/05 we are travelling to Peru and a bit of Bolivia! Yeeeah! Flights booked and all confirmed, it was the most expensive flight I ever paid for, but it worth every penny! Flying from London through Miami and landing in Lima. A three weeks journey that will end up in La Paz, Bolivia. In the process of fixing an itinerary, it is almost decided and we will also leave some to find out there..

After staying few days in Lima we will move towards the south coast to the cities of Pisco and Ica. The plan says to experience sandboarding on some massive sand dunes just off the Pacific ocean. They say it is not as quick as snowboarding but certainly worth a try! From there, we will head to the city of Ayacucho, it will be the Holy Week and pilgrims arrive from all over the country. There are big festivities, lots of colours and lights and of course catholic colonial churches. Using another bus we will reach Cusco high up in the Andes. From there we want to get into the jungle, to the Parque Nacional Manu. Roads are very basic, so we may trek, raft, or even fly on light planes to move around..  On the way back, we think to trek to Machu Picchu, an UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the new seven wonders of the world. It will be majestic..

Machu Picchu_The Temple of the Sun

However, there will be so much more than Machu Pichu. After exploring the Incas sacred valley we will take the Andean train to Juliaca and Puno. We will visit lake Titicaca and maybe take boat rides to the lake islands. Few days around and then we'll enter Bolivia from either Cobacabana or Desaguaderos. It will be amazing! I wanted to trek Colca canyon and the colonial city of Arequipa but that will make the trip going back and forth and the buses take ages to arrive to their destinations. I am confident we have a good plan and will do and see what one must see when travelling that region. A Gmap of the locations we will most likely visit is created at the link below

Draft itinerary

Any of you been there, done that, please come in contact for some tips, some dos and donts! I have done some research but taking info by someone been there, it's definitely a plus!

May the force be with you! 

d-_-b

Nektarios~

Winter-e-sting

Hi pps (from pips, for people(s))


How you doing all? Howz life for you out there?


I'm writing you from the sofa, late saturday night, listening to best radio after hours and enjoy the very moment. Outside it's windy and cold and uninviting to go out and about.. It's one of those nights that I love, that I spend for me, to listen music, to read, to blog, to think! Weeks passing by so quick, meet people, work, commute, receive the impacts for survival and have no time to stop and stand and look around me. Things around us are fluid, we change as our people around us change, learn from each other. Interesting changes is what I am up for, and in this case 'winter-e-sting' sounds more appropriate as the winter still goes on. So much information around us, we need to stop and process it. I believe this is so important and I feel grateful I can have few of those moments from time to time.

It is great, I have a house for myself for a week, my housemates gone for ski and I left to take care the house, the cats (and myself). I have connected my vaio to the soundsystem wirelessly and I can listen to all my collection easily. I got also a new blackberry phone (courtesy of Nik the Cret :) and I am delighted after sometime I now have some new technology to play with.

Work is moving well, it is the end of the school's project soon and I am full on completing energy efficiency reports for the remaining schools. Site visits have finished and I was a bit sad when finished my last (51st) school visit. I'm gonna miss this hyperactivity I used to see every day. Anyhow, we tender for another 15 so you never know! I have now put in line my CEng registration, it's something that simply needs to be done/achieved within this year. I feel ok and kind of appreciated at work and that gives me power in my hands. Of course I keep an eye around for maybe the big change..

I am also happy to announce the short film we did with Deep C is now out live, bit dissappointed, it was supposed to be a little more 'cinematic', more like a story telling however the editor decided differently; I also find the voice of the narrator not so great. It is still nice and includes some nice shots from late night London. The clip is called 'Cutting through complexity' and is for kpmg's eu annual report, futured content on their website. Load it below:

http://annualreport.kpmg.eu/

The big 'thing' is not really this though. Is the trip that is underway and it's going to be an amazing one! I have already my Lonely Planet purchased along with the local language phrasebook. We will most likely spend three weeks, and it coincides with the royal wedding and easter public holidays in uk so I can go for longer with less leave. The plan is to arrive in the capital and move/explore the region, enter to the neighboring country and fly back from there. There are so many to do and discover and I think three weeks will be juuust enough... We are still on a research and planning phase, it needs some coordination as three people from three different places/countries meet to a fourth. I will hopefully post details on the next post where everything will be kind of settled.

I can't waiiiit, this is a purely explorative trip, no work involved as the previous one, the place and nature are just majestic. Hmmm, I can't say it yet (even some of you already know), need to book it first, I can only say the predominant fauna this time instead of yak will be llama. :)



Be well


Nektarios~