Of course we have tried to ensure we spend plenty of “play” time with family and friends – work hard, play hard. We ended 2008 with a successful New Years Eve games extravaganza with some great friends. Pictionary girls vs boys is always the main event with much bending of the rules and it wouldn’t be complete without someone (you know who you are) drawing phallic symbols of some kind.

Brian’s new toy for Christmas is a chain saw, a much needed item with a reasonably wooded 2 acres. Of course he was not allowed to use it on the Christmas tree. 

We’re both currently completing a couple of months of PT to “re-kickstart” an exercise regime. Our new slogan for PT is “PT – the place where they make YOU earn their money”. We don’t have any trekking adventures coming up at this stage but for Peta it’s mainly to get a head start on the BRW Corporate Triathlon training. The event is in April again this year with Peta completing the event in 2008 as her maiden triathlon (400m swim, 10km bike, 4 km run). Brian even managed to snap a picture of Peta transitioning from the bike to run leg with Emma Snowsill – side by side running, well one of them was running – Peta is thumbs up, all smiles for the camera (what race? Am I meant to be competitive or something?) and Emma was already “leaning” into the turn of the corner. Only their mother could tell them apart .

For those that have not seen it yet, here is a link to our Christmas video for 2008 from Brian, Peta, Jerry, Jacky and The Ref.

Wishing everyone a successful 2009 and hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

Team Kealey out …. and off to float in the pool and enjoy the remainder of the New Years Day public holiday.

So, from experience we can now strongly recommend against trying to move over Christmas/New Years holidays. We have been packing, gardening, cleaning and finishing our landscaping/renovations almost around the clock for the last month and we are definitely over it.

That said, as the time draws near for our move (settlement on the 15th of January 2008!), we are starting to get a bit excited.  The place is our dream home and we just couldn’t go past it once we saw it.  The photo’s on the ‘Net are great, but we think its better “in the flesh”.  We have had a goal of moving to this neighbourhood for nearly 10 years so we decided to jump at it when we saw this place after we got back from South America.  After a month or so of negotiations, we were the lucky buyers!

[[Show as slideshow]]
Mouse over the picture to show the controls to view other pics of our new home….

Anyway, this won’t get the study packed so I better get back to it.  See you in Samford in 2008!

B&P

Actually, my lack of packing skills is legendary in our house.  Last night was reminiscent of a scene from Jerry McQuire.  "Help me to help you Brian" was mentioned in respect to getting the right shirts ready. I made a much harder task of packing than it required, about 30 minutes of packing and about 6 hours of procrastination.  Sorry Peta, a public apology for me being a tool when it comes to packing is in order.

So, today’s post comes to you from the smoky city of Los Angeles (LAX airport actually) due to their current bushfires and the associated "state of emergency".  That’s right jet setters, I am posting this from the Alaskan Airlines "Boardroom Lounge", the local equivalent of the Qantas Club.  As a QC member, we get access to the lounge and I think its better than the Qantas Club.  Better decor, better service and the absence of the other 300 grumpy buggers and the obligatory screaming baby or three is fine with me.  Its nice and quiet, only 20 or so guests and a few staff.  Then again, it is 9am here and its probably just as bedlam as QC in the PM.  Anyway, I have a bit of work to sort out so its adios amigos from BK, see you all in a week!

Our South America adventure was a great one and our heads are still spinning trying to absorb all that we did and saw over the past 5 weeks.  One of the most common thing we saw was airports!  Our travels saw us in airports 23 times (in/out of 12 different airports). 

We now have the task of sorting through approx 3000 photo’s (between digital and film from our SLR) to decide which ones qualify to go on the website.  Hope to have this all sorted by the end of the week for your viewing pleasure.

Our Spanish lessons beforehand paid off.  While we are nowhere near fluent, through nouns and verbs we were able to communicate.  We plan to continue our learning for future travels.  When we landed in Sydney after nearly 30 hours of travelling time since we left Rio, the brain turned back flips wondering what time of the day it was and how to say hello .. “hola, buenos dias/tardes/noches, allillanchu” and strangly enough “hello” came into your mind last. 

Here’s some other things we forgot to mention in our blogs:

• Brian’s bike crash - that’s right, we both managed to prang a pushie …. the day we were leaving Galapagos Islands, we borrowed the very worn out push bikes from the hotel to duck down to the post office.  As we reached an intersection at the top of the hill Brian stood up on the pedals to turn the corner and “bang”, his chain came off and he somersaulted over the front handle bars into the middle of the oncoming traffic.  It was very slow motion … you saw him tuck his shoulder under to dive roll and come up on this feet.  A dismount worthy of an 9/10.  Of course this was before the Inca Trail and we were very worried about his back when this happened (he was feeling a little tender afterwards, maybe a little pride induced) but his back came good on the trail.  Of course he was my knight in shining armor because the bike he was on was the one I had first but we swapped.  What a husband!
• The children of South America, even in the most remote places were the same as children all over the world.  Happy with what they had whether that was a soccer ball, empty coke bottle on a string or throwing broken cds (we hope they were broken) like frisbies and turning into tantrum throwing tots when necessary.  Hey, who doesn’t like a good tantrum !  Always fun to watch when the child is not with you.
• Brian being the one constantly stared at, especially in Rio!!!  ha ha ha !!!  In most of South America I think it was because of his height, for me most of the people were around the same height as me which was great. 
• The Starbucks Pilgrimage – we have recently joined the ranks of the World Tour of Starbucks challenge (thanks Ash & Annemeike) where you must take your photo outside an “on the street” Starbucks (malls & airports don’t count).  We found two on the street Starbucks in Lima on one in at the airport in Santiago.  And yes, no matter where it is in the world, inside a Starbucks all looks the same (except for the language on the menu).
• And lastly, the Corona beer index study.  Firstly, it wasn’t as widely available as many of the countries have their own (like Cusquena in Peru which tastes quite similar to Corona).  But the average price in hotels/pubs was US$2.75 and yes, they served it with lime.  Even The Ref (our travelling Rugby referee jersey wearing bear, no doubt you’ve seen his picuture) had his picture taken in Lima Peru in a shop with a six pack of Corona to record the price – $23.10 Peru Sols equal to approx US$8 !!

We’ve been asked a few times what was our favourite thing.  Hard to decide when we experienced so much but we both agree the Amazon was hard to beat.  Galapagos runs a close second (not number one due to sea sickness!) and Peru was just magical.  Seeing the Inca ruins and understanding how they were made without machinery is just mind blowing.  We managed to see all types of terrains on this trip – beach, mountains, snow, mountains, islands, ocean, mountains and jungle.  Would we go back to South America again? – in a flash.  But it’s very unlikely we’ll opt for more travels involving trekking at altitude.  We’re proud Australians and happy to live in a country with “no worries mate” about altitude sickness (our highest mountain Kosciuszko is only 2228m high).  Next big potential trek for Team Kealey …. the Kokoda trail.

A big thank you to our friends and family that helped look after our home and our babies while we were away.  A special thank you to Jan who stayed at our place for the entire time.  It was a pure joy to come home knowing that everything was cared for and even better maintained than when we’re home.  You are an angel.

So it’s Team Kealey out for our South America journey.  Back to our exciting lives and on to the next adventure!

Hasta luego Suramerica !

Our 5 nights of recovery in Rio flew by so fast.  Who knew that “leisure time” could pass by in the blink of an eye even when you’re paying US$300 a night!! 

That’s right, forget cheap holiday destination in Rio people – we think we spent about the same in spending money on the rest of our trip as we paid for the 5 nights, meals, tips, souvenirs, doctors bills (more on that in a moment) on our 5 nights in Rio.  But it was worth every cent.  We were very relaxed and ready to come home after the wind down.

Our hotel was very nice – Ipanema Plaza.  It’s one of the better known hotels in Rio, only one block from the Ipanema beach.  We stayed on their suit floor called the Ipanema Floor so we had a little more space to spread out during our stay.  Just the luxury of not having to unpack, repack for 5 nights was pure bliss.  Meal times in the hotel was a funny affair.  In true Aussie style we’d turn up in boardies and t-shirts (but with our very stylish Teva trekking sandals) and everyone else all dressed up.  When you’re limited with packing space for trekking holidays you’re lucky to have one or two shirts with collars so a collared shirt with jeans was dressed up for us.  Our dressed down casual air paid off as the staff thought we were great and there was lots of hand shaking and farewells on our last night with “sorry to see you go” and “see you next time” remarks.

We spent a small amount of time on the beach in Ipanema, mostly walking up and down the beach.  We are both not really into sunbaking (we were already sunburnt thanks to anti malaria medication – effectiveness of suncreme is reduced when on anti malaria medication – we both have classic trukkie t-shirt tans) and the water was freezing!  The air temperature was nice (mid twenties) and we should have realised the water was freezing as no suntanned beauties were in the water – only the stupido turisto’s.  We braved the water on the morning we were leaving so we could say we went in – I went in first and my lips and finger nails turned blue in about 1 minute.  Brian only stayed in for about 2 minutes and when he came back out asked me why I didn’t tell him he’d have to push the penguins out the way first!   Our hotel had a tent where we could get towels and sun lounges and stare into the Atlantic Ocean and wonder what the poor people were doing.  There was a little bit of beach eye candy but most of the eye candy was best for man on man viewing.  After all, Rio is well known for it’s gay community and it was abundant on the beach, lots of swollen bodies in short-shorts.  But as expected we were very overdressed for the beach – boardies for Brian and tankinie for me – most bikinies were just enough to cover the important parts and not quite g-string but almost.  The guys were mostly in lycra style boxers.

At night time you’re entertained by the street musicians and local capoeira enthusiasts.  That was a funny site to see as they would block the traffic on a one way street, some one else would be playing a drum and/or tamborine and then others would be doing backflips, jumps and kicks up and down the road.  Cars would be blasting their horns to get them to stop so they could drive through.  An amazing symphony of sounds, excitement and entertainment.

On our second day in Rio we did a city tour called Rio by Jeep.  It took us all over the city (down town, Corcovado, Tijuca Forest, favelas and finishing with a drive along the beach fronts).  It was nice to go and see the Christ the Redeemer statue on Corcovado but it was very busy with tourists.  Rio is a city that has large gaps between it’s wealthy and poor.  On the drive too and from the airport you see a lot of poor housing areas and pollution.

Of course we went to Copacabana beach too, well I did.  Brian spent this day in a doctors/hospital.  Nothing too serious but he had not been well for a couple of days and after he had a fever we thought it’s time to get to the doctor so he would be well for the flight home.  They did some tests and declared he was dehydrated so he had 4 litres of fluids and medicine intravenously.  All up the doctors visit took the best part of 5 hours.  The surgery was at Copacabana so once Brian was onto his second litre I ducked out to take some snaps of Copacabana beach, pick up some souvenirs and have some lunch.  On my “all by myself Copacabana adventure” I even managed to get kicked out of a bank!  Went into to a bank to use their ATM and I think the message in Portuguese was “sorry you cannot use our ATM unless you are a customer”.  Showed them my credit card and told no again and guided to the door.  Was very funny as the white tourist was escorted from the Bank of Brazil.

In all, Rio was fun and the ice cream was to die for.  No gluten in their ice cream (that’s right in Australia, most ice creams have gluten) so I made the most of it and had ice cream every day.  We also enjoyed a few glasses of the local cocktail (as had become our tradition in every country we visited) called caipirinha.  Very refreshing drink - white rum served with lime and sugar on ice.

The main adventure in Rio was the language.  Having been in Spanish speaking countries for the rest of our trip and arriving in Brazil where our Portuguese was non existent was very interesting.  Few spoke broken English but in the end we managed through grunts, hand signals and “Spanlishguese” … a combination of all three. 

Adeus Rio !

You had very mixed emotions on the journey with feelings of solitude with the herders yet strength and admiration for their way of life.  The highlight on the bus ride was at one of the stops when Brian convinced a young boy to kick his soccer ball around with Brian.  Luckily we’d already completed the Inca Trail at that point otherwise I’m sure Brian would have passed out from lack of oxygen.

After our night in Puno (at the most luxurious hotel we’ve stayed at in Peru) we were up at 6.30 am to leave for our boat to explore the islands on Lake Titicaca.  (Lake Titicaca is the highest navigatable lake in the world at 3800 m altitude).  Our transport to the boat was via local tri-shaws and was a huge adrenalin surge – Brian didn’t need his regular caffine hit that morning! 

The first islands we visited were the famous floating reed islands.  We had a demostration on how they are built, then a dress up party into some traditional native dresses, followed by some mandatory fleecing of the gringos for the native wares for sale.  On the second floating island they even had a cafe and telephone!  The islands also had holes in the centre where they stored the fish they caught (trout or kingfish) for consumption later to keep it fresh.

Next is was 3 hours to Amantani Island where we were met by our local family mother, Vilma.  In pairs we were distributed to a family to experience their way of life and they fed us and had rooms especially prepared for us.  Our family was very nice.  Both the mother & father were our age but with 3 children – son Kevin 14, daughter Emily 10 and another 2 year old daughter (unfortunately the fathers name and youngest daughters name were lost in translation).

Our families home was made of adobe bricks and the main house (where we slept) was also rendered.  The kitchen and dining room was in a seperate building (a little wood fire stove where our mother patiently prepared our meals) and of course a seperate bano (toilet).  The buildings were all built by our father who’s main job was agriculture.  They houses had solar power and the father was building a new toilet and shower building.  Our bedroom had 2 single beds with 4 blankets each.  They were of natural fibres and so heavy that I needed Brian to help get them off me in the morning.  I think I was 5 inches slimmer side ways in the morning.

Some of the highlights were:

• Walking up to the peak of Pacha Tuta (father) mountain at 4100 m altitude with a 360 degree view of Lake Titicaca at sunset (we’ve uploaded the pictures of this, it was an amazing sight)
• Watching the mothers/ladies knit as they walked or herded sheep with up to 5 needles at one time
• 6 a side Soccer at approx 3800 m – Peru vs Sweden backpackers.  The Swedes had about 50 interchanges and so were kicking the Peru teams butt.
• Another dress up the gringos opportunity but this time for a local blue light disco (except you could buy beer if you wanted).  Lots of laughs and weezing when you are dancing at approx 4000 m altitude with all the heaving traditional native clothing on.  Brian & I had fun dancing with our mother Vilma and little sister Emily.
• Our baby sister being in awe of the tall giant gringo with his 8 day growth beard (most native men do not have any facial hair).
• Lunch the second day on a cliff looking over the Lake, eating fresh trout wondering what the poor people were doing.
• When we got back to Puno having a shower and bath and celebration dinner with our tour group as we were all parting ways the following day.

We are currently in Lima airport waiting for our flight at 00:35.  Not long now till boarding so hopefully that brings our trip up to date.  This is Team Kealey signing out from “God’s Rock Garden” aka Peru until Rio !!  When my baby …..

Many of the buildings are built on Inca temple foundations – the carved stones fit snugly together without mortar.  It is an astonishing site to see given the Incas did not have steel tools, instead shaped the stones with sand and other stones.  Some of the stones are enormous, up to 150 tonnes!  And in many cases the quarries were many miles away.  The Incas did use mortar between the stones but only if the building was not a temple or place of high importance.  Many will know that we have on our “yard plans” to build a gazebo over the other side of the creek amongst the garden.  I declared to Brian in front of witnesses that now the gazebo needs to have Inca temple foundations.  His reaction was worth it.

Our tours in Cusco took us through many villages.  They build their houses out of adobe bricks (mud & straw).  A two storey 3 bedroom house costs them around $1,000 USD for the adobe bricks, eucalypt timber and clay roof tiles.  (That’s right, eucalypt trees were introduced to Peru from Australia in the 20th century). Being remote, the windows and doors are scarce and expensive and cost them the same price or more than the cost of the house and roof.  So obviously if a window is broken by someone playing soccer or the like they are disinherited!  As a result many of the windows/doors are boarded up with adobe until the family can afford them.  The average wage is $150 Peru Soles per month (this is approx $50 US) so it can take a while.

We also visited many cathedrals where the native artists were hired to paint the murals by the Spanish after they conquered Peru.  This process was part of the education and training of the natives in the Catholic religion.  As a result the paintings we would normally see anywhere else around the world had quite a native spin on them.  For example the Last Supper – the main course in the centre of the table was Coy (guinea pig, a common food source in Peru) and Judas was depicted as a native Inca, dark skin and other features.  Also the painting of the 3 Wise Men showed their camels as half llama, half horse as the natives had never seen a camel.  Also, to ensure the natives associated their worship of the Mother Earth (Pachamama in the native tongue) with the Catholic religion the Virgin Mary is always depicted in a triangular style dress to depict a mountain.  The purpose of this was to convince them that the Catholic religion also worships the earth.  As a result the Virgin Mary is revered above Jesus in Peru.

Cusco was an amazing city with so much to see.  We only had 3 nights in total there throughout our Inca Heartlands Tour and could easily spend a month and still have more to see.  After a few days you get use to the “one soles`please, you want restaurante, no maybe tomorrow, you want alpaca hat and gloves, you want tour?” and of course the contant beeping horns.

Some funny moments:

• Brian being “born” from their teeny, tiny taxies (half a Daihatsu Charade),
• Pisco Sour high fives – one Picsco Sour at altitude is the equivalant of 3 cocktails at home, 
• Beautician heating up wax on alcohol burner on footpath prior to ripping out my underarm hairs very slowly, apparently slower is considered more effective by Inca decendants,
• Brian having Coy for dinner – served whole for photo opportunities and then they cut it up for very, very slow consumption, many small bones.

 That’s all for now, adios amigos. Team Kealey out.

Tomorrow we leave for town of Puno in Peru for the Lake Titicaca part out of our Inca Heartlands Tour.  Leaving the hotel at 7 am by bus for an 8 hour trip including stops along the way to visit more Inca archaeological sites. The stone work/masonry never gets old.

Today was a rest day so it was time for laundry (8 kgs worth) shoe shines (our boots were a little worse for wear after the Inca Trail), posting home our purchases so we don´t blow out our luggage limits and goodbyes with people from our tours who are either heading home or off for some different adventuring to us.

So it´s Team Kealey out until Lima Peru.