Sucre

As soon as we got into Sucre, Dad told us it was a world heritage site which meant it had been recognised as a special place in the world. And I will tell you this, it was as beautiful as a peacock and I mean it.

I saw heaps of white washed buildings with there windows & doors locked as securely as a turtle inside its shell. After that we went to the Charange festival (national ukelele & guitar orchestra). Some young girls of about 15 were playing like pros. A man played an armadillo. It was a dead armadillo with a hole in the bottom. In the hole there was a rattle and the conductor used it as an instrument.

For dinner we went for a Bolivian BBQ. It was weird becuase they burnt plastic in the BBQ then cooked the meat on top. (This is a little bit silly becuase when people ate the tender meat, little they know they were eating plastic fumes. by Amber) The place was packed with Bolivians. By Zahn

La Paz to Sucre

On the 14th we caught the taxi to the bus station. The taxi driver was very aggressive, and beeped his horn a lot.

After some mucking around we finally got on the bus. The bus looked as clean as a peacock. We had a little trouble finding our seats as they had been double booked. With this solved we were on our journey to Sucre. The bus driver was a purring cat and never beeped (his horn). By Zahn

We had a great bus as our bed folded out but not even an hour out of town, our bus broke down and we had to change buses. So after all the commotion, we headed off on our journed again. I settled in for the night & had a great sleep. By Amber

The toilets on the bus were locked as they didn´t want the hassel of cleaning them. Not very fair on a 12 hr trip. I bought a bottle of yoghurt and peed in this when the need arose. The heater was on full, all the windows were shut and the bus didn´t have any personal air cond vents. It quickly became quite suffocating until I convinced a french guy to open his window a little. mum & dad hardly slept a wink and were quite strung out by the time we arrived some 15hrs after we first set out. By dad.

The bus jolted to a stop. I looked out of the wind ow & found we were still 3kms from Sucre. Creak went the stairs as i went down them. by zahn.

We decided to walk to Sucre because their was a blockade. There were rocks all over the road and all the buses, trucks & passing cars had pulled over to the side of the road. After walking through the blockade we saw heaps of people protesting for better jobs. They had lit truck tyres on fire on the road and pulled over branches & rocks. by amber

Once through the blockade, which was being filmed by TV crews, we caught a small bus into town.

La Paz

This morning we woke up knowing we had all had a good sleep except me. I had had a bad dream and was yelling out gobble d gook to mum. Anyway by the time we woke is was about 10am so we zoomed to the 5th floor for breakfast.

We only got to LP last night and caught a mini bus to our hotel. as we walked into our hotel and opened the great big wide doors we saw gorgeous murals surrounding the walls of the hotel. Our mouths dropped open.

We dropped our bags off and went exploring the busy streets. One of the things we saw was the witches market. It had lama fetus´ and real dried lamas that were babies tied up by their necks. It was pretty freaky. We wandered around the bustling markets, street to street, eyeing up the lovely lama ponchos and jumpers. We walked to a nice restaurant on the cobbled streets where we had a burger & chips and mum had chicken soup, it was really delicious. By Amber (abbr)

When we got into LP the first thing we saw were alley ways weaving together like squirming snakes. We finally found our hotel.

Then we started walking along the road. We found cobbled roads. They were as bumpy as a cobbled road is. We saw many shops with everything imaginable in them, from lama fetus´and musical instruments made from sheeps toe nails. By Zahn (abbr)

Chile to Bolivia

On Monday we caught the plane to Bolivia. We had to get up at 5.15am. I was really sleepy and didn´t want to get up.

As soon as the taxi arrived we were off on our way to the airport. Then we had to wait 2 and a half hours till the plane was ready. We searched around for a place to eat breakfast. We couldn´t find a cheap enough place so we had to go to Dunkin Donuts!! I got two sweet donuts which I was amazed I was allowed. And a coke! Mum and Dad said these breakfasts were really rare for us!

Then we had to go through customs. It was a really long wait. When we finally got on our plane we got ready for our 2-3 hour long plane journey. This plane was really boring. They gave us headphones and we had a radio on our armrest.

I was next to the window. The plane finally wobbled forward and I was really excited about the plane ride now!

The plane surged forward, gathering speed every second until we lifted up into the air and we went up up up until we were above the clouds.

Through the cloud we saw desert. I was amazed. The clouds looked like fluffy whit pillows in the sky.

We finally landed, got off the plane and went into the airport. Now we had a 2 hour wait in the airport. I started reading my book, then Amber, Mum and I went off to explore the airport. We found 2 shops that sold coloured stones and there were some really cool stones that were magnets. There were heaps of them and I wondered how much they were so I asked the lady about them. I didn´t get what she was saying so I said, "Don´t worry". It turned out that you had to buy a bag. The bags were really small and you had to try to cram as many as you could into the bag. And they were about $30 NZ fo a bag ... Rip off! In the end I decided not to buy them, we went back to dad and got onto the plane.

Now this plane was to La Paz Airport. The flight was only for an hour so it was not long. We still had radios on our armrests but we did not get headphones and that was annoying.

Surging forward through the air was awesome ... except my ears kept on popping! Stupid altitude!

Then I looked out the window to see the clouds. They were HUGE!

Before I knew it the flight lady said into the microphone, ¨We are landing. Please go back to your seats and make sure that your seat is upright.¨ Then we landed at La Paz Airport ... YAHOO! - By Zahn

Today we were off to Bolivia. We flew flew soaring over the wide open grey sky. We all felt excited to head off on the next leg of our journey but felt we did not spend enough time in Chile!

In Bolivia we will go to the bustling markets. We expect them to be full of the amazing things we have read about; especially the witches market!

Our family will spend the next 2 weeks exploring Bolivia and then we will enjoy another 2 weeks in Peru. We expect Bolivia to be a very cold country, especially in the mountains where we are going.

The plane ride to Bolivia was long but quite enjoyable... although I was happy to hop off! So we landed in a town that was pretty much dead. The airport had about 20 people in it. We had to wait here for about 3 hours until we caught our next plane to La Paz. We wanted to head out of the airport and into town but it was 41 km which was too far. Then we caught an hour long flight to La Paz.

We jumped onto a minibus and headed down the hill into the sweet smell of LaPaz.

We found our hotel. It was absolutely lovely. It was decorated with murals all over the walls of the hotel. We quickly settled in. - By Amber

Auckland to Santiago

Today was amazing. We flew from Auckland to Sandiago. We were really excited and luckily Zahn and I managed to survive the long exhausting trip on the plane. We were very onto it by picking the right seats ... we got T.V. seats! When we were half way there we looked out of the window to see the great big blue sky and fluffy, giant white clouds below us.

We managed to soar onto the runway landing safely and soundly. We jumped out of the plane and ran to find the dark blue bus we would be travelling on. Zahn and I were hoping that it would be a double decker bus because there aren´t any in New Zealand. Sadly it wasn´t but to my suprise we managed to find our hotel without any help ... NOT! Finally we found our hotel, got settled into our room and went exploring. We found a small market by the zoo. we didn´t find anything to buy except candyfloss ... yum tum. After a little more walking we came across a South American reastaurant the we automatically fell in love with. We had a lovely waitress from America who had been working there for 2 days and was aiming to become fluent in spanish.

After dinner we strolled back to our hotel. Dad, Zahn and I played some pool and mum was on the computer doing our blog.

After our game of pool we headed off to sleep ready for our plane ride the next morning.

I noticed ...

1. Llamas are quite popular animals. Tourists can pay to sit on them.


2. There are lots of stray dogs on the streets and nobody minds.


3. Lots of people have handbag dogs with coats on them.


4. They hold lots of markets and festivals.


5. Everybody is lovely and always wanting to help you.


6. Many walls have paintings and murals on them.


7. Many of the restaurants have chips and burgers to sell. Lots also sell hotdogs.


8. The cars drive on the opposite side of the road to New Zealand.

By Amber

On Sunday we got on the plane to Santaigo in Chile. I was really excited because there should be a T.V. on the back off our seat and that meant I could stay up all night watching movies and playing on the T.V. The lady at the checkout told us that there wasn´t likely to be a T.V. as the planes were older. I felt really really annoyed. We finally got into the plane ... there was a T.V. because the plane was a new Airbus 9320. Yahoo!!! It was fun staying up all night.
When we landed we got off the plane and went out off the airport. My feet were all dirty for being in the plane for 15 hours.Overall I thought that was one of the better plane rides. We were flying with LAN airlines and they were really awesome!

I noticed ...

1. Chillean people lock their houses securely.


2. They are really nice.


3. Chips are common.


4. They like llamas.


5. People here eat alot of pork.


6. Beer is sold in big bottles.


7. There sren´t alot of beggars.


8. There are a lot of cracks in the road.


9. Pet dogs wear clothing.


10. There are alot of stray dogs.


11. Their candyfloss is really nice.


12. Most people have brown skin.

By Zahn

Our first day in Chile

As we jumped on to the bus and headed into Santiago it was great to get a feel for the area we were heading into! We couldn´t help but notice the similarities between Asia and South America ... dry open plains and make shift homes and street stalls. Plastered two storied homes lined the main road with rather simple abodes further back!!

Our thoughts on Santiago thus far ...

• The gorgeous Chilean people have been so helpful and happy to help - Amber
• There aren´t many Chilean Pesos to the US dollar. - Zahn

In the crowded bustling markets ....

• there were heaps of make shift shops crammed onto small sites.
• the candyfloss was a beacon to my tastevbuds, calling me to devour it with its soft fluffy texture

Some differences we have noticed so far ..

• there are lots of dogs on the streets. They are very relaxed though. - Pete
• PDA is ok in public. We are in the university area so there are a lot of young people. It seems ok to kiss etc in public.
• all of the houses and businesses are locked up securely with high iron fences. - Zahn

South America - July 2011

Tomorrow we leave for

... South America!!!

Well it certainly was a rush ... organising plumbing, school, home and family. We were incredibly relieved when we made it to the airport ... and with time to spare!!

I think we will need to leave Auckland Airport before it all feels real!! - Nicki

I´m really excited but am really not sure what to expect - Amber

I think it is going to be an awesome trip and I will have some great experiences - Zahn