Quest Overseas - Gap Year Travel

Courtesy of Eugenia Pactitti, read on!

We began our expedition phase with a 5am wakeup only to be told that the bus wasn´t showing up and there was an unexpected last minute change of plan meaning that rather than trekking in the Apolobamba ranges, we were going a short 2 hour drive out of La Paz for a 3 day trek including a 5,300mt summit.

From Dom...Man vs Ant

I am writing to tell you of a tale of good vs evil. A battle between right and wrong. This is the story of the struggle between Amol and the safari ants. Before this tale unfolds we made the journey from Malindi in Kenya to Sipi in Uganda via Nairobi.

It was an early wake up at Malindi to catch the bus to Nairobi. By this time we were just about getting used to long bus journeys, however the same cannot be said for Haydn due to an unfortunate onset of what is known as ‘wee-bums'. As Haydn's bowls struggled under Immodium we journeyed to Nairobi...

"Bonjourno! Issa me, a Lorne! Ok, so because this week were in god father central, Malindi, an italian run town, ive decided im going to write the blog in Italian, or say it in an Italian accent whilst I write...

After a long 12 hour bus ride in our goggles, water wings and flippers, we finally arrived in Malindi. It was not too far from heaven. Day one was spent with us buliding sand castles and digging holes on the beach. We have only been anticipating the beach since about day 3 of the project. Sadly, whilst swimming in the sea Kari was struck down in the prime of life... stung my a jelly fish! Thankfully she survived and lived to tell the tale. Day two was when we started to learn how to dive! it was also jess' birthday! We spent the day watching videos about people diving in an attempt to teach us how to be like fish. After an intense day of learning, we went out to celebrate jessday, resulting in us washing away everything we learnt with Kenyacane (n.b not kenyan style cocaine, actually just the local spirit.)...

Here's the blog to go with the photos....courtesy of Ciara, Gen and Max - Enjoy!

We spent two weeks at Parque Ambue Ari, a welcome change of pace from laborious construction work at Jacj Cuisi.

After waking up to the sound of howler monkeys, we were all assigned our animals. These varied from monkeys to jaguars to pumas to ocelots.
Mornings consisted of daily chores, working with one of our animals until 12.30 when we had lunch and then worked from 2-5.30 with our other animal. Although everyone´s experience was different, we all enjoyed working with such beautiful animals and being out of the city and in the jungle. It was amazing the bond we made with our animals in just two weeks....

After a long and wet month in the jungle working at our animal sanctuary project, we were eagerly awaiting a detailed blog update from our intrepid Bolivia team. Unfortunately, no sooner had they arrived in La Paz were they being whisked off into the mountains for some hard core ice climbing, so no time for intellectual musings. They did have time to send a few photos though, so here's a taster for the moment.

Here they are getting ready to visit the silver mines of Potosi, trying their best to blend in with the locals...