What's been happening we here you ask!

... well we have had the keys to our pad for some time now (6 weeks yesterday in fact!) and it is really surprising what we have achieved. We really will put some photographs on here soon so that you can all see the before and after shots. In 6 weeks we have.....
Removed all built in cupboards.
Removed all the polystyrene ceiling tiles, in fact we had done this by wedenesday of our first week.
Removed the first layer off wallpaper throughout, almost removed all remaining layers, only 50cm squared left of the stuff in the lounge, woo woo woo!
Removed horrible gas fires and attractive fire cladding, which will be sorely missed
Removed upstair stinky carpets.
Removed kitchen
Knocked out a wall (only a small airing cupboard wall, but it sounds good!)
Had re-wiring done
Had central heating put in
Fixed rotten flooring in extension
Layed ceramic tiles in Kitchen
Re-plastered patches in kitchen and extension
Painted ceilings and walls of extension.
Scraped many walls and ceiling off flaking paint.
Built new kitchen units.

Loads really!!!!!!!! But annoyingly Jonny's whopping great big job list chart doesnt seem to have many ticks on it!

What have we been up too?

Since we have been back so much has happened. It has been slightly crazy really! In the first 2 weeks we had bought a house and a car! 2 major purchase in 2 weeks was pretty good going we thought.
We have bought a ‘next stage in our married life car’ car, it is a 5 door child friendly car with vivid patterned seats ready for those spillage’s that occur when transporting mini tinkers. Izzie, our lovely niece, has already successfully traveled in it, her twiglet finger prints not showing up on the vibrant patterned chairs! Woo woo woo!

Our house is best described as a project. The house has some beautiful carpet and décor, a really delicious bathroom, a gorgeous kitchen, really beautiful fake wooden clad chimney breast, fantastic polystyrene ceiling tiles on all ceilings, a useful asbestos shed, varying styles and material of windows, 1960’s electric and an interesting arrangement of gas fired heaters. (Some of the positives here may have to be taken with a pinch of salt as we may be being slightly sarcastic!)
However there are several very exciting feature that our house has, stairs being one, 3 bedrooms and room for a dining room table.
No more clambering over the sofa to sit comfortably on a deckchair at the table when you come to the Selby’s house for dinner!
The most exciting thing of all though, is that it has potential to be a lovely family home for the Selbsters. And as it says on Nat’s CV her favourite phrase is ‘I’m going to set you a challenge’ and indeed with this house she has!
We have been thinking that it would be nice to document our struggles and triumphs on our journey of turning our home from just plain old okay to absolutely lovely, and thought perhaps we would utilise this ‘ere blog! So watch this spot…

Some thoughts as we arrived back
As we flew over the beautiful southern coast of our lovely country we cheered to think that we were back. As we landed we discussed what we would likely to experience within a short time of arrival, and Jonny and I were right about many things!
A cadbury’s vending machine, mints offered to us in the car, marmite sandwiches (actually waiting prearranged for us at the airport ,we were so in need of our marmite fix) green fields, safe driving, British pubs (Phew at last!), and flushing toilets. Woo woo woo!

We thoroughly enjoyed our traveling experience. It has brought Jon and I so much closer. We have experienced many new challenges, realised our own, and each others, strengths and weakness and learnt so much about the people and places we share this World with.
There were many times when I wished I was home, but I am thoroughly grateful for the time we had to do this and know that it has changed who I am.
One thing we have both realised during our time away, is that although the UK has many faults, there are some things we do not wish to change. We do live in a trully beautiful country!

We want to continue to travel and explore the World.
Our next country is the UK!

We have made our own list of things we would like to do in England, deciding to go ‘The Lonely Planet’ free way. We were embarassed when we spoke to some people during our time away at how little we really knew our own country.
So here is just some of our list, that we intend to so that we can say we have done England:
1)Stone Henge,
2)The pudding club. A pub here in the Cotswalds that allows you to sample some of the traditional English pud’s and vote on your favourites. Bring it on!
3)A comedy club
4)Wimbledon
5)Hot air balloon ride with champagne breakfast
6)A Premier football game
7)An England Rugby match
8) The magical mystery tour in Liverpool
9)Cambridge punting down the river
10) Blackpool

COLUMBIA … for a day … as you do …
You might want to accuse us of just trying to bag another country and get another passport stamp.
And you would be absolutely right! Yep! Guilty as charged!
We have had many discussions on what constitutes "bagging a country". Over 24 hours, slept one night, stepped out the airport, bought some coffee. However you calculate it we have done Columbia!
For the second time in our 7-month trip we booked our accommodation in advance! It was great to be picked up at the airport and we had fun chatting in broken Spanish on the drive to the hostel.

The next morning Jonny went off to the gold museum and in true Latin American style was given some very unrealistic timing. The museum was very interesting and Bogota itself seemed quite a friendly and un-touristy place, the latter probably more down to the reputation is has got. Arriving back to the hostel over an hour late was not good for Nats serenity, especially with this reputation that Bogota has. So we headed straight off to the airport where we planned to check in, get some lunch and sit out the remaining few hours before our final two flights back to the UK.

After some indecision between various officials, it was decided that we would have to pay the airport tax as we had been in Bogota about 25hours and you only were given exemption if it was less than 24hours. Anyhow after the security checks, much queuing and a rushed bite to eat we dashed for the departure lounge to meet the boarding time. This itself was two hours early of the flight departure time and as the time grew closer there was still no plane in sight. Departure time arrived and then security turn up to put everyone back through a portable luggage scanner before boarding the Iberia airlines plane that has finally arrived and we leave Columbia an 1hour and 20mins late. The plane was ok if a little unclean and the food was edible. The entertainment it has to be said was pretty dire, the hostess was miserable and along with the lack of sleep we tumbled into Madrid having caught up a little time with the tail winds.

After a seamless transfer and a short hop back to the UK (where you had to pay for food or drink!?) we arrived only 10mins late and miraculously our bags appear in the carousel. This might sound a little grouchy but during the last few weeks we have found only 2 people who havn’t lost baggage, been delayed or generally had a bad experience with Iberia airlines.
So what was our experience of Iberia … well it was ok … but … with the pleasant flight with B.A., the awesome service and quality of Qantas and the charming service of LAN … well … Iberia really lets the OneWorld team down.

Anyhow we are back on UK soil and, gor blimey love, its colder here than Patagonia. And down there they have winds that blow off the Antarctic!

So its time to go hunting for jobs, a house, a car and some new clothes.
At some point we should reflect on our travels and put down some thoughts as to what we have learnt and how this trip has enriched our lives. Certainly our marriage is stronger and we are abundantly closer than before.

We look forward to catching up with all our friends soon … if your still travelling then make the most of it and enjoy your time.

ECUADOR ...
Our penultimate country and less than 4 weeks till we return to the UK … scary.

After an uneventful flight it was wonderful to be met by Beth and Ossie at the airport. Their 5th floor apartment is almost in line with the end of the runway and from 5:45 every morning they get the international planes taking off and landing. After a couple of days we soon got to used to the rumble and roar of their engines and it was quite pleasant to look out of the window and guess the airline as it thundered in.

Quito is known, at least locally, as “the navel of the world”. So after a couple of days relaxing we took a trip to this “middle of the world”, or “Mitad del Mondo”. There is a large monument here which was erected by a French guy who, through the use of celestial navigation and technical wizardry, deemed this to be the Equator line. Whilst the museum inside gives a fascinating description of all the various Ecuadorian cultures and history, the location is essentially wrong. If you take a walk 200m north you find the real equator line, as found by GPS, where you can do a number of experiments to prove the location is correct. One of the most fascinating is the old plug-hole experiment where water flows down the plug-hole anticlockwise to the north of the equator and clockwise to the south of the equator. This was very interesting to watch and whilst it is widely believed to be an urban myth, using the same bowl, same water and same plug, the experiment did seem to work. The other trick was balancing an egg on a nail which we've still yet to try here in the UK!

Quito, at 2700m altitude, is a very long and thin city that is sat in the base of a valley. Behind Beth and Ossies apartment is one of the mountain ranges that flanks the city at over 4000m. Looking out the back you could see a Teliferiqo (gondola) that carried people to the top to get the views. Each day we would look out and decide whether today was the day but by 9am the top was always in cloud. Finally, 4 days before we left we took the plunge and went up with Beth and Ossie. Whilst it was quite cloudy we did get some magnificent glimpses of the city below us until it started to hail and we ran for cover.

Another major touristy thing we did in Ecuador was to visit the Otavalo market where there are all sorts of Ecuadorian, Peruvian and Bolivian handicrafts on sale. We managed to find quite a few nice little pressies for people back home and some souvenirs for ourselves including a couple of hammocks!! The markets are a real hive of activity and are very bright and colourful.

We were introduced to Marlene, who is Beths Spanish teacher, and had a wonderful time with her. She took us round some of the sights and was a fantastic guide. We had lots of fun in the Spanish lessons and enjoyed picking up a little more of the Spanish language.

It was lovely to spend time with Beth and Ossie and to experience a bit of their lives in Ecuador. Their lab is coming along and we were very privileged to be able to help with a little painting and cleaning. Ossie explained some of the research they are going to be undertaking and it was really great to hear them so passionate about something that will be able to make a real difference to the lives of the Ecuadorians.
We enjoyed visiting their church too, which was really lively and felt very homely.
Ossies parents were very welcoming and, along with Beths lovely home-cooking we experienced some delicious Ecuadorian dishes. It was nice to eat good quality food too, which was rewarded by our stomachs settling down. The BBQ we had on our last Sunday was delicious and typically British – it rained, torrentially!

Unfortunately we have no readily available photos as our wretched Canon has decided to pack itself in and refuses to turn on. A disposable has had to suffice for a couple of weeks and at some point the photos might be scanned in and put on here.

So we have had a wonderfully relaxing time in Ecuador and feel ready to tackle the challenges facing us back home…

The Inca Trail
Jonny spent the 3 days on the run up to the Inca trip convincing me that the walk would be fun and enjoyable and in not such a loud voice, challenging. I was a little nervous as my usuall strategy of running up hills when they get difficult, would not be appropriate at altitudes of 4300 meters. I knew I was going to have to learn to plod!
We set off for our four day walking adventure bright and early on Wednesday morning. We sat in our bus for 2 hours, mostly in silence, surounded by 12 other walkers, 22 porters, 2 guides, 1 cook and 2 monkeys, contemplating what we had let ourselves in for.

This is Monkey our team mascot who was later called 'Maureen' ('Milly' was the monkey that rode on her back).

We had a hearty breakfast and began the walk, stopping to get another stamp in our passport on the way (now if I had known this was going to happen I might have been a little more enthuisiastic at the thought of doing this walk. I love getting passport stamps!) Our fellow walkers were a lively and lovely bunch, our guides were enthusiastic and knowledgable and our porters became our heroes!
The porters carried 25kg each and would run past us, smiling, wearing sandles, as Jonny and I were puffing and panting up the hill. They were amazing ...

Caption Wanted!!! What's Nat thinking??

Day 1 was definately do-able. We admired beautiful views on our way and went to an interesting Inca ruin. We were surprised to find that during the day, the porters would run on ahead, set up a temporary camp so that we could eat or drink in the dry. We felt very spoilt.

Day 2 was tricky! We walked up "dead womans pass" very slowly for 3 hours and descended for 2 hours. I had got the plodding motion down to a fine art. Many people suffered from altitude sickness on this day although only 1 person from our team. Our guides were very pleased with our progress and we spent the afternoon recovering from our climb.

That's one beast of a hill!!

We made it!!

Day 3. I spent the early hours praying hard about the drumming rain on our tent roof. We put on our attractive ponchos and tried to smile. However, Walking up Inca steps that are narrow and steep in mid flow of a water fall, isn`t easy. The rain subsided at lunch time. My prayers were answered! The rest of the day the sun shone and we thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the walk.

Day 4 we were woken at 4am (lovely and early!). We started walking under torch light to get to the gate of the sun, where we would see our first view of Machu Pichu. Our guides were very speedy, setting a cracking pace. It was exhausting, and my eyes were very stingy. But I was suported by my best friend all the way who offered constant encouragement. When we got to the gate of the sun we were blown away by the sight of machu pichu. It was well worth our tiring walk.

Sacred Valley
We really enjoyed our full day tour of a number of Inca ruins and learnt lots of interesting facts. Our guide was very impressive and it seems like we got a better deal than our friends Lisa and Jo!


At every stop there were Children and Adults trying to sell us their wares. They were very brightly and beautifully dressed in their national garb that they wear each day.


We bought a couple of rugs depicting the Inca calendar.
They are very beautiful and its nice to be able to help the local economy.
We couldn't decide which rug we liked the best so there'll be some lucky owner of a new Inca rug soon ...


This is a picture of our new Alpaca jumpers.
I'm not sure whether this is the altitude or the jumpers ...

Cusco, Carnaval and Carnage!
We made it!! The 'first class' tourist bus was still running despite the strikes and so we enjoyed a no problemo 9hour bus journey to Cusco. Stopping at 4300 meters this is the highest we have ever been and your head told you that it was about to explode! At this altitude we were not thinking properly and Jonny bought an Alpaca jumper! Dosen't even look good on him - Brucester you can have it! There were lots of other sites we stopped at and were given little history lessons along the way. Very interesting!

Cusco is beautiful but wet! We are really in awe of the Plaza de Armas (the central square of S.American towns) and the gorgeous buildings. But ... its carnaval here. This means they throw around water bombs, buckets of water, squirty foam and (fortunately for us, not experienced yet) eggs, flour, manure and rotten veg.
It's quite fun for the locals but as tourists without 'ammunition' we feel quite 'got at'. On the way Nat was hit by a water bomb and we all got covered in some foam although Nat took the brunt and got some in her eyes. A mother with her 4 children beckoned us across the road from their car and then pulled up and soaked us! Not the best way to welcome the tourists!
Arriving at the restaurant today, having taken a taxi for just two blocks, we found we were in the wrong place and so dashed, commando style, to the correct street only to find that if you wanted a roast dinner you had to book the day before! Do'h!! So after some more commando style peering round corners we ended up at a very western restaurant and ate a grogeous lunch. Now sat in an internet cafe we are contemplating the best route back to the hostel. We may stay here and creap back under cover of darkness!


We've got a tour of Sacred valley planned for tomorrow. Having learnt our lesson in Puno we did a lap of all the tour operators and chose the most expensive (5pounds instead of 3pounds) because they had an excellet English speaking guide, had a posh bus and would give us the best service.
Yeah right - we've been done again!!! Our two british friends here did the tour yesterday (we were going to do it with them but had "tummy problems") . When they arrived they were put on the same bus as all the other tour operaters that were going to charge 3pounds. The other ammusing thing is the guide would rattle of reams in Spanish and then turn to our friends to say "look at tree on left". Ohhh a tree!!! Wow - we got them in blighty tooo!!!

Altitude puff here puff is puff .... .... ..... ..... better than puff Puno puff. Are managing to climb one set of stairs before passing out and gasping "ox..x....gen". Even moved hostel (at an expense of an extra 1pound50 per night) so we only had to climb three steps rather than puffing up 100meters of alley-way steps.

Ok here we go .... waterproof jackets donned .... we are going to brave it!
Are tactics are going to be, take taxi, hide behind old women or fight back!!!! The latter is going to be difficult as we only have a takeaway chicken sandwich as ammunition!

Puno and Lake Titikaka
After a short bus ride of 5 hours we arrived here in Puno. Jonny and I were struck by the scenery. It was a wonderful change to see green mountains, llamas and lakes, from the desert landscape we have been seeing for the last few days. We were also struck that the Peruvian traditional dress is very much worn here. It was lovely to see ladies out working on the field, wearing vibrant coloured shawls to hold children in, black bowler hats on their heads, and wide bustled skirts over trousers.


Unfortunately the journey made Jonny and I feel fairly rough as we ascended to an altitude of 3800 meters. We have been told about the effects of altitude by fellow travellers during our travels and so were a little apprehensive.
Jonny woke in the night to discover his heart was beating very fast, it felt like it was going to come out of his chest. This was slightly scary! This is fairly common though so don't worry. Apparently, at this altitude there is 20% less oxygen than at sea level, so when your breathing slows down at night the body doesn't get enough oxygen.

When we arrived at our hostel, a slightly snazyish one, we were pounced on by a tourist tout. Having not really learnt our lesson from Nazca we purchased a ticket to the local floating islands from her. Lake Titikaka is the highest navigatable lake in the World and we thought it would be really interesting to see it, especially as we had heard from others and our guide book that the families that lived on these many islands have rich traditions and a very interseting history.
The next morning we were picked up from our hostel and boarded our boat. Instead of the promised reclining seats on the boat, there was a wooden bench with foam on. Woo woo woo we had struck gold! Some of the islands we visited were floating reed beds. These are not rooted to the lake bed and so float. So hence funnily enough they're named 'floating islands'. Periodically after limited rain the lake level drops and so the islands can self root to the bed. To prevent this the inhabitants cast off from the eucaliptis pole that the island is anchored to and tow themsleves to another part of the lake. Prety ingenious, we thought!
The islands are really soft under foot and would make a great place to sleep. We enjoyed the trip to the islands although it was very touristy. One of the islands we visited was the size of a large roundabout in the Uk and had 9 families living on it. It was really awesome that not only their island was made of reeds, their houses, their tables, their chairs, their boats and many other items were too.


Something else we found interesting during our trip was at the way that the young girls would whisper to us. We later discovered that until these girls are married their opinions and place in society is not valued, hence why they speak so quietly. Quite sad really!


We were told on our way home that there was a bus strike the following day so our planned journey to Cusco looked bleak.....

Arequipa
We arrived in Arequipa early yesterday morning. To get here, our journey was a little stomach rocking. I think this was due to the road surface which we have heard is one of the best in Peru. It makes us grateful for the continual digging up, resurfacing and road works of the roads round Cheltenham. Sorry we moaned mr digger upper!
Arequipa is really lovely. Although my first opinion of it was not so positive. We arrived at a place recomended by our taxi driver as a cheap place to stay. We understood pretty quickly as to why it was so cheap (The footprint guide suggested it was in an unsafe area), but being budget concious, stuck it out for one night. We are now staying in a lovely little room with its own powerful shower, (No its not a Mira!) and intend to do some serious relaxing before we travel to Puno. I think that the place we are staying in is our first 'mid range' accomadation. Woo woo woo!
We have just got back from a delicious lunch, seated on a balcony looking out over the Plaza De Armas. We were seranaded by 3 young boys and a gecko, playing the pan pipes, a little guitar and a bass drum. The Gecko was particulalry good on the pan pipes!
They were very talented and their singing was very harmonious. I know my colleague, Mr Webber, would have loved to have had them in his orchestra!

Here in Peru we regularly eat from the budget "menu" (pronounced men-oo). This means that we get a 2 course meal and a drink for the bargain price of 2 pounds. It is always exciting to see what arrives, as we usually forget to take our dictionary with us! Some of the dishes our very colourful and we hope that when we arrive in Cuzco later on in our trip, that we will learn how to cook these!
Tomorrow we are taking a lazy day to look round the convent which will be good for Nat (the lazy day bit!) and Jonny may go to see some dead people! Somehow Nats not too keen on the latter!

Update ...
The convent was beautiful and very relaxing although Nat got slightly stressed when we got lost in the labyrinth maze of rooms. We had to jump a barrier to find the exit much to the disgust of some passing tourists! Even Jonny declined going to see the dead people!