Lots of highs, few lows: a trip round-up

I've been back in the UK for six weeks now - six weeks which have flown by just as fast as the six weeks I spent travelling and the weeks in Rio. Every time I've seen a friend for the first time since returning they've asked me what the best bit was, usually prefacing with "how was the Olympics?" At that point I've usually gone "oh yeah, the Olympics, I did that too". The travelling part of the trip, being more recent and immediate, had somehow taken priority over Rio in my head.

I blogged about both the Olympics and Paralympics earlier and the memories are still strong. The ones I've been dragging out when people ask tend to be:

• the lovely chat I had with single sculls champion Mahé Drysdale before racing started, because it genuinely was just a nice conversation with a nice guy;
• watching the GB women's eight win silver, because over the years I've known a number of the women who have been fighting for that medal for so long; 
• being in the athletics mixed zone on the night of the men's 100m final and squishing into the front of the agency pen to grab Usain Bolt's quotes (that man is TALL - my arm was aching from holding my phone up to record);
• the many, many incredible stories from the Paralympics, but maybe most that of Australian para-canoeist Curtis McGrath. We sat in the shade in the boat park and he told me, with perfect clarity, about the moment on 23 August 2012 when he'd lost his legs in an IED explosion in Afghanistan. It was only moments later, being stretchered to the helicopter, that he told his mates they'd see him at the Paralympics. Some of them were in Rio to watch him win gold four years later. It was hard to listen and ask questions without getting emotional.

The Lagoa at dawn

But those are just a handful of the many moments I'll remember from those two and a half months in the Cidade Maravilhosa, shared with a great bunch of colleagues and friends.

When it comes to best experiences from the travelling, the Salkantay and Machu Picchu probably top the list. I had such high expectations from the trek and they were met almost entirely, which is saying quite a lot. Iguacu Falls is also up there as one of the best bits of the trip. The sheer power of all that water was just astounding - and I got to go to Argentina for the day!

But I also loved Ilha Grande and wished I'd stayed there longer; I was very pleasantly surprised by Lima, which everyone had said wasn't that great a place; I chilled out with the locals by Lake Titicaca; I was awed by condors in Colca Canyon; and saw pelicans in a place that looked like the moon in Paracas. I stuffed my face with steak in Brazil and with livelier fare in Peru, and drank somewhat more than my fair share of capirinhas and pisco sours as well as plenty of ice-cold beer.

With my Lake Titicaca homestay host Calixto

Along the way I encountered all sorts of interesting people, from the wonderful locals who were my guides and hosts, to other travellers. Young couples taking career breaks, older solo travellers looking for something new, backpackers from all over the world stretching their money as far as it can go. And of course in Rio a whole host of fantastic cariocas who were so generous with their welcome to their city. 

In many ways it's odd looking back at the journey. At the beginning of the year I was tired, trying to give as much time as I could to work and to rowing and not quite succeeding on either level. I felt like I'd been operating at maximum capacity for far too long. And I really wanted to work in Rio, having spent the best part of four years looking back wistfully to the London Olympics. When the offer came through I was on a long weekend break in New York, seeing my brother and sister-in-law and enjoying a brief few days of travel - it seemed appropriate that I spent much of that weekend buoyed up with anticipation over Rio too.

It was difficult in some ways leaving my job. I worked with an awesome team and the job itself was interesting, varied and challenging. But I'd been there a while and the changing shape of the world of business media was getting me down. Taking the leap into Rio, travelling and then the challenge of trying to go freelance was absolutely the right thing to do. Writing this now, despite the fact I haven't really put much effort into getting work yet, I feel refreshed and excited about next year. Planning is overrated - I'm going to see what happens and seize any opportunities that come. It seemed to work this year, after all.

Thanks for following my travels with me. Until next time!

Welcome to Miami

You know that Will Smith song, Welcome to Miami? Well, I had it running through my head on loop the entire time I was there, despite the fact I'm not a big fan of the song.

Turns out, though, that Miami itself is pretty cool.

I ended up flying home through Miami because I couldn't find any reasonably-priced direct flights from Lima. All the cheaper ones involved a change somewhere, mostly in the US. So then I thought, how about a stopover in the US on the way home? Further investigation revealed that US budget airline JetBlue has Fort Lauderdale as its hub, and flies between there and Lima; and Norwegian Airlines has incredibly cheap flights between the US and UK. So I spent the money I saved by not flying direct in Miami, which was a much more pleasurable way of spending it!

Vizcaya

I had essentially two days and one night there, and tried to go for a mixture of things to see and do. First up, after an American breakfast of pancakes and bacon in a diner, was the Vizcaya Museum, a beautiful mansion built in the early 20th century by a very rich American called James Deering. Annoyingly they didn't allow pictures inside the house and it was a bit drizzly so my pictures outside in the gardens weren't amazing either, but it was well worth the visit. The place was stunning, each room themed with art and furniture sourced to fit the theme. It was a bit OTT but I really liked it.

After Vizcaya I headed to Little Havana, which was weird. Not Little Havana in and of itself, but because I'd just spent a month in a Spanish-speaking country. Now here I was in an Anglophone country and all the signs were in Spanish, and people were speaking Spanish on the street. The sense of slight displacement, exacerbated by an overnight flight the night before, was very odd.

Domino Park in Little Havana

Dinner was in yet another bit of Miami, the up-and-coming area of Brickell where there's lots of new development and some funky restaurants. I'd also just been paid by Rio 2016 had a Happy Hour cocktail with dinner and then went back to the hotel for a nightcap in the roof bar before crashing.

Day two dawned hot and sunny with no sign of the previous day's drizzle. Conscious that within 24 hours I'd be shivering in British November I donned shorts and a vest top and spent the day dodging the sun.

Wynwood Walls

Across the course of my trip I'd discovered that I really like street art. So when I read about the Wynwood Walls I added it to my list of Things To Do in Miami. Wynwood was a deprived area of the city and indeed still has a slight air of deprivation to it, but it is sprucing itself up largely thanks to street art. In the centre, there's a complex called the Wynwood Walls where street artists are invited to come and add their work to the walls. All around, other artists have decorated houses, shops and even the street furniture with vibrant colour. It was stunning.

Art at the Perez

To continue the art theme the next stop was the Perez Art Gallery. Compared to the cost of museums in South America the entry fee was a bit eye-watering for a relatively sparse gallery, but that said, I liked pretty much all the art in there. Sometimes modern art can be pretentious - I can never quite understand how a canvas of just one colour gets to be in a museum - but most of the Perez collection was nice to look at and thought-provoking. I especially liked a sort of video/audio installation where the artist had collected audio files of people speaking endangered languages.

After such a surfeit of art it was on to a bus - Miami has a great public transport system, which includes a free monorail - to go to Miami Beach. I'm not a massive beach person and felt I got my year's fill in Rio, but it was nice to see the beach and have lunch wave and people-watching.

Ocean Drive art deco

As well as a large golden beach Miami Beach is also where you go to see art deco buildings. I walked down Ocean Drive, a whole street of beautiful former hotels and apartment blocks which are now mainly restaurants. On a sunny Friday they were packed with people eating vast American portions and drinking the largest cocktails I've ever seen in my life. I was kind of tempted actually, but I'd planned dinner at a Miami Beach institution, Joe's Stone Crabs.

There's a weird little backstory to why I went for this. I have the full collection of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, a mixture of modern paperbacks and the 1960s hardbacks collected by my dad and his brothers when they were teenagers. I love them - they're totally of their time and there is a huge amount of misogyny and racism in several, but the stories are fast-paced and exciting. Anyway, in Goldfinger Bond goes to Miami and eats stone crabs (and pink champagne) at 'Bill's on the Beach' and thinks it's one of the best meals of his life. Bill's was apparently inspired by Joe's and I like crab anyway, so the thought of stone crabs appealed. And they were good; crab claws packed with meat followed by a slice of key lime pie. A quintessential Florida meal to finish off my day, walked off along the marina before I caught the bus back to downtown and a taxi to the airport. And that was my trip, done.

Miami Beach

Peru round-up

It's almost a month since I got back to the UK and I somehow haven't got around to finishing the last couple of posts I planned for this blog.

First up, a Peru round-up!

Why go to Peru?

Go to Peru if you want fascinating history, awe-inspiring ruined cities, stunning landscape and interesting food.

My top three Peruvian experiences:

•  The Salkantay Trek and Machu Picchu - I can't really split up the trek from Machu Picchu, as, to echo our tour company's slogan, the journey was as important as the final destination. The group was so great and the whole experience truly memorable, culminating in that 6am view of the early light over Machu Picchu. 
• My Capachica Peninsula homestay. It was a very chilled out two days, but it was lovely to meet people in their own environment, eat proper local food, and sit for an hour gazing over Lake Titicaca. 
• Colca Canyon - for a combination of reasons why I'm picking the Salkantay and Capachica Pensinsula! Colca combined the scenery and sense of achievement of the former with some of the isolation of the latter. 

You know you're in Peru when ...

•  A lady is standing on the street dressed in traditional costume either clutching a lamb or towing an alpaca and asking for you to take her photo (I never actually did).
• You're standing at a crossing waiting to get to the other side of the road and three taxis drive past beeping at you, just in case you might actually be wanting a taxi instead of simply crossing the road.
• There's a random parade going on to celebrate a religious festival, the fact it's Sunday, or the local university!

What to pack when going to Peru

Layers. Lots of layers. And suncream. On the coast it's hot and dusty but at altitude it can be chilly. Except when the sun's out, when it's hot again and you're liable to burn in no time at all.

Annoyances and things to look out for

As a solo female traveller I felt safe in Peru at all times, although a few people seemed astonished I was on my own (given that I met a few other women in a similar position this was odd, but there you go). Single rooms were reasonably-priced and I was well-looked after eating alone too.

It wasn't all perfect though! A few things:

Peruvian traffic is truly awful. The big comfortable tourist buses are a good, cheap way of getting around but your driver will take bends on mountain roads fast and wide. Best to buckle up and trust they know what they're doing. Taxis in towns are cheap and seem fairly reliable, save for the driver I got in Arequipa who drove in circles and almost failed to find my hostel.

There was a S./ 400 limit on ATM withdrawals at most ATMs for much of my stay, which was a pain. When I needed to withdraw a large amount of US dollars to pay for the Salkantay trek I had to go to a bank and get it over the counter. I stuck to bank ATMs as in Brazil, although I'm not sure if the skimming issue is the same in Peru as Brazil. 

Prices of things are definitely elevated in tourist towns - food, drink and entry to attractions. Foreigners are charged substantially more to visit attractions than locals (which I get, but I wish the same applied in the UK!)

What I've missed most about Peru

The vibrancy and colour of the place, especially the bright clothes worn by the locals away from the bigger towns; and the fantastic fresh fruit.