Tom & Helen's Big Adventure

Hello you,

Have been home now for a couple of weeks: painted the living room, waxed the hallway and dinning room floors, cooked and baked so much that the chest freezer is now full, sorted out a date to go back to work, opened a mountain of post, unpacked our boxes, got a christmas tree by the name of Andy, visited family, found my mobile phone (still trying to work out how to turn it on), got a car (Tilly is her name, short for Matilda, Mini Cooper, black), rejoined the library, sorted out a phone line, internet and completed our Christmas shopping. Most importantly have made an appointment with the hairdressers so that the grey will go before Christmas!!!!

You can safely say that it feels like we have never been away and that it was all just a dream (thank God for photographic evidence). We have spent a great deal of time discussing if we would change anything and the answer would have to be 'no' or should I say 'yes' we would like to have done some more charity work, but a lot of places don't take people on for only a week. Have we learnt much.....well I guess only time will tell and maybe you will see a difference in us when you see us, we have probably become more aware of family and friends and what we will put up with and what will make us discombobulated (means dazed and confused sis and mum).

We have been so privileged to see and do so many wonderful things and meet some great people and I know you are wondering or evening saying to yourselves 'how are they going to settle back, or will they settle back down?'. T mum and my family are already saying 'you have to settle down now' (actually it only took my dad 5 minutes from the time we got through the front door to say those words). Settle down are funny words, the Collins dictionary defines 'settle down' as 'to make or become quiet and orderly' and believe me when I say this is something neither of us want to be. Who wants to be quiet and orderly, I'm really sure my dad would have a heart attack if he come to my house and found it orderly....yes we have cut the bottom off a Christmas tree before with a knife used for cutting bread (don't have a saw), I have brought a book case (floor to ceiling) without measuring the height of the room and when I got it home found it fitted if you tilted it slightly, latest example is we brought Tilly without test driving her first! So just to let you know we will not be 'settling down' anytime soon!!

The question to ask should be when will we travel again?......and the answer is who knows, this trip has taught us to expect the unexpected and to grab everything with both hands as if your life depends on it. We have had too many examples this year (the death of our grandfathers and my uncle) and on previous occasions not to realise life is too short. I know that many people say that life is too short but not many live by this adage. All we can say is we have danced like no one is watching, laughed until tears roll down our cheeks and our stomach muscles ache, got home when needed and went back out, eaten things we would not normally eat (vegetarian snails) had the wind in our hair (got to love the moped), seen heaven on earth and tried everything we could possibly try. Don't think we have wasted a single minute not even when we spent a morning in bed watching Law and Order.

It will be odd not writing to you anymore, in one way it seems years ago that I sat and wrote my first letter to you. Thank you for travelling with us and keeping us company in spirit and for holding the fort back home (even when it has not been easy).

Take care of yourself and Merry Christmas.

Love

H&T
x

P.S remember the door is always open if you want to drop in

Hello you,

To flush or not to flush that is the question? I know you are wondering what I am talking about .... well the answer is toilets. When we first arrived in America we noticed that several of the washrooms had automatic flushing toilets, great in theory. I must admit I thought it was just laziness (did people think that they didn’t need to wash their hands etc). Well it is due to laziness as the other day went to a toilet and found someone had not flushed. Then yesterday realised that automatic flushing toilets are lethal weapons... I kid you not....I have had firsthand experience......yes when sat on the loo the ruddy thing self flushed, I almost got sucked down the loo...................Stop laughing it is not funny. Now I realise the beauty of long drops.

I don’t know much about American history, but I am sure that I have never read about the Romans being in American. However, have read that Romans invented straight roads, and all the roads we have travelled on (4000miles of roads so far) have all been straight (well until I drove today and missed the correct exit and thus entered the USA’s equivalent of the M25) thus the Romans have been in the US.

America has been very different to the other places we have been, but it also has similarities:

You have to leave states to get fruit and veg (most areas do not have super markets or markets that sell fresh fruit and veg)

They eat a lot of red meat

There is still a large difference between the rich and poor (didn’t think the difference would be so noticeable)

People are friendly and very ruddy happy (even at 4am)

They don’t seem so concerned re families ect

‘Bigger is better’!? (even the spiders)

No one seems to walk anywhere, everyone has a car

They have stunning scenary...think Grand canyon, Death Valley etc.

Take care of yourself and see you very soon.

Love

H & Tx

Dear You,

Sorry that I have been in America for over a week and not written to you but am still trying to figure out what it is I feel about America.

I am currently sat in a bar whilst T is watching America football (apparently he is a Red Skins fan, news to me). The bar is part of the hotel that we are staying in, I have taken to calling it an old people’s home as that is what it smells like but it is suppose to be the only Eco hotel in Boulder and for America it is a rarity, as safe to say that they are not that environmentally friendly, we had to travel 27 miles out of state to get some fresh fruit and veg (super power my arse!!!)

So far we have had an amazing trip. It started in LA (Santa Monica), did you know that most of the homes here are bungalows and when you walk along the beach front, it is not like the beaches at home, as they don’t have the shops sells bucket and spades, rock, postcards or even the fish and chip shops or ice cream, what they do have is people doing yoga and working out on the monkey bars and ropes (we got tired just watching, so had to find an ice cream shop several streets back). The following day armed with a picnic we went to the beach and sun bathed for a short while but did get to see dolphins playing in the surf with the surfers.

Ok I am quickly going to say where we have travelled so far as Scott (T’s Uncle) and a friend called Gabbie will be interested even if you aren’t. So we landed in LA and then picked up a car and have travelled through Yosemite, Death Valley, Vegas, Grand Canyon, Grand Junction and are now currently in Boulder but will be travelling to Lincoln and then Chicago (sorry Scott, know you advised not to travel this way due to the weather, but wanted to see if it really is a windy city, we are sure there is logic in our thinking but we have not found it yet!) After Chicago we have no idea where we will be going except that by the 20th Dec we need to be in New York as that is where we are flying out of to come home.

Ok on with the story...................LA is not that great, nothing like the story books say, but the dolphins were great. Yosemite was beautiful, we stayed just outside the park in a hostel that sold excellent beer, had a log fire and even had a framed spider next to the place where you placed your empty plates, so T had to clear the table (I have a phobia of spiders). We even got to trek in jeans with just a day sack (the paths were all tarmaced etc, Americans do not seem to walk, so when they do they need luxury) but once again we were luckily enough to see a deer up very close.

Oh yes, I forgot to tell you about Bill. Bill is my new friend and without him we would not have seen as much as we have of America. T and I both feel really comfortable with him......Bill is a Dodge Caliber (silver car mum) and although he is an automatic with cruise control (bloody unhelpful on icy roads) has got us to all the places we have wanted to get to (so far).

Death Valley is so beautiful, the best time to see it is first thing in the morning or at dusk when the rocks come alive with colour, the ranges of pinks and reds are artists and girls dream. Whilst here we got to stay in a trailer park (I’m a classy girl) oh yes the shower tray was actually a pond liner. Thankfully we did not see the tarantulas until the day we left (the previous day we had had to stop several times to find a lady bush to pee behind). These spiders were that big you actually saw them crossing the roads whilst you are driving. Now I was driving and almost peed the seat in fright, T doesn’t like spiders that much either but is a little better that me, so I asked if he would take a photo, and he declined whilst stating that it was unsafe to get out of the car, in fact he locked the car doors. The second time we saw a spider we were travelling about 65 miles per hour and still got to see the bugger crossing the road (seems America does everything on the large scale).

Vegas.....................all I can say is I can die a happy girl as I got to share a lift with Elvis (very much alive) and he even said ‘thank you very much’ when we got out of the lift......sis you would have loved it. Plus I won 1.70 dollars on the slot machines!!!!!!!!!!!

I would not make a special trip to America to see the Grand Canyon, but if you are in the States it is worth seeing. I am still in awe that due to the force of water over time this Canyon can be formed. We had a beautiful car picnic looking out over the Canyon.

For the first time this year we have seasons (one of the things that I have missed most from home) and today we got to travel through blazing sunshine, trees that have leaves the colour of a fire and sunsets, rain and snow and ice. Thank god T was driving, last time I travelled in snow the car spun. It was exciting and nervous as even the trucks had to put on their snow chains. The scenery was totally breath taking and made us dream of country pubs with log fires and mulled wine (having to make do with an American bar and Mexican larger)

I think we are slowly coming to terms with coming home and are even seeing it as an adventure. It will be strange to hear English people again (watched Harry Potter yesterday.....are were overcome with excitement when they showed the Forest of Dean....so close to our homes........just don’t tell anyone) and to know how things work eg the etiquette.

I hope you are still well and promise to write very soon and also hope you like the pictures we have put on. You are still carried in our hearts.

Take care and love you

Love

H & T x

P.S just to let you know there are a load more photos put on.

Love

H & T x

My dearest you,

Well our travels are nearing an end and in some ways it seems as if we have blinked and the year has disappeared, yet in another it feels like we have never been away as where we have been staying has felt like home. I guess the saying home is where the heart is, is true as we have tried to embrace everywhere we have been. Each day has been a school day (except the 2 days spent on Manley beach) and we have learnt stuff that would not appear in any book.

There has been common themes throughout, most people are just living a day to day existence, education is important, there are more good people out there than bad and we are both very privileged to have the love of family and friends, to have been encouraged to study and not worry about looking after family and thus having to get jobs to feed the family, and to have the freedom to be who we want to be. I can safely say these are things I so often take for granted and don’t get me wrong will probably still do from time to time, but hopefully in the future will try and be kind to a stranger or help some who is in need without shouting ‘ look at what I am doing’.

Peru is a beautiful place, full of mountains and stunning scenery (have just looked through all the 109 photos I have taken and realised that one mountain can look very similar to another, so hereby promise not to make you sit and look at all the photos, as even I got bored.)

Now put your feet up and have a glass of mulled wine (it is almost Christmas, and as I am writing this I have my feet up, only because every muscle in my legs and feet are screaming in pain). In Peru there really is only one thing to do and that is the Inca trail / Macchau Piccau. There are two ways of doing this train or feet, guess which one my husband chose for me........yeap feet, don’t get me wrong I would not have to carry a large med kit, or any food or cooking equipment like on previous treks, we could even get a porter to carry 9kg per person of our kit, but once again my husband decided that we could carry our own stuff and that it was wrong to pay a porter to carry our stuff when they were already carrying our tent, food, kitchen etc. We were also going to be climbing at altitude (4200m which apparently is highish)

There were 14 in our group, a mixture of ages and nationalities, and we had 20 porters (2 cooks in there as well) and 2 guides. Out of the 14 of us there were only 3 people carrying all their own kit...I was the only girl!!

The Incas were clever buggers, they built building which had walls that lent in at 13 degrees so as they were more stable when earthquakes happen (in 1950 when there was an earthquake in Peru the only bits of building that remained standing were the bits the Incas had built) they didn’t use cement or mortar to hold the stones in place but cut the stone with female and male connections, once again so that the walls were more stable. Everyone worked and instead of being paid in money they were paid in food, thus no one went hungry. They were amazing astronomers and a lot of the building reflected this and the angles they used. They worshiped the sun and once again used the power of the sun when building and knowing where to place windows/ doors. Some of the paths we walked on were the original paths built many years ago.

The history lesson has finished and on with the trek...............it was to take 3 nights and 4 days. Each day we got into camp our tents were up and there was a three course meal for us, each day we left camp our tents were taken down for us and we had a large breakfast and at lunch time there was once again a three course meal (this I can safely say is my style of trekking). The trek was tough in places, but not where I thought it would be. The Incas like steps and I mean a lot of steps (think of climbing your stairs at home about a 1000 times all at once and that is just a small step towards the amount that we either climbed up or down. Day three consisted of the most steps and mainly down ( this was the day that T was not very well and found the stairs hard but I can proudly say he completed that day even if he was the same colour as the tent (green). Day two was the day that we climbed to 4200m, I think that I would not have known it was at altitude unless everyone told me, I’m not saying that I could talk that well as I was climbing but it was not that bad either and the snickers bar at the top along with the cap full of Rum we all had to celebrate once everyone was at the top certainly helped (the person who brought the bottle of Rum on the trek had a porter to carry the rest of his stuff). Day four was the best, we got up at 3.45am and set off at 5am and trekked to Macchau Piccau. Our first glimpse of it was just gone 7am and it was just peeking out from behind the clouds, truly breathtaking (and not just because I had climb more bloody steps). It is the second wonder of the world that I have seen and it deserves it place on the list. (see the pictures attached).

However, there is one problem with this site and that is the ruddy sand flies (trying not to scratch the bites, 20 in total). There is also a problem with the trek and that is by day four you are walking like an old woman; going down the steps one at a time and putting both feet on the same step and this is because every muscle in your legs are screaming in agony and are protesting about climbing up or down. You can tell the people who trek to the site and those that catch the train just by the way they walk. As a group we decided that we should get more time at the site as we had walked there, plus it would take us longer to get around. The people who come by train have a beautiful trip on the train going along the valley, but they do miss out on some other beautiful sites, history lessons given by the guides, food cooked to an amazing standard just using a gas bottle, but I guess not everyone is up to trekking.

We are now off to the USA, and although not doing a Thelma and Louise we are road tripping it from LA to New York, we have not decided yet where we go in the middle. Even though I would love to ride a Harley across, think this might be impractical due to it being winter in the US (plus a small detail of not having a bike license) so have hired a car (automatic, oh my God). T thinks we need to get a map; I like the idea of just seeing where the road takes us. I guess you will have to read the next letter to see what happens.

Anyway I have to go now to catch the flight and I will leave you to your Christmas shopping (Peru is starting to put up their Christmas trees) and mulled wine and will write soon.

Take care of yourself and love you loads.

Love

H&T x