Graham | See It Do It Live It

Two days in Valparaiso

Ask anyone in Chile where you should visit while you’re here and they’ll all say Valparaiso – or ‘Valpo’ as the cool kids call it. So we hopped on a bus from Santiago and two hours later found ourselves in this crazy little port town. Unfortunately we’d arrived on Sunday and it wasn’t so much crazy as sleepy! Nothing was open – so we had a quiet afternoon entertaining ourselves at the hostel before heading out for a bite to eat. In Valpo (yep – I’m now a cool kid)…read more

Brilliant Bariloche

With much sadness, seven of us left the farm on Friday, crammed into the truck with all our stuff and Sofi the dog in her crate. At Osorno we all got buses to our different destinations, promising to definitely meet up again in the future. My bus was taking me to Bariloche as I’d decided to make my way back up to Santiago via Argentina – just because I could. The border crossing was painless – but felt odd as its a good hour-long drive from getting stamped out of…read more

Life on the farm

For the past three weeks I have been living in another world. Well that’s what it feels like at least. Life on the farm is so different to my life back home – I have learnt and experienced so many new things in such a short period of time. And I’ve met some awesome folk from around the world that I know I’ll stay friends with for years to come! The farm is truly remote – it is accessed by a long dirt track which winds (often steeply) through the…read more

To bee or not to bee

One of the key elements on the farm (at least during the summer) is bee-keeping. Bees are an important and useful part of the permaculture farm environment in terms of the pollination they provide. But they also make a heck of a lot of honey! I was lucky enough to get to assist Jorge with the honey harvesting on one of the days, along with Clayton and Ian (both from the US). We all donned masks and gloves. There weren’t enough suits to go around so that’s all I got…read more

Into the unknown…

If you want to see another country on the cheap, one of the best strategies is to make use of websites such as helpx and workaway.info. These list various places where you can work part-time in exchange for board and lodging. And so it was that I found myself heading into a remote part of Chile to find a guy called Greg and his farm. The first part of the journey involved a 10 hour overnight bus south from Santiago to Osorno. This was comfy and uneventful – just how…read more

Lo siento – no hablo español

Posted by Graham in Chile, South America

A few particular memories from my couple of days in Santiago: Breakfast small-talk at the hostel quickly escalated into a full-blown debate on the problem of immigration and how best to solve it. Hearing perspectives from all around the world is always eye-opening and enlightening. Not a single Chilean spoke any English to me. Buying a SIM card and topping it up is a complex and unintuitive process. Apparently the pharmacy is where you have to go to top it up. Who knew?! Buying a socket adaptor is equally complex…read more

Its all downhill from here

The last highlight for me in New Zealand was going to watch the Downhill Mountain Biking National Championships in Rotorua. I’d always suspected these guys had a few screws loose in the head but after watching the action for a couple of hours I can now confirm they are completely insane! My spectating got off to an intense start when the second girl down the *steep* stretch I was watching hit a soft patch, was launched over the handle-bars, bounced off her head, flipped and landed very hard down the…read more

Adventures with Ahmed

Thames is not known for its nightlife. At least not until the night we hit the town… I’d spotted earlier in the day that ‘Tim Anderson’ was playing a pub gig later that night – for free! So five of us guys from the hostel (two Germans, one Mexican, one Australian and a Brit) headed down to watch. (Un)fortunately for Tim, we pretty much doubled the crowd there. Our rounds included an ingenious (and slightly deadly) ginger beer made by dropping a shot of ginger wine into a pint of…read more

The Hauraki Rail Trail

Yesterday I drove Kylie to the airport for her flight to Adelaide. She’ll be working at the Fringe festival there for a month, apparently as a ‘bovine aviation specialist’*. It’s gonna be tough continuing to travel without her. But continue travelling I do – to Thames, on the Coromandel Peninsula. This is an odd little town which sprouted out of the gold mining times and seems to have consequently modelled itself on old Western gold-rush towns in the States. I kind of expected the Lone Ranger to come galloping down…read more

Ending the year on a high

Just wanted to post this mainly to remind myself of a brilliant day out! Went for a little post-gym-session bike ride which turned into a bit of a longer ride than I’d planned because it was just too nice a day to stop riding! The route was 90% cycle path, the wind was reasonable for once and the sun was shining all the way. Of course, having a steak sandwich and a coffee half way along may have contributed to the enjoyment…