They say if you spend more than four months in Cusco then you are there for good. Australian traveller Camden Luxford has been there much longer than that and talks to us about swapping the backpacker life for an expat one.
I’m sure you’ve never heard this before: where are you from?
Brisbane, Australia.
And what did you do there, then?
I flirted with a Science degree, waited a lot of tables, and scooted off as soon as I had the money behind me, at age 20.
Posted in A Week In..., Interviews, Why I Live In... 
Tags: cusco, expat, Interviews, peru 
2 Comments »
I didn’t sleep through every major festival in Cusco. The feast of Corpus Christi celebrates the body of Christ and events are held around the world by some Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran Churches.
Held in June sixty days after Easter Sunday, the feast in Cusco is particularly popular. The night before the celebration local dishes including the Peruvian delicacy of guinea pig are prepared and consumed, and the following day after Mass processions from different churches around the city carry statues of saints and virgins to Cusco’s Cathedral. There they ‘greet’ the body of Christ; the statues made to do a little bow or curtsey by their bearers.
Posted in A Week In..., Photo Features, Travelling Tags: cusco, festivals, peru, photos 4 Comments »
Both a beautiful and lively city, it is well worth spending more than just a few days in Cusco. Though they exist to help the poor and vulnerable of the city, the numerous NGOs in Cusco can also help to provide a niche to travellers looking to stay longer in the former capital of the lost Incan Empire.
Even a casual visitor spending only a few days in the city before and after engaging the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu is likely to notice the street kids that ply their trade in and around the Plaza de Armas. Most NGOs in the area are involved with helping these children and other disadvantaged groups such as adolescent mothers and other disadvantaged women and are often creative in their methods to help Cusco’s disenfranchised citizens.
Inti Raymi, the Festival of the Sun, was a celebration of the winter solstice and a way to greet the new year in the southern hemisphere. Dedicated to the sun god, Inti, the ceremony was the most important in the Incan calendar.
Over nine days participants dressed up, danced, took part in processions and sacrificed animals in the hope of encouraging a good crop in the coming year.
Though supressed and eventually banned as a pagan rite by the Catholic Church and Spanish colonial authorities, the festival was revived as a theatrical celebration in 1944 and held since every year on June 24. Though Cusco’s rich history means it is blessed with numerous festivals throughout the year, Inti Raymi is the highlight.
Posted in A Week In..., The Story Behind the Photo Tags: cusco, festivals, peru, photos No Comments »
We came to Butrint as people without a home. The past four months had been spent across the strait in Corfu waiting to be allowed back into Bulgaria to resume our house hunting travels around Eastern Europe.
Conversely, Butrint is peopleless. Formerly a Greek colony and Roman city, Buthros, as it was once named, is a home to no one any longer. A residential area since before history was written down, Buthros outlasted the Byzantines until the encroaching marshes caused its gradual decline and abandonment in the Middle Ages.
We thought of doing a guide to Albania but after careful reflection decided, nah! Let someone else do it. What’s the point of all these bloggers roaming the world otherwise?
The Forgotten Railway – A Journey Through the Heart of Albania
Amer, a London based architect, takes a rail journey from Tirana to Pogradec.
Off Track on the Northern Albania Komani Lake
Todd Wassel rides a ferry on his travels in the spectacular mountains of Northern Albania.
Albania and its Indestructible Bunkers
One of several Albanian posts by Andy Jarosz, this one examines the tangible manifestations of former communist leader Enver Hoxha’s paranoia.
Posted in A Week In..., Blogger's Guides, Travelling Tags: albania, Recommended Reading No Comments »
Albania isn’t the first place people think about when considering where to volunteer. Well off Europe’s beaten track this mountainous country sees few visitors compared to its Greek and Italian neighbours but enjoys a similar climate, an openly curious people and some fascinating cities well worth exploring.
With its tourist infrastructure still developing getting around the country can be a little hit and miss at times but there is nearly always a friendly local around to help out.
Posted in A Week In..., Volunteering Tags: albania, gjirokastra, saranda, voluntary teaching, Volunteering, work in hostels 2 Comments »I must confess to a certain contempt for photographers trying to illuminate a distant object with the pitiful built in flash of a point and shoot camera. I inwardly scream at people trying to add their own light to something quite distant like, say, the moon.
Then I remember I’m not a great photographer myself. There are great gaps in my knowledge. Thinking about it, the only thing I know is not to bother using flash when taking shots of objects half a mile distant.
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