By jade on Monday, September 15, 2008

Poodling down the amazon in your little canoe, the outboard whirring like an egg beater and the jungle looking like green wool, all knotted up with sticks and tree stumps, it{s easy to think you have arrived in the {real wilderness{. You think that as you drape your fingers in the muddy water - Amazon mud - Amazon water, and as you watch big chest-beating clouds gather ahead for a yodelling session of Pantheon proportions, as you dodge the plate-sized butterflies and the fork-equipped bugs. You think that until somebody cuts the engine.

Then! Then you realise that you are not in the wilderness until you are in its silence. Being freed of the engine fast-tracks you out of what you thought was {peace{ into what IS ... Read More »

By jade on Monday, September 08, 2008

Watching the girls set off for home with their woven baskets, beaded necklaces, sandals, hammocks, urns, plates, pyjama pants and allergic reactions as a tropical storm spilt over the edges of a Simpsons cloudscape last night brought tears to my eyes... and it wasn´t because they looked so..... different to when I first met them. 

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By jade on Monday, September 08, 2008

A farewell sonnet for Natalie, Renee and Chloe... read this poem the wy I am, with a massive purple sky hanging down over El Cyber Cafe, thunder booming in across the Amazon, and a quiet place inside which understands the words as the password to another world.  with love, Jade xxx

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By jade on Monday, September 01, 2008

Life is full of strange coincidences and spooky timing, is it not¿

Miss Jen Duffy, you are the Madonna of the meaningful synaptic bleep, and it is a true delifght and a wonder to see traces of your good self here on my blog. Huaraz is not the same without you. Mind you, all of South America is not realy the same without you ... haven´t seen a Smurf (for one thing), nor any sign of green vomit or Kermit and the devil. That could all change soon though, because - just for one more time - I´m back to Vilcabamba - just can´t get enough of that cocktail with the cactus and the chuppa chupps in it! 

What news oh acrobat of the waterfall¿  Still Asia-side&# ... Read More »

By jade on Monday, September 01, 2008

If you want an unpredictable, streamy, dreamy ride through the smoke and mirrors corridors of the universe, then hitch a ride from the Andes to the Amazon, it´s the Bermuda Triangle of Chaos ... where strange things disappear and even stranger things are simply just true.

I was reminded of Alices´adventures in Wonderland by William on the plane (thank you William, this was just one illumination you gave me and I hope we get to meet again so there may be more) ... for reasons involving tea parties and madness ... and today I feel like I have slipped another notch down my own rabbit hole to find yet another eccentric dimension of reality - one that had been missing for a long time back in the more solid ... Read More »

By jade on Saturday, August 30, 2008

My green slime and I havejust watched the Andes slip away under the wing of a tiny plane on our way our of Huaraz and onto the Amazon.

: (

Not sure how the team feels about it, but I was sad not to have more time in the mountains, and another chance to trek... even though the Huayhuash has left me with a blistered eyeball, burnt lips and a deeply imbedded green slime situation which has given me unusual expertise on the quality of Peruvian tissues (mostly only good for one blow, no sneezing, and a touch rough on the skin which is why I have lost about half a pint of blood since coming off the hills). Not that I´m complaining. I love those mountains, and that crazy rubble-strewn town with ... Read More »

By jade on Thursday, August 28, 2008

It´s about five hours since our team of sweaty, greasy, sun-struck and wonder-lusted Girls on Top made it back to the beeping, bleating, tooting, spitting town of Huaraz with its miracles including laundromats, taps, pillows, coffee and vegetables. The shock of ´reality´ has jolted me, as it always does, into a sort of sleepy overwhelm and shopping madness... the man-made world seems so insane after the infinite silence of the hills where everything necessary is so much quieter, and subtler, and gentler. In a mad scramble to make it all make sense the best thing to do seems to be to spend money - or walk fast -or look at magazines - it´s simply just Too Much to stay moving at mountain pace and watch the helter s ... Read More »

By jade on Friday, August 15, 2008

There are hamsters on the menu.

The question marks are upside down ¿

People are herding sheep up the main drag.

Your room looks like a military line-up of empty 2 litre water bottles and you´´re still thirsty.

There are condor on the clouds. And vultures on the roadside.

You buy your $5 watch and feel proud and out-doorsy.

Your socks are not to be left in the open air.

The girl who sells you a soccer ball is wearing a large green iguana.

Ladies in bowler hats and wide, woolly skirts are selling you the world´s best avocados for 30cents each ... Read More »

By jade on Tuesday, July 15, 2008

By far the most common thing that people say when I meet them at high School reunions, parties or wherever ... and the conversation swings to Girls on Top is something like; "Wow! Pick Me!! I would Loooovveee to come... Wonderful! Fantastic! If only!! And then there is a dialogue which usually opens up that great perplexing question of What We would Do in Life - If Only! Most often men, women and children all say that they admire our work, and all the girls, and that surely this journey is one that we all dream of, and that would be so life-changing and inspiring...

When I speak with our brave and wonderful girls through their journeys of fundraising and preparation - of Getting Real about the fact that they have signed up for this very same Wonderful Adventure .. the most common thing they say along the way is.... "Ouch! It sure does take a lot of guts to do this." And you know what - the things our team learn and share a little on the blog about what it really tak Read More »

By jade on Monday, July 14, 2008

By far the most common thing that people say when I meet them at high School reunions, parties or wherever ... and the conversation swings to Girls on Top is something like; "Wow! Pick Me!! I would Loooovveee to come... Wonderful! Fantastic! If only!! And then we explore that great perplexing question of What We would Do in Life - If Only! Most often men, women and children admire our work, and all the girls, and that surely this journey is one that we all dream of, and that would be so life-changing and inspiring...  When I speak with our brave and wonderful girls through their journeys of fundraising and preparation - of Getting Real about the fact that they have signed up for this very same Wonderful Adventure .. the most common thing they say is....

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By jade on Monday, July 14, 2008

The Girls on Top team are finally on a countdown! Less than a month to go (only just more than three weeks, in fact) before our team is properly united in Peru, and our expedition begins. Before then we have Chloe, Renee and Lissy in their corners of the world, in the last moments before their fundraising events this week .... good luck girls! Anybody who wants to buy last minute tickets to Girls on Top events in Sydney Melbourne or Berkley USA, can check out the team pages here to see how thay can be part of the fun.

Here at HQ our own event has been lassoing the guy who lassos the donkeys in the Andean wilds of Peru, as well as getting the grapevine to throw a tendril or two across to the Amazon in  praparation for our visit there. Sure is incredible, this gadget called the net - but you still can't go passed word of mouth connections when you want to be 1000% sure that you've got nice fat donkeys, nice muscley support crew, and a bug-free bed in the jungle.

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By jade on Saturday, June 21, 2008

Hmmmm, yes, it's a very good question I asked myself this morning. Just what exactly are we up to on this adventure? Just what difference are we aiming to make? And is it all worth it anyway? I am asking this as the prawns are marinating and the dog is drying off from her morning bubble bath, and the Reisling is chilling out... Hmmm... just what difference do 5 chicas on a mountain really make?

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By jade on Thursday, June 12, 2008

Tibetan bell, that is... One of the great unexpected gifts of my Girls on Top Journey was recently being offered the chance to spend all of this week in a Scholarship place with the Dalai Lama! Now there's proof that a girl just cannot predict what Mighty Forces might come to her aid when she's in the middle of a grand adventure! I've been with His Holiness for three big days of mind boggling insights to life, reality, jellyfish and happiness. Read More »

By jade on Friday, June 06, 2008

Yes, well, let's just say it was not the totally best ever week (despite the fabulous highlight of Thursday night) ... and I know I was not alone. The cosmic casserole was definitely coagulating under conditions unsuitable for feasting on life's marrow, or any other part. Even though torrential rain, storms and all would have suggested perfect conditions for staying in casseroling (good on you, Lena), in my short and statistically unsupportable survey of the good folks of the Blue Planet - it was a shit week, however you stired it. There. I've said it. In my own world, do i dare to catalogue the series of trivial yet somehow debilitating drips that drooped my petals? I know that various members of the Girls on Top team felt the same: wrung out, worn through, weak at all the vital joints, lily livered and just hopeless. I blame it on the new moon. That one skimpy rib of a loonatic lamp that skittered about the rain clouds this week and somehow messed with the mojo. At times like these a girl needs a pair Read More »

By jade on Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Ah yes, well some people call it hocus pocus, but most of them, I betcha, have never really been on a Grand Adventure. They may never have truly travelled the backroad of life, the one where the daisies and the weird people and the nice trees to rest under are all hanging about - just being. Even when it gets itchy. The whole purpose of travel is to dip ones toes in another reality. And although the Taj and the Amazon and Macchu Picchu are all great destinations... Read More »

By jade on Wednesday, April 02, 2008

The master of the Coinicidental Travel Guide, and guru in Just Following the Signs, Baby - for his 20 million+ readers - is here in Sydney and in Melbourne NOW! I'm going this week and will make a report, but if you want to check him out yourself, take a peek at www.inthespirit.com.au and hey, maybe it's NO coincidence you're reading this? Hey? ey? ey?? Read More »

By jade on Monday, March 17, 2008

In the midst of a very turbulent week last week (let's not go into it), a letter arrived from Scotland. It was from Vintage Girl on Top Karen Mcreadie (of Kilimanjaro fame) who has since gone off to live in the wild Scottish burbs having fulfilled her heart's desire to meet the Man of Her Dreams. And a few other Heart's Desires too - she is a known dabbler in the crafts of manifesting, setting intentions and pursuing her goals with a bloodyminded zeal. Read More »

By jade on Monday, March 10, 2008

... or one that induces nail biting, 3am panic attacks, frenzied dusting, 3pm tv watching and other weirdnesses. Am I right ladies? It's midday, March 10, the sun is shining, the birds are well out of the midday sun and while all looks well in the world in general, there are billions of us everywhere living out every possible subtle tiny fillament of reality between the daring and the downright dreary. Even the ones who seem to be the most daringest, adventury, brave and marvellous may very well secretly still be in their pyjamas. They may, in fact, be wishing for a bit more peace and quiet. Or for a real job. Read More »

By jade on Sunday, October 07, 2007

Ok.. I will admit that my logistical genius went all cactus-shaped after Iquitos. Saw the team off for what we all thought was a day stop in Buenos Aires, but turned out to be an overnighter... worse things can happen! (Sorry about the bed bugs, but you know... no trip to South America would be complete without them) This is The city of the Stop Over..better shopping than Singapore, better music than Cuba (hmmm,