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, maybe that´s over-stating it) and better dancing even than was displayed in our school hall camp on Kel´s birthday.  If it´s any consolation to the team, my situation arriving in Argentina was worse.. which could be karma or possibly just crappy logistics caused by jungle fever and exc ... Read More »

By jade on Saturday, September 29, 2007

Ok chicas... my last little tip for Buenos Aires is this little hotel in San Telmo which may or may not suit your itinerary.

I took a room here for the day on the way over and it had a nice vibe, lovely rooms and the owner (an ex-tango legend) speaks good English and has lots of tips for getting around. Ask for a day rate and see what he can do. The average price of a backpacker room should be about $8 US for the night.

El Sol De San Telmo.  Chacabuco 1181 1p (whatever that means)  Tel  4300 4394  email elsolst@yahoo.com

If you go to the cemetery first, I think it is on the oth ... Read More »

By jade on Friday, September 28, 2007

1. San Telmo: On a Sunday morning San Telmo sometimes seems close to being a tourist trap but the antique fair and the atmosphere still make it worth a visit. I live in San Telmo and if you want to avoid the crowds then come on a weekday. The fair is only on Sundays but San Telmo is worth wandering around on any day of the week. Some of the restaurants around the plaza are overpriced and not very good but stop in at Bar Dorrego on Defensa for a snack.
2. Recoleta Cemetery: Must be one of the great cemeteries of the world. Fascinating to wander among the tombs.
3. Teatro Colón: The c ... Read More »
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By jade on Friday, September 28, 2007

Beloved Buenos Aires
By Tina Blake
Buenos Aires  is a city of contradictions. She is old, but energized. She is poor, but extravagant. She is humbled, but proud.
She carries herself like an elegant European lady who dances unabashedly to Latin rhythms. Before tourists know what to make of her, she sweeps them off their feet in a dance as passionate and exhilarating as the tango she made famous.
Buenos Aires seduces visitors with open air markets, leather shops, and quaint cafes. Then, without warning, the city spins them into a world filled with opera, architecture, and high fashion. Tourists leave her embrace exhausted, ... Read More »

By jade on Friday, September 28, 2007

The first Girl on Top is on her way home.... hard to believe that it actually time for us to pack our filthy laundry and all our seeds, fabrics, monkey bites and pirhana into bulging backpacks and say hasta la vista to South America!  Kelly set off last night for the long journey home... with a last chance to soak in the culture and sights (and amazing steaks, leather, dancing and fashion) in Buenos Aries for a full day between Lima, Auckland and finally Sydney.

Kel... it was fantastic to have you with the team again this year. I know it was a hard journey at times, and that you had a little bit of searching and quite a lot of whatever it was that along for the ride those three tough days in Huayhuash.. ... Read More »

By jade on Monday, September 24, 2007

Ok... so let me start off with the fleeing of walking out of the plane to the tiny strip of palm tree and plane-wreck adorned tarmac at Iquitos airport. It{s like opening the oven door to check on an angel cake, baking that little bit close to the sun.

It{s like falling into a giant vat of warm peach nectar... hot, sweet, sticky and sort of verging on the sickly, if you forget to relax in the goo of jungle syrup^that is Amazon air. That first step between the mountain earth in Huaraz and the jungle dirt here in Iquitos might as well have been a moonwalk - the difference in worlds we have traversed in a single day feels more like space travel than a simple transit in the same country.  Coming from the An ... Read More »

By jade on Friday, September 21, 2007

Anybody who has even sniffed the alpaca and piss-scented air of the true corners of Peru (as opposed to the McDonalds, pizza and disinfectant aromas of my trusty home from home, Lima airport, from where this corrrespondent is presently scribing) ... will know the sneaky dangers of the Pisco Sour.

I had my first flirtation with the national drink of this nation of short but frighteningly stoic folk back when I was young enough to think it was funny, just before the Inca Trail... not a pretty tale. But not ugl ... Read More »

By jade on Wednesday, September 19, 2007

 

Back last night from an adventure as broad, wide, sharp and steely as an adventure should be... and not 100% sure what to make of it all - or even where it went!

After 12 mighty days in the wonderland of the mountains the town of Huaraz seems like the outer spirals of the universe, whirling like crazy with the bleats, sucks, hard ons, tits, toots, cravings, synthetics and sympathies of a totally different life to the one I have just got comfy in bed with in the hills. Could this finally be my case of culture shock¿ Or do I always feel li ... Read More »

By jade on Thursday, September 06, 2007

This is a very quick note while our little team are in the middle of late night Spanish lessons to say that we have all arrived safe and sound (except for a few cases of hiccups, some sleepless nights and a very long journey half way around the planet) in Peru.

Today was los chicas aribas´first day ón top´ ... an early start saw us head out to the mountains for our first real taste of altitude and long distance walking in the Cordillera Blanca. We made it to the lovely little Laguna Churup, at about 4400 metres with only a little blood, sweat and some tears along the way. Zac, our guide and coach along the way, was impressed with the strength and great spirit of the team .. they ar ... Read More »

By jade on Sunday, September 02, 2007

Night one in Huaraz was a very very long one which began sometime around 5pm, Argentina-time, and ended around 6am Peru time... but don´t ask me the date.

After a quick shopping trip in Huaraz to buy the best avocadoes known to man (30cents per kilo), tomatoes, onion, limes, incense and a candle (am I jetlagged or what?), I stopped in the markets to watch the last standing members of a local brass band drink themselves into a beery happiness, collapsing into baskets of flowers with their french horns and trumpets all askew. It wa ... Read More »

By jade on Saturday, September 01, 2007

Here in Huaraz life sure looks different to the view from my little balcony in Bundeena. For one thing, there's not an ocean in sight! All of the water is 6kms up in the air, frozen into glaciars, snow and slippery icey trails that play havoc with my Dunlop Volleys. The horizon here is raw and jagged, like looking into the broken jaws of a ancient monster, instead of flat and tidy, like Sydney.

On the streets it's about the same. No tidy edges for footpaths, crossings and skylines... the streets are awash wit ... Read More »

By jade on Thursday, August 30, 2007

Hmmm.... well. the best thing about a three day transit across the planet is the opportunity to slather one´s rapidly dehydrating and delierious self with the most expensive caviar and goats cheese enriched beauty products known to womankind. I am a lather of eye cream, body puffing syrups, unhatched quail egg essences and lip pouting gels - and it does actually seem like quite a pretty sight from my foggy side of the duty free mirror!

My sleep-deprived calculations reckon I have made up at least half the cost of my airfare in free samples from the Duty Free beauty matrix, and there are still coutless more opportunities for me to get delayed - I´m only in Argentina. Still.
It& ... Read More »

By jade on Saturday, August 25, 2007

I just want to take a moment away from your busy preparations to tell you that all is arranged for a nice trek, and visit to our area. You will have an memorable adventure.

Huaraz, and the mountains of the cordillera Blanca and Huayhuash, are sunny and blue skies. There are many mountaineers and trekkers passing through these days, although the very height of the season is passed.

The nation of Peru is currently feeling sadness and unity for the south coastal communities that were destroyed by a major earthquake last week - but every day brings more healing. You will certainly be visiting at a time when everybody in the whole country is pouring good energy and resources into the recovery ef ... Read More »

By jade on Sunday, July 01, 2007

Ok, so it's usually around July 1 that I sit back one weekend, book a three hour massage, realise the house needs vacuuming (or demolishing) and that I have a dog! Getting Girls on Top out its bud and into full bloom from March feels a lot like wrestling tigers during this time - it's a creative explosion as well as a business and planning frenzy, with all our team members, partners, sponsors, new networks and charity goals screaming for attention, stretching their wings and rewarding us with a million ideas, questions, visions and passion.

Sometime around April, when the team are announced and our Climbing Partners are ready to launch their own campaigns to find their ambassadors for our exp